Chapter 1 - Escape

19 BBY, Providence-Class Dreadnaught, Dawn of Dusk, In Orbit over Muunilinst

Most beings in the galaxy could look up at the stars and imagine great wonders and adventures across the arms of their galactic home. To the beings currently in orbit around Muunilinst, the only thoughts going through their heads were those of fear, adrenaline, and the idea that everything everywhere was trying to kill them.

Far above the planet Muunilinst, home of the InterGalactic Banking Clan, fire raged across space. Several hours ago, a command sent from a secret bunker on the planet Mustafar, had reached out all across the galaxy, to every Separatist ship, stronghold, and outpost, and caused almost every Separatist droid in every army to shut down.

It was officially the end of the brutal, three-year campaign that had ravaged the galaxy and torn it apart.

It was the end of the Clone wars.

Almost.

Not every droid had successfully received the command, and not all the systems and planets that had fought on the Separatists’ side wanted the war to end, especially since they were on the losing side. After the command was sent out, some Separatist commanders had reactivated their droid armies and continued on fighting.

And so, in orbit around Muunilinst, several hundred warships of the Confederacy of Independent Systems exchanged fire with a fleet of their new Imperial counterparts. In reality, they were the same ships that the Separatists had been fighting only hours ago, only the name of their enemy had changed. With the near-total shutdown of the droid army, the newly christened Imperial fleet was slowly growing larger with every passing hour, as reinforcements that were no longer bogged down fighting in other systems arrived to help quash the not-as-yet-surrendered Separatist forces around Muunilinst.

On the bridge of one of the larger vessels in the Separatist fleet, a Providence-class Dreadnaught, the Dawn of Dusk, the sole being that was panicking was the Muun Commander, while the droids listened to his conflicting orders, annoyed, but otherwise calm. However, for the first time in the whole battle he started giving some orders that sort of made sense.

Sort of.

“Ok, it’s clear we can’t hold up against the continued advance of the Imperial fleet, so I’m having our ships pull back and regroup. We can fight them when we’re a bit more clear-headed. 72624! Where are you?” the Muun commander said, whirling around to find the B1 droid captain standing right behind him.

“Right here, sir,” the droid replied in its high-pitched, mechanical voice.

“Pull back the fighters, get any transports on board that you can, then tell the fleet to make a series of randomized jump vectors to avoid being followed, and after that we’ll regroup.”

“Sir,” the droid reminded him, “We don’t have a “fleet”, the only other ships we have under our command are three frigates and two destroyers.”

“I don’t care! Send the orders to every Confederate ship over Muunilinst! Maybe some of the others will listen to us, they have to listen to us! We can’t stay out here, we’re getting torn apart.”

As the bridge crew began relaying the orders, through the transparisteel window, the Commander and Captain watched as a group of three Star Destroyers pushed through the outgoing flak and attempted a breakthrough in the Confederate fleet. A Separatist frigate that had taken up position beside the dreadnaught charged forward and rammed itself into the starboard Star Destroyer, causing both to explode spectacularly, while an oversized Separatist destroyer came about to engage the port enemy ship. The two massive vessels slowly drifted towards each other, and came so close to each other they actually scraped each other, locking their superstructures together. A moment later, both ships opened fire at point-blank range.

When the light from the explosion of the frigate and Star Destroyer’s collision died down, the final enemy Star Destroyer of the battle group could be seen much closer, and pressing its attack.

And it seemed to have focused all of its attention on the Dawn of Dusk.

Not only were its turbolaser batteries flashing, but the tiny shapes of fighters could be seen racing towards the dreadnaught, with larger, slower shapes coming up behind them.

“Intensify forward fire!” the Muun cried, “Have all our point-defense batteries focus on those fighters, while our own finish docking!”

“Sir,” a droid spoke up, “The forward batteries are already firing at full. Half of our forward point-defense lasers have been damaged beyond use or destroyed. We can’t do any more than we are right now.”

The Commander looked back out through the transparisteel, and saw some of the fleet’s vulture fighters engaging some of the clone Starfighters. However, the dreadnaught’s own point-defense lasers were barely making a dent in the oncoming swarm, a testament to their overtaxing this late in the battle. As the Star Destroyer and its fighters closed the distance between the two capital ships, the bridge crew could finally see what the small transports behind the fighters were.

They were boarding craft.

By the time the Muun Commander and his OOM droid Captain realized this, the Star Destroyer had closed to only a few kilometers, and clone fighters swarmed the hull of the Dawn of Dusk.

“Captain! I want you to order- scratch that, I’ll give the order myself.”

Turning on the ship’s interior comm, the Muun yelled, his nasally voice reverberating through out the vessel, “All security teams, we have enemy boarding craft inbound! I want you to secure the hangars and stand by to repel boarders!”

Turning back to the bridge crew, he said, “Alright, send the orders for the emergency jump, and get us out of here! Those Star Destroyers cleared us a path, plot a course through the opening and as soon as we’re clear of the planet’s gravity, make a series of randomized jumps to throw off any pursuers.”

“Commander,” the B1 battle droid captain said, holding a metal hand up to its head, “I’m getting reports that boarding parties have managed to land inside the main hangar. Our forces are being beaten out of the area, but I’m getting deactivated droids in storage to power up to deal with them.”

The rumble of the engines shook the dreadnaught as it, along with over a hundred other capital ships of the Confederate Navy started moving forward to escape Muunilinst’s gravity well. The sudden change in formation caught the Imperial forces off-guard, allowing a dozen vessels to transition to hyperspace on random vectors.

The Imperial ships were quick to regain their footing however, and moved to intercept the rest of the escapees before they cleared the planet’s gravity.

One such Imperial ship was the Star Destroyer that had engaged the Dawn of Dusk, and was now tailing it back out of the main battle, along with its fighter complement. The Separatist dreadnaught had managed to recollect all of its fighters that hadn’t been destroyed in the battle; a meager amount compared to what it had started out with, but then, the ship had been engaging enemy forces for hours now.

“72624! Stop those boarders at all costs! I can’t be captured, I won’t be captured!” the Muun commander screamed, panic showing in his thin face, replacing the momentary confidence that had been there only moments before.

“Sir, the security teams are doing everything they can. The clones are headed here, to the bridge, but they’re taking heavy losses.”

Just then, something exploded near the rear of the ship and the vessel lurched, causing the Commander to stumble off to the side.
Catching himself on one of the consoles, he yelled at the droid, “Captain, I will not allow myself to be captured! Kill those intruders!”

“But sir, there’s nothing more I-”

“I don’t want to hear it, 72624! I am ordering you to kill every living thing on board this ship! Do you understand? I cannot be captured, at any cost!”

“Uh, um… yes sir. Bridge security, new target,” the droid Captain said, motioning to the Muun Commander.

Suddenly the Muun found himself facing a dozen Commando Droids, all with blasters pointed at him.

“Wha- 72624! Has your processor melted?! What do you think you’re doing? I meant-”

“I’m sorry, Commander, I’m just following your orders. ‘Kill every living thing on board this ship’.” The high-pitched, mechanical voice said flatly, while the Commando Droids primed their blasters.

“Wait, no! You don’t- I’m not- Don’t shoot-!” The Muun screamed as the bridge security team fired simultaneously.

“Sir,” a pilot droid near the front of the bridge piped up, “Randomized coordinates are set, the hyperdrive’s spooled up, and we’re free of the gravity well. Jumping to hyperspace in 3… 2… 1…”

After that, the stars in the distance elongated to infinity and smeared together to create a bluish-blackish palette as the massive Separatist dreadnaught transitioned from normal space to hyperspace, leaving the Star Destroyer and its clone Starfighters behind.

* * *

“Almost… almost… there! Got it!” Twilight yelled triumphantly as she meticulously set the crystal inside the metal frame.

Dispelling the magic that had levitated the small, pink crystal into the contraption, Twilight Sparkle took a step back from her work and smiled to herself. She was finally done. After forty straight hours of perfecting the masterpiece in front of her, she was exhausted, but she wouldn’t rest now; she was so close to getting it right!

“Alright Spike, like they say, twenty-third time’s the charm!” She said enthusiastically.

“Yeah, okay. Have fun Twilight, don’t blow anything up,” Spike replied, from where he was sitting on a cushion in the corner, reading a book. He flicked his gaze over to the young alicorn mare for just a second, and since everything looked exactly as it had for the last seven hours, he wasn’t about to interest himself with what he was sure was going to be another failed attempt.

They were in Twilight’s castle, in a room attached to the library that had become Twilight’s personal laboratory and workshop. Although she wasn’t usually one for hard manual work and fixing things, liking to read, study, and practice magic more, she had been keeping herself in that one room for the better part of a week, ever since she had had her brilliant idea. Since then, she had made twenty-three iterations of her invention, each one slightly more attuned to the crystal that would serve as the central power source, and each one more flexible and more sturdily built. She had been spending so much time in the room in fact, that she had only been leaving it to go to the bathroom and grab something to eat. Spike had been coming and going as he pleased, and had long since given up trying to convince Twilight to slow down or even get more sleep; doing so only resulted in him being teleported out of the room.

On the table in front of her, with a small pink crystal in its center, sat a figure made out of metal, sculpted into the likeness of a mare. It was little more than a suit of armor stuffed with springs and a few air pistons, but then again, it had started out as armor, so that was to be expected.

Twilight had gotten the idea to enchant suits of armor to patrol and do all the duties of a regular pony guard without needing an actual pony guard to wear it, thereby placing the guard out of harm’s way. Her idea had initially come when her brother, Shining Armor, had been injured in a fight with a Minotaur that had tried sneaking into the Crystal Palace. Twilight had been distraught that her brother had gotten injured, and had vowed to make the guards’ jobs easier, and even as her first tests failed, she hadn’t given up; no she had kept working and throughout the whole process had changed the overall look of the armor to resemble a young mare, although her straight metal mane reminded Twilight of Pinkie’s sister, Maud, more than a guard.

But when she thought about it, Maud was very protective of Pinkie, and protectiveness was what Twilight had been going for.

Now, readying the spell to animate the metal suit-like contraption, Twilight paused for the briefest moment to savor the feeling of triumph she had. But, that feeling didn’t last forever, and the longer Twilight held onto it, the more it slipped away, and her eyelids drooped in response, a testament to how tired she was.

“Got to focus,” she murmured to herself. Spike, in the corner, didn’t hear her.

Summoning the energies to start the spell, Twilight watched as the mechanical pony was lifted off the table by the arcane forces, a light purple hue enveloping it. She could sense, feel the crystal inside as it absorbed her magic, imprinted with instructions to work the metal body and act like a real guard. She poured her heart and soul into the spell, and with it, the ability to understand speech, and to carry out whatever it was told to do. Adding more and more instructions into the crystal, and enough energy to keep it powered for several days, Twilight could feel her magic start to have an effect on the crystal. Small, intricate geometric runes began carving themselves into its surface, housed within its special casing in the heart of the metal pony, and more and more light and energy were both given off, and absorbed by the invention at the same time as she tried imprinting the final piece of the puzzle onto the gemstone.

This part was always the hardest, and the time when most of the accidents had occurred, rendering her previous versions beyond repair in a violent, violet explosion. A large pile of dust and small bits of metal was swept up into a corner; all that remained of her previous attempts.
Meanwhile, Twilight was concentrating on finishing the spell, but as had happened the last couple times, she was straining to fit all the runes that needed to form on the crystal. If they didn’t all fit, they would spill into each other, and she would be forced to stop the spell, as it would start creating different effects, or worse, shatter the crystal. She couldn’t even use much larger crystals, as the energy needed to keep the spell going increased exponentially with the size of the crystal.

Twilight could feel the spell slipping, the first runes were about to clash, and bring her final test to pieces once again.

“Almost… almost…” She said, straining to match her magic perfectly with the gemstone. With a final burst of energy, she fell back, depleted, and cut off the flow of magic. It took her vision a few seconds to swim back into focus, but when it did, she was disappointed to see that the metal figure in front of her was still and quiet.

“Ah! No! Not again! This time was almost perfect…” she grumbled to herself. Spike looked up from his comic book momentarily to see Twilight kneeling in front of the pony-shaped suit of armor, a dejected look on her face.

“Why won’t this work? It never works! Stupid metal mare…” continuing her mumbling, Twilight stood up on shaky legs, and nearly fell over, causing Spike to run over and help her stay on her hooves.

“Thanks, Spike. I think I’m done for now, I’ve had enough of this. What time is it?” she asked.

“Almost two thirty in the morning,” Spike replied, yawning loudly as he helped his friend through the castle and to her room, “It’s way past both of our bedtimes.”

“Two thirty?! Spike, why didn’t you tell me it was so late?” Twilight asked, astonished, and for just a second, looked almost as awake as usual.
Spike sighed, “I did, four times, but you didn’t listen. So I decided to stay up and keep an eye on you. Lucky I did, you can barely walk. Tomorrow you’re going to sleep in and go to bed early in the evening. No more experiments for a few days.”

“Spike, I can take care of myself.”

“Not when you’re obsessed over something.”

“I do not obsess over anything!” Twilight shouted indignantly.

“Really? What about the time you forgot to send Princess Celestia a friendship letter? Or the time you were visited by yourself from the future, and then spent the next week worrying about what you had wanted to tell yourself? Or the time-”

“Ok, ok, I get it. So I can go a bit overboard sometimes, no big deal.”

“Twilight, over the course of the last week, you’ve gotten twenty hours of sleep,” Spike deadpanned, “If that’s not a big deal then I’m afraid to ask what is.”

“Ok, fine, it’s a bit of a big deal, but I swear I’ll be fine, ok? And I’ll try to listen to you from now on when I’m working on a big project,” Twilight said as she finally gave in.

“I doubt it, but thanks for pretending.”

As Spike helped Twilight to her bed, she shooed him from the room so she could change.

“Alright, alright I’m leaving, sheesh. It’s not like you haven’t slept in your clothes when you’ve been this tired before.”

“I’m trying to stop doing that. Now thank you for your help, Spike. Goodnight, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Yea-ah,” Spike replied, yawning again. He made his way to his room where he too changed into his pyjamas and got into bed. But while he fell asleep almost instantly, Twilight tossed and turned for a few minutes, her disappointment at yet another failure trying its best to keep her from sleep. Eventually, though, it overcame her whirling mind and she fell into its deep embrace.

In the darkness of the castle, a small pink glow formed behind the empty glass eyepieces of a suit of armor in the shape of a mare.

***

B1-72624 had finally found out what the large explosion that had occurred near the rear of the ship was. Apparently, while the Dawn of Dusk was still engaging the Star Destroyer, the rear shields had finally failed and the enemy warship had had a clear shot at the dreadnaught’s communications spire. The entire tower had been ripped free from its base by the firepower of the attack and the Separatist warship was without any long-range communications. However, fortunately for them, because of one of the Commander’s last orders, the dreadnaught had gotten several small ships to berth inside its main hanger before the jump.

Still, 72624 realized that perhaps he had misunderstood the Commander. Although he had expressly told them not to let the enemy capture him at any cost, and he had even ordered them not to let a single living thing stay alive on the dreadnaught, 72624 still felt as though the Commander hadn’t exactly been thinking straight. Oh well, it wasn’t the droid’s place to question orders. Only now… there wasn’t anyone left to give orders, except for him.

He stored that thought in his memory banks for later, as he stepped onto the bridge to watch the vessel revert to normal space.

The massive Separatist flagship dropped out of hyperspace, looking slightly worse for wear, but other than missing the conning spire and several turbolaser emplacements, the ship itself was operating at almost normal levels.

72624 surveyed the system they had arrived in from the Captain’s chair on the bridge of the dreadnaught, damage reports scrolling across the datapad held at his side.

The body of the late Muun Commander had been cleaned up and the droid Captain had ordered it be incinerated, along with the bodies of the clones from the boarding parties. The attackers had only gotten about a hundred meters beyond the main hangar, when the bridge crew had trapped them in ray shields and then vented that area of the ship. The force of the air escaping had sucked the clones into the ray shields, most of whom were killed instantly. After that, the stragglers had been dealt with quickly and efficiently.

72624 had ordered the remains incinerated rather than dump them out an airlock when they finished the jump, so that they could make repairs and then leave the system; no need for anyone to know that the Separatist vessel had been there.

Now looking out the main viewport, 72624 surveyed the system they had arrived in. It was unimpressive to say the least. A small white dwarf star and a single small, rocky, green-and-blue planet with one moon hung in the blackness of space, surrounded by an asteroid field.

“Uh, Captain, what should we do?” a pilot droid asked, looking up from its console in the direction of the droid captain.

“Go through the navicomputer and try to find out where our randomized jump brought us. 44498, I want you to move us closer to the planet and begin a scan to see if it has the materials we would need to make repairs. 76504, use what long-range sensors we have left and do the same with the asteroid field. That’ll take longer so you can have someone assist you with it in shifts. Everyone else, begin a full systems check and reactor shakedown. I want us operating as close to full steam as possible within twelve hours.”

The bridge crew jumped to action as they set about their tasks, which meant… they stayed exactly where they were and started tapping holographic button on their consoles. But the near-silent thrum of the engines and the occasional squeak of a motor as a droid moved slightly was all there was to be heard on the bridge as the Captain watched the tiny blue-and-green dot of a planet slowly get bigger in the forward window.

As he sat and waited, quite comfortable on the hard metal seat of the Captain’s chair, 72624 started getting the creeping feeling deep down in his core processor that something important was in this star system.

Or it could be his continued confusion at the late Commander’s orders.

Oh well, thinking that hard was beyond his programming.

Chapter 2 - Unexpected Developments

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1:43 PM, Twilight’s Castle, Ponyville,

Twilight was having a great dream. In it, her invention was finally working. The metal mare stared at her with pink glowing eyes and quietly swept up all the remains of the previous attempts at creating it, all while Twilight supervised it with a smug grin on her face and Spike, somewhere down on one of the lower levels of the castle, was running around and crashing into things while yelling at the prospect that a suit of armor had seemingly come to life.

While she was very happy that her creation was working properly, and not only that, but it was following her instructions exactly, without hesitation or question, she couldn’t help but think that everything (other than Spike’s little freak-out) was going a little too smoothly. It slowly dawned on her, that she had been staring at the same scene playing out for easily ten minutes now, and the pile of broken Metal Mares was only growing the longer the working Metal Mare swept it up.

Twilight started freaking out, however, as the Metal Mare duplicated and the second version began walking towards her, speaking in an urgent tone that was completely out of place on its blank metal face.

“Twilight, Twilight! You need to wake up! Something’s happened! Twilight wake up!” For some reason, the second Metal Mare spoke in Starlight Glimmer’s voice, and that scared her more than anything.

Suddenly Twilight’s eyes flew open as she felt somepony shaking her violently.

Starlight Glimmer was standing over her, shaking her shoulders in an attempt to wake her. When she noticed that Twilight had opened her eyes, a string of emotions flew across her face including anxiety, relief, and… for the briefest moment Twilight thought she had seen excitement there, but it was quickly replaced by a small scowl.

“Jeez Twilight, for a Princess, you sleep like a log, although I guess that’s to be expected after how much you’ve been working lately. Anyway, there’s something you just have to see!”

Starlight walked over to the window and opened the curtains, letting sunlight into the room, and Twilight nearly went blind as the light invaded her eyeballs with a searing pain.

“Ahhh! Why is it so bright!? Close the curtains before I go blind!”

"Twilight, it's already almost two in the afternoon. I know you stayed up late these last few nights, but I still think you should let some sunlight in-” Starlight said, but was interrupted by Twilight teleporting to the window and quickly yanking the curtains shut again.

“I- I just need… some time for my eyes to adjust, alright? These are heavy curtains and it’s really bright outside. Anyway, what was it you were talking about? What do I need to see?” Twilight asked with a huff.

“Well, I really think you should see for yourself,” Starlight replied with a grin that was eerily familiar and set Twilight on edge, “I think you’ll find it… enlightening.”

“Starlight…? What did you do?” Twilight asked suspiciously, but before she could question the unicorn further, a crash from downstairs and a short yell told her that something was up with Spike.

“Come on, Twilight, you’re going to miss all the fun!” was the only reply she got before the unicorn mare left the room. Tentatively following her through the corridors of the crystal castle, Twilight realized that Starlight was leading her to the one room she’d been spending more time getting to know than any other room in the past week. They were going to her workshop.

When Starlight opened the door, and Spike saw Twilight standing in the doorway with a bedhead, and still in her pyjamas, a brief look of confusion crossed his face, but it was gone instantly as he ran up to greet her in a huge hug.

“Twilight! I don’t believe it! I thought it didn’t work last night, just like you, but then I finally came in here after lunch to clean up some of the mess you made over the past week, and, well… look!” the teenage dragon yelled excitedly, talking so quickly his words blurred together.

Twilight looked to where Spike was pointing, and saw the Metal Mare standing beside the table where it had been the night before.

At first Twilight couldn’t quite place what was off about what she was looking at, but after a minute of silence she realized: it wasn’t laying in a heap on the table where she had left it the other night, and it wasn’t sitting against the wall, it was standing. On its own. A quick look to Starlight made sure that she wasn’t using her magic to hold it up, so Twilight looked back at her creation.

It made no sound and was motionless, so Twilight walked up to it and waved a hand in front of its face. The only thing that was different about the Metal Mare was that its eyes glowed a light pink, the same color as the crystal that was supposed to power it. When Twilight waved her hand, the suit of armor did nothing, so she decided something else.

“Can you hear me?” Twilight asked the Metal Mare. When it did not respond in any way, she asked again, “Can you speak? You should be able to speak, are you working properly? How are you working? You shouldn’t be working, the spell damaged the crystal.”

When the Metal Mare did nothing but stare straight ahead with its glowing pink eyes, Twilight looked back at Starlight and Spike, both of whom were wearing large smiles, and she returned them with her own flat stare.

“So you can make its eyes glow. I know you guys mays have wanted to cheer me up after so many failed attempts, but this was hardly the way to do it. This just got my hopes up, and it was just… cruel. You should know better,” Twilight said, tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes.

“I actually thought for a second… I-I thought… it was…” The Princess of Friendship couldn’t finish her sentence as all the emotions of hope she had had with her projects over the last week disappeared to be replaced by hopelessness at her failures. Even two of her best friends… they may have meant well, but-

No, they had known what they were doing. This was some kind of joke, and Twilight had had enough of it.
“Twilight, we weren’t trying to hurt you, here, just-” Spike started, but anything else he was going to say was interrupted by Twilight’s growl of frustration.

“I don’t want to hear it Spike.”

“But Twilight-”

“No, Starlight! I don’t want to hear it! I can’t believe you would try to do something like this to me,” as she started accusing them, Twilight’s voice began to crack with emotion, “I worked my hands, hooves, and wings off trying to make these Metal Mares work. And I thought you knew how important they were to me. To turn this into some kind of… some kind of joke, is just cruel. I don’t care if it was intentional or not, I know you could have decided something else and-”

“Twilight, this isn’t-”

“No! Get out! All of you, I just need some time to myself. All of you, right now, get out!”

Twilight was about to start crying right there; she had failed, she had failed and would never get the darn spell right, and all her efforts to help the ponies of the guards would be-

But something caught her attention right before the waterfall of tears erupted. The clank-clank-clank of metal on stone (or rather, on crystal) caused her to pause and look back at Starlight and Spike, but, now they were joined by a third figure.

The Metal Mare was walking toward the door of the room with slow, methodical steps, and its hooves on the palace floor were what was making the sounds. It did not regard the unicorn or dragon at all as it passed them, and as soon as it made it out past the doors, it turned around and stood, staring back into the workshop.

At first, while Twilight had seen the glorified suit of armor walking, she thought Starlight had been using her telekinesis to make it appear as if the Metal Mare was walking on its own, but no ethereal glow could be seen either from her horn or from the Metal Mare the whole time, and when it stood looking back in the room with its blank, pink gaze, Twilight whispered, “but… how…?”

Spike smirked before replying.

“Twilight, you told us to get out of the room. All of us.”

****

“Sir, our scans of the planet have shown that it is teeming with life. There are several settlements, and sentient beings confirmed across the planet’s surface, but they do not appear to be very technologically advanced. From what I’ve been able to gather with our short-range scanners, they don’t seem to use much in the way of electricity, and there are very few radio and other EMR waves originating from the planet.”

“Good work, 44498. 29554, have you figured out where we are yet?” 72624 said, his flat, squeaky voice carrying none of the authority he was trying to convey to the bridge crew.

“Not yet sir. We don’t seem to be in any known star system, but I’m checking the database on constellations we can see from here.” Captain 72624 nodded and turned to the next droid to give their report. While 76504 and 22221 (who was assisting him) told the Captain about the results so far of the asteroid scan, 72624’s logic processor was working overtime trying to deduce the information he had already been given. If they were in an uncharted star system, then that would mean that the planet below belonged to neither the Republic-, Empire, he reminded himself.

It belonged to neither the Empire, nor what was left of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. It also meant that the inhabitants of the planet had probably never been off their rock, or ever made contact with the greater galaxy. If he could convince this new planet to ally itself with the Separatists, then they would have a new place to hide and start over, while they rebuilt their numbers. Although, since this planet wasn’t even known to the Empire, it could technically be considered a victory: they would have a legitimate government that wasn’t a part of the Republic/Empire. It just wouldn’t be acknowledged or even known to the Galactic Empire.

“-perfect for mining and refining, which we can use to repair the outer hull of the ship. We’re still scanning the rest of the asteroid field, so we won’t know for sure just how much there is, but with another thirty hours of scanning, I think we should have a reasonable estimate of what the asteroid field contains. If we get a mine and refinery built on a couple of those rocks, we could probably make a shipyard out here!” 76504 finished enthusiastically.

72624 only caught part of what his subordinate was saying, and with his logic processor already overworked as it was, he barely understood the exact implications of what the pilot droid had been saying. However he nodded at all the right times and ‘hmm’d and ‘I see’d several times, making the pilot droid think he was being listened to. As it was, Captain 72624 marveled at how smart 76504 was (at least compared to most other battle droids), and mused on whether he had been given an astromech’s core processor instead of a B1’s.

Giving the go-ahead to 76504 and 22221 to continue scanning the asteroid field for material they could use, as well as hidden bases, probes, spy stations, or anything else that might reveal their presence and cause them to have to flee, the Captain listened to several other bridge officers explain that the reactor was working fine, but that their long range sensors and communications were completely gone. 72624 wasn’t surprised at this news at all, as he had read through it earlier in damage reports from engineering and communications. As he listened to a third pilot droid tell him how the batteries had all cooled down and all the damaged guns were being tended to by repair crews, his attention was caught by a blipping on his datapad, which turned out to be a short message from one of the hangar security teams.

All it said was, ‘Sir, an escape pod we recovered during the battle is sealed tight and the occupants demand to speak with you. They won’t come out and we can’t get in without damaging the pod and its occupants. I think you should come see this for yourself.’

Excusing himself from the bridge, he called a security team to accompany him to the hangar and called three more to meet them there.

***

As 72624 walked, six super battle droids and a dozen B1’s followed behind, constantly checking side halls and open doorways, making sure no clones that might have escaped annihilation tried to ambush them.

Though the walk (and occasional quiet turbolift ride) was uneventful, the Captain still couldn’t shake the strange feeling that had been building up in his core processor. It might have been from their continued course closer to the planet, or perhaps it was from the strange situation in the hangar, or perhaps something else entirely, but 72624 didn’t like it, and was quite relieved when he entered the main hangar and saw nearly fifty other droids already milling about. Most held their blasters at the ready, although a couple of B1’s kept them on their backs while they inspected several small ships and escape pods.

A red-chested security droid walked up to greet him as he neared the escape pod with the largest congregation.

“Sir, we haven’t been able to identify who or what is in the escape pod. It’s devoid of portholes and the only answers we’ve received are by text directly from the pod’s communications system. What should we do?”

"Is the escape pod Confederate? Or Republic?” the Captain asked, before he mentally reminded himself yet again, that it would technically be an Imperial escape pod.

“Sir, we keep pinging it, but we can’t seem to find out whose side it belongs to. As far as we can tell, it’s a standard civilian escape pod.”

“Civilian?” 72624 looked at the escape craft. It was quite large, easily able to hold at least a dozen beings, and was solid dark grey. Although he didn’t really have any experience to go by with what would be a civilian escape pod, that story didn’t hold up with him for a second, even with his limited logic power. There should have been no reason they had picked up a civilian craft from the middle of a battle. Either way, he knew exactly how to deal with noncompliants; it didn’t matter whether they were droids or organics.

“Let me talk to them. I’ll handle this, Sergeant. Give me your datapad.” As he took the proffered device, the Captain tapped out, ‘This is the Captain of the dreadnaught Dawn of Dusk. Exit your pod immediately or we will destroy it.’

“There, that shoul-” 72624 started, but was cut off by the hiss of the pod door opening. At that instant, all the droids in the hangar turned towards the pod and primed their blasters. Inside the pod, it was completely dark, save for what little light filtered in from the overhead lights in the hangar. Inside, sharp, thin outlines could be seen moving occasionally, but when 72624 stepped closer, several things exploded out of the pod with great speed in a flurry of limbs and red eyes.

Just before a razor-sharp claw parted his head from his body, the things stopped, and the security teams, that had just about fired, got a good look at the pod’s occupants and both sides exchanged an awkward silence.

Inside the pod had been nearly two dozen (or so it looked that way to the Captain) Separatist Assassin Probes. The lead assassin probe slowly lowered its front limbs, and the others soon followed suit.

“Identify yourselves.” 72624 ordered, trying to keep the fear of almost having been reduced to scrap by one of his side’s own soldiers from creeping into his vocoder.

The lead assassin probe made a series of mechanical grunts and low tones, but 72624 understood it perfectly.

“<I AM AS-P-76, ASSASSIN PROBE IN THE SEPARATIST ARMY. THESE ARE MY FORCES. WE ARE A COVERT OPS TASK FORCE. MAY I ASK WHAT SHIP WE HAVE FOUND OURSELVES ON?>”

“This is the Providence-class Dreadnaught, the Dawn of Dusk. What were you doing in that escape pod?” the Captain countered.

“<THE SHIP WE WERE STATIONED ON CAME UNDER SUSTAINED FIRE AND WE ABANDONED SHIP. WE ASSUMED WE HAD BEEN CAPTURED BY REPUBLIC FORCES AND WERE TRYING TO CAUSE AS MUCH DAMAGE AS POSSIBLE TO THEIR COMMAND STRUCTURE BEFORE WE WOULD BE DESTROYED.>”

The Captain thought took a minute to think about the explanation. No, really, a full minute. Actually a minute and seven seconds to be exact. And all the while the assassin probes stood and waited, and the security teams shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what to do.

“Well, okay. That sounds reasonable enough,” 72624 said finally, causing some of the B1’s to give a start, as their attention had begun to wander.

“Welcome aboard the Dawn of Dusk. I am hereby adding you to our ship’s complement, since we have no way of finding out your previous vessel’s current status. Now, I want you and your squad to report to maintenance for a quick check-up, and then I want you to help patrol the ship. We were boarded recently, and although we think we got all the clones, we’re not sure, so I bet your sneakiness might come in useful if it turns out there’s any left. I’m taking charge of your company and you will report to me. I’m B1-72624, the captain of this ship. Understood?”

The large, spider-like probe droid kept rotating its head this way and that, fixing the Captain with several different photoreceptors at once, making him feel very nervous the whole time as the assassin probe decided on a course of action. Eventually it settled itself down, moving into a more relaxed stance and responded.

“<VERY WELL. WE ACCEPT YOUR AUTHORITY. WE SHALL REPORT TO MAINTENANCE AND THEN WE SHALL PATROL THE SHIP, UNTIL SUCH A TIME AS WE ARE NEEDED FOR OTHER DUTIES.>”

72624 sighed in relief as the group of assassin droids moved off, crawling over anything in their path.

“Now then Sergeant, anything else you need my presence for?” the Captain asked, turning back to the security droid and handing him back his datapad.

“Not really. One of the other escape pods we rescued was empty, one contained a single LEP servant droid, and the last one held a quartet of demolition droids.”

What? The Captain was now quite intrigued. First assassin probes, now demolition droids? What was with all these specialty droids being recovered from a regular battle? Perhaps whoever had been coordinating the Separatist fleet had decided to mobilize as many droids and as much equipment as they could in an effort to stave off the Imperial attack. That sounded like a good enough explanation to the Captain, but even he could see the foolishness of mobilizing droids that were obviously meant for specific purposes, not open warfare.

“Hm. Tell the demolition droids to report to maintenance as well. The servant droid too. Actually, after he’s done, tell the servant droid to report to the bridge, he can be my personal assistant. I’ve always needed one.”

“Yes, sir. Just one thing,” the security droid interjected, “The LEP, has female programming, not male. A fact that she made very clear to me when we rescued her from the pod. Just don’t mix it up, she has quite a temper. It’ll make life easier for you.”

“Uhhh…” 72624 was genuinely stunned. More by the fact that the Sergeant had thought to give him advice on dealing with a simple servant droid than the fact that said servant droid needed advice to be dealt with, but still. It was quite curious. Then again, the Captain was still a B1, and often needed advice from his fellow officers.

“Ok then. Anything else to report Sergeant? I’m afraid I’m needed on the bridge if nothing else is urgent.”

“Well, since you’re here, I can finish my report on the vehicles we secured before jump, as per the Commander’s orders. Where is he by the way?”

“Umm. About that… the commander is, um… indisposed. I’ll be making an announcement over the ship’s PA system soon to inform the crew about the situation, but for now, I’m in charge. Finish your report.”

“Yes, sir! Along with the escape pods, we recovered two Sheathipede-Class Shuttles and a Gozanti Cruiser. The shuttles were carrying shells for a defoliator tank, and the light cruiser was carrying a defoliator conversion kit. Other than that, the ships were piloted, and crewed, by B1 Pilot Droids. That is all, sir.” With a final salute, the Security droid Sergeant turned and started getting the assembled security teams to sweep the recovered vessels and directed the newcomers to maintenance for a check-up, leaving the Captain to make his way back to the bridge with his own security team.

***

Contrary to what most of the droid crew on board the Dawn of Dusk thought, and exactly as the Captain suspected, there were indeed clone boarders that had managed to escape annihilation and were still escaping detection by the droid patrols.

Clone Corporal ‘Rabid’ looked over at his teammate. He and Private ‘Laugher’ were the last living members of the team that had come aboard the Dawn of Dusk in an attempt to capture or kill the Muun Commander on board and take control of the dreadnaught. Having failed that, the two clone troopers were now hiding in an armored closet, only the light from their helmet lights illuminating anything.

“Well, this is a right fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into,” Rabid remarked.

“’We’? What’s this about ‘we’? You got us into this mess, I was just following you,” Laugher shot back, his nickname expressing the absolute last thing he wanted to do in their current situation.

“Oh, knock it off. We both got into this mess, just like everyone else from our squads. I’m no more to blame than you are, Laugher. Our orders were to capture or eliminate the ship’s bridge crew and take control of the ship.”

“Yeah? Great, so why don’t we just waltz up there and demand their surrender? Or do you have a better idea?”

“No need to be so snappy with me, alright? I’m trying to figure out a way for us to survive, same as you. And in a way, yeah, that’s kind of what I was thinking.”

“Are you crazy? We’ll be dead as soon as we open the damn door!” Laugher exclaimed.

Rabid gave a smirk.

“Orders haven’t changed, kid.”

***

“Okay, so… Go over it once more. You’re saying my spell worked, but not entirely? I checked and double-checked and triple-checked my calculations, and even checked and double-checked my calculation checks. The chances of my spell fragmenting the runes on the powering crystal and not shattering it are already so small I don’t even want to think about it. And you’re saying not only did it not shatter, but the combined runes only changed the instructions of the spell enough to make the Mare less responsive?” Twilight asked incredulously.

“Well, I thought it didn’t work, or that some part of it was messed up and it could only stand and nothing else, but when I checked the magical energy coming off it, and compared it to your notes on the predicted magical energy that was supposed to be radiating off it if it were to work properly, the disparity was so subtle, I almost missed it. But when Spike asked if it could do something, I felt the energy change briefly,” Starlight explained, “I think the runes combining are the reason it can’t speak, and why it can’t respond to questions. It wants to, but something about the runes is creating conflicting instructions.”

“And you’re sure it can only respond to direct commands? Have you tried ordering it to talk?” Twilight asked, already writing down her findings and Starlight’s hypothesis.

“Yep, tried that,” Spike replied.

The three (four if you count the Metal Mare) friends had moved from Twilight’s workshop to a sitting room in the castle, (Twilight having changed into regular clothes and groomed herself in the meantime) and were discussing the exact specifications, including the limitations, of Twilight’s creation, with Twilight still taking quick, unbelieving glances at the invention in question, which stood quietly at attention near the door.

"Hey, Metal Mare,” Spike called to the mechanical creation, “Tell me, what’s your favourite flavor of ice cream?”

The Metal Mare made no response to the query.

“Metal Mare, tell me your name,” Spike called.

No response.

“I order you to tell me what your purpose is!” Spike yelled at the contraption.

The Metal Mare made no attempt to comply.

“See?” Spike said blankly, “Nothing. Whatever happened to it, it only responds to direct commands, and even then, it can’t talk.”

Seeing the discouraged look on Twilight’s face, Starlight placed a hand on her friend and mentor’s shoulder and said warmly, “Hey, Don’t worry Twilight, I’m sure you’ll figure it out with that big brain of yours. Besides, it’s a miracle that it can do so much already! I mean, you’ve practically created life! Simple, intelligence-limited, subservient life, but still. Who else can say they’ve done that?”

“Well…” Twilight started, but Starlight interrupted her.

“No one! No one anywhere! You’ll figure out this minor setback, and the next one you make will be able to talk, and maybe even after that they’ll be able to think on their own or have feelings, or even…” Starlight faltered for a moment, but quickly composed herself again, “Or even make friends. How amazing would that be?”

“You’re right!” Twilight cried, standing up suddenly and startling both Starlight and Spike, “I’ve done the impossible! Now the next step is just a tippy-hoof away! It might take another few nights of hard, tireless work, but now that I know a way to make the Metal Mare work, it’s only a matter of time before I get the bugs out.”

As Twilight started making new calculations and adjustments in her mind, she couldn’t help but feel like the answers to her problems with making the Metal Mare work properly were closer, far closer than she thought.

Outside the room, the tiny sound of metal tapping and clicking its way across crystal was unheard by any of the room’s occupants as something watched and listened in on their conversation.

Author's Notes:

Yes, I'm aware it is still a bit fast-paced and there isn't much comedy yet, but hey, as a quote I once read somewhere and didn't bother to actually remember the person who said it, "Dying is easy, Comedy is hard!".
However, with that out of the way, a couple concerns you may have I will address before you have the chance to write in the comments.

1. Yes, I know the Droid Captain is a little bit confusing, what with him being suspicious of clones still being on board his ship but not suspicious of an unidentified escape pod asking for him specifically. Cut him some slack, I did that on purpose. He's a B1, he's meant to follow orders unquestioningly, so it's perfectly natural for him to feel normal leaving the bridge on a tiny errand that is most definitely a trap. Yes he's quite dumb regarding most matters. B1's can't smell a trap until after it's been sprung.

2. Twilight nearly broke down in tears for a very good reason. She's spent nearly the last hundred hours working tirelessly on her invention, and even with sleeping in, she's still quite sleep-deprived. Also, she's been known to just to conclusions before, so her thinking that it's a joke put on by Spike and Starlight when the Metal Mare works isn't all that hard to believe. If you don't believe me, go re-watch the show and note her reactions to things when she's caught off-guard. (Hint, hint: Lesson Zero.)

If there's anything else I've missed, now you can leave it in the comments.
Have a wonderful day and I hope you enjoyed the next chapter! ^.^

Chapter 3 - ... In Which Everyone Is Upset About Something

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19 BBY, Conning Tower Base, Providence-Class Dreadnaught Dawn of Dusk, In Orbit Around Unknown Planet, Sector D-6 (See Galactic Map)

B1-54321 and B1-54322, who liked to be called ‘Cranker’ and ‘Spaller’ by the rest of the crew (although the maintenance crews just referred to them as ‘those idiots’), were currently occupied with their least favourite duty, which was supervising maintenance crew three.

The two battle droids, along with the assortment of astromechs and Treadwell droids, were stationed in one of the hallways just below the hull and the now-absent Communications Spire that had once adorned the top of the ship, and were repairing the damage and sealing off the section. Or rather, the maintenance crew was sealing off the section while Spaller argued with an R3 unit and Cranker leaned against a wall and watched.

“-and I’m telling you, there’s no point in arguing over it, we have our orders!” Spaller cried, jabbing the R3 unit with a metal finger to solidify his point.

The red astromech slapped the metal digit away with an extendable grappling claw before retorting with a series of beeps and whistles.

YOUR ORDERS ARE TO SUPERVISE US. NOT GET IN OUR WAY. YOU CAN SUPERVISE US JUST AS WELL FROM DOWN THE HALL. YOU DON’T NEED TO BE RIGHT HERE WITH US.

“How are we going to know if you’re doing your job properly if we’re not there to see you? You could blow us all up without knowing it!”

The red R3 unit dimmed its main photoreceptor to a dull amber, giving the impression of a flat stare.

STANDING DIRECTLY OVER US WHILE WE WORK WON’T DO YOU ANY BETTER. YOU STILL WON’T KNOW IF WERE DOING OUR JOB PROPERLY. YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ELECTRICAL OR STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING. NOW BUZZ OFF.

With that, the astromech turned and went back to its fellows, while giving a low fweep that sounded suspiciously like a snort of annoyance.

“That little-” Spaller started, but his limited vocabulary prevented him from coming up with a dignified insult and so, after a moment of searching, settled with, “ballhead”, on account of the astromech’s domed top.

“Boy, you sure showed him,” Cranker replied sarcastically, pushing himself off of the wall and wrapping an arm around Spaller. Spaller, thinking that Cranker was being genuine, straightened up and replied in as dignified a voice as he could manage.

“Well, we’ve got to show those little repair droids that we mean business.”

“Why do you do that to yourself?” Cranker asked as the two of them walked down the hallway, monitoring some of the other work crews.

“Do what?”

“That. You know, why do you always get into arguments with the maintenance crews? You always lose.”

“I do not always lose! We have to show them that we’re in charge and don’t stand for being questioned about orders.” Spaller shouted incredulously, “Besides, why don’t you ever join in?”

Cranker simply shrugged, “It amuses me enough just to watch you make a fool of yourself. I don’t need to add anything to that to make it funny.”

“Hey! I don’t-” Spaller was about to retort, but the sound of the Captain’s voice coming in over the ships’ PA system silenced him and all the droids in the corridor stopped what they were doing to listen.

“Attention all crew, this is the Captain speaking. As you all know, our ship was boarded several hours ago. The reason for this was that the Commander held information that the Empire was desperate to get their hands on. Despite reassurances that he was safe, he was afraid of being captured, and ordered bridge security to eliminate him to prevent the enemy from acquiring the Intel. As such, I, B1-04529-72624 am now assuming complete control of the Dawn of Dusk. Captain, out.”

Cranker and Spaller kept looking at the ceiling, as if they were expecting the Captain to come back on and say something else, or else for the Commander to announce that it was all some kind of joke.

But no such message came, and Cranker, Spaller, and every other droid on board that had been active to hear the announcement felt a momentary pang of simulated sadness for the death of the Muun Commander, but for most of the crew, it was instantly replaced by the realization that they’d soon be receiving new orders and new posts.

Upon realizing this, Cranker and Spaller high-fived (or rather, high-three’d, as battle droids only have three digits on each hand) and said in unison, “No more maintenance supervision duty!”

R3-D10, the astromech from maintenance crew three that Spaller had been arguing with, looked over at the two idiots as they ran down the corridor towards the general maintenance room in the bowels of the ship to receive their new posting.

The job for him and the rest of maintenance crew three hadn’t changed though: it had been the Captain that had ordered the base of the coming spire closed off and cleared of hazards.

As the two idiots rounded a corner and vanished from sight, R3-D10 gave a silent thanks that he could finally work in peace.

***

The droids of the ship weren’t the only ones to hear the Captain’s announcement.

Inside a very tight air duct, Rabid and Laugher had also heard the news of the Muun Commander’s death, as the portion of duct they had been crawling through was directly above a loudspeaker built into the ceiling of the corrido below, and had nearly scared them half to death when it had first crackled to life.

“Sir, if the Muun Commander’s dead, doesn’t that mean our orders are void and null? We can’t kill all the droids on the bridge before they kill us, and we can’t take the Commander hostage to use as a bargaining chip and capture the ship,” Laugher pointed out.

Rabid was silent for a moment as he revised their plans, and all Laugher could see were the slightly dirty soles of Rabid’s white boots as he shifted his feet every now and again. In the corridor below them, destroyer droids could be heard zipping by on patrol while the two clones scarcely dared breathe.

