Thursday, 08.12.07 ARE

Badlands, southern of Equestria

INS Endurance

16:26 Equestrian standart time

The sun shone warm on the dagger-shaped ship and Zero enjoyed the peace and silence on the bridges hull. He was lying on a lounger with black sunglasses and napped. The rest of the crew did pretty much anything they wanted. Most of the bridge officers searched protection from the heat in the cantina and played card games. The pilots bragged with their 'heroic' actions during the war, which was officially over since eight months. The stormtroopers and imperial army soldiers took some gear and 2-M repulsor tanks and searched somewhere outside the ship for targets. Targets like rats, breezies and everything that had no imperial sign on it. The Commander didn't care what they were doing. After all, the war was over and he stood on the right side.

"Hm…Chrysalis.", he said dreamy:"I wonder what happened to her."

He stretched himself slowly and yawned.

"And what about that Friendship-Princess. Must've forgotten me. Hmpf, better so anyway. The last thing I need on my ship is a plant-eating hippie."

He grapped an exotic looking drink from the ground and swallowed the entire content with one gulp before he slept in again. But it didn't take long before he was awoken by a somehow annoying voice.

"Erm, hello? Commander Zero?", it said.

Instinctively he became angry. Without even opening his eyes he yelled at the supposed soldier.

"What do you want?! You're in my light! Go annoy someone else!", he shouted.

"Hey, that was not nice!", a much more quiet voice replied.

"Look, Twilight. Said he was arrogant.", a familiar voice said.

Finally he opened his eyes and took his sunglasses off. Before him stood Twilight Sparkle with her student Starlight Glimmer and the rest of the mane six. At first he thought it was a joke. He began to grin and laughed.

"Are you trying to prank me, soldier? Nice try."

Rarity, who stood a little bit more in the backround frowned.

"Excuse me?"

Zero didn't stop grinning.

"C'mon, who are you guys. I'm not mad."

"Well", Twilight began slightly confused: "I am Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship but just Twilight is fine too. This is my student Starlight Glimmer. The other ones are my friends: Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and I think you already know Rainbow Dash. We are the mane six. Surely you heared of us."

Then the Alpha began to laugh harder. Actually, he laughed so hard that he nearly fell off his lounger.

"You-ha,ha,ha,ha-you are supposed to be the mane six? Oh, man. That's too much."

He wiped a tear from his right eye. Than he began to point with his hoof at the mane six. One after another.

"A beauty queen, a farm girl, whatever cowers behind her, a pink earth pony with clown mane and pegasy with inferiority complex?"

The longer he laughed the angrier got the group.

"Now, I'd love talking to you guys more but I have really important Commander-things to do so please go and prank someone else, alright?"

Right after that sentence a officer ran towards Zero and stopped with all four hooves. Than he whispered something in his ear.

The Commander frowned.

"When?"

Whispers.

"You mean…"

Whispers.

"But that would mean…"

Zeros eyes widened and he looked with terror at the mane six.

"Erm, well…I…I think we…There was a liiiittle misunderstanding."

"Oh, was there?", Applejack said.

After hearing her accent he knew that this would be a very hard day.

"I can show you the ship. I promise, it's very fascinating.", he said friendly.

'Especially for ponies from a land were an oven is already a scientific wonder.', he thought.

"Oooooh, that's sound awesome! Come on girls, lets go.", Pinkie Pie said and jumped towards Zero, who has already taken the lead. While they wandered through the metallic corridors of the ship and the Commander bragged with the technical facts of his Immobilizer 418 Twilight spoke with her student.

"Okay, Starlight. This is your next friendship-lesson: Non-pony friends."

"What? You mean that stuck up Commander?!"

"He's not stuck up. Just give him the opportunity to show his true colours."

"Right.", Starlight sighed.

"Come on, go to him.", Twilight encourged.

And so the unicorn walked faster to catch up with the Changeling who was now fully in his element.

"…and also this beauty possesses four G7-x Gravity-well projectors, which are capable of keeping flying creatures and ships from leaving ground. However, the sheer firepower of this vessel-"

"That sounds really advanced, Mister. But why exactly would you wanna stop somepony from flyin'?", Applejack asked.

