Arkanis Sector, Tatoo System, aboard the Slave I...

Celestia stirred.

Gradually, the alicorn's consciousness performed the walk of shame, bashfully sneaking back where it belonged. Slinking in behind through the open door was a whopper of a headache.

She groaned, rolling onto her back and massaging her temples with her hooves. “In the name of me, what did I do last night?” She slowly opened her eyes to discover a rather unfamiliar ceiling above. It took her another moment to realize that she wasn't lying in her bed, or a bed of any other kind. Instead a cold, hard, metallic floor attempted to conform to her shape, failing miserably.

Celestia bolted upright, abruptly regretting the decision from the resulting head-rush. Somewhere, a soft red light was flashing on and off, keeping in perfect tempo to the throbs of pain emanating from her cranium. Woozily leaning against a wall, she took stock of her condition.

Several small pins clung to her white fur in various places. She shook herself like a dog, sending them to the ground in a rain of silver. Her royal attire was missing, and in the place of the Yoke of Harmony — where once all six of the mighty Elements dwelt— was a white choker of some kind, fitting snug against her throat. A few blue bars on it pulsed with regular frequency.

She gave it strong examination, looking for some sort of release mechanism. It was obvious the jewelry was for more than show, but to what end did it serve? Celestia wasn’t keen on finding out. When no latch of button presented itself to her, she simply ignited her horn and forced it open.

...At least, that’s what was supposed to happen.

Celestia went cross-eyed, staring at the elegant ivory spire jutting from her brow. It was very sore, and it felt like somepony had decided to play the drums on her forehead with a pair of lead pipes for sticks. She tapped it a few times with a hoof.

Nothing.

Well. This certainly complicates things.

She could barely feel her magic, in that deep, burning pit next to her heart. It was an old friend, having been with her since she first ascended, all those eons ago. But that power needed a conduit, flowing throughout her entire body until it reached her horn, where she could shape and twist the flow at will. Such was the nature of unicorn magic.

But something was wrong. The fires that once roared deep inside had withered into dormancy. She tried stoking the flame, her mind pumping the bellows, until she came to the conclusion that her magic was sealed away. Even her mane reflected this, once multi-hued and billowing from her inner power, now it lay flat and dull pink.

She gave an accusing glare to the white choker.

Celestia breathed deeply. She had long ago learned the virtues of discipline, in a much darker period of Equestria’s history. Back then, those who lost their heads... lost their heads. A tide of memories surfaced, stained with the grit of dried blood and creaking gallows. Times had changed indeed. She was proud to have shepherded her little ponies into an era of peace, far gone from the ancient days of disorder and conflict.

Like she had done on countless occasions before, Celestia squashed the memories under a will forged by time itself. It was no use dwelling on the sins of the past when the present required her utmost attention.

Once more calm and collected, she examined her surroundings. Metal, in all directions, with a low, wide bench across one wall. An acrid tang of disinfectant and stale sweat hung about the air. There was a squat toilet in one corner, and only a single doorway into the room. It looked quite strong, and she doubted that she could force it open unless she’d recovered to full strength. The room itself seemed rather small to her, as her horn nearly scraped the ceiling. No doubt constructed for smaller beings.

Above, the red light continued to flare, bathing her in deep crimson before plunging the room into darkness every other second. Her skull clenched in time to the flashes. Her ears swiveled — an omnipresent rumble seemed to emanate from every corner.

Aside from that, there was nothing in the room save one very confused alicorn.

Let me see... I met with the... uh, oh what was his name? Bronze? Brass? Brass Scales, yes. He had some obnoxious title. Nice colt. I offered him a position... then I went flying. That was nice. Should do that more often. Spent some time with Luna, then went to dinner. Blueblood made a fool of himself as usual... Cadence and Armor tried not let me notice they were playing hoofsies under the table...

Something about cake. Sweet, delicious cake. She could faintly taste chocolate frosting in her mouth.

Past that, she had simply fallen asleep.

And woken up wherever... this is.

She began to pace around the room, a habit she’d accidentally passed on to her student. It was five steps long, six steps wide. The movement helped alleviate the thunderous headache. It also helped her think.

