> Eve Equestria
>  by AnnonyMouse
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Among the Stars
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Eve Equestria.
01
Among the Stars



Rarity groaned as her senses slowly returned to her numbed body and mind.
The first thing she could feel, other than stifness through her entire body, was a strange tingling sensation, that, and a really hard, flat surface under her.
She could hear a strange humming sound all around her as well.
Cracking her eyes open, she was greeted with dim light, and as her eyes cleared, she became aware of something that really unnerved her.
Bars.
Rarity's mind quickly cleared up as she looked all around.  She was in a metal cage.  Panic nearly set in, but the highly observant unicorn noticed many strange things all about her.  Many metal crates were haphazardly stacked up all around her cage.
Before she could see about finding a way out of her cage, a strange voice spoke, seemingly from nowhere.  It was a language Rarity had never heard before.
In Equestria, every creature capable of speech all spoke the same language, so a language that she was unfamiliar with seemed... alien.
Suddenly the whole place seemed to vibrate.  It was no earthquake.  She'd felt a few in her life.
No, this was something completely different.
The vibration slowed and seemed to fade quickly.  Before she had a chance to examine her cage, she heard a hissing sound, then some more rumbling.  The lights brightened and strange metal creatures floated in.  They had claw tipped arms, but no legs.  Their eyes looked strangely large and glassy.
They were certainly not natural, and she got a very good look at one as it grabbed her cage and lifted it off the floor.  She got a very good look, and could tell it was something unnatural.  A machine, though nothing like any train or airship she'd ever seen.
The 'creature' carried her cage, with her inside, through a massive door that had opened beyond a stack of crates.  Other 'creatures' were efficiently moving all the other crates from this room, down a ramp into an absurdly large room, metal and ramps everywhere, and onto some sort of flat-bed vehicle.
Looking back, Rarity gasped.
It was massive.  Larger than even the tallest tower in Canterlot.
Was it some sort of airship?  She did not know, only that it was hideous.  It was a rusty brown, with many angular faces and plates, as well as what almost looked like black panels that reminded her of sails on ships.
Then the flat-bed vehical seemed to hum, lift off the ground, and speed off.
It entered a tunnel and soon was traveling faster than any train she knew of could hope to match.
She wanted to scream, yet the ride, strangely, was very smooth.  Some sort of strange shimmering bubble kept the wind from batting her around her enclosure.
Finally, it came to a stop, and another metal creature unloaded her and brought her through a large set of doors, through some halls, and finally into a place that only mildly reminded her of Twilight's basement lab, only FAR more complex.
A strange creature, this one standing on two legs, with two arms, a rather flat face with a small nose and two small eyes came over to look at her.  It spoke, seemingly to her, in that strange language.  Its mouth was small, with dark lips, only slightly darker than its skin.  It had no mane whatsoever, and she could see a pair of small round ears.
"I'm sorry, I do not understand what you are saying.  Now, if you could let me out of here and return me home, I would really appreciate that."
The creature blinked, a strange expression on its face.  It pulled out some small device with a flat surface, and started tapping away.  It spoke again.
"Again, I do not understand your language."
More tapping.
"Understand?"
"Oh!"  Rarity blinked.  "I think so now."
More tapping.  "Speak more."
Rarity frowned.  "What do you want me to say?  What are you?  Where am I?  Why have you taken me from my home."
More tapping.  "Can you understand me now."
"Ah, yes, better.  Now, answer my questions."
"Interesting.  An alien species, sapient, though appearing to be some sort of animal.  Equine in nature, baring a horn upon the center of its forehead."
"I am NOT an it.  I am a lady, thank you very much.  My name is Rarity, and I demand you let me free."
The creature cackled with glee.  "Oh, I don't think so.  You're an animal, regardless of your apparent intellect.  I think I am going to have fun experimenting on you."  He pulled an 'L' shaped object from his belt, pointed it at Rarity, and a sudden flash.
Rarity felt her entire body and mind go numb...

...

Again Rarity slowly came back to her senses.  She cracked her eyes open.  She was still in that strange lab, but this time...
This time she was laying on her back, strapped down and unable to move.  She struggled, but the binding was too tight, almost to the point where breathing was difficult.
She tried to light up her horn to try to magic her way out, but all she got was a tingling sensation.
"Ah, finally awake are we?  Good, I don't want you to miss this.  I've scanned your body, taken all the genetic samples I need.  Now I will see if you are compatible with capsuleer tech."
"I do not understand what you mean."  She tried to use her magic again, but for some reason, she was unable.
"You have been administered a drug that blocks your unusual mental abilities.  Just a precaution, thank you.  Now. if you look above you, you will see something... special."
Rarity tilted her head back, and gasped in horror.  
She could see a perfect doppleganger of herself.  It was breathing, the occasional twitch, and lacking her cutie mark.  
"W-what is that?"
"You said your name is Rarity, correct?  Well Rarity, that will soon be you."
Dread filled Rarity's mind.  "No... you're going to send that... THING to replace me back home?  Why are you doing this?"
"Why?  Simple really.  I want to know if sapient non-humans can utilize capsuleer tech.  Nothing more, nothing less."  The creature stepped into view and places some nodes onto her head.  "Now, I'm afraid it is time for you to die."
Rarity screamed as the 'human' pressed its finger to that pad once again.  
It hadn't hurt at all.  Her mind just went... white.  Then nothing.
Rarity Stargem was dead.

...

"Uhh..."  Rarity groaned as the white fog filling her mind slowly faded.  She felt strange.  Rather, she felt good.  Was this the afterlife?
Her eyes snapped open the moment she heard that creature shout with joy.  "YES!  It works.  So humans are not the only beings capable of being cloned.  This is amazing.  So many tests to perform."
Rarity stared at the human, then nearly freaked out at the sight of her body laying on a table, still strapped down with the nodes on her head.  She watched as her cutie marks faded, and felt a tingle on her flanks.
"What the?"  The human stared in surprise.  "What?  How did that happen?  Aura, explain?"
"Unknown energy signature within the new clone.  Warning, energy buildup within the subject's horn."
"Oh no, no no no!  I forgot to administer the drug to the clone."
Rarity's horn lit up a soft blue, and the same glow wrapped around the human.    "What have you done to me?"  She lifted the human so they were face to face, her large, blue eyes narrowing dangerously as she ripped that pad from his hands.
She looked at it, and even though she had never seen the alien written language before, she understood it perfectly.  She grinned and activated the release clamps that held her 'cloned body' in place.
Falling to the metal floor, she landed on her hooves.  She yanked the human down to eye level again.  "I am leaving, and there is nothing you can do to stop me now."
The human smiled and nodded.  "By all means.  I was actually going to give you a capsule and a ship so you could leave this place.  All part of my experiment after all."
Rarity scowled.  "I will be leaving, and I am not going to be an experiment for any... creature.  I have to return home.  My friends, family, students, they are all most likely wondering where I went.  Now, if you don't mind.  Show me this capsule and ship, and I will be on my way."
"By all means.  Just let me show you the way... after you release me from your psycho kinetic grasp."
"It's levitation magic."
"Magic?  Well, you do appear to be something out of a fairy tale.  Yes, fine.  Magic it is, though I am very interested how it works, as well as how that symbol transfered from your original body and onto your clone."
"That is none of your concern, you fiend."  Rarity unceremoniously dropped the human.
"I've been called worse.  Now, this way to your freedom."  He snickered and walked down the hall.
Rarity followed the human, and soon they got onto what might have been a train, took a long ride, and finally stopped before a set of sliding doors.  She followed her 'guide' through them and down a long corridor.  Finally, they stopped at a single door.
"Place your hand, well, hoof I guess, over this panel.  It will register you and you can enter."
"This had better not be some sick trap."  She did so, and the door slid open, revealing a rather boring and bland looking room.  It had basic furniture, as well as some storage, a bed, come floating images, as well as a full length mirror.
Rarity rushed past the human, making her way toward the mirror.  Slowing down, she was unsure what to do.  After a moment, she stepped forward and looked at her reflection.
Rarity saw her own face.  Her mane was a little messed up, but nothing a quick brushing couldn't fix.  Turning sideways she was pleased to see her cutie mark right where it was supposed to be.
Then she noticed something out of place.  Something on her back, from her neck down.  Blue metal 'disks' seemed to be attached to her.
No, not attached to her, she could FEEL them now.  They were PART of her.
"What have you done to me?  You kill me, then put me in... THIS?  This is not my own body.  Why did you do this?"
"Science.  I wanted to know if I could, and I did.”  He stepped into the room.  Now, your means of escape is right over there.”  He pointed down a hall.  “You will find your capsule at the end, as well as a ship that you can use to fly away in.”
Rarity wanted to hurt this human... but oddly, she chose not too.  She felt normal, other than the five blue metal disks on her back, just barely above her skin.  Glaring at the human, she rushed down the hall.  She placed her hoof on the pad next to the door, and it slid open, revealing a balcony overlooking a room that could easily house the entirety of Canterlot, and maybe even the mountain itself.  
Machines and metal walls were everywhere.  Massive floating screens depicting strange images floated in the far background.  Looking over the railing, she knew the drop from here to the deck below would be fatal.
Then she spotted a ramp and catwalk leading to a horrid green and black... pod.  The front was open, revealing a seat and many controls.
Rarity looked them over, realizing she knew exactly what each and every one of them was for.  “How do I know what all that is?”
“Simple.  I injected the skills into your brain.”  The human walked over, and tapped on a console next to the railing.  A few moment later, a strange looking ship was towed into view.
It was over fifty meters long, if Rarity was judging it right.  That was easily the size of a medium sized airship.
The human spoke, not in a cruel or condescending tone.  “That is your Corvette Class Impairor.  Amarr technology.”
It looked like it was made from gold, with a creamy off white color.  Sleek, overall, with a somewhat ‘hawk beak’ form at the front, and black engine housing at the rear.  There were some oval domes on the sides, top and bottom.  It sported flowing, beautiful designs along the front sides, as well as the top, near the rear of the ship.
Somehow, Rarity knew those were some sort of weapon system.  How she knew, she didn't actually know.  Was this more injected knowledge?
“So, what do you think of your ship?”
Rarity was stunned.  “It’s... beautiful.”
“And it’s free.  Feel free to give your Impairor a name.  Well, only if you want.  I’m sure you won’t be keeping it for too long.  There are larger, more powerful and faster ships out there, after all.”
“Free?  I don’t see how that’s possible.  A ship like this mist cost thousands of Isk.  Wait, Isk?  Bits.  No, Isk.  Goodness me.  I even know what your currency is.  I do not know how you were able to teach me all this new knowledge...”
The human snickered.  “Don’t thank me.  Really.  It was really easy.  Now, you do have a few options here.  One, you can fly off in your little corvette, and see just how far you will make it before something blows you up.  Or, you can work for me for just a while.  Earn some Isk, and maybe even earn a better ship that will greatly increase your chances of survival.  By the way, the chances of finding your own way home on your own?  0% chance.  I know the location of the wormhole, as well as its rather unique designation.  If you wish to return home, you know what you have to do.”
Rarity wanted to grab the man and just throw him over the railing with her magic.  No, that would not do.  If he was telling the truth, then he was Rarity’s only hope for ever making it home once again.
“Fine...”  She griped.
The human smiled.  “Glad to hear.  I’m Jafrak Nalton by the way.  Fellow Capsuleer, explorer and scientist.  Now, hop into your capsule, and let’s get this started.  A few simple jobs and I will release the location of where I found the wormhole to where I... acquired you.”
Rarity hopped into the capsule, and took her seat.  It felt strange to be sitting upright, with her privates pretty much on display.  She tapped a few buttons, and the front of the capsule closed up.  She gasped as she felt something penetrate her back, right where each of the blue metal disks rested.
Suddenly she became aware of this pod.  She felt she could see out of any surface, somehow.
“Optical systems on the surface of the pod are now your eyes.”  Jafrak smiled.  “Now, just will yourself to dock with your ship, and we can have it towed out so you can try flying around a little.  Get used to the feel of how it moves.”
Rarity relinquished her fate to this alien’s commands.  She willed the capsule to dock, and it suddenly moves, hovering through the air and then into a small port on the bottom of the ship.  Once inside, the capsule connected to all the ship’s systems.  
She could SEE.  She could almost feel the ship like it was an extension of her own body.  “This... this is simply amazing.  It’s like magic.”
“Science, when advanced enough, can be mistaken for magic.  I forget who coined that phrase, but I guess it applies.”  Jafrak’s voice seemed to echo within her ears, though he was obviously still on that balcony.
“Now, to tow you out of here.  You’re in for a real treat Rarity.”
The structure she was in was beyond imagining.  She could see other ships traversing the massive corridor as well.  Ships that dwarfed her own.  Ships that dwarfed the one that had brought her to this strange place.
And then her breath was taken away as she approached a huge shimmering field.  Beyond it was the sky, filled with stars and creamy brown clouds.
No, not the sky...
There was no planet below her.
She was among the stars.
Princess Twilight would be jealous.  Heck, Rainbow Dash might actually enjoy this.
“You are now under your own control.”  Jafrak’s voice spoke up.  “Now, try moving your ship.”
Rarity nodded, and willed her ship to move.  Well, not really willed it.  Rather, she moved it like she would move her own body, simply by thinking it.
Picking up speeds she knew no simple airship could achieve, she rocketed forward.  She then became aware of the various systems on the ship.
Afterburners, two pulse laser cannons, two mining lasers, and finally an armor hull plate repair system.  There was even something called an ‘acolyte I’ as well.  She looked at the various and data that seemed to float in her vision.  She grinned and kicked in the afterburners.  She didn't even feel the increase of speed.  Rather, she didn't really notice anything strange.  The stars never became any closer.  
Then she became aware of other systems.  She could see data on other ships, though she couldn't see them.  Asteroid belts, planets, moons.
Rarity gasped as all the information became available to her.  It was almost intoxicating.
“Rarity, now, I need you to run me those errands.  First off, here are the co-ordinates to an off the map rogue asteroid.  I need you to head over to it and harvest some of the ore from it.”
The location and data was available to her.  She turned her ship toward it, accelerated, and then she hit warp.
She screamed as space warped and stretched.  She KNEW she was flying faster than... well, anything she could imagine.  She was traveling faster than light itself.
Then Rarity’s scream became laughter.  “Who’s the fastest pony now Rainbow Dash.”
And then within seconds, her ship slowed and fell out of warp.  She could see it now, the asteroid.  It was a lot larger than her own ship by far.  “Wow, that was rather intense.  I think I can get used to traveling like this.”
“I am sure you can.  Now, I will be needing a lot of the ore in that rock.  Keep an eye out for any hostiles that may have noticed it and may want to harvest it for themselves.”
“H-hostiles?”  Rarity gulped.  “Wait... this ship has weapons, right?  You don’t expect me to fight, do you?”
“Not unless you want to get blown up.”
“Damn you Jafrak...  When I get my hooves on the location to get home... you will NEVER see me again.”
Jafrak simply chuckled.  “I suggest you deploy your acolyte while you’re mining that ore.  It will offer you some additional protection and firepower.”
“Additional protection and firepower.”  Rarity replied back sarcastically.  She simply willed the solitary drone to launch.  She was aware of it, but felt that it was somewhat autonomous, though she felt that she could take direct control of it if she wished.
Targeting the asteroid, she activated the mining laser.  A sharp blue beam shot out and started digging into the massive mini-moon sized object.  It was larger than Canterlot Mountain itself.
Sitting there, she watched tractor beams start pulling in chunks of stone that looked different from the surface stone.
She watched a meter, showing how much cargo space she had available.  It was slowly filling up.  “How much of this stuff do you want?”
Jafrak shrugged.  “As much as you can carry in your cargo hold.”  How Rarity knew he shrugged was unclear to her.  She could just tell he had shrugged.
After what felt like forever, she noted that the hold was only half full.  It was then that she sensed, or maybe detected, a pair of ships warping in on her location.
“Jafrak?  What do I do?”
“Target them once they’re in range and fire your lasers.  Orbit that asteroid to make yourself harder to hit.  Your acolyte should really help you too.”
Rarity targeted both ships, aimed her laser turret and frowned.  “They’re over 20 kilometers away.  There’s no way any kind of weapon known to ponykind can hit anything that far away.”
“Calm down.  You can see the range of your weapons just by thinking about it.”  Jafrak didn’t really sound too concerned.  “Look, your Acolyte is already engaging one of them.  It shouldn’t last long.  You’re only against some rookie pirates.”
“I think I would classify myself as less than a rookie.”  Rarity cried out as she activated the afterburners and started orbiting the asteroid at insane speeds.  Somehow, she was able to keep the corvette under her control.  
Coming into sight of the second pirate, she was greeted with a communication.  “This asteroid is claimed already.  I’d tell ya to git, but I think I will just kill ya and add yer corpse to me collection.”
Rarity was horrified.  “Never.”  She closed her eyes, but could still see the incoming ship.  It was about the same size as her own, but thankfully, it had not launched a drone of its own.  That made things... “Jafrak?  They’re shooting at me!”
“Don’t worry.  You have some shields to soak a few blasts, but it’s the ship’s armor that will impress you.  If you take damage, you can activate the armor repair system and just laugh at their pitiful attempts at killing you.”
“Oh yes, and keep mining that ore.  The faster you can fill your hold, the faster you can get out of there if you are not feeling up to shooting back.”
Rarity scowled, hoping to keep out of the pirate’s range, but she felt impacts on her shields.  She knew they would not hold for very long.
She became aware of a warning.  Her Acolyte, while it had dished out a fair amount of damage to the first pirate’s shields, it had not been enough to tear through them before it blossomed into an impressive ball of fire.
“Jafrak, they’re both on me now.  I have to get out of here.”  Warnings were going off.  “What’s warp scrambled mean?  Why am I slowing down?”  Rarity was on the verge of having a mental breakdown as her systems warned her that her own shields were buckling.
Then they were gone.  Her ship rocked from the impact of enemy weapons.  It was do or die.  She had no choice now.
She took aim with her turret... and released a brilliant white beam of searing light at the first ship.  The shields just melted, and a deep line of molten armor plates was her reward.
She felt powerful.  Rarity felt like she could take on anything, even as her own ship’s armor was starting to get ripped into.
Activating the armor repair system, Rarity watched as the armor was slowly staring to pull itself together.  Somehow she knew that something called nanites were repairing her ship.
But not fast enough.  The pair of ships was just piling on the damage too fast.
She fired her laser again, scoring another good hit, but the shields of that ship seemed to just soak the majority of the blast, resulting in very little damage to the armor.
This kept up, the pair of pirates hammering Rarity’s ship in a brutal crossfire.  She kept the armor repair systems running, even as she kept firing at the first ship.  The armor was starting to buckle, alarms blaring like mad.
Armor was now critical, and no matter how Rarity kept firing at the ship that was apparently keeping her from escaping into warp, its shields just kept regenerating barely fast enough to keep her from scoring a decisive hit.
Burst after burst of thermal and kinetic rounds tore into her armor, and soon, into the very hull of her ship.
Rarity screamed as her ship started exploding.  Emergency systems ejected her pod into space.
She was no longer trapped by that anti-warp weapon, so she focused on returning back to where Jafrak was.  As she turned, alarms rang in her head again.  Warp scrambled again before she could even escape, she heard laughing.
“Nice try rookie.  We may have been in these little corvettes, but meh.  Maybe we’ll cross paths again sometime.”  And then they opened fire.
Rarity screamed as her capsule was breached, exposing her to the cold, deadly vacuum of space... just before her entire capsule exploded, vaporizing her corpse and leaving no remains to be claimed.

To Be Continued...
> Now you tell me...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Eve Equestria
02
Now you tell me...



Rarity sat in her clone vat, looking at her new hoof, an unpleasant frown on her face.
She knew she'd just died.
There was no denying that.  
BUCK that had hurt.  Hard vacuum of space, and then the momentary agony before being vaporised.
Yet here she was, once again in one piece.
Jafrak's voice came over a nearby speaker.  "You can get out of that vat now.  There's a washroom just through the door straight ahead.  That vat goo can get sticky if you don't wash it off fast enough."
Rarity would have said something in retort, but it was basically a moot point as the only thing to escape her mouth at that point was bubbles.
She hit the button before her, clearly labeled 'Vat Exit'.  The liquid drained before the vat itself opened up.  The goo covered Rarity bolted for the shower.

...

An hour later, Rarity exited the washroom, clean, dry, and best of all, properly groomed.  There had even been a very nice makeup kit available, built right into the wall of the washroom.
And a nice full length mirror.  Couldn't complain about that.
"Jafrak, you and I need to have a rather in-depth discussion concerning exactly what just happened out there."  She spoke to nopony, or rather, nobody in particular.
Yet Jafrak replied.  "That can be arranged.  Just head out from the clone lab and take the transport back to your quarters.  Just tell the computer where you want to go, and then we can talk."
"Face to face I hope."  Rarity growled.  She wanted to just strangle that man.  Not kill him, just give him a nice healthy throttling.  Healthy for Rarity's piece of mind, not for Jafrak himself.
Exiting the lab, she found the transport waiting for her.  It reminded her so much of the train between Ponyville and Canterlot, yet it was round, like a tube rather than square.  But that mattered not one bit as the Unicorn stepped into the vehicle.  "Rarity's Quarters."  She spoke out loud, and then the door slid shut and she was on her way.

