Again and again, some of my crew were seeking a way out of their participation in retaking our home.
"I respect you as a captain, I've made that clear I hope," said Obsidian, "But I want a solid plan. What will we do after we arrive to Equestria?"
"I can try to talk to my sister, and maybe convince her to see it our way?" tried Luna. She earned frown from me.
"Denied! You are not committing suicide. Not today, not in the near future." I said.
"But, Celestia's my sister!" argued Luna.
"Sister, that had you locked up on word of someone without a proper court. I am sorry, Princess, but our situation isn't pretty enough to make such decisions," joined Obsidian my side.
Luna shot us both an angry look, but remained silent. Vertex came up with a plan next.
"We've got weapons on board. We could take the capital by force," she said.
Obsidian was quick to respond, "Not against that, but we need to earn more than a victory. Killing someone as Celestia could cause chaos."
"We don't have to kill Celestia. We need to take out the source." I pointed out.
"Twilight? You can't be serious. My sister won't like that. She's like a daughter to her." said Luna.
I tapped my chin in a thinking manner, "It's a plan though. I want to at least have her imprisoned. Everything else can come later."
Obsidian raised an eyebrow, "So, what is our role in whatever grand scheme of yours?"
"I guess we could summarise the situation by infiltration," I said, overlooking the mocking grin and tone.
"You are the only one capable of that. Our love reserves are dead." frowned Obsidian further.
"Right," I pointed my hoof at her, as if she had made a good point, "I'll assume identity of someone, depends on what will come to me. I'll see what has been going on for past few days and then return. If I won't return however, take the ship and leave. No foolish search parties, okay?"
"Come on, Chrysalis. You've forbidden me from sacrificing myself and then you want to do the same thing? That's not fair!" stomped Luna the ground with her glass shoe.
"Well, technically I am not gonna do anything dangerous, unless I want to impersonate someone important." I specified my role in the plan.
"And we are going to be hiding like rats. That's truly honourable way to participate in battle." objected Vertex.
"Not all battles were won on battlefield, sis. I've hoped you'd know that after all those years." pinched Obsidian her red maned sister. They started arguing about honour and changeling tactics, so I had to jump in.
"That's enough, you two. No one's going to die, nor get captured. I am not losing any of you again." I hugged them around their shoulders quickly.
"Eww, when did you get so sappy?" snarled Vertex.
"Shut up, V. Enjoy the moment." shut her mouth up Obsidian and I simultaneously. Vertex wiggled out of the hug after five seconds of standing still. I let go of my other sister as well soon after.
"Still, it does not change anything. I am going to infiltrate the castle, give you a signal and we'll sort out the case as soon as possible." I finished the thought.
Obsidian looked in to my eyes. Her blue irises looked tired out of sudden. "Well, it's your life, sister. There are places in Equestria where no one lives. We could start over and live the rest of our days in peace." she said.
I turned my back and looked at her sideways, "Yeah, but do you want to end up like that. Look what you've been through."
I walked over to captain's console, up on the bridge. Fade light from monitors was reflecting in my eyes. "You've run away from Sombra, operated a spaceship long before any other equestrian race, survived a failed colonisation and now, you are going to return home," I turned to all my crew and asked with hopeful voice, "Do you want to throw that away?"
They shook their head and Obsidian said, "Well, when you put it that way. I want to have a shot at happiness."
I smiled and returned to them, "That's what I want to hear. Let's make it real."
Alea sent a beep through the speakers, "Sorry to interrupt your briefing, captain, but we are almost at the gate."
"Right," I nodded. Obsidian was at her console, before I could tell her anything, and so was everyone else.
"So, where's the gate exactly? I could see it a minute ago," I asked, as I eyed the monitors above. Area in the front of us was more or less empty.
"It's been on low orbit around the sole moon dead ahead, if nothing happened to it." answered Obsidian without looking up from her equipment, "It has high exit velocity. That's why it threw your ship of course on your way here."
"And the gate at Equestrian moon? Won't we crash into it if we enter the wrong way?" I voiced my concern. Obsidian didn't do anything, but waved her hoof in general direction. She almost hit my nose in the process, because I walked over to her and was standing just behind her chair.