Who could have done this? And more importantly, why?

Celestia was under no false impressions about her importance to the realm. There were very few beings capable of regulating the passage of day and night. Aside from her, two others knew the spell; her sister, Luna, and her niece, Cadence. She doubted Cadence had the magical muscle to pull it off, though, not without her husband and the love of the ponies behind her. Maybe Twilight Sparkle... though she’d need to learn the spell first, and adjust to the price it required from the caster.

Celestia shuffled her wings. Yes, it’d taken quite a while to adjust to those. She wondered why they were left unrestrained, as they provided her with a great deal of mobility once out in the open.

Once, long ago, the mages of the Platinum Dynasty had the sacred duty of bringing about the days and nights, and every morning a great conclave of unicorns would gather to perform the ritual. Could the modern day unicorns band together and revive the tradition? Maybe...

Aside from the obvious ramifications of ponynapping and debilitating Celestia, there were the other, hidden ones. Celestia had forged thousands of treaties and alliances over her reign, eventually crafting an intricate spiderweb of power that benefited all other nations through trade and protection, but solidified the ruler of Equestria to the indispensable cement that held it all together.

It was a whispered phrase amongst the halls of Canterlot Castle:

“She seats the throne in Canterlot, yet rules across the oceans.”

And they were right.

Still. Her system worked. She had ten centuries of proof to back it up.

But the question arose — if nopony would benefit from her disappearance, than why was she here? It made no sense. The Nightmare had been shattered upon the altar of Luna’s redemption. A certain renegade changeling queen and her swarm, as well as the resurgent Crystal King Sombra, suffered a similar fate, broken by Cadence and her husband. Discord was busy elsewhere, enjoying his newfound freedom and role in the world.

Celestia had no other known enemies. Those who dared test her stood in memorium about the Gardens. She’d made herself paramount to her government, not to mention several others. In this game, the Princess held all the aces, and she played her cards close.

The only answer she could realize was this; that whomever had placed her in this situation obviously had nothing at stake by doing it. She drew up blanks when she thought of who could possibly benefit from this.

Amidst the pulse of bloody light, her concern deepened.

Paramount now was returning to her little ponies. They were so protective of their Princess, but she adored them with the deep, fierce love of a mother.

Which meant getting out of this cell.

Her course now charted, Celestia shrugged off her melancholy mood and turned her attentions to the door. Still sluggish, she examined the rugged construction with the timing of the flashing strobe. There were no visible handles or mechanisms on the door itself, though there was a sleek metal box mounted on the wall next to it. A small red button on it was flashing in a similar manner to the one over head.

Press the shiny red button. Oh, the irony.

Celestia snorted with amusement, before gently touching her hoof to it. The entire door suddenly shot upwards into the ceiling with a screech, revealing a similarly decorated hallway outside her cell. She arched an eyebrow. Escape wasn’t supposed to be that easy. Most likely, some sort of trap was in store.

She ducked her head through the portcullis and peeked around the corners. More pulsing red light fixtures were upon the ceiling, and cables seemed to be running along the walls. In one place, they were occasionally sparking. Crates and other strange objects littered the passage, seemingly tossed about in an undecipherable manner.

Just then, the floor shifted under her. An audible metallic groan echoed throughout the prison. Celestia stumbled, hooves clip-clop-ing across the floor. Thoughts raced through her mind. She’d experienced that kind of sensation before, on... ships!

She was on a ship, or possibly a skycraft. Which meant that she was either at sea or air. Celestia chose an arbitrary direction — left — and began picking her way down the hall. Every so often she had to duck under an overhanging protrusion, or sidestep a piece of debris.

At the second corner, she heard a noise. Pausing, she let her sensitive ears swivel about. Was... was that breathing? It was faint, but steady. Could it be her captors?

She cautiously peeked around the edge. A small chamber greeted her, with a raised dais in the middle, a thickly cushioned throne of some sort atop this, all surrounded by banks of machines. Their intermittent flickering cast a light on a figure by an enormous, rounded window, slumped against the wall.