...

Jafrak was not present when Rarity entered her quarters.  Her plain, boring, not magnificent quarters at all.
She wished she could do something about how drab this place looked, with its metal walls and ceiling.  The artificial lighting was at least not overly bright.  The floor was covered by some rubbery material that prevented her from slipping.  For that she was thankful.
Rarity climbed up onto the sofa and reached a hoof out to the holographic console and tapped it.  "Jafrak, are you there?  I do hope we can have a civilized conversation concerning what just happened to me."
Jafrak's face appeared on the flat holo-screen.  "Why hello to you too Rarity.  I guess I could have explained things better to you before sending you out there like that, but I got the feeling you were not about to actually listen to anything I had to say."
Rarity hung her head a little.  "I guess you are correct.  Now, how am I not dead?"
"Simple.  Your consciousness was transfered into a new clone body.  In essence, you are immortal.  Should you die, you'll just wake up in a brand new cloned body.  Mind and soul fully transfered and ready to go."  Jafrak explained.  "Now, I know it wasn't fair of me to do what I did, knowing you would most likely not stand a chance against those pirates in that ship.  Well, it was fit with the bare basic civilian technology."
"Civilian technology?  Wait."  Rarity's eyes went wide.  "Do you mean to tell me that civilians can buy these ships and weapons?"
"Yes, they can, though you would be surprised how many civilians actually do NOT travel through space.  So, let me just start with a basic education."
Rarity nodded and waved a hoof in a 'go on' gesture.  Jafrak chuckled and started his story.
"A few thousand years ago, give or take.  I think it was a Tuesday.  Humanity, my species, had only been among the stars for a few centuries.  Our planet's resources had been bled dry, as well as most of the resources from our home star system.  We'd just discovered faster than light travel, which, believe me, was the one that that might have given us a chance to live."
"Then we discovered the wormhole.  Humanity called it the Eve Gate, and it was nothing like what we had ever seen before.  The massive wormhole allowed humanity to travel from our own galaxy to this one.  For a time, it was good.  We had virtually unlimited resources available to us."
Jafrak paused to sip at something through a straw from a metallic bottle.  "And then the shit hit the fan.  The Eve Gate collapsed, trapping our ancestors here on this side of the wormhole.  Civilization basically collapsed, as we were almost solely relying on the factories back on Earth, our home world, to make everything for us on this side."
"Yea, we were pretty screwed, scattered among the stars on this side.  Most of us died, yet..."  He grinned.  "You'll find out that humans are rather tenacious bastards.  Kinda like cockroaches."
"Eew."
"Shush you.  Civilizations were formed, spanning the stars in the center of the galaxy.  Rather, four great civilizations.  The Caldari, the Gallente, the Minmitar, and finally the Amarr.  I’m a bit out of touch with the higher security regions of space, just so you know.  I prefer it out here where there’s no law other than what the big ass corporations and their alliances state.  Even then, screw them.  I got myself a nice little private spot here in wormhole space after all.”  
“Wormhole space?”  Rarity frowned a little.
“Yea.  We’re not really in the same space as the rest of the galaxy here.  Still, some people still manage to find their way in here from time to time, like those two pirates who popped you.”
“Such crude terminology.”  Rarity huffed.
“Now now Rarity.  I sent you out there to teach you a valuable lesson.  Do you understand?”
“I... I think so.  So, please, go on.”
Jafrak nodded.  “Now, you see, the four great civilizations finally reached out to touch the stars once again, and from there grew conflict, as well as alliances.  Corporations, small and large, took up the mantles of space explorer, mercenary, merchants, miners, and much more.”
“But at the same time, many corporations formed alliances with other corporations, and it grew from there, allowing them to fly out into space where there is no law, and plant their flags.”
“Now there are super massive structures floating in space.  We call them Citadels.  We’re in one right now.  I mined all the minerals needed, and developed all the other components needed to deploy the citadel’s construction system.  This is only an Astrahus class Citadel, the smallest one available, but it has a forty three kilometer long axis”
“That aside, wars have broken out and billions have died.  Heroes have come and gone.  Our history is thousands of years long, so don’t ask me for more than a recap.”
He tapped his chin.  “Well, let’s get to some more technical information.  You handled yourself really poorly out there, just so you know.  Guess your skills are rather lacking.  So let’s see about changing that.”
A small hole opened up on the table and a tube with a needle slid into Rarity’s view.  “Take that, and inset it into the middle of the five implants on your back.”
“What is this?”  Rarity levitated the object and carefully looked it over.  All metal and glass, from the looks of it, yet within, Rarity could see a clear liquid that almost had an oily, or maybe metallic sheen to it.
“That is a skill injector, developed for Alphas, like yourself.  You’ll learn more about the different clone classifications later.  Just stick that into the jack on your back and it will inject nanites into you.  From there, you can use them to improve your rather sore skills.  Trust me, it will make quite a difference.  I’m also sending you some skill data to inject.”
“Now you tell me.”  Rarity fumed ever so slightly.
Normally, Rarity would be against sticking needles into her own body, but apparently this would help her stay alive.  Longer, hopefully.  She did as told, and felt whatever was in that thing flow into her body.  It had not even hurt, most likely because of the implants on her back.
A few more small cylinders popped up onto her table.  “These are skill ‘books’.  You inject them exactly the same as how you did the previous one.  I am providing you with what we call core skills.  You were somewhat lacking before, because I wasn’t even sure you’d handle the capsuleer tech at all.  Now that I know you can, we can get you better prepared for the stars.”
Rarity grumbled, and injected tube after tube into her back.  “I don’t feel any different.  Why am I not gaining any knowledge?”
“You have the skills, but you need to apply the nanites to build the pathways in your brain to make use of the knowledge.  You can naturally do this over time, but the skill injector is the fast way to get it done.  Don’t worry, your brain is still your brain.”
“If you say so.”  Rarity frowned as she injected another tube.  “How many do I have to inject?  This can’t be good for my flanks.”
“Totally non-fattening.  Look at me, I’m a scrawny ass fellow after all.”
Rarity snorted indignantly.  “Yes, well, once I am done here, then what?”
“Then we get to the good part.  Not the fun part, that’ll happen when you go back out there to go get me that mineral.”
“And risk getting blown up again?  I would rather not.”
Jafrak offered a friendly smile.  “This time, you will be prepared.”
With the last injection, Jafrak nodded.  “Now, the tablet on your coffee table.  Pick it up and access the skill network for yourself.  You choose what skills you want to work on improving.  Some will take minutes, while at more complex levels, they can take days, or even months to improve noticeably.  Here’s a list of the skills for you.”
On the holo screen, the a rather lengthy list of skills popped up.  “Now, set them on your tablet’s interface in that order.”
Rarity nodded, and followed the instructions.  It took her a few minutes longer than intended, seeing as her hoof was not as precise as a human’s fingers, before she wanted to throw the damn thing across the room.
Jafrak watched Rarity for a minute, then chuckled.  “I think we should get you a tablet pen.  Let me just fabricate one for you and send it on over.”  
Within a matter of seconds, the pen popped up through the little hole in the table.  Once she grabbed the pen in her magic, she used it to get through the list in under a minute.  “Much better, thank you ever so kindly Jafrak.”
All she got was a nod in acknowledgement.  “Now that you have the skills in order, do you see that icon on the bottom?  Tap that and accept.”
Rarity tapped the icon as indicated, and then tapped the verification con that popped up.  
She instantly felt a rush through her head, but unlike anything she’d ever felt before.  Within a moment, fresh new knowledge filled her head, yet it did not diminish who she was at all.
“Goodness.”  Her eyes were wide in surprise.
“I think she liked it.”  Jafrak laughed.  “So, do you think you’re ready to try again?”
Rarity frowned.  “I do so would prefer not to actually have to kill any... anyone.”
“That’s easy.  When you take out their ships. you’ll see their pods getting ejected.  Just don’t blow those up and you’re all fine.”
“Really?”  Rarity looked relieved.  “So all I need to do is disable their ships.  Thank you for letting me know that.”  She then grinned, narrowing her eyes.  “Time to get a little payback.”

...

Rarity was laughing as she opened fire on the pair of pirates after they’d actually had the nerve to return and try to kill her again.
She was flying the exact same ship, with the same equipment as last time.  This time, she took out the first ship with a few blasts from her laser and drone combined.  She watched the capsule turn and warp off before turning her attention to the second ship.
“Now, remember the last time we met?  You sure did a number on me, that was for sure.”  Rarity grinned as this time, her armor repair system had actually kept up with the incoming damage.  She knew how to manage the repair system so it would actually focus on where her ship was taking the hits, rather than just trying to manage the whole hull all at once.
Her Acolyte drone had taken a few hits and was trailing smoke, but it had held up much better than last time.
Laser fire was far more accurate than before, allowing her to be able to actually pinpoint weaknesses in the pirate’s ship.  With a few final combined blasts of laser and drone fire, the enemy ship blossomed into a brilliant plume of flames and shrapnel.
She watched that pod make its escape as well.
“Well, I pulled through that skirmish with considerable skill, didn’t I Jafrak?”
“You sure did.  Now, if you were to face off against someone with my skill...  You wouldn't last ten seconds.”
Rarity frowned.  “In ships, perhaps.  But I am willing to bet you are not about to show your face to me again in person, are you?”
Jafrak cringed.  “Fuck no.  Not when you’d be able to kill me with a though.  I have some rather expensive implants in my head, and I am not at all interested in loosing them.”
The mare smiled smugly.  She’d won her first space battle.  Oh the stories she would have by the time she got home.
Jafrak chuckled lightly.  “Now that you have brought me that ore, I’ll leave it up to you if you want to go out again or see about getting some sleep.”  Yea, he liked this alien.  Hopefully she would embrace the Capsuleer life.  She may have quite some talent for it, after all.
“Oh yes, I have forwarded you a payment.”  Jafrak remembered.  “It’s not a whole lot, but it should help.”
Rarity searched on the tablet, using the pen gripped in her magic, and located her digital wallet.  “Five Hundred Thousand Isk?  Goodness, that certainly sounds like a lot of money.  Just how rich are you?”
“Hmm, I’ve got somewhere in the tens of billions.”  Jafrak shrugged.  “I could outright buy myself a Hel super-carrier, and even get it fully fitted out...  But then I’d not know what to do with the damn thing.  I prefer cruiser class ships.  Speaking of which, your next job.  You’ll make the same amount as last time, but I’m willing to throw in a frigate for you to play around with, as well as some weapons and other systems.”
Rarity blinked.  “Do I have to complete this job first?”
“Nah, trust me when I say you will be wanting this new ship for this job.  Remember those pirates you tangles with earlier?  Well, I’ve tracked them back to their little hideout.”  Jafrak grinned.  “I don’t like them having a foothold in MY wormhole.  I could go out there and take them out in no time, but damnit, I want to finish this cruiser I’ve been working on for a client.”
“I... see.  You want me to blow up their base?  It isn’t a citadel like yours, is it?”  Rarity was worried.
“What?  No.  My probes detected nothing more than a small space hab and a dock for their ships.  There’s just the two of them after all.  If you can take out their little base, then they might just decide to leave this wormhole.  Feel free to take out their ships as well.  I’ll pay you a little extra bounty for each one you pop.  Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to kill them.”
The mare sighed.  “Very well.  So, what is this ship you are offering me for this job?”
Jafrak grinned.  “Go out to your launch deck and take a look at her ship hanger listing.”
Rarity did just that.  “Punisher.  Oddly a rather apt name considering the job you have in mind for me.”  She grinned.  “And to be honest, I think I will quite enjoy metting out some justice to those ruffians.”
“Again.”  She had the ship towed out so she could get a good look at the much larger vessel.  “Oh my.”
Her grin grew into a rather pleased, and almost frightening smile.  “Oh my indeed.”


...

Rarity undocked in her ever so lovely ship, one she named Rarity One.  Why?  She had just felt like it.  The Corvette that sat in her hangar, well, it was just a little thing compared to this big beauty.
The Punisher was indeed a sleek, beautiful ship, tapered to a slender, rounded nose, leading all the way back to a pair of downward angled wings.  She’d selected beam lasers, mainly for the range and punch the date indicated they possessed.  Afterburners for that excellent increase in speed, a more advanced armor repairer, as well as systems to help resist incoming damage.
A few other systems to help with keeping the ship from running out of energy too fast as well were added, when she realized the drain on the capacitor was rather unpleasant.
As she pulled away from the simply massive structure, Jafrak contacted her.
“I’ve already sent you the location for their little outpost.  Good hunting Rarity One.”
“Rarity one, confirmed, I have the co-ordinates.  Aligning to target and initiating warp.”  With a mental signal, her ship jumped into warp, and she was off.
As she flew at speeds even faster than her corvette was capable of, Rarity smiled.  The feeling was unlike anything she could have imagined.  Flying made her feel free.  Was this how Rainbow, Fluttershy and even Twilight felt thanks to their wings?  She’d never been too fond of flying, considering her own experiences with failed attempts in the past, but now, now she felt she was flying under her own power.  Well, not really, but she could actually FEEL it now.
As she emerged from warp, her sensors pinged, indicating she’d arrived.
A small series of buildings floated in space, and she could make out three ships.  Two of them were identical to the ones she’d dealt with previously, but the third was a rather blocky, yellow thing with what looked like a pair of arms sticking out the front, with a trio of boxes on each one.
“What sort of ship is that?”  Rarity asked, and the data appeared in her vision.  “Venture, a mining ship?”  She smirked.  “Say Jafrak?”
“Yes Rarity?”
“You said there’s only the two pirates, right?”
Jafrak nodded.  “And it looks like they have a mining frigate.  If you can capture that, then you can claim it for your own.  Try not to blow it up and make sure you log the location so you don’t forget where it’s parked.  You can come back later in your capsule and dock with it.”
“Lovely.  Mind you, I do not know if I’m really up to getting all filthy by mining.”
“You’re not doing the mining by hand, or I guess I can say by hoof?”
Rarity nodded as she accelerated toward her target, even as the pair of smaller ships undocked and made their way toward her.  “Yes, by hoof.  I guess it is most likely fitted with the same sort of mining tools that the Impairor was fitted with?”
“Most likely better ones.  We’ll deal with that when we get to it.  For now, have yourself some fun.”
Rarity gleefully locked her targets well before they could get even close to her, and opened fire.  Multiple beams of purple energy flew forward, and instantly the first vessel bloomed into flames and wreckage.
The unicorn licked her lips as she turned the turrets onto the second ship, and released a second barrage of beautiful lasers.  That ship too exploded.
“This ship is far more powerful than the Impairor.  I dare say I like it.”  She turned the targeting systems onto the structures, careful not to hit the Venture.  Sure, it was not the most elegant looking ship, but hey, if it allowed her to mine valuable minerals and ores that she could either make use of herself or just sell to Jafrak, then she wasn’t going to complain.
A few shots from her weapon systems, and the structures exploded one by one.
The pair of pods chose not to risk getting blown from the stars and warped out.
Rarity didn’t care about that.  She had pulled off this little job without a hitch, or even receiving a dent in the rather paltry shields of the Rarity One.
“So, how do I go about taking that ship again?”  She asked Jafrak.  
“Tell you what, this will be a one time thing.  Hold position and I’ll come out and pick it up for you, then transfer it to your hangar once we dock.”
“Sounds lovely.  How long till you get here?”
Jafrak laughed.  “Well, considering I need to get all the way from the factory here to my own hangar, then I need to undock, align to your location...  The ship I’ll be bringing also takes a while to spool up the warp drives, so... half an hour, give or take?”
“Goodness, what are you bringing?  I was here in under ten minutes.”
“You’ll see when I get there.  Over and out.”
“Rarity One out.”

...

Rarity watched as a massive ship dropped out of warp.  She set her sensors on it and gasped.  it was nearly a kilomiter and a half in length.  Flat, square, but with curved angles, and many large pods on top with a bridge toward the rear.
She read the data.  “Orca.  Well, that certainly is a huge ship.  I would never have imagined that anything that large could possibly fly.”
“You’ve not seen large till you’ve seen your first titan.”  Jafrak snickered as he slowly pulled the colossal ship closer to the yellow ship floating in space.  “Now, I just have to tractor it into one of the docks, and then I gotta spin this thing around before trouble arrives.”
“You’re expecting trouble?”
“Always.”
“Dear me.”  Rarity gulped nervously.  She watched as the small yellow ship was swallowed by the much larger red and dark gray one.  “Do you want me to stay here?”
“Nah, I’m good... or rather, maybe not.  I’m detecting something on long range sensors.  Damnit.  Looks like those two had something else hidden in this area.”
Rarity activated her own long range sensors.  “What are those?  Condors?  Like the bird?”
“They’re frigate class, just like yours.  They’re specially built with missile systems.”  Jafrak was laughing.  “Oh yea, let them come.  They’re in for a surprise should they attempt to attack this beast.”
“I don’t see any weapons on your ship, then again with how huge it is, I guess spotting them would be difficult.”
“Nah.  There’s no guns on this baby.”
Rarity was starting to loose confidence.  “No guns?  But how can you defend yourself?”
“Drones.  This baby is loaded with more drones than you can believe.”
Rarity was about to comment when the pair of ships dropped out of warp.  They almost looked like they were about to approach, but then turned around and warped off.
Jafrak was laughing.  “Yea, they knew better than to push their luck.  This may be an industrial command ship, but she’s more than capable of taking a lot of punishment, as well as dishing it out.”	
Rarity could believe it.  Something that large?  If it were to land on Ponyville, then the whole town would have been flattened.  “So, um, back to the Citadel?”
“Back to the Citadel.  I get the feeling those two may come back in something with more firepower next time.  And here I was hoping they’d just leave.”  He started aligning the Orca back toward his massive space station.  “Rarity, feel free to go on ahead.  I’ll be turning this fat ass around for a while.”
Rarity nodded.  “Alright Jafrak.  Be safe, alright?”
“Don’t you worry about me.  I should be fine.  If anything happens, I’ll contact you.”
The unicorn smiled.  She felt a sort of odd fondness for this strange human creature.  She spun her ship around, and in seconds, was warping back to the citadel.