Suddenly the clone corporal’s voice crackled in Laugher’s ear over his helmet comm.

“You’re right about a couple things, but we’ve got to get to the bridge anyhow. We’ll do a quick recon of the bridge from inside the vents, then we’ll either take it if the security’s lenient enough, or if there’s too many of them, we’ll find our way back to the communications spire. Either way we have to get message back to the Lawmaker, and let the rest of the galaxy know there are still active battle droids out here… wherever ‘here’ is. These clankers might decide not to move since a droid’s in charge now, but they’ll still be a threat to anyone that stumbles upon them until they’re dealt with.”

“Eh… you know sir, there are times I really hate being a grunt,” Laugher replied, his reluctance to follow the new plan clearly evident in his voice.

“Well soldier, I don’t care if you like it or not,” Corporal Rabid replied as he started crawling forward through the duct once more, “But you either get used to it…”

“…Or you get dead,” Laugher finished his squad’s old motto with a bitter laugh. “Yeah, I know. I’m used to it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“Alright, less griping, more moving! I mean it, private, we’ve got a galaxy to save, and your whining ain’t gonna help us.”

Laugher sighed, “Yes, sir.”

The two crawled through the ducts for a while, pausing whenever they heard a droid patrol, and then crawled some more.

Eventually the two clones found themselves in a duct above the corridor outside the ship’s bridge, and Rabid was staring through the slots of a vent cover at the bridge’s closed doors. Laugher, as he had on their entire trek through the bowels of the Separatist dreadnaught, got to see only the soles of his corporal’s boots.

“Why’d you stop, sir? We there yet? My arms are on fire,” Laugher called over his comm.

“Well I’ve got bad news and more bad news. The bad news is the vent ends here. It doesn’t lead all the way to the bridge, which means we can’t see what the situation is like in there.

“And the other bad news?” Laugher asked.

“The other bad news is that the bridge doors are closed, and I haven’t seen any droids enter or leave in the few minutes we’ve been here. Once again, that means we’ve got no idea what could be waiting for us on the other side of those doors.

“Oh,” Laugher replied simply. The prospect of having to face an unknown number of battle droids didn’t scare him much, they’d done so on multiple occasions before, but that, coupled with no viable plan of escape caused what was left of his courage to shrink faster than the Jedi population during Order 66.

“So, uh… what should we do?” he asked quietly.

Rabid mulled over their options before deciding.

“Well kid, looks like there’s only one thing for it.”

***

In the half hour since 72624 had made his announcement to the crew, the bridge had been bombarded by calls from terminals and built-in commlinks about the legitimacy of the Muun Commander’s death and what the sensitive intel he had been privy to was (which the Captain had entirely made up, if only to make his retelling of the story more believable), as well as questions regarding the chain of command and new orders.

Tha Captain and the bridge crew had at first been very panicked with all the overwhelming number of questions; 72624 never realized just how independent and inspired by the Commander the droids of their ship were, most droid crews wouldn’t care about a change in command structure, but these ones seemed genuinely concerned about what had happened and wanted to be kept in the loop.

At first it had been very tiring, doing nothing but answering calls and not being able to listen to important reports from the bridge crew and other areas of the ship, and even do the jobs that the Captain had outlined for them after they had arrived in-system, but it eventually became a manageable and even boring affair for the bridge crew, so it came as a complete surprise when the bridge doors opened and two figures that clearly weren’t battle droids walked in.

The Captain stared at the newcomers for a few seconds before asking dumbly, “What are you doing here?”

“Where is he?! Where is he?! Where is my master?!!”

The normally soft, cool, female voice of the protocol droid that rushed onto the bridge was at its highest volume, and the thing was clearly distraught, evident from the number of punctuation marks that accompanied its cries.

Before either the bridge crew, or bridge security could do anything, the silver protocol droid had grabbed a hold of the Captain in its flimsy grip and was shaking him repeatedly while asking where her master was.

“Let go of me! Have your circuits fried? Let go of me!” 72624 shouted over the indignant cries of the protocol droid. Having no luck giving a direct order, he turned to the bridge crew and called out, “Someone get this talking thesaurus off of me!”

As two Commando droids grabbed the protocol droid by its arms and hoisted her off the Captain, he righted himself (she had nearly toppled him in her fit of grief), and tried to calm the female droid down.

“TL-90, stop squirming. Your master is dead.”

He was not doing a very good job of it.

“You killed him! You killed my master! How could you? My master was always a kind and caring soul, and I served him well. Now what will I do? I have no master and it’s all your fault!” TL-90 cried at him, struggling feebly to escape the Commandos’ grip, but she was made for carrying nothing heavier than a cocktail tray, whereas the guards holding her were designed to be able to overpower clone troopers in hand-to-hand if necessary.

“TL-90, you heard the announcement, your master told us to kill him so that he wouldn’t be captured by the Imperial forces that stormed the ship a few hours ago,” the Captain said, holding up his arms in an attempt to calm the malfunctioning protocol droid down.

“He would never do such a thing! He valued his life far too much, and you know it! You killed him, and I want to know the truth!”

72624 knew that the late Muun Commander had cared for his own skin and little else, except of course for his protocol droid, TL-90, and all the rest of the crew knew it as well. However, he also knew that TL-90 was loyal to her master to a fault, and she was very good at sniffing out lies. Getting his old air of superiority back, he puffed out his chest (figuratively speaking of course, as he couldn’t actually do so, what with him not having lungs and all) and stopped any bit of tension and apprehension from showing in his voice as he addressed the female droid.

“TL-90, what I am telling you is the truth, and as the commanding officer on this ship, I am ordering you to report to maintenance for a reassessment of your condition and a refit as the maintenance crews see fit. Do you understand?”

“I-, but-, you-, you can’t-, you killed my master! I can’t allow you to get away with that!” the protocol droid spluttered, but was brought up short by one of the Commando droids manually powering her off.

“Thank you,” the Captain said, rubbing his cranial assembly as he relished the relief from the manic droid’s wails.

“You two,” he said, motioning to the two droids that held the now-limp servant droid between them, “Take her down to maintenance and make sure she gets checked over. And for heaven’s sakes, don’t power her on again before then. Uh… actually it’d be better if she didn’t repeat this again. Tell the head of maintenance to wipe her memory, then you can power her on again, and then send her back to the late Commander’s personal quarters. Do you understand?”

“Roger, roger,” the two black Commandos replied, their vocoders giving them incredibly deep voices.

The Captain sighed, “Holy moly, ok, let’s all agree to never have that happen again, okay? I think I fried some circuits when she startled me.”

As the two departed the bridge with their charge, and the Captain was jealously wondering why he couldn’t have a vocoder more like a Commando droid, instead of the one he currently possessed that made him sound flimsier and weaker than he was (though not by much), the second figure that had walked in finally got noticed by one of the bridge crew.

“Hey, Saw, what are you doing up here? Shouldn’t you be in medical?” 29554 asked the other newcomer.

‘Saw’, as he was known on the ship, was one of the ship’s two medical droids, a 2-1B surgical droid to be exact. The only reason the ship even had a medical suite, unlike most Separatist ships, was because of the sole living member of the crew (well, he had been alive a few hours ago) had demanded that there be medical staff on board at all times in case he ever got injured. To the surprise of some, his request had been granted, but of course, and unfortunately for him, the medical staff he had been given consisted only of two medical droids.

As the query reached his audio receptors, Saw turned his head to give a long, white, blank look at 29554 before answering.

“I was conversing with TL-90 in the late Commander’s personal quarters before the Captain made his announcement, and in her state of shock and disbelief, she dragged me along with her up here. However, I might as well stay for a bit, I’ve never gotten to see out the bridge windows. It’s much more expansive than any of the small viewports in the corridors.”

The Captain wanted to bang his head on the nearest bulkhead. Had half the crew lost their minds today?

“Saw, get back to medical, you’re not allowed up here. If you want a good view of space, go look out the hangar doors, but you can’t be on the bridge, you’re interfering with the bridge crew’s duties.”

As the medical droid gave another long stare and a slightly resigned, “fine,” before departing, the Captain turned to 44498, and asked him if he had gotten any more information about the planet they were orbiting.

“Well, sir, as I said, there’s a lot of life and some primitive civilizations down there, but from what the sensors can spot, the planet might not operate under one planetary government. The high-resolution cams seem to be picking up what appear to be radically different designs in building construction all over the planet. We can’t see anything too close, but it’ obvious there are multiple cultures down there. The planet’s inhabitants may still have a society that revolves around them operating under several different countries.”

If 72624 had a face, he would have slapped his hand onto it at that moment as he sighed. Things just get better and better. Even so, he slapped his hand across what passed for a face for battle droids and said, “Well, that… really makes things more complicated. So you’re saying if we’re going to try to convert this planet to aid our cause we’ll have to get every country to say yes? We don’t have enough troops to control the whole planet if they decide not to, and I’d rather not try orbital bombardment; we still want to use the land once we have access to it.”

“Sir, that’s just what the information suggests. It could be that the native species of this planet are unified under one planetary government, they just keep their cultural differences,” 44498 said, trying to relieve his Captain’s tension.

Unfortunately, the Captain didn’t fully understand what his subordinate meant by that, as he thought cultural differences were a pretty big reason that organics would want to divide into separate groups.

Taking a few minutes to think everything over, he finally came to a conclusion as he sat down in the Captain’s chair and looked out towards the planet. The part of land they were currently cruising over had just had the first rays of light from the system’s star race over it and the faint light illuminated a new morning for the native beings below

“44498, I want you to send down some probes to the surface. Just start with the continent we’re currently orbiting over. Send some probes down, have them get into some of the towns and cities down there so we can get a good look at what we’re going to have to deal with, and make sure they’re sending back constant audio and visual recordings. I want to be able to see the feed on the bridge consoles and my personal datapad.”

“Yes, sir,” the droid Lieutenant replied, turning back to his own console and punching in commands, “How many should we send?”

“How many do we have?” the Captain asked.

“We have a hundred and thirteen landing pods in storage, but only twenty-seven probes.”

“Good, that’s more than enough. Send six. Pick cities and towns that are in different corners of the continent. I want to know why the inhabitants of this planet are so different from each other.”

“Roger, roger!” 44498 replied as he began sending orders to the select probe droids to power up, and ready themselves for their departure.

Turning to a pilot droid at one of the two communications consoles on the bridge, the Captain said, “Change of plans for the protocol droid. Tell the two Commandos escorting TL-90 to maintenance that once she’s been checked over and had her mind wiped, to bring her back to the bridge. We’re going to need her translator once we get some footage of the locals.”

Settling back into the Captain’s chair, 72624 felt quite pleased with himself. Being a competent commander wasn’t so hard, he was issuing orders that were easy enough to understand, wasn’t he? And best of all, no one was getting shot or disintegrated as a result. 72624 decided that he made a very good commander and was quite enjoying being in full control of the dreadnaught.

Yes, he was in control, and while he was still dumb as a brick when it came to most things, he at least knew what needed doing when it came to battles and staying organised.

The Captain called out to the communications officer he had addressed a moment before.

“And get me TV-44! I want that Tactical droid up here by the time the first footage from the probe droids starts rolling in.”

***

The gentle chime of a wind-bell, coupled with the first rays of morning peeking in through the large open windows of the room were enough to rouse the room’s single sleeping occupant from a wonderful dream about cake.

Pale magenta eyes opened slowly to be greeted by the new dawn, and the soft, white-coated mare to which they belonged sat up in her luxurious bed.

For a short while, the lone occupant of the bedroom sat there, simply content with listening to the sounds of chirping and wind-bells coming in through the windows, and the spectacular view of the sunrise as the sun slowly crawled up from behind a low mountain range on the horizon.

The sunrise, the mare thought to herself, it’s always so beautiful. Always bringing in new surprises.

The white mare was about to get out of bed and change out of her pyjamas when one of those surprises came barging into her bedroom.

“Sister! What are you still doing in bed at this hour? The sun has already risen, Tia! Weren’t you awake to do it this time?”

Her sister, a slightly shorter dark blue mare outfitted in a simple, yet still regal-looking black outfit, stared at her from the doorway to the large bedroom. Several other ponies in guard uniforms and servant clothes could be seen going about their business in the hall behind her, before the younger sister closed the doors once again, and silence reigned in the bedroom.

The white mare looked over at her much darker blue sister with a serene smile upon her face.

“Lulu, you know I learned how to power the sun’s path in my sleep millennia ago, just like you mastered the same with the moon.

The dark blue mare, Princess Luna, gave her sister a look that said, Really? This again?

“Nevertheless, the day has started without you, and you’re already running late. Our nephew, Blueblood, wants to speak with you and the ambassadors from Minos will be here in just a few hours. There is much to do.”

“Oh no, not Blueblood again,” Princess Celestia groaned as she collapsed back into her pillows, “what does he want this time?”

Princess Luna snorted, “Something about the weather ponies disturbing him while he wanted to play golf or something like that.”

Celestia opened one eye to look at her sister, “Something like that?”

“Oh you know how tiring it is just to be around him,” Luna sighed, rolling her eyes, “I wasn’t paying much attention by the time he finished complaining about how early he had to come just to get an audience with you.”

“Luna,” Celestia giggled, “you shouldn’t talk about Blueblood that way. He’s still our nephew… even if he is an insufferable nitwit,” she added quickly.

Both sisters exchanged a look before bursting into a fit of giggles.

“Very well, I’ll be out in a minute, Lulu, and then I’ll listen to whatever ridiculous request Blueblood has come up with this time,” Celestia said, once again rising from her bed and moving to her wardrobe, “but don’t expect me to actually do anything about it. Don’t forget about last time, when he demanded the restaurants in town all cater to him, free of charge, just for being related to us.”

“How could I forget? When you said no, his crying and screaming could be heard across the city. Ponies kept asking if we were torturing prisoners.”

“I’m just glad he took that vacation recently and spared us from having to see him for a little bit. Now that he’s back again though, we’ll have to hear his high-nosed snootiness again.”

“No, dear sister,” Princess Luna said as she opened the door once more to leave, letting in the quiet clamor of the other lives in the castle, “you have to listen to him. I get to sleep until the Minotaur delegation gets here, so that I don’t fall asleep in the middle of the talks.”

As the blue alicorn mare left her sister, Celestia took a few minutes to stretch, pulling her arms up and back as far as they would go, and extending her large wings to their full width, and then completed several other easy poses. It wasn’t much, she liked the feel of truly flying to warm her muscles up, but she felt lighter and more limber all the same.

Dressing without the use of any aides actually made the whole process much easier and quicker, and Princess Celestia emerged from her room just a few minutes later wearing a light blue dress with an open back, along with her signature golden horseshoes and crown.

Immediately, an aide was already waiting for her outside the door, a notebook and several papers clutched to his chest.

“Good morning, Time Stamp, how did you sleep?” the princess asked the dark grey Pegasus as he fell into step beside her.

“Like a foal, your highness. Please thank Princess Luna for me, for such a peaceful night,” Time Stamp replied with a bow.

“I think we all deserved a good rest after these last few days,” Princess Celestia said as she pushed open the side door to the chamber where she attended to ponies seeking audience with her, “it has been incredibly frustrating getting the Minos delegation to come after what happened in the Crystal Empire with Shining Armor. Thank you, by the way, for working overtime these last few nights with the paperwork. I know you haven’t been getting to see your family much because of it.”

“Not at all, Princess, not at all. They understand the difficult political climate we’ve been having recently. We’ll all just be glad once it’s over, is all.”

“I quite agree. Now, let’s see what Blueblood wants. Let’s get this over with quickly and move onto real business.”

Motioning to the guards by the door, the two golden-clad sentries opened the main doors to the chamber and a very well-groomed Prince Blueblood strode in, head held high like he owned the place.

“Thank you, auntie, for seeing me on such short notice. As we’re both incredibly important and busy ponies, I’d just like to say that I value this time very much and I understand you…” Blueblood rambled on and Celestia fought the urge to groan until he finished and finally got around to why he had come in the first place, which did indeed turned out to be his annoyance over the fact that the weather ponies had interrupted his round of golf yesterday by causing rain over all of Canterlot, instead of keeping the sky over the golf course clear while he was there.

I hate Mondays, the princess thought to herself, suppressing an inward sigh. She would spend most of her morning listening to similar complaints and requests by much of the city’s nobility. The only good thing about the whole ordeal was that at least she would have the company of Time Stamp throughout it all, as he dutifully recorded all of the goings-on and kept her up-to-date and on schedule.

***

At half-past six, many hours after she had finished giving audience to those ponies who had brought their worries that were great enough to worry the princess with, Princess Celestia was standing on the parapet of the palace with Princess Luna, Time Stamp, and a rather large contingent of royal guards.

While Celestia was still wearing her blue dress, her sister had opted for her full military uniform, complete with rapier and scabbard. When asked about this, Luna had replied it was so that the Minotaur delegation understood exactly what they were dealing with, and that they weren’t going to be taken lightly. Ponies or not, the princesses had to make sure the Minotaurs understood the severity of the situation that had come about from the incident in the Crystal Empire a week prior.

The two were looking down upon the main courtyard, where the Minotaur airship was just landing down into it. A great, dirty red beast of metal and steam, it screeched and belched black smoke as it settled down onto massive landing pads that descended from its spiky underbelly. Twice the length of a house, the massive machine made a tremendous groaning sound as it finally came to a halt, after sinking so low on its landing gear that Princess Celestia thought it would surely come to rest on its hull.

There was no stepladder, no stairs brought to the side of the mighty airship; only a single, long gangplank extended itself from the top deck of the airship and quickly and quietly became a walkway between the high top deck to the courtyard and gardens below.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had by this point moved down to the main level of the courtyard with their guard, where they strode out to meet the large, bulky figures descending down the steep awkward walkway with seemingly no difficulty.

Celestia easily spotted their most prominent figure at the forefront of the group; General Kratos was definitely a hard person to miss. Standing taller than Celestia herself, and wearing a long black jacket, one side of which was overflowing with medals and stripes, his bulging muscles made the rest of his clothes look like they were fit to burst.

Behind him walked a shorter, slimmer, female Minotaur, wearing black pants, a tan shirt, and what appeared to be a radio headset, and was scribbling down notes about something on a clipboard she held in front of her, barely paying attention to anything besides the incredibly old, hunched over, white-with-age Minotaur elder beside her as he whispered nonstop to her under his breath. Several other Minotaurs accompanied them, including two heavily armored guards with large crossbows, and one of what appeared to be, to the casual observer, a fitness instructor or special speaker.

“Well, Tia, you’d better pay up, I won,” Luna whispered to her sister out of the corner of her mouth as the two parties approached each other.

“You know, I don’t know why I ever bother to bet that they’ll be on time,” Celestia whispered back, “this is the, what? Seventh time they’ve visited? And the seventh time they’ve been late.”

“My dear sister, perhaps one day you’ll learn that some creatures never change. And you still owe me two bits. Are you going to pay up now or are we going to have a repeat of last time?”

“You’ll get your bits, but right now you and I have considerably more important matters to attend to,” Celestia said, and right at that moment the two groups converged.

“General Kratos,” Celestia began, giving a short nod and a bow to the larger figure in front of her, “I am glad you could join us for these talks. I hope that with our people working together we can avoid further incidents in the future.”

“Princess Celestia, I’m pleased you think my presence means so much, but it’s really nothing more than a formality, and to make sure we come back with the Minotaur prisoner you captured. For the politics involved in the process, Elder Morgath will deal with everything and smooth it over.” General Kratos said gruffly, his voice never changing volume, but nonetheless seeming to project a roar like that of a waterfall.

“Either way, we’re honored that you could be here to help us untangle this delicate matter, you never fail to impress when it comes to getting diplomatic talks moving.” Celestia said with a small smile, as the two fell into step with each other and headed the procession off towards the main gates of the castle.

“Hahaha! Well, Princess, your manners are as delightful as ever. I don’t think you’ve had the pleasure yet, so let me introduce you to Elder Morgath,” Kratos laughed, a loud, booming sound, and let his tough façade melt into the friendlier creature Celestia was more familiar with. He motioned to the old, white Minotaur walking slowly and regally beside him, “as soon as he heard about a diplomatic mission to Equestria, he practically jumped at the prospect of joining. I think he’s heard too many rumors about your pony’s kindness, I haven’t seen him this excited since it was elder appreciation day!”

“You know, for creatures so excited to visit Equestria, you seem to have arrived awfully late again,” Princess Luna said smoothly, “were you having engine troubles again?”

Kratos’ face darkened slightly and his voice suddenly had a sharper edge to it.

“I know what you think of us, Princess, but this time we left with plenty of time to spare in case just such an emergency came about. Our airships are hardly faultless, as you no doubt know, but this time it was through no fault of our own that we were forced to be tardy.”

Princess Luna did not look convinced.

“We left Minos very early in case we did run into some mechanical trouble, and were well on our way to arriving early, when something even I can’t explain happened. We had just passed over Manehattan when we were hit by a shooting star. A meteor plunged straight down through the top deck, going straight through every deck on the ship, and continued on out the bottom. It passed through the ammunition storage and practically blew us in half. We’re lucky it didn’t puncture the balloon, or we would’ve all fallen to our deaths right then and there.”

“If such a catastrophe happened, how did you survive?” Luna inquired expectantly, somewhat more attentive to the story than before.

“Well, the ammunition for our onboard defenses would have blown up, and taken the rest of the ship with it, if the meteor had gone through us anywhere other than where it did. A two-foot hole was right in the middle of the room when we checked, whereas all the ammunition had been piled up against the walls. Even so, it went within a hairsbreadth of hitting something vital and sending us all to an early grave. It’s the kind of miraculous escape I’d only ever heard about happening in your kingdom before. Perhaps some kindly spirit decided to save us from our fate.”

“Well, that sounds like quite the adventure, General Kratos.” Princess Celestia said, trying to steer the conversation back to a lighter tone, “I’m sure you and the rest of the delegation, as well as your airship crew wouldn’t mind some refreshments and some time to relax after such a stressful encounter.”

“I wouldn’t mind in the least,” the ancient Minotaur, Morgath, croaked, saying something that the two alicorn sisters could hear for the first time since he had arrived, “I’ve heard that Equestrian pastries are second to none, and would quite like to try one.”

“Very well,” Celestia acquiesced with a smirk, “I’ll notify the chefs.”

As the procession move into the castle, and into a large dining hall, complete with a long, gold-decorated table and dozens of fancy chairs, Princess Luna sidled up to General Kratos, a determined look on her face.

“General, you said you were passing over Manehattan when the incident on your airship happened? Do you happen to remember where the meteor went after it passed through your ship?”

A thoughtful look passed over the General’s face for a moment before he answered.

“Well, it happened extremely quickly, so there wasn’t much time to really see much of anything, and it was going almost straight down when it hit us… but based off the slight angle made by the holes in each deck of the airship, I’d say it fell slightly north of the bridge connecting Manehattan to your mainland. Probably impacted on solid ground, we were high enough up for it. Why, were you thinking of going to investigate?” Kratos asked with a suspiciously sly grin.

Not giving anything away, Princess Luna gave a small smile and replied, walking away, “You never know what might come up. These kinds of talks always get interrupted by one thing or another.”

On the other side of the large room, two ornate doors opened up, admitting several server ponies, each carrying a silver platter of delectable.

While both Celestia and Morgath gravitated towards a beautiful strawberry cake as it was set down in the middle of the dining table, a pink swirl of dust caught the solar diarch’s attention as it quickly materialized into a neat scroll that deposited itself at her hooves.

Wondering what her old student could be writing about, Celestia picked up the letter with her magic and undid the seal while Elder Morgath, his scruffy white beard already half stuffed with strawberry jelly, looked over and asked, “If I may inquire, Princess, what is that you’ve got there? Unexpected mail?”

“Oh, just a letter from a good friend of mine…” Celestia began, before trailing off as she read the contents of the letter. By the time she was finished, her eyes had involuntarily widened from shock and her blood had frozen in her veins.

“Luna…”

At the urgency in her sister’s voice, the Lunar princess was at Celestia’s side instantly, searching her sister’s face for some kind of answer only to reel back in surprise at what she saw there. Celestia almost never allowed something to visibly shock her, especially not in front of others. Whatever she had read in Twilight’s letter was enough to shake her to the core.

“What is it sister? What’s happened?”

And so, in nine simple words, Celestia told her.

Author's Notes:

I'm not dead! Hooray, hooray, and all that, but goodness, i was out of it for a while. add on to that that I got discouraged halfway through the chapter, and I'm surprised this chapter didn't come out a few days later. (Although in hindsight it probably should've.) I'm sorry to say, but I kind of rushed the end of the chapter there and may or may not have made this far more serious at the moment than I had originally intended.

Anywho, good news is I managed to get a friend to help me by proofreading and making suggestions, so hopefully my writing improves, and second thing is that I should be able to write more frequently now, so I'm going to aim to have the next chapter out by mid-March or so.

Bad news is, the chapter seemed to kind of go all over the place at times, and again, I'm sorry for rushing the ending there, I could have made it more refined if I took more time, but I was excited to publish this chapter after putting it off for so long and I don't want to disappoint too much. Oh well, hopefully this chapter passes inspection and you guys stick with me through to the next one. As always, I am extremely grateful for your guys' support and if there's anything you think I should be informed about, please let me know in the comments, I'll probably respond to every one within a day or two of it being posted.

Thanks everyone!

Edit: Forget my earlier promise, I've no idea when the next chapter will be ready. More about that little tidbit here.

Chapter 4 - Very Peculiar Spiders Indeed

View Online

7:31 A.M. Sugarcube Corner, Ponyville

Sugarcube Corner, along with the rest of Ponyville, was just waking up as the Cakes opened their shop and put the day’s first, uh… cakes… on display.

Mr. Cake had just put the ‘Open’ sign in the window when three colorful blurs zoomed past outside. Staring in the direction they’d gone for just a second longer, the voice of his wife brought him out of the moment, and with a shrug, he turned back to his duties.

***

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle had just raced past Sugarcube Corner and were on their way to school when Scootaloo spotted a glimmer in the early morning sky. Screeching to a halt, she grabbed her two friends’ hands, nearly yanking their arms out of their sockets in the process, before pointing up at the bright point in the sky.

“Ow!”

“Hey, Scootaloo, what was that for?”

“Sorry girls,” she apologized momentarily, “but look! A shooting star! We should all make a wish.”

“A shooting star? Where?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking into the sky. She and Apple Bloom located the twinkle of light at about the same time and now it was the farmer pony that spoke first.

“Are ya sure that’s a shootin’ star, Scootaloo? It’s moving kinda slow. Don’t they usually zoom across the sky really fast-like?”

“Well what else could it be?” Scootaloo asked.

“I agree with Apple Bloom on this one. Maybe it’s just a firefly or something?” Sweetie Belle suggested.

By now the three fillies had started walking again and had left the outskirts of town. They were headed towards the schoolhouse again, which was just barely visible between the trees that lined the dirt road they were on.

Heads still craned upward, they watched as the bright pinprick moved slowly downwards, at least until they walked smack into somepony else.

“Ouch. Sorry about that,” Sweetie mumbled, massaging her lower jaw, which had collided with the back of Diamond Tiara’s head.

“Hey, watch where you’re going-” the pink filly said, turning around angrily, only to realize who had bumped into her and softening her gaze accordingly.

“Oh, hey you three. Um, are you alright? Why’d you run into me like that?”

“We’re fine, and sorry about that, we weren’t looking where we were going,” Scootaloo apologized sheepishly. “We were distracted by the shooting star-” she started to say before cutting off abruptly.

As she looked up to locate the shooting star (or whatever it was) once more, she found that she couldn’t. The sky was slowly getting brighter, with Celestia’s sun rising over the mountains far in the distance, but there was no trace of the descending light that had been there only moments before.

***

The startup had been successful, the launch had gone smoothly, and the ride down into the atmosphere had been wholly uneventful. Now, the Separatist probe droid unfolded itself from its atmospheric entry capsule and proceeded to do a systems check.

For just a few moments it was absolutely still before coming to hover a half a meter off the ground, its four thin, multi-jointed limbs dangling beneath it.

As two antennae on the top of its bulbous ‘head’ extended and began transmitting a signal, trying to establish a connection with the dreadnaught above, the probe droid moved off from its landing zone in the forest towards where its sensors told it the alien settlement was.

Hovering lazily across a fallen log just before the tree line, the probe finally got a transmission lock through the dense foliage of the forest canopy and began uttering a warped and garbled set of automated instructions to itself, just barely loud enough for itself to hear.

Off in the distance, through the trees it could just see the outline of a town of some sort, but then it spied something closer. A hut of some kind, built cleverly into a very wide, squat tree, right at the edge of the forest.

The bobbing spheroid of metal regarded it for a moment, then drifted closer, uttering a quick warble to itself before floating up to a second story window and grabbing hold of the windowsill with its four limbs.

Peering over the edge of the sill, the mechanical gaze swept over a room filled with both regular furniture and what looked suspiciously like miniature houses, both hanging from the ceiling and settled on the floor.

Sensing no danger, the probe clawed its way inside the open window and dropped to the floor, shutting off the gentle hum of its repulsor unit for the nearly inaudible tapping and clicking of its four spindly legs. From there it proceeded to crawl it way across the floor to a short hallway, from the end of which a rhythmically melodious sound could be heard.

A quick ping up to the orbiting dreadnaught confirmed that the sound was singing of some sort. Curiously, the little scuttling droid could detect no life from any of the nearby rooms, and so, sneaking along the ceiling, it went to the end of the hall.

Which turned out to have a flight of stairs. Which in turn opened up onto a single room that took up the entire base of the hut.

In the very center of the room stood a slender, cream-colored figure, wearing a green dress, which turned out to be the source of the singing.

A group of alien creatures crowded the figure, as it handed something periodically to them, at which point the creatures would move off in small groups to huddle around whatever it was the obviously sentient alien was giving them. A sudden call from outside the front door of the hut caused all the creatures to look up from their activities and also abruptly ended the tall alien’s singing.

It was at this point that the probe droid thought it would be an excellent time to make itself scarce, as the gentle warbling it was speaking to itself was suddenly the loudest thing in the room. Scuttling across the ceiling and out through another open window, the probe made its way quietly through the underbrush growing in clumps around the hut until it decided it was safe enough and engaged its repulsor unit once more, moving much more quickly across the sparsely covered ground, and into the early morning shadows of the town.

***

Sherlock was closing in. Of that he was certain. Nothing escaped him; nothing had ever even come close.

Except for a sense of direction.

But that was beside the point. Sherlock knew he was close to his destination; he had, after all, just seen a sign pointing him this way.

Rounding a corner, he spied what could only be described as the most perfect thing he could have ever hoped to find.

“Aha!” he cried, running up and seizing his prize. “I’ve finally found it!”

“Bones, what are you doing?”

The battle droid, Sherlock Bones, turned to look at the speaker. “Why, I’m claiming this as a piece of my property! It’s obviously what I’ve been looking for all along.”

The battle droid to which he spoke was B1-01010; Olo, as everyone simply called him. Olo was head of the maintenance center on board the Dawn of Dusk, where the two B1’s were holding their conversation.

Olo pointed to the object in his fellow’s hand. “Bones, that’s a bucket you’re holding.”

“I know. Isn’t it marvelous?”

“What do you want with a bucket? More importantly, what are you doing here? I thought you’re part of the deck gun crews now?”

“I told you,” Sherlock Bones replied, “I’m here for this bucket. I need it. It might even come in handy someday! Now, I’m off on another adventure. Ba-bye!”

And with that, the crazy droid skipped out the automatic door to the rest of the ship, swinging the bucket from his metal hand and humming a random tune. At the same time, two commando droids dragged in a powered-down protocol droid between them into the maintenance center.

B1-01929, Olo’s assistant, leaned closer to his supervisor and asked, “Why does everyone call him ‘Sherlock Bones’? And why is he painted like a skeleton?”

After hearing out what the commandos needed and directing them to a small station set in an alcove, Olo answered, “No one actually bothers to remember Bones’ number designation, since he got transferred here last year. He just started calling himself that after he solved some ‘great mystery’ and it stuck. But I don’t know why he decided to paint himself to look like a walking skeleton.”

Since it looked like the other droid was about to say something more, Olo held up his hand and said, "Don’t ask me anymore; that’s all I know. You can try asking Bones yourself if you want, but getting a straight answer out of him is harder than asking a droideka out on a date.”

Now, battle droids don’t have facial features that would allow them to give a look like an organic would; however, B1-01929 was looking at him in such a way that he knew if he could, he would be giving him a look right now.

“Don’t look at me like that. We’ve been on this ship a long time! Besides, some of the droidekas do have female programming.”

B1-01929 continued almost giving him a look while Olo muttered quietly, “It can be really damn hard to tell though…”

Snapping himself back to reality, he addressed his assistant and said, “Hey, since you were asking about Bones’ nickname, why don’t we give you one?”

“What?! I don’t want a nickname! My designation is B1-01929, and I’m just fine with that!” the droid in question exclaimed, clearly startled by the news, but Olo was already counting off a list of personality traits while his assistant started backing away towards the door.

“… you’re always asking questions, you’re a terrible mechanic…”

Just then, two more droids rounded the corner and ran into the maintenance center, colliding with B1-01929 on his way out.

“… you’re clumsy-”

CRASH!

Olo looked down at the tangle of droid limbs and suddenly had a great idea.

“I’ve got it! You’re clumsy and always running into things, so from now, I dub thee ‘Crash”!”

“But I told you, I don’t want a nickname,” the newly rechristened droid moaned, while at that moment, Olo recognized the two newcomers.

“Cranker, Spaller, what are you two idiots doing back here? Why aren’t the maintenance crews with you?”

“We came back because of the change in command,” Spaller explained, getting to his feet and helping Cranker and Crash up as well.

“Yeah, that means we get new orders, right?” Cranker chimed in, dusting himself off.

“What? No, it was just a formal change of command. There’s no orders been changed or anything of the sort. Why does everyone think that? I’ve even had B2’s asking if they can get reassigned…”

“Aww, but boss, we hate supervising the maintenance crews, it’s boring!” Spaller whined.

“I don’t hate it, but that’s just because I enjoy watching Spaller lose arguments with that red astro-droid.”

“Well what do you want me to do? Invent a new job for you two?” Olo asked rhetorically.

“Sure! We’d like that!”

Olo didn’t know much about the Force, but right at the moment he was really wishing that it would come down and smite the two idiots standing in front of him.

Right at that moment, the two BX’s passed by with the protocol droid, who seemed very disoriented, and Olo had another great idea.

“You know what? You want a new job? Go with those two commando droids to wherever they’re going. You are to report to their commander and tell them you’ve been reassigned to their detail.”

The two battle droids stood in stunned silence for a moment, barely registering that their plan had actually worked, before they high-three’d and raced away to catch up to the two commando droids and their charge.

The excitement finally over, Olo turned back…

…Only to see Crash with what he could only assume was an attempt at a pleading look on his faceplate.

“Don’t tell me… you want to be reassigned too?”

“Well, it you don’t have to reassign me, and not that adjusting the temperature on the hot oil bath every two hours isn’t fun, but…”

Olo sighed and faceplate-palmed before looking around the room, his photoreceptors coming to rest on a recently vacated spot on the floor.

“Fine. Crash? Go find me a new bucket.”

***

Both the servant droid and the tactical droid stepped onto the bridge at the same time. They had walked in complete silence for a large portion of the way to their destination and only now did either speak.

The squat, purple-and-silver LEP servant droid scurried forward to be the first to reach the Commander, but just as she said, “So, you’re-” she was cut off and shoved aside by the horizontally-striped, black T-Series tactical droid.

“Hello, Captain. For what purpose did you deem it important enough to summon me here?”

“Ah! TV-44, good! As you probably know, we’re in orbit around an unknown world. We’ve found out that there’s intelligent life down there, and so we just sent some probes to scout out the locals and give us an idea of how to introduce ourselves. I was hoping that when we start getting some footage of the local natives,” the Captain gestured to a large screen hanging from the ceiling, where six different views of vegetation, grasslands, rivers, mountains, and buildings could be seen, “that you could provide your tactical expertise on how to proceed. You see, we’ve realized that since this world has been completely untouched by the Republic, we could add it to the Separatist Alliance and start rebuilding our fleet and army to conquer the- uh, Empire.”

Looking very pleased with himself (even without any physical way to do so), the Captain turned back to the screens and forwarded the feeds to the current time.

“Umm, Captain,” the servant droid said, weaving between the legs of the taller droids around her, “you wanted to see me?”

“Oh yes! Good, I didn’t see you there. Since you’re no longer on your old ship, I am reinstating you into our crew and you will be my personal assistant, uh… assisting me in whatever I need … assistance… in,” B1-72624 said, getting quieter and less sure of himself as he continued, “uh, here, hold my datapad.”

Looking quite surprised at the datapad being thrust in her optical sensors, the servant droid slowly took it from the B1 captain before mimicking clearing her throat quite loudly.

The Captain looked down at her, momentarily distracted and asked dumbly, “What?”

“Captain, even though I may be reassigned to be your aide, I still have a name, and would prefer if you call me by it.”

“Umm, okay.” B1-72624 started again, “Now anyways, as I was saying-”

“Captain, I haven’t even told you my name or designation yet. And you haven’t told me yours. My name is Pix. I am glad to make your acquaintance. What is your name or number?”

“Listen here, assistant, I’ve got important business to attend to. I don’t have time right now to make friends, and I certainly don’t have time to be interrupted for very little thing you want. Now stay where you are and stop talking.”

As 72624 started talking once again with TV-44, Pix was left to stand there, silently fuming.

It was only when the bridge doors opened once more that the quiet chatter of the bridge crew stopped, as the two commando droids had returned with TL-90, who, in the Captain’s opinion, was acting much more reasonable, and two more B1’s walked in with them, where they stood off to the side, looking this way and that, seemingly overcome by the splendid view out the bridge windows.

“Finally, TL-90, come here, we need you to translate for us what the natives we’re spying on are saying,” 72624 said, gesturing again to the huge screen, which now only showed a single, enlarged view from one of the probe droids as it travelled between huts and houses, staying out of view of the bipedal creatures that were not only walking around, but also flying between buildings.

“S-spying? Sir, I must protest! It is against my programming to assist in subterfuge,” TL-90 replied indignantly.

“Uh…” The Captain looked around at the rest of his bridge crew for support, but none of the other droids were about to jump in. Mostly, they just didn’t care enough to.

“You see, I didn’t mean spying, I just mean that, uh, we’re getting some information about them without them knowing.”

“That’s spying,” the protocol droid deadpanned.

“No it’s not! We’re just getting the information before we make contact with these new aliens. We just uh, want to learn some of their culture so that we, um, don’t screw up our first contact?”

72624 stood there, not even believing himself what he was saying, and neither did any of the bridge crew. To everydroid’s surprise, TL-90 actually did believe him.

“Well, alright then. I suppose I am indispensable with my knowledge of over six million forms of communication. And if it’s just to learn a culture so that first contact goes smoothly, then it is fully within my right to act as a political and linguistic interpreter and aide.”

“Wow. Okay, come here and tell us what they’re saying,” 72624 said, regaining some of his previous air of superiority, before adding, “Um, please.”

“The beings on this screen? Yes? Alright then… well it seems that the source of this feed is in some sort of marketplace. I can’t very well pick out an individual conversation going on here, but some of the things I can hear are the usual things one would hear in a market. Prices, advertisements, haggling- Oh! It seems one of the aliens is talking about a member of royalty that lives in the area! I can’t be certain what’s going on without more information and context, but I believe that with the tone their using, this member is a high ranking person of authority in their culture. Oh this is simply splendid!”

Turning to the other droids on the bridge, the protocol droid did her best to beam at the rest of them, and exclaimed, “This is extremely fortunate for us! Making contact with the leaders of a planet first is a great way for the leader to keep the populace calm in a first contact scenario. I will monitor these feeds and inform you of any other developments you will need to be aware of as you prepare those that will have the honor of making first contact with this new culture!”

“Ah, yes,” the Captain grumbled to himself, “the honor. Let’s hope someone’s up to the task. Otherwise we may have more than just honor to worry about.”

He tried musing a bit about how he was going to handle such a situation when his attention was brought back to the bridge by TL-90 asking, “So, what political expedition are we on, anyway?”

***

“/Aw, shucks, sugarcube, yer too kind./”

“/No, really, I mean it. If you didn’t donate the leftover apples from your farm to us, the orphanage would never survive. You really are a lifesaver, Miss Applejack. And besides, all the fillies and colts here really like you./”

“/Well, ah like them all too. How’ve yer blankets been holdin’ up? A know it can be-/”

“/No! Summer Bloom, that’s my Daring Do book! I was reading it!/”

“/I’m trying to get you to play with me, ever since Twilight lent you some of her books, you’ve practically stopped playing with me! I just want my friend back./”

“/And this is why we share, my little ponies. How would you feel if you-/”

“/I knew going out for hayburgers would cheer you up! Now let’s see a frown try to get onto your face! I’ll wipe it off before-/”

“/Come on, you dumb mare, just give us your bits and no one has to get hurt. No one’s gonna hear you scream if you try to resist-/”

The probe droid heard all this and more as it floated and crawled its way between buildings, over roofs, and through alleys, staying out of sight and simply trying to catch as many different samples of language for the translator up on the ship. None of what it heard made any sense to the probe of course, but that didn’t matter. It had recently been given instructions to look for something that could house a leader, someone of royalty. It had been out of luck for the first few minutes of searching, but then had seen something over the tops of the town’s buildings.

Across the town, on the far side of all the houses, it had caught a glimpse of something shiny, something that, when viewed closer, resolved itself into a castle of incredible proportions. Not to say it was incredibly large, but just the fact that it was made out of crystal and shaped like a tree was a marvel unto itself; the ability of the building to not simply collapse under its own weight was quite a feat of engineering, and it was doubled by the fact that it hadn’t been made with any of the modern tools that would be standard on most developed worlds in the galaxy.

So, for the past couple hours, the probe droid had gotten stuck in, and had been moving through the town as silently as possible in an attempt to get to the castle without being seen.

It had succeeded in one of its objectives. It had indeed been moving silently.

Unbeknownst to the probe however, it had been spotted and was now being followed on its path to the crystal castle.

“/I have to remember to give Mr. Marshmallow a raise-/”

“/No, no, no. Zis is all wrong! More blush! Less blush! More! I vill make you ze greatest star Equestria has ever-/”

“/So then the donkey says to the mule-/”

“/-Kind of worried, and your face has made a frown, I’ll work real hard and do my best-/”

The probe continued to float around, dodging the gazes of ignorant ponies going about their daily business, but even with its quick lunges, short darts between shadows, and walking upside down under roofs, it never escaped the attention of one being for very long.

Not much longer, the probe droid finally found itself in front of the crystal castle. The only problem was, the area seemed quite busy and the only way to get to it was across a large open square and then up a slightly smaller front lawn.

Turning its ‘head’-its cranial dome-this way and that, looking for some way to get to the castle without being seen, the droid spotted what appeared to be some sort of billboard hanging from the side of a nearby building.

Whatever the purpose of the building itself was, it was making a whole lot of noise in regular bursts, and sparks could be seen flying out from one corner on the ground floor.

More interested in the sign, the probe droid floated over to land on it, then inspected the entire area. It pinged a query up to the dreadnaught and got a response only seconds later. For this to work, it would have to time its shots correctly, lest it bring attention to itself and endanger its mission.

Aiming carefully at a specific point, it tried to pick out a pattern to the clanging and crashing sound coming from below and prepared itself.

***

At first, Starlight thought that something was attacking Ponyville, and that she would have to wake up Twilight. It ]was already past noon; however, she had been so exhausted these last few days from working on her metal mare that Starlight first went to investigate herself.

It didn’t take much more than a cursory glance out the window to surmise what had happened to create the shriek of metal and accompanying explosive thump from earlier. The large metal sign that hung from the side of the blacksmith’s shop on the other side of the square had somehow fallen and landed flatly on the ground.

Seeing a large crowd gathering and fearing that somepony had gotten hurt, Starlight rushed to the ground floor and out the door to help, and in her rush, didn’t realize the door take an extra second longer than usual to close behind her.

Bounding down the front steps, she crossed the square where the crowd had now congregated.

“Hey, what’s going on, what happened?” she asked nopony in particular.

A red stallion with a silver mane looked over at her and replied, “The big blacksmith sign fell off of the building. I don’t know if anypony got hurt, though.”

“Yeah… I kinda knew that already,” Starlight muttered to herself, My fault for asking a stupid question, I guess. Pushing her way through the crowd, she finally arrived at the sign, where two large earth pony stallions and a unicorn mare were lifting the metal sign off the ground where it had lain. As Starlight finally got a look underneath it, she let out a huge breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding. Nopony had been under the sign when it fell, and it looked as if nopony had been near it either.