Celestia crept across the room. The figure came into view. It was lying on its side, arms and legs skewed as though it had been thrown into the wall by some great force.

At first, she thought it to be some sort of diamond dog or minotaur, judging by the the bipedal nature, but legs were wrong. The paws, as well. Too many fingers, too small. The creature was covered in scarred armor, capped by an imposing helm with a black t-shaped visor. Celestia brought herself close to it, and could see herself in the visor’s reflection. The breath from her nostrils steamed her visage.

So... this must be the... thing... responsible, she mused, drawing back.

For a long moment, she just stood still and stared at the thing, unsure of what to do next. She wasn’t afraid of the creature. Not in the least. Whomever it was, it wanted her alive, that much was evident. For if it wished to kill her, it had the chance when she was helpless, asleep in her cell.

But now, here she was, and it was helpless before her. Celestia looked around. What had happened here? Her head pounded. More questions, less answers.

Another flashing red light on console surround the throne caught her attention. She crossed the room again and investigated the odd furnishing. It was awkwardly shaped, and looked to be uncomfortable for her to sit upon, so she daintily dipped her head and pressed the flashing button with the tip of her horn.

A gentle whine filled the air, and the flashing red strobes ceased. A long, horizontal line of light suddenly came into being on the wall just above the slumped creature. The whine intensified, before the light began expanding upwards, following a curve up to the ceiling. Celestia shielded her eyes from the brilliance.

When she looked again, she realized that it was a giant window, strange symbols flashing here and there about it. Most were red, and blinking.

Through the window, however, was sand.

Lots and lots of sand.

And... by all that was holy, were those two suns in the sky!?

Something cold pressed itself to the side of her head. She smiled, despite the circumstances. The creature was wily indeed, waiting until she was distracted by the view until moving. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw it standing on hind legs, one forelimb raised to point some sort of silver thing at her. Probably a weapon of some sort.

The other forelimb reached out and danced across the consoles, dextrous fingers pressing this figure or that icon. More bangs and rumbles filled the air, and the floor began to tremble just a bit. It finally drew away, all attention now on her.

Nopony moved a muscle.

Eventually, Celestia relaxed, slowly turning to face the creature. She was taller than it, she noted, by almost a full head. To put it at ease, she slowly sat down on her haunches.

The creature made some sort of weird gurgling sound.

Celestia looked at it blankly. “Excuse me?”

More burbling, this time accompanied by some rasping.

It took Celestia a few moments to realize that it was speaking, though in no language she’d ever heard. That fact alone distressed her, though she did not show it. All sentient species knew common Equestrian!

“I’m afraid I don’t understand a word you’re saying,” she eventually said, slowly shaking her head. “But I hope you realize the consequences of your actions nevertheless.”

The creature pointed down the hallway with the silver object, stepping threateningly forward. The message was clear — move it.

“Hmm. Don’t worry, I’ll go along. No need for one of us to do something rash,” she amiably stated. Simply because the creature didn’t speak Equestrian was not complete ground for assuming it didn’t know Equestrian. And it was best to keep talking, to present an aura of amiability.

With a sigh, she rose back to her full height and slowly made her way back through the messy corridor. The creature was a pace behind, and from the corner of her eye she watched it keep the silver thing pointed at her at all times.

“An interesting vessel you keep,” she commented at the disorganized mess. “If a bit untidy.”

The creature grunted, poking her roughly with the object.

Soon enough, they were at her cell again, and the creature escorted her inside before pressing several buttons on the wall console. The flashing red light switched to a clear green. It then turned and faced her — she couldn’t tell where it was looking — and then stalked out as the cell door shut behind it.

Almost immediately, Celestia was at the wall again, poking the buttons with her hooves, trying to summon her friend the Shiny Red Button. The creature must have securely locked her inside this time. That didn’t bother her much, though.

She’d already gotten what she needed.

Hyperspace, aboard the Slave I...

In the space of ten seconds, things had gone from bad to worse. The ship bucked wildly the instant her hyperdrive activated. Boba shielded his face as the cockpit was showered in sparks as several displays short-circuited. A warning klaxon began to blare.