"That can't happen. Emitters on these gates can push objects only in one way, and that's always towards the open space. We've spent a lot of years on that, don't worry."
Somehow, it didn't give me more confidence, "Well, considering how this whole mission ended up, I wouldn't have much faith." I rubbed my muzzle that got itchy out of sudden.
Obsidian turned to me, frowning. She was probably annoyed with me in that moment, "Did my gate hurt you on the way here? No? Good. Now, go bother someone else. I need to analyse something, before we leave this place forever."
I decided against arguing with my older sister. She had her moments, especially when you were in the way of her research. I circled around Vertex, who seemed focused on the console in the front of her nose. It was showing a mirrored image from the monitors above us. That way, pilot was aware of ship's every move.
I didn't even have to approach her. She started talking on her own, "Your ship's controls are much smoother than mine. I remember, when I wanted to do a turn, I had to really pull on the rudder."
Alea joined in the debate, as if I wasn't there, "That's why I am the one turning the gears, Vertex. That rudder of yours is nothing, but a joystick that tells me where to go."
Vertex frowned at face of Alea's, that appeared on her console, "Well, thanks for voiding my confidence, AI."
"I always give out positive feedback," said Alea before beeping away.
"You two aren't exactly at best terms, aren't you?" I asked. Vertex looked at me sideways.
"No, Alea is just jealous of me having control over ship's thrusters. She's truly possessive changeling, that one." complained Vertex.
I smiled at that, no real idea why, "You can't blame her. She had this vessel all to herself for thousand years. No wonder she doesn't want to let go."
Alea quickly commented on our opinion, "I can hear you, you know. Better watch your manners."
"Let's leave her alone for a moment." I suggested.
Vertex nodded, "Agreed." She returned to keeping the ship at steady course and pace.
Last one to talk to, when I was at it, was Luna. She was looking at the stars at her console. She kept scribbling notes on the parchment she took heaven's knew where.
"Hey," I initiated the talking, "We didn't have much time to talk like that, have we?"
Luna stopped taking note and turned on her chair, "No, we haven't."
I sat next to her. At my height, she was still smaller than me, even though she was sitting on the chair.
"This adventure, when it comes to an end, where will you go?" she asked me, slight concern in her voice.
I smiled at her, tried my best to not look menacing, "Well, I'll probably join Cadence at Crystal Empire. There's a lot of things I don't know about myself and my people. The archive there, it's my best shot."
Luna shifted, suddenly looking younger than she was, "I don't want to lose you, not after these years of looking and being alone."
"Well, there won't be any obstacles. With Twilight defeated, everything will be normal again, like it used to be." I said.
Luna shook her head, "No, sadly it won't. Ponies are way too superstitious to accept you. You've read the nonsense some of them write about changelings. Even my sister believes them."
"About that. Why is your sister so desperate? I have a feeling I've asked you before, but there wasn't a clear picture." I voiced something I was thinking about for a while.
Luna got the expression of someone that had to talk, "Well, you've mentioned it yourself. These rubies on her regalia, they aren't normal gems. Your mother gave them to her as a gift for keeping the peace among our two races. Those gems, they are enchanted, and they make everyone of lesser mind love the wearer. "
"Well, they had the feel of something like that when I had them in the front of me." I agreed. Luna wasn't done though.
"I've figured it out during my time on the Moon. I couldn't let go of thinking about the cause of my imprisonment. My sister wasn't anything special, she was just the bigger one of the two of us. Ponies knew about me, and they respected my person and my work. But, when my sister was in sight, it was like I didn't exist. And, of all things she could do, she used it to her advantage and shamed me in the front of everyone. "
Luna made a pause to take in few quick breaths. It seemed like she didn't have a chance to fully talk about that so far.
"She didn't stop her bragging about Sun being better than the Moon, and that day was time for joy, and night was time to hide before the monsters lurking in the shadows. I've tried my best to stay calm, but deep down I knew she had to learn to share the throne. Well, and you know how that ended."
"Well, not really. Did you attack her, or she had a problem with you?" I asked, hoping for the rest of the story.