Silently thanking Celestia that no one had been hurt by the accident, Starlight was about to go back to the castle when she spotted the broken nubs of what remained of the sign’s original fixture. She couldn’t be sure, but instead of being broken or splintered, as would be expected of a wooden sign fixture, it looked to be slightly… burnt? Why would it be burnt? Did that mean somepony had tampered with it? Could they have possibly tried to hurt somepony on purpose?

Starlight scanned the crowd for a few seconds, trying to zero in on anyone who looked nervous. The only problem was, many ponies still looked nervous, those who had yet to hear that the accident hadn’t hurt anyone, that is.

She was still looking when a voice calling her name caught her attention. It was Spike, running down the front steps of the castle in a hurry, calling out to her and waving his claws in the air.

He’s acting awfully excited. I wonder what that’s about? Maybe Twilight woke up? I know she’s a pretty heavy sleeper, but I bet all this clamor out here woke her. Starlight went to meet Spike, and after following him back into the castle to see what he wanted to show her in Twilight’s workshop, the memory of having seen the damaged sign fixtures flew out of her mind faster than the reformation of the changelings had happened.

***

The probe had narrowly avoided detection when it had entered the castle, almost running into a squat purple reptilian creature just a couple meters away that was looking out a window at the distraction the droid had caused outside. Fortunately, it managed to click-tap away before the creature focused its attention elsewhere.

Now, having ventured quite deep into the castle (which was deceptively large; based on what the probe had seen of the inside, it estimated that the inside was somehow larger than the outside), the droid was slowly building up a map of the interior. It had been sticking to corners and hiding behind furniture and in shadows, though there seemed to be no need for it. Though this was indeed a castle of some sort and some of these beings were inside, there was no sign of any life to be found anywhere.

Rounding a corner, and another, and another, and yet another, the probe droid finally picked up some sound coming from down the corridor, out of an open door.

Crawling around the hallway to come to rest on the crystal ceiling, it moved closer to the door and listened in.

“/-No one! No one anywhere! You’ll figure out this minor setback, and the next one you make will be able to talk, and maybe even after that they’ll be able to think on their own or have feelings, or even… or even make friends. How amazing would that be?/”

“/You’re right! I’ve done the impossible! Now the next step is just a tippy-hoof away! It might take another few nights of hard, tireless work, but now that I know a way to make the Metal Mare work, it’s only a matter of time before I get the bugs out./”

The probe droid, moving to be able to peek inside the room, popped its head over the threshold of the door, still hanging from the wall and saw what its sensors indicated were three life forms, and some sort of metal suit… before the energy radiating off the suit overwhelmed and caused a shutdown of all of its visual sensors except those operating in the standard spectrum visible to most humanoids.

Staggering back, the clicking and tapping sounds of the probe’s legs were still all but inaudible, but its stealthiness was rendered obsolete by the panicked screeching it emitted as a result of almost being completely blinded.

It could hear sudden movements and the clatter of hooves in the room over its own desperate wails, and, in an effort to escape capture or destruction, the small probe droid activated its repulsor and flew off down the corridor, trying to remain quiet, as it navigated using only one spectrum and the map it had compiled from its exploration of the building. Reaching an outer wall that was not near any door as far as it knew, the probe droid climbed onto the windowsill and launched itself out, towards the relative cover of a nearby copse of trees-

But it was not to be.

A shout from the window where the droid had just exited the castle caused it to turn its cranial dome slightly in order to look back at its pursuers. Just as well as it had, because its view clearly showed one of the aliens, this one purple and dressed in simple white and blue clothes, jump out the window and start chasing it through the air, yelling something unintelligible the whole time.

Seeing the creature renew its efforts to catch up, the probe changed direction suddenly, aiming instead for the nearby buildings and releasing a very alarmed fweep-fweep-fweep!

The sound of the droid caused several other aliens to look around in surprise, and then jump out of the way as both it and the alien following hot on its tail barreled past pedestrians. The screeching of the droid eventually died down, but then something unexpected happened.

A beam of bright purple light shot through the air at the probe from behind and missed by centimeters. Feinting a turn to the left, the droid zoomed down to the right at an intersection within the town, but before the alien could launch another beam, something with the speed and force of a starfighter slammed the probe off of its course and into the dirt in the middle of the town’s main marketplace.

Something blue.

Something rainbow-colored.

Slightly dazed, droid took a second to reorient itself, during which it found itself held firmly in the grip of another one of the flying creatures, this one a bit shorter than its purple pursuer, which was now walking up to it and speaking in an interested (if not concerned) tone.

Turning its cranial dome this way and that in order to get a better bearing of the situation, the probe droid struggled against its bonds as the blue alien held it even tighter, wrapping its arms all the way around the smooth metal and constricting it even more securely.

Realizing there was no chance for escape, the probe droid activated its capture-prevention failsafe as the inquisitive purple alien leaned closer and inspected it.

***

Rainbow Dash had finally caught the strange creature that had eluded her for a half hour now. After tailing it for hours through Ponyville and subsequently losing it during the little distraction with the blacksmith’s sign, she was not about to let it go.

Even if it did look a lot like some sort of big, weird spider or octopus creature.

“Why did you run away, little guy? What happened that made you scream out in the palace?” Twilight asked as she stepped closer.

“I know we must have scared you pretty bad, and I’m sorry, the only spell I cast at you was just to try to stop you. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow Dash saw Fluttershy among the small crowd that had gathered, looking slightly upset at their treatment of this weird spider-thing, but Rainbow Dash wasn’t going to about to loosen her grip. For one, the thing in her arms was bucking like mad-

Except it wasn’t. It had stopped twisting and squirming and even making the frightened little noises it had been making.

After that everything happened too fast to understand.

Twilight leaned in closer like she was going to ask another question, her face getting uncomfortably close to the weird spider-thing in Rainbow’s opinion, the spider-thing in question suddenly released an ear-splitting shriek, accompanied by a sudden flash of light.

Then everything went dark.

***

The screen had gone dark.

One second it had been showing an extreme close-up of one of the aliens’ faces, and the next the image had simply disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a dark, blank background and spelled out in Aurebesh, ‘Signal Lost’.

72624 stared at the screen for a few more seconds (along with some of the other members of the bridge crew) before turning to one of the droids monitoring the connection between the probes and the dreadnaught. “What just happened? Where’d the feed go?”

It was TV-44 who answered him.

“The probe must have tried to prevent its capture with by activating its failsafe.” The tactical droid replied calmly.

“What do you mean? Which failsafe?”

“Why, the capture-prevention failsafe, obviously,” TV-44 explained, his flat voice accentuating the point.

“Then that means…” 72624 trailed off.

“Yes,” the black droid finished calmly, “the probe blew itself up.”

The Captain sat down hard on the Captain’s chair, having a sudden very bad feeling about this, and felt as though his battery had just been drained.

***

“What’s going on? Why can’t we access the tower?”

“I don’t know. We haven’t seen any patrols, and all the corridors and ventilation shafts leading to the conning spire have been closed off,” Rabid answered, a sudden sense of unease overcoming him.

He and Laugher had found themselves in their fourth dead-end corridor in their search for a way into the communications spire, and he was starting to wonder what exactly had happened that had caused the droids to seal it off.

The two clones, having found this area of the Separatist vessel deserted, had opted to not confine their investigation to the cramped interior of the air ducts and, after a brief stretch, were really liking their regained mobility, even if it put them in slightly more danger.

Crossing over to a terminal right near the recently-fabricated bulkhead at the end of the hall, Laugher brought a small datapad out of his pack and began accessing the logs in the area.

“Maybe we can find out what they were doing. The droids might have left a report or something of why they closed off all the ways into the communications tower.”

“Good idea,” Rabid replied, checking back down the way they had come to make sure it was still all clear. The corridor they were in at the moment had no ventilation shafts, so the clone wanted to spend as little time as possible in that particular one.

“Well… oh, here they are. Now let’s see…” Laugher was muttering to himself as he scanned through a series of orders and calls that had relevance to that area of the ship, before he perked up.

“Found it! Yeah, looks like the Captain of the ship ordered maintenance crews here to seal off all the halls to- oh…” Rabid could hear the sudden deflation in his subordinate’s voice as he continued.

“Sir… they closed off the halls because… in the battle over Muunilinst, the conning tower was damaged and disintegrated as they jumped to hyperspace… Sir, there’s nothing left. The whole tower’s just… gone.”

“Well, that complicates things,” Rabid muttered to himself.

“Sir, Rabid, what are we going to do?”

Rabid was about to remind the Private that Separatist dreadnaughts had secondary communications centers when something stopped him. Down the corridor, from around the corner, the faint sound of clanking could be heard. Clanking meant battle droids, and the current dead-end they were in had no cover to offer. The clanking got slowly louder, coming from their only way out.

They were trapped.

Author's Notes:

Hello, hello!
Yes, I know I'm quite late with this chapter, and I apologize, but I've come to realize something: don't trust what I say.
If I say the next chapter will be out in a month, I would take it with a salt mine.
Also, in regards to the chapter, yes I am fully aware that the correct term is 'sapient' and not 'sentient', but it's used as such in the Star Wars universe and I wanted to stay consistent.
Secondly, just in case it wasn't completey obvious, the hut the probe droid entered was Fluttershy's house. She was feeding her animals when she was being spied on by the probe.
If there's anything else you guys need cleared up, please let me know in the comments below, and I'll be sure to answer them.
As always, I hope yous liked the latest chapter, and I'll try to get the next one out reasonably soon.
Ba-bye!

Chapter 5 - First Contact, Take Two

View Online

19 BBY, Main Hanger, Providence-Class Dreadnaught Dawn of Dusk, In Orbit Around Unknown Planet, Sector D-6 (See Galactic Map)

Sirens blared. Droids were rushed about and quickly briefed. One of the Sheathipede shuttles was getting prepped for launch.

And somehow, Cranker and Spaller, by virtue of having been noticed being on the bridge by the Captain, were now in charge of the expedition to the surface of the unknown planet. Along with the two B1’s, two pilot B1’s were added to the mission to pilot the shuttle, four more standard infantry droids were added to the roster for extra security, and TL-90, who (upon learning that there were no other droids that could translate the language of the natives) had volunteered to go with the battle droids, to help smooth things over before the current situation escalated into a full-scale conflict.

Now inside the shuttle as its engines warmed up with a gentle hum, Cranker and Spaller looked at their new squad in the slightly confined space, while the pilot droids went through some last pre-flight checks.

“Alright everyone! You know the mission. Our job is to get down to that planet, to a predetermined landing zone near the point of last contact with Probe-006 and make sure none of the natives get too curious or attempt to harm TL-90 while she goes about turning the natives of the planet to our cause. Should any natives attempt to attack or endanger any of us, the translator, or the ship, we are authorized to stun, but not kill them. Are we all clear?”

Spaller finished his short speech, and the other droids chimed in with a chorus of “Roger, roger!” and a round of spastic head-bobbing. Nodding happily to himself, he stowed his blaster on his back and grabbed onto one of the handholds hanging from the ceiling. Following suit, his co-squad leader moved towards the back, where TL-90 was standing, and steadied himself on a handhold while simultaneously grabbing one of the shiny silver droid’s arms to prevent it from toppling over as the rear doors shut and the shuttle began to lift off.

The flight was gentle and quiet, none of the battle droids bothering to respond to any of the protocol droid’s excited phrases, and overall, Spaller was feeling quite pleased with how smoothly everything was going so far.

Boy, he thought to himself, with this kind of management, I bet the rest of the mission is going to be an easy success as well.

***

“Boy, I hope that nothing makes this mission go worse than it already is,” 72624 mumbled to himself as he watched the shuttle make its way towards the planet and disappear amongst the green and blue backwash that dominated the view from the bridge.

“I still think we should have sent a fighter escort along with them,” came the flat voice of the tactical droid, “There’s no telling what might happen down there while they attempt to land. The firepower of a single squad may not be enough to fend off an angry mob of the native creatures. By my calculations, the chances of this mission successfully ending hostilities between our two factions is seventy-three to one.”

Turning to look at the black droid, 72624 retorted, “It wasn’t your call to send in an escort, it was mine. And six battle droids will be plenty for just protection duty. I’m trying not to give the natives more reason to fear or hate us. I am the Captain of this ship, and while you may have control over ground operations, this isn’t a battle, so stay out of it.”

“I will concede your superiority in terms of roles and rank, however, I will not remind you again. If we are to establish a base of any kind, or to move troops onto the planet, it will fall solely upon my decision what the best course of action will be.”

The two droids had come so close that they stood faceplate-to-faceplate and were trying to stare each other down (a somewhat impossible feat, as neither could blink). During those few tense seconds, none of the bridge crew spoke a word; not a single servomotor could be heard moving (none of the bridge crew really had anything better to do rather than enjoy the two highest-ranked officers on the ship argue, anyhow). Finally, 72624 spoke.

“Very well. But if you go against our goal of trying to embrace this planet as part of the Confederacy of Independent Systems peacefully, then I will have no choice but to supersede your orders.”

“The CIS no longer exists. As such, it is against my programming to do anything that would jeopardize the reorganization of the organization. We shall have no problems so long as you heed my advice during this transition.”

“Alright then. We have an agreement.” Stepping back from each other, the two droids shook hands stiffly and turned to regard separate screens depicting the progress of the other probe droids. In the span of time that had occurred for the hastily-cobbled-together political mission to get underway, another probe had gone silent, although from meeting some sort of very large and very dangerous predatory creature in the far south of the continent, rather than deciding to self-destruct due to capture by the natives.

Either way, 72624 was really hoping this would go well, if only to prevent more probes from encountering complications.

***

Twilight was walking through a haze. She couldn’t tell much more than that, as the environment and everything she perceived seemed to change and move in and out of focus constantly. A sudden bright light shone directly in front of her face momentarily, and quickly, she realized her surroundings were starting to solidify, although in a much brighter and harsher appearance than she had seen for the last… Celestia knew how long.

Things were blurry, but she slowly pieced together that she was in a white room, and a soft bed, and surrounded by familiar faces.

As things became more grounded in reality, the purple princess realized exactly who was standing over her.

“Pinkay… Flutthelshai…”

Her words were slurred, although she couldn’t quite figure out why. Frowning a bit, she tried again, her tongue feeling hot and parched, and wrinkling her nose causing a slight shock of pain.

“Apperjack, Rarithy, whath… whath’s going om?”

“Oh darling, we’re so glad you’re awake. Can you remember anything? What happened before you got hurt? Fluttershy told us you captured some sort of spider and a moment later you were both unconscious and covered in burns! We were so worried when we found out, we rushed right over!”

The voice was distinctly Rarity’s, but it sounded like she was speaking through honey; the sound was taking an incredibly long time to reach Twilight’s ears. Turning her head took more energy than she had expected, but Twilight faced her fashionably dressed friend and responded, the gears in her head slowly working.

“Rushthed… ovel? Whele am I?”

“Uh, sugarcube, you’re in Ponyville hospital. Don’t ya remember anythin’ from earlier today?”

That voice, that was definitely Applejack’s, and although the words didn’t match up with the lip movements, Twilight’s hearing was starting to get more in sync with what she was seeing.

“The… hothpital? Why…”

At that moment, all the memories flooded back to her, en masse. The Metal Mare. Discussing artificial life with Starlight. Chasing down the strange flying spider. Rainbow Dash catching it and holding it tight to prevent its escape. Leaning close to it as it made a loud screeching noise. A blinding flash of light.

“I… I’m in… The hospital! I’m in Ponyville hospital! That… that thing exploded! Rainbow Dash! Where’s Rainbow Dash? Is she okay? She was there with me, she was holding the thing-”

Rarity shushed her with a gentle but stern finger to her lips.

“Hush, darling. Don’t overexert yourself. Rainbow Dash is fine. She took most of the shock and the brunt of whatever happened to you two, but the doctors say she’s stable and should be waking up sometime tomorrow. You’re both going to be okay. I’m sorry I asked so many questions at once, I didn’t mean to excite you like that.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie shouted and stuffed a couple more pillows under Twilight’s head, “You just take it easy, and leave the investigating to us.” Giving the purple alicorn a gentle squeeze she whispered in her ear, “I’m glad you’re okay though. I was afraid I’d have to stop throwing birthday parties for somepony too soon.”

“Anyway, what d’you reckon was it that the two o’ you caught?” Applejack asked, adjusting her Stetson hat nervously, “You don’t suppose there are more of them, do ya? Critters like Flutters described would be awfully hard to keep safe from.”

“I… I don’t know. It did look like some kind of big spider, but it only had four legs, and it almost looked like it had metal covering its body.” Yes, her hearing was definitely going back to normal, and behind the others, Twilight suddenly saw Starlight Glimmer as she stood up and came over as well, looking extremely disheartened.

“Did you say metal, Twilight?” she asked when she had joined the circle of friends around Twilight’s bed.

“After you two were taken here, the doctors said they had to pull small bits of metal out of yours and Rainbow Dash’s skin. And I found a couple pieces of what looked like the creature’s outer shell when I was checking out the scene after you two had been moved here. It also looked like melted and twisted pieces of metal.”

“Oh, my. Do you think it’s related?” Fluttershy asked, covering her mouth slightly.

Trying to sit up, Twilight felt a sudden sharp pain in her arms and collapsed back onto the pillows.

“I would bet my wings it is. Whatever it was didn’t look like any animal I’ve ever heard of, and it didn’t exactly behave like an animal either. More like… somepony who was trying to spy on us.”

“Twilight!” Starlight gasped. “You don’t think… you don’t think somepony could have made something similar to you-know-what, do you?”

“I don’t know, Starlight. It could be, but I have a feeling there’s more to it than that. If it is, then it was done with a lot more practise than I’ve had on it.”

“Umm, I don’t mean to interrupt your super-duper-secret conversation,” Pinkie Pie said, sticking her face in between Starlight and Twilight, “but, what are you two talking about? It sounds kind of important to what just happened with Twilight and Rainbow Dash.”

“Well…” Twilight started, when suddenly the door to the room burst open, and several nurses streamed into the room.

“Alright, visiting time is over. You girls can come back in a few hours, but right now Ms. Sparkle needs some rest. Now shoo!”

Pushing the friends out of the room, Twilight managed to call out to Starlight, “Don’t worry, I’ll tell everypony when I get out of here. Just tell Spike to keep an eye on it!”

“Alright, princess, I will!”

All other discussion was cut short as the last non-medical ponies were ushered out and nurses started changing bandages and reapplying cooling salves to the places where Twilight had been burned by the exploding spider; specifically, her face, which meant that she quickly lost the ability to see when the nurses covered her eyes with gauze. Shortly after that, she fell back into a deep sleep.

***

As soon as the door closed behind them, four of the mares in the group turned to look at the fifth, who slowly backed away, looking nervous.

“Alrigh’ Starlight. What was it that Twilight was tryin’a say? You seem to know somethin’ about it," Applejack asked in as innocent a way as she could.

“Um, well… the thing is, Twilight said she would tell you all, so I don’t know if it would really be okay for me to tell you about it right now…”

“Oh, come on, Starlight!” Pinkie exclaimed, “What’s the worst that could happen? What if this super-duper-secret-important thing you two know somehow is super-duper connected to everything that happened today?”

“Wait… Pinkie, dear, what do you mean by ‘everything’? I thought all that happened today was Twilight and Rainbow finding a spider and getting hurt?” Rarity asked, confused.

“Wait, you haven’t heard? There’s been a whole smorgasbord of strange things going on today! I overheard the CMC’s talking about seeing a really slow shooting star they saw in the morning when I was making a cupcake delivery, then Blackhoof’s blacksmith sign broke off his shop and almost squished a couple ponies, and then we had the whole excitement with Twilight chasing down a giant flying spider through town before it exploded!” the pink mare finished by flourishing her arms above her to drive her point home.

“Well, um, I don’t mean to interrupt,” Fluttershy spoke up meekly, “but what does a shooting star have anything to do with this?”

“A slow shooting star! Like, reeeaaaallly slow. Like, so slow you could walk faster than it flew, if a pony could walk straight down from the sky!”

“Straight down? Pinkie, hold on, yer not making any sense anymore. How can a shootin’ star come straight down from the skah?” Applejack frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Like… like…”

Pinkie looked like she was about to explode herself. Thankfully Starlight spotted something out of the hallway window overlooking the Everfree forest and used it as a reasonable substitute.

“You mean coming down slowly like that, Pinkie Pie?”

The five mares looked out the window to the smooth-curved object gently floating down out of the sky and disappearing a good hoof-mile away behind a small patch of trees.

***

Cranker stepped swiftly down the ramp as soon as the doors to the shuttle opened, leading him down onto a bright and beautiful sunny day in the shade of some tall green trees next to a verdant field. As the other droids filed down after him and took up positions in two lines beside the shuttle ramp, he spotted some buildings off in the distance, and some trees off to his right, through which he could catch glimpses of some of the native creatures he saw during his very brief time on the bridge.

The battle droid behind him whispered to get his attention.

“Psst! Hey, Corporal, hey, are those organics supposed to be the natives? The ones we’re here to communicate with?”

“Yes they are, now be quiet. The protocol droid’s the only one that’s supposed to communicate with them, we’re just here to act as security,” he hissed back.

“But, how will we know what she’s saying? Isn’t she here to translate for us?”

Turning to look at his underling, Cranker poked him hard in the chest.

“That’s enough out of you, Chatterer! TL-90 has her own orders regarding exactly what she’s supposed to say and what she has to do in order to introduce the Confederacy to this planet. You’re here to sit still, act tough, and not say a word, like any other self-respecting soldier. Do you understand?”

The droid, Chatterer, looked surprised and a bit cowed, but straightened back into position and remained silent afterwards.

As a the first creatures stepped fully into view, a slightly larger crowd of the very colorful native organics began noticing the arrival of the shuttle and its occupants and move cautiously towards them, Cranker fixed his gaze upon five of the creatures, as they strode to the forefront of the small mob and spoke to the rest in what appeared to be a calming tone. The crowd stopped about twenty paces from the droids and conversed in their strange, fluttery language, some of the smaller ones trying to hide behind the larger ones, and most of what appeared to be full-grown ones hiding behind the five who looked like they were in charge.

Cranker was, despite himself, getting a little bit nervous. Not at the fact that the organics easily outnumbered his security forces two to one, nor the fact that both sides were obviously showing discomfort at the current situation, but because the protocol droid hadn’t come out of the darn shuttle to greet the natives yet.

What’s taking her so long?

***

“Looking good, Spike, looking good. Who’s looking good? You are-”

“Spike!”

“Augh!”

Spike toppled from the stool in the bathroom where he was admiring himself in the mirror. Starlight had teleported behind him suddenly and was now standing over the short dragon.

Blushing heavily, Spike looked down and was relieved to see that his towel hadn’t come off, before looking back up at Starlight.

Hey from this angle, I can almost see up her skirt… just… a little… more… The young dragon’s pubescent thoughts were snapped out of his head by the pink mare grabbing his ear and dragging him out of the bathroom.

“Spike, come on and get dressed. We need you! Something’s happening out past Ponyville Hospital, over by the Everfree forest, and both Twilight and Rainbow Dash are still out of commission. We need you to get over there and meet up with us as soon as possible to record what’s going on. It might be nothing, but I’d rather have notes to review afterwards in case this turns out to be important. A bunch of weird stuff has been happening today and I plan on getting to the bottom of it.”

Marching through the castle to Spike’s room, Starlight threw him through the doors to his room and spoke quickly.

“I know you’re supposed to be guarding the Metal Mare like Twilight said, but just tell it not to move and you should be fine. Can I count on you to meet up with us?”

“Yeah, alright. But wouldn’t it be better if-” Spike started replying, but Starlight had already teleported away.

“-you could just teleport along with me…” Slapping a claw to his forehead, the teenage dragon groaned, “I don’t even know exactly where it is I’m supposed to meet up with the girls… Somewhere by the Everfree forest? Oh I just know this can’t go well…”

***

Starlight appeared back outside Ponyville Hospital, where she had been just moments ago, and saw her friends running towards where the object had last been spotted dropping down to. Teleporting closer to them, she quickly gained up and asked through breaths, “Why are we all running? Can’t we take our time a bit?”

“No time, sugarcube. If that thing happens ta be more o’ them spider things then we gotta find out and get back to warn Ponyville quick! Who knows what more of them critters could do if they get loose! Who knows if it’s not a colt or filly that finds one of ‘em this time? They’re not as strong as a full grown mare, end even then, lookit Twilight and Dash! They got landed in the hospital from that thing did to ‘em. I have to make sure, I need to keep Apple Bloom safe.”

Renewing her speed, Applejack put more distance between herself and the others, while Starlight started struggling to keep up. Glancing at the others, she noticed that only Pinkie was managing to keep pace with the farm mare.

“Applejack wait! Applejack!” Rarity called. “Listen, I care about my sister too, but I just can’t keep up with you! Slow down a bit. It’s better if we all get there together, otherwise, you might be putting yourself in danger without realizing it.”

We all might be putting ourselves in danger without realizing it, Starlight thought, but kept her mouth shut. Rarity was right. They had a duty to do their part to protect Ponyville. And it was better they face whatever had landed by the Everfree forest together rather than alone.

Reaching the first trees that the object had apparently gone down near, Starlight and the others crept around them until they started seeing something through the foliage.

Something… silver? Or something grey? And was that beige?

As they came around the copse of trees, Starlight’s gaze was unobstructed and came to rest on… something. She had no real idea of what it was…. Or rather, what they were. Her brain simply couldn’t comprehend what she was looking at, and it seemed the other girls couldn’t either.

“Um, can somepony tell me what it is ah’m lookin’ at?” Applejack asked blankly.

Fifty paces from where the five mares stood, were six tall, spindly, two-legged statues that nopony remembered seeing before, as well as what looked like a huge, metal-grey bathtub with a roof, and a ramp coming from the bottom of the tub and ending on the grass near the closest of the six statues.

Hearing whispering, Starlight turned and saw that she and her friends weren’t the only ones to have noticed the sudden arrival of the strange objects, as several other ponies from town had started drawing close and whispering among themselves. Starlight even spotted a few fillies and colts hiding behind the legs of adult ponies as they drew closer.

Applejack was the first to start issuing orders.

“Alright, everypony, stand back now. No tellin’ what this is or what it’s fer. Ya’ll keep a safe distance now, and we’ll check it out, alright? We don’t want nopony to get hurt.”

“That’s right ponies! This is officially a smile-restricted zone!” Pinkie yelled through a microphone, which Starlight had no memory of her bringing with her.

“Um, Pinkie, what’s a smile-restricted zone?” Fluttershy asked, to which Pinkie responded by turning and speaking to her through the microphone.

“It means that there’s no smiling allowed until we are ab-so-lutely, one-hundred-percent, unequivocally sure that these weird metal pony sculptures are safe to smile around! If they’re not, then we head for the hills and scream at the top of our lungs, like this: AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”

Fluttershy’s hair had been blown back by the force of Pinkie’s scream, and, smiling to herself, the party mare stuck the microphone into her mane and grabbed the yellow mare by the shoulders, guiding her forward as the five friends uncertainly made their way forward.

When they were about twenty paces away from the strange beige statues, they stopped, hesitant to continue. The strange sculpture-like things were extremely thin, looking like somepony’s interpretation of a skeleton with just the last bits of flesh holding it together, and a strange hooked skull instead of a pony’s.

What disturbed the gathered mares and stallions most was that the sculptures towered over them. Easily two or maybe even three heads taller than her, Starlight estimated that the strange things were even a head taller than someone like Big Mac, who was one of the largest stallions she’d ever met. She had no clue who had made them, and why they had seemingly fallen from the sky.

“Um, are you sure they’re not alive?” Fluttershy’s voice beside her made her jump, and Starlight was hesitant to answer, but Pinkie once again provided a solution.

Bounding up to the nearest of the metallic figures, she tapped it in the pelvis with a finger, creating a light tapping sound, before delivering a swift kick to its knee, her hoof bouncing off it with a metallic clang.

“See, totally not alive! Nopony has anything to fear!”

Starlight and the rest of the gathered crowd let out a simultaneous sigh of relief… until they noticed that the totally not alive thing had turned its head to look straight at Pinkie.

Pinkie jumped back, and before anypony else could do anything, hidden doors at the top of the ramp in the giant bathtub-thing slid sideways and out stepped a gleaming silver figure. Everypony stared at it while it shuffled down the ramp to stand at the front of the two lines of metal figures. It measured a bit shorter than the skinny ones, but the silver figure seemed much more alive, although it moved stiffly.

Stopping directly in front of the group of five ponies, it raised one arm in what appeared to be a gesture of greeting, and then to everypony’s surprise, it spoke.

“Greetings! I am TL-90, and it is my pleasure to inform you that on behalf of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, you that you are now under the Protection of the Separatist Alliance! Congratulations! My Commander has dispatched me to help smooth our first meeting over. I ask that you inform your leaders that my Commander would like an audience with them to discuss the future of this new and exciting relationship. I will return tomorrow at this time to set an appropriate time and place for a meeting between your government and my Commander. I look forward to your response and I hope we will all get along splendidly!”

Without so much as a second glance, the silver figure turned around and began shuffling back to the ramp, muttering to itself in a strange and very blocky language. As it moved, Starlight stood frozen, both by its proclamation, and by the fact that other than the difference in aesthetics, the silver figure looked identical to what Twilight had been trying to accomplish with her idea for the Metal Mare. Had somepony across the sea managed to create it first? Was that also what these tall skinny sculpture-like things were?

Most of the others were similarly in a state of shock, except for one. Applejack stepped bravely forward and called out to the silver creature-thing as it walked up the ramp.

“Now wait just a darn minute! Come back ‘ere for just a second.” At her words, the silver thing stopped and turned around to look at Applejack. Not once during its speech, nor even now, did its expression change or did it even look like it was capable of such a thing.

“If’n ya want to talk to anypony about this sort o’ stuff, we can get our, uh, ‘leaders,’ here pretty quick. But we’re not going anywhere until we get a couple answers. First of all, what in tarnation are you even? I’ve never seen anything like you mah whole life. And where do ya come from?”

“I’m sorry, but I cannot answer that right now. My Commander will be able to answer any questions when he meets with your leaders. As I’ve instructed, I will return tomorrow for your recommendation on a proper meeting place so that we may attend important matters and answer questions. If you have any questions, I suggest you make a note of them and present them to your leaders to ask during the official meeting.”

The thing turned to go once more, but Applejack stepped forward past the first row if skinny statues and called out again to the creature trying to re-enter the confines of the large grey bathtub.

That proved to be a mistake.

Instantly, the two closest figures sprang forward and seized her by the arms, while making strange, high-pitched, squawking noises. The orange mare started struggling, but the tall figures didn’t let go, and dragged her back to her group of friends, who all backed away several steps in return. Pushing Applejack down, the figures backed up until they were once again in line, and then row by row, the skeletal figures turned and followed the silver being back into the large metal structure, before the doors once again closed, and the ramp retracted on its own.

Starlight stepped forward, intending of opening up the doors once more with her magic and telling off the creatures inside for treating her friend so roughly, when a loud whine started reverberating throughout the whole area, and miraculously, the huge metal container started moving.

It slowly levitated a couple inches off the ground, before the legs on which it had been resting retracted underneath it and the whole thing quickly accelerated into the sky. Starlight followed its trajectory up, until it was but a speck in the blue sky and was obscured by a cloud.

Nopony said anything after that, not for a few minutes at least. Starlight only then realized Spike standing behind the group, silently scratching a long piece of parchment with a quill, his brow furrowed in concentration and the occasionally word being audibly whispered under his breath as he wrote. Finally, Fluttershy cleared her throat and said quietly, “I think we should tell the princesses about this.”

***

Princess Luna staggered back at the words as if they were a physical blow. For such a long time, her sister had kept Equestria safe, and then when she had returned, some of that duty had fallen to Twilight and her friends. To hear what Celestia had said had moved her deeply. It wasn’t even that the words were all that powerful, it was that they were just so unexpected.

To think that something could have happened so quickly, Luna was completely unprepared for it. Normally strong and stoic, the Lunar Diarch broke, for just a fraction of a second; her calm and cool exterior showed the cracks of fear and surprise. But because she was the co-ruler of an entire land, in another fraction of a second the fear was replaced with calm once more. Because she had to make sure none of her guests suspected a thing, she once again became the strong and stoic princess that they expected her to be.

Grabbing her sister’s shoulders, she gave a gentle shake.

“Tia, remember who you are. We cannot be frightened like children by something like this. We will act for the good of Equestria.”

Another second passed and the alabaster princess had regained her composure as well, even though Luna sensed the troubling emotions stirring down below the surface. Her gentle smile returned to her lips and she faced the Minotaur Elder easily and spoke with her usual light and graceful tone.

Except for her sister, the others gathered heard Princess Celestia speak in her calm and motherly tone. Luna however, could hear the tiny chords of strain in her sister’s voice as she addressed the Minotaur delegation and informed them that she had just received a small shock from a prized student of hers, before excusing herself to use the bathroom.

Luna knew that Celestia was really going off to quickly write a response to the letter and try to gain more sense from Spike’s original message. Although it had been Luna who had given her sister a gentle shake, the words Tia had spoken were rattling around inside her head like a pinball in a pinball machine.

Twilight is injured. Someone is trying to invade Equestria.

***

Cranker hummed happily to himself as he stepped off the shuttle and onto the deck of the Dawn of Dusk. The mission had been a complete success. Despite having been kicked by one of the organics (he still wanted to get it back for that) the whole operation couldn’t have gone smoother. He was so surprised he had even survived the engagement (as much as it could be called that), that he was determined to congratulate is squad as soon as he got back from the bridge with Spaller. The two squad co-leaders had to make their report along with TL-90, who was shuffling along ahead of them.

Behind them, the other six droids were moving off for different sections of the ship, while a small maintenance crew started checking over the ship and moving it below decks on one of the large vehicle lifts built into the floor so that it could be stored with the rest of the dreadnaught’s complement.

Punching the other droid in the arm, Cranker excitedly exclaimed, “We’re so lucky, huh? We managed to get off maintenance crew supervision, and we got chosen for a super important mission for the Captain, that turned out to be a huge success!”

Spaller looked over while the two of them walked, but after a few moments without replying, looked away and hung his head slightly.

“Hey, what’s wrong buddy? You know you can talk to me. What happened? Don’t tell me you miss being part of maintenance supervision.”

“Well, I just have a bit of a bad feeling about this.”

“About what? Come on, spit it out Spaller.”

“This whole situation. I don’t know how to describe it, I just have this nagging feeling that everything’s going to be really difficult with this new assignment.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, buddy. You’re just caught up in all the political tension that’s moving through the ship right now. Don’t let it get to you. Say, after we give our report to the Captain, why don’t we go down to F deck and try our hand at betting on the droideka races, huh? I know that always cheers you up!”

Spaller looked over at his companion before offering a sheepish sigh.

“Alright. That does sound fun. You always know what to do to keep me happy,” after a moment of silent marching, Spaller chuckled a bit and leaned over to the other droid and whispered, “You know, if you really wanted to cheer me up, we could always go down to maintenance and you could lose another argument with that astro-droid.”

“Shut up! I don’t lose!” Cranker retorted, punching Spaller in the shoulder while the latter snickered.

***

72624 watched as the two B1’s left the bridge. After listening to their full report, he was thinking hard. Some of the natives had shown an obvious feeling of resentment and mistrust towards the visitors suddenly appearing next to their town. 72624 had counted on that. However, the good news was that most of the natives seemed cowed and fearful of the droids, but not so much that the fear would turn to anger. If they could use this, combined with the decision of their leaders to agree to the demands he was currently still coming up with, meant that it would be very easy to align the nation below with their objectives and conquer the planet that much sooner.

Sitting back in the Captain’s chair, he looked over at Pix, the diminutive little servant droid who was dutifully organizing his schedule and all of the information that had been delivered in the report.

Granted, it wasn’t much, as the mission had been quite a short one, but she seemed competent enough. Perhaps he would start being a bit friendlier to her and show her some respect in return for a job well done.

But then again, she was just a servant droid and he really didn’t feel like extending respect to anyone at all. Besides, he barely even knew what the word meant.

Chapter 6 - Preparations

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2:43 A.M. Canterlot Train Station, Canterlot

Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Starlight Glimmer, Pinkie Pie, and Spike stepped off the train into the windy streets of Canterlot. Almost everypony was indoors already; even if it hadn’t been the middle of the night, the darkening clouds in the sky, as well as the building winds forced what few ponies that were still out attending to something to race about, while getting buffeted by the gale. A quartet of royal guards took up positions around the six friends as they all rushed towards the castle.

High above them, a large, barely-visible, fully enclosed chariot flew the unconscious forms of Twilight and Rainbow Dash to the castle, pulled by four more pegasi guards. Two nurses inside watched over the two mares, as everyone made their way to the center of the city. Running through the city, the guards didn’t make them go at a breakneck pace, but neither would they let the mares (and Spike) slow down.

Reaching the main gates, the first fat droplets of summer rain began to hit the ground around the six friends, while the chariot landed on one of the landing pads at the back of the castle, out of sight. The guardsponies on duty opened the gates just long enough for the Elements of Harmony and their entourage to enter the palace grounds before the metal bars slammed shut again.

Running across the massive front courtyard, their hooves splashing through quickly-forming puddles, the five mares and one dragon raced for the shelter of the royal palace as it loomed large ahead of them. Reaching the main doors, the friends were ushered inside while the guardsponies took up positions outside the door.

Shaking some of the rain out of her fur, Applejack took the lead, with the others following close behind, striding purposefully through the halls of the great castle. Glancing to the sides occasionally as they walked, Applejack noticed that there seemed to be far more guards in the halls and standing at balconies than her previous visits.

Focusing back to their goal, a set of guards opened the doors to the diarchy’s main audience chamber, where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were sitting in their respective thrones. The Lunar Princess wore a stony expression; hard and unreadable, while the Solar Princess had a distant look in her eyes, and a serious expression the girls had seen only a few times before.

Bowing before the rulers, the mares (and Spike) waited until they heard the princess’ voice before looking up.

“It is alright, my little ponies. You do not need to behave in such a way. We’re all friends here.”

Celestia’s face had cracked a serene, if somewhat forced, smile in an effort to ease the tensions of the subjects standing before her.

“Forgive us princess,” Rarity replied as they straightened up. “It’s just, your letter was so urgent, we got here as fast as we could. What have you and Princess Luna decided?”

For a moment, neither diarch spoke; then, after a brief glance between the two sisters, Luna offered a response.

“Seeing as we’ve never heard of any power utilizing such powered flight as Spike described, we concluded that a foreign nation from across the seas must have finally circumnavigated the massive storm belt that separates us from a large part of the world. We’re very grateful that you’ve all come here so quickly to help us with the difficult task ahead.”

“What’s that, princess?” Pinkie asked, a look of genuine confusion on her face.

“We are going to meet with these new creatures and see if we can find a way to create peaceful relations with them diplomatically. If that fails, we will need your help, as the Elements of Harmony, to send these newcomers packing. We will show them that ponies are not to be trifled with. That is why we requested that Twilight and Rainbow Dash be transferred to the hospital here in the palace. They should recover quicker here, with my sister and I to watch over them, and they are just as important to using the Elements as you all are.” Celestia sighed before continuing, “I hope that it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, I’m glad you’re all here.”

“O’ course, Princess, we’re always happy to be of help,” Applejack said, sweeping her hat off her head and holding it up to her chest. No one seemed to notice Starlight looking distinctly uncomfortable off to the side.

“But wait… if we’re all going to be here in Canterlot, then who’s going to tell the shiny metal ponies when and where you’ll meet them?” Fluttershy asked quietly.

“Not to worry, we’ve already got that handled. We’ve delegated that task to a very special pony still in Ponyville.”

“Who’s that?”

***

“Delivery! Knock, knock, delivery! Anypony home?”

The grey delivery mare knocked for the third time on the small wooden door, before finally it opened and a very disgruntled and unkempt blue unicorn opened it.

“Wha-? What’s going on? Don’t you know what time it is?”

“Of course I know! It’s mail time, silly! You’ve got a delivery!” the grey pegasus replied cheerfully, smiling and holding out a letter with a fancy stamp. Shoving the letter into the hands of the surprised unicorn, the mailmare skipped happily away into the night.

Blinking her eyes wearily, Trixie Lulamoon closed the door to her little traveling wagon and used her magic to light a candle, while inspecting the ornate wax seal on the letter. It looked almost like…

“This… Is this letter from one of the Princesses?!” she gasped as her brain finally woke up enough to register what she was seeing. Quickly opening the letter and bringing it closer to the candle to see, she began to read.

Dear Trixie Lulamoon,
As an accomplished unicorn, a good friend of my former student, Twilight Sparkle, as well as one of the recent saviours of Equestria, I have decided that I shall entrust a very important responsibility to you.

Trixie couldn’t believe her eyes. Was Princess Celestia actually writing to her? She checked the clock sitting on a shelf crammed full of magic supplies and plates. It was almost half past midnight. What was so important that it had been sent so late at night? Or, perhaps it had been sent just earlier that day and Celestia had paid for express shipping? Trixie had seen Spike leave with Starlight and Twilight’s friends earlier in the day, so perhaps Celestia had decided to write the letter after he left Ponyville, as it would have been more convenient to send it through dragonfire and simply get Spike to deliver it.

Shrugging, Trixie decided not to question the Princess, and once again moved towards the candle in order to read. Her eyes glanced to the bottom, and sure enough, the signature confirmed the author of the letter was indeed Princess Celestia. Unfortunately, it was at this time that Trixie’s eyes began to sting and water slightly. Blinking rapidly to try and clear them, she moved her gaze back to the top-

Except there wasn’t a top anymore.

Trixie had unknowingly moved the edge of the letter right next to the candle when she had looked at the signature at the bottom, and now, a small flame was making its way across the page and devouring the words on it.

Panic gripped Trixie’s mind as she raced outside as quick as she could and headed for the small pond behind Twilight’s castle, beside which her caravan was parked. Only a moment too late did she remember that she had a glass of water right beside her bed, as well as any number of small-scale spells she could have used to douse the flames before she dunked the burning parchment into the pond.

Quickly pulling it out, she gazed at the ruined letter. One side was mostly burned away, while the other was filled with letters running down the wet page as the water destroyed the ink. Trixie’s eyes raced across the page, hoping to get some semblance of what it was Princess Celestia wanted of her, but unfortunately, most of the page was already illegible. Trixie managed to spy a few words that weren’t too damaged before they too started getting slightly distorted.

-to go to th- -nd deliver the mess-

-ace is to be held. I ask- -ell them that-

-o days at-

-in Canterlot, but I-

-anic in the streets if- -now this is a difficult-

-elieve that you are the right pony for the job.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

Trixie stared at the remains of the letter in silent horror. Of the entire page, the only part of the parchment that was undamaged was the bottom-right corner, where the Princess had written that she, Trixie was the right pony for the job, and where he had signed her name.

Feeling a sudden weakness in her legs, the blue unicorn collapsed onto her knees and flopped onto her back, still staring at the last few words in the light of the almost-full moon. The signature of the Princess kept fading in and out her vision as if mocking her, telling her that she indeed, was the worst pony for the job the Princess had set for her.

As she lay under the stars, clutching the ruined parchment, an idea came to her. Jumping up, she raced back to her caravan and began pulling out writing materials, and laying them on her desk. Carefully putting a glass lamp cover over her candle, she moved it to her tiny, cramped desk. She was about to start writing her letter to the Princess, explaining how the letter had been ruined and that she didn’t have time to read it, when another thought occurred to her and she almost slammed her head on the desk in frustration.

Of course, she won’t get the letter in time. If what she wanted me to do was so urgent, then by the time my letter gets through the whole process of actually getting read by Celestia, if that ever happens, then it’ll probably be too late! Taking another glance at her clock, the blue unicorn grumbled to herself and began changing out of her pyjamas into something more suitable and comfortable for travel. Packing a small knapsack of essentials, including some food, her toothbrush, a change of clothes, her clock, some smoke bombs, some fireworks, and her trusty wand, she donned her cape and hat on top of her dark purple performer’s outfit, and stepped out of her traveling wagon into the crisp and cool summer night air.

Holding her hat on her head, Trixie ran to the train station, the medallion the Princess had given her bouncing proudly (and somewhat painfully) off her chest (hey, it was heavy). I’m so glad that the train station is open all night.

Buying a ticket for the first train to Canterlot, Trixie checked the time and then the scheduled departure before boarding the platform to wait for the correct train. Only four and a half hours to go, and then I’m off to Canterlot… yippee.

Sitting down on a hard wooden bench, she didn’t think she’d be able to sleep in the flickering light of the station’s bulbs after what had happened that night, but soon enough she had dozed off, startled awake by the gentle whistle of her train as it pulled to the station.

