Star Trek: Trailblazer

by Jersey Lightning

First published 30th of September, 2013

230 years after the crash of the NX-08 Odyssey the ponies take to the stars.

It had taken over two hundred years of research and reverse engineering, but they were finally ready. The captain and crew of Equestria's first warp five capable starship, the EX-01 Trailblazer, were finally ready to begin their mission.

A mission of peaceful exploration: To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no pone has gone before.

EX-01

The mare put her hoof up in front of her visor to shield her eyes from the sunrise on the horizon. The flash took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to, no matter how many times she'd orbited the world. Still, it wasn't long before a smile graced her lips as the shuttle pod approached the orbital shipyards.

"It's taken us long enough to get here... Do you think we're ready?" Her companion asked her as the pod started to slow. The shipyards were much more visible now; great spindly legs wrapped around a flat grey saucer.

It was the product of over two hundred years of dedicated research, all for this moment. All of it resting on her shoulders. "I've spent most of my life waitin' for this, if we ain't ready we're at least gonna give it our very best shot," she replied as the pod slowed even further.

The mare flying the pod nodded her head as she pulled the controls to swing the pod around the aft end of the ship in dock. The twin warp nacelles, a sight familiar to any schoolchild in Equestria, shone with a soft blue glow, "Looks like they've already got the plasma injectors opened up. Pinkie must be in a hurry to stretch her legs."

"It's an important mission, Rainbow Dash. I'd be shocked if she wasn't eager to get going. After today... everything changes. All our labors, everything we've worked for, it was for this," she explained as she looked up at her ship, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"I'm taking us into the docking bay now, I'll signal the ship and let them know we're ready," Dash said finally as she guided the pod under the much larger ship.

"Tell them to prepare to move out, I'd like to be underway within the hour."

"We read you Shuttlepod One, opening bay doors now. See you in a few minutes." The stallion sighed as he leaned back in his chair in the bay control room. Pods had been coming and going all day, and as he was the head of security on the ship, it fell on him to manage the shuttle bay.

It was understandable though: all of the last-minute deliveries, supplies, munitions, spare parts. Half the crew hadn't even boarded yet and they were down to less than four hours till departure. 'So much for getting a nap in before launch...' he thought with another sigh.

A flashing green light on the console in front of him indicated that the shuttle pod had locked onto the grappling arm, though the jolt through the deck plates told him the same thing. He dropped his hoof down on the confirmation panel and grit his teeth against the sharp whine of the hydraulics retracting.

His hoof tapped the communications panel, "Shining Armor to Engineering, can you get somepony up here to fix the number two grappler? It's dragging again." It was only little things that were wrong, but there were enough of them to give the unicorn doubts.

"Roger that Shiny, I'll send a team over as soon as I get the warp field stabilized!' The tinny feminine voice replied.

Shining rubbed his forehead. Sure, the mare was a brilliant engineer but she was not without her eccentricities. Not the least of which was her propensity for pet names. Still, he couldn't help but smile a little as he pressed the button again, "Thank you, and remember it's Lieutenant Commander , Lieutenant Pie."

"Sorry, about that Shiny, I keep forgetting!" the voice replied again.

Shining took his hoof off the panel and let out a quiet laugh, he'd tried but as always, it was a losing battle with that mare. He'd stopped being truly bothered by her antics long ago, but part of him still needed to correct her on the little things, even if he knew she'd never take it to heart.

The deck jolted again under his hooves as the large bay doors closed under the now retracted shuttlepod, and his control panel lit up, indicating a good seal and that the automatic systems had begun re-pressurizing the bay. The bulkheads made a series of popping sounds as the pressure equalized with the rest of the ship and the strain of vacuum subsided.

"I wonder how Cadence's day is going?" he idly mused as he watched the door on the shuttle pod rise.

"No, stop! What are you doing, you can't put parasprites in the same container as poison joke!" Cadence yelled as she snatched the offending containers away from the crewpony. 'Crisis averted.' she thought with a sigh as she hovered the container into a stasis drawer.

"Sorry ma'am, I... wasn't really briefed before this assignment," the cream colored pony explained as she lowered her ears, "I'm just a shipyard worker usually, this isn't really my area of specialization..."

Cadence's face softened, "No, it's alright... Today is just a big day and I want to make sure Sickbay is prepared. It wouldn't do to leave without all of the necessary supplies... You know what? Why don't you take a break for a while and I'll sort out what's left!"