To Be Continued...
> Not again
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eve Equestria
03
Not again

Rarity had not been keeping track of time, but thankfully, the computers were.
So far, she had been stuck in this strange wormhole space for the better part of four days.
She certainly was not bored, that was almost impossible.  Well, most of the time, at least.
The mare had discovered the quaint pastime called mining.
Her little Venture mining frig was not what she would have called comfortable, though she had discovered that she could actually exit her capsule while aboard her ships.  This gave her a chance to actually explore the interior.
So while she had the mining lasers pounding away, harvesting some ore that Jafrak had labeled 'potato', she was walking the corridors of the ship.
It was not a comfortable ship with a clean interior, not like Rarity One.  This one was certainly built for industrial purposes.
Still, she'd cleaned up the interior with her magic, as best she could.  It had been rather obvious that those two rat bastards had not cared much about keeping the place neat and tidy.
Rather, garbage and grime was everywhere, and Rarity had nearly had a heart attack when she'd first boarded it.
The rather small, fifty cubic meters of cargo space had been full of miscellaneous stuff, among those items she found a rather lovely piece of 'loot'.  Something called a Super Kerr-Induced Nanocoating, with Punisher Purity of the Throne SKIN labeled on the side.
She had asked Jafrak what that strange object was, and he had been elated to explain it to her.
Well, not explain, not at all.  He simply told her to hook it into the Ship Hanger's computer system, grinning like a Cheshire Cat the whole time.
It had not taken Rarity long to learn that Jafrak was out here, alone, for a reason.
He wasn't exactly the most sane of people, though he was, for the most part, somewhat affable.  Tolerable even, for the most part, even though he kept the mare busy when he wasn't working in either his own personal little science lab or that massive industrial wing that took up most of the Citadel's structure.
So she activated the SKIN, and then was directed to pull her ship from storage and into the hanger.  On the ship selection screen on the console, she found that Rarity One now had a new option.
She had selected that option, and her jaw nearly dropped to the floor as the entire ship seemed to almost metamorph into a whole new ship.  Well, not really.  The golds and soft tones changed to a striking white over black.  Lines and the lovely patterns remained the same, but the armor on the ship was now, in Rarity's own words "Simply and magically marvelous."
She had taken Rarity One out a few times since, and had encountered the pair of Rat Bastards on a pair of other occasions.
Both times they had evacuated the moment she dropped out of warp.  This had brought a smile to her face each time, but also a twinge of annoyance that they were still scurrying around.
And so it led to this, Rarity was looking about not just where she was relatively safe, but also the engineering rooms and cargo bays.
Currently she was in a small room overlooking the massive ore cargo hold though a reinforced window.  She had the controls at her beck and call and was organizing the strange greenish crystalline ore that Jafrak called Potato.  The computer called it Spodumain, and she had learned that it was a very valuable ore.
Stretching her back with a few soft cricks, she was satisfied as the staggering amounts of raw ore finally stopped streaming in.  A signal chimed, indicating the hold was at maximum capacity.
Trotting past the cramped living quarters, Rarity entered the bridge.  She could mentally control the ship and all its functions from the capsule, but was also taking the time to learn about actually manually controlling it.  
The skills she had learned were fine to use with simple mental thoughts, but the mare decided to forgo that and hopped into the actual command chair.  Her magic played over the controls with some ease.  She was by far no expert, but she had been practicing a little.
She looked out the front window and spotted one of the pair of Acolyte drones fly past as they orbited her ship.  She smiled at how she felt a small measure of comfort knowing that they would at least engage anything that would at least attempt to attack her.
Flicking her magic expertly over a few controls, she called them back into their hangars, mounted on each side of the Venture.  Once docked, she hopped out of her chair and slipped back into the capsule.
Warp was fine and all, but outside the capsule's safety, it was not quite the smooth ride she'd been expecting.  The pod was filled with a perfectly clear and comfortably warm fluid that didn't stick to her coat or mane at all, or even bothered her eyes when she had them open.
It was almost just like air, though she knew better.
Spinning her ship around, she set the navigation controls to align her back to Jafrak's citadel, and entered warp once at the required velocity.
After some minutes at warp, she exited and approached the super city sized structure.  
To be honest, the entirety of the country of Equestria could literally rest on this thing's hull, with room to spare.
She plotted her course to the hanger bay entrances and set the navcom to request docking.  Within a minute, her ship was docked, pod parked back at the catwalk, and Rarity emerged, shaking her mane as a matter of habit.
"Jafrak, I've mined up all that, eh-hem' potato.  Could you be a dear and see about having your cargo drones moving it into storage?"
It took a few moments for Jafrak to reply.  "Sorry about that, was just installing the last of the merallifullerene plating on this project.  Say, would you be interested in seeing what I've just built?  And yea, sure, hanger drones are now getting to work."
Rarity took one last look as the ore pods on the arms opened up, allowing those 'metal creatures' as she'd first thought of them, to get to work unloading the precious cargo.  She'd sell it to Jafrak when he got the chance to check it over himself.
Exiting her quarters, Rarity boarded the transport and took a seat.  "Industry Lab."  A few minutes later, it stopped at her destination.  She emerged from the transport and approached the large double doors.
This was not the first time she'd been here, but it was certainly the first time she was going to actually enter the place.
Jafrak popped his head out of a much smaller door.  "Perfect timing Rarity.  I'm just assembling the subsystems.  If you thought your Punisher was pretty, wait till you get a load of this."
Rarity frowned.  "Well, I am certainly getting a load of your odor.  When was the last time you bathed?"
"Hmm, before I started assembling this thing I think.  Took me forever to acquire or manufacture all the components.  Now get in here."
Sighing and scrunching her nose, Rarity entered.  The elevator took them up into a cluttered and disorganized control room.  A wall of windows overlooked the massive manufacturing facility, and as Rarity approached, her eyes went wide at the massive ship she saw before her.
"What in Celestia's name is that?"
Jafrak was giddy.  "That my lovely little corp-mate, is a Legion.  It is a Tech Three ship.  They're possibly the most advanced ships ever built by civilized human hands.  Well, I control everything mentally, just like with the ships, but you catch my drift."
"If by drift you mean your smell...  I certainly hope I do not catch it."
Jafrak blinked, then burst out laughing.  "No, what I mean is, you get my meaning.  You do get that, don't you?"
Rarity understood finally, her mouth making a small 'o' of understanding.  She then hid her mouth behind her hoof and giggled.  "Yes, I guess I do 'catch your drift'.  Now, what can you tell me about this very impressive looking starship?"
"This ship is called a Legion, a Tech Three cruiser class vessel using the most advanced technologies available.  The core of the ship is the covert reconfiguration system.  That means this is a stealth ship, capable of becoming undetectable to both eye and sensor.  It is more than capable of protecting itself with its liquid crystal magnifiers.  Catching this ship is made more difficult with the interdiction nullifier and finally the dissolution sequencer allows her to target faster, further and with higher accuracy."
"I do not know what much of that means."  Rarity replied honestly.
"Well, you don't have too, not really.  What you do need to know is this.  If you ever face any tech three cruiser, try to get away from it.  Your Punisher would not stand a chance against one of these, not with your level of skill, at least."  The human moved over to some manual controls.  "I would love to take her out for a test spin, I really would, but sadly, this beauty is slated to be shipped off to a market in high security space.  I'll make a lot of Isk off this baby, though the time and resources it took to make it?  Not actually sure I'll be trying to mass produce them.  I'll be sticking to frigs, dessies and cruisers.  Cheap to make, pretty decent for making a steady income of the Iskies."
Rarity nodded.  Isk was, from what she had learned, a good thing to have.  The more the better.  "Do tell.  Why do you do it?  Building these ships and weapons?  It cannot just be for the money."
"Hmm, I do it to keep space safe, or I would like to think so.  There's every chance that one of these ships I manufactured could actually end up blowing me out of the sky some day.  To be honest, it doesn't bother me at all."
A frown played across Rarity's muzzle for a moment.  "Do you not ever make use of the ships you build yourself?"
"Absolutely.  I hate having to buy ships and transport them back here."  Jafrak shrugged again.  "Saves me time, money, and reduces the chance that some pirates or capsuleers from another corp can blow me up.  This wormhole, you see, is an anomaly, more so than any other wormhole I have ever come across."
"How is that?"
The human grinned down at the unicorn who just barely reached his waist.  "Simple my dear Rarity.  There are no wormholes leading in, or out, of this particular subspace pocket."
Rarity blinked.  She'd learned that wormholes were absolutely necessary for gaining access to such space.  "But, how do you do anything if there are no exits?"
"Simple.  You see, I was kidding.  This is a normal class one wormhole."
Rarity levitated a coffee mug and threatened to beat the man with it.  "That was not polite."
"No, but it was funny.  There's always wormholes leading in and out of this place.  Thankfully, it's only class one, so most who come in here just, you know, scan down an exit and move on.  The typical resources here are commonly found just about anywhere else in the galaxy."
Rarity set down the mug.  "If you say so."  She looked out at the Legion as it was being packaged up into massive storage crates.  I am curious, how exactly do you manufacture anything?"
"Blueprints."  Jafrak opened a drawer and looked through a number of large crystalline and metal pads, rectangular in shape.  "For example, this one here."  He pulled it out and tossed it to Rarity, who caught it with her magic quote easily.
"This."  Rarity recognized the ship that was displayed within the crystalline matrix.  "This is a Punisher."
"Yes, that it is.  I'll sell that to you in trade for, say, that spodumain you mined up earlier."
Rarity eyed the bluerprint, not even knowing where to start.  "And what would I do with this?"
"You can use it, as well as the construction plant here, to build yourself more ships.  In case you ever find yourself getting your current one blown up.  Never hurts to have a couple collecting dust, just in case."
Rarity frowned at that prospect.  "I've already been killed, twice now.  Once by yourself, and again by those filthy scoundrels who are floating about out there somewhere.  Though if you think about it, it was basically your fault as well.  Sending me out into space in that feebly equipped Impairor the way you did."
Jafrak held up a finger.  "Actually Rarity, that was your own fault for wanting to leave so quickly.  I figured you may as well learn that things are not so simple in this universe."
Rarity snorted in annoyance.  That was certainly an understatement.  Still, she kept calm and refrained from throwing the man through the window.
"Good, calmed down I see."  He pulled out a number of other blueprints and set them down side by side on the counter, after Rarity quickly levitated mugs and plates off the flat surface.  He set down the blueprints neatly next to each other.  "Now look here.  There's weapons, propulsion, engineering, armor and more.  I'll sell you this small starter kit for all that Spod you've been hoarding."
Rarity looked them over, noticing that there was also a venture and mining laser blueprints.  "Well, I guess?"  She pulled out the tablet she'd been using and with her magic alone, tapped away.  "There, I have ordered the Spodomain to be transfered to your own storage hangers."  She looked over her nice little collection of blueprints, and sighed.  "And how exactly would I even make use of these?"
Jafrak smirked as one of the cargo drones flew in through the elevator door, carrying a small crate.  "That's how.  More skill books."
"Those are not books.  Books are..."
"Something that contains knowledge."  Jafrak cut her off.  "Form matters little in the grand scope of things.  Function is more important.  Well, okay, not always.  Those Amarrian ships are both combined quite nicely."
Rarity had to agree with that.  She'd browsed the ship database and, with few exceptions, she found the Amarrian ships to be to her liking.  Not like those hideous Minmatar ships, like what Jafrak liked to fly.  The Gallente ships looked quite monstrous to her, and Caldari ships, they were not too bad actually.  She could see herself making use of them if she needed too.
Other ships, like the ones that Outer Rim Exploration produced, were purely function over form, in her eyes.  Yet she could not dispute that in this case, function was more important than form.  For the ORE ships at least.
There were so many factions out there, many of them modifying existing ships, and some even developing their own unique designs.  Some were downright terrifying looking, like that Nightmare battleship.  Yet some caught her attention, such as the Sisters of Eve's Stratios.  While it was mostly straight lines, with the massive ring near the rear, she could not complain that it certainly was something special.  That, and the smaller Astero was simply adorable.
"Very well, function and form, I guess it matters only to the individual."  Rarity replied and looked into the box.  More of those skill books.  "And what are these?"
"Some industrial, resource processing, science and the basic planetary management skills.  These are just the bare bones you need if you want to be self sufficient.  Now me, I have mastered all these skills myself, and had spares laying around collecting dust."
Rarity blew off a layer of dust and cringed.  "Literally."
"Literally indeed, my equine friend.  Now, let's get those cleaned up and injected.  I have a small collection of the alpha skill injectors.  Maybe one day you'll be able to upgrade to the infinitely better omega clone bodies.  But for now, we won't worry."
A few minutes later, and a skill injection to top it all off, and Rarity was once again managing her personal skill database.  She was rather impressed that this device knew what was going on in her head, and with Jafrak's assistance, she was soon finding her mind expanding with new knowledge.
If Twilight had been in her position, she would have wanted to learn everything about everything.  There was no doubt about that.
"Say Jafrak?"  Rarity pointed at one skill in particular on her tablet.  "What is this?"
"What is what?"  He leaned over and took a peek.  "Ah, cybernetics.  That's a good one.  That allows you to utilize cerebral implants to improve various aspects of your mind."
"I didn't follow that at all."
Jafrak tapped his chin, then got to work on his tablet.  A few minutes later another drone appeared, or rather, the exact same one that had been here minutes ago.  Another box was set down before it left to do whatever it did when it wasn't around.
Rarity looked in and saw some narrow cylinders, almost exactly like the injectors.  "And these are?"
"Implants.  Just the basic five you can get for crazy cheap anywhere in New Eden."
"And what do they do exactly?"
"Why tell when I can show."  Before Rarity knew what was happening, he grabbed one and inserted the needle into the port in the center of her back.
Rarity gasped, her already impressive level of perception suddenly increasing, allowing her to notice details she'd never quite noticed before.  Her other senses sharpened as well.
"Oh EW!  Shower, now.  Your stench is overbearing my sensitive muzzle."  Rarity stepped back.  "And Darling, if you don't clean this room of the clutter and garbage, I will, and I won't be holding back."
"Hmm, Limited Ocular Filter.  Well, that explains your increases senses and perception."  He sniffed his own armpit and regretted it.  "Yea, shower... and you, take your blueprints and those implants and go back to your quarters.  Take your time to look them over and get a feeling for them."
Rarity nodded and backed away, levitating everything into the box.  "Well then Jafrak, I shall be off."

...

Rarity's quarters, thankfully, were spotless.  Dreadfully drab, but properly functional at least.
Now only of she could get what she wanted so she could give it that special Rarity touch.
She picked up the implants and looked them over.  Her senses had been sharpened, but her sense of self had not diminished in the slightest.  Perhaps these things could help her in her quest to find her way home.
One after another she allowed the implants to merge with her brain.  She was still Rarity, but she was more now.  Her thought processes and memory were improved above and beyond what they had already been before.  She was calmer than ever, and she had ideas she'd never conceived of before.  
She grabbed her tablet and started designing.  She wanted, no, she NEEDED to make some garments.  If she was going to be flying about in space, sitting in that capsule the way she was, she didn't want to be exposing her more private areas to everyone all the time.

...

Rarity reclined on her sofa, a satisfied smile on her face.  She'd designed her own little blueprint and had the industrial complex make use of it.
Now Rarity had something that allowed her to truly be herself.
A sweing machine.
Oh, and she's gotten some bolts of some fabulous materials from Jafrak.  He just let her have them because he didn't really care.  "I'm no textile merchant.  I didn't even know they were in the warehouse till you asked me about them."  He had explained.
Looking over to where her new outfit lay on the back of the sofa, Rarity sighed, feeling better than she had since arriving in New Eden.
She got up and levitated the outfit to her, and got dressed.
Normally she would have made something with a more flowing design, but, well, she didn't really like the idea of having free floating fabric getting in the way when she was trying to fly around.
So now she stood in front of the mirror, with a sleek outfit that not only covered where it needed, but showed off her cutie mark.  The tight yet comfortable jacket had pockets, which made it easier to carry around her tablet or a few other odds and ends, including a personal pulse laser pistol that Jafrak had been adamant about her carrying on her person at all times, in case the citadel got invaded and she needed to protect herself.
The clothes were mostly white, and form fitting, almost to the point of revealing.  There were blue highlights and swirling patterns reminiscent of the designs on the Amarrian ships, just with a slightly more Rarity touch.  The jacket had a low collar so it didn't mess with her mane.
"Now I look fabulous."  She beamed happily.  "Hmm, I wonder, should I make something for Jafrak?  He's always wearing the same outfit and that long white jacket."  She'd seen Twilight wearing a lab coat on a number of occasions in the past, and understood that the garment was one of those 'function over form' things she so detested.
Rarity turned around a few times to get a better look at herself from all angles.  The material felt like silk, but she'd needed a laser to cut it, as normal scissors just couldn't do a thing at all.
It was, quite literally, skin tight as she got a look at her hind end.  She blushed a little at how exposed she still looked, despite everything being covered up completely.
"Hmm, well, it leave little to the imagination, I guess, but that's better than actually flashing everypony... everyone."  She muttered something to herself about how annoying it was being the only pony there was out here among the stars.
Her mind wondered to what her friends were doing at this very moment.  She had little doubt that they were scouring all of Equestria for her, and even likely beyond.
If only they knew how small the world really was.  And here she was, untold light-years away, in a closed off pocket of space.
"Rarity?"  
"Yes Jafrak?"
"Oh wow, nice outfit."
"Thank you Darling.  So, what would you like?"
"Ah yes, I've located a wormhole leading into high security space.  I was wondering if you would like to accompany me to Jita."
Rarity had read up some on New Eden, and she had learned that Jita was by far the most active center of commerce in the entire galaxy.  "Darling, are you certain?  I'm no human, for certain."
"Don't worry.  You'll be doing all your shopping from the quarters you'll be using there.  Nobody will ever see you."  He paused a moment.  "Unless you happen to leave the quarters and head out into the market itself to look around."
"Well, it would be much more interesting to say the least."  Rarity added.
The man chuckled.  "Certainly.  I'd love to see the looks on everyone's faces when they see you trotting along and examining what the merchants have to sell, especially when you talk to them for the first time."
Rarity giggled.  "Say, these clone bodies, are they always identical to the original body?"
"Mostly, though some have some rather obvious cybernetics, and some have other customizations, like animal ears and tails being on the uncommon side.  I have seen one where the body had been heavily modified to the fellow looked like a werewolf.  I guess a fully custom 'unicorn' body wouldn't be impossible."
Rarity beamed brightly.  "That is wonderful news.  When do we leave?"

...

Rarity followed Jafrak's hideous Mastodon transport ship through the wormhole.  She's had had some concerns about entering the strange swirling hole in space, but after watching her companion make the jump, she followed in the Rarity One.
The stars were completely different from what she had started getting used too in that class one wormhole.  After following him through a dozen massive stargates, they arrived at a system that took her breath away.  She set her computer to log the location of this one and looked at her navcom's readout.
"Perimeter."  She checked the star maps as they suddenly updated.  Her ship's long range sensors were detecting a simply staggering number of other ships and citadel structures out in space.  "Oh goodness, things certainly are busy here."
"This is nothing compared to Jita, one jump away.  Set your navcom for the warp to the Jita gate, and then let's get going."
"Roger, er, yes."  She blushed a little and followed Jafrak as he initiated a fleet warp.
As they came out of warp, Rarity repressed the urge to scream.
Ships were flying about, lasers, bullets and missiles were everywhere, and the number of drones nearly blew her mind.
A dozen ships of all sizes and shapes were hammering a ship that dwarfed anything she'd seen before.
"Don't get involved with that Rarity.  You'd just become a casualty of war."  Jafrak warned.  "That Providence freighter is not going to last long, and you don't want to be around with it sinks.  Not unless you want to try to take the risk to dive in there to try to grab some of the loot.  I doubt you'd even get a look at the manifest before the aggressors send you home in a ball of fire."
Rarity choked back her feelings.  She wanted to try to help, but there was literally nothing she could do.  "Wh-why isn't anyone doing anything to help?"
"Let me see here...  Yea, those two factions are at war with each other.  The aggressors have logged a legal request with New Eden's governments to make it legal, so Concord won't interfere.  Just come and take the jump into Jita, and you won't have to watch the results, unless you really want too."
Rarity wanted to run away and hide, but this was the reality of the world she had been thrown into against her will.  She watched...

...

Rarity lay on the stiff surface of the sofa in the quarters aboard the space station she and Jafrak had docked in.  Her face was blank of expression.
The freighter had not lasted long.  She'd forced herself to watch as the massive ship went down in an explosion that would likely have wiped out most of Equestria in an instant.  Such violence.
The fleet that had attacked the much larger ship had called in one of their own Charon class freighters to gather up the spoils.
Thankfully, she'd seen the capsule eject from the Providence just before it became a momentary star in space, and had watched it warp out as fast as it could.  None of the fleet had given chase.
Now, she lay there, and closed her eyes for a moment.  She had cried for what felt like hours, but now she was all out of tears.
The violence of it all, how casual it had seemed.
Equestria at its worst had never come anywhere near that, even when there had been wars.  They were always settled through a few skirmishes before diplomacy was employed to prevent any more harm from being done.
But this was not Equestria.
This was New Eden.
Rarity shut her eyes for a minute, taking in deep breaths and letting them out slowly.  Finally she opened her eyes and got off the sofa.  "Jafrak."  She sent out a private communication.
"Jafrak here.  Ah, Rarity.  How are you holding up?   I guess you hadn't really been expecting to see something like that, were you?"
"No, no I was not."  Rarity replied, her emotions still being held in check for fear she might fall apart again.
"Well, I hate to say this, but you'll have to get used to it.  Do you want me to stop on by your quarters?"
"Yes, please.  I would like to get out of here and stretch my legs.  Perhaps a trip to the market will be helpful with clearing my mind."
"I'll be there in a few minutes.  Hang tight Rarity."

...