As she boarded it and waited for the train to depart, many, many miles away, a Princess paced the floor of the medical wing in a castle, hoping against hope that her letter had reached its recipient in time. Looking over at Twilight and Rainbow as they slept, she couldn’t help but smile.

All is well, little ones. I’m sorry to have to ask so much of you, but hopefully everything goes according to plan. Just so long as Trixie tells the new creatures that the meeting will take place at Twilight’s Castle. The structure itself is quite strong, and the pony population of Ponyville is not nearly as dense as here in Canterlot, so there shouldn’t be any trouble if we have to evacuate the surrounding area.

Turning her gaze to the horizon, visible outside the window, the solar diarch wondered what exactly these newcomers were doing, and if they were planning something diabolical to do with her ponies.

***

“Come on, Roadster, you got this! Show them who’s boss!”

“Go, Spinnerrett! Don’t let that good-for-nothing wheelie push you around!”

“I got two DC-15 blaster carbines bet on you, Roller! Don’t let me down!”

Down in the bowels of the dreadnaught, Dawn of Dusk, a long elliptical track ran a quarter the length of the ship, and droids crowded right to the edge of the safety rails overlooking the somewhat gloomy short drop before the track. A couple meters below the magnapeds of B1’s and B2’s zoomed droidekas, their massive bronzium wheels zipping by in the semi-light as they raced around the track.

Stepping off the lift the Captain took it all in; the dim lighting, the shouting but still small crowds of droids spread along the length of the track, the high-pitched whine and deep rumble that happened every so often whenever a destroyer droid whipped past in the lowered pit of the track.

This was F deck.

Nicknamed the black market of the ship, most droids went there to have fun that would normally be prohibited in most other areas of the ship, as they would cause hazards, but here, where only maintenance droids crawled through vents, the track that was so often used to moving supplies discreetly throughout the massive vessel had picked up some quirks. There were some small things that had changed about it, the safety rails, for one, but the biggest change was that, whenever it wasn’t being used for logistics purposes, the track usually played host to some kind of sport (most of which included heavy betting from spectators) for the entertainment of whatever droids had either managed to sneak off duty, or otherwise had nothing else to do and didn’t want to power off just yet. Hence why the droideka race was being held at the moment.

Pushing his way through the crowd, 72624 was glad he didn’t take any guards with him now. Since there were so many droids here, he could pretend to be any commander droid on the ship, and no one would notice, nor frankly care. Making his way to the front, he saw the black accents of one of the Scrapheap Gang; one of the commando droideka units on board the vessel.

Turning to a random B1, he asked, “Hey, how many Scrappers are racing today?”

Without looking, the other droid replied, “There’s set to be six more. There’s two in this race, none in the next, then three in the one after that, and then one in the last race of the day. The ones in this race are Warper and Switch. But Roller’s currently in the lead, followed by Roadster, King, and Rotary.”

Another droideka blurred past to much cheering, followed by several others, and then, after a little while, a couple more. 72624 simply stood and watched as the wheel droids whirred past on their laps, occasionally cheering on a straggler, but otherwise keeping mainly to himself. He wasn’t big on betting, and he was only on a short break, but nevertheless he still enjoyed watching the races. Across the track, a few dozen meters farther along, the Captain spotted the black and white shape of Bones as the strange droid skipped along behind the engrossed gamblers, a bucket dangling from his grip.

“Go Watcher!” the powerful voice of a super battle droid yelled out right beside the Captain, causing him to jolt in surprise and lose track of the skeletal droid, while another of the massive wheeled droids shot past below.

Half a kilometer down the track, Cranker and Spaller cheered as King roared past near the front of the pack, vying for second place, before he was lost from sight around the curve of the wall.

“See? Didn’t I say this would cheer you up?” Cranker yelled over the assembled spectators, to which Spaller gave a thumbs-up to show he had heard, and watched as another couple droidekas zoomed along, followed shortly by the one called Watcher.

In truth, he was feeling better, but Spaller still had a somewhat suspicious feeling that all wasn’t right with the situation.

“I just hope those organics don’t do anything stupid, they were really cute and colorful,” he muttered to himself, unheard by any of the crowd as another couple droidekas wheeled past, “I’d hate to have to blast them.”

***

Trixie huffed and puffed her way down the main street of Canterlot, fighting against the stitch in her side as she made her was as fast as she could towards the gates of the palace. The rain that had started yesterday evening showed no signs of stopping, and she could understand why; just looking at some of the plants lining the streets of Canterlot showed many of them still needed some time to recover from the recent heat wave the pegasi had provided the week before.

Unfortunately, the rain was now making it very difficult to get to the palace quickly, and more than once Trixie accidentally stepped right into a huge puddle, soaking her pants in the process.

At least it’s still relatively warm out, she thought as she winced at the sudden cold splash of water yet again.

The sun didn’t shine through the thunderclouds, but Trixie could tell that it was starting to get close to noon. She had arrived in Canterlot just a half hour before, and yet she still had twelve blocks to go, or was it thirteen? She had no idea, but her breathing was now short and ragged, and she had to stop at the corner. Doubling over, her insides started screaming at her, and suddenly the blue unicorn threw up on the sidewalk. Thankfully, barely anypony was outside, and those that were didn’t pay attention to her as they ran to get out of the storm. Wiping her mouth, Trixie opted to follow the residents’ lead and take shelter momentarily by stepping into a nearby coffee shop. Outside, the puddle of vomit was being quickly dissolved by the pounding rain. Inside, the tiny café was packed with ponies trying to escape the weather.

Dripping wet, Trixie shook herself off slightly before heading to the restroom in the back to properly clean up her face. However, after seeing herself in the mirror, she realized just how terrible she looked. The lack of sleep during most of the night, along with her run across the city, had taken their toll on the young unicorn mare.

She had dark circles under her eyes, her mane was unkempt and dripping wet, her clothes were soggy, and she had a thin line of bile smeared on corner of her mouth. Splashing some water in her face and trying her best to wake up and wash up, she inspected herself in the mirror once more. It wasn’t much, but it was somewhat of an improvement. She looked more awake and at least she didn’t have the remains of yesterday’s supper running down her face.

Stepping back out into the coffee shop, Trixie looked at the clock set above the counter. Almost two in the afternoon, she thought grimly to herself. She only hoped whatever she was hurrying to see the Princess about wasn’t too urgent; she didn’t think she could run any more. For just a moment, Trixie wished Twilight and her friends had taken her along with them on their adventures. Pulling a cart around did build muscle, but it was always at a leisurely pace; she’d never been much for stamina.

I bet saving Equestria takes a lot more running around than I realized, she thought glumly to herself as she stood in line to get a quick cup of caffeine. If she didn’t down something quick, she’d drop of exhaustion pretty soon.

Getting to the front of the line, she ordered a small cup of whatever had the most sugar and caffeine on the menu from a scrawny-looking stallion who looked like he wasn’t even out of basic education, before standing off to the side to wait for her order. Boy I hope this little detour doesn’t mean I miss what it is the Princess wanted me to do. Glancing again at the clock, she counted off the seconds as the minute hand finally reached the two. By her calculations, running through the streets of Canterlot would take her another thirty or forty minutes, and hopefully after that she’d be able to show off the medal she’d earned a few weeks back. It was her only chance of getting to see the Princess on such short notice.

“Trixie!” the pony behind the counter shouted, and placed a cup on the counter. Stepping forward and taking a sip of her mocha-choca-latte, Trixie made her way to the door and watched the rain hammer on the outside of the glass. Taking another sip, she spied a very strange black sphere-ish object floating through an alley on the other side of the main street. She couldn’t tell exactly what it was, it was too far and too dark and raining too hard outside, but she could have sworn she had seen the dark shape moving against the wind in the direction of the castle. Looking up the road herself, she shook the thought of discovering the identity of the dark shape out of her head and focused on getting to the Princess quickly.

Downing the rest of her drink, she threw the cup away and stepped back out into the gale.

Or at least, she tried to.

In the time she’d spent in the tiny coffee shop, the wind had picked up even more and as soon as she set hoof outside, it threatened to throw her bodily backwards. Bracing herself against the howling winds and lashing rain, she realized she’d be lucky to make it to the palace gates in an hour, as the storm was forcing her to go step by step, never faster than walking speed, lest she lose her balance and fall over.

Squinting through the torrential rain and looking down the road, Trixie couldn’t even see the outline of the castle anymore, just the grey lines of rain and the occasional flash of lightning. Holding her hat down on her head tightly to prevent it from being ripped away, the blue unicorn slowly made her way up the street.

***

For the first time in two days, Laugher was finally laughing. He’d been giggling on the way through the vents for almost an hour now, and Rabid was quite frankly getting sick of it.

“Shut up, Laugher, I know you’re relieved at our luck, but at the amount you’ve been laughing, we’re gonna be heard crawling through here.”

“I’m, hee hee, I’m sorry corporal, but I still can’t believe it. We would’ve been found out for sure, and then-”

“Yes, I’m fully aware of what happened, private, I was there too, remember?” Rabid sighed, and hung his head momentarily, playing back the entire scene in his head.

They had been waiting at the end of the corridor, hoping the distance from the corner would make the droids aim badly enough that the two clones could take out the droids before they were overwhelmed. Their plan never got the chance to be tested however, as just before the clankers rounded the corner, they had stopped, and the dead-end was short enough that they heard the conversation around the corner of the corridor.

“Halt! I’m getting new orders… alright, squad, we’re to report to the main hangar for a new mission. Squad 5-E will be taking over our patrol rounds back here.” Squawked one of the droids, before another spoke up.

“Are we going to finish our patrol first? We still have to check these last few corridors.”

“Negative, command wants us to report to the hangar immediately. 5-E will handle it from here. They’re just a few decks away.”

“Roger, roger!”

And with that, the droids had turned around and left the same way they’d come, their clanking and tramping echoing down the hallways for far longer than Rabid had been comfortable with. He had no idea what mission the droid squad had been pulled from patrol for, but he was grateful to whatever gods there might be, and to the force, that they had yet again eluded the attention of the droids. Whether it was just coincidence, blind luck, or divine intervention, Rabid and Laugher had stayed cemented where they were for several minutes after they noise had disappeared, before the two clones shook themselves of their shock and got moving again.

Rabid still couldn’t believe how lucky they’d gotten, and while the two had been silent and alert for most of the time afterwards, Laugher had finally gotten over the tension of the situation an hour ago and had started giggling almost nonstop since.

Which he was still doing.

“Laugher, this is seriously your last warning, if you don’t shut your gob, I’ll push you out of this vent right now, and let you deal with the droids yourself!” the corporal hissed to the other soldier.

Hearing the muffled sounds of Laugher trying to reign in his mirth, another sound caught Rabid’s attention. The faint scraping and scuttling sound of sharp metal running and slipping over smooth metal. Wondering what the hell he was hearing, Rabid hissed and Laugher to shut up once more, before he heard a small bang, and felt the vent shake just a fraction.

“Private, I think we’ve got a problem…”

Laugher’s giggles finally subsided as he realized the sudden change in their situation and asked, “Hey, Corporal, what do you think that noise is?”

Looking backwards with much difficulty, Rabid managed to see past himself and the other clone trooper as they were crammed into the narrow ventilation shaft, ad saw the end of the metal tube a dozen meters away. The intersection they had just crossed a short while ago was lit through a grate in the ceiling of the corridor below, and the clone Corporal could clearly see the vibrations of the tube at the intersection, moving almost in time to the metal-on-metal scuttling sound.

As soon as he looked ahead and saw another intersection a few more meters beyond, he suddenly realized what was going on.

There were droids in the vents with them.

That realization chilled him to the core. Whatever it was that was behind them seemed to be having an easier time navigating the vents than the clones were, and if it came to a firefight, the troopers were at a clear disadvantage. They could only fire towards the front, and had no room to maneuver or take cover.

Crawling forwards as quickly and as quietly as he dared, with Laugher following hot on his heels, Rabid made his way to the intersection and turned left, away from the direction the vibrations were coming from at the other intersection.

As soon as both clones had moved past the intersection, they decided to drop down out of the vents once more, into a thankfully empty corridor, and quickly moved the grate back into place, just as the clacking and scampering of something small and metal raced over their heads.

Waiting for the sound to die away, Laugher turned to his superior officer and hung his head.

“Well, looks like the vents aren’t safe for us anymore… what are we going to do now? If just keep going through the halls of this ship, then we’ll run into a patrol sooner or later. If we start taking out droids, they’ll eventually figure out we’re here and start swarming to find us.”

“I… I don’t know what to do,” Rabid replied, his voice hollow and dejected.

They had already decided that attacking the bridge directly was too risky, the communications spire was completely gone, and they were now too far from the secondary bridge to be able to feasibly get there through the corridors without being spotted.

After a few more moments of silence, Laugher spoke up.

“Sir… maybe… maybe we should just try to get out of here? The droids must have some other smaller craft on board. The hangar bay is right below us, and there’d be plenty of machines and fuel tanks and whatnot to hide behind. We’d just have to time it properly, but I think we’d be able to steal something with a hyperdrive and get out of here before the clankers realize what’s going on. We could even use the ship’s navigation computer to find out where this dreadnaught is, and send the fleet here to mop it up once we get back.”

Rabid eyed the clone private for a few seconds before answering.

“You know what kid? That may just be the smartest idea you’ve ever come up with. And to tell the truth… I am sick of orders. We’ll do it your way. Let’s get off this boat first and then tell the rest of the Empire where these droids are squatting. I think we’ve done enough for one day.”

Nodding to each other, the two troopers, with new determination, set off down the corridor, to the hangar. To what semblance of a plan they had left. And to freedom.

From the vents above them, red photoreceptors watched silently.

***

Trixie had finally reached the outer gates of Canterlot Castle through the pouring rain and shrieking winds. She had actually been knocked down and flung backwards twice and had seen the same happen to at least one other pony that too was unfortunate enough to be out in the storm. Because of this, and also the fact that she had had to stop in several other stores on the way in order to not freeze from the now-chilling torrent, she had taken just over two hours to get to the gates. Banging on the metal, she eventually managed to make out the form of a royal unicorn guard making his way towards her from the gatehouse.

“Who goes there?” he yelled hoarsely, although Trixie barely registered his words as the wind did its best to rip them away.

“I’m here to see the Princess- Princess Celestia! I need to see Princess Celestia! Immediately! It’s important!” the blue unicorn shouted back, pressed up against the bars of the gate.

“Sure it is, we get super-important messages here all the time! Why don’t you just tell what it is you want and I’ll see if I have enough time in my busy schedule to deliver it to her?”

“N-no! I can’t do that! Please, this is important! I need to see the Princess immediately! I received a letter from her yesterday!”

At this, the guard’s eyebrows furrowed, although his demeanor didn’t change.

“Listen, I don’t know who you are, but no one’s getting into the palace grounds in this storm! And the Princess is busy today, she can’t be bothered with random ponies’ requests right now! Wait out the storm and come back later, and maybe we’ll see about your message!”

Trixie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had gotten a letter from the freaking Princess, and this dolt was denying her entry? Fumbling around inside the front of her coat, she reached for the medal she’d gotten in her last visit.

“Woah, listen lady! If you try to get in here by flashing me, I will arrest you, and then you’ll never get to see the Princess!”

“I’m not- what? No! I wasn’t going to- I was getting this!” Pulling out her medal, she shoved it through the bars and practically into the guard stallion’s face, who recoiled slightly in order to get a good look at what Trixie was holding.

“What is this? Some sort of college medal? Why are you showing me this?”

“No, you dolt! This is a Pink Heart of courage! My name is Trixie Lulamoon, you know, the Grrreat and Powerful Trixie! Princess Celestia gave these to me and my friends for saving Equestria from the changelings a couple months ago, remember? I really need to speak to her, it’s urgent!”

The guard took another look at the pink and gold medal, before realization opened his eyes wide, but common sense and the sheer amount of rain coming down quickly made him squint again.

Using his magic to unlock the gate, the guard opened it up just enough to let Trixie through, before slamming it back shut with visibly more effort than it took to open, due to the winds. Putting a hand on her back, he guided her to the front door and past the miserable guards standing there.

Once inside, Trixie realized just how violently she was shivering, and tried unsuccessfully to use her magic to dry herself, but instead simply caused a large plume of smoke to engulf her and the guard beside her. Coughing violently, she gave the guard a sideways glance, and with eyes watering, gave a quick “Sorry.”

“What are you trying to do? Blow us up?” The guard groaned unhappily.

“No, I was just trying to- Well, never mind that. Thank you for letting me in. I really do need to see the Princess and-”

“Hold on now, I let you in, but Princess Celestia is having a very important meeting right now, and asked not to be disturbed. You’ll have to wait just a bit.”

Leading her through the halls, they eventually came to one of the far wings and a large oaken door through which muffled voices could faintly be heard. By the time they reached it, however, Trixie was shaking in anticipation. She was so nervous. Celestia was in a meeting; what if she really had made a mistake and she didn’t have to come so soon? What if she was overreacting? And what would the Princess think when Trixie told her what had happened to her letter? What if she was angry? What if she decided to give the task to somepony else?

As the guardspony directed her to sit on a bench outside the room and wait until there was a break, she pulled the clock out of her knapsack and her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when she saw the time.

It’s almost five thirty in the evening! Where the Tartarus did the time go? Were we really walking through the castle for that long? Did it really take me that long to get to the front gates? Oh no, what will Celestia think? I should have gotten here sooner! Maybe she’ll think that I’m lazy and that I’m not the right pony for the job!

Again her fear of not being adequate for whatever task Celestia had planned for her nearly made her go into a panic. Catching herself, she used a breathing technique she had learned to help rid herself of nervousness whenever she had stage fright, and tried to slow her heavily beating heart.

Seconds passed like minutes, and minutes like hours, all the while thoughts raced through Trixie’s head and the guardspony simply stood beside her, stoic and statuesque, deciding that enough was enough and discontinuing answering questions after the third one.

After several more agonizingly slow minutes, the door opened, and several minotaurs stepped out, grumbling quietly amongst themselves, before a somewhat tired-looking Princess Luna followed them out. A moment later, Princess Celestia, in a similar state, walked out rubbing her forehead.

For just a moment, Trixie wondered if it would be awfully rude of her to bring her problem of the destroyed letter after the Princesses looked tired like that, but then, steeling herself, she stood up and stepped forward, clearing her throat.

“Princess Celestia?”

At the sound of her voice, the Princess stopped and turned around, looking Trixie squarely in the eyes, the slightest bit of surprise on her face.

“Trixie? What… What are you doing here? Did you come to tell me you delivered my message?”

“Uh, heh, not exactly. See, I uh, well… your letter reached me very late at night, and I uh, may have um… arksandlybnedat…” Trixie replied, grumbling out the last bit.

“What was that? I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that,” the Princess replied, a calm and encouraging look coming across her face.

“I may have… accidentally burned it…” The blue unicorn winced as she said those last words, expecting the Princess to get angry with her. After a few seconds of nothing happening, however, she opened one eye just a crack and saw the Princess exactly where she had been before, but a worried look on her face.

“What do you mean, you burned it?”

“I ah, please don’t banish me, Princess!” Trixie wailed, tears forming in her eyes. Something told her that whatever was on that letter had been more important than she had realized.

“I was surprised to see that you had written to me, and in my surprise, I didn’t realize how close I was holding your letter to my candle, and… it… well, it burned. I managed to put out the flames, but the letter was ruined…”

The truly dejected look on Trixie’s face was almost enough to melt gold.

It wasn’t enough to force away the Princess’ fears, however.

“You… you didn’t get my message then?” The tone of her voice betrayed little, but the look on the Solar Diarch’s face spoke volumes to Trixie.

“I-I’m sorry, no, I didn’t. It was too far gone by the time I put it out…”

“Sister!” Celestia turned to Luna, who was standing a few feet away and watching the whole thing impassively, “what time is it?”

“Um, it’s about six o’clock, Princess,” Trixie said, trying to calm the alabaster alicorn.

“Six… Tia, isn’t that about the time that the newcomers said they would be waiting for our answer?” Luna said shakily.

“Yes, it’s exactly when.”

Without another word, the solar diarch disappeared in a large flash of light, leaving Trixie and Princess Luna standing by awkwardly.

“So… what was it exactly that she wanted me to do?”

***

Princess Celestia teleported into the middle of Ponyville Square. It was still a very beautiful evening in Ponyville, and many ponies, shocked by her sudden presence, dropped what they were doing and gave low bows. She ignored them, looking around, before her eyes came to rest on Ponyville Hospital off in the distance. Teleporting over to the front doors, she opened up her wings and blasted off from the ground, her royal dress flapping around her as she shot through the air towards the copse of trees the Element Bearers had told her about in their recounting of their tale.

Racing towards the spot, Celestia saw something that defied explanation. A large, metal-grey ovoid with some sort of large fin on its back was rising from the trees and began accelerating, turning to point its stubby nose almost straight up before it zoomed away, leaving Celestia hovering where it had taken off from just a moment before.

Oh… Oh this seems bad…

***

“What do you mean no one showed up?” 72624 asked.

“I mean, none of the creatures that were there had any idea of a time and place for meeting their rulers, so after waiting almost two hours, I decided it would be best to excuse their tardiness and simply return,” TL-90 replied, as if abandoning a first-contact scenario because one party was absent for a time was normal protocol.

“But, but, didn’t any of the creatures show up?” 72624 asked, still not believing the protocol droid.

“Oh, certainly they did. The only problem was that none of the natives assembled there had any notion of a date for the meeting of our two factions. The ones that did come seemed to be there simply to watch us more and marvel at us a bit. It was really quite uncomfortable.”

“Then what are we going to do? We have no way of figuring out who’s in charge of that nation! I guess we can just go again tomorrow, but-”

“Actually, Captain, I have found out a bit more about their social and political structure since yesterday.” Interrupted the silver droid, “Probe three seems to be in one of their larger cities, and I’ve deduced that there are two ‘Princesses’ living in that city. If my translating is correct, then I would assume that they have some semblance of control over the land and the civilian creatures that reside in them, if I may suggest, that would be a good place to start looking into a proper meeting.”

“Perfect!” the Captain replied, a slight tone of joy re-entering his voice “Maybe we can salvage something from this and get this meeting under way quickly then!” Turning to one of the bridge crew, the Captain stood up straight and tall to look more impressive and addressed the droid, “You! I want a shuttle and escort prepared for me. I want it ready to leave by the time I get down to the hangar. I’ll do this myself.”

“Sir,” the droid replied, pausing the Captain’s moment of glory, “There is currently a severe storm over that city. If you’d want to have the best visibility and the lowest chance of problems with the ships, then our imaging shows that the storm should disperse sometime tomorrow. I suggest nobody goes down there until it clears up.”

Unable to think of a response for a few seconds, 72624 held up a finger for silence until he thought of something.

“Very well!” he stated at last, “I want a shuttle and escort prepared for me and have it ready to leave by sometime tomorrow! We’ll see if we can leave at dawn, and land down in the city early in the morning. I doubt these creatures’ rulers will be able to keep us waiting if we land right on their doorstep,” he said smugly.

“Captain, may I suggest that since some of the most important officers will be going down there, that we put together a large guard to deter any hostilities from the natives?”

72624 turned to address the speaker; TV-44.

“You know what? Fine, we’ll bring more ground troops in this time. Whatever. I’m done arguing with you, so I’ll leave it to you to pick out the guard for this mission. Just make sure you don’t do anything too drastic, we’re trying to appear as benevolent explorers, not evil invaders.”

“As you wish.” Giving a small bow, the black tactical droid left the bridge, three super battle droids accompanying him, while Pix looked up at the Captain and tugged on his hand. Neither the Captain nor the servant droid heard the quiet laughing of the black droid as he left.

“Captain, is it really a good idea to just be inviting ourselves down into a heavily populated area like that city? Especially without being invited?”

"Quiet, underling! I have to think!” 72624 said, waving the diminutive servant droid away.

“What do you have to think about? Everything’s already figured out…” she grumbled to herself as she stepped back to avoid getting knocked over by the Captain, who was still absent-mindedly shooing her.

***

“They did what?” Trixie shouted, interrupting Starlight for the fourth time.

The two mares, along with the Element Bearers (both conscious and not) and Spike, were assembled in a room in the medical wing of Canterlot Castle, along with the two alicorn diarchs and several royal guard captains.

Twilight was awake and propped up in her bed with pillows, while Applejack silently watched over a sleeping Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus still hadn’t woken, but her breathing was now regular and the nurses had said that she would make a full recovery. Her face, chest, and arms still had ugly-looking burns, but the medical staff made repeated assurances that so long as they continued to apply the proper burn salve, she would heal fully.

“They said they would come back the next day at the same time for our answer on where to meet,” Starlight repeated, “And from what the Princess told us, that’s what she put in her letter to you.”

“So I was supposed to tell a new race of creatures that the Princesses would be meeting in Ponyville, and instead, I came here…”

The blue unicorn trailed off, a blank look of shock on her face. Starlight tried snapping her friend out of it by waving her hand in front of Trixie’s face, and even gave her a light pinch, but the showmare didn’t respond until a gentle hand lightly rested itself on her shoulder.

Looking over, she saw Princess Celestia giving her a warm smile.

“Don’t worry, my little pony. I can always send another letter to someone still in Ponyville. I’m sure the metal creatures will be back today. Although their delegates do seem a bit cold and straightforward, there’s no reason to believe that they would do anything rash just because we failed to give them an answer. They might realize that the time taken to get word across Equestria might be more than a day. I’m sure they’ll be back again.”

Just then, the first rays of morning light slipped through the large window, catching everyone’s attention. It had been raining throughout the night, and everyone was looking forward to some sunshine again.

“And look at that. It seems the storm is finally over as well. See? Everything will be fine, and now, with all the watering the city got, the flowers and trees will be growing lush and strong this year.”

As the assembled mares (and Spike) looked out the window at the rays of sunshine poking through the grey clouds, the guard nearest it looked up, and with a shaky voice said, “Princess? Those delegates you were expecting? They’re back, and they brought a much bigger ship.”

Bonus Chapter - Remains Of The Crash

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19 B.B.Y. Saleucami – 106 Km Northwest of Crashed Separatist Landing Ship

“Hey! Hey guys! Rotor and Mashup are back!”

A dozen droids huddled around a small fire in the center of a weather-worn and poorly-set-up tarp, while one of their number waved out of a flap into the night.

Servos whined and groaned as the droids turned to look at the two newcomers entering the poor excuse for a tent.

“Rotor, Mashup, what have you found?” A scarred commando droid asked, standing up with some difficulty.

The two newcomers, both B1’s, took off the makeshift cloaks they were wearing to protect them from the rain and sat down.

“I think there’s a settlement not too far from here, maybe half a day’s walk due west. It’s just over the ridge and down in a valley. We might be able to steal some parts and fix everyone up a small bit, but I didn’t see any ships while we were down there. There were plenty of speeders though. Maybe they connect to one of the larger towns.”

“We should get moving as soon as the storm clears up,” another B1 piped up from behind the commando.

“What about droidekas? They no drive speeders,” replied the hulking form of a B2 super battle droid, pointing to a duo of droidekas folded up on the ground.

“Were there any speeders large enough to hold the droidekas?” The commando asked, returning his attention to the two B1’s.

“I think so, there was a speeder truck parked right in front of the little village when we were watching. I think it should be able to fit most of us, but it looked pretty beat up.”

“It can’t be more beat up than we,” another B2 grumbled from the side of the tent.

“We make for the settlement tomorrow, then wait just outside until nightfall. Once it gets dark, we’ll take the speeder truck and anything else we need. If anyone tries to stop us, kill them. We need to re-establish contact with the CIS. Once we get a ship, we can make our way back to Separatist space and get new posts,” the commando droid stated, nodding to himself at the end of his small speech and pointing at a B1 and a B2.

“You two, take first watch. Make sure nothing sneaks up on us. Everyone else, try and recharge your power cells as best you can before tomorrow.”

Folding down into his compact position, the commando powered down, followed shortly by several other droids.

“So… I guess it’s just you and me, Wallop,” the B1 said, trying to sound cheerful as he grabbed a cloak and threw it over himself, then readied his blaster and stepped out into the rain beside the super battle droid.

“Shut up, Sprocket, me no like being on watch with you,” the B2 grumbled.

Author's Notes:

This is a side chapter that will later have relevance to the main story, but I mainly wanted to publish something quick just to say thank you all for reading this and keeping me going! I wanted to finish this the day after I hit 1000 views, but I was a little busy. Please don't be disappointed, the next chapter should be out in a couple weeks, and it'll be a real chapter, a continuation of the main story.

I will be adding short little, bonus, mini-chapters like this from time to time that will show several other locations in the Star Wars galaxy and they will all eventually tie into the main plot. As always, thank you all for reading and staying supportive of me, and I hope you all look forward to the next chapter!

(P.S. you guys would tell me if this mini-chapter idea is a terrible idea, right?)

Chapter 7 - "Subtle" Is Not Part Of A Battle Droid's Vocabulary

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19 B.B.Y. In Transit to Alien Capital City, Unknown Planet, Sector G6 (See Galactic Map)

72624 looked out the front viewport of the shuttle as it descended gracefully down to a majestic city, one that clung to the cliffs of a massive mountain that took up the entire view. They were just breaking through the clouds now, and he could finally see the city up close.

Marble houses and towers were decorated with golden roofs. Arches and fountains, gardens and domes, jutting spires and flying buttresses adorned the entire city, making it seem like it was supposed to be floating in the clouds. Indeed, several of the low-hanging clouds moved past on the rock face just below the main streets, and tiny colorful shapes could be seen bustling about their business.

Just outside the viewport, several Vulture fighters screamed past, then another wave, the first one zooming in a straight line to the largest open spot in the city and right past it, while the second spread out like the wings of a bird to do a pass over large portions of the city.

The first wave looped back on itself and began to come back, banking at the last moment to streak on either side of the shuttle. Beside the Captain, TV-44 watched the whole display impassively.

Another bank of fighters flew alongside the shuttle, matching its speed, alert for any threats that might make themselves apparent. Several of the colorful natives flew through the streets and above the buildings, but once the large shadow of the droids’ escort passed over them, or the screams of the vulture fighters reached their ears, they all ducked down for the safety of the streets.

As the first wave zoomed to the forefront once again and began landing at the perimeter of the huge open expanse in front of the large structure TL-90 had identified as a “castle”, the second wave of fighters came back and also took up defensive positions around the shuttle. Another fighter wave, unseen by those looking out the front of the viewport followed close behind them, and created a buffer zone between the shuttle and the massive landing craft that followed, bathing everything it passed over in shadow. As they neared the huge structure, 72624 could see that a large number of the native creatures were dressed in gold and had taken up positions at every entrance to the castle. Many more had taken up formation in the courtyard that the Captain planned on landing in, while others cautiously approached the landed Vultures.

“I hope those organics get out of the way. I’m pretty sure landing on some of them would put a damper on the negotiations,” he murmured to himself; however, the tactical droid heard him.

“If they don’t, then they will simply be a demonstration that we do not let others dictate what we can and can’t do. We are the CIS, perhaps the last of it anywhere in the galaxy. We convey our strength through actions.”

"That doesn't mean our actions have to be clumsy. Us B1’s get a bad enough rep as it is.”

The shuttle had, by that time, come to hover over the open expanse in front of the castle, while all of its vulture droid escort had come to land at the edges, taking up a defensive formation around both the shuttle and the landing craft as it came in and settled down on its repulsorlifts behind the smaller spaceship.

72624 finally commanded the pilots to lower the shuttle, having it face away from the large doors set into the front of the structure, so that the ramp would face them when it was lowered.

72624 wondered what the native creatures’ reactions must be to all of this right now, and allowed himself a little chuckle. They were probably shaking with fright, he thought, right as he sent the signal to the landing craft to begin deploying the complement of troops they brought with them as an escort.

***

Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Twilight Sparkle (the latter still wearing bandages and needing the support of a crutch, as humiliating as it was) as well as Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Trixie, and Starlight, stood gathered at the top of the steps to the royal palace, just in front of the massive oak doors, while they watched the spectacle before them. Rainbow Dash was still unable to move and so had to watch the whole thing from an upper window of the palace with Spike, watching from her hospital bed, which a nurse was attending to make sure the blue pegasus didn’t do anything drastic.
The solar princess had kept her regal wear; a sparkling pink dress that still allowed her a full range of motion for all of her limbs, while the lunar princess had come in full battle armor, complete with dark metal plates and two rapiers in scabbards at her waist. Both stared at the unfolding situation with grim-faced determination.

Another one of the small and strange silvery airships had come (Twilight assumed it was the same kind that her friends had described to her after they had made first contact with the newcomers), but this time it had been accompanied by three dozen extremely large, insectile blue creatures, that chattered and walked across the courtyard this way and that, maintaining a constant perimeter between the guardsponies and the ships in the center of the space. The guardsponies, for their part, didn’t try to approach too closely.

The strange creatures had also come with a second ship.

And what a ship the newcomers had brought. Twilight had never seen anything like it. Its scale alone dwarfed anything that she could have ever imagined possible from any creature she had ever heard about. It descended from the clouds accompanied by a loud droning sound, which became almost painfully loud as it settled to hover just above the ground, barely able to squeeze beside the Minotaurs’ airship, before sinking down onto massive landing struts on the bottom of the craft.

It looked like two tuning forks held together by the connecting ends, with some sort of gourd hanging down between them. The difference was that the craft was easily a thousand times bigger than a vegetable and two rods of metal.
As the craft settled onto the ground, Twilight felt a sudden surge of weightlessness, before the feeling vanished and the massive construct finally finished landing. She felt extreme awe and wonder at the vehicle before her. How in Equestria can something so large stay together and land on such a small point (relative to the rest of the craft) without buckling and crashing down upon itself?

After the giant dragonfly-like airship landed, the strange, silvery bathtub craft finally came down near the bottom of the steps to land in its stubby, insect-like legs.

A somewhat large expanse separated the two craft, and Twilight surmised that the smaller shuttle must have held the leaders, while the massive airship might have been a troop transport of some kind. The size of the ship didn’t fit any other explanation she could think of, and a moment later, her suspicions were confirmed.

As she watched, the massive front, lower section of the hull on which most of the large craft rested, opened up like a doorway and a shallow ramp extended, allowing two very strange things to come down and take up positions on either side of the opening, about halfway down the length underneath each front wing.

Twilight couldn’t think of anything the two… things… could be. They had a squat, shovel-like nose, which curved back like a saxophone to two stubby arms and a somewhat circular roof. The entire thing looked like some kind of floating beetle, covered in either a smooth carapace, or bristling with straight, blunt, forward-facing spines.

Maybe those are some kind of guard animals? But then why do they look kind of like they’re made of metal?
Twilight didn’t get to wonder any further, as she glanced to her mentor and friend, and saw Princess Celestia’s expression harden. Looking back to the huge craft, she saw why.

Rows upon rows of the strange, skinny, skeletal statues were walking down the ramp and moving off to make large squares in front of either shovel-beetle-saxophone-thing. Each looked exactly the same and each held some sort of black metal tubular device in its hands, while the sound of clanking and marching drowned out anything else in the courtyard.
Sudden movement from beyond the courtyard caused Twilight to look up. Out beyond the fence separating the palace grounds from the rest of the city, hundreds of ponies had gathered to see the strange newcomers that had inexplicably come from the sky and landed right in the Princess’ front yard. She could already see several flashes of light as some reporters began taking pictures.

Out of the airship and down the ramp the statues continued to march, to stand in neat rows and columns between the large ship and the small one, all facing directly forward. It wasn’t until no less than eight squares of the statue-creatures had filled up the space between the two craft that they stopped coming, and the doors in the small ship opened, lowering the ramp and allowing the occupants to walk down.

They were a motley bunch, if not seemingly at home with each other.

There was another of the tall, skinny sculptures, although it seemed to have a slight difference in coloration; it was followed by a mostly black, somewhat boxy creature, with sharp angles and tubular limbs. The third member of the party looked like a blunt approximation of her own Metal Mare, with silver coverings and what seemed to be a limited range of motion, if its shuffling gait was anything to judge by, although with some aesthetic changes that made it look closer in biology (or… would it be closer in design? Were these things even alive?) to the other members of the group.

For a second, Twilight didn’t even see the fourth member of the group, as it was hidden by the others, but after a few seconds she did managed to spy a small, two legged creature, looking vaguely like a rabbit, hurrying closely behind the heels of the first being, and carrying some sort of square slat that was glowing on one side.

The remainder of the group was made up of identical black-brown figures, who looked somewhat like the skeletal statues, but a bit more muscular and square-ish. There were six of them in total, and they stood straight and tall, carrying the same black devices that the army in front of the large airship did.

Standing with the two princesses as she was, Twilight looked over to regard their own group.

Applejack stared down at the approaching newcomers with open suspicion; Rarity was giving them a heavily-lidded stare that seemed to put her above their level; Fluttershy was doing her best to look assertive and intimidating, it seemed; Pinkie Pie was practically bursting with energy, although if it was from excitement or nervousness, Twilight couldn’t tell; and Starlight and Trixie were standing a little off to the side and behind the rest of the mares, looking quite unsure of whether they should be there.

Twilight suddenly heard Celestia murmur beside her, “What on Equus are they?” and couldn’t help but think the same thing.
Once the motley group reached the bottom of the steps the ponies stood on, Princess Celestia cleared her throat and put on a gentle smile, whereas Princess Luna scowled and adjusted her swords, before both of the diarchs stepped forward simultaneously. A small tug on her arm from the solar princess caused Twilight to step forward too, and realize that the two wanted her to come with them to introduce themselves to the invaders.

The procession of strange newcomers had stopped at the bottom of the stairs when the three equestrians had made their move, and as she got closer, Twilight couldn’t help but feel an increase in apprehension in the air, before she realized that Celestia was accidentally projecting her emotions to the general area.

I’ve never known Celestia to be this unsure of herself, Twilight thought, and the realization scared her. Before she could think anything else however, the feeling dissipated and the solar diarch spoke.

“Greetings, newcomers. It is my pleasure to welcome you to Canterlot, capital of Equestria. I am Princess Celestia, and this is my sister, Princess Luna. Together we rule this great land in peace and harmony. May I ask the nature of your visit?”
It was clearly evident from the first few seconds of her introduction that most of the assembled creatures did not understand her, as almost immediately the silver creature began speaking to the others in a strange language, in an even, somewhat feminine tone, and stopped shortly after the princess had.

An interpreter? That would make sense if they evolved with a different language, but that doesn’t explain how they know our language in the first place. I’ve never heard of anything like these things before, and I think somepony would have reported it if they had made first contact with them before now. Twilight shook her head and listened to the yellow-marked, living sculpture as it spoke in a high, ratty voice, before the silver translator started up again and spoke in equestrian.

“Greetings princesses. I am the Captain of the Dawn of Dusk, and I have come to formally fold your nation into the Separatist Alliance and to lay some ground rules, as well as answer any questions you may have at this time.”

“I believe you may be speaking a bit too optimistically. While I do thank you for coming all the way here to speak to us directly, we have no intention of joining your alliance,” Princess Luna replied coolly.

The silver being translated once more and then repeated what the skeletal being said. “I do not think you understand the implications of what I am proposing. Perhaps if you gave me some time I could convince you to aid our cause.”

Twilight still hadn’t said anything during the exchange, and was getting the sinking feeling that she shouldn’t be here. I don’t know anything about handling matters of the state! What good would I be in political matters? I’ve studied nearly every aspect of the world, but politics never really interested me, what am I supposed to do now?! Celestia’s response only partially made it to Twilight’s brain, but it managed to calm her down just a bit.

“-welcome such a meeting between ourselves, but I’m afraid you’ve come at a rather poor time. As it turns out, we are currently engaged in political talks with another nation-”

At least, until the skeletal statue nearly jumped as it heard the news, and immediately started talking without waiting for the princess to finish, while the silver being spluttered for a second before redirecting the translation.

“Representatives of another nation are here? Wonderful! That will make things much easier! If we can smooth things over with both of your nations and it will make things go that much faster when we add the rest of the sovereign states to the Separatist Alliance.”

“I-, well, that would not be ideal. We are currently in a very heated political climate, and any interference would only be detrimental to the current situation. Until such a time as our current matter is resolved, I’m afraid we cannot hold any talks with you, the situation is much too urgent. Perhaps we could arrange for you to return at a later date? We could also guarantee a much better meeting place.”

The skeletal thing held up a three-fingered hand and spoke quickly, so much so that the translator seemed to have trouble keeping up, “Oh no, no, no! That’s not necessary! If anything this will be most helpful to all parties involved! Is this your capital? I’d assume so, not many of your other cities are quite as large, and if you’re the rulers of this nation it actually makes sense. So! If you’d be so kind as to invite us inside, I’m sure you’re very curious as to what I’m-”

The silver being suddenly stopped for a moment, looking once between both the tall skinny Captain and the Princesses, before finishing somewhat lamely, “-proposing.”

And without another word, the tall skinny being started marching up the stairs, followed by the rest of its companions, while several nearby guards stepped forward to block their way up with spears drawn. Celestia, however had had enough.

As the princess stepped forward, the sun suddenly blazed brighter in the sky, and her mane shone brighter than it had been a moment before. The tip of her horn glowed, and although there was no visible effect, the surrounding area suddenly became uncomfortably hot and still, and Twilight nearly fainted from the heat. She noticed her friends behind her also react similarly, quickly beginning to pant and slouch. Looking back to the beings trying to make their way up the steps, she was shocked to find they seemed unaffected.

In fact, the situation was suddenly turning against the princesses, as the group of invaders had already walked straight past the first line of guards, who fell over each other in the blazing heat trying to stop their advance.

As Twilight watched the tall thin figures continue to walk up the steps, she saw the magic aura around Princess Celestia’s horn dissipate, and the air slowly cooled to its previous temperature, allowing the guards to regain themselves and become competent once more, and Twilight and her friends managed to take a breath of cool air and stop themselves from fainting, slowly regaining their previous demeanors. The invaders for their part, hadn’t seemed to notice any difference in their hosts.

Unfortunately, by the time all of this had happened, the invaders’ group of leaders (or so that’s what they seemed to be) had already reached the top of the steps and were right in front of the princesses.

Twilight, in her surprise, took two steps back, and in all honesty, would recount this day as the one where the whole world stopped making sense. Although certainly not the shortest in their group of friends, Twilight was by no means tall, and even as an Alicorn, she hadn’t really grown much taller. The invaders on the other hand, were huge. They were way taller than her or any of her friends, and even stallions as large as Shining Armor and Big Mac would have had a tough time looking the skinny ones in the eye.

Twilight’s only saving grace in her moment of panic and surprise, was that both Celestia and Luna stepped forward at the same time with steely gazes in their eyes to meet the strange beings. As they stepped forth, Twilight was relieved to see the tiniest of smirks on Celestia’s face, before she extended her hand in greeting. The skeletal leader of the motley group, for its part, tilted its whole head to look down at the hand, before turning and saying something to the silver translator.

“Uncivilised ruffians.”

Twilight nearly jumped out of her skin at the voice, which had materialized just behind her left shoulder. Turning to look, she realized that the other girls had walked up closer while she hadn’t been paying attention, and Rarity was looking at the strange creatures with a combination look of superiority and disgust. “Honestly, why do all the ones who try to invade Equestria have to be barbarians? I mean, they don’t even know what a handshake is for goodness sakes.”

Twilight had nothing to say to that, still trying to form her own opinions of the strange beings literally on Equestria’s doorstep as they finally managed to understand what the princesses were explaining constituted a handshake, before the lead being grabbed Celestia’s hand and very vigorously yanked it up and down in a comical game of how-far-does-your-arm-swing.

Nodding its head in satisfaction, the yellow-marked, captain, statue-thing looked to its companions, all of whom declined shaking hands. Tuning herself back into the conversation, she saw Celestia and Luna, followed by the entire invader delegation striding back towards them and to the castle’s main doors, where the solar diarch beckoned Twilight and her friends to follow, and they all quickly fell into step.

If the princesses were hoping to have any privacy for their meeting with the strange invaders however, it was quickly thrown out the window as soon as they stepped inside the palace. A side door to the main hall just ahead of the group exploded open and several serious-looking Minotaur guards formed up on either side of the doorway while General Kratos stepped through, hands clasped behind his back and a dark scowl on his face.

Celestia, for her part, kept her chin up and didn't slow down in the slightest until the group was right next to the Minotaur General, at which point she stopped and turned to address the massive figure.

"General, I'm sorry, but right now I cannot attend to whatever matter has come up. Both my sister and I are having an emergency meeting. If you and the rest of your delegation would please just remain in your quarters, we'll have the situation resolved quickly and we can get back to the matters between our two nations."

"I'm a little shocked, Princess, that you would brush the Minotaurs aside so. You see, when I heard that our afternoon meeting was going to be suddenly postponed due to some other dignitaries arriving with an emergency, I had assumed that some of your ponies were in trouble and was on my way to offer the Minotaur's help, as a show of solidarity and good faith during these trying times. As soon as I looked out the window, however, it was quite easy to see that the emergency was with you, and not these... 'dignitaries.'"