The other pony saluted, "Aye, Ma'am." Sparing a glance over her shoulder at the stack of crates adorning fully half of the Sickbay, she trotted through the sliding doors at the far end. Cadence stared at the doors for a moment until they started to close.

"Now, let's see ah, anaerobic bacterial cultures! Those go--" She started as the door snapped open again. She turned her head and was faced with "Ah, Miss Fluttershy!"

"Doctor," the pegasus greeted with a nod of her head, "The Commander sent me down to see how you were doing with the medical supplies..." she trailed off as she took in the abundance of crates, "Oh my what a mess... Do you need any help?"

Cadence eyed the communications officer for a moment before her face curled into a sly grin, "Maybe. Do you know the difference in application between Bog Leeches and Maple Leeches?"

"Oh... um... Bog Leeches are used to keep adequate blood flow and prevent clotting in damaged tissues... and Maple Leeches are used to remove dark magics from the victim of a curse," The pegasus stated, "Although the use of Maple Leeches has fallen out of favor as unicorns can cast dispelling magic to achieve the same effect in far less time."

Cadence blinked dumbly for a few moments at Fluttershy, "I... didn't actually expect you to know the answer. Why didn't you take the medical track again? Nevermind, I'm going to talk to the Captain about assigning you a few shifts in Sickbay as my assistant... that is if you don't mind."

Fluttershy's face brightened, "Oh um, no I don't mind at all."

"Wonderful! Now, want to help me store some of this equipment? My last helper tried to put the parasprites in with the poison joke..." She explained as a shudder ran through her.

"But if you do that and the parasprites eat the poison joke--"

"Exactly."

Fluttershy's face became deadly serious as she leaned in towards the doctor, her eyes locked with the taller pony's eyes, "You must never let them help you again. I will help you. This is vitally important."

"Intermix pressures are in the green arc. Core temperatures are stable... Okey dokey, Engineering to the Bridge!" the mare exclaimed as she snapped her hoof down on her comlink.

"Go ahead Lieutenant," the voice responded, refined and feminine.

Pinkie looked over the engineering console again, her eyes drifted over to the warp five engine humming not ten feet away, "Everything is looking good down here, I've got main power up. Can you signal drydock to disconnect shore power?"

"Signalling them now, stand by." The voice replied. There was a brief delay before a soft 'thunk' resounded through the ship and the lights momentarily dimmed as the ship's onboard reactor took over.

Pinkie smiled as her hooves danced across the controls, fine-tuning the power output from the warp engine. "Thanks Rare, tell the cap'n we'll be ready for warp five when she gives the order," She announced as she cut the comlink, cutting off the lecture she knew she'd receive for not utilizing proper protocol when addressing a superior.

Not that it would stop her from doing it again in the future.

"Pumpkin, Pound. Head over to the shuttle bay and fix the grappler. Shiny was complaining about it again," She ordered to the two ponies monitoring the starboard injector manifold, "replace the main bearings if you have to, the dry dock has plenty."

"Ma'am!" they chorused in unison with a snap of their hooves in salute before they stepped onto the turbolift and out of sight.

Pinkie hummed a happy tune as she fiddled with the various controls on the front of the reactor, calibrating the mix ratios down to the fiftieth decimal. "Ah, the primary privilege of rank: Delegation. Alright my little engine, sing for Pinkie Pie!"

The white unicorn suppressed a groan as she rubbed the base of her horn. The headache wouldn't stop and every little thing seemed to just make it worse, not the least of which was Pinkie's... Pinkie-ness. In any other command structure they'd call it insubordination.

In this one... It was still grating on occasion, and today wasn't exactly the best day for it. She stood up from the captain's chair and cracked her neck with a twist of her head. 'Not exactly elegant... but I've been up here for eleven hours already...'

"Report on the launch preparations?" She asked for what felt like the millionth time that day, maybe she'd finally get an answer she wanted to hear. She could hope, anyway.

The voice came from behind her and to the left--the science station, "Cargo bays report supply loading is ninety percent complete. Torpedo bay reports all munition racks full and secured. Engineering reports warp power is available on demand. Crew on-loading report shows eleven crew members still unaccounted for. Shuttle bay reports... the Captain has boarded the ship," The lavender unicorn finished with a slight hesitation.

A smile managed to find its way onto the white mare's face, "Excellent news! Thank you Twilight!" Her face twisted up as the last word left her mouth, "er, Lieutenant Sparkle." 'Pinkie is rubbing off on me... I shall simply blame exhaustion!' she thought with minor agitation.