Rarity had never seen such a bustling market in her life, not even in Manehatten.  Thousands of shops, with thousands of people were everywhere in the promenade.  
And yes, she was getting stares from nearly everyone.  She was no stranger to having eyes fall upon her, eyes that admired her elegance and beauty.
But these eyes were different.
They felt like the eyes of predators, yet nobody made any moves to attack or harm her, though Jafrak had been made over a dozen offers to purchase the unique creature.
His response each time was "I can't sell her.  She's a capsuleer like the rest of us.  What are you, stupid?  Can't you see her implants?"
Rarity stuck close to Jafrak because of this, though not so close that she would seem like a pet or... special someone.  She liked him, somewhat.  Tolerated him for the most part, and on occasion had to resist the urge to simply throttle him and toss him over a railing.
She'd even on one occasion had to pull her laser blaster and shove it roughly into one man's face when he grabbed her tail, right at the base and lifted it to try to get a look at what was beneath.
He did loose a few teeth in the process, but had smartly chosen to leave without any further reactions.  A blue glowing, floating laser blaster in one's face tended to be rather intimidating after all.
"Rarity, over here."  Jafrak lead her to one shop in particular.  "This merchant specialized in providing every skill book you can imagine.  Considering I prefer cruiser classes, I suggest you look into finding something you yourself could get comfortable with."
"I don't have a whole lot of money."  Rarity replied.
"Oh yea, here."  He tapped away at his tablet.  In response, her own tablet chimes.  She examined it and blinked.  "A hundred million Isk?  Jafrak, I cannot possibly accept this.  It's far too generous."
"Rarity, remember I told you I have tens of billions of Isk to my name?"
"Oh... so this is.. pocket change?"
Jafrak nodded.  "For me, but for you, it will really help you get the ball rolling.  Take your time to look over everything.  I want you to be able to choose what you want to do while in New Eden."
Rarity nodded, ignoring the stares from the merchant.
An hour later, Jafrak returned, looking pleased with himself.  "Well, just sold the Legion and a bunch of other things for a tidy profit."
The mare looked up and smiled.  "Welcome back Jafrak.  I've selected quite a few more books for myself."
Jafrak looked at her selection and smirked.  "Huh, yea.  I'm no merchant really.  I have the basics down, but this looks like you're intending to outclass me there."
"I was a business owner before I ended up here.  I guess I should be glad that you purchased me from that unscrupulous capsuleer who stole me from my home."
Jafrak patted her head, careful not to bring her wrath down upon himself for messing up her mane.  One had been enough.  Having the bones in his arm nearly turned to powder had given him a hint as to just how powerful Rarity's psycho-kinetic powers really were, assuming she had been going all out.
If not, then that was a VERY frightening concept.
"As well as some others to help improve my ability to handle myself in a firefight."  Rarity added, her ear flicking the offending hand away.
Jafrak was about to say something else when he noticed the human shaped dents in the wall of the shop.  "Um, Rarity?"
"One tried to grab me and stuff me in a sack.  The other called me a freakish mule."
"Oh...  Damn, you dented tritanium plating... with human bodies...  Where are they now?"
Rarity examined another book as she responded.  "Dom here called in a medical team to take them away.
The merchant, Dom, was an older, heavy set man.  He smirked at Rarity.  "A pretty thing like you Rarity, I couldn't just let those poor idiots lay there and offend you with their presence for longer than needed.  You still need to tell me who designed your custom clone."
"You're looking at him right here."  Rarity gestured to Jafrak, who stiffened up.  
"Now hold on a moment Rarity.  I don't need this kind of attention."
Dom walked over and patted Jafrak on the back with more force than the skinny man liked.  "Don't be like that.  You've got to be a genius to have pulled this off.  The genetic expertise just staggers my mind.  So, would you be willing to sell the data?"
"Sell it?"  Jafrak stepped back a little.  "What sort of numbers are you thinking about?"
"How about a billion."
"A billion zeros maybe."  Rarity piped in.  "What you see here is a one of a kind immortal clone body, thank you very much."
Dom chuckled.  "I'm a merchant.  I had to at least ask, but I'll respect your choice.  I won't bother you with any more offers."
"Thank you."  Rarity smiled, then spotted a book that made her eyes light up.  "Oh, a Legion pilot's book."
Dom smiled brightly.  "Can't go wrong with wanting to learn to fly a tech three ship.  Though the Tengu and Loki are the top sellers, to be honest."
Rarity checked her tablet, bringing up the ship database.  "Hmm, the Tengu, a Caldari ship, and the OH DEAR CELESTIA NO!"  She cringed as she recognized the Loki.  That looked almost identical to the ship that had ponynapped her in the first place.
Jafrak laughed at Rarity's response.  "Oh come on now.  The Loki may look like it's built out of scrap metal and duct tape, but it's a very dangerous ship.  Still, I can respect your preference for the Legion, especially with your eye for aesthetics."
Rarity nodded.  "Obviously.  One must always keep to their standards and never accept anything less than the best.  I do love the looks and feel of the Amarrian ships, well, those that I've looked at so far.  Oh, a section on drones.  I can't believe I missed that.  Those darling little Acolytes on my Venture just make me feel so safe."
Jafrak and Dom smirked at each other as the mare added a few more books to her cart.

...

"A hundred and eighteen million Isk, on skill books."  Jafrak muttered as he walked along next to Rarity.  "You went all out back there, didn't you?  Destroyer and cruisers are now on your list."
Rarity beamed a smile.  "Well of course.  I do understand that while my lovely little Punisher can fend off those ruffians in the wormhole, I have little doubt it would stand up to the superior firepower of a more powerful vessel.   Self improvement is the word of the day.  Well, two words actually, but you get the idea."
Jafrak smirked.  "Oh, I got you something."  He pulled out one more book.
Rarity read the label.  "Legion?  Jafrak, that book was so expensive.  Why would you do this for me?"
"Why?  Because as much as I enjoy your company, I do want you to be able to find your own way home someday.  I know it's expensive as heck, but I hope you'll take the time to learn how to fly one.  It will take you months, mind you, but I believe you can do it."
Rarity wiped away a tear.  "Thank you so much Jafrak. You really are a sweetie."
"I'm too nice for my own good.  Sides, I have more money than I really know what to do with, so why not splurge on a friend."
Rarity stood up on her hind legs and gave the slender man a hug.  "And here I thought I was generous.  You make me pale by comparison."
"It it gets you home to your friends and family, then I'm all for helping you out a little.  Alright, now, have you injected all the books yet?"
Rarity nodded. "Well, other than this one."
"Allow me."  He placed the book to Rarity's central implant and her mind registered the new knowledge.
Rarity mentally examined what she'd need to be able to not just sit in a Legion, but to fly it effectively...  "Dear me.  This will take me months.  I would have preferred to be able to find my way home long before then.  The longer I am missing, the worse I fear things will become back in Equestria."
"Trust me.  You'll be fine, and if your friends are anything like you, then they will never give up on you."
"Thank you Jafrak."  She patted his back one last time before dropping to her hooves.  "How about we get something to eat.  The paste back at your citadel is so bland."

...

Rarity slowly chewed on the strange food she had placed into her mouth.  It was chewy, a little stringy, but still tender.  The taste was strong, unlike the grains, flowers and pastries she was accustomed too.
She swallowed the small piece after thoughtfully taking mental note of texture, taste... and the concept that she had just eaten something that had once been a living animal.
"So?"  Jafrak had watched her, like a scientist carefully watching an experiment.
"It was... tasty, I think.  I mean, I didn't not enjoy it."
"Well, you ordered the stew, so you may as well eat it.  Waste not want not, at least when it comes to food."  Jafrak dug into his own meal.  Steak, potatoes and mixed veggies.
Rarity spooned another mouthful and ate away.  "We normally don't eat things like this.  I mean, it is quite fatty after all."
"And a whole cake isn't?"  Jafrak chucked between bites.  "To be honest, from what you've told me of your friend Pinkie, I would fear for every Capsuleer who would even dare take a pot shot at her."
Rarity politely dabbed a paper napkin to wipe off some sauce from her lip.  "Yes, most certainly.  I have no idea how she might fit any given ship out.  Rather, I dread what she would do.  Fluttershy would certainly choose one of those logistic ships.  Applejack?  Heh, she's go for something practical, like your Mastodon."
"That beast isn't practical.  Not really.  It can haul a whole lot, but they're also really expensive.  Still, they're really tough to kill, so they have that going for them."
Rarity nodded.  "Alright, then maybe a more affordable cargo ship."
Jafrak looked thoughtful for a moment.  "Hmm, the Tayra can haul a whole lot, especially with the right customization, though the Badger is less likely to get blown up in a pinch.  Both are very reliable Caldari industrials."
"Yes, they do sound quite like the type of ships that Applejack would choose.  Rainbow Dash would go for the fastest thing there is.  What is the fastest ship there is?"
"Hmm... I think, though don't quote me on this, Interceptors.  There's almost nothing they can't catch.
"I see, then she'd definitely go for something like that.  Twilight, she would simply love the Stratios.  She's all about learning, science and magic.  A ship like that was meant for her."
"Not that I want my friends to ever come out here in the first place."  She frowned and poked at her food.  "I do so miss them greatly.  My little sister and her friends too, the Princesses.  My parents."  She held back from crying.  To many people watching.  She glared at her food like it was a hostile for a moment, then dug in.  Not like how rainbow Dash or Pinkie might eat, but still with manners.

...

Rarity locked up the trio of destroyers that were chasing after Jafrak's Mammoth, trying to blast it out of the sky.
They had nearly reached the system where the wormhole back to the class one hopefully still existed, but as they came out of the gate, they were attacked.
"Jafrak, try to get back to the gate, I'll try to distract them."  She opened fire on the damn ugly ship.
The trip had been so peaceful till now that Rarity had almost all but forgotten about the fate of that Providence.
Now she was being thrown right back into the thick if it.
Her lasers cut into the shields of one offending thrasher, a ship that almost reminded Rarity of a fish for some reason.  A really ugly fish, but a fish none-the-less.
To her delight, her readout indicated that the shield had taken a nice heavy hit from her searing violent lasers.  She didn't want to get too close, so used her superior speed and maneuverability to keep out of range of the insane number of auto-cannons mounted on all three.  It seems these ships were all bite, and had no real additional defenses.  
Rarity kept at a good optimal range, cutting apart the destroyer bit by bit.  She kept a close eye on the other two destroyers, making sure she didn't get close enough to get caught in their crossfire.
Before she could add a kill-mark to her Punisher's hull, her target turned and dove between its companions, forcing her to back off, loosing any good shots she could take.  Those three certainly knew what they were doing to get her off their friend's back.
Rarity checked the sensors and smiled as she noted that Jafrak had indeed made the jump back through the gate.  She spun Rarity One around and headed for the gate at full speed.  She sent out the signal for the jump to safety.
Warning lights sounded and a voice came over her com.  "Due to recent aggressive actions, travel through this gate is prohibited.  Please try again later."
Rarity's eyes went wide as she tried to pull up, seeing as her attempt to escape had failed her.  She felt one of the wings scrape against the superstructure of the stargate, the sharp metal on metal scraping ringing in her ears.
She felt her velocity drop rapidly as she quickly found herself snagged on the gate itself.
Rarity screamed as her ship came under extreme heavy fire, moments before it exploded.  Her capsule ejected from the wreckage and slammed against the gate, the Punisher's flaming wreck pinning her against the only means she had in hopes for escape.
"Not again..."  Rarity wanted to cry as she watched the insane number of turrets lock into her pod.
The vacuum of space was no kinder this time as her capsule was torn apart, the wreckage of her ship slamming her against the stargate, leaving nothing but a bloody smear on its surface...

To Be Continued...
> Sisters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eve Equestria
04


"Sir, we tracked the anomaly to Otou, unfortunately, when we arrived in the point three lowsec system, we found ourselves instantly under attack by three rogue capsuleers in Thrashers." A woman wearing a helmet spoke over a secure com channel.
"Are you telling me you LOST the target?"  The digitally altered voice replied.  "All because you chose to have a shootout with some gate campers?"
"N-no sir.  Nothing like that.  We had instantly detected the wreckage of the anomaly's ship.  We cleaned up the campers quickly enough without any loss to us.  We did, however, located some remains from the target."
"Remains?  So, those campers killed it?  Can you verify if this thing was a normal pilot... or a Capsuleer?"
"Positioning my Astero and trying to gather up what remains I can.  It's going to be heavily damaged from being exposed to vacuum, so I can't tell you much right now.  Damn..."
"What is it?"
"Well, the body... isn't much of a body as it is mostly a bloody smear on the side of the stargate...  Hold on, I've tractored as much of the remains as I can.  I'll contact you once I've examined them."
Tempest scowled as she set her Astero to fly a good safe distance from the gate, where she cloaked up, and kept on moving.  Her pair of companions, each in Astero of their own, also spread out and cloaked up.
The tall woman emerged from her pod, the capsule fluids drying quickly, cooling her naked skin.  She pulled off her helmet and tossed it onto the capsule's seat.
Not even bothering to get dressed, she started on her way to the small science lab.  Running her fingers through her deep maroon mohawk, she got to thinking.  Why had she accepted this really odd, but well paying mission?  Oh yea, because it paid better than most combat missions.
She entered the lab and looked at the remains that had been placed on the examining table.  She frowned at what little there was left that hadn't been either crushed beyond recognition, frozen or boiled by the vacuum of space and the unprotected rays of the sun, or just missed entirely by the scanners and tractor beam.
She set the lab's equipment to scan every bit of the remains she could, examining the data as it came up on a trio of large displays.
"Non-human DNA?  Impossible.  We've been all over this galaxy and there's never been any sign of anything not of human origin.  Could this actually be an alien?  Or maybe someone's idea of a joke of genetic engineering."
She picked up something that was merged with a few shards of bone.  "A capsuleer data implant...  Why do I get the feeling this is not going to go over well with my employer."  She watched as more data crossed the screens as the computers started to extrapolate exactly what this... thing was.
"Is that?  No, it can't be.  It really is a pony's body.  Did some insane scientist slap some poor fool's brain into that thing?"  More data came up.  "No... brain matter is also... holy fuck this is impossible.  A pony capsuleer?  Not just some idiot who went too far with body modifications.  And from the reports I've been given, this thing, this pony, possessed remarkable telekinetic abilities."
Tempest brought up the security feed from the skill book merchant's rented shop.  She watched again and again as the pair of idiot capsuleers got slammed into tritanium walls with enough force to actually leave indentations.
Then again, the walls were not solid tritanium.  That would be stupid.  Rather, they were most likely a millimeter thick at most.
But the very idea that someone could actually lift grown men off the ground like they were sacks of flour and throw them across a room with such force... maybe this alien had used a device, like some sort of tractor beam.  That really was the only explanation.
To this day, there still was no real proof that psionic powers existed.
Tempest sat back in a comfortable chair, thinking about what she was seeing on the screens.
It was then that her ship's sensors detected a flare from the stargate.  A moment later, the Mammoth that had been with their target emerged.  Tempest jumped out of her chair and made all haste back to the bridge and almost dove into her capsule.
"Lansa, Everai, get ready to track that Mammoth.  Don't let it get away."
"Is that our target?  I thought you already..."
"Shut the fuck up Everai.  Just track that thing."  Tempest commanded as the cargo transport entered warp after apparently scanning and tractored in what it could grab from the wreck.
Tempest licked her lips in anticipation.  If she couldn't track the target herself, then she would follow someone who could lead her to her prey.

...

Rarity stepped out of the shower.  She had NOT been pleased with how she'd messed up this time.
Sighing, she made her way back to her quarters and set the citadel's systems to make her a new outfit.  Half an hour later, she had groomed herself and was dressed once again.
"Jafrak here.  Are you there Rarity?"
Rarity trotted over to the sofa and plopped herself down, stretched out, and magically activated the com screen.  "Hello Jafrak.  Did you make it back safely?"
"Tethering now, I'll be towed into the hanger shortly.  Are you alright?"
Rarity nodded.  "Yes.  Still, getting so brutally killed again was far from what I had in mind today.  I was still alive when the wreckage hit me."  She shuddered.  "Pain stacked upon pain.  I'm just glad the wreckage hit me fast and hard enough to end me right there."
Jafrak laughed.  "I know the feeling.  So, do you think you're up to heading out to one of the asteroid clusters?  May as well make use of your Venture to see about building yourself a new ship."
"Yes, yes I do believe I am.  A new Punisher will certainly make me feel a little safer."
"I was thinking of something different this time.  Why not try a destroyer?  They pack a lot more firepower than any frigate."
"Hmm, I don't have any blueprints for such a ship, never mind the weapons and other systems.  Will you be helping me with that aspect?"
The man nodded.  "Certainly.  Once we have the materials, then you can just transfer them over to me and I can get to working."
Rarity nodded in return.  "I'll meet you outside station once you're ready."
"It'll take me a few little while.  I need to unload the Mammoth first.  Oh, I have quite the stockpile of those implants you used earlier.  Feel free to grab a new set from storage."
"Will do."  Rarity beamed.  As odd as it seemed, those implants were rather nice to have.  "Over and out."

...

Rarity was once again sitting in her Venture, looking over the available systems.  Some of them were beyond her ability to use, such as the cloaking device.  She made a mental note to learn how to use that thing as soon as possible.
Jafrak on the other hand, he was sitting in his massive Orca.  The ship was sending signals to her ship, enhancing every aspect of mining that Rarity could imagine.
No complaints on her part, even as she watched the Orca's mining drones pulling their own weight, working hard to slowly and efficiently harvest ore from five separate rocks.
"Say Jafrak?  What's it take to learn to fly something that large?  How can you even control it with just your mind?"
Jafrak took a moment to think.  "Skills and experience.  We'll get you there eventually, if you like."
Rarity nodded happily.  She lit her horn and scanned the area for more ores, and detected one of the asteroids had not just ore, but some gemstones within it.  Smirking, she locked it up and started mining.  This time, rather than let it auto-mine, she took manual control, making sure to scoop the valuable stones up.  Why just let the tractors take up the ore and let the mining lasers just destroy something so useful.  Well, she hoped they were valuable and useful.
As she was doing so, she checked long range sensors.  She instantly spotted something wrong.  "Jafrak, what are those?  Look at your long range sensors."
"Those... shit.  Those are combat probes.  Cut your mining lasers and warp back to the citadel."  His own massive, lumbering ship sent out a signal to the mining drones and recalled them.
Rarity nodded and pulled her own acolytes back in and warped out.
"Are you going to be alright?"
"No idea.  I'm not detecting any ships within range, but that means nothing.  They may be out of range, or even cloaked."  He scowled.  "Come on you fat assed bitch, get moving.  I don't want to loose another Orca."
Finally Rarity heard him sigh with relief.  "And I'm in warp.  Good thing I was already aligned to home."
Rarity had already exited warp and the citadel's systems tethered her ship safely.  "I am glad to hear that.  I'm no longer detecting those probes.  Does that mean they're gone?"
"Those were combat probes.  No idea what they came from, but it seems... ah damn.  They just vanished... and yup, got a blip there for a moment.  An Astero.  Hmm, they can't be fit with an expanded probe launcher, can they?  Then again, I never tried."
"An Astero?  Those cute little exploration ships?  They can't be a threat now, can they?"
Jafrak snorted.  "Rarity, I'm gonna tell you this right now.  They may be a frigate, but they can be downright deadly with the right layout.  Even more so with a skilled pilot commanding it."
"I see."  Rarity frowned deeply as she watched the Orca drop out of warp and slow to a stop.  "At least we didn't get caught."
"This time."  Jafrak said with a warning tone to his voice.  "Next time, we may not be so lucky." 
Rarity thought back to the Providence, and how that massive ship had been destroyed by much smaller ships.  She didn't doubt now that an Astero could pose a threat.
She followed Jafrak into the massive hanger, the systems taking over and towing her in and docking her back just outside her quarters.  Shortly after entering her little 'home away from home', Rarity exited and made her way to where she knew she could usually find the human.
"Jafrak?  Are you here?"  She called out into the cargo hanger filled with warehouse sized crates.
"Over here.  Just sorting out the ores to have processed."  His voice echoed from a control console.
Rarity trotted over and smiled.  "Well then, we're safe, and I sent what little ore I gathered into my cargo hold."
"Just keep gathering it.  Soon we'll build you a nicer ship.  Hmm, maybe even forgo cruisers and throw you right into a cruiser."
"Goodness, really?"  She checked her tablet, and moved around some of the skill in the queue.  "I should be set in a day or so for cruisers.  What do you have in mind?"
"Depends on what you want.  Here's some specs on the Amarrian cruisers."  He sent her the digital data.
Looking it all over, Rarity smiled.  "Oh, I like this one.  That sounds most pleasing indeed, and less likely to allow my ship from getting blown up so easily."
"What do you have in mind?  Let me check your queue...  yea, yea, nope.  You don't need that for this ship, even if shields can soak a few hits..."  He tossed a few more skills into the queue and re-ordered some around.  "And there.  So, from the looks of it, you've taken an interest in the Maller this time."
Rarity smirked.  "Yes, I have.  It has a rather lovely design as well as the fact that the armor is innately designed to resist damage.  Now, I do wish there was some way I could at least test out the various ships without actually having to purchase them."
Jafrak smirked.

...