The large minotaur general stepped to the side of the princesses and glared down at the motley group of invaders, one of the few creatures in all of Canterlot besides the princesses able to do so because of his enormous size.

"Princess, the Minotaurs and the Equestrians have been allies for many years, and I would have thought that at a time like this you would want a show of strength in the face of such an army." Kratos gestured to where the army of statue-esque creatures still stood outside, visible through the main doors and the large stained-glass windows on either side.

It was clear to everypony gathered there that the General was somewhat disgusted by the equestrian's apparent spinelessness and was upset at having been lied to, even if it had been mostly true in the first place. However, Princess Celestia raised a hand and silenced the General with only a look.

"General Kratos, while I would very much welcome any support that the nation of Minos can give, now is not the time to be jumping to conclusions. We have the situation well under control and I am asking as a friend for you and the other minotaurs to please let us handle this."

"Under control, you say," the General, snorted, the blast of air hitting the yellow-marked statue right in the face, although it seemed to take no notice of it. Kratos continued, "I can see from the fact that Princess Twilight still needs support when walking and the fact that an entire army is standing at your gates, not to mention that Princess Luna," he gestured to the princess of the night, "decided to attend this 'meeting' in full battle armor. Yes, this truly speaks of your having everything under control... and what do you keep muttering about?!"

The General roared at the silver being in the invaders' group as it quickly and quietly translated everything that was happening in the conversation to the rest of the statue-creatures. At the sudden declaration, the silver-plated being gave a start and shuffled to stand behind one of the blackish guards, all of whom seemed to tense and raised the black devices in their hands slightly.

"General, that is their translator, and I am going to ask you only once more, please let us-"

Celestia was at that moment rudely interrupted by the invader Captain as he squawked and gestured several times to the Minotaur General, the princesses, and the silver translator, who, after a few more seconds of inaction, quickly caught up and started translating again, though it stayed well clear of the General and firmly behind the tough-looking guard.

"You must be the other nation's representatives! Pleasure to meet you! We were just going to discuss with the princesses here how best to integrate their nation into the Confederacy of Independent Systems. With you here, we can be much more efficient and have you join as well!"

The invader captain seemed to be quite pleased with how he was handling things, but Kratos's face had changed from one of disgust and anger, to one of complete disbelief.

"Minos will never agree to any terms in order to become the lackey of some power-hungry despot, no matter how nice and friendly they may appear in their attempts to 'unify' the world. It simply cannot be done. If you came here for diplomatic talks, then why did you bring an army?"

These words were not spoken by the Minotaur General, but rather by the bent and stooped figure of Elder Morgath as he strode through the same doorway that Kratos had emerged from and looked up at the captain statue-creature with his eyes squinted behind a pair of spectacles.

"Even if we were to even consider it, it would take the decision of the entire Minotaur high council to agree to anything you have to offer. The answer is no. Minos will not be joining this 'Confederacy', and if Equestria decides not to as well, then I have little doubt our two nations will unite to stand against you."

With that, the old minotaur slammed his walking staff into the ground once and turned to shuffle back the way he had came, but not before turning to give Princess Celestia a wink. "I will leave you to your talks, Princess, but please consider my words here today."

Twilight's gaze was enraptured by the departing Minotaur Elder, who was followed shortly by a rather unhappy-looking General Kratos and the rest of the guards, before they were all out of sight and the group began moving back down the hallway again, if perhaps a bit quicker than before.

As they made their way down halls and corridors, and eventually to a large gold-lined door to one of the many conference rooms that the palace housed, Twilight couldn't help but think how in the world Celestia was going to convince the invaders to leave Equestria alone.

Along the way, the group was joined by an extremely humiliated and flustered Rainbow Dash (as well as Spike and the nurse who was pushing her bed; the cause of said humiliation), before both groups entered into the spacious room and took various positions around the large oval table in the center. Several royal guards stood at attention in the corners of the room, and plenty of very comfortable chairs sat around the table, while the two Princesses took positions at the head of the room and were followed by everyone else taking a seat; first the ponies, and then after a few seconds hesitation, the invaders. The dark guards of the invader group took up flanking positions on either side of the table near the walls, but still staying close to their charges.

"Now, as I've told you before, shortly after you arrived from your airships, we are not interested in joining any 'League of Nations' or 'Confederacy' or 'Alliance' what have you, but you are more than welcome to continue your point before we get to the real matter, which is what it's going to take to prevent you from trying to make us join through force." The princess gave a sly smile. "We know you wouldn't have come with an army in such a display of power if you had no intention of using it, but I hope there will be no need for violence here."

The yellow-marked statue-creature, the captain, pondered the question for a short while, exchanging several looks with its blocky companion before looking back at the princess with its blank gaze and the silver being started translating almost immediately.

"Dear Princess, we too hope to be able to accomplish our goals without violence, but as a collective government, the Separatist Alliance, also known as the Confederacy of Independent Systems, has had more than its fair share of attacks targeted towards it when it does try to make these sorts of deals. On another note, you misunderstand, our transports are not airships-."

"Preposterous."

Every head in the room turned to look at Princess Luna as she scoffed and crossed her arms, the steel of her plate armor clanging quietly together.

"You expect us to believe that you did not in fact arrive here in that massive machine? We all saw, clear as day, that it somehow flew and held itself aloft. What next, are you going to say that the army you brought is not an army, but rather a brigade of peacekeepers and relief workers?"

"No, your princessness," the captain continued, "that is very simply part of our armed ground forces, however, before I was interrupted, I wanted to stress that our vehicles are not airships, because they are rated for more than only in-atmospheric flight."

Princess Celestia, watching silently, leaned forward and set her hands on the table, squinting slightly as she tried to understand what the captain was saying.

"Are you saying that your vessels can also travel through water?"

The captain jerked backwards at these words, before twitching slightly and giving a short, shrill, squeaks. It took Twilight a few seconds to realize that it was laughing.

"No, no, no! Again you misunderstand! You see, the Confederacy of Independent Systems is so named because it is a collection of many thousands of government bodies, all of whom-"

"That's impossible! There aren't that many-" Princess Luna started, but was promptly quieted by the dark blocky figure, which had slammed a fist down on the table.

For the first time, the boxy figure spoke, a rough, flat monotone that was highly unsettling and very different from the almost comical voice of the captain. Although unable to understand what it said, the translator happily bridged the gap, despite the message being rather clear.

"Do not interrupt the captain when he is trying to explain things! It is for your own benefit."

"Thank you Colonel," the captain continued, the silver translator not breaking a beat as it switched from one invader's dialogue to another.

"Like I was saying, the Confederacy is comprised of many thousands of governments, all of whom reign from different systems. Hence the name. Your question of whether our transports can move underwater finally made the puzzle click for me. You see, our transports are not rated for underwater use, however, the 'Systems' in 'Confederacy of Independent Systems' are star systems, and that is part of what we are proposing if you decide to add your nation to the Alliance."

The captain straightened back in its chair and looked around the room for a second before continuing.

"Princesses, how would you like to take a tour of a starship?"

Chapter 8 - Joy Of The Holidays

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5:34 P.M. Ponyville Park, Ponyville

Roseluck was taking a leisurely stroll in Ponyville park, her face buried in a book she had recently purchased from the newly opened bookstore in town.

She was so engrossed in her reading however, that she didn’t notice the familiar springing noise that was drawing nearer, until she walked straight into someone. Both ponies fell over and ended up in a heap, groaning as they tried to untangle themselves and pick themselves up off the ground.

Shaking her head, Roseluck opened her eyes just in time to see a balloon invading her face’s personal space.

“Hi Rose! Sorry for running into you, I wasn’t looking where I was bouncing!” Pinkie Pie peeked out from behind the balloon and gave an apologetic smirk, rubbing the back of her head slightly.

“Oh, no, it’s alright Pinkie, I wasn’t looking where I was headed either. I was just reading this really interesting book I just bought.” Roseluck smiled back and accepted the apology balloon, not even caring how the other mare had managed to conjure up the gift in such a short time.

Brushing off the cover of the book from the dust it had settled in, Pinkie Pie read the cover as she handed it back to Rose.

“’Battle of the Planets’? That sounds intense! What’s it about?”

Rose blushed and quickly pulled the book to her chest. “Well, it’s kind of silly, but… it’s a new genre of reading, called ‘science fiction’. This one in particular is about aliens that invade Equestria from the moon and wreak havoc in giant tripod walkers and quick flying machines. They shoot lasers and are super tough, and the story focuses on a simple pony just trying to survive and get away as his whole world seems to crumble around him.”

The pale earth pony mare blushed as Pinkie leaned in even more, her mouth formed into a large ‘O’ and her eyes wide at the news.

“That sounds really cool actually!”

“Y-you think so? It’s a pretty small niche for literature right now, but- hang on, aren’t you supposed to be in Canterlot stopping some kind of weird invasion from happening?”

At the change in subject, Roseluck found herself on the receiving end of the strangest look Pinkie had ever, who slowly backed away the way she had come, keeping her eyes on the Rose the entire time, somehow miraculously doing hopscotch backwards when she walked across a hopscotch grid drawn into the dirt.

Roseluck stared back at the pink earth pony, a thoroughly puzzled look on her face, her concentration only broken once a high-pitched whine reached her ears. Flicking them she looked around for the sound, eyes darting in every direction, before the sound intensified to a nearly deafening level and something large and blue whipped by overhead, quickly followed by several other blue blurs.

Crouching down on the spot, a sense of unease came over Rose, and several screams reached her ears. Looking to the source of the shrieking, she saw a mare clutching two fillies to her chest and looking over her shoulder as she ran out of the park. Roseluck followed her gaze and gasped at what she saw, her book falling, forgotten, from her limp hands.

Marching through the Everfree Forest towards Ponyville was the largest, strangest, and scariest thing she had ever seen. It was taller than any building in the town, and on top of three massively long legs perched a large bulbous head, from which red lasers spewed in all directions, turning anything they touched to slag or rubble.

Her book forgotten on the ground, Roseluck hightailed it out of the park, ducking for cover between the close buildings of her home town. The strange monster had made it out of the forest now, and was headed straight for Ponyville, and from where she hid behind a corner, she could see ponies of every kind running for their lives and screaming in terror, while the ground shook beneath the behemoth’s steps.

The high-pitched whine reached her ears once more and she looked up in time to see what looked like a massive blue insect zipping across the sky. Rose hid herself behind the building once more and prayed that what she had read in her book wasn’t actually happening, hoped that it was all a dream, hoped that none of the alien monsters found her.

Until the whining sound suddenly stopped, and a massive shudder through the ground told her something very large had landed just on around the corner.

Trembling in fear, she no longer heard anypony screaming. In fact, the town had gone eerily silent, besides the sound of the things flying overhead and the giant tripod stomping around somewhere. Peeking around her corner, her vision was obscured by something dark blue.

Looking up, she saw it was a dark blue leg, attached to a dark blue body, which was attached to a dark blue head. The head had long slitted eyes that glowed the color of blood and were staring straight at her.

The terrified earth pony screamed at the top of her lungs and ran in the opposite direction, but she couldn’t even hear herself over the titanic screeching sound the monster made as it crashed into buildings and tried to wedge itself into the alley after her.

Bursting out from the other side of the buildings, she looked both ways, seeing the street was deserted and ran straight into a steel-grey metal slab that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the street.

Rubbing her snout and wincing at the stars she saw, she shook her head to clear it somewhat and looked up at the metal slab.

The higher she looked, the less she thought it was a metal wall. It bent and slanted, and was much narrower than she had originally though, but it was still as wide as her shoulders, and reached high up into the sky, before connecting to two others nearly directly overhead. Looking back down, she saw the slab lift up and slam down on the ground several meters away, causing the ground to shudder, followed by another one of the spindly metal towers, and another, and she finally got a good look as the thing moved off.

It wasn’t a wall.

Two more of the giant tripods had moved into the town, stepping over and onto and straight through some of the buildings as they unleashed fire from their bulbous heads in all directions, rubble being all that was left after they had passed.

Falling onto her back, Roseluck broke down and just cried; her life gone, her friends most likely burned away by the lasers the giant tripods and alien ships were slinging about.

Looking up at the evening sky, the lonely mare blinked as a bright point sparkled to life high above her. Quickly, it went from a bright point to a flaming ball, then transitioned into a ragged and misshaped lump screaming down into the atmosphere, coming straight towards her.

She saw pieces break away from the main body of the object and create their own trails of flame, all the while the bright flame in the sky got brighter and larger. It was so close now she could almost feel the heat radiating off of it as it roared through the atmosphere straight for her and the town.

Seconds before it impacted and blaster her into oblivion, she saw a strange greenhouse-looking contraption sitting on top of the massive object, with strange skeleton-looking things running around inside.

Then Roseluck’s world went white.

***

Roseluck woke up and screamed at the top of her lungs, falling out of bed and scrambling to her hooves, where she felt all over her body to make sure she was still alive and whole.

Eyes darting in every direction, she quickly opened her window and stuck her head outside, to be greeted by the chirping of birds and ponies going about their morning business.

There was no screaming.

There were no fires or destroyed buildings.

There were no alien tripods causing mayhem all over town.

There was however, the sound of snoring.

Turning back to her room, Rose jumped at the sudden sight of Discord sitting slumped over in a chair in the opposite corner beside her bead, his head resting against the wall as he snored gently, a book resting in his lap.

Taking careful steps towards the god of chaos, Roseluck carefully and quietly picked up the book and read the page it was open to. Her dream was starting to disappear, but as she skimmed over the lines, she couldn’t help but feel it was familiar. She read the last few lines that was written out loud, trying to make some sense of it.

“Seconds before it impacted and blasted her into oblivion, she saw a strange greenhouse-looking contraption sitting on top of the massive object, with strange skeleton-looking things running around inside. Then Roseluck’s world went white.”

Looking thoroughly confused, she closed the book and looked up, only to find that Discord had disappeared, and a faint mocking laugh could be heard coming from all directions.

Looking down she read the title of the book and her confusion grew.

“What’s an ‘April Fools’?”

Chapter 9 - All Aboard The Bad Idea

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10:43 A.M. Dining Hall, Canterlot Castle, Canterlot

The entire group of assembled ponies had been quite shocked when the metal Captain uncovered his proposal to the princesses. The princesses and/or whomever they chose, would be allowed to take a full tour of any non-hazardous areas of the Dawn of Dusk in an effort to be made aware of all the advances and advantages that joining the Confederacy would bring them, both technological and social, as well as political and military.

Celestia was familiar with dealing with warlords and diplomats alike, and so was no stranger to the first part of the droids' plan but didn't realize the Captain had a second part to his plan, simply because there was less incentive for the droids to behave themselves while they had very valuable ponies on their ship than there was to hold them hostage and use them as leverage.

Because the plan was indeed twofold.

The first part involved allowing the princesses the chance to see just how large of a force the droids had, as well as how much of a superior technological advantage they had over the ponies without actually divulging any of their technological secrets through the tour or directly threatening them.

The second part was that it would show that the droids were capable of diplomacy and were willing to negotiate with very strong leverage against their steep terms, though the extent of what ‘joining the CIS’ would mean for the ponies was generally dodged whenever the topic came up.

After the bombshell proposal that the Captain had come up with, the princesses had invited the droids to accompany them for breakfast to discuss just exactly what the "tour" would entail, and which ponies would be decided to participate.

When all had been seated it was then that the ponies learned something new about their guests. They found out that the droids didn't, and in fact couldn't, eat.

While the princesses discussed the implications quietly and listened as the captain tried to explain that droids were in fact artificial beings while doing his best not to imagine what all the delectable foods that were laid out on the table might taste like, Pinkie was being tended to by Twilight and Fluttershy, having fainted at the thought of not being able to eat cake or ever know "how deliciously yum-tastic it is".

"So just to clarify," Princess Celestia said, clearing her throat and swallowing her pancake as the Captain paused yet again in his explanation for questions, "when you say 'manufactured', how exactly are you built? I understand you said that you jroidz are artificial, but the way you have explained it leads me to believe you are made on an assembly line, rather than built with care and precision. I cannot comprehend how something as advanced as your species could be built by anything less than professionals and taught how to do the jobs you do without a tremendous amount of instruction and training. Just to raise a child in Equestria takes many years of nurture and care, and they learn things at a gradual pace as they mature."

The Captain shook his head and gestured to the protocol droid in a way that the solar princess didn't understand, before continuing.

"No, see, I can't think of a better way to explain it, but basically we're built to do a specific job or set of jobs and have the knowledge of how to do them already um... sent into our uh..." The Captain had a short discussion with the black boxy figure on his left before returning his attention to the two princesses and continuing. "Brain! That's the word; you organics have brains! We already know how to do everything. We can technically be taught how to do additional things but it's easier to uh, learn it near-instantly the same way it's done when we're first activated."

The Captain glanced over at his boxy companion, the 'Colonel', who continued to stare flatly at the discussion happening on the other side of the table, where Trixie was trying to decide whether to wet herself in fear of the invaders or put on her 'show face' and try to awe them with a demonstration of her powers.

Starlight was at her side trying to dissuade her from doing either, keeping an eye on the conversation at the head of the table, while glancing around at her other friends. Rainbow sat on her opposite side in a wheelchair and grumbled while she ate a small salad and glared at the blackish droid guards. Next to her, Applejack kept a keen ear out for the conversation between the Princesses and the droid Captain, annoyance flickering over her face every time the alien leader spoke. Pinkie had finally regained consciousness and was being fanned by a relieved Fluttershy, leaving Twilight to fawn over the design of the droids and squirm in excitement over meeting aliens!

Rarity, on the other hand, ate her breakfast quietly without talking to anyone, although Spike sat next to her and chowed down on a bowl of gems with gusto and tried to lift her mood by recounting a time when he single-handedly fought off a swarm of wood-paper-peckers that were intent on devouring Twilight's collection of books, even though it was clear the unicorn was not interested in being there in the slightest.

Princess Luna, still in her battle armor, seemed to have droned out most of the conversations happening around the table, and now sat with her arms crossed over her chest, deep in thought. Nothing had been said out loud yet, but Starlight already had a sneaking suspicion that Princess Celestia was going to ask Twilight and her friends to be the ones to accept the droid Captain's invitation and go on the starship tour on her behalf.

When the princess of the sun brought her sister into the conversation going on between herself and the jroid leadership, she gave a small start and looked up, while Starlight rolled her eyes as she heard the Diarch include her plans for the element bearers.

"Lulu? Are you listening?"

"Huh? Sorry, I got lost in thought," the dark alicorn shook her head and returned her attention to her sister and the Captain. "What were we discussing again?"

The solar princess gave a small, tinkling laugh and covered her mouth before resuming.

"I said, would you be willing to accompany Twilight and her friends? I trust them in being able to adequately report on their experience and formulate a decision on whether a union between our two governments would be beneficial, but as the leaders of our people we should have some experience seeing these droids in their natural environment as well. Since we cannot both go and leave our ponies leaderless, would you go on behalf of both of us and tell me your views on this decision when you return?"

The dark alicorn blinked several times and stammered a bit, while Starlight’s eyes narrowed and she read in between the lines.

You have experience they don't and may be able to pick up on things they might overlook in their excitement. You can tell if it is indeed foolish to try and stay independent or not and whether it would be better to join forces with them.

Composing herself, Princess Luna sat up straighter and nodded once before turning to look straight into the blank eyes of the droid Captain, and the lilac unicorn across the table gave a glance at Twilight, who seemed to have missed the hidden intention. If she didn’t get the message, then it’s a good thing Luna’s coming with her to see the jroidz. Jroidz, jroiz, droiz, however you say it! Starlight shook her head, why do they have to have such a strange name?

The sound of Princess Luna’s voice, however, brought her back to the present as she continued to half pay attention to Trixie as she rambled on about what first impressions were all about and half to the two princesses and the jroiz.

"Very well, Captain. I would most graciously ask to come along for the tour of your starship, as well as several guards of my choosing. Is that alright with you?"

The Captain bobbed his head and made a chattering sound, which the silver droid promptly translated.

"Yes, yes of course! We would be delighted to have one of the rulers of this land on board the Dawn of Dusk! We can leave whenever you and the rest of your group are ready, and we are willing to wait several days if need be, in case you wish to bring in experts from around your land."

The Captain nodded his head and looked very pleased with himself, which the ponies found very strange since it did not have the ability to move its facial features in any way.

"I believe we will be able to accompany you as soon as breakfast finishes," the dark alicorn responded, getting to her hooves gracefully before moving to the door. "I just have a few other ponies to inform of the tour as well as change into something a bit more comfortable."

As she exited the room, the black droid Colonel straightened up and leaned over to whisper something to the Captain, while nearly everyone else around the table had been enraptured by Princess Celestia’s request.

After a few moments, a tiny squealing sound could be heard, before it resolved itself as coming from between Twilight's teeth as a joyous yell escaped her lips.

"Yes! Thank you, princess! We won't let you down!"

Realizing she had stood up on her chair, Twilight blushed and sat back down, giving a small cough as she tried to ignore the chuckles of her friends, but noticed that they too leaned forward in anticipation as she addressed the solar Diarch.

"I mean... my friends and I would be happy to go with Princess Luna to ascertain whether the jroiz are being genuine in their claims of having technology and advancements to share in exchange for us joining their 'Confederacy'."

***

About an hour later, the entire group marched back out of the main gates and down the steps to the waiting shuttle, while the droid army continued to stand at attention, before the Colonel raised a hand to his head and muttered something.

To Twilight, it looked like the entirety of Canterlot had turned up just outside the castle gates, as tons of ponies could be seen watching in trepidation, camera flashes going off every few seconds and hushed whispers carrying over the dead silence of the courtyard to reverberate off the hull of the strange alien craft.

When the droid Colonel had spoken however, a collective gasp came from the crowd as the army of skinny droids turned as one and began to file back into the massive landing ship. The tall blue chattering droids jumped up and stuck their legs out in front of them, before starting to fly lazy circles around the courtyard in preparation for takeoff.

Princess Celestia and several guards accompanied Twilight and her friends to the shuttle, where the droids boarded first and the solar princess magically amplified her voice to be heard over the crowd at the gates.

"Loyal subjects, please do not be afraid! Princess Luna and I are working to resolve this issue, and I ask that you all return to your homes and businesses! Princess Luna and the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony will be travelling with our guests to resolve a problem and attempt to avoid any conflict between them and our peace-loving nation!"

Turning back to the group of ponies chosen to go on the tour, Celestia felt tears attempt to enter her eyes, but forbade it and composed herself before smiling and giving each of her ponies a curt nod.

"I believe in you all, and I know you will do the right thing and make Equestria proud."

Catching the somber look her sister gave her, she gave an imperceptible nod and looked over all who would be going.

It was a rather large group, but that hadn't seemed to bother the droid Captain.

Princess Luna stood in her regular regal wear, a sparkling blue dress with a slit halfway up one side, and an open back that allowed her wings to fully extend and move without interference from the fabric, and next to her were the four elite royal guards she had picked, all of them wearing steely gazes and sparsely decorated, highly functional armor.

Twilight Sparkle (who, after several wobbly steps on her own had insisted that she didn't need a crutch anymore), Spike, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash (who still had some bandages but refused to be confined to a bed or wheelchair and made no indication that walking gave her any difficulty) stood in a group of their own, all giggling, with Spike stealing unsure glances at the last two members, who stood a bit farther than the rest of the ponies.

Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon stood off to one side, again looking as if they shouldn't be there, but complying with the Princess' request to keep Twilight and her friends out of trouble.

After the droids had finished walking up the ramp into the shuttle and the ponies could hear a slight whine coming from the machine, they too followed up, waving good-bye to Princess Celestia as she stood on the ground, a line of royal guards holding position just beside her.

As the ramp folded up and the doors to the shuttle closed behind them, everypony, even the guards, rushed forward past the black droid guards to see out the limited view of the forward viewport, where they crowded just behind the Captain and the Colonel.

The ship lifted off and they felt the rumble in the deck below their hooves, while the droids stayed completely silent, allowing the ponies to simply observe as the large blue droids swarmed over them in dazzling patterns and showed off feats of flying that could only be described as acrobatic skill.

When they sky quickly began to darken and the blue droids became harder to see, they resumed flying in normal patrols next to the shuttle and the massive landing craft that trailed behind it.

Before long, the twinkling of stars could be seen and everypony (everypony who could see through the viewport at the time, as the shuttle was rather filled to capacity) gasped as they saw a single silver speck in the distance begin to grow larger and resolve into a strange craft that hung in the blackness like nothing they'd ever seen.

"It looks like... a silver cob of corn," Twilight eventually remarked, generating some nods from the other Equestrians while others squinted and turned their heads this way and that.

Sweat forming on her brow, Princess Luna turned to the Captain and asked, "Shouldn't we slow down? We are headed towards it quite fast. We don't want to get too close and end up hitting it by accident."

However, the Captain simply waved a hand and the translator could be heard from the back of the shuttle's cabin calling out the translations.

"Not at all! We're actually still quite far away from the ship. I think you'll be quite impressed, actually."

"That's what I'm afraid of..." The Lunar Princess muttered to herself.

As it grew larger, the trepidation in the shuttle grew palpable. They were now flying over the surface of the massive starship, which stretched before them like an enormous fish in space. Here and there, Twilight and would point out turrets or masts that seemed to jut out from the hull of the ship at random, before a gaping hole greeted them and they could see the interior of the hangar for the first time.

Before anything more than a cursory glance could be made however, the Captain turned around and started shooing the ponies back from the cockpit and back to the passenger area while the shuttle descended and landed in the hangar of the Separatist Dreadnought.

***

Starlight and Trixie, by merit of having basically been at the back of the group the entire trip, were now at the front as the doors opened to let the passengers off, and the ramp lowered, showing what appeared to be hundreds upon hundreds of droids standing at attention on either side of the shuttle, in neat squares, while an equally large number of a new type of droid could be seen alongside them.

Unlike the skinny beige droids that had been in the army in the courtyard, and the six bodyguard-type droids that accompanied the leaders, these were just as tall as the others, but instead were a dark grey color, and much thicker and tougher looking than either of the previous two types. They didn't carry any black devices in their hands, but instead held one arm up so that their fists were level with their shoulders and looked as if they had their arms pulled back, like a boxer ready to punch something.

Forced to be the first ones down the ramp, Starlight and Trixie clung to each other and tried not to look intimidated as the blue insectile droids flew in from the massive gaping hole in the ship's hull and landed farther off in the empty space, before 'jumping' up and socketing themselves in strange racks in the ceiling while the massive airship slid slowly into the hangar behind them.

The clamoring of hooves on the deck behind them told the two mares that the rest of the hastily thrown-together delegation was now coming down the ramp, and pushing them forward as each pony tried to take in everything inside the hangar at once, inadvertently shoving Trixie into the closest of the lined up grey droids.

Blushing like mad, the blue unicorn gave a squeak as she tried to right herself and get off the legs of the hard metal thing that had tilted its entire upper body to look at her. Trying to prevent her friend from causing any more accidents, Starlight jumped forward, embarrassed and scared as she helped her friend to her hooves. Surprisingly, the bulky grey droid offered a three-digit hand as well, making a deep grunting noise as it did so.

Trixie and Starlight exchanged a glance before the showpony accepted the offered hand and was quickly hoisted onto her feet with enough force that she nearly toppled over again in surprise.

Thanking the grey droid in line quietly, the two backed away to the rest of the group, who were completely oblivious to their small plight as they were taking in the wonder of space just beyond the forcefield, and the intricacies of the droid ship.

As the droid Captain followed the ponies down the ramp into the hangar, his entourage by his side, Starlight started shaking as she realized Trixie had just embarrassed herself in front of an entire army.

Quickly glancing around to the droids standing at attention, Starlight hurried back to the rest of the ponies, trying to discern if any of the strange things were silently laughing shaking their heads at how foolish the two of them had just made the equestrian delegation look.

After a short time during which the Captain had begun droning on about something again, Starlight realized that the army standing at attention had not moved at all since they arrived, with the sole exception of the grey one that had helped Trixie to her hooves, and the fact that they had no facial expressions, gave the unicorn pause.

What are these things? They really are like statues. Giving a small shiver and feeling Trixie tug on her arm, Starlight returned her attention to the present just in time to see herself being dragged behind the group while the droid Captain started leading them through the columns of soldiers towards a large open door in the far wall, the translation getting lost in the echo of the huge space.

***

Laugher shook his head and stared at Rabid, both of them having seen the proceedings in the main hangar through the open slits in a vent cover.

“Are you serious?” Laugher sighed, shooting his superior officer a disgusted look through his helmet.

“Yeah. I’ve never seen aliens like them before, but if we can capture one, or a couple, then we can negotiate terms to them. They’ve got to be Separatists… they didn’t look like prisoners to me, unless droids have started treating their prisoners way better in the last week,” Rabid replied.

“Okay, even if we go with this crazy idea of yours, how are we supposed to get anywhere near them? If it wasn’t obvious, we’ve got half a ship of angry clankers between us and them, and there’s something crawling in the vents with us.”

Rabid thought for a moment before peering back down into the hangar, where droids were going about their regular duties and most of the assembled guard had dispersed back into other sections of the gargantuan warship.

“Alright. I got it. Those aliens arrived on a shuttle. We create a distraction on one side of the dreadnought to draw the security forces away, then nab the aliens and escape on the shuttle. We’ll hold them hostage to stop the droids from blowing us up as we leave, then send out a signal to the Empire that there’s a Separatist holdout here and make our way to the nearest Imperial planet. Got it?”

Laugher shook his head slowly before looking up to his corporal. “You know, there’s a hundred ways this could go wrong. And a hundred ways we could end up dead before we even reach the shuttle. But I’m gonna be honest, your plan finally includes us getting off this boat alive, so I’ll go along with it.”

“Thanks, Laugher. We’re gonna have to work fast to make this work.” Rabid replied, a small chuckle coming through his helmet.

“As soon as it falls apart though,” Laugher interjected, “I reserve the right to remind you this is still a terrible plan.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Now quit your griping and follow me, I’ve got an idea for what a good distraction could be…”

***

Starlight tried her best to stop Trixie and herself from squealing at every new thing they saw along the corridor, while Twilight’s friends mostly failed at doing the same with the purple princess.

Droids clanked past them going about their business as the Captain and his entourage guided them through a dizzying maze of corridors and rooms.

At one point, they had to take a detour, as one of the corridors had been blocked off and red lights strobed around the closed metal door, so the group had been led through an area with massive metal racks that descended from the ceiling and joined up with large tube-like machines that had one end pointed out enormous blue windows.

Starlight had taken a few steps inside and felt her jaw drop when she saw numerous droids working in seats attached to the machines, while others hefted large red and grey cylinders into the racking via catwalks above.

Realizing that the group of ponies were getting left behind once again by the oblivious droid Captain as he walked over to the far wall where another of the automatic doors that littered the alien ship was situated, Starlight took a quick look at her own group.

At this point in the journey, Twilight wasn’t the only one to have lost her cool at the sheer size of the ship and all it contained.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were staring out of the open views as they hurried along to keep up with the much taller droids, Rarity and Fluttershy were stopping Pinkie from climbing up into the chair of one of the massive tube-machines, and Starlight noted with some small apprehension, that even the pony guards and Princess Luna could not hide their shock and wonder.

Leaving the large room behind, the droid Captain once again led them through several turns in the ship, effectively making them all lost once more before coming to a set of wide vertical tubes set in the wall of a corridor.

Turning to the assembled group, the Captain began chattering and the translator instantly began relaying his words.

“These are elevators. Since they’re too small for all of us to fit in one we’ll go up in groups. I’d like several droids to be with each group of you so that you know which level to arrive on, and so no one wanders off. Once we step off these lifts we’ll be able to start the first leg of the tour of my ship, beginning with the bridge. I will need a moment to get ready once we get there but then I hope you’ll be able to appreciate just what joining the Separatist Alliance will bring to your small planet.”

As if on cue, the sets of doors opened and the Captain motioned for the delegation to enter, with the droids quickly sorting themselves behind the ponies and leaving the guests with no choice but to split up and enter the somewhat cramped compartments. Starlight found herself separated from Trixie as she was stuffed next to Applejack and Fluttershy, as well as two of Princess Luna’s guards, followed by the black boxy “Colonel” and several of the intimidating droid guards.

It was at that point that the lilac unicorn mare suddenly realized how easily their “hosts” had split them up, and how much easier it would be to subdue the groups as they were on their own, rather than together. As the Colonel turned its back to the ponies and pressed a lit button on the inside wall, Starlight felt herself tense up while the doors closed and she felt her weight shift slightly. Ready for whatever the astounding droids were planning, Starlight looked over to Applejack, who seemed equally tense but hid it far better, crossing her arms over her chest, and Fluttershy, who seemed timid (as was normal) but none too suspicious of their sudden circumstances.

After what seemed like a lifetime of waiting for their hosts to turn into captors, the ceiling emitted a soft chime and the doors opened into an identical corridor, the colonel stepping out immediately, followed by the droid guards, none of whom spared so much as a glance at the ponies behind them. Poking her head out of the elevator doors, Starlight looked to the side and found herself face to face with Trixie once more, doing the exact same thing from her own lift while Princess Luna, a guard, Twilight, Rarity and Spike stepped out behind her, following the Captain.

Waving the rest of the group back together, the leader of the party made his way along the length of the hallway to yet another set of closed doors, but instead of opening into another hallway, this one opened into a large room with massive slanted windows, and soft green lights set in the floor and ceiling, while seats and glowing green pads were laid out in lowered slopes radiating outward from the center of the room.

Even though it was not their first time seeing the vastness of space from the windows of the ship, the ponies couldn’t help but take a few seconds to gape once more as they saw the edge of the planet through the bottommost viewports below them.

Turning at a sudden buzzing sound from behind them, the group of ponies saw what looked to them to be a red wastebin with arms slowly wheeling itself down the hallway towards them, before completely ignoring the gathered Equestrians and heading over to one of the droids sitting in a seat and making several whistles and chirping sounds.

This was apparently important enough to warrant the attention of the Captain, who stepped over to the glowing screen that the red-cylinder-thing was sitting next to and started chattering with it and the other skinny droid, before grabbing a small cable from the underside and looping it up to his head and plugging it in.

Starlight opened her mouth to ask what was going on with the Captain when Twilight beat her too it. In response the boxy Colonel redirected its flat gaze to the purple alicorn, as did the silver translator, but no one said a word.

Well, no one, that is, until the Captain began speaking in the ponies’ language for the first time, while removing the plug and handing it to the Colonel, who followed suit and plugged it into the side of its head.

“Just a little upgrade is all. I can’t be having my only translator repeating everything for me while we flesh out the details of this deal. It would be much easier if multiple droidz were able to understand and speak your language, so I asked one of the maintenance workers to take a copy of the library that TL-90,” he gestured to the translator droid, “uses to talk to you and make it compatible with the rest of our systems! Once I order all the droids to get the upgrade we’ll be able to communicate much more efficiently.”

Twilight scratched her chin and tilted her head, a very confused look on her face, while Rainbow Dash shook her head and motioned with a wing.

“What does that mean for those of us that don’t speak egghead?”

“I had the crew make something that allowed me to put your language into my head. Now we don’t need to have a translator along for every single conversation or question!”

At that moment, the Colonel unplugged itself and turned to the gathered ponies while the squat, bunny-looking droid was next in line to “upgrade”. The black droid turned to Princess Luna and spoke in a deep and unmistakably male monotone.

“Now it will be much easier to get our point across, and give you ample opportunities to see why refusing our offer would be… problematic.”

Stepping forward and clasping his hands behind his back, the Colonel took to staring intently at the Lunar Diarch, until it walked over to a free workstation and pressed a button. The sound of static buzzed for a second from the ceiling, and then the Colonel’s voice, magnified several times, blew through the ship as he began saying something in the alien language. Starlight could not understand the intent behind it, as it all came through at a single pitch, but when the Colonel finished the Captain nodded towards him and, looking very pleased with himself, raised his arms in what looked like a hugging motion.

“Now that that’s all taken care of, I hope everyone is ready for the tour! Welcome aboard the Confederate vessel, the Dawn of Dusk!” As the droid leader spoke, two flights of the same blue insect-looking droids raced past the viewports and the deck shuddered slightly beneath their feet, while several bright red beams of light shot forth from underneath the hull and blasted forward into the empty blackness of space. While the blue insectile droids continued to do acrobatics in the vacuum outside, the Captain hopped forward and began strutting back to the corridor from whence they’d arrived.

“Now this here, is the bridge. It’s the command center of the ship and where I spend most of my time giving orders. All the droids here do important jobs, like navigation, monitoring communications, uh… keeping an eye on the power… er, lots of stuff! Very important stuff! Now next down this hallway we have the escape pods!”

As the droid continued down towards the hallway, gesturing towards large metal circles set in the walls on either side of the hall, Starlight gave a questioning glance to Trixie, who was looking back at her with a similar expression, and the unicorn heard one of the guardsponies grumble about how the Captain couldn’t even explain the functions of his ship.

***

“Alright, everything ready?” Rabid asked as he saw Laugher puffing his way towards him through the larger floor vent, crouched uncomfortably the entire way.

“My job’s done, so as long as yours is, we’re good to go.”

“Alright,” Rabid replied, looking down at his hands and then lifting the cover of the vent grate just a fraction to peek outside. “Coast is clear, be ready to run like there’s a vengeful Jedi chasing you.”

“Don’t worry,” the other clone sighed, shaking his head slightly, “it probably won’t make too much of a difference if anything gets in our way. Let’s just hope the shuttle is easy to take.”

Lifting the grate slightly higher, the clone corporal checked around to make sure that there were no droids coming down the corridor.

“Alright. Best case scenario, we kill two birds with one stone and capture some Separatist aliens while we’re at it. Worst case scenario… well, at least this ship won’t be a danger to anyone anymore.”

Rabid pulled himself out of the vent and then stopped to help Laugher out, before bringing up his hand, along with the small remote in it.

“Let’s start the fireworks,” He said, and activated the remote.

***

Princess Luna had been listening intently to the tour ever since the jroid Captain had managed to somehow instantly learn the pony’s language, I’ll have to have a word with him about that... the princess of the night thought momentarily; and was starting to realize that the Captain was almost certainly being genuine in his attempts to placate the ponies and make them see the good in joining their “Confederacy”. Luna surmised all of this from the Captain’s generally cheery attitude and the fact that although he knew about his own ship, it was clear he was completely incapable of recovering from an unexpected situation.

Such as when Twilight asked the Captain repeatedly why they couldn’t see the “reactors” that supposedly powered the ship, and the best answer she got was that it was “delicate equipment”, but he couldn’t give any of them a reason for why that would prevent them from even seeing it.

Another reason Luna was under the impression that the Captain wasn’t very bright was that he commonly got flustered by questions that were not specifically about exactly what he was attempting to show the ponies at any given time. Considering Twilight had a near-constant stream of questions for him, the jroid leader most of the time passed her along to his intimidating companion, the Colonel.

While the Captain was goofy, good-natured, and seemed rather disorganized with the tour, taking ponies all throughout the ship and changing direction on a whim, the Colonel seemed the exact opposite.

When any of the ponies had questions that the Captain couldn’t answer, instead of going into long-winded explanations full of jittery remarks and tangent conversations, the Colonel gave a short, curt reply, that while did answer the questions, volunteered as little information as possible.

After yet another question on why there were so many types of jroid on board the ship (the group had just a moment earlier passed by something that seemed to be a bronze wheel rolling down the corridor under its own power), they passed through another doorway and found themselves on a catwalk suspended high above the floor of the main hangar, where dozens of shapes lingered, and the dark shapes of the insectile jroidz were twitching and chittering in their racking above.

Princess Luna recognized the familiar shape of several of the skinny beige ones down below and the more heavily build grey jroiz, though there were also many that she had never seen before, including one that looked like some sort of red-brown spider, and something that she couldn’t figure out if it was yet another jroid or a vehicle of some sort, as it was very large, and moved around on two enormous hoop-like wheels that were situated on either side of a squat body.

Turning to the Captain, she was about to ask what they were doing back in the main hangar, when the deck under her hooves shook slightly, just before she found herself flung violently towards the ceiling fifty feet above her.

Giving a shout of surprise, she quickly crashed into the ceiling, narrowly avoiding the blade-like leg of a blue jroid and found herself becoming the cushion for Rainbow Dash, who grimaced at the impact, while Pinkie Pie bounced into an empty racking slot next to her.

Hearing the clatter of metal on her other side, the Lunar Diarch saw that the Captain had fallen upwards with them and was shaking his head while getting to his feet once more, now oriented upside down.

Seeing that every one of the ponies and droids in their group had fallen towards the ceiling and landed roughly among the various structural struts, before noticing that all the droids and unsecured objects in the hangar deck four hundred feet below the catwalk had also begun falling towards the ceiling, and more importantly, towards them.

Princess Luna especially noticed the large, wheeled vehicle-thing falling straight towards where she was pinned by the immobile Rainbow Dash. Before she could even utter a sound at the sudden and strange circumstances she found herself in, the Princess felt gravity change once again and found herself falling towards the catwalk once more, Rainbow clutched tightly in her grasp. While she had been caught wholly unprepared the first time, this time she was ready and spread her wings out wide, allowing herself to glide towards the walkway just as the large wheeled thing crashed square into it on its way back down, taking most of the suspended platform with it.

As the ponies began screaming as they flailed and fell, Luna watched with horror as droids fell nearly from the ceiling to the floor and smashed straight into the floor with the sounds of smashing and the tortured shrieks of metal twisting.

Using her magic, she growled quietly in determination and grabbed every one of their party in the hold of her magic, bringing them all to the door from which they had entered the hangar and deposited them all just inside the entrance. Taking one last glance back at the carnage in the hangar, her breath caught in her throat as she saw some of the jroiz missing limbs and attempting to stand after the sudden catastrophe.

Whirling back towards the Captain, a snarl on her lips, Luna found herself surprised when she saw the Captain already on his feet and barking orders at the Colonel and the few jroid guards, holding one hand up to the side of his head.

She watched him silently as the others responded to his orders and began checking the ponies for injuries, asking if they were hurt and whether they were fit to move, when suddenly the ship shook violently and threw them all to the ground. Feeling herself get thrown away from Rainbow Dash, Princess Luna had enough time to turn in order to see the jagged edge of a hoop-wheel on the hangar floor rush up to greet her.

***

“PRINCESS!!” Twilight shouted, her arm outstretched through the empty doorway to the hangar. She had seen the princess of the night get thrown clear through the doorway when the ground had quaked hard enough to send everypony to the floor, and had dived in order to catch her, but the shaking of the ship caused her to overshoot and slam into doorway with her shoulder, helpless to do anything but watch as Princess Luna fell down towards a pile of debris four hundred feet below them.

“Princess! Are you okay?! Can you hear me?!” She yelled down to the dark unmoving figure far, far below, but got no response aside from the deck of the ship groaning beneath her and the whizzing of the blue jroiz ejecting themselves from their racking and shooting out either hangar door.

Somewhere in the background, she belatedly noticed as a siren had begun to blare, and the droids and ponies were chattering, trying to figure out what had happened.

“What did you just try to pull on us, you skinny freaks?” Twilight heard one of the pony guards begin yelling, but was too shocked by what she had just witnessed to register that the ponies and jroidz were levelling weapons at each other, at least until she heard Fluttershy raising her voice.

“Stop it, both of you! They were kind enough to invite us onto their space ship, I don’t think they want to be having any accidents while we’re here, so if everypony would just calm down…”

“No time to be calm!” this was the voice of the Captain, and it seemed urgent and frenzied, and not in any way Twilight had ever heard before.

“All of you need to be evacuated immediately, and I need to get back to the bridge to find out what’s happened. I’m sorry that we’re going to have to cut the tour short, but you all have to leave in order to be safe. Colonel!” he called over to the black jroid, who looked over at him expectantly, his arms clasped behind his back while the Captain chittered something to him in the alien language.

Nodding, the Colonel turned his attention on the group of ponies before grabbing Twilight’s arm and forcefully yanking her to her feet.

“Listen everyone, you are going to be evacuated back to the shuttle and we are going to return to your city as quickly as possible. An emergency has occurred and we cannot deal with it properly while you are all onboard. Follow me please, and stay close.”

“Wait!” Twilight yelled, drawing the attention of everyone gathered. “Princess Luna fell into the hangar! We need to find her and make sure she’s okay! I’m not leaving her!”

The Colonel regarded her with a stare for a moment before turning and walking away, talking over his shoulder as he did so.

“The hangar is where we’re heading, as it’s the closest place with any escape craft. We will find your leader and take her with us, but we need to leave now if you want to leave unharmed.”