Twilight's head jerked to the side as the turbolift door slid open with an audible woosh, her eyes immediately locked onto the pony crossing the threshold. "Captain on the Bridge!"

The blonde pony stepped into the room and surveyed the assembled crew. It wasn't the full bridge crew, but she recognized most of the faces anyway. "At ease," she ordered as she walked the rest of the way to the captain's chair, her companion trailing close behind.

"Well good to see nothin's caught fire yet. Anything important that might set back the launch, Commander Rarity?" She asked as she stepped next to the unicorn.

"All good news actually, Captain. Miss Sparkle has just informed me that Engineering reports warp power is available at your order, and that our supply loading is nearly complete," Rarity explained with a smile.

"That's great news. You've been up here for a while haven't ya? Go try to catch a few minutes rest, we'll be fine up here till launch," The captain said. "Dash, take the conn. And uhh..." she trailed off as her eyes locked onto the back of the head of the pony at the operations station. She realized she didn't recognize her.

She knew who everyone on her crew was. "Ensign..."

The pony stood from the station and turned around. Her coat was slightly off white, and she was a unicorn. The most striking feature was, in the captain's mind, a toss-up between the electric blue mane and the decidedly non-regulation tinted eyewear.

The unicorn saluted, "Ensign Vinyl Scratch, Ma'am. I was called in to replace Ensign Melody. She had... a family crisis," she explained. "I trained with Octavia, I know everything she knows about this ship, and I won't let you down. Cappleja-- Captain Applejack, Ma'am," she finished in an almost frantic shrill as she dropped her salute.

'Little high strung isn't she?' Applejack thought to herself with a smirk. "Welcome to the Trailblazer Ensign. I'm sure we'll get along just fine. Now," she said, as she sat down into her chair, "Let's see what we can do to get this ship ready to go ahead of schedule so we can all take a break before the launch ceremony."

Applejack settled into her chair and closed her eyes for a moment, she couldn't help but entertain the thought that this was the calmest things would be for a long time to come. Her eyes popped open again as a thought returned to her, "Ensign Scratch..."

"Yes, Ma'am?" the unicorn asked as she rotated in her chair to face the captain. Applejack could see her own reflection in those purple lenses.

"Is there a reason you're wearing non-regulation eyewear on duty?" she asked with a slight smile. 'We've already got Pinkie... what's another eccentric? We're on a mission of exploration... may as well bring a good cross-section of equestrian culture.'

"Extreme photosensitivity Ma'am. The lenses filter out a few wavelengths that give me headaches. My night vision, however, is superb," the ensign replied with a smirk.

"Alright, then, I'll keep that in mind, as you were Ensign," Applejack said with a laugh. She leaned back in her chair again when another thought struck her: a very important pony who was missing from the Bridge, "Has anyone seen Fluttershy?"

"The Commander sent her to Sickbay to check in with Doctor Cadence about forty five minutes ago, Ma'am." Twilight said from the science station, "Should I call her back to the Bridge?"

Applejack shook her head, "No, give her a few more minutes, I'm sure there's a reason she isn't back yet."

Celestia paced back and forth across the castle terrace where she’d chosen to await word of the Trailblazer’s launch.

“Tia, you’re going to wear a path into the marble…” Luna sat nearby, her gaze alternating between the darkening sky and her agitated sister.

"Luna, you know how I feel about this, how I've always felt about this. It’s too soon.” She waved her hoof angrily, “They're not ready!"

Luna drew back a bit from her sister, ears pinned down. "Tia... You've been pushing back against this progress for over two hundred years!” She raised her voice a measure, “Those bright-eyed ponies so long ago didn't even get to see the fruits of their labor!"

Celestia flinched like she'd been struck, and then sat down, brooding. "Still..." she continued, more calmly, "if something happens to them out there, we can't help them."

"Sister…” Luna sighed. “We have to let them grow. We won't always be here for them, I know that better than most..." Luna trailed off as she stepped closer to her sister, and sat beside her, curling a wing over Celestia’s back. “Even the colonies are already out of our grasp. Their world is now a lot bigger than ours is."

Celestia leaned into her sister’s embrace for a moment. “They’ll be all alone out there, in a darker night than we ever know.”

“Fie!” Luna nosed at her. “They are not alone. They have each other, and a whole galaxy of other sapients, some of whom we know to be kindred spirits.”

