--Anon and the Space Mares IN SPAAACE---
>Zero-G training week was something else. 
>You were up in orbit around what your reticle identified as a name so strange even your fellow recruits had a hard time pronouncing it.
>You dared to look down, or rather, up, at the planet’s atmosphere. 
>The sense of vertigo was something to get used to.
>Today, your squad was on orbital training.
>The ponies, as large as they were, could serve as extra gun emplacements for any spaceship they happened to travel on.
>Squad Leader Wave Runner, of course, demanded her squad receive the training.
>”Defense pattern four!” she barks as she stomps towards the front of the ship, magnetic horseshoes keeping her anchored to the hull. 
>Your own mecha had a similar design, the large foot pads clinging to the vessel that had flown you here.
>It held you in place as you tried to remember where your position was.
>Despite the improvements in translator software, you didn’t always know what they meant.
>Especially Wave Runner’s fetish for being as much like the perfect military figure in recruitment posters as possible. 
>Another one of your squadmates cleared her throat as you and half of everyone else hesitated.
>”That’s the Frontal Dorsal Line Pattern.”
>Everyone stacked up behind the squad leader in a big line along the top of the ship.
>And as fate would often have it, you were behind Daisy.
>Her backside was becoming one of the most familiar features of the squad at this rate as the rear of her suit wiggled in your direction.
>She insisted it was a good luck ritual after the time you saved her in the live fire training maze.
>The star's light poked out around her like a halo.
>You moved to the side and the view automatically muted the star's intensity for you.
>She noticed and moved along with you.
>Still blocking the star.
>Your mech took a couple of steps to the other side.

>Aaand she copied the action..
>The sunny golden Equestrian was up to something.
>"Daisy, what are you doing?"
>The vaguely equine shaped hunk of metal turned towards you and a plate of armor whisked out of the way of a glass faceplate the size of a stained glass window.
>Usually, the automatic tinting turned every part a protective gray color almost as soon as they were exposed.
>In her own shadow, it remains perfectly see through, unlike your mech’s windshield.
>The big, vaguely horse face looked especially proud today as she tried to see into your cockpit.
>She gives up quickly, just smiling at where she thinks you probably are.
>”I just got a news message from your home! It was the day of the eclipse!”
“Was?”
>”It was a week ago and I didn’t want you to feel like you missed out, so I will function as your eclipse instead!”
“A week ago?”
>”Well, I received the notification when we left the ship.”
”Wait, why’d it take so long to get here? II thought we had faster than light communication?”
>”Yes, but not instant.”
“We can’t be that far out.”
>Daisy blinked at you as if confused.
>”Where do you think we are?”
“Yeah we’re at… zix...ka...zux...jih...gub.”
>Daisy visibly stifled a laugh and pointed behind you.
>”Turn around.”
>A twist of the joystick simply rotated the mech’s upper torso around 180 degrees.
>You saw stars.
>Everywhere.
>It was full of stars.
>And behind them all, was a black spot.
>Hundreds, maybe thousands of times larger than everything else in sight.
>Your heart sank as you saw plasma from one of the stars being stripped and slurped up by the dark circle in a long stream.

“Is that a giant black hole?!”
>Daisy planted a hoof onto your mech’s shoulder reassuringly.
>”You really are far from home, human.”
“Daisy.”
>The mech-suited pony leaned into view on your right.
>”Yes?”
“Did you you just touch my mech with a magnet?”
>Her eyes went wide.
“Even though we already had to find out the hard way that you couldn’t put your hooves on anything that wasn’t a flat space because it confused your stabilizers and you wouldn’t be able to let go?”
>There was an elongated noise from your companion that your translator diligently pieced together.
>”Uuuh.”
>You were jostled in your straps slightly as she tried to pull herself off of you.
>"Wait, I can..."
>Your command chair rattled against your back.
>The proximity alert chimed as she continued to fight the forces of magnetism.
>You slapped the override toggle while Daisy pulled herself closer to get some sense of leverage.
>"Come on hoof, let go of the-"
>There was a metallic clank
>"Oh no."
>You leaned as far forward as the seat would allow you to.
"Second hoof stuck too?"
>”H-human? Could you, um...”
“I’ll call the maintenance crew back out here.”
>"You're the best human."
>Such was life in space.