Twilight didn’t know whether to take that as a threat, but realizing that yes, indeed, the shuttles would still have to be in the hangar, and she allowed herself a breath to tried to calm down for a few seconds, following the Colonel and his guards to a set of elevators, hoping against hope that the princess was alright.

As soon as the group stepped out of the elevators onto the lower level, Twilight heard yet another alarm go off as the ship shook and shuddered even more, groans and shrieks echoing throughout the hull. Chunks of metal catwalking and pieces of alien racking and architecture cracked off and fell from the ceiling with each tremor, adding to the debris strewn across the large expanse that was the hangar. Adding to the din, the purple alicorn heard the sound of one of the chattery voices of one of the skinny beige droids begin issuing unintelligible orders over the ship’s intercom. Although she didn’t understand the words, she realized it was a general alert of some kind, and the fact that the Colonel paused to look up at the ceiling told her that it was not a good sign.

“What’s going on? What did he say?” she asked, using the Colonel’s arm for support as she looked up into his blank face quizzically.

“The Captain has just issued a general order to all droids on board. Abandon ship.”

Author's Notes:

Yes, it is a new chapter.
No, I'm not dead.
Yes the story will continue.
No the next chapter is not done yet.
Yes I should really get on that.
No, I will not be making any buffer chapters for this story like any normal, sane person would do.
Yes I will start it soon.
No the next chapter will not be out before New Years'.
Yes I will answer what other questions I can and clarify anything in the comments.
No, this is not how I usually do my author's notes.
It is 4:16 A.M. at the time of me publishing this. My eyeballs hurt. Yes I really should have published it earlier in the day,seeing as it's been done for almost a week now.

P.S. If anyone would like to help me out with this story and my writing in general, I would be very grateful. It might be the fact that I haven't done consistent writing in a long time, but I feel like I'm getting more nervous about the quality of my writing so I'd like to get some people to help me proof read my work and let me know if my work is getting inconsistent over time Idon'tmeantojustasksomuchofmywonderfulreadersokaythanksbye.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7Ff2FibJM

Chapter 10 - When The Ship Hits The Fan

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19 B.B.Y. Bridge of Confederate Dreadnaught Dawn of Dusk, Decaying Orbit, Unknown Planet, Sector G6 (See Galactic Map)

Captain 72624 stood on the bridge of the massive Separatist vessel as it groaned and roared all around him like some wild beast, while droids chattered nervously into comms, directing fire teams to different areas of the ship and relaying damage reports. Klaxons blared throughout the length of the ship, and the pounding of metallic feet could be felt through the deck as droids marched or ran through every corridor.

With all the commotion going on the bridge, the Captain wondered at how he was keeping himself so composed. Every single one of his circuits was screaming at him to run, to hide, to shoot, to do something and yet still, he just stood amidst the chaos of the bridge, hands at his sides and watched as the whole world fell apart around him.

Back above Muunilinst, things had been bad, and he had been a bit afraid seeing as the Separatists had been completely outnumbered, but he hadn’t been the one calling the shots then. Even here, above this remote planet, it had seemed almost like a dream; if he screwed up with the ponies it wouldn’t really be much of a cause for concern, as he could just retreat his forces to space and think of another plan.

Now there was no more time to think, to plan, and no second chances. Nobody seemed to know what had gone wrong, they only knew the results. A massive explosion had torn through the engines, which had led to cascading failure throughout the ships systems.

The Captain shook his head to clear his thoughts and focus on the current objective as he felt another gravity shear wash over him. He had already made an announcement over the PA system for all droids to magnetize, so there would hopefully be very few droids being thrown about by the random bouts of gravitational change now.

Looking out the main viewports however, 72624 felt something grim settle onto his logic processor, as the view of the picturesque planet below once again came into view. On top of everything that had happened, the explosion had caused a malfunction with the reaction controls and the positioning thrusters, making the entire ship spin like the needle of a compass while it began changing course towards the deadly atmosphere of the planet.

“We’re about to make another pass!” the thin voice of a pilot droid spoke up over the din, and as the Captain watched, the view outside began to brighten, even though they were now on the night side of the planet, as ionization built up around the outside of the hull, the orange glow dying off as the nose of the ship flipped towards space again, and then brightened as the spin continued carrying them around to face straight at the planet below.

The deck beneath everyone’s magnapeds began to shift and shake, nearly causing the Captain to stumble into the shivering form of the LEP servant droid standing nervously at his side.

“Hey, assistant, get yourself to an escape pod and get ready to eject, I already told all nonessential droids to evacuate!” He crouched down and poked the diminutive droid hard in the chest to get his point across.

“And go where? At the rate we’re going, the pod will burn up in the atmosphere well before it lands. Did you know, this close to a planet, only 23.6 percent of emergency launches survive a return to a planet’s surface? I’d rather ride this burning hulk all the way down to the ground, thank you. Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and land in an ocean.”

Pix crossed her tiny arms over her chest and turned her head away, making high-pitched huffing noises as she did so, while the Captain shook his head and stood up, crossing over to a console with a pilot droid staring at it intently.

“How long until our orbit takes us out of the atmosphere?”

“Well sir, this dip is dropping our trajectory quite a bit because of how long we’ll be in the upper atmosphere, but we’ll only have one more shot to get back into a stable orbit once we pass through and get carried back into space. Unless we get full control of our engines within the next few minutes though, our thrusters won’t be enough to stop us from plummeting down to the planet.”

The Captain placed a hand on his headplate, before turning to another bridge officer.

“What’s the situation with the engines? Have we been able to get back there yet and see what the damage is?”

“Uhh, the first fireteam has just declared that they entered the main engine bay, they said it looks like that explosion destroyed the engines. The fuel pumps are gone.”

“Can we fix it?” The Captain couldn’t help but let some of his apprehension creep into his voice as he asked. Without the fuel pumps, they’d never be able to get the main engines restarted in time to make a correctional burn out of the atmosphere.

“Doubtful, sir. They’re gone. Poof, boom, exploded to smithereens. Whatever happened back there was more than a fuel leak.”

72624 stood back and thought. He thought long and hard, and in the end, he didn’t really get anywhere, as no matter how he looked at it his situation was, for lack of a better term, buggered.

After weighing the options available to him, the commander droid shook his head, gave a very believable replication of a sigh, and made his choice. Activating his comm, he patched himself back into the ship’s PA system to make one final announcement.

***

TV-44 had just stepped into the main hangar with his so called “tour group” in tow, when he heard the voice of the Captain come on over the loudspeakers, catching the attention of every droid on the ship.

“Attention all crew! This is your Captain speaking. We’ve suffered major damage to the engines, as well as several other systems, and the dreadnaught’s current trajectory has been altered to impact on the planet below. It is too late to prevent it now, we’ve travelled too low. We will shortly pass back up into space for the final time, during which I want as many droids and as much equipment taken off the ship as possible, to regroup on the planet below. This is the end of the Dawn of Dusk. All droids abandon ship!”

As soon as the announcement ended, several doors on either side of the hangar slid open to reveal hundreds of droids marching or running into the main hangar, while large hidden elevators in the floor began lowering and bringing up ground vehicles and storage cubes for transport in the massive landing craft.

Making his way to one of the shuttles as two B1’s boarded the ramp, the tactical droid suddenly found himself being yanked back by one arm to look into the teary-eyed face of the purple alien.

“Where are you going? We need to get to Princess Luna! She’s hurt, we need to find her!”

Pulling his arm back, the black droid shook his head and silently cursed the universe. He didn’t know if being able to understand and communicate with these aliens now was actually useful or if it would end up being a liability.

“She’s unlikely to have survived the fall, but very well. We can’t leave yet anyway, the plasma outside the hull would burn the shuttle in seconds. You have until we get the all clear from the bridge to find her. If we all stay here and die, then there’d be no point to trying to join together in the first place.”

Signalling two of the commando droids with them, TV-44 instructed them to begin sifting through debris in order to help find the dark alien princess.

“If anyone else wants to help you’re more than welcome to, but the guards will bring you all back here as soon as we’re clear to leave.”

“Thank you! Come on!” The purple alien said, wiping tears from its eyes, and pointed towards the jagged, broken hoops of a hailfire droid that lay shattered a few dozen meters away, “I think she fell towards that over there!”

Clasping his hands behind his back, the tactical droid began surveying the damage in the hangar.

Most of the debris was comprised of various droids, although there were several vehicles and interior superstructure broken into pieces and littering the deck. Walking over to a sparking security B1, the Colonel realized the droid was still functioning, if barely, one hand scraping across the metal deck in a vain effort to reach its blaster, both legs having been sheared off above the knee joints.

The struggling and sparking continued on for a few more moments until a chunk of the metal ceiling from above slammed into it and ceased the soldier’s movements.

TV-44 tilted his head and contemplated just how many droids they’d be able to get off the capital ship with, and even with a generous estimate, he wasn’t liking the numbers. He was about to see if they’d be able to cram a few more soldiers into the shuttle with his group when the PA system buzzed to life once more, and a droid voice began issuing evacuation commands.

“We are now clear for evacuation! All droids, please reach the nearest transport or escape pod in an orderly fashion. The most important equipment are recharge stations, ammunition, and vehicles. Anything else that can fit onto a transport is considered secondary. Abandon ship. All droids, abandon ship.”

As soon as the announcement system shut down, the Colonel was walking quickly back towards the boarding ramp of the shuttle, looking around for the purple alien princess from before, while the whine and scream of fighters and bombers dropping down from the racks in the ceiling and zooming out the hangar doors drowned out nearly everything else.

What gave the black droid pause was the one sound he could clearly hear above the sound of the launching droid ships.

Looking back across the length of the hangar, the Colonel noticed droids turning their heads and raising their blasters, engaging an enemy that he couldn’t yet see. However, from the fact that every droid that saw the unknown threat opened fire on it immediately, his mind automatically connected the dots to assume either some clones or jedi had managed to infiltrate the ship and were now making a beeline for a transport.

His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the white forms of two clones weave between piles of broken vulture droids and tanks, blasting at anything in their path; a path that ended at TV-44’s shuttle.

Pulling his blaster off of his back, the tactical droid motioned for the commando droids to keep the ponies safe while droids from all around the hangar converged on the two stowaways, blocking their way to freedom.

Out of the corner of his photoreceptor, the Colonel saw the purple alien struggle into view, dragging the unconscious form of the dark blue princess behind her. Simply by turning his head, he could see the small trail of blood left in the princess’ wake, until one of the commando droids rushed over to help carry the dark alien.

Climbing onto a wrecked airspeeder for a better view, TV-44 was suddenly thrown backwards from the concussive wave of an explosion, while several droids further forward were blown apart or disintegrated.

Between the gap in the droid bodies came the two clones, running for the ramp of the shuttle, gunning down any disoriented droid that tried to stop them. The cream-colored alien, which had been the most eager to leave and had been waiting closest to the small ship, was grabbed by the arm and tugged violently up the ramp behind the clones, who held it specifically behind them, preventing any sort of shot without the possibility of hitting the alien. While the Colonel was moving his head, he could have sworn a shadow moved from under the ship for just the slightest fraction of a second, but nothing appeared to have changed when he stood up. As several shots were heard from within the cabin of the shuttle, the ramp closed and the ship began to wobble into the air and out the energy doors of the hangar, the colorful aliens running after it with outstretched arms, yelling things that the Colonel couldn’t quite catch. while every droid in the hanger quickly opened up on the retreating ship.

“Hold your fire!” TV-44 yelled over his personal comm, knowing that if the droids caused the death of the alien, their destruction would be even more assured than it was at the moment.

Turning to the assorted aliens, he tried to get their attention and get them to gather around him again, but everyone’s attention was quickly drawn to one of the massive landing craft as it began sliding out of the hangar and heading for the surface, which was visible every now and then through the exterior doors while the capital ship continued to spin.

“Attention all crew! We have just entered the light side of the planet. There are now only six minutes until we re-enter the atmosphere and any attempts to leave will become fatally dangerous. At this time, no more equipment should be loaded and all efforts should be focused on evacuating droids aboard what available ships we have!”

“Six minutes…” the Colonel thought to himself out loud as he eyed over the other landing craft and transports. However, it was a risky gamble at best to try and board the remaining ships. Every droid that had been moments ago fighting the two random clones was now once again busy crowding around the front ramp of the massive craft and the other various space-worthy vehicles, trying to get on quickly in order to escape the doomed dreadnaught and inadvertently cutting off access for the alien group.

“What just happened?! What are we going to do now? What were those things? We need to go after Gentle-quiet, she needs our help!” TV-44 shook his head and looked over at the purple alien princess that was once again butted up right in front of him, pointing back through the energy seal that the shuttle thieves had just left through.

“There is nothing we can do for your friend right now. More importantly, we need to find another means of transport for you, or none of us will get off this ship in time.”

Scratching his head, the tactical droid wondered whether the translating software was as accurate as he had been led to believe, as he had surely misheard the alien’s last sentence.

“Follow me. There are still some escape pods close enough for us to reach them if we hurry.”

Motioning to the guards, the tactical droid began striding towards the side of the hangar, heading back for the door they had come through, when he felt his weight shift slightly and saw the colorful aliens start tumbling towards the floor corner like they were rolling down a hill.

Looking around, he was satisfied to see that all the droids remained where they were, their magnapeds keeping them in place, while the large landing craft hadn’t seemed to suffer too much from the sudden change in orientation.

The ponies wouldn’t be so lucky.

As the wreckage of the other shuttle slid past towards the ponies, the leg of a spider droid impaled through its cockpit, the tactical droid noted the aliens groaning and getting to their hooves right in front of the sliding wreckage. A moment before they would be crushed however, the nearby droid guards grabbed and pulled them out of harm’s way.

Signalling for the group to follow, the Colonel began guiding them all towards a bank of escape pods a few corridors away when the stresses on the hull began to make the metal creak and groan once more. Feeling the sudden shift again, the black-striped droid looked back to see his organic companions splayed out on the ceiling, the purple alien cradling the head of the dark princess carefully as they all groaned in pain.

“Come on, you can still run on the ceiling, but we need to get to those escape pods if we’re going to have any chance for survival.”

“And then we’ll go get Gentle-quiet for sure?”

The question came this time, not from the purple alien, but from the shockingly pink one, who was standing on a pipe and whose eyes were exactly even with the Colonel’s, despite the fact they were on opposite surfaces.

Backing away a step, TV-44 held up a hand to prevent the alien from coming closer again and replied, “We will do what we can to help the other one when we can help the other one, but we cannot do anything without endangering it first. Once we’re on the ground, we can figure out what happened and what we can do. Now come quickly, the Captain has entrusted me with your safety, and we’ve had enough failures today.”

Turning the corner, the black droid made sure everyone was still with him and reached for the closest controls for the pod bay. It was only after it was unresponsive for several seconds that he looked down to see the readout on the display.

All empty.

Calculating a new plan, the black droid looked out the viewport that had once shown the inside of a rugged space capsule, through which he could now only see the darkness of space.

Until a familiar orange glow began to peek in from outside.

Grumbling slightly to himself, the Colonel looked back at the assembled droids and aliens in the corridor.

“This is unfortunate…”

***

Laugher was, for once in recent memory, actually laughing. As he tied the cream-colored alien down in one of the two seats, Rabid piloting the craft from the other, he took a moment to take off his helmet and chuckle, placing a hand on the other clone’s shoulder.

“Lookit that, your plan actually worked. And here I was thinking we were gonna die at every point during the execution of it.” Leaning back against the door to the main cabin of the shuttle, the clone private looked out the viewport.

“Looks like they’re not even trying to shoot us down. I have to hand it to you, I thought they wouldn’t care about the alien.”

“Well,” Rabid replied calmly as he steered the small ship away from the deteriorating warship and back out into open space. “it might also be the fact that we crippled the ship, and they’re a bit more concerned about it than they are about us.”

“I can believe that.” Tilting his head to the alien sitting bound to the only other chair in the cockpit, Laugher raised an eyebrow as it began to whimper and mutter to itself in some language he’d never heard before.

“So, what even is this? I’ve never seen any anyone or anything like it. Hey,” he said, leaning closer to the alien, which shied away immediately, “you speak Basic?”

The being did nothing but continue to try to sink into the seat it was tied to, making high-pitched whining noises as it did so, adamantly refusing to make eye contact with the clone.

“Huh, no wonder the clankers had a protocol droid with them whenever these guys were nearby. I don’t think any of them speak Basic.”

“Well,” Rabid countered, “This planet might have been taken over by the Separatists by force. They do that a lot with primitive worlds, and I didn’t see a single one of these aliens with a datapad or a commlink on them.”

“Maybe you’re right. Damn, that makes me feel bad about being so rough on this one now. The planet’s not gonna be very happy to join the empire after what we pulled, even if the Separatists forced them to join their side too.”

Laugher sighed and looked back out the viewport, where the last of the telltale flames around the craft that betrayed the presence of air died away. Once again leaning back against the door separating the cockpit from the cabin, the clone private noticed the ear of the alien twitching, while it turned its head over so slightly.

It was the only warning he got.

The door behind him suddenly whizzed open and he fell through, hitting his head on the metal floor. Seeing stars, he tried to shake his head to clear his vision, but before he could make out just what had happened, something large and heavy pinned him down. He opened his eyes just in time to see what looked like a large black blade whistling down towards his neck, and then a sudden numbness overtook his whole body.

The whole scene took less than two seconds, and Rabid, who was trying to figure out what happened, undid his crash harness and craned his head to look behind him, reaching for the blaster clipped to his belt. Unfortunately, something prevented him from moving.

He heard a loud crack and suddenly felt an enormous pressure on his chest and back, like someone was squeezing him in a hydraulic press.

Fumbling down towards the seat in order to undo the crash harness, Rabid looked down and saw it was already off, and that what appeared to be a long, serrated blade was sticking out from the middle of his chest, and was pinning him to the chair from behind.

Turning his head towards the alien in the seat beside him, he drew a ragged gasp of breath and noted with peculiar interest, how large and innocent the eyes of the alien were, as it too stared at the grievous wound.

Then the blade drew back through Rabid’s back and out through the chair; with nothing holding him up, the clone corporal slumped forward and was no more.

In the next chair, Fluttershy stared on in horror at their attacker as it came forward and levelled its red-eyed gaze at her, knowing she was powerless against it.

Chapter 11 - Fire In The Sky

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2:07 P.M. Conference Chamber 3, Canterlot Castle, Canterlot

Princess Celestia sat at the head of her favourite oak conference table while she listened to Elder Morgath and General Kratos give the deals Minos was willing to put forth in order to be given custody of the rogue Minotaur that had trespassed in the Crystal Empire the week prior.

Although everyone in the room was very professional and friendly, little things belied the tension in the air. Princess Celestia had decided to go ahead with the political talk with the Minos representatives despite General Kratos’ protests, insisting that Twilight and her friends could handle any problems that could arise and that her sister’s absence would not be a hindrance in the talks.

Even though the solar diarch was doing her best to keep her rapt attention on the two Minotaurs at the other end of the table, everyone noticed the soft tapping of her fingers against the tabletop. Likewise, the others in the room felt the strain that permeated the discussion. Elder Morgath kept clearing his throat and sipping from a glass of water; General Kratos’ heavy brow just kept getting lower and lower over his eyes, a feat that seemed impossible but continued nonetheless; Time Stamp shuffled his wings irritably as he continued to keep track of the proceedings; and not even the guards of the two nations were immune, constantly glancing at each other and out the various windows in short intervals.

It was during a point where Princess Celestia was about to lose focus for what seemed like the tenth time by her count, that she took a slow breath and let it out, straightening up in her seat once more and looking at the massive general, when a gentle knock sounded at the door behind her.

All speaking stopped in the room as, collectively, they all turned to regard the interruption with earnest. As the head of a royal guard popped in, Celestia swallowed the lump in her throat and motioned for him to enter.

“Your Highness, Major Iron Buckle reporting,” He began, bowing low before continuing, while Celestia had to stop herself from ordering the stallion to get on with it and tell her that they had news of Luna and Twilight Sparkle.

“One of our pegasus patrols picked up something approaching from the horizon. We couldn’t be sure at the extreme range, but it appears to fit the profile of the craft that landed in the courtyard earlier today.”

Glancing back towards the Minos delegation, Princess Celestia caught the eye of the old grizzled Minotaur leader, noticing the whisper of a smile before he cleared his throat once more and spoke.

“You know princess, perhaps we’ll leave the discussions here for the day. You obviously have very pressing matters currently transpiring within your country, and it’s not like we’ll be going anywhere soon. We can pick this up another day. You go tend to the needs of your subjects.”

Dipping her head in a grateful bow to the Minos Elder, she, along with the rest of the ponies and Minotaurs around the table stood up and began collecting the various papers and scrolls that had become littered along the table during the talks.

“Thank you, Elder Morgath, your understanding during these troubling times means a great deal to me. You are all, of course, more than welcome to join me in welcoming back the dignitary team to the castle.”

The elder Minotaur waved a hand dismissively and sat back down at his seat, while General Kratos strode over to stand next to the alicorn.

“I’d be honored to join you. I’d like to hear firsthand what Princess Luna and Princess Twilight have to say about your new ‘guests’.”

Ah, Celestia grinned inwardly as she picked up on the General’s meaning, he doesn’t want anything to get in the way of him hearing the truth of what happened on the supposed alien’s ‘spaceship’. Walking down the main hall with the general, Celestia had a few moments to appreciate that while the Minotaurs and Equestrians were allies, the General still didn’t fully trust her judgement after allowing an army to be dispensed on the front steps of her castle.

As practical as always, General.

As the front doors to the palace were opened by flanking earth pony guards and the two leaders stepped out onto the landing above the main courtyard, Celestia could already make out the telltale sounds of the large blue flying creatures as they zipped below the heavy cloud cover and headed straight for the courtyard. Looking off into the distance, she noticed not only the strange shape of the large craft coming in towards the city, but what looked like another one heading down lower than the mountain-side city and towards Ponyville in the distance, accompanied by little dark specks of its own.

What caught her attention most though, was the glowing trails left by what appeared to be shooting stars as they flew past everything towards the ground, or in some cases, towards the castle.

As the first of the large blue creatures landed in the courtyard with loud thumps, Celestia’s eyes went wide as one of the approaching insect-things maneuvered onto the brilliantly glowing tail of one of the shooting stars and began firing red beams at it until it exploded in a spectacular fireball of expanding gas.

While the light from the explosion cleared, the solar princess just stood there, watching as bits of metal rained down around her, until a loud clunk shook her from her trance. Glancing down to her side, a blackened representation of one of the blue creatures’ heads seemed to appear next to her, and she noticed General Kratos glaring at the thing like it might jump up and snap at them at any moment.

When she looked back to the sky, the aggressive insect-monster from before was just coming in for a landing, and she noticed several other dark shapes taking up position behind the shooting stars, most of which were getting uncomfortably close.

Moments before the closest one passed directly overhead, the princess of the sun finally recognized the dark shape burning at the heart of the meteor and she let out a gasp.

No sooner had the glowing creature passed her then a tremendous crash was heard as the damaged insect-like thing plowed straight through a balcony and upper window of the palace. Screaming began immediately, coming from both inside the castle and beyond the main gates, where several ponies had stopped in order to get a look at the newcomers once more.

More loud clunks could be heard as more and more of the blue towering creatures landed in the courtyard and began chattering to each other, while one trailing smoke flew too fast and missed the city, careening out of sight as it passed below the main roads. Seconds later the castle trembled and a sound like thunder rolled over from below the metropolis.

“Princess! We need to get to safety!” the bellowing voice of General Kratos snapped the solar diarch out of her shock, while ponies began to run about, screaming in terror and fleeing the palace courtyard, where most of the supposed invaders flying escort were trying to put down, although a few unlucky ones were still on fire and missed, and distant thunderclaps could be heard coming from the streets as buildings were struck.

Struggling to move and torn between staying outside to make sure all her ponies got inside as safe as they could and running and hiding in the deepest room in the castle like a little filly, Celestia steeled her gaze and lit up her horn. Within seconds, Canterlot became enveloped in a transparent sphere; her own variant of Shining Armor’s shield spell from several years back, and the first few blue creatures to impact on the dome shattered like so many porcelain figures. The ones following them wised up quickly and veered off, beginning to follow the trajectory of the large craft that had been headed for Ponyville.

Despite the fact that the city seemed safe for the time being with nothing else crashing into it, Princess Celestia’s gaze wandered to the large blue insectile creatures, at least two dozen of them, that wandered down below in the courtyard, and the enormous landing craft, which had been inside the confines of the shield when she had raised it.

If these things had turned hostile… well, she had seen firsthand how many of the skinny beige beings the dragonfly-shaped craft could disgorge.

The large Minotaur beside her was making like he planned to pick up the slender alicorn and carry her into the palace, however, a multitude of shapes began pouring from the darkening clouds and churning up the air with smoke in their wake, as they began to scatter all over the countryside. Some of the objects looked like giant, oversized thumb tacks, while many more simply looked like wobbly ovals, and several had an elongated, boxy look to them.

As the thunderheads above began to condense and get darker, roiling with untameable energy, a monstrous object shot out of it, blazing across the sky and leaving a trail of fire and steam in its wake. It was as if the hand of some god had grabbed a piece of the mountain itself and hurled it from the heavens towards the small world below. Pieces flew off, burning their own bright trails and heading in every direction, some picking up speed and blazing ahead, others falling away to the sides, and smoke billowed out of the many uneven openings along the surface.

One of the dragonfly-shaped ships flew next to it, dwarfed by the enormity of the deadly projectile, and looked like it was trying to pull away from the gargantuan fireball. A long spar broke off from underneath and plowed straight through one of the four wings of the vehicle, setting it ablaze and forcing it into a spiralling descent to the ground far below.

Other chunks broke away and shattered some of the flying craft in the sky as they passed straight through without slowing down.

The enormous fiery object blasted across the sky and above the city in seconds, and despite how large it was it flew past the scene in an eerie silence. It was only after it had torn out of sight behind the mountain that a tremendous thunderclap followed, with enough force to instantly obliterate the protective barrier Celestia had put up, shatter windows across the city, and toss the princess and the general to a skidding halt across the cobblestone ground.

Opening her eyes, the princess noticed first that her dress had been torn in several places from the rough treatment, and that it was on fire. Keeping herself calm, she cast a simple spell to extinguish the flames, though a slowly growing headache told her that casting magic would get more difficult soon.

“General? General Kratos! Are you alright?” her voice sounded oddly muffled as she spoke while she shook the large motionless figure beside her until it stirred, and a loud ringing persisted in her ears.

Shaking her head, she heaved the stumbling figure of the Minotaur General onto his hooves before surveying the city once more.

Flames dotted the skyline, while glowing meteors continued to shower down around the mountain, mostly missing Canterlot and shooting to the ground far below, or impacting up high on the mountain and bursting into sparks. Smoke from all the falling debris began to choke the air, and the smell of burning metal and exotic materials clogged the princess’ nostrils. In mere moments, the beauty of her utopian city had been transformed into a hellish warzone.

Feeling the ground tremble beneath her hooves, she looked to the edge of the city once again, but nothing more seemed to be impacting on the mountain, and the ringing in her ears continued to disorient her. Seeing Kratos flinch beside her, she whirled around to see one of the large blue insect-like creatures approaching the two of them, a high-pitched shrieking and chattering making its way past her hearing troubles.

Gritting her teeth and flaring her horn up with magic, ready to take on the creature if need be, the Princess of the sun saw out of the corner of her eye as the Minotaur general took on a readied fighting stance at her side. After a few seconds of watching the creature approach however, the pain in the princess’ head spread to the base of her horn and her magic fizzled out. Suddenly more vulnerable, Celestia started planning on the next best strategy to deal with the situation, when the blue creature stopped, just a dozen feet from them, towering over the two figures.

She looked up to see the bright red eyes of the creature staring down at her as it continued to screech away unintelligibly, before it tilted its head and backed up half a step. Turning its head to look behind the two, Celestia followed its gaze to the main doors of the palace where she saw several guards rallying with the Minotaurs and spilling out into the courtyard, spears and crossbows pointed at the many blue monsters.

It was not until a tremendous crash resounded from the center of the courtyard, shaking the ground once more, that the guards stopped their advance, and the blue creatures took immediate interest in the thing that had plowed straight into the cobblestones.

A large uneven oval had landed on its side in the courtyard, smoke trailing from one of the four bulges on the far end, and dust slowly settling from its impact. As the ringing finally began to die down in Celestia’s ears, she could have sworn she heard a metallic scraping sound coming from it.

It was made of a silvery grey metal, and had lumps protruding from the sides of it, as well as dark panels on the visible narrow end, however, much of the underside seemed to have taken a tremendous beating upon impact, as the metal there was scratched and bent, even cracked and torn in some spots. It was then that she noticed the blue quadrupeds had stopped their advance towards the alien construct and were turning and chatting with one another.

Taking a closer look at them, Celestia noticed the blue and white hexagon symbol displayed on each of the creatures’ bodies, while an identical symbol was stenciled onto the side of the metal oval. As she was looking over the crumpled metal construct, she noticed a flash of silver and then watched with shock as a very dusty and slightly battered-looking silver being shuffled its way around the side of the wreckage, followed by several of the skinny statue beings from before.

The silver being looked downright identical to the one she had seen before, despite its slightly battered appearance, and she hoped that meant it too was the same translator. Eyeing the group over, she noticed most of the skeletal beings were occasionally giving off sparks from their joints, and the last one was downright missing an arm.

Standing out in the open as she was, it did not take long for the silver being to notice her, and it immediately began shuffling over to her and waving. It wasn’t until it was closer that she could make out what it was saying over her slight hearing loss.

“-o glad to see you again! We’ve had a terrible accident and everything happened so fast I couldn’t make sense of anything! Are you alright? I’m terribly sorry about what has happened, but something went wrong with our ship and well… have you seen the Captain? Or the Colonel? Or, well, anyone from our ship with any authority on how to proceed?”

Shaking her head and wincing at the pain it brought, Celestia straightened to the best of her ability and looked down at the silver being, a hard look in her eyes.

“I think it would be best first for you to explain to us what exactly happened, and why you have decided to attack us. It was a most foolish choice on your part, but I shall tell you now, if anything has happened to Twilight of my sister, you shall have much more to worry about than something ‘wrong with your ship’.”

Beside her, the solar princess heard as General Kratos gave a snort and took a step forward, his hoof clacking on the stone ground as his large frame came into view.

Seeing the threatening posture that the ponies and minotaurs were taking, and the harsh, if alien, words that were being directed at them, the small group of skeletal bipeds immediately bristled, grabbing their short black weapons and moving to shield the jroid translator with their bodies. Even the one with one arm had imposed itself between the princess and the silver translator, holding its weapon at its waist. All around the two groups, the landed flyers had started chattering again, and began to get agitated, quickly twitching their heads to look at individuals and stepping forward en masse threateningly.

Raising its hands, the silver translator, tried pushing its way to the front again, and trying (and failing) to placate its comrades.

“Please, no, you don’t understand! We haven’t attacked you. Something happened on our ship and we lost control of our orbit. The order was given to abandon ship and the Captain steered it down as best he could. Our ship crashed to the west of here, and I apologize, but some of the debris landed here in your city as it passed overhead!”

Celestia’s eyebrows furrowed tighter together as she tried seeing through the possible veil of lies, before remembering the gargantuan object that had broken the skies overhead with flame and smoke. Understanding and a slight bit of fear crept into her gaze and voice as she spoke once more.

“Wait… you mean to say, that the giant meteor that broke my shield… was your ship?!” A sudden weakness in her knees was the only warning anyone had before Princess Celestia buckled and fell onto her haunches, a haunted look in her eyes. The General and several guards rushed to her, concern written on their faces, but the diarch simply stared at the crumpled metal oval, which she now realized was some kind of transport, as her thoughts raged inside her mind much like the fires raged on the plains below the city.

Their ship looked to be as large as Canterlot! How can we protect against something like that? They might be in worse shape than we are, now that their ship has crashed. But we’re in horrible shape now because of them! The city took so much damage just from outlying debris from the crash, and Ponyville might have been flattened! But what if they can’t get back to their people now? They might have to rely on us until they repair their ship! What if they can still get back? They could bring more ships like that! And now that I’ve seen the kind of vessels they use to explore the stars, I doubt we’d be able to stop them if they have any weapons. They were so high up we couldn’t even see their ship!

Taking an offered hand, she snapped out of her short stupor and let one of the guards bring her back to her hooves, before she realized the danger to Ponyville. Tensing up, she realized that Twilight and Luna hadn’t made it back yet, and with so many escape craft catching fire in the air, or slamming against the mountain, she tried her best no to think of the worst. The princess ran to the edge of the courtyard, practically throwing herself off the mountain in order to see down to the ground far below.

In the distance sat Ponyville, quaint and pristine as ever, and slightly to the north, a black wart marred the landscape, jutting up from the ground as tiny fires burned around it, visible even at this distance, and black spots pockmarked the hills it had landed in. Most telling of all however, was the mile-long trail of dirt that had been gouged out of the earth from the thing’s impact, spreading soil and bits of metal in an enormous arc in front of the wreckage.

“Oh Sister, what have I sent you into?”

Chapter 12 - Dirt And Durasteel

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Author's Notes:

First, before you read this chapter, yes I am aware the story took a bit of a darker and more somber turn recently, and especially so in this chapter. I was originally going to turn the story into a huge alliance fight, but I feel like this bit of extra gritty realism would be easier to expand upon\for what I have planned.

HOWEVER, if you feel like the story took too dark of a turn (even though there will continue to be comedy in future chapters) please let me know. I sort of wrote this in chunks while in several very different states of mind than when I normally write this story.

As always, please let me know if you enjoyed it and if I made any mistakes. My team and I did a pretty good job with most grammatical errors, but I didn't know how to lighten the mood in this chapter.

3:44 P.M. Debris Field North of Ponyville, Engine Remains of Dawn of Dusk

The alabaster princess picked her way through broken earth and shattered walls, the smell of burning oil and exotic fuels lingering heavily in the air. All around her, shadows flitted through the smoke, in between the jagged peaks of metal that jutted up from the burned dirt and crumbling corridors that lay scattered about like sticks in a campfire.

One such shadow approached through the gloom and resolved itself into the shape of Major Iron Buckle as he waved a hand, trying to clear the clogged air.

“Begging your pardon, Princess, but this thing is enormous, how are we supposed to find anything in here recognizable?”

A distant explosion shook the sky for a moment, causing the young Major to flinch, before the wreckage settled once more and Princess Celestia turned to look at the soldier.

“Major, we aren’t searching for just anything recognizable here, we’re looking for ponies, and from all they’ve accomplished they are practically icons of our nation now. We must redouble our efforts. We will find them with perseverance and a sound search plan.” Turning her gaze skyward, she noticed the shapes of several pegasi guards roaming the area, trying to see through the thick smoke from above, occasionally diving down to investigate something.

All around her, massive broken spires and jutting slabs of metal rose far into the sky, like the ribs of some colossal beast, and the constant groaning from the more intact parts of the downed vessel sounded like the last death throes of some alien creature.

Picking their way across burning pools and sharp chunks of foreign steel, the two ponies eventually came across the first recognizable victim: one of the skinny jroidz had been crushed beneath the bottom of a corridor that had broken loose from the structure above and now created a ramp into the dark belly of the ship. Averting her eyes from the scene of supposed carnage, Celestia forced herself onwards, stepping gingerly into the sloped corridor and looking up into the gloom.

Turning at the sound of something wet hitting the ground, she realized Iron Buckle was bent double and retching onto the scorched earth.

“If this is too much for anyone, I will not force them to continue inside, but we must at least secure the perimeter in order to tend to any survivors that may make it out of this deathtrap.”

“I… I’ll be fine princess. It’s just… poor sod. Probably never even had time to scream…” glancing back at the crushed jroid, the guard straightened up and shook his head, wiping his mouth on his arm and steeling himself as he followed the princess up into the dead vessel.

Despite the fact that no light reached inside from the entrance, the two managed to make their way through those hallways which had not yet collapsed with relative ease. Many lights in the ceiling still worked, although they flickered like candles about to be blown out, and wherever wall or ceiling panels had come loose, thick cables splayed out and sparked with electricity sporadically.

It was only after walking for about ten minutes and making their way very deep inside the wreck did they see their first glimpse of any surviving crew. Sheared in half, but still sparking and attempting to crawl out from underneath a large pipe, a solidly built grey jroid grunted and struggled.

“Quick Major, pull him out! I’ll lift this!” Lighting up her horn and ignoring the dull throbbing that persisted in her horn, the princess began slowly levitating the pipe off the survivor, while Iron Buckle grabbed at the thing’s one remaining arm and started pulling it out from underneath.

As soon as it was free however, the machine began roaring and howling, flipping onto its back with its one leg and began spraying the ceiling with red plasma bolts, narrowly missing the Major’s head. Jumping back and cursing, the Major was slow to react, but Celestia was on the ball. Giving a gentle nudge of her magic as it still held the pipe, she let go of it and simple collapsed the heavy debris back onto the murderous jroid, where it finally stopped moving.

“What the Celestia happened?! Why did it attack us?” Iron Buckle exclaimed, “We were trying to help it! Why would it be hostile?”

“Some animals, when hurt or fearful, lash out at anything that approaches them, Major. Perhaps the jroidz are not so different from us after all. Besides, I don’t remember seeing something like that when they originally came in for their ‘negotiations’. It may have been a crew member that did not know anything about us and thought we were trying to hurt it,” the princess replied calmly.

“But then- you just smashed it! We still might have been able to save its life, princess! We could have-”

“Do not berate me for saving the lives of one of my ponies! Do you not see this?” pulling back and lighting her horn faintly to illuminate the area more, princess Celestia pointed at the scorch marks on the ceiling. “Those shots melted part of the metal ceiling. If they had hit you instead you would have been a goner. Do not forget why we are here Major, I feel equally as terrible for the jroidz and this tragedy as you do, but my first duty is to our people, not theirs. If they threaten your lives, I will not hesitate to act.”

Helping the Major to his feet once more, the princess relaxed her gaze once more and pushed forward, into the next room, continuing on with her search as she tried not to dwell on the fear she had felt in the moment, and what her moment of weakness had just cost her.

***

Forcing open a stuck door together, the princess nearly stumbled forward, only held back by the quick reactions of the Major, the danger of the place having heightened his alertness and reactions.

“Woah! Hang on princess, we’d best find another way down.” Glancing past her, he looked at the ruined remains of the ship’s hangar, four hundred feet down, where a large pile of dull grey metal dominated the lowered corner of the room. Off to one side he could see the sky once more, a long rectangular opening running the length of the hangar and the shapes of pegasi flitting about outside, while sunlight streamed in through the sides of the ship and illuminated the moving shapes along the partially submerged floor.

Pulling the princess back into the corridor and away from the sheer drop on the other side of the doorway, the Major’s ears perked up as he heard something coming down the corridor behind him. Turning and pulling the princess back against the wall just in time, the two of them were barely able to see as a blackened metallic wheel came barreling down the corridor at them and promptly shot out through the open doorway and into open space, crashing into the dented and warped floor far below a few seconds later.

Peering back out into the open room, the two of them were nearly thrown from the opening as another explosion rocked the metal hulk, this one much closer than the previous one, and loud enough to give the two ponies a faint ringing in their ears. However, unlike the last one, this time the ship did not stop shaking beneath them, and the background rumbling of the splitting metal grew louder, until suddenly Celestia and Iron Buckle found the hallway they were hiding in suddenly sprouting out of the wall and pushing its way into the hanger, which started buckling as huge pieces fell from the ceiling to crush the littered debris and few remaining jroidz below.

Pushing through the pain in her horn, which was flaring up even harder now, the princess engulfed the two of them in a protective bubble as their crumbling platform descended into the main hangar space, finally coming to a stop atop the pile of broken metal in the near corner, and landing hard enough to break the enchantment, causing the ponies to spill out onto the sharp debris pile.

Groaning and getting to her hooves, the princess sent a cascade of metal to the floor below, while the Major did the same, sliding down to the ground in his efforts. Shaking her head, the princess tried to keep her balance but came face-to-faceplate with a scorched jroid in the pile, before it slid away like so much more debris, which is when she realized she was standing on a pile of jroid bodies.

Hiccoughing and stumbling back, the horror of where she was amplified when the pile of bodies started moving, shifting around like a hundred ants with her on top of it, until the Major, who had been making his way up the cascading hill, was thrown off and Celestia realized that something was coming out of the hill.

Struggling to find her way down, she spread her wings and jumped, gliding down to where the Major sat by the near wall, as a huge spindly leg shot out of the mound, raining bits of jroids and metal upon the two hapless ponies, and then another, before finally a round bulbous head burst forth and lifted itself above the ground on three bent and oddly-jointed limbs. Turning its head this way and that, the colossal jroid fixed one of its three glowing red eyes and screeching like the damned, the sound amplified in the confined space. Lifting a leg, it prepared to bring it down and the two ponies raised their arms to shield themselves… only for the leg to come crashing down farther away from them.

Looking up at the giant blue tripod, Princess Celestia and Major Iron Buckle watched as it thundered its way to the less caved-in of the two hangar openings, stomping its way outside, where the smoke and debris of the ship quickly obscured it, its heavy footfalls eventually dying down.

For a few seconds, all the two of them did was look at each other, before they scrambled to their hooves and raced off after it.

“We have to stop it from getting to Ponyville! It could level the town!” Celestia cried, a hint of desperation creeping into her voice, while the Major simply nodded and burst out of the hanger in front of her, doing his best to catch up to the three-legged monstrosity.

Feeling the wind whip around suddenly, the two felt the smoke being pushed behind them as the sun suddenly broke through and blinded them momentarily. Once their eyes had adjusted, the two ponies saw something that neither of them could make sense of.

In a large clearing beside the ship, slipping down the sides of the miles-long trench the vessel had made upon impact, tiny colorful shapes were helping the metallic shapes of jroidz reach the top, and one very prominent purple figure stood atop one of the shovel-nosed vehicles of the invaders, organising the efforts of both parties to help as many survivors escape the wreckage as possible.

Stumbling forwards, Celestia felt tears spring to her eyes as she recognized Twilight Sparkle, alive and well, as the figure keeping everyone under control, while the darker shape of one of the special black guards lurked nearby, barking orders to jroidz and signalling circling flying craft to set down on the other side of the clearing.

As the two of them climbed up the slope, loose soil slowing their progress, they saw that several pegasi guards had already come in for a landing and were taking orders from Twilight, helping maintain order and organising more coherent search parties into the rubble.

“Princess!” The call brought Celestia’s attention to the side, where Applejack stood over Rainbow Dash, the latter of which was sitting on the ground and looking off into the distance with a blank look on her face. Leaning down to whisper to the unresponsive mare, Applejack straightened up and jogged over the two newcomers, helping the princess and the Major crest the top of the ridge and pulling them onto the plateau where the rest of the ponies were situated.

“Thank goodness ya’ll are alright! Did-did you two come outta the wreck just now?” the orange earth pony looked between the two of them, her eyes going wide as she registered their various cuts and scrapes. “Begging your pardon princess, but what were y’all thinking? That thing is coming down a little bit every minute! You coulda been trapped inside and squished like a bug under a cart!”

“Yes, well, I was a bit more worried about all of you than myself at the time, but I’m glad to see you’re all relatively alright. Was anypony hurt in the crash? I don’t see my sister or Fluttershy around right now.”

At the mention of the yellow pegasus, Rainbow Dash turned to look at the princess, and despite still not speaking a word, Celestia could plainly see the tears streaming down the blue mare’s face.

“A-Applejack? What has happened to Fluttershy and my sister? I wish to see them at once.” Looking back to the earth pony revealed that the Apple was staring down at the scorched dirt dejectedly, and refusing to lift her gaze.

“Miss Applejack, what has happened to the princess?” Iron Buckle prodded, taking a step forward, only to pause as princess Celestia’s hand came down on his shoulder.

“Your highness, uh… Princess Luna was hurt when things first started going wrong with the jroid’s ship. Rarity and Pinkie Pie are tending to her and making sure she’s alright, but she took a nasty fall and she’ll need to be taken to a hospital as soon as they’re sure she’s stable enough to move that far.”

Eyes widening, Celestia’s breath caught in her chest and her heart tightened considerably, before she straightened up a bit and glanced back at Rainbow Dash, who had once again turned away to stare towards the horizon.

“Please… if it would not be too much to ask, would you take me to her? I don’t see her around.”

“Sure thing princess, they’re just around the tank. Twilight wanted to set up an area to care for the wounded, but the jroidz seem to insist against any medical treatment.”

As the trio made their way past Starlight and Trixie, who were huddled together around a burning bit of metal, and a single one of the skinny jroidz, which at one point had been painted to look like a skeleton, they saw quite clearly Twilight Sparkle on top of the wide, blue-and-grey vehicle as it hovered off the ground. Noticing them, the youngest alicorn princess jumped off the top and hurried over to greet the diarch.