Looking askance at her, Celestia replied, “Some, yes.”

Luna just snorted, then fixed her with a hard look. “This is about Twilight, isn’t it?”

Celestia didn’t voice a response, but her pupils shrank, and her ears pinned.

“I know you’ve never agreed with her choices, but out there…” She looked upward, to a sky kept deliberately moonless for the time being, “she could do more for us--and for others--than she ever could if she’d stayed the path you lay before her. As with all of them, you must find it within yourself to let go.”

Celestia followed her sisters gaze towards the stars, ears rising, and then gave a rough sigh. "This... this is what parents feel like when their foals move out on their own isn't it?"

"Captain, space dock reports that all gantries and umbilicals have been retracted--we're clear for departure," Fluttershy announced with a hoof pressed to the bud in her ear.

The captain nodded and turned to the helm, "Miss Dash, take us out, thrusters ahead one half."

"Aye, Ma'am," Rainbow Dash answered as she pushed a lever on her console forward. The deck shuddered slightly as the thrusters engaged. The view on the main screen shifted as the long arms of the space dock started to pass by the edges.

"Miss Fluttershy, open a channel to Canterlot Castle, tell them that we're about--" Applejack started to order when the normally soft spoken pegasus interrupted her with a yell.

"Captain, traffic on the emergency band! Stand by, cleaning it up..." Fluttershy yelled as she manipulated her console, "Distress call from Little Roc colony, they’re reporting attack by unknown assailants, Hammerhead has responded and is preparing to go to warp."

"Open a channel to Hammerhead," Applejack ordered as she stood from her chair, "Miss Dash go to full impulse, lay in a course for Little Roc and prepare to engage at warp five." Her eyes dilated--an emergency and they weren't even out of space dock yet. 'Shouldn't have even got out of bed this morning.'

"Course laid in, Captain," Dash answered as she throttled the ship up, the deck vibrated for a moment as the ship accelerated sharply out of the space dock. The tension on the bridge was palpable.

"Channel open, on screen," Fluttershy announced as the main viewer switched over to the face of an older unicorn stallion.

"This is Captain Applejack of the starship Trailblazer, we've received the distress call from Little Roc colony, and we’re taking the lead. At maximum warp it'll take you six days to get there; It'll take us four hours," Applejack explained as she leaned towards the view screen.

The stallion at the other end looked like he was going to protest for a moment, his mouth worked up and down a few times before he nodded, "Alright Trailblazer, it's in your hooves. Good luck, Hammerhead out."

The viewscreen switched back to the external view with a click as the channel closed. Applejack tapped a key on her armrest, "Applejack to Engineering. Pinkie, prepare for sustained high warp--we're answering a distress call from Little Roc. What's the best you can give me?"

There was a moment of silence on the connection before Pinkie's voice came through, "I can give you warp five point one, but it's gonna do a number on the engines, Cap'n."

"That'll have to be good enough, thank you," the captain said as she closed the connection. She turned and sat back in her chair and stares at the viewscreen for a moment before she turned her eyes to the rest of the crew on the bridge.

"I don't know what we're gonna find there, but this is our first mission. I'll give you my best and I expect your best in return. I've got every confidence in all of you, so make me proud. Miss Dash?" She asked with a look of determination on her face.

"Ma'am?"

"Punch it."

"Yes Ma'am!" The pegasus responded with a grin as she pushed the controls forward. A loud whine pierced the ship as the engines wound up, and then with a sound like a whip crack the stars turned to lines as the ship accelerated to warp speed and out of the Equestrian star system.

By sheer luck, the sisters were looking upwards when the Trailblazer warped out unexpectedly. They each sighed, but with differing tones.

“So, that’s it then.” Celestia sounded tired. “I thought they would forewarn us...say farewell…”

Before Luna could respond, a page entered through the terrace archway. “Ah, miladies?”

“Yes?”

“There is news, from the Hammerhead.. The Trailblazer has warped out to Little Roc, answering a distress call. They want to know if they should follow as support.”

Luna glanced at her sister, but saw her frozen. “Check with the fleet coordinators, but I believe they are spread thin enough as it is.” She nodded and, unseen, tightened her wing around her sister. “Whatever it is, I am sure the Trailblazer can handle it.”

The page nodded, and left.

After a moment, Celestia swallowed audibly. “So this is how it begins? Already on their way to help.”