"I did, because I had enough. You've probably heard the version with my sister trying to reason with me. Well, truth is, I said some stuff about being the only true princess, and that enraged her over limit. But, before I could reach for the Elements, she managed to grab them and face blast me to the Moon."
"And Nightmare Moon?" I pushed forward.
"She's just my adult form, and the nickname is kind of silly," Luna giggled at that, "It's one of many possible ways I could look, when I reach my golden age. My time on the Moon have halted my maturation process, so it will take at least thousand years."
"Well, I won't be around for that," I pointed out, "As immortal as I am, I still have some limits in life span. Longest living queen was my mother's grandma, and she remained alive for a millennium and half only." Luna looked at me with concern, just as I said that, "I am way over one thousand and hundred. It's always possible the next day might be my last."
Luna jumped down the chair and put her head on my shoulder, "Aww, don't think like that. There's still a lot to be done, and you can't give up now." I hugged her back.
Our tender moment was interrupted by Vertex, "Ladies, sorry to bother, but we are almost at our destination."
It was true. Majestic shadow of the jump gate revealed itself, just as we had entered the sole moon's orbit. I took a place behind Vertex, just to have a better view of everything. The big screen above me was way to wide to stay focused on.
"Attempting connection with gate network..." said Alea in formal tone you wouldn't expect from someone as her. I walked over to Obsidian, who had finished the analysis of her data, and returned to the real world of our mission. Full scan of the jump gate was on the screen, as Obsidian tried to bind our approach vector.
"The gate's not responding." stated Obsidian.
"End of the line for us. The antenna has to be dead. " said Vertex from behind her station.
Big frown appeared on my face, "I refuse to give up now. I'll go there and fix whatever might be broken."
"Power's there, signal as well," analysed Obsidian her scan, "It just denies our requests."
"Other changelings?" came up Luna with an idea.
"Unlikely, but possible." finished my purple maned sister, "Some workers could survive, even though I consider that impossible."
Alea jumped in the debate, "I can't issue landing request. Whatever's there, it blocks communication channels."
"I'll steer her manually. Hang tight." said Vertex.
Piloting the ship of such size wouldn't be an easy thing to do, if you weren't Vertex. My fire-maned sister had more experience with piloting flying objects than any of us combined. Her hooves danced over the console. She gently put the ship in steady pace and steered slowly towards the gate. You wouldn't know there was a pilot behind that wheel, that smooth the ride felt.
The gate's automatic systems ignored us. Vertex drove the vessel on curved line towards the supposed docking area Obsidian had pointed out. We prayed we wouldn't need to use force to get in. The structure seemed to be in bad shape, and prying the dock open could cause it to fall apart.
"Starting final maneuver, expect turbulence." warned us Vertex. Side thrusters lit up and our ship aligned itself in right angle with the docking bay. The steel barrier remained closed though.
"Well, damn. It didn't open." I cursed, "What now?"
"If the area here is ionised enough, I could use magic to cut through the hull. These doors aren't thicker than 1 foot. Piece of cake." said Obsidian.
"Okay, you've designed it, it's your call," I accepted, "Let's go grab our gear." Obsidian stood up upon nodding.
Luna and Vertex remained on board, to watch for any threat that could be hidden. I had my doubts that blockage was caused by automatic system, and the Obsidian's theory about immortal changeling workers was quite realistic option. Changelings could survive for hundreds of years, if given the opportunity. If those worker drones learned how to feed on space radiation, gods help us.
Alea pumped the air out from exit chamber and let us out to open space. Strange numbness hit my brain as I had entered the zero gravity.
"Damn, I feel weird," complained my sister over the radio.
With the help of suit's thrusters, we flew the short distance between our ship and the gate's docking bay.
Galvanised layer was almost peeled away from the hull. It was more than clear this jump gate had to be in this place for a while. We finalised our approach and stuck ourselves on the gate's surface with magnetic boots.
"It will take a while," said Obsidian, her voice getting disturbed by space radiation. "I'll have to take breaks, because the excessive heat would burn my suit."
"Take it slow then. I'll go take a look around." I reassured her.
"Don't go too far and avoid direct sunlight." warned me Obsidian.