Rarity was deeply enjoying the simulator.  Any and all ships were available to her to fly... though the ones she had the skills for prevented her from testing them all over the next few days.
Each day they would spend a few hours mining, or at least till probes appeared, trying to scan them down again.
Rarity would keep a close eye on the skills as her implants wrote them into her brain.  It was a strange feeling, learning without actually studying, but she didn't mind it at all.
She would spend some time at the factory, studying what she could to help make things easier for Jafrak, or even just bringing him something to eat... and coffee.  Lots of coffee.
Then she would spend plenty of time in the simulator, trying out everything she could, from combat, exploration, you name it.  If she had the skills, she would try it out, as well as testing out various combinations of systems to see what worked best for any given situation.
After a week, Rarity walked out to her ship dock, looked through her small list of available ships.  
Three Punishers, these she'd built and fitted herself.
Two Venture, because why not?
One Magnate, because she was starting to learn how to do all that advanced scanning stuff.  She'd need those skills for certain if she wanted to even have a hope of finding her way home.
And finally, what she considered her 'flagship'.  A Maller cruiser class ship.  Sure, it was slower and less agile than the frigates, but she liked how it felt when she took control of it with her mind.
All of them were nicely outfitted with everything she hoped she would be needing.
Not that it mattered... She KNEW there was someone out there in the Wormhole.  She herself had spotted the Astero on long range sensors a couple times, and its signature had been the same each time.
That meant that, maybe, those two pirates had gotten hold of a small, dangerous ship.  Who knew what else they had in their possession.
That must have explained why she hadn't seen them this whole time.  They were watching, waiting for a chance to get back at Jafrak and herself .
She commanded the system to bring out the Maller, one she chose to name "Princess' Guard."  Why?  She had no idea really.
"Jafrak?"  She called him over the com.
"Yea Rarity?  I'm a bit busy here."
"Sorry Darling, but I was wondering if it would be alright for me to take a few laps around the Citadel.  I haven't actually had a chance to take my cruiser out for a real flight."
Jafrak's face appeared on screen.  "Are you serious?  That damn Astero is still out there, you do realize that, don't you?  It it sicks its drones on you, then you're not going to enjoy what happens."
Rarity smirked.  "Jafrak, Darling, you don't need to be worried.  My lovely cruiser is well suited to dealing with drones.  You can trust me on that."
"It's not that I don't trust you Rarity.  It's that I am concerned for you.  You're a young capsuleer, and from what you have told me, you are from a very peaceful world.  What would happen if, say, you got killed and something went wrong with your clone and you... well, you died permanently?"
Rarity didn't like that idea.  "But isn't the consciousness transfer system flawless?"
"For humans, yes.  You are not human.  I don't know if it will always work for you."  Jafrak leaned back in the chair he sat in.  "You are the first of your kind to come out here into space, and to be honest, there are certain factions who would love nothing more than to exterminate your entire species.  Others would strive to enslave them... and others who would see you simply as cattle to be slaughtered and eaten.  I am sure that there are those who would honestly welcome your world with open arms, especially if you can bring fresh ideas or new technology to New Eden."
This made Rarity think.  If all that were true, then she most likely had more potential enemies out there than potential allies.
And allies were a far more enticing prospect than the other options.
"So, who would make the best allies?"
"Pirates."
"Damn."
"In all seriousness, the Sisters of Eve would be elated beyond comprehension to learn of your existence.  They'd be the most likely to want to help get you home, in return for just learning about your people."  Jafrak offered a reassuring smile.  "So. What say you we make another trip back into hi-sec space the moment we detect a new wormhole."
"Maybe I can try?  I have a Magnate, and I have been practicing in the simulator."
"Hmmm. Well, the Singularity Simulator is designed to be almost indistinguishable from reality... so, yea.  Just keep tethered to the Citadel and keep an eye on your long range sensors, though I wouldn't be surprised if that Astero was sitting a few hundred kilometers away from us right now, watching every move we make."
Rarity didn't like that concept, but chose to keep her opinion to herself.  "I'll do just that.  Thank you Jafrak."
With that decided, Rarity switched her Maller for the much smaller Magnate.  She ran a double check to make sure all systems were running, not wanting to risk undocking and finding out something wasn't working right.
Satisfied, Rarity slid herself into her capsule, felt the system connect to her implants on her back, and then sealed it up.  Strangely, she'd never once really been bothered by the fact that she was quickly submerged in the ambiotic fluid that helped offer some degree of protection.  Shortly after, her pod docked with the rather striking ship.
Once undocked, she made sure to come to a complete stop before taking a calming breath, then launched the probes.

...

Lansa watched as the Magnate undocked and launched a series of probes.  She kept up her Astero's cover-ops cloak and checked the long range sensors.
She compared the probe's locations to those that she had scanned down earlier and noted, after seeming to check various signatures out in space, it started focusing on one of the wormholes.
Landa ran her fingers through her long raven hair and smiled.  "So, you're scanning for a way back into hisec are you?  Hmm, that's an Amarrian ship, not Minmatar, meaning that's more likely to be the anomaly.  So, it did survive that encounter with those campers.  Finally."  She turned her mental attention to communications.  "Lansa to Everai, you there?"
"Everai here.  Anything new to report?"
Lansai smiled brightly.  "You bet.  Tempest will be very pleased to know that I've found the anomaly.  It's in a Magnate and seems to be scanning down the wormhole she's sitting outside of right now."
"Over.  I'll relay the message to her right now.  If they're planning on attempting to head back into Hisec, then we need to be prepared, in case shit hits the fan again."  Everai replied.  "I'll get back to you with Tempest's response shortly.  Over and out."
"Over and out."
Everai was feeling giddy.  "Oh, Tempest is gonna be not pissed when we tell her the news.  Well, maybe a little less pissy than usual."  She switched her coms, directing them at the unstable wormhole.  "Tempest, come in.  Everai here."
"What is it this time?  Did you spot another 'space dolphin'?"
"I tell you, I saw it clear as day...  But, well, this isn't about that.  It's about the anomaly.  Lansa has spotted it in a Magnate, scanning down the very wormhole you're sitting outside of."
"Oh?  Well, that's good news... though how do you know it isn't that Jakrak fellow?"
"That's Jafrak, Tempest.  And no.  He seems to have a distinct preference for Minmatar ships.  This is an Ammar ship, which is what the anomaly was piloting before getting killed.  Oh yea, you still haven't told us about the results of your examination of the remains."
"Inconclusive."  Tempest spat back.  She knew better than to bring up the fact that her examination had clearly shown that the anomaly was a unicorn of some sort.  a fricking space unicorn.  Tempest, though she had all the solid data available to her, and had examined it more thoroughly than needed... she still had to admit that it was an alien space unicorn.  The DNA matched equine samples she had looked up, though with significant differences.
Larger eyes, much larger brains, a skeletal structure that indicated it had ball joints, meaning a much greater range of movement from any quadruped in known existence, and a facial musculature that indicated the capacity for a huge range of facial expressions.
"Let me know if they make a move.  We need to be ready for anything.  Over and out."
"Over and out."
Tempest exited her pod and made her way back to the lab.  She pulled the samples from storage and looked them over again, comparing them to the data she had collected.  A fine, amazingly soft coat of hair, and an absurdly natural shade of purple for the head and tail hair.
"Fucking space unicorns... what next?  Pegasus?"  She growled at her own comment.  If anyone else had made it, they would have deservedly earned a solid punch to the face.  Hopefully with teeth getting rattled down their throats.
"So, my little anomaly... what are you really and why are you here?"

...

Rarity had noted the location of the wormhole, pleased as punch when the probes indicated she had indeed located one to hisec space.  She was a little giddy as she let the citadel tow her back inside.
After docking and disembarking from her pod, she made her way to the lab where she found Jafrak slumped over his desk.
"The poor thing.  Must have tired himself out."  She wished she had a blanket to cover him up with, but chose not to disturb him."
"I'm not sleeping."  Jafrak spoke up, face still in his arms.  "Just thinking."
"About what Darling?"
"What we're going to do with you."
Rarity looked a little taken aback by that.  "Whatever do you mean?"
"Ok, let me be frank with you..."
"You name is Jafrak."
"Its a phrase meaning let me be brutally honest with you..."
"Oh..."  Rarity sat down on the floor.  "Go on then."
Jafrak sat up and looked Rarity in the eyes.  "We're not getting you home just sitting here, filling your head with skills of all sorts."
"That's a given dear, so what have you planned?"
"A trip to Arnon."
"And what, pray tell, is Arnon?"
Jafrak smiled.  "That's where the Sisters of Eve have their home base located.  They're some of the most daring explorers in all of New Eden, aside from a small number of capsuleers."
"But you said you're an explorer as well, didn't you?"  Rarity was confused.
"By no means among the best, I assure you that.  No, we need to make friends with the SoE.  Who knows, they may take an instant liking to you and send out whole fleets to locate the wormhole to send you home."
"I am still miffed with you for lying that you knew where that wormhole was."
"I said I was sorry.  I still have the lumps on my head from that beating you gave me, you know."
"And for that, I am not sorry.  It was a beating well deserved."
Jafrak rubbed the back of his head and chuckled.  "And an epic one at that.  Anyways, we need to make sure that whoever is out there in system with us cannot track up so easily.  For that, I've put together something I've never sat in before."
"A shower?"
"So I stink that badly again?" 
"Yes, yes you do.  Go, shower, launder your garments.  I would like to be on our way before that wormhole collapses."
Jafrak stood up, chugged the last of the cold coffee in the mug.  "As would I, but you're not taking a ship."
Rarity frowned  "Whatever do you mean by that?"
"You'll be in your pod."
"How will that help me if that Astero attacks?  I'd die again instantly."
Jafra walked past her and opened the screen that bocked the window.  "We're taking... that."
"Maybe I should just go step outside for a breath of fresh vacuum..."

...

Rarity had heard about interceptors, and how fast they were.
She had not considered the concept of something called a 'travelceptor'.
Sitting in her pod, crammed into the rather small cargo hold of the Stiletto that Jafrak was piloting, she watched the video feeds, and was simply wanting to scream in absolute, unbridled terror.
Well, she had, all the way from the Citadel to the wormhole, as well as to the first gate.
Screaming in absolute, unbridled terror got boring quickly enough.
"H-how fast are we going now?"
"You know how your Punisher can hit five AU per second?"
"Yea?"  Rarity gulped nervously as they landed and jumped another gate.
"We're going over twelve AU per second."
"Oh dear...  If anything exists that is faster than this... I hope I never have to sit in a pod in the cargo hold in that..."
"Approaching another gate."
"A-already?  How many has it been now?"
Jafrak looked at his map.  "Nine jumps so far, and yea, there's one ship that's unmatched for its warp speeds.  I mean, CRAZY fast."
"And this isn't crazy fast?"  
A hearty laugh was all Rarity received in replay.  "Wait till you fly a ship using a micro-warp drive.  Hope you brought a change of undies."
"Whatever undies are, I wish I had a change of them."  
Jafrak snrked, and tried to hide his laughter.  "I think I'll have to introduce you to something called panties, Miss Ponytoe."
"That doesn't even make sense."  Rarity cried as they came out of warp and missed a massive battle-cruiser by a matter of meters.  Rarity would have peed herself... had she not already done so the moment the Stiletto left the Citadel...

...

Tempest, Everai and Lansa sat in a rented quarters in a space station just a couple jumps from the wormhole location.
Tempest wanted to be furious.  She wanted to bat her two companions upside their pretty heads.
But no, Tempest couldn't.  She knew better, as it wasn't their fault that the damn space unicorn had gotten away faster than a com link could have been established.
She'd seen the interceptor emerge from the wormhole and take off faster than her sensors could track, and that was saying something.  Moments later she had received the communication that the interceptor had just taken off.
Damn time lag when messages passed through wormholes.
"So now we have no idea where they've gone."  Everai leaned back on the sofa.  "Here we are, a top team of trackers, and we loose our prey."
Lansa rested her elbows on her knees, and her chin on her palms.  "We just have to wait for them to come back this way, hopefully before that wormhole shuts.  Otherwise, locating them is going to be a pain."
Tempest had been pacing back and forth for a while now, when suddenly a communication came in.  She leaped over the sofa and knocked both women to the sides.  "Tempest here."
"We have the anomaly's location."  The distorted voice spoke.  "Hurry with all haste to Arnon."
"On our way."  Tempest grinned widely.  "You're not getting away from us this time."

...

The Stiletto had to weave through the space traffic once coming out of warp, and quickly reached the docking perimeter.  Within minutes, the ship was towed into a hanger and the pilot and rather distraught passenger disembarked.
"I am never agreeing to travel like that again."  She fumed.
Jafrak shrugged, then grinned.  "You may have to be a passenger again sometime.  Maybe next time you'll have some quarters you can hide under the bed in."
"I said never again."
"You said never AGREE to travel like that again.  You may have no choice."
"I loath you with every fiber of my being right about now."  Rarity glared, then spotted a group approaching them.
One woman was in the lead, with four armed and armored guards following closely behind.
"Welcome to the Sisters of Eve Bureau.  I am Sister Alitura."

To Be Continued...
> Space Unicorn
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eve Equestria
05
Space Unicorn

Sister Alitura was a downright pleasant host.
After quickly escorting Rarity and Jafrak off to her private office, she sat them down on a pair of very cozy chairs.  Rarity curled up and accepted some tea that the blond lady offered.
Jafrak also accepted.  He'd had dealings with her in the past, and they were on decent terms.
There was also a tray of REAL fresh fruit and berries.  Rarity had to magically slap Jafrak's hands as he looked like he was about to grab a handful of the most delicious food he'd ever seen.  Synthetic or mass grown crops just didn't have the same appearance or taste as fresh grown goodies.
Alitura sat down across from the pair and watched in fascination as Rarity plucked a single strawberry from the bowl and popped it into her mouth, and smiled as the unicorn sighed with delight.
"I can assume you like those?"  She asked with a gentle tone.
Rarity sipped her tea before answering.  "It was most wonderful.  At Jafrak's citadel, the most I can ask for is... well, nurishing mush."  She gave Jafrak the stink eye for but a moment.
Jafrak shuddered slightly as he literally felt the glare, then plucked an apple and took a bite.
"I would enjoy a leisurely conversation,"  Alitura started, "but I get the distinct feeling you are here for other reasons."
Rarity nodded.  "Yes indeed Sister Alitura.  You see, I was pony... eh-hem.  Kidnapped from my home world, which apparently resides in its own pocket of wormhole space.  The rapscallion who took me mistook me for some lesser animal and just sold me off to Jafrak here."
"Yea, I quickly realized she wasn't an animal, so, well, I did what I could to ensure her survival."  Jafrak shrugged.  "As well as other stuff in the name of science."
Alitura nodded.  "I see.  Well then.  I am confident in my guess you wish to find a way home, correct?"
Rarity nodded, maybe just a little too quickly.  Alitura smiled at that.  "Well, I can understand your concerns and wish to return to your home.  As to that end, I do have some good news."
"Really?"  Rarity's eyes lit up.  "I do so adore good news."
"We know the designation of your home wormhole.  It would take some time to track it's exact location, seeing as wormholes tend to naturally be unstable."
"Understandable."  Jafrak cut in.  "So, may you let us know what designation is?"
Alitura frowned slightly.  "It has been classified as a C10 Wormhole."
Jafrak looked frozen, like a statue, a look of shock on his face.  After a moment, he recovered.  "That's impossible.  The highest classification of wormhole is a C6."
"Yes, till now."  The woman sipped her tea.
Rarity set down her own tea cup.  "Beg my pardon, but why would my home space be classified as a C10?"
Alitura turned her eyes toward the window.  "Because all but a single ship that has entered there thus far... has not returned.  Not even the capsuleers have returned.  When killed, even in a C6, their consciousness is sent back to a fresh clone body for them to take over.  This C10, it seems such a thing is impossible."
"Or maybe they met Pinkie Pie."  Jafrak joked, then shuddered.  "Actually, sorry Rarity, I think that would actually be worse than permanent death of a capsuleer."
Rarity huffed a little.  "Pinkie is not that bad.  She's just very... energetic."
"Says you.  You've told me some horror stories about what that cute, pink, fluffy pony can do.  Physics be damned, she's likely the most dangerous entity in existence."
"Wait, what?"  Alitura was confused.  "With a name like Pinkie Pie?  Pink?  Cute?  Fluffy?  Dangerous?"
Jafrak nodded.  "You should see how well Rarity is taking to piloting ships.  She's never even seen one in her life and with just the basic skills injected, she's done fairly well for herself."
"I've gotten killed twice now."  Rarity grumbles.  "Three if you count the first time."
"The first one was my fault.  I sent you out in a corvette with minimal skills, just to see if you could handle the ship.  Yea, and to see if you could transfer into a new clone.  You did both reasonably well.  That second time, well, not really your fault.  I forgot to warn you about aggression on the stargates."
Alitura smiled.  "Well then, considering you are a capable young pilot, that would mean your kind is a potential ally to New Eden."
"Basically an all new faction entirely."  Jafrak pointed out.  "To be honest, isn't calling it a C10 without any further explanation unrealistic?"
Alitura shook her head.  "Probes launched into the wormhole didn't last long enough to send images back.  It was like something was physically blocking the other end."  She leaned back and frowned.  "A ship can make it past that barrier, that much we know, but then communications are completely lost, and no ships have returned, not since the first explorer went in there."
"Dear me."  Rarity frowned.  "So, it is too dangerous to just try to enter my home space?"
"We've lost seven ships to date, and nobody else is wanting to try to enter the wormhole.  There's been a general warning sent out to not try to enter it should anyone scan it down."
Jafrak stood up and walked over to the window, watching as ships came and went from the station.  "So what you are saying is, there's no real way we can get there safely?"
"Actually, the wormhole tends to have a rather strange and unique signature.  It's not terribly hard to scan it down due to that factor."  Alitura rose to her feet as well, and fetched herself some more tea.  "In fact, it's a rather large wormhole capable of fitting freighters.  The real issue is that the wormhole seems to destabilize at random.  One of our Nestors was cut in half as it entered the thing, and it collapsed.  No lives were lost, thankfully."
Rarity felt better knowing that, at least.
"Which is an oddity.  Wormholes have never been known to just close like that.  I have seen the data.  It was very stable at one moment, and then it just... closed.  It's almost like it's alive."
Rarity gasped.  "That's it.  They're looking for me."  Rarity beamed.  "I have to go find the wormhole right now.  It's my only hope of ever getting home.  I'll do whatever it takes."
Alitura smiled.  "I'm glad to hear you say that.  So, how are your piloting skills?"
"Well, mediocre at best, to be honest."  Rarity watched as Alitura nodded.  "I do so have a love of the Amarrian design."
"Well, that's half the problem solved right there.  You see, we hope to form an alliance with your people, with shared interest in learning and exploring.  With that in mind, I do believe we can help you.  Normally we would most certainly never do what I am offering, but this is a very special reason."
Rarity was confused, at least till another woman entered the room.  She was tall, muscular, with an oddly familiar looking hairstyle and eyes.
"May I introduce Tempest.  She's actually been looking for you."
"Oh my.”  Rarity beamed.  “You remind me of a friend of mine.  She too called herself Tempest, though her real name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist.”
Tempest remained calm, and looked at the pony.  “Space... Unicorn... is real...”
“Say what?”  Rarity blinked.
Jafrak spat out his tea and burst out laughing.
Everyone tried to ignore the man who looked like he might honestly die laughing.
“Well, I am a Unicorn, that much is obvious.”  Rarity smiled.  “And yes, I guess I am in space, though still, it is not a proper description.”
“Says you Space Unicorn.”
Alitura stepped between the pair.  “Her name is Rarity, and she is, in all sense of the term, an envoy of her home world.  So Tempest, please do try to show her at least a modicum of respect.”
“Yes Sister Aitura.”  Tempest stepped back.  “Oh, and I brought the manifest.  The remains I gathered have also been transfered to the lab for...”  She glanced at Rarity.  “Reasons.”
Rarity rolled her eyes.  “Let me guess, you found a previous corpse of mine, most likely the one stuck to the side of a stargate?”
“Yes.”
“Very well then, you may keep it.  I have no need of it, after all.”
Tempest glanced at Alitura.  “Seriously?”
The Sister turned around to face Rarity.  “A generous offer, though I do need you to know that a corpse of a dead capsuleer is often regarded as a trophy by many of the more... unscrupulous out there.  At least yours was brought in for scientific reasons.”
“Understandable”  Rarity levitated her tea and took a sip, glancing at Jafrak as he was now gasping for air.  
Tempest’s eyes went wide at the display. “How are you doing that?”
“This?”  Rarity gestured a hoof at the flaoting cup.  “It’s just simple magic.”
“Magic doesn't exist.  You’re using some form for gravity manipulation device.”
Alitura shook her head and placed a hand on Tempest’s shoulder.  “The sensors in this room are detecting the unique energy signature of the wormhole, coming from the Lady Rarity’s horn and brain, as well as throughout her body.  It is not mental energy, nor physical, and certainly not magnetic.  Magic may very well be the only explanation for what we are seeing here.”
“Fine.”  She handed a tablet over to Alitura.  “Anyways, here’s what you asked for.  Also...”  She turned to Rarity, knelt down, and did her best to smile without her face cracking.  “Pleasure to finally meet you.  You’ve been very elusive back in that C1.”
“Whatever do you mean... wait.  You’ve been the ones scanning for me this past few days?”
“Yes.  We were hired by the SoE to find out exactly what you were, seeing as you proved to be a highly mobile, perfect match for the C10 wormhole.”
“Then that must mean the wormhole is magic in nature.”  Jafrak said, sitting up and looking like he was well on his way to a full recovery.
“If it is magic...”  Rarity’s eyes lit up.  “Perhaps the Princesses are looking for me, using the wormhole to do so.”
All three humans stared at Rarity, and it took Jafrak to recover first to ask what they all had on their minds.
“Are you telling us that the force responsible for that wormhole... is a living being?”
Rarity nodded.  “Very likely, yes.”
The ramifications were staggering.  If there existed an entity that could rend spacetime at will...  what else were these unicorns capable of.