With a nod, Luna said, “Yes. And soon enough they will be going where nopony has gone before.”

“They do it...so boldly.” Celestia smiled.

Author's Notes:

So here's a new thing, pretty cool amirite?

Make sure to review, or else I won't love you anymore.

Much thanks to Alamais and Arcshod.

They are my A-Team, if you will.

Little Roc

Captain's log, eleventh of spring, 1015 C.C. We're en-route to Little Roc colony in response to a distress call. All attempts at further communication with the colony have proven futile; our hope is that this does not indicate the loss of the colony. Ship and crew, however, are performing admirably under the circumstances.

"Anything on long range sensors yet?" Applejack asked with urgency in her voice. Nearly four hours at high warp, and not a peep, despite repeated hailing attempts. It had worn on her nerves more than she'd like to admit.

"I'm getting faint readings consistent with the discharge of energy weapons,” Twilight explained, her eyes to the eyepiece of the long range sensor interface. “I can't be more specific than that while we're at warp speed."

Applejack nodded, “We need more information and a plan before we warp in anyway. Miss Dash, drop us down to impulse. Miss Sparkle, try to get some better scans once we drop out of warp.”

"Aye, Captain. Dropping to impulse now," Dash answered as she throttled back the engines. The deck thrummed as the subspace field collapsed and the ship decelerated to sub-light speeds. The star lines on the viewscreen resolved into individual points of light.

"Captain, I'm detecting a ship in orbit over Little Roc, unknown energy signature. They're firing on the colony from orbit,” Twilight announced with a distressed tone, her ears flattened to her head. “I'm also picking up electromagnetic emissions consistent with communications jamming."

Applejack slammed her hoof down on the armrest of her chair, "Consarn it!" Her eyes were narrowed, her jaw clenched. 'Just shooting at civilians like that, how dare they?!' She took a deep breath, she had her own crew to look after too, she couldn't just rush in half cocked.

Twilight hesitated before adding, “There...seems to be some debris. I’m reading some plasma, but not enough to mean a lost ship. It looks like Little Roc tried to mount a defense, but…”

“Right.” Applejack nodded, “You said they’re firing, can you get a reading on their armaments? Are we going to be outclassed?”

"There’s some interference...I'm detecting emissions consistent with deflector shielding. The signature is similar to a ship encountered by the Enterprise in 2152, though further details are unavailable," Twilight explained as she filtered the readings through the main computer database.

"Noted, thank you Miss Sparkle. Keep me apprised of any changes," Applejack replied. 'So, deflector shielding...'

Still, time was of the essence. "Lieutenant Commander Armor, prepare a boarding party. If they won't listen to reason, we'll have to take the ship by force," Applejack ordered.

"Yes, Ma'am," He answered as he tapped on his console, "Shining Armor to security, prepare a boarding party, full loadout, phasers on stun."

"Alright," Applejack said as she stood from her chair, "Miss Dash, lay in an intercept course with the ship attacking Little Roc and take us back up to warp five." The deck thrummed as the ship accelerated back to warp speed. Applejack stayed on her hooves.

"Signal Red Alert. Miss Fluttershy, instruct damage control teams to stand by. Charge phase cannons and load all torpedo tubes. Polarize the hull plating," she ordered calmly as she stepped closer to the main viewscreen, "As soon as we drop out of warp, broadcast a cease and desist message on all frequencies. If they fail to respond or if they keep firing, target their weapons and engines and fire at will."

“Get those supplies to the shelter, now!” Praetor Gilda screeched at a group of militia members who were milling about, threatening to panic.

Another volley of incoming fire punctuated her command, slamming into the glowing white shield above. A few webs of fine cracks appeared here and there, but they quickly healed as a crew of pegasi shoved back against the wall of power, adding their own energy to that supplied by the emitter crystals.

The militia members--griffons and a few earth ponies--cowered for a moment, then began to gather up the sacks of food and boxes of medical supplies, and scurried away underground. Gilda shivered slightly, planning to stay out of that claustrophobic dungeon until the last possible moment.

A wing of heavy lifters swooped in, each with a (mildly terrified) unicorn clinging to their back--a crew of magickers from an outlying construction project.

“Good, go relieve the shield crew!” She gestured to the West, “We’ve got to keep the shields up for at least three more hours to have enough supplies stashed for the wait for Starfleet support!”