I decided against asking, if she was my mother to give out orders like that. Group of dark spots caught my attention and I had to see what they were. Walking with magnetic horse shoes active proved to be difficult. Those dark spots weren't more than fifty steps away, yet it took me good moment to reach them.
Windows, they were blackened windows. I used some of my magic to clear the black colour and peek inside. There was nothing. On the other side of the window was plain darkness. Shining light inside didn't help much, as every single photon seemed to get bounced away by the glass.
Obsidian called me over the radio. I didn't even notice I was gone for half an hour. My sister managed to make a hole big enough for two of us and smooth the edges, so we wouldn't damage our suits.
The docking bay was too small for ship of size of ours. It didn't have more than hundred meters in length. It could house a support shuttle, but nothing more. That was Obsidian's statement. I had no idea about half of the things she described. The sliding door my sister cut through were welded to walls from the inside. Pneumatics and electric engines were fried. They had to burn when we tried to remotely open the airlock, as every device I touched was warm. Air was leaking from damaged pistons, making a stream of ice, as water and oil were freezing on the spot.
"Well, that proves someone's on board and doesn't want anyone to enter." I pointed out.
"Unlikely, but possible. That's what I said," objected Obsidian, probably thinking I was mocking her opinion.
"Right," I proceeded, "Where to next?"
"Control room. We don't have much air, so let's double time it." said Obsidian. I nodded in approval, and we continued our way up in silence. The halls, we were passing through, were quite similar to those I and Luna had walked on the orbital station where we met Erasten. Cobwebs covering the walls seemed more faded, and most of them was torn apart, but it still proved some kind of changeling activity took place, even if it was years ago.
"Hey, sis," I asked, because one certain question kept bugging me, "How long does one worker changeling live? Mine didn't last more than a year."
Obsidian hissed at me, to make obvious I was wasting air, but answered anyway, "We sent them frozen here. They don't last long, but they had numbers capable of covering the whole time of construction."
"Could some survive?" I pressed on.
"I've answered that earlier, haven't I?" snapped my sister at me, "Now, shut up. Those O2 scrubbers won't last forever."
Well, if I put two and two together, she did answer this question with hers, 'Unlikely, but possible'.
We passed around the jump gate's core and went in direction of our destination. Obsidian took a small pause to analyse stability of some circuits on the way. By her words, circuits she had analysed were crucial to the function, and were directly responsible for firing the matter emitters, whatever that meant. Sometimes, I couldn't understand a word she'd say. From what I understood however, majority of gate's mass were induction circuits, amplifiers and long range signal arrays. Obsidian threw in some numbers as well, but in such a way they didn't make a goddamn sense. Conserve air, yes, but when you are explaining something, say it so even I, the biggest dumbass alive, could wrap my head around it.
Anyway, that got a bit wordy.
Structure of the jump gate missed windows, so it was hard to tell, where you were. Obsidian was determined to reach the top, where the supposed control room was. I just followed and was on the look out. I couldn't hear or see anything, and that made me feel even more endangered. When we were in vacuum, I felt relatively calm, because nothing without a suit could survive there. Inner chambers of the jump gate did have some atmosphere. It wasn't enough for someone of my size, but it could be enough for a bunch of pissed off workers. I probably worried too much. These were my people. I shouldn't be afraid of my own kind.
"Chryss, look," said Obsidian. I didn't even notice I had spaced out. "Cocoons, and not a small amount."
I noticed I rather large group of green pods with changeling hatchlings in them. How was that possible? Obsidian walked around them and scanned one of many pods.
"Mine, yours, Amora's and Vertex's DNA signatures. These are the original spawns, but who put them here?" asked my sister herself. I remained silent, because I had detected a movement. One deck above us, thought rusted ceiling, I could see greenish body shape and bug-like eyes, staring at me.
"Hey, you, come out or I'll fry you to crisp!" I yelled over the speakers. It wasn't that loud, but I hoped it was enough pass the message.
Green figure disappeared, and that was worse, than if whoever was it, attacked us.
"What did you see?" asked Obsidian immediately.
"Sparkler," I responded, "No wonder they could survive."