To Be Continued...
> Friendship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Eve Equestria
06
Friendship


Rarity sucked in a breath as she emerged from the cloning vat.  She felt amazing, to be honest.  Was this the difference between an alpha and an omega clone?  She was not sure, but she couldn't deny how much better she felt.
In fact, she could feel the implants pushing information into her brain at double the speed it had before.
All in all, she could only smile.
And that had not been all.  She had been injected with more skill books than before, as well as a few skill injectors to expedite the learning process.
With help from Sister Alitura, she now had a rather impressive queue of skills on the go, as well as what the skill injectors had granted her.
Yet there was more.
Rarity looked out from the docking platform at her very own Stratios exploration cruiser.  She'd seen them on the data sheets, but now that she could actually SEE it for herself, the mare could only be in awe.
And Sister Alitura had even given her a unique SKIN, created just for her.  
A white body, that was given, with a trio of blue gems on the sides of the massive ring.  Not only that, but it sported Amarrian markings, not in gold, but in the exact same purple as her mane and tail.
Her first response had been to drag the sofa over to herself so she could faint on it.
Oh yes, the sofas, by default, are bolted to the floor.  The sheer force for one to 'simply' rip it out of place was staggering.  
Sister Alitura, along with both Jakraf and Tempest mentally ran some calculations.  The resulting math; Unicorns are insanely powerful.
"I can see you like your new ship."  Alitura smiled.
"Oh yes, I do, ever so much.  It is divine."
Alitura sat down next to Rarity.  "It's been fitted for deep space, long term exploration, as well as a full suite of light, medium and heavy combat drones.  A pair of beam lasers as well, seeing as you seem to have a preference for those.  Finally, the covert ops cloaking device.  I know you know how to use that now."
Rarity nodded.  She wanted ever so much to jump in and take it for a flight right now.  
"Go on, we have a number of ships waiting outside to assist you in your journey home."
The unicorn wrapped her forelegs around Alitura and rested her head on the woman's shoulder, and gave her the most delightful hug she'd ever felt in her life.  Normally, she was not one for physical contact, and especially not too keen on actually meeting capsuleers face to face, preferring to meet them over a com channel.
But Rarity was a very unique and special case.  
Tempest stared at Rarity for a moment before turning to Jafrak.  "Her pants leave nothing to the imagination.
The man nodded, keeping his attention, as best he could, on Rarity's face.  As odd as it seemed, he had to admit, for having an animal shape, she was strangely... hot.  "Yea, I promised I would introduce her to panties...  Maybe you'd do a better job at that than me."
"What are panties?"  Tempest asked with a straight face.
Jafrak nearly had a sudden case of spontaneous bloody nose.  Somehow, he didn't.  Somehow.
His own implants, thankfully, prevented much in the way of blood loss.
He had taken note that Tempest was wearing a tight jacket... and a short skirt.
Rarity released Alitura and stepped down onto the floor, returning the sofa to its proper location.  A little extra magic, and metal was heard being forced back into place.
"Jeeze Rarity, just how strong is your magic?"
Rarity smiled at Jafrak.  "Oh, I'm not much stronger than your average unicorn.  Princess Twilight is much more powerful than I, and the royal sister, well, let me just say, they would move the sun and moon to protect their little ponies."
"You mean that literally, don't you..."  Jafrak's brain didn't even try to calculate the forces required to perform a feat like that.  It was, well, beyond physics.  Magic was the only explanation.
"Oh yes.  Princess Celestia moves the sun, while Princess Luna moves the moon."
The three humans present boggled at the concept that such power was possible.
Alitura spoke first.  "I guess it is a good thing that we are wanting a friendly meeting with your people.  I do not want to imagine how foolish it will be for any of the empires or other factions should they attempt war."
"Yea.  I can just see it now.  Massive fleet invades, and they get a sun to the face for their troubles."  Jafrak was soooo glad he'd saved Rarity now.  "So, how about we go get Rarity home before somebody gets to experience that."
"I agree."  Tempest added.  "A friendly co-existence with your people would be in all our best interest."  She didn't ever want to piss off a being that could pull something like that, assuming Rarity was telling the truth.  Still, she had examined the remains.  She was aware of the strange energy that the body contained.  She had read the reports of that same energy coming from the strange and erratic wormhole.  She had no doubt that moving a sun was possible.
"Good, now, your ship is fully loaded, and I am quite certain you will adore your living quarters on your ship."
Rarity smiled, and skipped over to the console.  She accessed the ship's name registry.
"Time to take the Friend Ship out for her maiden voyage."

...

Kohaskhach Rales paced back and forth in his office, a tablet in his hand.  He couldn't fathom the ramifications of the information he's been handed.
Aliens?
Their existence was beyond blasphemy.
And the Sisters of Eve, they were WILLING to help this freak creature to return home with all the information it had gathered?  No, that was not to be allowed.
He sat at his desk and sent out the orders.  
This alien, Rarity, was to be arrested and brought in on sight, no matter which empire she was to be found in.
But then came the issue of the ship she'd been boarding.  A Stratios.  A damn covert ops ship that the SoE were so damn proud of.
He knew, even with all the power that the Theology Council possessed, they could not go toe to toe with the SoE.  They were to well respected among the Capsuleers.  To attempt to bring them down would result in the largest all out war in hundreds of years.  The Council would not be able to stand, even with the entirety of the Amarr Empire backing them up.  To face off against three empires, one of which they had a loose alliance with, and all the mercenaries out there would result in only one thing.
There would stand three Empires in the end.
So, rather than force, he chose subtlety.  The misbegotten wormhole that was plaguing all of New Eden would be closely monitored wherever it appeared, and the moment the alien horse creature appeared, they would be taken in to custody.
Rales could not let this spy return home.  New Eden would not fall to this new threat.

...

Rarity walked down the corridor of her new ship.  Every detail was simply perfect.  Well, for a ship, at least.
Though she would have preferred the interior to have more color than white surfaces with the violet patterns with the occasional blue gem patterns intertwined.  It really was enough to go to most pony's heads.
She giggled as she imagined what would have happened if Trixie had been given a custom painted ship.  Nobody would ever hear the end of it.  Even as they blew her up...  Knowing Trixie, she'd somehow always manage to escape.
She had seen the dining room, a nice small one which could easily fit a dozen, a small exercise room, which included a sauna.  She knew she was going to be making use of that.
The living room was both functional and very well designed.  All it needed was some nice decorations to make it feel more like home.
A full sized washroom with walk in shower large enough for four at once, and a tub large enough for two ponies, easy.
There was room for six crew or passengers, easy.  Each of the quarters was comfortable in its own, but then she entered the master suite.
Her own home back in Ponyville felt like a hole in the ground.  The room includes a sitting room, an office, complete washroom, and a bedroom with a huge king size bed.
Rarity felt like she was living in the royal quarters in Canterlot.
"Goodness, are all Stratios as richly decorated as this?"  She turned to Alitura, who had accompanied her.
The Sister shook her head.  "Actually, normally it's pretty spartan.  This is a special diplomatic edition of the Stratios.  I mean, other than aesthetics, it's identical in function to a normal Stratios."
"Understandable."  Rarity smiled.  "I would like to ask if you would like to join me for her maiden voyage, but I get the feeling that you have other important matters to attend too."
Alitura nodded.  "Yes.  I tend to all capsuleer contact at this station, providing contracts for the jobs they take, as well as paying them for their hard work."
Rarity smiled and bowed her head, and received the same from the taller lady.
"Well then, Lady Rarity, I wish you the best for your journey home."
"And you as well Sister Alitura."

...

Rarity sat in her capsule, which had been transfered from the cargo hold of the Stiletto to the Friend Ship.
She could feel every aspect of the ship, and reached her will out.  She felt the power core come to life, energy charging through the conduits and powering the ship.  With but a simple thought, she directed the ship to be towed out so it could launch.
The moment she did, she could see three Astero waiting for her, as well as a Stiletto, one more Stratios, white and red in color, and finally she gasped as the massive Nestor ship undocked behind her.  It too was white and red.
The three Astero were silver in color, each with its own splash of blue, yellow and orange.
"Oriandos to Friend Ship.  We have received a positive sighting of the C10 wormhole.  Please set destination to star system Yasud.  A site to site wormhole from Tar to Tash-Murkon Prime has been located.  We will utilize that to reduce the journey from twenty jumps down to nine.  Please follow FC's directions at all times.  Prepare to enter fleet warp."
Rarity allowed the fleet commander, who was located in the massive Nestor, to take over warp control.
She leaned back and smiled.  Soon, she would be home.
The trip took only a matter of hours to reach the first wormhole.  The three Astero jumped ahead, and after the all clear, the pair of Stratios and the Oriandos entered as well.  A quick trip through wormhole space, and they emerged back into hisec.
Two more jumps, and as they exited the stargate, they found themselves in a warp bubble.
That was impossible.  Warp bubbles were illegal in hisec.
Fifty mixed ships were waiting for them, and then another ten decloaked between the stargate and the small SoE fleet.  They were close enough to disengage the gate cloaking systems that tended to protect those who jumped through the gates.
"Holy hell, what's going on here?" Jafrak almost raged.  He could feel a large number of ships targeting him instantly, scrambling and webbing all his systems
"What is the meaning of this?"  The FC demanded over open coms.  "You are breaking the law by using interdiction bubbles within high security space.  Where is Concord?"
"My apologies."  A cruel sounding voice came over the coms, but no face appeared to accompany it.  "There is no concord here, you see, Lossa is a Nulsec system now and is now under sovereign rule by the CODE. Alliance.  If you do not want this to turn bloody, then I request all crews to disembark from your ships.  We'll allow you to leave without taking any lives.  Well, only one of you will not be leaving.  We're detecting a rather unique life form in that rather striking Stratios."
"Like hell you're taking Rarity."  Jafrak wanted to try to do something, but even after refitting his Stiletto for combat, he knew that the opposing fleet would flatten him easily.
"You have no say in the matter.  Eject from your ships and go back to where you came from, or you can all be sent home the fast way.  All except the alien life form."
Rarity whimpered.  She felt that things were starting to look up, that she would finally make it home.
But no, this CODE. Alliance had somehow set a trap, and it was now looking dire for her well being.
Rarity screamed into the open coms.  "Why won't you just let me go home!?" 
She lit her horn.  Rarity was not going to go down without a fight.  With a scream of rage, the unicorn launched EVERY drone on her ship at once, her magic filling in for the computer's AI control systems, allowing all of them to take action.  Her lasers locked onto the ship that the communication was coming from, a command destroyer, and then she and all her drones opened fire.
The small Magus ship melted in seconds, taking everyone by surprise as the Stratios fired lasers that should have only been able to come from a battleship.
Rarity's horn blazed with magic, her drones moving faster than they ever should have been able too, tearing into the offending fleet with a vengeance.
The Friend Ship's lasers were not white, nor purple or red.  No, they were like pissed off rainbows.
It took three more ships exploding before both fleets started reacting.
Weapons fire and drones were everywhere, ships weaving through the onslaught, praying that they wouldn't take any hits, but that was not possible.
More than sixty ships against seven, it was not looking good.
The first ship to explode was Jafrak's interceptor, which wasn't too surprising as it had been the lightest ship of the group.
The Oriandos came under heavy fire from the opposing battleships, while the rest all started focusing on the pair of cruisers and trio of frigates.
Rarity's anger fueled her magic even more.  She could feel herself tapping into a force of magic the likes she'd never known to exist, beyond that of the Princesses themselves.
Her drones, while they had started with the element of surprise, were starting to get targeted and taken out.  Her own Stratios was getting hit hard, even with all the defensive systems that had been installed.
Still, her overpowered, over heated lasers just cut through shield and armor alike.
Her fellow Stratios bloomed into brilliant flames as it exploded.  She could see her armor, even with the repair system on overdrive, was not holding up the the brutal assault she was under.
The last of her drones were chewed apart by opposing drones.  Her capacitor was hitting red-line as other ships were hitting her with anti-capacitor weapons, draining the energy from not only the Friend Ship, but from herself, as she was currently directly linked and fueling the vessel.
She felt the last of her magic drain from her body, and all systems on the ship shut down.  Rarity watched as the three Astero exploded one after another, followed moments later by the Oriandos itself.
She screamed as she watched every remaining ship take aim at her.  The Friend Ship would be destroyed, and she would be captured by these CODE. bastards.

To Be Continued...
> Spark of Friendship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eve Equestria 
07


So close, just a few jumps away and she could have been home, a new alliance could have been formed.
But somehow, SOMEHOW a system in the middle of the High Security space had somehow fallen and become Null Security, and controlled by the CODE. alliance.  She had heard whispers of them, but had not really paid attention.
And now they had her.
The Friend Ship had been boarded, and armed mercenaries had cut her capsule open with laser tools.
Rarity was utterly drained, there was nothing she could to other than watch as they gleefully tore open the front hatch.
They roughly dragged her out and into a transport ship.  They had a prison cell with force fields to keep her contained in the center of the cargo hold.  
A few of the mercenaries stripped her of her clothing before throwing her hard into the center of the cell.  Angry red lights came on, and the energy barrier formed, trapping her inside.  She could see through small holes in the floor that the barrier was even below her.
She just lay on the floor, to drained to move.
Why and how had this happened?  Certainly there would have been news or even a warning of something this huge happening in the center of what was supposed to be relatively safe space, right?
Sadly, Rarity didn't know, and now, she was unsure of her fate.   She felt the ship go to warp, as well as a the familiar sensation of quite  a few gate jumps.
After what felt like hours, she heard the telltale sounds of the ship being docked.  She had no clue where she was now, and had little hope of escape.
Even after the hours laying there on the cold hard floor, Rarity didn't feel like any of her magic had recovered.  Had she burned herself out in her anger?  
It was possible.  She'd heard of unicorns who had done just that.  Performed feats of magic reaching into the impossible, only to be forever drained of their magic, unable to call upon even the smallest inkling for the remainder of their lives.
Rarity wanted to cry, but the tears simply didn't come.  She had no strength to move left at all.
She was done.
Rarity resigned herself to her fate.
The mercenaries entered the cargo hold, this time accompanied by an aged man with orange hair.  He glared at Rarity like she was the most evil thing he had ever seen in his life.  "Bring her to lab eight."  He commanded and simply turned on his heel and left.
The force field was dropped and the mare was thrown into a cage in a hover cart, then carted off down many halls and deep into the unknown space station.  She closed her eyes, awaiting her fate.

...

Jafrak paced back and forth, almost to the point of wearing a hole in the carpet of Sister Alitura's office.
"How did this happen?"  He demanded for the third time.  "They were waiting for us.  There hadn't even been a whisper on any of the local coms leading up to that system."
Alitura sat in her chair, watching the footage.  She'd already watched it, but was now watching it again, looking for any clue as to how this happened.  "Again I do not know."
A knock came at the door, and opened a moment later.  Tempest stormed in, her fresh clone body still sticky from emerging from the vat.  At least she was wearing a pair of jogging pants and a tank top.  "That was a total shit show out there.  Everai and I had our pods blown up, and I hear from the Fleet Commander that they'd disabled and boarded the Friend Ship before hauling it off someplace."
"Do not worry."  Alitura chimed.  "We activated the remote self destruct.  They don't have it anymore."
"I hope not.  That ship was meant for Rarity."  Jafrak flomped down onto an empty chair.  "I hope it killed a whole lot of them, ones with very expensive heads."
"They're CODE."  Tempest remarked.  "I doubt they had anything beyond the standard."
Jafrak leaned his head back onto the headrest and stared at the ceiling.  "Man, this really sucks.  They're obviously keeping her alive.  She'd have contacted me already from the citadel if they'd offed her."
"Unless they disconnected her from the link."  Alitura commented.  "And before you ask, yes, it is possible for the immortal capsuleers to be killed permanently."
"Fuck."  He banged the back of his head against the soft padding.
Tempest took a seat in the remaining chair.  "Sister Alitura, if I and my sisters may, we can head out and try to track her energy signature once again."
The Sister shook her head.  "We have agents spread throughout hisec.  The only signature that's being detected now is the wormhole."
Jafrak jumped to his feet.  "Where is it right now?"
"It is currently in Wirashoda."  The blond replied.  "I can't stop you from looking for it, but by the time you arrive, it may have moved elsewhere."
He stormed toward the door.  "I don't care.  I'm putting together a Loki, and I will find her."
Alitura smiled softly.  "You care about Lady Rarity a lot, don't you?"
"I know I have always preferred to be alone, but since she came into my life, I have come to care for her as a very dear friend."  He slammed a fist against the metal door.  "Nothing will prevent me from finding her."
"Then may I suggest something?"
"What?"
"Take a shuttle."
"Why the hell would I take a shuttle?"
Alitura rose to her feet.  "If you take an armed ship through that wormhole, how do you think the residents will react?  We've lost seven ships already.  Perhaps it is because they were armed to the teeth."
"So... an unarmed shuttle, no weapons..."  Jafrak turned and smirked at Alitura.  "You may have a point there.  Well, if I go in there and die, and I don't wake up in a new body, then so be it.  Hmm, just to be on the safe side, I think I'll swap out to a less expensive head.  My implants are on the very pricey side."
"You do that.  Oh, and Jafrak?  Take this."  She handed over a small data disk.  "This contains the frequency of the wormhole.  Even with normal sensors, you can calibrate them to detect it if you are within a few light years."
Jafrak grabbed the disk.  "Thanks Sister.  I'm heading out now."
Tempest watched him leave and rose to her feet.  "I guess I should at least keep an eye on him till he reached his destination."
"Sorry Sister Tempest, but no.  You will not be joining him.  You will join the search for Lady Rarity.  She is top priority now.  That, and you are one of our best trackers.  If she's out there, I know you will find her."

...

Rales was pissed.  Beyond pissed.
They had disconnected the alien from the capsuleer's source of immortality, that was a good thing.  If 'it' died, then that would be the end of it.
But no, now he had heard rumors of that accursed wormhole that was seeming to jump at random was starting to give off a new energy wave.
He didn't want the aliens on the other side to find the freak that he currently kept in an isolated cell, shielded from all forms of scanning.  He just had the bad feeling that whatever was on the other side of that hole of death certainly was trying to scan for its lost little spy.
Rales stormed out of his room and took the long trip down to the labs, where the cell was located.  It was the most shielded section of the while station, yet he wasn't sure it would be enough.
He wanted to kill the alien, but orders from above had reached him, commanding him to not harm the subject.
Sure, he wouldn't harm her, but he damn well refused to do anything to help it.  That alien, hopefully, would just curl up and die before the specialists arrived to interrogate her.  Or maybe that was for the better.  Learn all they could about the capabilities of these aliens, to learn the best ways to kill them all off.
Rales entered the lab.  "So, what have you learned from your examinations."
"She is in good physical shape, other than the fact that she seems completely physically and mentally exhausted.  She's barely even moved and hasn't spoken a word since she was brought in."
"Has she eaten?"
"We had to inject nutritional supplements as she hasn't even acknowledged the food.  One of our lab assistance was sent in there to administer the shot, and she barely even flinched.  It's like she's in some sort of waking coma."
Rales looked through the shielded window.  "And that energy she released during the battle?"
"There's nothing.  No readings at all.  There are micro-fractures all through her horn.  Scans show there are many black regions through her body.  It's like she burned herself out completely."
Rales grinned at first, but then it faded.  "That's not good."
"What do you mean?"  The scientist flinched back.
"Without that energy she produced, we can't pinpoint the most effective means to counter it."
"There is an option, but I seriously doubt you would agree to it, and it is very likely to be extremely dangerous."
"Go on."
"We reconnect her, set her clone to this lab, and kill this body."
"HELL NO!"  Rayles screamed in the scientist's face.  "Do you know how much power she put out in that fight?  Readings were indicating that her cruiser was releasing Dreadnought levels of power.  It was like she was channeling the firepower of a Revelation through that Statios."
He then froze.  "I want that ship."
"But, it's not here."
"I realize that you idiot."  Rayles left the scientist to resume his work and returned to his office.
Once he sat down, he opened a direct communication.  "James 315.  This is Hohaskhach Rales of the Theology Council.  You and I are going to have a chat."

...

He was never one to be nervous flying through hisec space, well, normally.
This time, Jafrak was not in a super fast and agile ship, nor one packing insane amounts of offensive and/or defensive systems.
No.  He was flying in a little shuttle he purchased off the local market.  He had chosen the least offensive looking one he could find, and ironically, it had turned out to be a Council Diplomatic Shuttle.
It was more cushy than he'd been expecting, but that mattered not one iota to him as he pushed the small ship as fast as he could toward his destination.  Once, he'd received message that it had jumped to another system ten jumps away.  That was a little closer than his current destination, so that suited him just fine.
He kept an ear on local chatter, which for the most part, remained silent.  
He just hoped he didn't fly into another trap, as unlikely as that would seem at this point.  
Finally entering the system, he set the ship's long range sensors to focus on a single specific wavelength.  It no longer detected anything larger than a space station, but that served him just fine.  Warping from station to station, planet to planet, Jafrak pinpointed the wormhole.
Normally he'd be needing probes to scan something like that down, but he didn't need it, thanks to the information on the disk.
Coming out of warp, he could see it.  It was one of the largest wormholes he'd ever seen in his many years of exploration.  It was a strange color as well, a shade of green.  He scanned it quickly as he approached, and focused his com systems toward it.
"Citizens of Equestria, I am here on a peaceful mission.  Please, allow me entrance so we may speak.  For God sake... I'm Rarity's friend.  Please listen to me."  His voice quivered, the concern evident.
The massive rift seemed to almost... turn and focus solely on him and his little ship, like it was the eye of God himself.
The wormhole seemed to suddenly move toward him, or was it growing larger?  No, sensors indicated it was...
Jafrak clenched his eyes closed as the wormhole swallowed his tiny, defenseless shuttle.
"Speak.  Why do you claim to be the friend of the Element of Generosity."
Jafrak covered his ears, though it didn't help.  That insanely loud voice was inside his head.
"Rarity's hurt, she's been taken by aggressive and ignorant people.  I want to save her, but I can't because I don't know where they took her."  He cried out.
"Truely?"
"Yes."
"I can feel you speak true.  Open your eyes, and behold what your kind has brought upon our peaceful realm."
Jafrak opened his eyes, and instantly knew shit as going to hit the fan...