As the unicorns shakily trotted off, Gilda waved at the heavies. “You guys still good?” As she received nods, she grinned wickedly. “Great! We’re trying to move some heavy cannons into the side corridors in the shelter, give these dweebs a few surprises if they try to follow us.” She pointed towards the core colony supply depot, “Go get it done!”

The burly griffons saluted, and took wing to glide towards the depot, as another volley smacked into the shield. Gilda glared upwards, and prayed she was just imagining that the cracks took longer to seal up. 'What a mess...I just hope that distress call got through…'

"We've arrived in system. Putting the unknown ship on main viewer," Vinyl announced shortly before the image in the viewscreen changed. A marginally smaller ship appeared, the hull a faded, rusty brown. Most noticeable, however, were the weapons discharges aimed at the settlement below, and the flashes as they struck what appeared to be an energy shield over the core colony.

"Open a channel!" Applejack ordered as she launched herself onto her hooves. A beep confirmed the channel was open after a moment, "This is Captain Applejack of the Accord starship Trailblazer, stand down at once or we will open fire!"

The ship fired one more volley even as the Captain spoke, and the shield below flickered and died out.

"Captain, they're changing course to intercept...they're locking weapons on us!" Vinyl yelled as the ship on the screen rotated and began to accelerate.

"So much for diplomacy..." Applejack muttered under her breath. "Helm, take evasive action! Tactical, target their weapons array and fire the phase cannons!"

Twin beams of coherent light lanced out from the underside of the Trailblazer's saucer section, intersecting cleanly with the enemy ship. A bright blue spheroid flashed into existence around the outer hull of the other ship only meters before impact and seemed to absorb the beams.

"Captain, their shields seem to have absorbed the impact--reading a fifteen percent drop in energy emissions. They're returning fire!" Vinyl yelled as the enemy ship fired its plasma weapons. The ship lurched hard to the side and the bridge lights dimmed momentarily with the impact.

"Return fire with photonic torpedoes! Damage report?" Applejack commanded, as the ship shifted under her hooves, causing her to stumble.

"Hull plating is down to eighty percent. Minor hull breach on C deck, damage control teams are responding," Vinyl replied as her hooves slid across the control panel.

The Captain leaned back and braced herself against her chair, as the Trailblazer shuddered under the stress of a sharp bank, dodging a second burst of plasma shots. "Reroute auxiliary power to structural integrity."

“Aye, ma'am…torpedoes away!”

A dull thump reverberated through the ship as three points of red light shot from under the plane of the viewscreen. The torpedoes accelerated rapidly before impacting on the shields of the other ship. The alien ship's shields flared momentarily on the first impact before the second impact brought them down entirely. The third torpedo detonated against the hull directly.

All incoming fire stopped. "Report?" Applejack asked hesitantly. 'That was... too easy, is this a feint?'

"Sensors indicate their weapons array is damaged. Reading minor hull damage, and shield emissions have ceased," Twilight explained as she looked over her readouts, "wait, I’m picking up an energy spike--they're warping out!"

"Moving to intercept!" Dash yelled from the helm as the ship started to rotate about its axis. the viewscreen panned to the side as the ship changed course.

"Belay that, we're here to assist the colony, let them go," Applejack ordered.

Dash’s eye twitched at the order, but her hooves flowed over the controls, and the colony slowly came back into view.

Applejack returned to her seat, and sighed, "take us into low orbit over the colony and prepare the shuttle pods for launch. Let's see how bad it is down there."

"Did they get tired of shooting?" Gilda asked incredulously as the near constant bombardment stopped just as the shields gave up. She shook her head and turned to the stunned and idle militia members, "What are you standing around for? Keep working, they could start shooting again at an--"

"Praetor!" a scrawny griffon yelled as he ran out of a nearby shelter tunnel, "Praetor Gilda, our sensors just picked up a warp signature in orbit! It's an Accord ship--they fired on the enemy and drove them off!"

"Don't celebrate just yet, Reg...it could be a trap, we didn't even send that distress call twelve hours ago…there isn't a ship in the whole Accord Starfleet fast enough to be here already," Gilda explained, her eyes still locked on the sky, waiting for the bombardment to resume.

"Well..." Reg ventured, "it could be that ship. It was supposed to launch soon, if I... recall... correctly." He trailed off as his brain caught up with his beak and he remembered the Praetor's feelings on that particular ship and crew.

Gilda glared at him, and ground her beak for a moment. "Rrrr, if that's the case... I think I'd take the aliens over those ponies," Gilda muttered with disgust as she kicked the dirt and walked towards the shelter. "Don't think this means you can let up, keep working!"