Sparklers are changelings who refuse to follow the process of living under Queen, who feeds them with pure LOVE. Instead, they share this commodity between ourselves, and technically, creating an infinite cycle in the process. One down side to this, such changelings lose power over time, and even if they are unable to die from age, their body stops to regenerate and they simply die of internal bleeding, or similar sickness. But that can take a few hundreds of years. Even though such a way of life would seem suitable, most changelings refuse it, and is viewed as a heresy of the highest level.
"Let's wrap this thing up and go. I don't want to be here anymore," said my sister. I couldn't agree more.
We flew up the stairs. Artificial gravity generator had to be a bit messed up, because my wings didn't work exactly the way I'd want. Still, an impressive piece of equipment, to have such a thing running for thousand years without breaking.
Obsidian unlocked the seal that blocked the access further. She mentioned she hadn't put a lock mechanism there, and that it was new. Sparklers didn't want us to leave, that was for sure. I watched my sister's back when she was running around and pressing all the buttons. I knew those sparkling bugs would try to stop us. Question was, when?
"Initiating power up, should be any minute now!" shouted Obsidian at me. She was standing at the console, hidden behind the monitor. I had my magic up, expecting an attack. Scratching above us periodically returned and faded back to the twists and turns of the structure. I counted the resistance. How many of them could be out there?
"Done," finished Obsidian, and jumped the console, "We are good to... go." She didn't say the rest of her thought, because sparkling figure appeared on the staircase, the only way of the room.
"You are not going anywhere," said a male voice, and tall, green changeling emerged from the hall.
"Thorax, is that you?" asked Obsidian, who, to my horror, dropped her guard and took a step forward. How could she be so calm? It was a fricking Sparkler. These assholes were responsible for countless people's death.
"Chrysalis, drop the war face. It's your brother," said Obsidian, "He volunteered to participate on this mission."
I didn't do as my sister instructed me, and kept keeping my head high, "And he became a Sparkler. Explain yourself, Thorax!"
"How was I supposed to survive here, sister? It was the only way." he said, like it was something normal.
"I don't know, die, like everyone else, when they get old and useless." I said harshly.
Obsidian frowned at me, "Don't be mean, Chrysalis. It's the last thing we should do," She turned back to Thorax, "How many of you are here?"
He lowered his head with antlers, "It's just me, others didn't want to share equally, so I outlasted them," he looked at me, hoping I'd accept him, "And then there's about fifty pods with fresh hatchlings. I had to move them to places with high oxygen, so they wouldn't suffocate when the freezers broke down."
"You did a wonderful job, Thorax. We'll take you home. " said Obsidian, and much to my disappointment, she hugged him. Why did she promised him we would take him a board?
"Eww, I am going back to my ship." I said and was about to leave, "Sister, finish whatever you need to do and join me. And you, Sparkler, do something I won't like, and I'll have you spaced."
"Does that mean I can come with you?" he asked. His voice had such a tone that mocked my very existence, even if what he was saying was completely innocent. I frowned.
"I can't go against my older sister, and we could use an extra pair of hooves. However, it does NOT mean I trust you. You've betrayed me once, that will stick with you for a while."
I mentally thanked Obsidian she didn't press the topic. We were getting short on time, and if we'd want to take the hatchling pods with us, we would need a lot of it.
I and my two followers made it back to jump gate's center, where the hatchlings were. Several problems appeared though. How were we going to get them through vacuum? Thorax could squeeze himself into the space suit, that wasn't a big deal. There were enough suits for a whole battalion of workers. Those pods, we'd have to find a container of some sort.
I had called Vertex and informed her of our discovery. She hissed at the name of Thorax, but promised to try and bring the ship as close as possible to the area, where our makeshift exit was.
I returned to the situation at hand. We had about fifty alive changelings in the spawn pods. "Hey, Thorax, you've mentioned freezers. Cryo units? Where are they?" I asked.
"On the other side of station, near the crew quarters," replied Thorax, "But they broke down a long time ago. There's no way we'll make them work again."
"Are they still space worthy? Can they hold air for five minutes?" I pressed on, slowly getting to what I was interested in.
Thorax scratched his head, "I think they might."