...

Rales escorted the three specialists sent from the Ammarian Ministry of War itself.  Despite his own rank in the Council, he didn't want to mess with these people.
"Here's the lab were we have the subject contained."  Rales opened the door and stepped inside, stepping to the side for the three to enter.  "It's right over there."  He lead them to the large reinforced containment room.
He noted that the alien had not moved so much as an inch since the last time he's seen it, a whole day ago.  "It's become non-responsive since its capture."
"You may go."  The woman spoke in a chilling, flat tone. 
"I would rather..."
A pulse pistol was shoved in his face.  "I said, you may go."
Rales stepped back, turned and left without another word.  He pulled out his Neocom tablet and accessed the security feeds for the lab.  They had already been disabled.

...

Rarity felt something, an injection again into her implants.  She barely flinched and didn't even acknowledge who or whatever was there.  Why couldn't they just let her die?  She knew they'd cut her off from being able to transfer her consciousness to a new clone, so why keep her alive?
"Hello."  A soft voice spoke from her side.  A woman from the sounds of it.  "I have been sent from the Ministry of War to assess whether you are of use or not."
Rarity didn't even turn her ears toward the stranger.
"I have seen the footage of your latest battle, and I must admit, you possess a great amount of power.  A power that would serve the Amarr Empire.  Tell us, how did you produce so much energy.  How could you perform the feats you did?  I'd rather not get cruel."
Still no response.
The woman sighed and tapped something on her tablet.  "What?  You should be screaming in agony."
Rarity had felt absolutely nothing.
A few more taps, and this time, only the slightest of tingling.
More taps.  "This time I have set the pain levels to max.  People have died from this.  Tell me what I want to know."
Still no response, so the woman tapped the tablet.  "Are you all but immune to pain?"  She started to sound annoyed.  "The nanites I injected into you should be tearing you apart by now... how are they...  You, get to scanning her."
One if her aids stepped behind the console and got to work.  "Ma'am, the nanites, they're all non-functional."
"How is that possible?  They run on the host's bio-energy."
"That's the thing.  Her bio-energy levels are... I don't understand this.  They're flat-line."
The woman stepped out of the containment room to look at the data.  "Pulse, breathing, minimal brain activity.  How can she be alive without any bio-energy."
"There is another energy in her.  It's extremely faint, though at levels barely detectable."
She tapped a few screens, ignoring her aids.  "This is the same energy as that rogue wormhole anomaly that's been jumping all over New Eden.  I see, this energy is not coming from her.  Somehow, she's being kept alive by the very presence of that wormhole in this galaxy."  She glared at the data.  "So, if we can prevent it from opening again once it closes, then she will not be receiving this life support."  
Turning toward the door.  "Take the subject and all data.  Leave no evidence she was ever here.  We are heading back to headquarters on Amarr."

...

Jafrak had docked his shuttle in a ship that should have been impossible.  
"I'd never had imagined there would be something like a Nyx inside a wormhole, then again..."  Looking out the window, he was not certain this really was a Nyx Super-carrier.
Wood, marble, crystal.  That is what this ship looked to be made from.  His optical implants searched for energy signatures.  
It was the wormhole energy.
These ships, they were powered by magic, not science.
He smiled in spite of himself and checked the atmosphere data.  Perfectly breathable air.  It actually didn't have any traces of treatment chemicals, rather, was just pure air.
He opened the hatch and stepped out onto the bridge that linked his shuttle to the docking platform.  The floors were black marble, with fine shades of a dark blue.  The wood arches that supported the ceilings and walls looked remarkably like oak.  They even had branches and leaves for crying out loud.
Crystals were everywhere, and other than light, he couldn't figure out what they were for.
Unlike the one Nyx he had once been on, which had just the pilot to control everything and the pilots for the fighters, this ship had many ponies just like Rarity rushing about doing all sorts of jobs.
Wait... Not all were like Rarity.  He saw some without horns.  Were they a lesser species?  He didn't know.  Looking out over the hanger, he could see a huge number of fighters.  The fighters resembled Dragonfly light fighters, with the wide wings, but at the same time, they looked to be made from wood and crystal, maybe even some marble as well.
Then he heard hooves approaching.  He turned and was expecting to see more waist height ponies.
No, not this one.  She came up to his chest.  Her coat a deep blue and here eyes the most lovely shade of green.
But it was her made that threw his mind for a loop.  It was like space itself.
"I am Princess Luna, Lady of the Night.  You are Jafrak, friend of Rarity?"
"Y-yes."  He bowed deep at the waist.  He'd never met royalty before, but had an idea how to act.  "I am here because Rarity needs help.  I can't do anything to save her myself, so I came here, to plead for your aid."
Luna seemed to scrutinize the taller man as he stood tall once again.  "How do you speak our language?  All our scans of communications from the outside world are near undecipherable."
"Ah, well, you can thank Rarity for that.  She can speak our language as well, thanks to yours truly."  He didn't smile, but kept a relaxed stance.
"Very well then.  Come Jafrak, we have much to discuss."
Jafrak nodded and followed the Princess.  He then took note of the bat winged ponies that followed along behind them, all wearing archaic metal armor.
"Um, may I ask, how did you build this ship?"
"One of the invading ships possessed detailed plans on how to construct it, along with all the components.  T'was a great challenge, but our greatest minds worked out how to create this grand structure.  I believe it is called the Nyx."
Jafrak nodded.  "Yes, though it seems you have built it from non-standard materials."
"We do not possess the metals you possess in your realm.  We had to make do with our own."  Luna replied.  "Scientific curiosity aside, you say Rarity is in danger?  Explain all you know."
Jafrak started explaining all he could, from the moment Rarity had come into his life, and he even was honest with the mistakes he had made, as well as... killing her.
Luna kept calm, though her mane and tail swirled almost angrily, till he explained he had done what he had done not only out of scientific curiosity, but to protect her.  She became aware of Rarity's newfound immortality, and wanted to know more, but that had to wait.
Entering the massive bridge, Jafrak noted the bridge crew were going about their tasks, bowing their heads momentarily on Luna's entry.
"Move the Nyx back into planetary orbit over Canterlot.  We must speak with my sister."
"At once Princess."  The ship started realigning toward the planet.  It turned surprisingly quick for a super-carrier, much faster than should have been possible.
Luna took a seat in the center of the bridge, a throne in fact.  Jafrak sat on the steps next to her.  "Thank you for not just shooting me.  Whatever happened to the others who came here?"
"They are guests."  Luna replied.  "None have been harmed.  We simply disabled their ships and brought them before my sister and myself.  Sadly, communication has been difficult, till your arrival."
"So... I'm the first of my kind who can speak your language?"  He was glad he had downloaded Rarity's language knowledge from her own mind and implanted it into his.  He'd been planning on surprising his friend one day by chatting to her in Equestrian.
But now, it looked like that may not be happening any time soon, or ever, if they were too late.
"Yes, and that opens a great many doors.  From now on, you are the Ambassador of New Even to Equestria."
Jafrak choked momentarily.  "Beg your pardon Princess Luna, but I'm no diplomat.  I'm, a scientist, an explorer.  I do mining and industrial work for a living."
"Interesting.  Then you may also consider yourself Chief Technical Advisor to the teams we have deciphering the blueprints that we acquisitioned from one of the nine ships."
"Nine?  I thought there was only seven captured."
"Yes, seven gorgeous ships, and a pair of horrid looking ones.  There, you can see them at the Temple of the Two Sisters."  She pointed forward as the Nyx dropped out of warp.
"Holy hell!  A Keepstar?  You guys built a Keepstar?"
"Yes.  Just two of the plans we had been able to decipher from many.  There are others that are... more difficult."
Jafrak nodded, looking about the bridge and spotted a system layout.  "H-hold on.  Your ship here.  It's just the ship with flights of fighters?  You don't have any other systems installed?"
"Sadly, no.  We do not seem to have any blueprints for such things."
Jafrak's mind was racing.  "So... You had the blueprints for that Keepstar, and for the Nyx, as well as the components to actually build them..."
"Correct, as well as the fighters."  Luna replied as they approached the Keepstar.
"Aaaand anything else?"
"Sadly, not much else."
"Ah... that's bad for you, should the Empires decide to attack in force.  Their ships are fitted with all sorts of powerful weapons, defenses and other systems.  You know, back at my place, I have virtually every blueprint you could imagine.  Maybe if there was some way we could get there and retrieve them, we could really make a difference."
"Perhaps, but we will discuss this with Princess Celestia."
Jafrak smiled softly.  If he could help these ponies, then they would be better suited to rescue Rarity, if it wasn't already too late.
The Nyx docked in the Keepstar, and they disembarked the ship.  
He'd been in plenty of Keepstars before, but never one like this.  The whites, blacks, golds and blues were everywhere.  The trees kept the air fresh, just as the man remembered from when he lived planet-side.  The crystals, he had come to realize, were not just lights.  They projected interactive holographic images... in three dimensions.  Not just two like he was accustomed.
"Princess.  Do you have any shuttles to get down to the planet?"
"We do not need such a thing.  We can simply teleport down to Canterlot Palace."
"I'm not sure I am comfortable with teleporting... All attempts at doing so by my species have all ended in... disaster.  Maybe we can take my shuttle?  She's a rather comfortable ship."
Luna eyed the human for a while.  "Very well.  Our citizens are aware of the existence of your species as well as your ability to travel the stars."
Jafrak nodded.  "Lead the way Princess... I'm already good and lost."

...

The Diplomatic shuttle landed outside Canterlot City, the long bottom wing folding sideways to allow the landing.
Jafrak, Princess Lune and two of her personal guards walked down the plank.
"Oh wow.  I haven't been planet-side in over fifteen years.  This air smells great.  Makes me wonder why I left in the first place."
"The stars most likely called you."  Luna replied.  The pair had talked the whole way from the Nyx to the shuttle, and all the way down to the surface.  To be honest, she could see why Rarity might like this human.
Upon entering the city, Jafrak spotted two humans sitting at what could only be a donut shop, if the donuts in the window were any indication.
"Wow, they actually brought a ship down to the surface?"  One of them stood up, walking toward Jafrak.  The other, a woman, followed, but kept her companion between Luna and herself.  "So, I take it from the fact that's a diplomatic shuttle that the Empires are willing to talk?"
Jafrak shook his head.  "Sorry, but that does not seem the case.  The one unicorn, Rarity, who was stuck in New Eden has been captured by CODE., most likely at the bequest of one of the Empires."
"So, she really does exist?  I've only heard rumors."
"Yea, she's real, and she's a dear friend to me, as well as Princess Luna here."
The pair of capsuleers looked at each other before the woman spoke.  "How do you know her name?  We don't understand their language at all.  Just ordering coffee and a donut took over ten minutes."
Jafrak smiled.  "I speak their language.  Remember, I am Rarity's first friend in New Eden.  Obviously I would learn her language.  That aside, do not touch my shuttle.  There is no escape, as Princess Luna is the one who creates the Wormholes."
"She..." them an stammered.
"She creates wormholes?" His companion added.
"Yes, as well as moving the moon, and her elder sister moves the sun.  I would hazard to say that any attempts to invade this realm would end very badly.  You know, one solar mass to the face is all it would take to wipe out any fleet."
The pair stared at Luna.
"But don't worry, that's only of a big hostile fleet should attempt to do anything stupid.  Also, they have a Nyx and a Keepstar up in orbit."  Jafrak wanted to make sure that, even though these people were from the SoE, that they would think twice about attacking.
It was a bluff, seeing as the Nyx and Keepstar were both basically defenseless...
"What are you saying to them?"  Princess Luna queried.
"I just told them to behave or they'll get smacked with a sun."
"My sister would never do that.  It is irresponsible.  And dangerous."
"Would be awesome to see."
"Yes, I guess it would be 'awesome' as you say.  Now, we must meet my sister.  She awaits."

...

Rarity was once again aboard a ship, this time an Amarr ship called a Purifier.  A stealth vessel that many capsuleers hated so see heading for them.
Once again in a force field cage, in the center of a cargo hold, the mare just lay there.
She had lost everything.
Her family and friends.
Her magic.
Her will to live.
But these humans kept injecting her with some medicine that kept her body healthy.
She was physically and mentally numb.
She had lost Jafrak.
The Friend Ship was most likely in the possession of CODE.
And she had been so close to finding her way home.
She barely even registered as the ship landed and her cage was removed from the hold.  Something did register though.  The air.
It smelled good.  Not sterilized.  This was natural air.
Still, she couldn't even bring herself to lift her head, or even focus her eyes on her surroundings.
She Rarity didn't bother to notice the large building that she was being brought into.

...

Rales was pleased, and annoyed to no end.  James 315 had agreed to return the ship he'd requested, for a full two billion Isk.  Thankfully, CODE. had deactivated and disabled the self destruct systems once they suddenly activated.
He had access to a lot more than that paltry sum, but James had a self centered, arrogant, and professional businessman attitude.
Personally, Rales would love nothing more than to see the entire CODE. Alliance wiped out, but an endeavor like that, with how widespread they were, would be nearly impossible.  For a single Empire at least.  If all four could work together, then they could at least rid the galaxy of at least one scourge.
Still, James 315 was somehow working within legal zones.  Barely.
Rales entered the hanger and glared at the ship as it as finally towed into place.
The extensive damage the ship had taken had not been repaired.  It was a trophy, after all, and why not show the trophy off as it had been acquired?
Rales boarded it.  It may have once been a nice, neat and clean ship, but the damage to the structure was unmistakable.  A shot or two more, and it would have exploded.
It was a task to navigate the corridors, past ruptured conduits and collapsed bulkheads.
Finally he reached the bridge and examined the pod.  It had obviously been cut open.  Rales climbed into the pod and connected.  He accessed his personal inventory and set the system to pull out the data scanner and install a structure repair system.
Once done, he started it up and monitored the ship as it slowly, painfully, pulled itself together.  At the same time, he set the armor repair system to work its own magic.
Magic.  Such a thing was impossible.
Right?
He looked over the recent logs of the ship.  The logs indicated that the weapon on this thing has somehow been charged to Dreadnought levels of output, and yet none of the systems seemed to have been completely burned out.
Sure, he could have had the station's repair bays do the work, but he wanted to see the ship pull herself back together.
"Rales..."
A woman's voice echoed in his mind.  He checked the coms, but there was none.   He looked around the pod.  He was alone on the bridge as it slowly came back together.
"Rales..."
"Who's there?"
"Friend... Ship..."
"What?  Aura, is that you?  Damn AI system must be coming back on-line."
"I am Friend Ship.  Rales.  You do not belong."  The voice became louder, and suddenly, the pod he sat is was ejected, falling out of the bottom of the Stratios and plummeting toward the floor far below.
The pod, thankfully, had not been damaged other than the hatch being torn off.  He kicked in the thrusters and came to a stop.  Looking up, he watched the Stratios tear herself free from the couplings that held it in place.
A moment later... the ship took off on its own, not using the towing systems of the station.
"What the hell just happened?  Ships can't fly themselves...  Or did the AI go corrupt like with those Rogue Drones?"  Rales flew the pod back up to the deck and docked.  "Well, this is a whole new can of worms."
He checked the station's exterior security cameras.  He spotted the Friendship as it pulled away from the station, and then cloaked.
"The higher ups are going to have my neck for this..."

To Be Continued...
> Far Reaches
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eve Equestria 
08
Far Reaches

Jafrak sat back in his shuttle, all all the pilots who had entered the wormhole were sitting in the overly comfortable passenger cabin.
One of the pilots, a Gallente man, was really pissed as they reached orbit and came into sight of the Keepstar and the Nyx super-carrier tethered outside.
"HEY!!!  Those were built from my BPCs.  Do you know how much Isk I spent to buy those?"  He pounded a fist on the window.  "Bloody horses.  We should come back here and enslave them all."
"Are you sure you want to try that?"  A woman wearing exploration armor from the SoE asked.  "You've SEEN their Princess move the sun."
"Fuuu.  Damnit.  I hate it when shit like this happens..."
"At least they are returning our ships.  The only thing they took from you were those blueprints, right?"
"From my manifest, let me see...  Ah damn, they took the ice cream I had in the deep freeze.  Do you know how hard it is to get real Death by Chocolate ice cream?"
A man at the back of the cabin nodded.  "They only make that on one planet now, and that's located out in Insmother.  Nobody knows exactly what planet it is, but when the cargo transport arrives in Jita, man, they sell out fast.  Those guys are the only ones who know how to really make it.  I've tasted other knock offs... and they all tasted bad compared to the good stuff.  Wait, you had a deep freeze loaded with the good stuff?"
"Yea... thirty million worth."
All in the cabin felt that man's pain.  That was, emotionally, a harder hit than the loss of some very expensive blueprint copies.
Jafrak listened to the conversation and chuckled.  So that's where that amazing ice cream he'd enjoyed last night had come from.  He was not about to admit he's had some.  The Gallente man would likely be very, very pissed.
Finally docking in the Temple of the Two Sisters, the passengers were all escorted back to their ships.
Immediately, they noticed a drastic change to the SoE ships.
Marble, rich, naturally growing oak, and crystals had replaced the matte white armor.  On a closer examination, it was revealed to be just a SKIN.
The Gallente Occator transport was more a jade looking material where it was normally gray, with additional rich red wood paneling where it had once been a reddish copper.
The owner of the Svipul was shocked to see his ship was no longer looking like a rusty razor blade, but now sported polished black marble where 'rust' had once been the dominate color, and a nice mix of the black oak wood design made his eyes sparkle.  The solar panels were now a dark, deep green.
To be fair, these Equestrian skins really seemed to add a more live feeling to their ships, and the pilots had to at least appreciate how nice they looked.
Even the Gallente pilot felt this just barely made up for the Death by Chocolate.
Jafrak's shuttle sported a new SKIN as well.  White and marble with dark blue 'stars' made up the body, and each wing now sported 'Pegasus' wing designs on them.  The bottom wing now sported the flag of Equestria on it.
He knew that he was going to have to somehow get an original blueprint of this ship, just because.  That, and he was now officially the Ambasador of New Eden to Equestria.
As a small fleet, eleven ships warped deep into space.  The eleventh being the Nyx, which Jafrak had jokingly called Throne of the Stars.
Luna liked it and had officially changed the name from the default Nyx.
The night mare flew out into the vacuum of space and channeled her magic, drawing on the gravity of the stars themselves to open the wormhole.  Once it opened, the fleet, minus one super-carrier, jumped through and back into New Eden.

...

Jafrak spent a few days scanning wormholes till he finally located one that led him back to his own little pocket.  He approached the Citadel and smiled sadly.  "Home sweet home...  It's not the same without Rarity here."
After docking the ship, he switched out to his Mammoth.  He was going to be needing to start moving a lot of stuff, seeing as he was going to be finally leaving this place.
A week and a half of hauling everything from the wormhole citadel and back into hisec had been a time draining task, including the packing up of said citadel.
With one final look at his home for many years, Jafrak left for the last time.

...

Deep space, far from any star system, a wormhole opened up, and from within, a small ship emerged.
Jafrak looked out the window.  It felt strange.  Absolutely nothing was on any of his sensors.  He was nervous, that was for certain.  He nudged his Mammoth forward, keeping an eye on that wormhole he's just emerged from.
He knew the Throne of the Moon was on the other side, with Princess Luna powering the rift.
And now here he was, nearly a hundred light-years from Jita.  He looked down at the galaxy that lay spread out below him.  He marveled at how... small it looked.  He knew better though.  He knew that place was larger than anything else he knew, other than the universe itself.
Checking, he finally reached about a hundred kilometers from the wormhole.  He deployed something that the ponies had created.
Once deployed, it expanded, seeming to grow, like watching a tree grow in a time laps film, though a lot smoother.
The tree grew into a massive ring, large enough for even titans to pass through.  He grinned and moved his ship away from the ring.  Within hours, it was done.  Wood, crystal, white and blue marble.
The Wormhole moved and settled into the ring.  The crystals lit up, gripping onto the edges of the rift and stabilizing it.
New Eden now had a stable wormhole far above her.  But that was not the only one.  There was another identical wormhole far 'below' the galaxy as well.
It was so far out into the void that no empire or faction had any say in the matter.
The wormholes were not meant to be a means of travel though.
It was meant to be a means to provide a special energy to the entire galaxy.
New Eden would slowly become a place of magic.

...