Ignoring the Slave I’s condition for the moment, he quickly leapt out of the chair and staggered back to where his captive lay sprawled in a heap. The floor stubbornly refused to cooperate with where his feet fell. His ship groaned like a wounded animal.

Falling to his knees beside her, he swiftly wrapped the Force Inhibitor around her neck. There. That was one less thing to worry about. With a grunt, he threw the heavy alien over his shoulders and stumbled into the interior of his ship.

By the sounds she was making, he was needed back at the cockpit, and soon. When a fuse box mounted on the wall abruptly exploded in his face, sending him and his cargo to the ground, he knew there was no time to lose.

He punched the door open to the prison cell, all but throwing his prize inside. Her wings splayed out where she fell. He appraised them with a raised eyebrow. He’d have to deal with those at another time.

A minute later, he was sprinting back into the cockpit, vaulting over the back of the chair and firmly planting himself at the helm. His fingers practically flew across the controls, and the Slave I spat a readout of technical data into his helmet’s HUD.

The navigation system had malfunctioned, it said, the instant before he threw the switch to the hyperdrive. Some kind of external power surge... The coordinates he’d originally plugged had been scrambled. They were careening wildly through hyperspace!

He frantically tapped out a series of commands on the nav system, seeking to shut down the drive, and drop out of lightspeed before they collided with a star or were entangled in a gravity field.

The computer blinked red. ‘ERROR,’ it read. ‘HYPERDRIVE NAV SYSTEM DAMAGED.’

Boba put his armored fist clear through the screen.

‘CRITICAL MALFUNCTION. STABILIZATION IMMINENT.’

He was thrown against the restraints as the ship abruptly lost momentum. The alarm klaxons were blaring loud enough to wake the dead.

Through the cockpit window, a planet sprang into view. And it was rapidly approaching. His helmet informed him that he was looking at Tatooine, one of the most backwater cesspools in the galaxy.

His helmet also informed him that the ship was traveling much too fast to slow down in time. Crash landing imminent.

Thinking quickly, He yanked on the yoke, and the careening ship came turned a full about-face as she fell helplessly through the stars. The throttle was mercilessly rammed forward, and the Slave I’s ion engines screamed to life. The effect was immediate. The entire ship rippled and heaved as the contesting forces attempted to win her over, the planet’s gravity well already making it’s grip felt.

“Rrrrrrrrrgghhh!” Boba Fett pushed the throttle down as far as it would go, then further still, bending the metal lever almost completely over. It wasn’t enough. Despite the enormous thrust of her engines, the improper hyperspace drop had left her with too much inertia.

“It never fails,” the bounty hunter grumbled. “I just washed and waxed this thing.” Boba did the only thing left that could be done, activating the ship’s shields to double strength for the rear.

He screamed, a single long roar of defiance, his battle prayer to the beyond.

In the skies above Tatooine, a bolt of light streaked across the horizon, careening high above the air in the skies over the Dune Sea. It was so bright that even in the oppressing radiation of the twin suns, life forms far and wide could see it.

The Slave I touched down several miles outside of Mos Eisley, hitting the desert flats at a shallow angle. Her shields flickered with the impact, but held, as the ship was sent into a dizzying roll, several tons of metal performing an intricate ballet of destruction across the dunes. Boba was immediately ripped from his chair from the impact, and flew across empty space.

The last thing he noticed before the opposing wall claimed his consciousness were the pulsing red warning lights.

Mytaranor Sector, Kashyyyk System, Kashyyyk...

Silence.

Where once the raccous calls of birds and wildlife filled the mighty forest of tall woshyr trees, the purest form of quiet hung about the air. It was as if the land was holding it’s breath for some unspoken climax of tension to be released.

It didn’t have long to wait.

In the deepest, darkest underworld of the forest, a midnight blue hoof appeared over the edge of the mighty crater its owner had carved into the loam. Smoking holes in the gigantic woshyr described the descent of the projectile, striking clean through even the strongest of the trees, some thicker than mountains. If one held position above the forest, they could see straight down this tunnel of carnage, five kilometers down to the floor itself.