Obsidian woke up, "That should be enough, if we seal them all over, we should have just enough time to move from point A to point B."
"Right, we'll do that then. Sister, lead the way." I said. Thorax looked a bit hurt, that I didn't choose him to be our leader. I didn't trust him to that level. Our relationship needed more time to mature.
Our air reserves were getting short, nearing about an hour of action time. We had to move it, if were to get out alive. I cursed at thought Thorax could breath somewhere where we would suffocate. How was he able to survive in such thin air with so little oxygen? On the way up, I asked my sister, how it was possible there was an atmosphere in that place? She answered the jump gate was fitted with air scrubbers and hydroponic facility, so it could support life for future crew. Thorax added, most of the systems broke down over the years, and the air was getting thinner and thinner. He slowly adapted to low oxygen pressure, but if we didn't come in next year, he'd probably be dead. I didn't add any snarky comment at that, mostly to not anger my sister. We had different opinions about Thorax and that seemed to be enough.
Those freezer units looked like a long egg holders. I presume they were attached to a support vessel, or a drone during their trip here. Thorax, being the only adult changeling with free will around, had to be overseeing the docking procedure and unpacking of the pods. He really grew up to a responsible changeling over those thousand years. Maybe there was more to him than what I presumed.
After a quick test, I had found out three of ten freezer units leaked air. We couldn't use these, and that meant leaving fifteen pods here. Thorax wasn't exactly happy about that, as he had spent a lot of time to keep them alive. There was no other way around, though.
Those freezers weren't heavy. We made three trips to transport all seven of them, loaded their slots with hatchling eggs and sealed with built-in pneumatic locks, that fortunately, still worked. Obsidian welded each two pods together, so we could carry them easier. It would be a heck of a challenge anyway.
Vertex called us some time ago, when we were just about done packing last eggs. She parked the ship as close as she could get without Alea complaining. I transferred that message to my companions and they nodded, they were ready. Thorax disappeared for a moment to get himself a suit. Obsidian had to cut a hole in the helmet for his large antlers. I didn't tell him that, but once we'd get back my ship, we'd probably have to cut those antennas off his head. Obsidian's welding was tough to break, and she had to weld the helmet to Thorax' head to seal it off.
We moved through the exit chamber to the docking bay. One of us had to remain inside to push the freezer units out, through the hole in the hull, and the other one pulled with magic on the other side.
We were once again in zero gravity and strange numbness attacked my head. I held onto my two double freezers to not lose them and slowly moved forward with my back thrusters. Others seemed to be doing the same. Vertex parked our ship just about three hundred meters from the jump gate, and opened the cargo hold, so we wouldn't have to drag the already impractical freezers through half of the ship.
My helmet HUD beeped at me. I had about ten minutes of oxygen left. We needed to hurry up. Fortunately, it didn't take that long to reach the ship. I could only hope the eggs survived the trip. Our effort would be meaningless if they didn't. I didn't say it aloud, but I needed a bigger crew, than just my sisters and Luna.
I refused to take the responsibility of taking Thorax' helmet off. I'd tear his head right off, if I was to try. I went to have the freezer units unsealed for eggs to recover from shock. If I wanted to hatch them in near future, I'd need strong changelings, not some crippled bunch.
I joined Vertex and Luna on the bridge. Obsidian lagged behind, because she had to tend to Thorax. I was a bit curious what was she going to do in the end.
It didn't take long for them arrive. Thorax had one antler cut in half and the other one missing. Still, he didn't look shaken at all. Obsidian looked angry, though.
"It wasn't malfunction as I had thought. Thorax blocked the gate's systems on purpose so we would save him." explained my sister, when I asked her what was the long face for. I shot a quick glance at Thorax, who took a seat at one of the free chairs, facing our way.
"Well, can you blame him. He's just a dumb worker, who somehow has free will," I said, smirking.
"He had to block the whole gate's network, just to get our attention. What if we didn't get it to work again? Or something else happened? We could be dead." threw my sister her hooves up.
"Get it why I was angry with him. He did something similar to me, and I had him exiled for it." I finished the thought, "Let's not focus on that though. Gate's ready. It's time to go home."