Deep in a research lab, Amarrian scientists were running every test known to mankind on the alien unicorn.
What little they could get was that some magical energy field that was staring to permeate the galaxy was the only think keeping the body alive.
It was the mystery of mysteries.
In every system that the strange wormhole had appeared, it had been filled with that energy, and it was not fading away.  It wasn't changing any laws of physics though.  It simply was there, not interfering with anything at all.
The scientists knew the wormhole had, at one time, appeared in this very system, which gave every scientific division a whole lot of work.  Many scientists dove into trying to discover this new energy, while others wanted nothing to do with it.
Those who wanted to know, found themselves enjoying the work, trying to find ways to harness the new energy.
Those who didn't, either were lucky and didn't have to do anything with it, while some found themselves being forced to research it.  Some were even tasked to find a way to negate it.
Rarity herself remained unresponsive, and seemingly immune to virtually all known forms of physical and mental interaction.  She just floated in a vat, being studied.
She didn't care at all, not one bit.  Most of what they did didn't even register, though the occasional thing did, and was only noted as a color or a blur.
Her thoughts had almost all but shut down, like she was willing her body to just die, to be ended.
She wanted to die.  Without magic, a Unicorn was worth less than a hoof-full of sand.
Her mind ignored all the human's voices, but something caught her attention for some reason.
"We've ran every test we can think of, other than an autopsy."  One human spoke.
Another seemed to respond happily.  "Finally.  Go ahead and gut the beast.  Make sure all samples are kept in cold storage, just to be on the safe side.  It's about time that freak abomination died."  He paused for a moment.  "Can I watch?"
"We'd rather you didn't, but you are our boss... so we can't say no."
"Excellent."   
Rarity's eyes focused for a moment, she could see the orange haired man.  She burned his face into her memory, wanting to forever know the man who had finally allowed her to rest in peace.
"Mr. Rales, if you could go to the observation room."
"Of course.  I don't want to get that beast's blood on my clothes.  This outfit cost over a hundred million Isk after all."  Mr. Rales turned and left the room.
Mr. Rales.  Rarity burned that memory into her mind as well.  Perhaps in the afterlife, she could look back upon the man and his seemingly cruel act of compassion.  A small smile flickered across her lips as drugs were injected into her, to paralyze her body.
Rarity was moved from the tank to an operating table.
"Hey, I want it alive when you start your autopsy.  It's paralyzed, so it won't even be able to show any pain."
"We can't do that sir."
"That's an order."
"...  Fine..."
Rarity watched with almost no real interest or sensations as the scientist and his assistants started carefully cutting her open and carefully extracting organs.
Her vision faded slowly, and as her heart was cut out, it faded to black.
Rarity died on the autopsy table...

To Be Continued...
> Stargem
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eve Equestria
09
Stargem

Rarity's mind seemed to float in a strange space, data flowing all about her.
Her senses slowly returned to her mind as she became aware of many strange senses. Opening her senses, Rarity felt the urge to gasp, but her body felt strange, yet somehow comforting.
She looked around, space in every direction.
"Where am I?"  She wondered to herself.  Her voice sounded strange.  It hadn't come from her mouth, but seemed to just happen, like when she was thinking to herself.  The odd thing is, she KNEW she'd just spoken out loud.
Not to far away, relatively, she could see a moon.  It felt like she was drifting on space.  She tried to look at her hoof, but...
"Where's my body?"  She spoke to nobody in particular.  She really wasn't expecting an answer.  "Am I... dead?"  Rarity wanted to frown, but couldn't feel her muscles.
Still, she could feel power flowing through her being.
Data flowed before her mind.  An image of a ship became apparent.  It was her ship.  The Friend Ship.
No...
It was not her ship.
Not anymore.
Rarity... She WAS the ship.
"Oh no... no no no.  This cannot be happening."  She panicked for a few moments before mentally berating herself.  "No, panic will not help me figure out what's happened to me."  She focused inward, and found she could see inside the ship... inside HERSELF.
She focused on the bridge, hoping to see the pod, with her clone body inside it.
The bridge was empty of the hideous green and black capsule.
"No... not... here?"  The mare-turned ship shut her eyes for a moment, then counted backwards from ten.  Once she'd forced herself into a calm state once again, she started checking over her systems.
They were all there, save the data analyzer.  That had been replaced with a hull repair system.  The self destruct system was also not present anymore, or at least, disconnected from her control.  That didn't bother her in the least.  The last thing she wanted to do was to blow herself up.
"Alright, all systems are check.  Everything is in good shape, though I am certainly a mess inside."
Indeed, furnishings had been thrown about, and currently, she had no idea how to go about fixing that problem.
To make matters worse, she didn't have any drones in the bays.  That made sense, since she had deployed every single one of them in the battle.
The battle.
Rarity started to remember and felt a shudder run through her hull.  She's released every bit of magic into the ship, even to the point where her mind had merged into the systems.
Had that been what had happened?  She was no longer in her body, so it made sense that was what happened.	
Her sensors detected something.  Or was it her 'senses'?  This was both new and confusing to her.
Rarity focused her attention on the incoming ship.  She watched as a capsule dropped out of warp.  Once the warp bubble collapsed, the pod started toward her.
Was it going to board?  She wouldn't allow that.  She targeted it and locked her weapons on the pod, her engines and thrusters powering up.
"Identify yourself."
"Holy shit!  There is someone in there."  A young female voice spoke out.  "Uh, you see, I'm called Star Mist.  I detected your ship when I came by here a few hours ago."
"That does not explain why you were about to try to dock."  Rarity huffed.
"Weeeelll... You see, you don't often see a Statios abandoned in space, right?  I thought I'd just, you know, claim it as salvage.  I knew I should have dropped a claim beacon."
"This ship was never abandoned.  I suggest you turn around and leave.  I really don't want to have to shoot you."
Star Mist sighed.  "And I just got to New Eden from Equestria too...  I was hoping I could score a really awesome ship, not the little corvette that I was given."
"W-wait.  You're Equestrian?  Star Mist, you're a unicorn, aren't you?"
Star Mist stammered.  "W-what?  How did you know?  I've been mostly avoiding the heavily populated systems because humans are sorta scary, you know?"
"Dock in the cargo bay, NOT the capsule dock."
Star Mist muttered something to herself.  "Why?"
"So I can get you safely back to a space station.  You're a foal for coming out here in just a pod."
"Who are you?  Are you a pony too?"
"I.... no.  I am not a pony."
"Oh?  How do you know... wait.  Are you one of the humans who was visiting Equestria a while ago?"
Rarity paused.  She knew humans had tried to reach Equestria.  "No.  I gained my information from other sources."
Star Mist nodded.  "Oh, ok.  Well, I can head back to where I parked my Corvette.  Oh hey, have you seen Equestrian corvettes?"
"No, I have not.  Till now, I was unaware that Equestrians had left their space."
"Oh, it's only been a few days since we started coming here.  I got my cutie mark already.  For my whole life I just couldn't find it.  Now I have an awesome shooting star on my flank.  I was MEANT to travel the stars."
Rarity wondered how many ponies had come to this savage, cruel galaxy.  "How many?"
"Um, one on each flank?"
"No, how many ponies."
"Oh, um, five that I know of.  We were, um... kinda released from jail?  I got into a lot of trouble trying to get my cutie mark and got tossed into Canterlot's prison for sneaking into places I shouldn't have been going."
"Hmm, you sound like an explorer."  Rarity swung herself around, her cargo bay hatch opening, swallowing the tiny capsule.  She shut the hatch and aligned to the nearest station.  "I would love to help you, but I don't think I can."
Star Mist popped open her hatch and emerged.
Rarity focused her security cameras onto the young mare.  She was too old to have just recently gotten her cutie mark.  But she could see the shooting stars that adorned her hind end.  A soft yellow coat, bright white mane and tail streaked with orange.  Piercing blue eyes.  Star Mist was quite pretty.
And she was a Unicorn.  That in itself could be problematic.
"So... can we, I dunno, meet?"
"No.  I feel you should stay where you are.  It's safer for all involved.  I don't want to accidentally shoot you for some misunderstanding."
"Oh, ok, that's a good idea.  The debriefing that Mr. Jafrak gave us was pretty in-depth, and scary at times."
"Jafrak is okay?"  Rarity was relieved.  "I haven't seen him in... well, I don't know how... waaait a moment.  Debreifing?"
"Yea.  He's the Ambassador for New Eden in Equestria, as well as Chief Science Advisor to the Sparkle Magi-tech division."
"He's in Equestria?  How do I get there?  I need to see him."
"I'd LOVE to show you the way, really, but the problem is, the wormhole gate is only opened when somepony or other creature is banished."
"Banished?"  Rarity didn't like the sounds of that.  "Isn't sending you into space for your crimes a little too harsh?"
"Well, I sorta did kill a few ponies."  She grinned, her horn lighting up, magic focusing on the doorway's control panel.  
Rarity scowled and tried to focus her own magic to counter this unicorn's.  She felt her magic flow as she wished.
Star Mist's magic was countered, and the young mare was thrown back.  "Ow, what the hay?  How's you counter my magic?  I've never seen any human tech ever do that before."
"You... you're a murderer?"  Rarity growled angrily.
"Yea, so?  There's murderer's all over the place.  I've already been murdered once by some guy in a crazy fast ship.  Then I woke up in a new body, got myself a new corvette, and headed back out into space.  I like your ship, and I think I WILL be taking it."
Rarity sighed.  It was not like this pony would actually be killed by her next action.
She opened the cargo hatch into space, and deactivated the forcefield.
Star Mist was sucked out into hard vacuum.
Rarity frowned, took aim with one laser turret, and evaporated the pony before she could suffer a death that Rarity was all too familiar with.
"Well now..."  She closed the hatch, launched her probes, and activated her cloak as she entered warp to a moon on the far side of the star system.  "Time to see if I can find a way back home."

...

Rarity sat just on the entry side of the stargate, her cloak timer ticking down as she scanned the surrounding system.
Ulren was a one point zero hisec system, and was rather busy.  Lots of ships coming and going.
Breaking the cloak, she aligned to one of the stations and entered warp.  After a few minutes, she dropped out and saw the station.  It looked like no other station she had ever seen before.  
It looked simply amazing.  A large, flat disk with a massive dome overtop.  Below was the docking bays.
Within the dome looked to be a living, thriving ecosystem with a city at the center.   Farmland, forests and even a couple small lakes were easily spotted as well.  Rarity scanned it and was amazed to detect not only humans, but ponies, griffins and even a few dragons were present.
But it was the massive living ring of trees a few hundred kilometers away that caught her attention.  It looked like a stargate, but it seemed to be inactive.
Rarity set her approach to the station.
"Unidentified Stratios, please identify yourself."
Rarity felt like she wanted to smile.  "Equestrian space station, this is Friend Ship.  Requesting permission to dock."  She sent out her identification code.
"Identity not confirmed.  Please identify."
"Rarity Stargem, of Equestria."
"Impossible.  Rarity Stargem is dead."
Rarity growled a little.  "Repeat, this is Rarity Stargem.  Requesting communication link to Equestria."
"Repeat. Rarity Stargem is dead.  Denied."
"Look, could you please relay a message to Princess Twilight Sparkle or one of the Royal Sisters."
"Denied.  Our cans are detecting no living entities aboard your ship.  Are you remote controlling it from some other location?"
"Negative.  I AM Rarity Stargem."
"You are not.  She is D.E.A.D. Dead."
"You are starting to piss me off.  Let me speak to whoever is in charge of this station."
"Denied."
"Why?"
"You have not properly identified yourself."
Rarity shuddered slightly in annoyance.  "Darling, please understand, the reports of my death are somewhat exaggerated.  If you may connect me to whoever is in charge, I can confirm my identity."
"Who is this?"  A new voice barked over the com.
"Rarity Stargem.  Sending confirmation code, again."
"This code is invalid.  The Capsuleer known as Rarity Stargem has been confirmed to have died at the hands of the Amarr Empire, with physical evidence to back it up."
"Of course they would send you my body...  Listen, I'm here, IN this ship."  Rarity's patience was being ground down severely now.  "When I say IN this ship, I mean literally.  My mind and magic are infused into the ship itself."
"Impossible.  There's no way to do that."
"Magic Darling.  I've learned it breaks quite a few rules of the laws of physics, meta-physics and quantum physics."
Some hushed muttering was heard on the other end of the com.  "Are you serious?"  The gruff voice demanded.
"Very serious my dear.  Now, may I dock or be patched through to someone who can identify me properly?"
"Patching you through to the Throne of Stars."
"What is it this time Ashen."
"You have a communication from one Rarity Stargem.  Or so she says."
"Impossible.  She's dead.  Her remains had been returned to Equestria on diplomatic request."
"Princess Luna?  It's me, Rarity.  I'm still here.   Still alive... well, somewhat."
Luna instantly recognized the voice.  "R-Rarity?  How is this possible?  Did you somehow transfer into a new body, even after your link was severed?"
"I'm sorry Princess, but it is difficult to really explain.  I have no organic body anymore.  I literally AM a ship now."
"I must see this for myself.  Proceed to the Gate.  Be warned though, any hostile acts will be punishable through deadly force."
"Thank you Princess Luna.  I can't wait to finally return home, even as I am now."  She turned toward the gate and kicked in her afterburners.
She watched as a small wormhole, just large enough for the Stratios to pass through opened.  With a metaphorical smile, she entered.
Rarity was finally home.

...

Princess Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash rushed off the shuttle and into the massive Keepstar's docking bay.
"Where is she?"  Twilight was looking around frantically, then spotted a ship bearing familiar colors and cutie mark.  "That's her ship, it has to be."  She gleefully ran toward it, ignoring the dock workers, some human, and a mix of other races from her own world.
As she approached, with her friends in tow, a landing ramp extended from the side of the ship and the airlock doors hissed open.
"Rarity?  Are you there Sugarcube?"  AJ called out once they actually entered the corridor in the ship.
Rainbow Dash snorted as she looked up and down the hall.  "Somehow I doubt it.  This place is a mess."  
"Hello Applejack, Rainbow Dash.  I missed you all so much.  Please, do not be alarmed with my absence."
Pinkie Pie looked up at the security camera, swaying back and forth, watching as it followed her.  "I know you can see me.  Oh, we're totally going to have to have a welcome home and totally back from the dead party.  I have so much to do to get it ready."
"I'm afraid I will not be able to attend, unless you have it about this ship."  Rarity's voice sounded bittersweet.
"Why is that?"  Twilight asked.  She'd only been told that Rarity had finally returned, and that she was docked at the Temple of the Two Sisters.
"Because... what you are looking at, is all there is left of me."
Twilight blinked a few times.  "What do you mean?"
"I died Twilight.  I didn't recover and come back in a new clone body."
"W-wait.  What?  Then how are you... wait...  You... you ARE this ship now?"  Twilight and the other girls all paled.
"Yes, I am afraid so.  Still, I am happy to finally be home, even if I am as you see me now."
"How is this possible?"  Fluttershy asked meekly.  "Are you a... a g-g-ghost now?"
"No.  My mind is part of this ship, the Friend Ship."  She giggled a little.  "In a very horrible battle, I used magic.  More magic than I had ever thought I could ever use... My mind, I think I merged my mind, my soul and my magic into this ship.  But somehow I was still connected to my physical body.  When it finally died, I became fully aware, here, as you see me now."
Twilight paled.  "This is bad... very very bad.  I've read news that ships get destroyed all the time.  What happens if you get destroyed."
"There's a simple fix for that."  A familiar voice joined the ponies.
Rarity felt a pleasant jolt in her systems."Jafrak?  Oh my dear.  I am so happy to see you again.  How have you been faring?"
"Well, I'm the Ambassador here now.  As well as chief science advisor to Princess Twilight's magi-tech division."  Jafrak smiled and patted the wall.  "I see you've put on some weight.  Your butt's really gotten big."
"Jafrak, how could you say that about a lady."  She huffed while her friends all giggled.
Jafrak chucked as well.  "In all seriousness Rarity, I can get you back to your old self real quick."
"How?"  Five ponies and one ship asked in surprise.
Jafrak grinned.  "How about we all take a little trip to my personal citadel.  I moved her into this region after a whole lot of things happened.  Rarity, I'll give you the co-ordinates once we get up to the bridge."
"Please, you know the way."  Rarity was feeling absolutely giddy.
Once the six were on the bridge, Jafrak input the location of his Citadel.  Moments later Rarity took off so smoothly that only looking out the bridge's view-port, that anyone knew what was happening.
Undocking from the massive citadel, Rarity aligned to her destination and took warp.
Rainbow Dash had jumped into the captain's chair and buckled herself in, shutting her eyes.  "I hate this part.  Why does it always have to feel like this?"
"At least you're not going all loopy and trying to fly out the window and flushing yourself out the airlock like the first five times."  Pinkie Pie replied as she stared out the window.
"Six, it was the first six times."  Applejack smirked.  "Seems RD here, and almost every other Pegasus can't stand bein' in space."
"Shut it AJ...  Nothing feels right up here.  I can't tell which way is up or down, even with this fake gravity."
Fluttershy, oddly, didn't seem at all bothered.  "I'm alight with it."  She smiled softly.
Dash fumed, crossing her forelegs.  "Rub it in why don'tcha?"
"Oh, I'm sorry Dashie.  I didn't mean it like that.  I'm just not a good flier, so I don't have the same instinct you do."
"Yea, whatever.  Oh, I can feel us slowing down."
"How astute of you Rainbow.  We are dropping out of warp now."  Rarity chimed.  When the Astrahus came into view, Rarity almost felt a flutter in her heart, if she had one, it would have.
"Good to be home, isn't it Rarity?"
"Yes, it does feel good to be back, even though my true home is back in Ponyville."
"About that."  Twilight hung her head.  "After you were confirmed deceased, a monument was erected in your honor."
"What?  Oh, yes, because I died... I've died a few times actually."  The security cameras all locked onto Jafrak.  "And the first two times was your fault."
"Hey, I already admitted to that.  But think about it, if I hadn't done what I did, then you wouldn't be here now.  Right?"  A sheepish grin crossed his face.
"I guess that is true.  Now, hold on.  We're docking."

...

Jafrak and five mares stood in front of a clone vat.  Rarity's body, minus a cutie mark, floated in the fluids.
"Is this going to work?"  Twilight asked.
"Have I ever steered you wrong with my scientific expertise?"
"That one time when you told me that the Electrolytic Capacitor Unit wasn't holding a charge.  I couldn't feel my horn for a few minutes."  Twilight replied flatly, before bursting into giggles.  "It was a funny though."
"Heh, it was funny.  Now, let me work my magic.  Rarity?  Are you ready?"
"Absolutely darling."
Jafrak grinned like a mad scientist as he hit the sequence of keys on the control console.
A soft hum was heard, along with a gasp from Rarity, then static from the com.
After a few moment, the ponies and human all holding their breaths, Rarity's cutie mark re-appeared on her hindquarters.  Though Rather than four sided diamond, they were now star shaped, all three of them, on each side.  A swish of what looked like magic flowed among them.
"Cutie mark metamorphosis?  I've only heard theories that such a thing was possible."  Twilight's eyes shone as she watched Rarity's own eyes open.
A smile crossed Rarity's lips.  She tried to speak, but only let out a few bubbled, then looked annoyed as she hit the release button.
Once free of the goo, and the vat opened, Rarity bolted at Rainbow Dash speeds for the shower.
"Whoa."  Dash blinked.  "I'm taking she really need a shower."
"AND A GOOD GROOMING, THANK YOU RAINBOW!"  The magical space unicorn yelled back as she started up her shower.  She then poked her head out for a moment.  "I'm home girls.  It's good to see you all again with my own eyes.  Now, pardon me, I need to shower before this stuff dries."

...

Rales leaned back in his chair.  A new age had come to New Eden.  Alien races now joined humanity among the stars.  "Some day, Equestria will fall.  I just hope I live long enough to see it happen."  He looked out the window from his new office and growled.  
He was now in charge of handing out level one delivery missions to rookie pilots.
Rales was not a happy man.

...

Star Mist dropped the corpse of a capsuleer that had just about to board his ship.  She grinned, looking at the new Triglavian ship that had come into circulation not that long before Equestria had joined the rest of space.
"I can't wait to see what this Vedmak can do."  She grinned.  "And then I will hunt down Rarity and make her pay for spacing and blasting me the way she did."

...

Two pirates, alone in a C1 wormhole, sat at a table in their small space hab.
"You know, maybe we should have been nicer and maybe Jaf would have given us the location of a hole out of here."
"Ya spoutin nonsense mate.  We got a whole wormhole all to ourselves now."
"Yea, and no way to gather resources since that bitch swiped out Venture."
"Could be worse."
"How so?"
"Ya could see them space dolphins again."

...

Rarity felt like herself again.  It was a wonderful feeling indeed.
Better yet, her family knew she was alive, as she was now sitting in her childhood home, in the loving embrace of her parents and little sister.
She had never felt better...
But she couldn't stay.
The stars called to her now.  It was part of who she was, and would forever be.
"Mom, Dad, Sweetie Belle.  I wish I could stay, I really do, but I am not the mare I once was.  My eyes have been opened to a whole new galaxy of infinite possibilities."  She hugged them tight once again.  "I will, however,  come home from time to time.  Oh the stories I will have to tell you all."
Sweetie Belle loosed her hug and looked up at Rarity.  "Do you think one day I will be able to join you in space?"
"It is a very dangerous place Sweetie.  I've changed a lot since I was taken from home."  She smiled softly and kissed Sweetie's forehead.  "But I will always be Stargem.  Rarity Stargem."
Her cutie mark twinkled in the lamplight of the cozy cottage.

The end, and new beginnings.