"Because then, Applejack, it's are easier to…defeat them."

"Defeat who?"

"Our enemies of course. But since the Queen is gone, no one dared to stand up against our military might. Did you know that our Stormtrooper Legions outnumber the royal guard ten to one? And I don't even counted the imperial army. Oh, Starbright. Are you in need of something?"

"Just some of your time, Sir. And it's Starlight."

"Sure. Why don't meet me later on my deck?"

"That would be great."

"And please, call me Zero.", he said with a rather innocent smile.

"Anyway, what would you like to see first: Our ground forces or our starfighters?"

"Ground forces.", Applejack said.

"Starfighters!", Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Your Highness? What would you prefer?", Zero asked politely.

"Hm, we already saw their flying machines Rainbow."

"Fine.", she said annoyed.

"Very well then.", the Alpha said.

They took the cargo lift to the main hangar. From there they could see the massive walkers of the empire. Four AT-ATs and at least twenty AT-STs stood in the gigantic hangar hall.

"Those things are bigger than Lord Tirek!", Twilight said quite shocked.

"Ah yes. The Allterain-Armored Transports. The very symbol of imperial mechanized might. Impenetrable armor. Enough firepower to destroy a whole village. A storage room big enough for fourty Stormtroopers. Aren't they beautiful?"

"Well, ah…I wouldn't exactly call such a rusty old machine beautiful but surely impressing. In a way.", Rarity replied.

The Alpha stopped and turned to the white unicorn. His expression was emotionless.

"What do you call beautiful then, Rarity?"

"Uh, well…dresses and hats?"

Zero looked down at her.

"Does a dress save you from a blaster shot? Does a hat keep a thermal detonator from burning your lungs out?"

Rarity hesitated, her eyes searched a way out from the Changelings glowing stare.

"I…I…"

"No. It does not. But these things do.", he said while pointing at the walkers:"They save lifes. Can this be said about dresses or hats?"

"From what I've heard, these things don't save lifes. They take lifes.", Starlight said angrily.

"Saving our lifes by destroying our enemies. These are the basics of war, Star…light. Right?"

"What enemies?"

Zero grinned and turned towards Starlight instead of Rarity.

"Good question. Very, very good question Starlight. What enemies? The answer is none. There are no enemies. And why?"

"Because you killed them all?"

"This is absolutely correct. We…I killed them all. No queen, no Princess, no loyalists. Just the Empire."

"You could have tried a peaceful way.", Twilight said sadly.

"Princess, Queen Chrysalis attacked your city, nearly killed your friends and deceived your brother. And you show sympathy to her?"

"I didn't like her but…I also didn't blame her. She did what she must to keep her people alive and well. How can I blame that?"

"This is an…interesting way to put it. But still, she stood in the Empire's way and you see what she got."

"Is this a threat?"

"No, just an advice for a young leader. Now, go wherever you like. Starlight? You wanted to speak with me?"

"Yes."

"Alright come with me."

The two took the turbolift to Zero's deck. Twilight talked to some of the soldiers and officers, especially to Changelings. She wanted to find out as much as she could but most of the time she heared things like 'That's classified' or 'Fly off, Queen-junior'. The imperials didn't like monarchs no matter how kind they were. Rainbow Dash argued with the pilots about the 'lazy' TIEs. Applejack and Pinkie Pie tried the meals in the cantina but most of it was flesh for the Cangelings and Griffins. For the ponies were just grass and salad there. And a horrible white stick they just called 'ration'. Rarity fainted at least five times because of the horrifying white armor and grey uniforms. Fluttershy hid behind a cargo box. She was scared of the stormtroopers. Starlight and Zero were both sitting in his meeting room.

"Sorry for being so rude to you. I just don't like…death.", the unicorn said.

"It's okay. You're from Equestria. A place where people think that murder doesn't even exist. By the way, were you ever in the Crystal Empire?"

"Yes. I watched the Crystalling of Princess Flurry Heart and one of my friends lifes there."

"Interesting. Say, was there a library?"
"Oh, yes. The biggest one I've ever seen."

Zero grinned. His green eyes glowed with joy.

"Good. Very good."