“Princess Celestia! Oh thank goodness you’re here! We did the best we could, but I’m not an expert on alicorn biology or very well practiced in medicine; we’ve got to get Princess Luna to a hospital as soon as possible.” Looking down between her hooves, the young alicorn mumbled the last bit and shuffled a foot farther away from the solar diarch as they rounded the large, floating thing that was apparently called a ‘tank’.

As soon as she set eyes on her sister, Celestia’s heart went still. The dark alicorn was currently being watched on the ground by Rarity, the white unicorn having apparently torn off some of her skirt to use as bandages around Luna’s head and one of her wings. In addition to the sight of the colorful cloth being turned dark with blood, one of her legs was bent at an angle that it wasn’t supposed to be able to reach.

Approaching her injured sister with a stiff gait, the Princess of the Sun kneeled down beside her and opened her mouth to say something, only to find that her throat wouldn’t let her and the pit in her stomach had opened up into a chasm.

Gently touching the still form’s chest, she felt it rise and fall, slowly, almost imperceptibly, but it was there. Her sister was alive, but barely so. Eventually the solar diarch managed to swallow the painful lump in her throat for long enough to speak, quietly croaking out a question to her student beside her.

“How… how did this happen?”

It was a simple enough question, one that could be quite easily explained by the enormous wreckage behind them, but when she looked into her mentor’s eyes, Twilight saw there was something that spoke silently. The question wasn’t quite how the incident occurred, but more as to what reason there was for Luna to have been so grievously injured, while the rest of the ponies seemed unharmed.

“I… I tried to grab her… it all happened so fast princess… I’m sorry.” Choking back a sob, the young alicorn started tearing up before placing her hands over her mouth and attempting to steady herself. After a few moments, it seemed she was ready to try again.

“Well… first of all, things were going smoothly enough on the tour, but then… I don’t know, something happened while we were overlooking the giant room in the middle of the ship you can see from here… and then it was like… gravity stopped working. We were all thrown about and we almost managed to get to safety with all the chaos going on, but Princess Luna… she…”

Hiccoughing silently, the purple princess breathed out slowly, evidently doing her best not to hyperventilate, before looking back up into Celestia’s eyes and continuing with her retelling.

“I… I don’t think it was the jroidz fault. The Captain got very upset when we started getting thrown about, and started yelling orders to everyone, but all the while there were crashes and booms and loud sirens going off everywhere and… oh goodness… the jroidz were flung around like ragdolls in that huge room. Princess Luna was thrown to the floor way beneath us and we couldn’t see her among the rubble, so we went down to the main floor of the hangar to try and escape and find her and… we found her and she was thankfully alive, but then a fight broke out-”

“A fight?” Celestia’s normally calm and cool tone was gone, gone even was the quiet, choked voice that was concerned about her sister moments ago. “Are you telling me the jroidz started fighting you?”

“No! No, no, no, not at all! It was something else… or someone else. They were tall, like the jroidz, and they were completely bone-white, and forced their way from the wall to the metal carriage thing the Colonel was taking us to in order to save us from the chaos on their vessel. We… we were told to abandon ship, but they took the carriage and they kidnapped Fluttershy.”

At the utterance of these words, Twilight’s gaze fell once more, and she simply kicked at the dirt with her hooves weakly. Celestia, after millennia caring for and ruling over countless ponies, still managed to be shocked for each and every little tragedy that occurred to her knowledge, but after all that time she had become very good at hiding it.

“So these… white warriors… they attacked you and kidnapped Fluttershy? Do we know where they could have taken her?”

Before anypony could answer her, there was a flash of light, a twinkling sound, and all the jroidz in the clearing tensed and pointed what weapons they had at the new sight of Discord standing in the middle of the clearing, holding a shaking Fluttershy to his chest.

“I can tell you, whoever they were, they didn’t get very far. Something made sure of that.”

“Discord! Oh thank Celestia you found her!” Rushing over to meet the long, lanky draconequus, Twilight wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly before looking back towards Princess Celestia.

“Once we had gotten to Princess Luna and Fluttershy had been taken, we tried to get off the ship before the crash, but we had run out of options as well as time, so I summoned Discord to keep us safe. He teleported us out here where we watched the ship crash, and he kept us protected from all the debris that flew everywhere. As soon as we told him what happened to Fluttershy, he disappeared and left us to try and help the jroidz out of their wrecked ship and save as many as we could. We all got banged up and there’s so many injured, I didn’t want to risk moving anypony yet, at least not until help came.

Kneeling down beside her unconscious sister, Celestia felt her sister’s lifeforce with her magic and breathed a sigh of relief, before looking back up and nodding slowly in her student’s direction.

“I have to say, Twilight, I know this has been a terrible ordeal for us all, and an even greater tragedy for the jroidz, but honestly, I couldn’t have handled it better myself. However, despite how injured Luna is, I can tell you that it looks worse than it is. Her heartbeat is still strong and we are made of sturdier stuff than most ponies. I thank you for taking care of everypony until we got to you, but you can rest now. The royal guard can take over now, and you and all your friends.” She eyed Rainbow Dash, whose blank demeanor had broken upon seeing Discord appear with Fluttershy. The blue Pegasus mare only now seemed to be shaken out of her stupor as she ran over and joined in with the group hug tightly, followed shortly by Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity as well, “Can all take some time off to rest and recuperate while I start figuring out how Equestria is going to come to terms with the jroidz. With their huge ship gone, and with so many in need, Equestria cannot in good conscience turn them away, however, there will have to be a re-evaluation of the earlier proposed ‘deal’.”

As more and more Pegasus guards dove down from the smoky skies to land nearby and start shifting rubble and tending to those ponies who were injured, and more guards trudged through the scorched mud and smoke to congregate in the area, Celestia took a deep breath and stood, looking around for some sign of the Captain or Colonel.

“Twilight, if I may ask, where are the jroidz leaders? I don’t see either the Captain or the Colonel.”

“The… the Captain left before we crashed to try and get their ship back under control… I don’t know what happened to him, but the Colonel, well…” for the first time in their conversation, Twilight seemed momentarily angry as she stole a hard glance at Discord and stepped away from him.

“Discord, I’m glad you saved us, but I meant all of us. He brought all us ponies with him but left all the jroidz on their ship when we teleported. The Colonel was left on board along with his guards as they crashed.”

“Why is this now my fault?” Discord interjected, twisting down so that his face was right at eye-level with Twilight’s, “It’s hardly my fault if nopony told me we were being invaded by friendly aliens, now is it? You should be glad I stayed around to help at all. If I had known they weren’t the bad guys when I humbly came swooping in to rescue you all, I would have done something else!”

Gently placing Fluttershy on the ground where she was quickly bowled over by a silently teary Rainbow Dash, he gave a ‘harrumph’ and placed his hands on his hips.

“Speaking of rescue, what did happen to the white warriors? And how did you find Fluttershy in the first place?” Twilight looked up at him and raised an eyebrow.

“Well, last time Fluttershy was captured, during Chrissy’s second attempt at conquering Equestria, I tried taking myself straight to her, and since some magical McGuffin prevented that, this time I simply brought Fluttershy to me. Unfortunately, I accidentally teleported everything around her too, so I found myself almost squashed by a giant flying bathtub with a lid.”

“Where did you go, then, when you teleported away?” Twilight interrupted, tilting her head quizzically.

“Hey! Who’s telling this story here, me or you?” the lanky draconequus pouted and flicked Twilight’s horn, causing it to twang like a spring, while she yelped and stepped back, steadying her horn with her hands. “Now as I was saying, I was almost squashed by a giant flying bathtub with a lid, but I wasn’t, because I’m me, and that’s far too embarrassing a way for me to go. After opening the door on it, I found some sort of giant spider-thing leaning over poor, defenseless Fluttershy here, as well as two bodies in white armor. Knowing I had made it in the nick of time, I pulled the spider-thing apart and grabbed her, before bringing us back here.”

“Wait, then if you teleported the sky-tub to yourself, where were you when this happened? Did you just leave bodies lying around near Ponyville or some other town? And what do you mean a “spider-thing”? Show me where this all is!” Stamping a hoof in frustration, Twilight crossed her arms and ruffled her wings in annoyance, looking pointedly at Discord, who promptly rolled his eyes and leaned close to her, whispering into her ear.

“Really Twilight, I can appreciate how you always have to be responsible and look out for the good of everypony, but I left it in a safe place… and besides, after what you girls have been through today… the leftovers are not something you want to see.”

Nopony else heard it, but the seriousness of his voice at the end sent a small shiver down Twilight’ spine, and as he pulled away, she could see the dead look in his usually manic eyes.

“A-alright then… we-we’ll leave it at that for now, although I will have to inspect it at some point to make sure it doesn’t become a hazard to anypony who finds it.”

Suddenly feeling something soft embrace her, the purple princess looked over her shoulder to see Princess Celestia holding her gently against herself.

“Twilight, you have done much here, keeping everyone accounted for and safe. Thank you, but please, let me help now. You don’t have to solve every problem here on your own. This,” she gestured to the massive overhang of the downed dreadnought as the hull curved up and away from them, “is too large a problem for any one mare to handle. Even,” with a giggle, the solar princess gently tapped her former pupil’s nose, “for a princess.”

Nodding her head, she stepped back from the diarch and gathered with her friends, “Alright, Princess, we’re still a little beat up and stressed from the shocks we received a few days ago, but we’ll be back to help clear the area and continue to help out the jroidz as soon as we get a little rest. I just… wish we could do more for them...”

Dipping her head, Celestia watched as Twilight asked Discord to take them home, before watching them all disappear in a flash of light.

Major Iron Buckle chose that moment to finally come forward, nodding politely to the princess. “Your highness, your sister is in stable condition. I can have a Pegasus team transport her back to the capital if you wish to remain here to overlook things.”

“No, Major, I want to take her back to the Castle myself. I’ll leave you in charge here for now, but fear not, I shall return as soon as I am sure Princess Luna is safe in the medical wing. I shouldn’t be gone more than a half hour, so please try to be polite and understanding to the jroidz. We didn’t realize how much of a threat they posed before, but now they’re just like anypony else would be in this situation. They will be confused, or scared; and remember what I told you inside the wreckage about fear. I would wish to avoid any more conflict between our peoples if we can.”

“Of course, your majesty,” the Major replied, saluting as he hardened his features, before yelling back to some troops to get them to wrangle the stragglers of the search party and begin going into the more stable sections of the wrecked starship.

Ear twitching at a twinkling sound, he turned back to see that Princess Celestia was gone, along with the prone form of Princess Luna and a half-dozen guards.

Looking around the clearing at everyone who had left, Trixie and Starlight huddled together, while a black-and-white painted jroidz painted in the approximation of a skeleton danced around a burning pool of fluid.

Staring into each other’s eyes with confusion, Trixie was the first to talk.

“You… don’t suppose they forgot about us, do you?”

Chapter 13 - Picking Up Pieces

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19 B.B.Y. Temporary Confederate Refugee Base, Unknown Planet, Sector G6 (See Galactic Map)

Cranker walked with his squad on patrol around the outer edges of the southern wall, nodding as he passed another patrol going the other way, before continuing his unfaltering march. He looked up at the sniper’s nest set up on top of one of the many troop transports that formed part of the walls keeping the base safe.

He moved silently, the only sound being the whirring of his servomotors and the soft squelch of mud underneath the patrol’s magnapeds as they marched. Slowly working their way around to the western gate, he brought up his hand, and the other four b1’s in formation behind him stopped in unison.

Something was swooping down from the sky from the direction of the lone mountain on the horizon, and as such, he placed himself in front of the gate and brought up his hand as the shape came closer. It soon resolved itself into one of the flying transports that the aliens loved so dearly, being pulled by two brawny, winged specimens with shiny golden plating covering them.

Cranker brought a hand to his head and radioed the anti-air tower to identify the approaching craft as friendlies before stepping out with his squad to meet the approaching ponies. Unsurprisingly, the purple one in bandages that had been on board the Dawn of Dusk was among the ponies that stepped off the flying platform once it had landed and come to a stop, but with her were some creatures that Cranker didn’t recognize.

Stopping just before the droids, the purple one stepped forward, first among the three that had gotten off the transport, and Cranker got a better look at the party. There was the tall, horned creature that he had seen at the aliens’ palace when they had first stepped off the landing craft in the courtyard, and the creature he saw here was quite impressive as well. Taller than a B1 and covered in rippling muscle that was clearly seen beneath a long coat, Cranker identified it as the most immediate possible threat before looking at the other member of the group; a white-furred creature with a horn, much like the purple one, except this one was missing wings and was built a bit more heavily.

Cranker stepped forward, as did the purple creature, and he said the only thing he had learned in the aliens’ language in the three days they’d been stranded here.

“<Greetings!>”

The purple and white creatures stood closer and showed their teeth to him, which Cranker identified as them smiling, and hopefully not baring their teeth at him, while the large, heavyset alien with horns on either side of its head narrowed its eyes and snorted, releasing a small cloud of hot air.

The short purple creature began chattering in its language to its two companions, much to Cranker’s dismay, though it quickly stopped and looked straight back up at him, before giving a low bow and saying something else.

Now, Cranker might have been slightly more intelligent that Spaller had been, but he still wasn’t quite bright. He hoped that the sounds he’d heard were a question, and with what he’d managed to discern about the purple creature in the five seconds it had stood in front of him, he responded with the only thing he knew in the aliens’ language.

“<Greetings!>”

The purple alien’s face seemed to crack just a bit, and Cranker took a half step back, wondering what he did wrong. Sneaking a glance behind him out of the corner of his photoreceptor, Cranker saw his squad looking around everywhere and pointedly not looking at him, and that was all the confirmation he needed.

He raised his hand to his head to contact the base command while the purple alien tilted its head and started speaking again, and he had to lift up his other hand to silence her. Since she jumped back, eyes wide, but finally silent, he eased his circuits as the line finally opened.

“This is Base Gamma Command. What’s the situation, soldier?”

“Base Command, this is perimeter squad four. We’ve got some VIP’s at the front gate, but I have no clue what they’re saying. I need a translator down here ASAP.”

“Request Confirmed, perimeter squad four. A translator will meet you at the front gate momentarily.”

“Roger. Perimeter squad four, out.”

Cranker nodded, though a moment later he realized the droid on the other end of the call couldn’t see him, and he directed his gaze back at the purple creature. Curious, it was still cowering in front of him, and as he looked past it, he saw the tall creature with two horns looking quite tense, and the single horn of the white creature glowing brightly as it had stepped back and looked absolutely terrified.

He made to bring his arm up in order to calm the alien’s in front of him before he realized it was still in front of him from when he shushed the alien, and moreover, he was still holding his blaster in that hand. It took him three full seconds to realize that he was pointing his blaster straight at the bandaged alien, and when he did, he immediately sprang back, jerking into a quick salute with his blaster pointed straight down at his side.

Cranker was extremely grateful he couldn’t physically show emotion, though he hoped the shaking in his servos didn’t betray how he felt.

Thankfully, he was saved from the uncomfortable silence as a loud whine sounded behind him, and the troop transport that the droids had been using as a front gate for Gamma Base slid to the side and out stepped another battle droid.

The B1 that stepped out of the base was identical in every way to all the others that had survived the crash, except for one small, six-pointed star that was painted on its shoulder; the emblem of a droid that had downloaded the translation software copied from TL-90’s databanks.

Though the droids were technically fluent in the aliens’ language now, or at least some of them were, they only had a sliver of TL-90’s translation software; a wise precaution, as a download package of that size could overload and fry the relatively cheap internal processors of the rest of them.

The droid that stepped through the gate greeted the purple creature and began a conversation, though it was, admittedly, somewhat slowed by the fact that the droid had to process the conversation through its software before it could respond, an act that wasn’t as quick as with the original.

***

Princess Twilight sighed as she once more walked away from the gate, General Kratos and Prince Blueblood at her sides.

“I realize they must be having a hard time with all that they’ve lost, but they’re still a military detachment! General Kratos, surely it shouldn’t take three days for a military force to figure out who’s in charge, should it?”

The large Minotaur general beside her have a snort and looked down at her.

“This whole thing smells funny. We haven’t seen anything like what you described when you were on their ship, so it seems unlikely that some of the remaining leaders are trying to usurp power from each other, but if they had only one or two good candidates to choose from, they should have established a proper chain of command by now. They’ve managed to build and secure their base just fine, and from what we’ve seen its operating smoothly. Our interaction with the translator just now proves it.” He lowered his gaze and stared hard at the ground, like it might crack and provide the answers they sought. “This whole thing seems fishy to me.”

“Well, if they have no leader picked out yet,” Blueblood chimed in from the side, throwing a disgusted look back at the ramshackle walls that protected the droids’ base, “perhaps we can come to an agreement with them. They are a foreign invading force in Equestria, after all, therefore they fall under our jurisdiction. If they’re not being hostile, then I don’t see why auntie Celestia doesn’t just declare them under her command. If they disagree, we’ll send the Royal Equestrian Army after them; give them a taste of what happened to us.”

Twilight whirled on Blueblood so quick she nearly slipped in the mud.

“Blueblood! Seriously? Haven’t you been listening to anything you’ve been told about the droids?”

She searched his eyes for a hint of recognition, and when his blank stare morphed into a sheepish grin, she nearly slapped him.

“The droids don’t feel pain, fear, or worry. They can’t. Didn’t you see some of the ones stalking around Canterlot when their ship first crashed? They tried finding each other throughout the streets of the capital just to know what their orders were. Didn’t you see them shrug off losing arms and legs and not caring, just so long as they could report back to their commanders? If we fight them, we might win, but they’re still an extremely lethal force, and one we need to tread carefully around!”

Turning around, Twilight winced and reached a hand out to her back and wings, which still throbbed dully from the sudden movement.

“Sweet Celestia, you’re a dolt…” she muttered under her breath in what she thought had been a whisper too quiet to be heard, but she hardened her gaze when she heard the sharp intake of air that signalled Blueblood had heard her.

Her sour mood evaporated a second later when she heard the deep, rumbling chuckle of General Kratos on her other side, and she couldn’t help but smile.

Despite their physical and cultural differences, the princess had found she quite enjoyed the General’s company in the few days she’d come to know him. He was blunt, and often very gruff, but since she had told Celestia and the General about her time on the droids ship, he had become somewhat sympathetic towards her, and she had a newfound appreciation for how terrifying it must have been when the delegation’s ship had nearly been destroyed on the way to Canterlot.

She unfortunately, had made no such bond with Blueblood. Celestia, after listening to Twilight’s story, had not left Canterlot, overseeing the reconstruction of the city, as well as taking care of her sister. Since both current rulers of Equestria were indisposed, and though the population had liked and preferred Twilight step in much more than Blueblood, Princess Celestia had chosen her nephew to represent the Equestrian government in all affairs concerning the refugee droids, though Twilight had still been given full authority to negotiate with them.

Though he had little to no training in being a head of office, and even less desire to be one, Blueblood had at first taken up the call, bolstered by other noble ponies he was friends with, and intent on bringing down hard justice on the metal invaders to Equestria. It was only once he realized he’d be deferring to Twilight Sparkle in the negotiations with the droids, and that Princess Celestia’s wish was to help the droids and integrate them into equestrian society, rather than punish and banish them, that his interest and enthusiasm for the whole thing had quickly evaporated.

Climbing back into the Chariot beside General Kratos and Prince Blueblood, Twilight looked back at the tall, metal walls of the base, and breathed a deep sigh. I hope they come forward soon. We can’t deal with a war right now. Looking around the lush interior of the carriage as one of the pegasi guards closed the door behind them, Twilight couldn’t help but supress a giggle. Though she and Blueblood were sharing one side of the seating quite comfortably, General Kratos was sitting by himself opposite them, and every time she saw him in a carriage she couldn’t help but laugh.

The General was so tall he had to stoop to avoid hitting his head, but because of his large, sharp horns, he had to make sure he faced the other occupants, lets he accidentally spear them during turbulence. As such he was sitting with his arms crossed and his head and shoulders scrunched down into the rest of his body; he looked as if someone had put horns on an especially short and pudgy dog.

The telltale bump that told the three that the carriage was beginning to move came, and Twilight could hold it in no longer. She burst out laughing, much to the chagrin of the General and Blueblood.

The General, for his part, merely huffed and grumbled to himself under his breath, while Blueblood sniffed and raised his nose, turning to face the window.

Giggles finally dying down, Twilight covered her mouth with a hand and sighed, the smile still sticking to her face.

“I’m sorry, General, I know you’re uncomfortable like that, but with how the last few days have been, I really needed the laughter.” She looked away sheepishly, noting the ever-present frown Kratos was giving her.

“No offense taken, princess. This has been a harrowing time for all of us, though if I have to ride in this darned thing one more time I swear I’ll cut a hole in the roof and just stick my head out of it.” He snorted a puff of air out of his nostrils as he spoke, to which Twilight tried her best to supress a smile.

“Of course, General Kratos. I’m sure accommodations are already underway, since the Minotaur delegation is staying a little longer than previously thought. I’ll be sure to include extra headspace in the carriages as part of those accomodations.”

Though the rest of the ride was rather uneventful, Twilight did her best to avoid looking out the windows. Besides the hastily-constructed droid base, which resembled nothing so much as a metal infection on the ground, as metal scraps and vehicles were dragged into an ever-larger defensive cluster, there was also the fact that the landscape from Canterlot to beyond Ponyville was marred by the titanic ship’s wreck.

The vessel had broken up into several larger fragments as it fell, and each had left a significant scar in the hills, fields, and forests where they had fallen, but even more so than that, the crash had devastated the remaining area. Small chunks of metal, plastics, and other foreign materials could be found as far away as the southern edge of the Everfree forest, and ranged in size from a fingernail to as large as a house. Closer to the ship, hundreds of acres of farmland and wild fields had been overturned and destroyed as the more intact parts of the ship had plowed through them as easily as a pegasus plowed through a cloud. Puddles, ponds, and whole lakes of fuels leaked into the surrounding area, and even three days after the crash, continued to burn and fill the air with an acrid scent, despite the ponies’ best attempts to smother them.

The part that wrenched at Twilight’s heart the most whenever she saw the devastation, was the thought of how many ponies had lost loved ones, or the even larger number that had been left homeless by the crash. Though the majority of Canterlot had been protected by princess Celestia’s shield spell during those crucial moments, she had seen the aftermath; homes reduced to rubble, streets collapsed into sinkholes that fell down the mountainside below, and every building’s windows turned into a series of deadly, sharp-fragmented holes.

When she had returned to Canterlot, she had also seen the clean-up and rescue teams searching through the broken husks of homes and businesses, and she had passed by too many crying ponies in the street for it not to scar her inside just a little bit. She gave a sigh and looked over and Blueblood, who was making sure to keep his gaze on the horizon out the window. For a few moments she looked at him and wondered; what was going through his mind, if he felt the same pain she was feeling, if his brash attitude was just a way to cover up how he felt.

Scratch that, she thought with a mental snort, as the prince noticed her looking at him, and very obviously shifted in his seat to face the side even more directly, he’s just trying not to think about how much of an inconvenience all of this has been to him.

Blueblood, for his part, didn’t do anything to discourage the thought.

***

B1-76504 gave the best imitation of a tired sigh that his vocoder could issue, leaning over on the console in front of him. Reorganising and redeploying the remaining droid forces was an arduous, boring, and downright draining task. Lifting his faceplate to look around the darkened command center, he took in his surroundings.

So much had changed since the crash, and yet, so little had. It had all been a blur. A holo-table stood in the center of the room, surrounded by four consoles that had been ripped from a salvaged field command module. The steady hum of generators could be heard through the walls and floor of the structure, and several droids went about their business at the other command consoles. Tinted and blast-resistant wrap-around windows gave the command center a decent view of the rest of the base, despite being raised only two stories off the ground.

76504 focused his attention back on his console, trying to push all the swirling data out of his processor so he could work, but apparently, some ghost in his programming decided his computing power was better spent remembering the past.

He had been stuck in the wreckage of the bridge for several hours, unable to move because his body was pinned under tons of metal. If had been able to breathe, he would have choked to death long ago from the smoke and noxious gasses boiling up from the ruptured hull as could do nothing but stare at the Captain’s unmoving frame next to him. Despite being pinned beneath wreckage, 76504 had been lucky, and had miraculously barely been damaged in the crash, especially since a spar of jagged and superheated metal had launched itself from the exploding fuel tanks, ripped through the bridge, and pierced straight through the Captain and another bridge pilot.

He had lain there, occasionally grumbling, until he heard a voice through the crumbling and creaking. Only one other member of the bridge crew had survived, and he and 44498 had passed the time talking about what they might have been able to do if things had turned out differently. Both trapped in the slowly crumbling wreckage of their ship, the two members of the bridge crew couldn’t see each other, but they had tried to keep each other company; they had nothing else to do until their power ran out.

Miraculously, once night had fallen, the two droids had felt the wreckage around them shifting, before bright searchlights fell upon them and clearing crews moved in to extract them from their deadly positions. 76504 had never been happier to see the six-legged “muckraker” crab droids that had dug through the debris for the clearing crews to follow, though the commandos that pulled him out seemed less than pleased at the news of the Captain’s demise.

The B1 shook his head and slapped a hand on his faceplate, giving another decent impression of a sigh that he dearly wished he could actually make. Snapping himself out of his memories, he looked around the command center once more before standing up, determined to take a personal walk around the base to see how things were coming along and to distract himself.

Before he could leave the room though, another droid walked in, this one with the stylized six-pointed star on its shoulder, and saluted, blocking his way.

“Commander, Sir! The ponies have extended another offer for peace talks. They’ve invited the base’s leadership to their capital city for a funeral ceremony. The pony princesses will be presiding over it and they’ve requested our presence. Afterwards they wish to begin negotiations with us to integrate into their society.”

“What? A funeral? Oh great, just what we need. Sometimes I really wish the Captain was still here, he’d know what to do. At the very least, it wouldn’t be me making these decisions.”

The other droid nodded in response, “I told them that the current command structure has not yet been reorganized, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t believe me this time or the other two times. What should we do?”

76504 thought for a moment, considering his options. He could certainly try and stave off the alien’s questions for a few more days while the droids reacquainted themselves with ground base procedures and finished salvaging the wreck of their ship, but he felt like he was out of his element.

He had been the sensors officer on board the Dawn of Dusk, and most of the sophisticated sensor suite on the ship was tied in directly into its systems, so although he was technically the highest ranked droid on the base, he had little to do except watch reports as they trickled in. He looked to 44498, his new second-in-command, sitting at his station as he went over an inventory of what the base had managed to save from the dreadnaught before its crash, and what had been rescued from the wreckage since.

“’98, I’m going to inspect how Gamma Base is coming. You have the command center while I’m gone.” Turning back to the translator droid, he waved and stepped past him, “Come with me. We’re going to find TL-90.”

With that, he stepped out of the room and made his way to the command post’s entrance. Stepping out onto the flattened muddy ground, he first made for the makeshift maintenance ward across the main plaza. The ramshackle building was put together with modular base walls and large pieces of dulled-down hull plating from the dreadnaught, and the sparks from welding torches could be seen inside.

The two droids passed by the airfield and the makeshift Vulture droid prep hangar, where the remains of the droids’ air superiority were housed. After taking heavy losses above Muunilinst and then again during the crash, the droids had walked away from the disaster with four damaged Vulture fighters, twenty one undamaged ones, and one single, very temperamental hyena droid bomber. 76504 had originally had the droids flying constant patrols over the base but then realized they didn’t have the fuel to spare to keep them in the air for long, and the entire air force was now grounded to preserve what little supplies they still had. The chattering of the Vultures reached his audio receptors as the two B1’s walked past, but were quickly drowned out by the sound of a high-pitched whine piercing the area.

76504 looked around before he was able to make out several small, aerial vehicles coming in to land at the airfield. Though the weapons and armor on the small platforms that four B1’s were currently in the process of disembarking from were far weaker than that of proper fighters, the new Commander at least took solace in the fact that they were easy to maintain and the energy required for them to fly was quite a bit easier to supply for patrols.

Pushing past the flap of a large knitted quilt stained with smoke and oil spots; one that had been generously donated by the ponies for the ‘droid refugees’ as they had put it, 76504 finally saw the droid he had been looking for.

TL-90 was hooked up to a small, mobile computer console and was conversing very animatedly with a super battle droid that was operating the computer, to the super droid’s obvious expense. Despite having no facial features or much of a face at all, the dull grey droid gave off a palpable aura of disgust and annoyance as the silver protocol droid continued to yammer on about this or that program that would make life at the base so much more effective, and if they would just listen to her and give her a little more leeway with how things were conducted then she was sure she could get the aliens to welcome them with open arms now that the droid force was stuck on their planet.

The super battle droid did its best to ignore her, and as such, didn’t notice the two newcomers, although the other droid hooked up to the console did. Another B1 was sitting patiently as he waited for his translation software to finish downloading. 76504 had ordered the translation capabilities be as widely spread as possible, to avoid confusion in the future. At the same time, an astromech was busy etching and spray painting a figure of a six-pointed star into the droid’s shoulder to denote it as yet another upgraded droid.

“Hey there, Commander! Guess what? This new translation software feels great! It’s like I can feel myself getting smarter! And I didn’t think I’d ever get to experience that! I even-” 76504 tuned out the rest of what the B1 was saying and turned to look at the protocol droid.

“TL-90, I have a question to ask. I know I’m technically in charge now since the Dusk went down, but these ponies have come be every day now. We’re going to end up talking with them or fighting with them one way or another, and I’d prefer not to fight, but I’ve got no idea how to lead, or really what to do in this situation. You’re programmed for politics and social interactions much better than any of us are… So I’ve decided I’m going to need you to come with me when I head out for the alien’s capital tomorrow. It’s about time we find out where we stand in this.”

The silver droid looked at the Commander for an uncomfortable few seconds before dipping its head and speaking much more quietly and calmly than before.

“I… yes, I’ll come with you. Speaking with these aliens will be the best course of action. We may have superior technology but we’re severely outnumbered and wholly unfamiliar with the terrain and capabilities of the opposition. If we started a war with them now, we might prevail, but I calculate that our odds of successfully establishing a connection with other Separatist forces would be reduced to four-hundred and fourteen to one if we were actively fighting a war with the resources we have.”

The Commander nodded and thanked the silver droid before dismissing the other translator droid. Perhaps it would do him some good to double check how the rest of the base was doing before he went back to the command center.

***

Trixie woke up screaming. She quickly clamped a hand over her mouth once she realized she was back in her wagon, but the images and emotions racing through her head caused her to shake under her blanket, despite not feeling cold. She shuddered and pulled back the curtains from her little window, looking outside and seeing nothing but darkness. It was still night, good.

She sat up in her cramped hammock, pulling her blanket around her and trying to calm herself from the terrible images that danced behind her eyes. She’d been in plenty of dangerous or unpleasant situations; she’d never admit it to anypony, but she’d caused most of them. But ever since she and Starlight had returned to Ponyville after the titanic spaceship had crashed, she’d barely been able to close her eyes before her mind began replaying the terror from three days ago. Clutching one of her trembling hands with the other, she rocked back and forth in her hammock and willed herself to calm down.

Unfortunately, she kept hearing the shriek of metal, she still saw the impact of a city-sized missile, and she still felt the ground quaking beneath her hooves. The showmare shuddered and cried silently to herself for too many long minutes as her breathing became more even and she finally managed to push the thoughts from her mind, for the moment at least. Eventually she felt something else; a warm hand on her shoulder, and looked up at the other occupant of her tiny wagon.

“H-hey… um, sorry for waking you, Starlight…” The blue unicorn mumbled as she hid her face in her covers, but the hand didn’t move away. A moment later, Trixie heard the sound of something shifting around and a moment later she found herself in a tight embrace.

“Don’t be sorry Trixie, this is why I agreed to spend the nights in your wagon. You can trust me. I’ll be here as long as you need.”

Trixie sniffed a few times before she raised her head and wiped her eyes, looking over her shoulder. The interior of the cart was dark, but she could see the dim reflections of Starlight’s eyes beside her. “Th-thanks Starlight. Trixie feels silly… I mean, we’ve saved Equestria from hordes of evil changelings! Y-you know, back when they were evil, and yet, this is so different. This time Discord showed up and saved us before anything really bad happened, but I felt even more powerless then than I did in the changeling hive…”

She shuddered and Starlight patiently waited for her to continue, holding her close the whole time.

“What’s happening Starlight? We’ve faced down so much together, but that… that… It was just death. We couldn’t stop it, the jroidz couldn’t stop it, and so many of them just… died. We-we could have just as easily died! And no one would ever find us because we’d be buried under a mountain of metal! I just… even after three days, I can’t stop thinking about it. What happens now?”

It was a moment before Starlight replied, and as she did so she sighed and rested her head against Trixie’s, whose breathing had calmed down considerably despite the unpleasant memories dredging themselves to the surface of her mind. “I don’t know what happens now, Trixie. I wish I could say I did, but I can’t. The jroidz lost everything that gives them security. Honestly, after seeing them on their starship, and how they talked and tried to regale to us how great joining them would be, I… I couldn’t help but be reminded of how I used to be.”

Trixie gave a small snort that turned into a hiccough and she had to quiet down for a few moments before she was able to focus on Starlight once more.

“I’m serious!” the pink unicorn gave a playful shove, but just as quickly hugged her friend once more. “Think about it. They’re all basically identical, and they felt secure in themselves and their routine. It was just like my little village a couple years ago, and when everything came crashing down around me, I was furious, and unpredictable, and I lashed out. My only goal back then was revenge. The jroidz seem a little too uh… let’s say ‘optimistic’ instead of something much ruder, than I was back then, but they may react similarly. There was only one of me at the time, and now there’s thousands of them. I think our best bet is to try and follow Twilight’s example of extending the hand of friendship to them. If we help them in their darkest times, then maybe we’ll be able to avoid a war with a thousand pissed-off aliens.”

Trixie sniffled again and brought her hands up to her eyes once more, looking down at her lap, and said nothing for a while. Her thoughts were racing around her head faster than she could keep track of them, and she just wanted everything to stop, for a day, for an hour, even just for a minute, so she could relax and not feel fearful of everything that had happened and everything that might happen.

She was so preoccupied that she barely registered when the hammock shifted and Starlight’s body pressed up to hers. Startled, she looked over at her friend in the gloom and saw she had climbed into the hammock with her.

“S-Starli-?” she squeaked.

“I… I know that probably wasn’t what you wanted to hear Trixie, but… What happened was terrible, and there are no right answers to how we can go forward or prevent what happened from happening again. But… I can still keep you company. And it’s clear that you’re still far too worried about this to sleep at all.”

The blue unicorn nodded silently, before realizing that Starlight probably couldn’t see her and responded with a hesitant, “Yeah, I don’t think so either.”

“I’m just here to listen and that’s what I’ll do. We don’t know what’s going to happen, so let’s not focus on that. I know! I know,” the faint light reflected in her eyes changed as her voice raised an octave, “I know I probably made it worse by talking about the future in the first place, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m here for you. If you’re not going to sleep, then I don’t need to either. You’re scared, and tired, and confused, and I am too. But even if we are, we can still be scared and tired and confused together. Because it’s better to face these things together than alone.”

Trixie blinked a few times, and realized her eyes finally felt incredibly heavy once more as her body shuddered and she nearly fell back from exhaustion. “Thanks Starlight. You… you should go back to your own hammock now. But thank you for staying with me, and thank you for listening. I don’t know if I’ll be ready to properly talk about it, or ever able to put it into words, but… thank you. You’re a true friend, Starlight.”

She felt Starlight’s hands let go of her for a moment and felt the hammock shift once more before the hug came back and pulled her down into a lying position beside her friend.

“Um, Starlight-? These beds aren’t designed for two ponies and it’s really cramped-” she squeaked in surprise.

“Oh hush. I know, Trixie. But… I wasn’t lying. I’m scared, and tired, and confused too. And, I hope you’ll forgive me for being a bit selfish, but you’re not the only one who’s been having nightmares since that day, and… I don’t want to be alone right now.”

After relaxing from the nightmare, and getting tired once more, Trixie thought that she would have felt slow and lethargic, but suddenly she was much more aware of her surroundings in her little cart, and quite sure that her heartbeat had picked up significantly-

Trixie’s breathing quickened once more, but this time, all thoughts of the tragedy were banished from her mind and she completely forgot about her earlier nightmares as all her thoughts were consumed with the proximity of her best friend as she tried to calm herself and get to sleep; a feat which she eventually managed to do, calming to the rhythm of the pink unicorn sleeping in her hammock beside her.

***

Shining Armor opened his eyes and groaned.

“Ow… Cadance, honey? What’s going on? Why is the world shaking?” His blurry vision of a lush, velvet ceiling was suddenly replaced by the calmly smiling visage of his beautiful wife.

“You’re finally awake, sleepy-head!” she giggled and brought a hand to cover her mouth before continuing. “We’re in a carriage, and we’re on our way to Canterlot, remember? I told you this yesterday. We got a letter from Twilight and Spike, and she asked us to come help with the peace talks.”

At the blank look Shining gave her, she continued, sitting back, while his gaze turned to keep her in sight.

“Twilight said that some sort of disaster happened to Canterlot and part of Ponyville, and since the peace talks with the Minotaurs were interrupted, she wanted us to come by, along with the Minotaur prisoner. They’d gotten pretty close to an agreement but she said there were some complications and she wanted us to be there for it.”

Grunting and straining, Shining Armor placed his hands under himself and felt the soft velvet cushions of the royal carriage. Taking much more strength than he would have admitted, he raised himself to a sitting position next to his wife, which only caused her to fuss over him.

“Take it easy, Shiny. You’re going to rip your bandages again. The doctors said you were healing better than the first time, but still, try not to move too much until we get to Canterlot.”

The white stallion gave a huff and cracked a smile, looking sideways at his wife while he did so. “Please Cadance, I learned my lesson after I nearly bled out on the parade ground. I won’t go doing anything strenuous until I’m fully healed, alright? But you have to forgive a guy for wanting to sit up and get a better look at his beautiful wife’s face.”

Cadance’s giggles soon overpowered both of them, and they were both chortling quietly in the compartment until Shining Armor sucked in a breath between his teeth and grasped at his side where he was still bandaged. Damn, those Minotaur axes cut deep. He gritted his teeth and turned to his wife once more.

“See? You can’t make me laugh too much, or I’ll end up hurt again.” He said with a serious look, but his playful tone and the kiss that he planted on her lips a moment later betrayed his mood, and the pink alicorn gave him a playful shove on the shoulder in return.

“Oh please, you made yourself laugh. Just don’t try and pick any more fights with the Minotaurs when we get into Canterlot, and I think you’ll make a full recovery.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder as she scooted closer to him on the seating, and a moment later Shining sighed happily, and leaned his head on hers. The two of them silently took in the cloudscape through the windows for a time, content with each other and the world.

“I’m just glad we’re finally putting this nonsense behind us,” Shining spoke up with a sheepish grin, “It’ll be good to tune down the excitement for a while, and I’m looking forward to seeing Twily again. She’s probably sticking her nose in places where it doesn’t belong and annoying the Minotaurs with all sorts of questions.”

Cadance’s only response was to roll her eyes and hug herself closer to her husband as they continued on the trip.

Author's Notes:

And I'm back! After far too long with this story, I'm back.

First things first, this year has been hard, though I'm sure its been harder for many others. Even so, I didn't have time for much at all recently, and most of this chapter was written in the last week. I'm currently doing okay, and I have a schedule for the first time ever. One that I'm trying to stick to.

The next chapter has not been started as of posting this one, but I'm keeping up at approximately a steady 2k words per day, and I'm dividing that between this and Ruins Of A Forgotten Time, as well as another large project I've been working on for a year now (though I have far less done than I'd hoped after all this time).

Finally... I'm tired. I love this story and the support everyone's shown me since I started writing Clankers, but I've been letting it drag on for too long and my inconsistent writing has bugged me for a long time. I'm going to be sticking to my schedule as best as I can, and I should have the next chapter of Ruins out in about a week if all goes well. The next chapter of Clankers should be out in about two weeks, barring any unforseen circumstances, and despite all the grand plans I had for the story, I'm going to be wrapping it up. The next few chapters will focus on tying up loose ends even as the story progresses, but I just want to finally be done this fic so I can look at it and be proud, rather than ashamed that I've been working on it for so long.

So yeah, hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter, and I'll see you guys in a couple weeks with the next one!

Chapter 14 - Boundary Lines

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4:05 P.M. Canterlot Palace Courtyard, Canterlot

Twilight sat in front of a grand window, looking out over the palace’s courtyard. The centuries-old cobblestones still hadn’t been repaired, and many of them were cracked, smashed, or completely shattered, though the guards that were setting up stands on top of them did their best to sweep up any remaining debris from the scene.

Twilight gave a sigh and leaned her hand on the newly-replaced glass. In all honesty, she couldn’t fault Princess Celestia for making the decisions that she had, and the solar diarch had refused most attempts from guards, nobles, and contractors alike to conduct emergency repairs on the castle.

The castle repairs had gone ahead anyway, but only so that it was once more habitable. Any superficial damage had been deemed not important enough, and the princess herself had directed all other construction efforts in the city to focus first and foremost on the citizens’ living spaces and livelihoods. Ever the benevolent ruler, Celestia had opened the castle to all of Equestria’s citizens who had nowhere else to go. For those who had lost everything, and whose homes hadn’t yet been rebuilt, they had been relocated temporarily to the castle. Though some ponies thought it too grand a gesture, most of them had humbly accepted; those who had nopony to stay with, and nothing left from the devastation of the crash.

And so, many ponies began integrating themselves into temporary life at the castle. Though Princess Twilight and Princess Celestia both made themselves known and could be seen throughout the past few days helping personally with some of the reconstruction and clean-up efforts, far too many times they found themselves unable to help as their appearance simply caused all work to grind to a halt as ponies bowed and came up to thank them for their kindness.

Another heavy sigh shook the young princess’ frame by the window as her thoughts soured slightly. For all the ponies that took solace in the fact that the rulers of Equestria were doing their best to help their subjects, a few had made themselves known for voicing concerns that the princesses weren’t doing enough, or that they were nearly as responsible as the droid invaders for the damage caused. Those voices were expressly a minority, but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in noise.

Straightening up, Twilight stood, taking one last look at the worker crews outside and straightened her dress; a dark grey dress fit designed by Rarity that Princess Celestia had insisted she wear for the occasion, and made her way through the castle. Servants, guards, and regular citizens alike bowed and let her pass without question, and for once she was glad she had the weight of royalty behind her. With the somber nature of the evening to look forward to, and the stress of having partially taken over Celestia’s royal duties for the last few days, Twilight’s patience was wearing thin and she really just wanted to lie down and sleep for a week or two.

Making her way through the castle as fast as she dared without simply spreading her wings and flying down the hallways, Twilight eventually found herself at a large open doorway; one of the rooms that had been set aside for her and her friends during the ceremony. Peering inside, she saw Fluttershy preventing Rainbow Dash from tearing off her own, lighter mourning dress.

“Come on, ‘Shy! I said I’d wear the darn thing, but I’m not wearing a veil! I didn’t know any of the victims!”

The yellow pegasus’ response was too soft for Twilight to hear, but she could see Rainbow Dash’s wings relax and her ears droop in response. Stepping forward into the room, Twilight gave a polite knock on the doorframe and clasped her hands in front of her. “You girls ready?”

“Twilight!” Despite the dress, Rainbow Dash launched herself across the room with surprising speed, only to stop a hoofstep away from the young princess, an uncertain look on her face. She quickly caught sight of Fluttershy’s disapproving look and landed once more, lowering her gaze sheepishly.

“Hey uh, how long have you been waiting there? You didn’t hear… I mean, uh how’re you holding up?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Rainbow’s stumbling words, but just gave a tired smile and placed her hand on her friend’s shoulder.

“I’m doing alright Rainbow. I’m checking in with everyone to see if we’re all ready. The ceremony’s going to start soon.”

“Yeah, yeah. Fluttershy was ready an hour ago, so she came by to help me out,” the blue pegasus whirled and turned on the third member of the group, adding, “Even though I was fine on my own! The burns barely sting anymore.”

Fluttershy reached out and laid a gentle hand on Dash’s other shoulder, patting her softly. “I know. Still, I wanted to help. It helped me keep my mind off things in the meantime…”

Rainbow Dash looked away for a moment before settling her gaze on Twilight once more, “So the others…?”

“I haven’t gone to visit them yet. I was taking a moment to clear my thoughts before I came to get you girls. We can get the rest of them together.”

Twilight spun in place and led the other two to the next room down the hall, where frequent bouts of laughter drifted out. Just inside, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity were sitting around a small table and the two earth ponies seemed to be sharing a laugh at the unicorn’s expense, though a moment later her face broke out into a smile and she joined in.