The cause of all this destruction seemed rather nonplussed as she inspected the view for herself, staring at the distant pinprick of light visible through the hole she’d carved. The forest was completely dark, save for that shaft of sunlight illuminating her figure.

Princess Luna cracked her neck.

“That hurt,” she finally commented, craning to inspect herself. One of her wings hung awkwardly by her side, dragging uselessly upon the ground. Luna frowned, wincing at the pain of the injury. It seemed broken. She would have to splint it at once, or risk having the hollow wing-bones heal improperly.

Looking around, Luna ignited her horn, levitating a pair of large splinters off the ground. A simple application of magical force and the rough surface was compressed smooth. These would serve for splints. She looked around again, before pulling a length of vine off the trunk of a nearby dead tree. The living plant wrapped the splinters tightly in place, and the wing was immobilized against her side.

Celestia knew some potent healing spells, Luna remembered. Surely...

Celestia.

It all came back to her in a rush.

...Celestia!

The intruder at the palace. The brief, but furious fight. The stinging darts, the subsequent numbness. Her anger transforming her, pulling her out of the darkness, her fear fueling her onwards. Her sister. The flying machine, roaring away into the night sky, she in hot pursuit. A flash of light... and then...

...and then...

...and then?

Luna face fell into a small, grim smile, her eyes closed in an odd sort of amusement.

It seemed she was lost, and her sister as well. She’d no idea where she was, and never before had she seen trees quite this size. Quite plainly, she’d no idea where in Equestria she or Celestia was! Not a single clue was present.

Her mind drifted over last night’s conflict.

Actually, there was a clue.

Her magic dug underneath her peytral plate, pulling out the object the intruder had dropped during their scuffle. The metallic, cylindrical object was the only thing she could go off of. Curious, her aura skimmed the cold surface. What was it? She held it aloft, one end pointed somewhat over her shoulder.

What happened next, nopony could have predicted.

Behind her, a twig snapped.

Quite accidentally, her magic spasmed just a bit, the pale aura pressing down a button on the cylinder’s side. There was a click, a sudden hiss, and a shaft of blue light three feet long erupted from the end she was pointing behind her.

It also served to impale the enormous spider that had been looming behind her right through the face.

...Where did that even come from? she wondered, dazedly looking at the monstrous corpse that twitched on the ground behind her. Casting her eyes about the darkened forest to check for more danger, she then inspected the object.

It emitted a low, powerful hum, the beam of blue light projected almost blinding in the darkness of the forest. It was a bit like a sword, Luna mused, swinging it back and forth a few times. She suddenly whirled and slashed, striking a mighty blow through the trunk of a nearby tree. The scorched crevasse it left gave her an appreciation for the device.

She ran her magic over it again, soon discovering two dials that adjusted the ‘blade’ width and length. She couldn’t resist a grin. While the weapon was no doubt something unique and powerful, a sword just wasn’t her style.

Seizing a fallen somewhat-crooked limb off the ground, she warped the tip with a thought and fused the cylinder to it at a sharp angle, before casting several strengthening spells on the whole thing. She now wielded a curious scythe, a fusion of technology, nature, and magic.

The weapon twirled through the air in her telekinetic grip, and she watched the blue light dance amongst the darkness. Another press of magic, and the ‘blade’ deactivated. She planted the shaft into the ground and cocked it over her shoulder.

“I dub thee... Reaper,” she said. How apt. “You once served another, but now I am your new master. Together, we shall save my sister! ...And take our revenge upon her captor,” she added softly.

A moment’s work later, and Reaper hung between her shoulderblades from a harness of vines. Luna couldn’t help but chuckle a little as her form dissolved into a dark vapor, before vanishing into the gloom of the forest.

Soon birds began to sing again, and beneath the shade of the mighty woshyr trees, life continued.

Author's Notes:

Yes, this was written scattered throughout the timeline on purpose. Because fuck linear timelines. You should know by now, time isn't straight. It's a big... wibbly-wobbly... timey wimey... oh, you get what I'm saying. And fuck science, too! When hyperdrives and magic collide, it isn't pretty.

Also, to everyone wondering why Boba didn't tie up her wings:

But seriously, though. That'll come into play later.