Twilight wanted to wait by the door and knock, much as she had for the first room, but her friends had other plans. Fluttershy stood with her and waited, but Rainbow Dash ran into the room to interrupt the giggling trio, before she was pulled in close by Pinkie’s oddly elastic arms and told the extent of the joke, at which point she too began laughing.

The fact that all of them, even Applejack, wore grey and black dresses for the solemn occasion, seemed to dim their spirits none as the friends relaxed together and put the later events of the evening out of their minds, if just for the moment. Twilight smiled to herself and watched Fluttershy get dragged in, and nearly walked into the room herself, but was stopped by a familiar voice behind her.

Turning back to the room, she waved at her friends. “Just a second girls, you can tell me what it’s all about in a second. I just need to talk to Starlight really quickly.”

Backing out into the hallway once more, the young alicorn princess looked at her student. She, like many of the other girls, wore a long black dress for the occasion, and she could see Trixie in her own slightly subdued, darker-purple dress over a black undershirt. Both were, thankfully, devoid of any stars or glitter, though the showmare looked nearly as uncomfortable as she had been four days prior on the alien’s ship.

“Hey Starlight, hey Trixie, thanks again for helping out so much in Ponyville while I’ve had to be here. Do you need something?”

“Of course we’re happy to help, Twilight!” Starlight said with a smile, glancing back to see the uncomfortable look on Trixie’s face. “Aren’t we Trixie?”

The other unicorn finally looked directly at Twilight and forced a neutral expression on her face, though she made a cross between a whine and a choking noise.

“Well, I know you asked us to be here and-”, Starlight started to reply, shooting Trixie an annoyed look before continuing, “I’m more than happy to be here for you through this time, but- and I don’t mean to question your decision! But do you really think it’s best that we’re here and not in Ponyville? No one back home got hurt, yeah, but there’s still some rebuilding to do, and the droids’ crashed ship and their base are just a few hilltops over from town. We really should have someone there in case we need to defend Ponyville.”

Twilight grabbed Starlight’s hand and squeezed it, giving a small smile. “Don’t worry Starlight. The ceremony will only be a few hours. I’ll be teleporting everyone home right after I get to talk with Princess Celestia, and we’ll be leaving the princesses here along with some company to make sure that Canterlot is well defended too.”

“I just… We’re all stressed and pretty much at our limits, Twilight. I want this to be over as much as the next mare, but I still want us to be ready for anything. Remember when I showed up after you drove me out of Our Town? I took you completely by surprise, which is what I wanted.”

Twilight eyed her student warily, and replied slowly, choosing her words, “I do remember that, yes. I had been advertising the fact that the bond my friends and I have was what had saved Equestria countless times, and you used that information to go back to that crucial point in time. But you’re not that pony anymore Starlight.”

“I know, I know. But I was waiting for the opportune moment to strike. With all of us here and no one left in Ponyville, I can’t help but get a feeling that maybe now would be the perfect time for the droids to try something.”

Twilight giggled and covered her mouth, looking back between Starlight and Trixie.

“And what do you think, Trixie? I know we’re not always on the best of terms, but be honest with me. Do you think having everypony here is a bad idea?”

The showmare huffed and crossed her arms, mumbling something out of the corner of her mouth.

“I’m sorry, what was that? I didn’t quite catch that.”

“I said, ‘Trixie doesn’t like leaving Ponyville defenseless either’, but that’s mostly because all of Trixie’s possessions are currently there. That being said, Trixie doesn’t think anything bad will happen in the few hours we’re here, and Starlight said she’ll take Trixie back as soon as we were done, so I don’t see the harm in it.” There was a moment of silence before she added quietly under her breath, “… besides, it’s not so bad to spend time farther away from the jroidz.”

Twilight sighed and hung her head before she glanced at the rays of sunlight streaming in from a nearby window. “Alright, I’ll send word back to Spike in Ponyville to keep alert and write to me if anything happens, but we’ve got to get going, or we’ll be late for the start of the ceremony. Oh! But before we do, did you bring what I asked from Ponyville?”

Starlight rolled her eyes, then grabbed Twilight around the shoulder and pulled her close with a smile.

“Of course we did, Twilight. What sort of friend would I be if I didn’t help you out when you needed it? It came on the same train as us. Spike and I made sure it was packed safely before we left Ponyville and we managed to rope some guards into taking it to your temporary room. We also packed some of your tools and a few spare power crystals, just in case. It should be getting there sometime soon.”

“You left it in the care of somepony else?” Twilight narrowed an eye, but Starlight simply released her grip and raised an eyebrow, nonplussed.

“Twilight, it weighs as much as Applejack’s big brother. Do you realize how hard of a time Spike, Trixie, and I had trying to get it secured on the train? Levitation only helps so much when you’re playing tetris with luggage, Twilight.”

“Relax, Princess, everything’s fine” Trixie spoke up, pointing behind the lavender alicorn where two guard stallions were slowly trudging around the corner. Between them they carried a wooden crate the size of a large coffin, and despite the stallions’ size and strength, it was obvious they were straining under the weight, if the expressions on their faces was anything to go by. One of the guards flanking the door to Twilight’s room at the end of the hall exchanged a few words with the guard carrying the front half, before opening the door and quickly letting the two pass. A dull thump resonated throughout the castle a moment later and both guards came back out of the room, stopping to pant and lean against the wall.

“See? They’re fine, your precious box is fine, now hurry up or we’re going to be late for the funeral!”

Trixie’s voice was considerably hurried, though Twilight managed to notice that it didn’t seem to be because of the showmare’s usual impatience, but rather she saw for a moment genuine panic and sadness in her eyes.

The look flashed over her face in an instant though, and the blue unicorn mare was back to her old grumpy self, though still evidently shaken by the fact that they were heading to confront the deaths of possibly thousands of ponies.

“R-right. Thanks for doing this for me Starlight. And Trixie, I know we’re not on the best of terms, but thank you too. I owe you both for this.”

Sticking her head in the doorway, the young princess called out for her friends, who piled out in a cheerful mass, though as they saw Starlight and Trixie’s more serious faces the mood quickly became muted and they followed Twilight to the front.

They passed a guard, and Twilight asked him to bring her a sheet of parchment, an inkwell, and a quill, and to meet her by the front entrance, and they continued on their way. Though she still walked at the front of the little procession, Twilight could see that now that she wasn’t alone. Many of the refugees in the castle that were also leaving to attend the evening’s service were now surrounding them and instead of being quietly respectful, many of them were now coming up to her and her friends, thanking her for letting them stay at the castle or for their continued work to bring peace.

It was honestly tiring, and Twilight was extremely grateful when her friends noticed and started deflecting some of the questions sent her way and helping her get past the throng of bodies to the entrance of the palace. Looking up, she saw the guard from before looking into the sea of faces, but he quickly caught her gaze and made his way over to her, bowing as he left.

Moving over to the edge of the hall, her friends forming a sort of protective shield around her, she quickly scribbled down a note for Spike before rolling it up and zapping it with her magic. She watched as the magical smoke flew out through the front doors and watched it disappear into the darkening evening sky, until something else caught her attention.

Stepping outside and excusing herself from the crowd, Twilight pulled her friends along as she saw a dark shape in the sky gradually resolve itself into the familiar shape of an airborne carriage being pulled by four pegasus guards. It set down on the ground in the courtyard beside the Minotaur’s airship, a section that was already separated from the ponies flooding into the hastily-constructed stands by a contingent of royal guards and the elevation of that part of the courtyard.

As the first figure stepped out of the carriage, Twilight couldn’t keep her smile contained and trotted over as quickly as she dared while still keeping some semblance of royal grace. As soon as the second figure stepped into sight though, she forgot all about the crowd assembling in the gardens and courtyard below, and the purple princess ran forward, grabbing the front of her dress to stop from tripping over it, and leaped at the form of her brother, wrapping him in a tight hug.

“Shiny! It’s so good to see you again!”

Her brother caught her as she hung from his neck – barely. He stumbled under her weight and she heard a sharp intake of breath before he responded and lowered her to the ground.

“I’m – ugh – happy to see you too Twilight, but please, I’m still healing. Do you mind loosening your grip a little?”

She let go and looked up to see Shining Armor’s pained face twisted into what she supposed was his attempt at a smile, but it came across more like a grimace, and she could see a pink blur out of the corner of her eye.

“Twilight, dear, your brother is still healing. He didn’t know what was good for him and he tore open his stitches a few days ago.”

Princess Cadance stepped beside the two, a mischievous smile on her lips as she steadied Shining Armor and let him lean against her.

“What did you do? I thought you were stuck in bed resting after catching that Minotaur!?” Twilight’s eyes widened as she stepped back, checking her brother over for injuries and finally getting a good look at the two. “And… you should still be resting anyway! You weren’t supposed to come until the day after tomorrow!”

Though the two were well-dressed for the visit that day, they were most certainly not dressed for the occasion. Shining Armor stood as straight and tall as he could with his Captain’s ceremonial uniform on and Cadance gripped his arm tightly, steadying him, while she was dressed in a flowing lavender dress with a deep neckline and a trail of pink lace.

“I was just a little reckless and tried getting back to drills too early. More importantly, what did you girls do!? You invite us down here to help with peace talks and yet it looks like you’re in the middle of a war! Half of Canterlot is destroyed and there’s a huge crater just outside Ponyville! And why are you all wearing black? If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were all heading to a funeral.”

While he was talking, Shining Armor had stepped forward, and though he looked somewhat frail, hanging onto the smaller frame of his wife for support, his voice rose in that are-you-okay, and whose-skull-do-I-have-to-crack-to-protect-you sort of way that Twilight had heard before.

Raising her hands to calm him down she took a deep breath and glanced around, looking at the crowd that was continuing to filter into the main Palace’s lower courtyard and taking notice of a second carriage, this one more solidly built, alighting on the ground behind the first.

“You’re… not exactly wrong about that. Shortly after that incident you had with the Minotaur thief, there was ah, um,” I can’t tell Shiny about the metal spider blowing up in my face! He won’t leave me alone for a month! She thought desperately of a way to tell her story without sounding like it put her in too much danger. While she did so though, another, quieter voice in the back of her mind whispered, would that really be so bad though? I’d feel a bit safer with Shiny close by for a bit.

Thankfully she was saved from extending the awkward silence when Pinkie Pie stepped forward.

“Weeeeell, things were going normal until they weren’t! first, Rainbow Dash and Twilight found a weird looking metal spider that destroyed itself when it got caught, then these weird, tall creatures in silvery-blue airships came down to Ponyville and said they want to meet with our leaders, but we were rushed here to Canterlot to the meeting and Trixie burned her letter, and the tall, thin creatures came here to Canterlot instead! But they brought an army and Princess Celestia talked with them in the castle and we found out the creatures were actually aliens called droids, which is weird, because that doesn’t sound like an alien name at all. It would have made more sense to call them ‘Thinnies’ or ‘Squawkers’ or ‘B1’s’ or something else cool and alien like that, but not Florg, because although Florg sounds alien, it’s actually slang for far-out in ancient Neighponese, and really, who has the time to learn outdated slang anymore?”

Shining Armor and Cadance were clearly having trouble keeping up with the excitable pink mare, and their faces showed it, so in the middle of her tangent, Trixie kicked out a leg and caught Pinkie in the back of the calf, reminding her to get on with it.

“-ow! But anyway that’s all irrelevant. The aliens came and wanted us to join their evil organization across the stars, but we were all like, ‘nuh-uh, you’ve gotta offer us something great in return’ so they were all like, ‘well, how about we take you for a magic spaceship ride?’ and we were all like, ‘uh-huh! You can show us the worlds!’ So we all went waaaaay up in one of their airships, which are actually spaceships by the way, and we walked around on this huuuuge spaceship! But then the alien Captain said we had to get off because something went wrong and we got flung all over the place, and then these two other aliens started fighting all the droids aliens, and Princess Luna got hurt and -” Pinkie abruptly cut off as she got to the point in her story that everyone remembered all too well.

Hundreds of droids bodies had lain on the floor, and the two white armored infiltrators had cut through their ranks and kidnapped Fluttershy before they were saved by Discord and saw the failed landing attempt.

This time it was Rarity that stepped forward to finish the thought.

“It… is regrettable, but the two ruffians Pinkie spoke of did something critically damaging to the alien’s ship, and well, it went down. We were lucky enough to escape mostly unharmed, though many of the alien crew were not. From what they explain to us, they were machines of a sort, and don’t feel pain or hunger or happiness as any of us do, but still. You saw for yourself that their attempt to bring down the ship failed. Spectacularly so. Unfortunately, Canterlot was hit by much of the falling debris and – er, other stuff, and it was a tense time while everypony was picking themselves up again.”

“That’s mostly what happened, yeah,” Twilight finished, before moving in to give her brother another firm, but gentler’ hug. “The droids set up a camp a short distance from their crashed vessel, and we’ve been trying to get into proper contact with them to resolve the issue of them being stranded here and allow us to help each other, but ever since the crash they’ve been… skittish. And I really thought you two weren’t going to be here yet, because you’re right, we are dressed for a funeral. Princess Celestia is going to providing over a ceremony of mourning for all those who lost their lives during the crash; ponies and droids alike.”

Shining’s grimace came back and his façade cracked just enough to be noticeable as Cadance squeezed his arm tightly and put on a fake smile of her own.

“… And we’re going to stick out during the ceremony like two bubble gum drops in a sea of black liquorice, got it. But seriously Twily? Aliens? You couldn’t have told us any of this earlier? Maybe in the letter you sent?”

Twilight, grinned sheepishly and looked down at her gleaming horseshoes, “Well, I didn’t really think you’d believe me if I asked you to come while you were injured because I’d met ‘aliens’.”

Shining sighed and placed a hand on his forehead. “Alright, I’ll admit the notion would have seemed a bit ridiculous, but it wouldn’t be much more far-fetched than any of the other problems that have fallen into your lap since you moved to Ponyville. If I hadn’t seen the chocolate rain myself, I wouldn’t have believed that anyone running around, screaming about Discord was in their right mind. Now though? Aliens are just another Tuesday for you.”

Twilight once more leaned forward and gave her brother a gentle hug, being careful not to aggravate the wounds he hid this time.

“You’re the best BBBFF ever, Shining. I’m sorry I didn’t keep you up-to-date.”

“It’s alright Twily, but there is something I wanted to ask you… Is there any way we can ask the Princesses if they’ve got any spare clothes for the occasion they could lend us? Or at least lend Cadance here? I can get away with being in a military uniform, but some of the locals might not like her showing up like this.” He gestured back to his wife, whose bright, cheery colors clashed horribly with the subdued tone of the evening.

Twilight grinned and stepped back, “There’s no time, but I’ve got a better idea!”

Powering up her horn, she concentrated on pulling the magic forth from her being, creating the spell matrix and passing it over her sister-in-law. The magic took only a moment to manifest, and the spell cut out a second later.

Looking at her handiwork, Twilight gave a satisfied nod and looked to Cadance for confirmation.

“What do you think? I didn’t want to try transfiguring the dress while you’re wearing it, but temporarily changing the color is much easier and safer.” Twilight jerked her head to the crowd assembled in the courtyard behind them, “I’m afraid I can’t do anything about the dress’ style, so some ponies might still think it’s a bit indecent for the occasion, but you won’t have to change into anything else, and the colors will fade back to normal in a few hours – more than enough time for the ceremony.”

Princess Cadance blinked and looked down at herself, admiring the sudden change in her appearance.

“That’s really handy Twilight! Thank you! We still might have to make a quick detour to the castle though, on account of…”

“Get off me!” A gruff voice barked out from behind the group, and everyone assembled turned to look at the other carriage, as a large figure had stepped out of it and was being restrained by two burly earth pony guards.

“…Yeah. We brought Iron Fist to trade him back to the Minotaurs. You did say that you wanted our help with negotiations and well, since you didn’t mention anything about aliens, we figured you were getting close to reaching an agreement with the bulls. We thought it prudent to bring him with us when they inevitably asked for his return.”

Twilight pursed her lips as the large Minotaur was brought over to the congregation; a large, grey-skinned bull with a broken horn and scars crossing over his chest, his massive hands clinking while linked with heavy manacles. He stood at least a head taller than Shining Armor, and his shoulders looked even wider than those of General Kratos. His beady, black eyes scrutinized the group even as he snorted a blast of hot air out of his nose.

“So this is the little pony princess that’s negotiating to trade me back to Minos? I thought you ponies had an amazon of a leader. There’s no way this is truly Princess Celestia, the one being that moved the sun and moon for a millennia!”

Iron Fist’s voice dragged and grated on the ears like gravel being crushed in a compactor, but Twilight stared straight up at the minotaur, flattening her ears and narrowing her eyes. The two stood like that for some time, before the silence was broken by the clip-clop of hoof steps on the stone bricks and the sound of a strong, but sweet voice reached everyone’s ears.

“Captain Shining Armor, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza! So glad you could join us for the ceremony on such short notice. And I see you’ve brought a guest.” Princess Celestia strode into view from the main entrance, a small and mirthless smile tugging at her lips, but her eyes passed over Iron Fist, completely devoid of emotion or compassion and the large Minotaur seemed to shrink just a little bit in front of her.

“Princess Twilight, why don’t you take the captain and the princess with you and your friends and head over to the main entrance,” she waved to several of the guards with a wing to come forward as she beamed a more genuine smile at the youngest princess and tilted her head, “I’ll make sure our guest here is escorted to a good location to see the funerary procession.”

Holding her head up high, Twilight thanked the Solar Diarch and began to lead the group back to the main section of the courtyard, where Prince Blueblood and General Kratos, along with the rest of the Minotaur delegation waited at the top of the main palace steps. Despite the commotion going on with all the ponies spilling into the stands, Twilight noticed the discreet look that passed between the bulls as Iron Fist was led into the castle by a contingent of guards through a side door.

Princess Celestia followed the group back to stand in front of the main entrance of Canterlot Palace, and stepped to the forefront, her horn glowing slightly as she cast a near-imperceptible spell. She patiently waited for the crowd to finish filling into the stands set up all around the courtyard and for the chatter to die down before she opened her mouth to speak.

Only… nopony could hear her voice.

Rather, she didn’t speak, frozen, with her mouth open as she was. Instead, the whole city, with a hushed silence, listened as a thin whine began to pierce the air and build up around them. As the sound continued to build, the Solar Princess silently closed her mouth and looked over to the side of the castle palace walls, and out to the open sky beyond it. Many faces in the crowd, which had been watching her for the start of the ceremony, followed her gaze.

Rising up over the side of the castle walls was the silver, bathtub-shaped ship that had originally brought the droids to Canterlot. This time however, it drifted over the walls slowly, and instead of a massive troop ship accompanying it along with many wings of insectile blue escort droids, it was completely alone. A hoarse whisper off to Twilight’s side let her know that her brother’s jaw had probably dropped as the ship flew sideways before turning on a bit and lowering over the courtyard.

“That’s an alien spaceship? It’s completely made of metal!”

Thankfully, Cadance had kept her composure and shushed her husband just as the whine from the squat ship changed pitch into a low thrum that reverberated around the courtyard.

A group of royal pegasi guards had already moved to intercept the ship and were now flying in formation around it as the ship slowly hovered above the upper courtyard, extending its short, insect-like landing legs.

As the silver vessel dropped low onto the unbroken paving stones beside the crystal empire carriage and its weight settled with a small billow of dust, Twilight Sparkle whispered “I’ll handle this, Princess”, to the assembled ponies and Minotaurs, and found herself once more marching over to the raised courtyard off to the side, a small group of guardsponies following her.

Doing her best not to sweat as she could feel the eyes of every civilian watching her approach the droids’ vehicle, she focused her attention to the ramp that was lowering and the three figures that came clanking down it. All three were the skinny, skeletal droids that the ponies were most familiar with, though the foremost one was covered in blue markings, while the other two had red paint marking their torsos. All three of them, Twilight noted with some embarrassment, had symbols painted on their shoulders that nearly perfectly imitated her starburst cutiemark. The blue-striped droids stopped in front of her and waved to its two companions, which Twilight now saw carried their black, tube-like weapons at their sides, and all three straightened up before bowing to her.

Slightly embarrassed and aware of all the attention that the group was getting from all the assembled ponies, she returned a small curtsy and tilted her head to look up at the leader of the three droids.

“Hello there, we weren’t expecting any droids to drop by today. Might I ask your name or number and why you’ve decided to drop by in the middle of a very sensitive ceremony?”

The blue-bodied droids gave a small squawk and looked out beyond the guardsponies at the assembled crowd before turning its attention back to the purple princess.

“Hello! I am B1-76504, and we weren’t aware that your ceremony had started already. From your previous visits to our compound, I thought it would start at sundown.”

Twilight shook her head and did her best not to look back at the eyes she could feel boring into the back of her skull, raising her face in as dignified a manner as she could.

“No. When I last visited and was turned away, I specifically told the guards at your base that the funeral would begin as the sun starts to set. And I said that the time before, too.”

“Well, in that case, I apologize for our lateness. We’ve been having a few problems of our own that couldn’t wait and we were unable to answer the invitation earlier. Things have settled down somewhat with our… err… command structure so we decided to accept the invitation extended to us before in order to honor those who fell in the tragic destruction of our ship. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience though.”

Twilight looked back at the crowd and the top of the steps where Princess Celestia and her friends waited for the chance to start the funeral and shook her head, giving a sigh too small for anyone else to hear.

“Listen, I understand you droids have gone through a lot in a very short time, and you’ve had a huge tragedy in losing your ship and so many of your comrades, but right now this is a service for all the ponies who’ve lost friends and loved ones from that very same tragedy. We were going to take some time to mourn over your dead too, but I’m not sure how the citizens of Canterlot would feel about you doing any sort of speeches for the occasion too. You can be here, but you’ve got to be respectful of us and our way of doing things okay?”

The blue-painted droid nodded its head so quickly it looked like a window shutter flapping in the wind, while its two companions audibly agreed to the condition.

“Sure! We also um… wanted to talk with you after the ceremony about what might happen between droids and ponies in the future. Things have been a bit… difficult at our base and we need to figure out where we both stand, since it looks like we’ll be stuck here with you for a while.”

Twilight’s graceful façade cracked just ever so slightly, and she twitched an ear back to where Princess Celestia was standing with her friends and family, still waiting to start the service.

“O-oh… well I suppose something can be arranged… but you’re here now so there’s not much I can do. It would probably be even worse to send you back after you’ve come all this way… and I don’t want to disrupt the funeral ceremony any longer, so thank you for coming and please follow me. Nopony was really expecting droids to show up, but we can all appreciate the gesture nonetheless.”

Turning on her heel, the purple princess once more led her procession to the top of the main courtyard steps, though the guards that followed her were much more suspicious, eyeing the newcomers disdainfully and holding their spears at the ready, just in case.

Finally able to begin the ceremony, Princess Celestia lit her horn and cleared her throat, the small sound magically amplified and echoing around the courtyard and causing a hush to descend upon the curious and restless crowd. She gave a subtle nod to the droids as they took positions off to one side of the main group, their weapons stowed. The three stood rigidly at attention, while 76504 nodded back at the princess, and she began.

“Everypony, we are gathered here today to finally lay to rest the spirits of many of our friends and loved ones. Those who were claimed by the tragedy that struck our beautiful Equestria just five days ago…”

***

Twilight sighed and sat down in a plush chair in one of the castle’s many dining halls, her head in her hands, while her friends formed a circle around her. Fluttershy was silently sobbing, overcome with all the emotions present, while Rarity stood next to her, letting the fragile pegasus lean on her for support. The fashion mare was evidently doing her best to stand and look strong, but from the way her eyes glistened with unshed tears and her cheeks were flushed even through her fur and her makeup it was clear she was on the verge of joining in with the waterworks.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack were doing much better, standing shoulder-to-shoulder and leaning on each other slightly, both of them silent but their faces equally downcast. Pinkie nearly vibrated in place, though Twilight couldn’t be sure if it was from excitement, the depressed atmosphere, or something else, since the excitable earth pony had the most out-of-place, neutral expression she’d ever seen on her.

Twilight had wanted to talk to Princess Celestia after she had given her final eulogy and the ceremony had concluded, but she had been swept away by the throng of guards that followed her back into the castle. The Princess of the Sun had excused herself as soon as she could, in order to go check on her sister once more, and now that the funeral was over, the youngest princess felt as if a weight had been lifted from her… but that only made her more aware of all the other weights that still rested on her shoulders.

“Hey Twily, how’re you holding up?”

She looked up and gave a wan smile as Shining Armor approached, wincing only ever so slightly as he made his way over to the girls without the support of his wife. He glanced nervously to the other corner of the room, his eyebrows knitting together and his facing dropping a bit as he caught sight of the three droids milling about.

Though Twilight had agreed to let them meet with Princess Celestia, the solar princess had left in such a hurry that everyone left after the service was now thoroughly confused as to what to do with the latecomers. The Minotaurs were grumbling amongst themselves as they entered the room, no doubt torn between wanting to smack some sense into Iron Fist and smack some sense into the droids for having the audacity to show up at a funeral unannounced.

Ultimately they did neither, and Twilight let her gaze wander back to her big brother, whose face still held a barely-concealed scowl, though it softened when their eyes met.

“I’m doing alright, Shiny. I’m really glad you and Cadance are here, really I am. Just you being here is helping keep my nerves down.”

The dark expression on the white stallion’s face softened and a moment later Twilight found herself the target of a BBBFF-sized bear hug. Hiccoughing once in surprise, she quickly hugged him back, squeezing her eyes shut to prevent any tears from leaking out, but she was just barely unsuccessful.

“Thanks Shiny. I didn’t know how much I needed that.”

“Do you two mind if I join in for a group hug?”

The two of them looked up at the approach of a pink alicorn wearing a dress that was quickly transforming from deep black back to its previous pink and purple arrangement. Cadance spread her arms wide and quickly enveloped Twilight in a hug similar to that of Shining Armor’s, but before Twilight could enjoy the closeness of her family, the voice of one her friends pierced the air.

“Hey, no fair! I want to give and get a hug too! And we were here first!”

Before anypony could stop her, Pinkie Pie bowled the group over as she practically launched herself at the three, somehow managing to stretch her arms to encompass all three of them. Applejack hung her head and stepped forward, sighing as she pulled the pink earth pony off of the prone royalty, while Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Rarity helped the others to their feet.

“C’mon now Pinkie, she’s been with us through this whole ordeal, let her have a moment with her kin.” The farmer said, keeping Pinkie restrained, who was very quickly losing hope at an extended family-and-friends embrace, if the growing pout on her face was anything to go by.

“I know… but it’s been a while since we all had a group hug, and I wanted to join in!”

“We had a group hug before we got changed for the event, sugarcube.” Applejack raised an eyebrow, only releasing the party pony when she was sure she wouldn’t lunge forward again. “Though I will admit that after all that’s happened today, I think we all deserve to be comforted somewhat.”

“Jeez, Applejack, I didn’t know you’ve gotten so sappy.” Rainbow Dash remarked, smirking and crossing her arms, though she dropped them a moment later as she saw the glare that Rarity was giving her.

“Rainbow Dash! Really! We just finished having a mass funeral for Celestia’s sake! Do you have absolutely no tact whatsoever, or have you already forgotten the horrible things that so many ponies are going through?”

The sky-blue pegasus took a tentative step back, raising her hands defensively in front of her, “H-hey, I’m sorry, okay? I was just joking, trying to lighten the mood a bit…”

“Well you’ve achieved the complete opposite effect,” Rarity said in a most unladylike growl, though a moment later her expression softened a smidge, “You may have meant well, darling, but the delivery was… how do I put this delicately? Awful.”

“I-I’m sure she didn’t mean to offend anyone, Rarity, she can just get a bit carried away with what she thinks is best.”

Surprisingly enough, Fluttershy stepped between the two of them, eyes still red and puffy, and flared out her wings just the tiniest bit. Everyone’s eyes landed on the timid pegasus, who was standing straight and tall for once.

“Rarity, Rainbow was trying to help in her own way, and I know you’ve been on edge too for the last few days. These dresses you’ve made for us look wonderful, even if they’re made for such a sad occasion; and even though this is a sad occasion and everypony’s nerves are all wrecked, we shouldn’t be arguing.”

Looking between the rainbow-maned pegasus and the white unicorn, Fluttershy slowly turned to Applejack, her large eyes searching the apple farmer’s for a moment before she continued.

“And since we are all pretty tired and stressed after the funeral, there’s nothing wrong with wanting the comfort of our friends and family to help us relax and get through this time. Lots of ponies lost loved ones, and we should all be ready to give and receive kind words and actions.”

The entire room had gone silent, and after a moment, Fluttershy seemed to realize that everyone in the room was looking at her, including the droids and the Minotaurs, who had stopped their grumblings long enough to overhear the conversation. Taking a step back, the pegasus began to hide behind her wings as an embarrassed blush spread across her face, but a moment later a slow clapping could be heard, and everyone in the room turned to look at the door to the dining hall.

There, standing in the doorway, leaning against her sister, was Princess Luna, and though she was still heavily bandaged and had terrible bags under her eyes, her hands were coming together in a smooth repetition, creating the clapping that reverberated around the high-ceilinged room. While Princess Celestia’s normally serene face was covered in a look of deep concern, the Lunar Princess’ had a wan but warm smile adorning her face as she gave Fluttershy her full attention.

“Truer words may never have been said, you really are the Element of Kindness, dear Fluttershy. Though I’ve just awoken and still feel incredibly sore and weak.” Her face dropped a bit, the dark rings under her eyes getting deeper as her lips turned down but didn’t quite make a scowl. “Could somepony please explain why there are so many ponies in the castle, and why some sort of funeral seems to have been necessary in my absence? I assume we all made it off the jroidz ship and that this isn’t some sort of purgatory where we are all, in fact, dead.”

Twilight’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline, her gaze turning to Princess Celestia, who at least had the decency to look embarrassed, however it was Cadance’s voice which cut through the air.

“You didn’t tell her? Aunie Celestia, you brought Auntie Luna all the way down here from her room but you haven’t told her anything that’s happened yet?”

“In my defense, as soon as she woke up, she was trying to get to her hooves and started moving about before I could convince her to lie back down. I thought the best course of action would be to bring her to where you all were so she could hear the full story.”

“Yes, yes, and what exactly is this full story?” Princess Luna cut in somewhat impatiently, “I was awoken by the sounds of my sister’s voice hammering into my skull through the open window. Imagine my surprise when I finally drag myself to a window and discover that what looks like half the citizens of Canterlot entering the castle while everypony is dressed like I died… or at least… I hope there’s that big of a turnout when I die…”

A quick smack on the shoulder elicited a yelp from the younger sister, while the elder sister turned a soft but stern look to her. “Lulu, forgive me for saying this, but you shouldn’t bother yourself with who will come to your funeral, because you won’t have to think about it. I already lost you once, and it was for a thousand years. I won’t lose you ever again.”

Still grabbing her bandaged shoulder, the younger sister slumped forward into the Solar Princess’ embrace, though she mumbled something barely heard above the sound of their horseshoes clicking on the marble floor as Princess Celestia guided her to a chair.

“Alright I won’t. But I’ve still got a bad feeling about this; what happened while I was unconscious? I remember being on the jroidz ship and then things started heaving and bucking like we were caught in a storm.”

For a long moment, everyone, Twilight’s group, the Minotaurs, and even the droids which were still hovering off near to the side near the corner, said nothing. The Lunar Princess raised her head from her sister’s shoulder as she took a seat in a plush gold-painted chair with deep red upholstery and looked around at everyone in turn.

“Well?”

“…The ship kinda, uh… crashed.”

Rainbow Dash stepped forward, one hand rubbing her neck as she spoke. From the looks her friends were giving her, it was obvious that they knew she was the right mare to tell the princess and that they definitely didn’t fear the Lunar Princess’ response to the bad news they were about to tell her. Definitely not.

“Crashed into what? There’s nothing else up there but my Moon, and it is quite a bit farther away than the ship we flew to.” The skeptical princess raised an eyebrow and a proper scowl set onto her face. “We know thou to not be a liar, Rainbow Dash. What do you mean it crashed?”

“Well uh, funny story. That funeral… it wasn’t for one pony, you see… The droids ship kinda crashed, uh, into Equus. And Canterlot. And a bit of Ponyville. It was a, ah, big funeral.”

Nopony said a word and nothing moved in the dining hall except for three battle droids which had suddenly become very nervous for a reason none of them could accurately point to, who started shuffling to the door as quietly and slowly as possible. Everypony present cringed when Luna’s voice cut through the silence like the dreadnought had cut through the atmosphere and the air crackled from the ambient energy beginning to radiate off her horn.

“What.”

***

It took Princess Luna nearly ten minutes to calm down after the whole thing had been explained to her, and the droids had been escorted very quickly outside to wait in a hall very far away from the dining hall, to which they hadn’t objecedt in the slightest. The Minotaurs had excused themselves immediately, citing that they “didn’t want to come between sisters” for their reunion. Nopony had seen hide nor hair nor horn of any of the bulls since.

Once Princess Luna had finally stopped putting everypony present in danger of an uncontrolled magical surge, Fluttershy’s calming words once more had a soothing effect on the princess. She was forced to resign herself to the reality that the droids hadn’t been at fault for the devastation that followed her loss of consciousness, and that nothing would bring back the many ponies who had been lost.

Staring glumly over her crossed arms at the rest of the ponies seated at the table, the dark princess flicked an ear to listen to what Twilight was saying, noticing that the droids were finally being guided back into the room by a squad of guards. The princess’ of the night’s expression turned serious as she watched them approach the other side of the long dining table they were all situated at, but she was silently proud of the guards for still not trusting the droids. You could never be too cautious, after all.

Turning her attention back to the youngest Alicorn, Luna focused on what she was hearing once more.

“… got to focus on the future now, and it just so happened that the droids wanted to talk to us about the future as well, which is part of why they came.” Twilight motioned to the droid group before continuing, “Though we barely understand each other and we’re very different on many layers, the fact of the matter is we’re stuck together, for the time being anyway, and they’ve admitted as much. Though there are still thousands of droids travelling over the countryside to their base, and they do still represent a possible threat.”

Turning to the droids, which had opted to stand rather than take a seat in the plush chairs, Twilight addressed the one with the blue markings on its chest, which responded back, surprisingly enough to the Lunar Princess, in near-perfect Equestrian.

“I’m really sorry, but do you have a name? I don’t think I’ll be able to tell you all apart if we just refer to you by numbers. It’ll probably get… very confusing in a very short amount of time.”

“Well…” the thing’s long narrow snout bobbed a few times as it thought over its answer. “Since both the Captain and the Colonel were damaged beyond repair in the crash, I’m the acting commander, and that’s what the other droids are calling me, so if you want you can just call me the Commander.”

“Alright, Commander, well, is there anything you can do to help guide your stragglers to your base? We know your forces are still picking over the wreck of your spaceship, but we’ve seen droids popping out of bits of wreckage miles away from the main crash site and dragging themselves in every direction looking for each other and someone in charge. Some of them have been… less than friendly when rescue teams approached.”

The Commander reached up and placed a three-digit hand under its “chin”, making a few squeaking ‘hum’-ing noises as it considered the point.

“We’ve been broadcasting two signals from the base the whole time; one to give a direction to any droid that isn’t found so they can make their way to Gamma Base, and one for them to stand down so no one starts shooting anyone and making things worse. We don’t have very many vehicles or enough fuel to justify flying all over the debris field from the Dawn of Dusk looking for surviving droids, and if any droids are too damaged to receive the signals we’ve been broadcasting, then they’re too damaged for us to shut them down remotely until they can be found.” The Commander shook its head and stared with its unnervingly blank face at Twilight, crossing its arms in front of its chest.

Princess Luna shifted in her seat, and she could see the concern on her sister’s face at the troubling news from the Commander. Likewise, the faces of Cadance and Shining armor mirrored her concern, but most surprisingly, the dark alicorn noticed, Twilight’s face had a smile creeping onto it though her brows were furrowed, and Luna could imagine her mind going a hundred miles an hour trying to find the best solution to the problem at hoof.

Raising her head off the table and straightening up, she barely flinched at the pain the sudden movement brought and started listening more attentively, doing her best to keep a closer eye on the assembled ponies. It was then that her ears flicked, as though some unseen sound was reaching them. The princess of the night frowned and tuned out everything else for the barest moment, swiveling her head slowly while her ears tried to pick up on whatever it was that alerted her, but she could hear nothing out of the ordinary while Twilight talked. Turning her attention back to the youngest alicorn, her eyes caught the faintest trace of magic disappearing from the purple mare’s horn, though Twilight continued her conversation with the droid as if nothing had happened.

What are you up to, Twilight Sparkle? What plan have you cooked up already? Luna thought, pushing past the soreness in her body to sit up straighter, her magical and mundane senses reaching out to find whatever might have been hidden from her.

“I believe you said that under the orders of the… late Captain, all droids were supposed to be getting the translation ability. How is that coming along?”

“We’ve been upgrading droids non-stop since we established Gamma Base, but with the equipment we’ve got right now, we need TL-90 to be present for every single upgrade session with every single droid, so it’s been going slow. We still have hundreds of droids with translation capabilities, but that’s still the minority.”

“Do you think, if we could work together, we could avoid any further loss of life? Maybe if a single droid with the ability to translate our language went with every one of our search teams, they could prevent stranded droids from becoming violent. Then our pegasi teams could use chariots to safely and quickly bring the droids back to your base.”

Princess Luna leaned back in her chair, wincing as her weight landed on her still-fragile wing bones, and thought about Twilight’s suggested plan. While it would divide up the pegasi guards that they had available and leave precious little to remain in Canterlot, she had no idea what this ‘Gamma Base’ looked like, nor the jroidz capabilities. However, she couldn’t deny that it would definitely speed up efforts for the guard to secure the crash site and the outlying pockets of the ship that had shorn off during the behemoth’s descent, and right now, they needed to prevent any more injuries and hostilities as they could, as soon as possible.

Once again though, her ears flicked as though some unheard sound were creeping through the air, but this time when she focused her attention once more, she heard a faint tapping sound coming from somewhere that she couldn’t pinpoint, though no one else seemed to notice it. Mentally keeping an eye on the sound until she could figure out what it was and where it was coming from, the lunar princess zoned back in. The entire process had taken less than two seconds.

“Maybe. We could cover ground more quickly, but without a way to know where all the droids are, it will still take a long time, and search efforts might be wasted, or end up not finding stragglers either way.” The Commander shook its head and continued to make odd noises, eventually looking up at the purple princess. Though its face couldn’t change, there was an air of excitement about it.

“Wait. The probe droids. We’ve got several of a type of droid that looks like a floating ball with many spindly limbs,” as it spoke, Twilight flinched, and though the droids seemed oblivious to it, the princess of the night picked up on it.

Oh yes… didn’t sister mention that one of those things had exploded and hurt Twilight and Rainbow Dash? Glancing over to the blue Pegasus, Luna realized that Rainbow’s face had morphed into a look of extreme discomfort at the sudden addition to the conversation.

“We don’t have many, but they usually act as scouts and messengers. They could fly ahead of patrols and act as relays for the signals from Gamma Base. That way, if any droids are in the area they’ll know the situation by the time they’re found.”

Twilight cocked her head to one side, raising her hands to get the droid to slow down. “That sounds great! But um, hang on. When you say they’ll have to act as a relay for the signals you’re broadcasting… what does that mean exactly? The ‘signals’ coming from your base, do they need cables in order to send your messages? I’ve seen that a lot of your technology used cables when we had the opportunity to tour your ship. Wouldn’t that limit your ‘probe droids’?”

“No, you catch on pretty quick, but no. We send the signals through waves in the air, and while the probe droids fly, they can catch those waves and send them again, like, like…” the Commander faltered as he tried to come up with a low-technology equivalent to broadcast boosting, and in the silence the faint tapping had evolved into a louder and deeper tak-tak-tak sound. It was rhythmic, though still quiet, but it was getting slowly louder every second, and now the other ponies were taking notice.

Twilight’s friends swivelled their ears in the direction of the sound, which now seemed to be coming from beyond the door to the hall, while Trixie froze once she heard it, a look of fear spreading over her face. Celestia raised an eyebrow and turned her head towards the sound ever so slightly, and Starlight gave Twilight a look of disbelief, though it was gone almost instantly before a smile broke out onto her face.

The droid Commander on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice as its hand shot straight forward and pointed at Princess Twilight. “Like when a wave on water causes something on the surface to bob up and down strongly! It makes more waves of its own. With the probe droids boosting the signal, they can act like miniature bases, sending out the standing orders and drawing any surviving droids to them. There’s a small problem with that though…”

The Commander’s shoulders slumped and the skinny boomerang it had for a head slid forward like a pony jutting out their neck. “Those things are kind of fragile, and only nine of them survived when the Dawn of Dusk came down. They can act like beacons, but if you compare the waves coming from Gamma Base to the sunlight in the day, then the strongest signal the probes could relay would be like the light of a campfire. The probes could only fly so far apart and would have to cover ground in a grid pattern.”

Luna decided it was time to cut the conversation short. Whatever was making the sound, it was steadily approaching and the princess had an uneasy feeling about the whole thing. Getting to her hooves, she stood as straight and tall as she could, while Celestia hung by her side, ready to support her if she needed it.

“If that is the case, Commander,” Luna said, steeling her voice, “then we’ll have to come up with a better solution. I don’t wish to wait for your jroidz in order to ensure the safety of our citizens. We can send a temporary guard presence to the communities closest to the crash site to help protect them from any dangerous stragglers, but I think that’s all that can be said right now." Turning to face the door, she squared her shoulders and chanced a look towards Twilight Sparkle out of the corner of her eyes; the mare seemed like she was trying dangerously hard to hold in what appeared to be nervousness… and excitement?

At this point, no one else could ignore the heavy clanking that was echoing through the deserted castle halls. All heads turned to stare at the door, and the ponies got to their hooves, mostly looking between it and Twilight. The purple alicorn, for her part, couldn’t hide the smile that was slowly creeping across her face, though the guards near the door still took a few steps back from it, their spears levelled at it and their muscles tensed.

“Actually, Princess Luna, Commander. I thought something like this might come up in the conversation, and I can see you’re all nervous as to what’s coming, but please, don’t be. Everything’s perfectly alright. You see, I’ve been working on a little project lately, and I think, with a bit of the droid’s permission to study their technology and how they work, I think I can make something that seamlessly combines our magic with their technology. It would be the perfect solution to the problem we’re having now; a guard for ponies, but one that could communicate with and defend against the droids if need be!”

By then the heavy clanking, sounding like a single, extremely heavily-armored guard walking on the stone floors of the castle, had stopped, and everyone assembled could clearly tell that it was right outside the dining hall. Stepping forward towards the door and throwing her arms wide, Princess Twilight Sparkle called out.

“Open the door and come inside!”

And as they all watched, the heavy door swung open, and on the other side stood what could only be described as a full-body suit of armor.

It was made of a simple, silvery-grey metal, there were almost no gaps in its plated body, and the helmet was fashioned to look like a mare’s face, with straight, short, metal hair covering the back of the head. A pink glow emanated from the seemingly empty sockets inside the helmet, and it thundered with heavy metal hoofsteps as it moved into the room to stand beside the princess, silent and unmoving.

“Everyone, I present to you the Metal Mare!”

Author's Notes:

Hey, so, it's been a good while since I updated, but here it is! Chapter 14, the longest chapter yet st over 10k words.

I'll be honest, I... didn't really enjoy writing this for the first seven months of trying to get through it. I had a hard time trying to make the dialogue work and I didn't exactly like the subject and tone of this chapter, nor the direction the whole story was going.

It's gotten better recently but... I just want to finish this fic. I think the next chapter I'll try and bring back some of the more lighthearted goofiness I felt when writing the early chapters, but this story should be wrapping up within the next couple of chapters.

I've vowed that I will finish writing this, but I don't know when anyone can expect anythjng new from me. Certainly not in a week or a month, but I've got a goal to get the next chapter out by christmas, so hopefully three months will be enough time to write something I can enjoy.

Thank you to everyone who's been reading this (that means you), because if I couldn't go back and read the comments of people enjoying this fic, I'd have probably given up long ago.

See you soon.

Ponies and Lasers and Clankers, Oh My!

by Tekket

Chapter 1 - Escape

Chapter 2 - Unexpected Developments

Chapter 3 - ... In Which Everyone Is Upset About Something

Chapter 4 - Very Peculiar Spiders Indeed

Chapter 5 - First Contact, Take Two

Chapter 6 - Preparations

Bonus Chapter - Remains Of The Crash

Chapter 7 - "Subtle" Is Not Part Of A Battle Droid's Vocabulary

Chapter 8 - Joy Of The Holidays

Chapter 9 - All Aboard The Bad Idea

Chapter 10 - When The Ship Hits The Fan

Chapter 11 - Fire In The Sky

Chapter 12 - Dirt And Durasteel

Chapter 13 - Picking Up Pieces

Chapter 14 - Boundary Lines