Still… something was definitely making the feathers on the back of her neck stand up, and it wasn't just the thought of that starship.

Rarity rubbed at her eyes, the little bit of sleep she’d been able to get had done wonders for her, but it still wasn’t enough to make up for all she’d lost. “Any word from the Captain?” she asked as she leaned back in the captain’s chair.

“Nothing yet, the shuttlepod should be landing about now,” Fluttershy answered from the comms station.

Rarity nodded and turned back to the viewscreen. It was a waiting game, she was fine with that. Waiting for word from the Captain, waiting for the enemy ship to come back. She found herself staring blankly into the back of Ensign Vinyl’s head.

The unicorn had taken the helm after Applejack had requested Rainbow Dash to go down to the surface with her. Vinyl didn’t mind, however, as this meant she got to fly a starship, even if it was just a parking orbit.

Twilight felt her mind numbing as she reviewed the sensor logs from the battle, something had seemed off about the whole thing; just a gut feeling, but she’d learned to trust those since her brother’s wedding…

She blinked away her mental haze as an image flickered across the screen: a spectrographic energy-output analysis like many others, but there was an extra spike in the photonic torpedo sidebands. Rerunning the analysis with a few different parameters, the signature clarified...’is that...a transporter?’ She expanded the log around the event, and found it occurred right after the third torpedo--after the enemy’s shields went down, and right before the ship went to warp.

She turned to the internal sensors and ran a quick scan of the ship, no alien signatures detected, so the Trailblazer hadn’t been boarded. She turned on the long range sensors and focused them on the planet below. They returned the expected responses; equines, griffons, diamond dogs, livestock animals… and… other? She focused the sensors on the other signature and did a more in depth scan, it looked almost like… ’the proportions are right but the biology is wrong...’

“Commander,” Twilight said suddenly, “I think that right before the alien ship fled, a ground team beamed down to Little Roc colony. I’ve detected unrecognized biosigns on the surface and there was a transporter signal right before they warped out.”

Rarity paled and turned to Fluttershy, “Send a signal to the captain, apprise her of the situation and request orders.”

“I’m not getting a response, Commander. There’s a lot of interference,” Fluttershy explained as she tried again.

Twilight looked back to the scanners and turned them back towards space, “The jamming field is back up, I’m picking up a warp signature on the far side of the planet--it’s the enemy ship!”

Rarity stomped her hoof and grimaced, ’drat!’ “Red alert, polarize the hull plating! Ensign Scratch, take us into the atmosphere over the colony. If we can’t signal the captain we’ll have to give her a message she can’t miss!”

“Aye ma’am, beginning descent,” Vinyl answered as she pushed the controls forward, beginning the descent sequence.

“Twilight, have the Transporter Chief stand by to beam the Captain and the landing party out if necessary. Shining Armor, prepare the magnetic grappler and make sure the photonic torpedoes are ready to fire,” Rarity ordered as the deck started to shake as the ship shed speed through the atmosphere.

“Venting drive plasma, securing impulse engines. Thrusters at fifty percent,” Vinyl rattled off as she mentally went through her flight training. Normally reentry was done in a much smaller craft, but Trailblazer was capable of it. In theory.

Reg jogged around the corner of a large warehouse, heading for the main colony depot. ‘If this is a trick, we’ll need fresh relay crystals to get the shield back up.’

He slowed as he approached the sector control office across the way, then stopped outside, and glanced around. ’Nobody here? What gives?’ He ducked inside the open door, but saw nothing but a cooling cup of coffee.

Back outside, he sighed at the prospect of taking wing to find someone, flying not being his strong suit. Then his head snapped to the right as he heard a faint sound off in that direction. He listened for more, but when nothing further occurred, he headed off in that direction.

An Accord shuttle came to a soft landing in a large square, as a messenger griffon flew off.

As the door slid open, Captain Applejack found herself staring at several phase rifles. “Uh...hey y’all. We come in peace?”

Seeing the pony in an Accord uniform, the griffons lowered their weapons, and AJ and two crew members stepped out of the shuttle.

“We’re here to help. Who’s in charge?”

Just then, the messenger returned with a more heavily armored and decorated griffon in tow. “By the claws of my grandfeathers, what is going on here?” She came to a halt when she spotted Applejack. “You.”

The Captain gave her a confused look, then blinked, “Gilda?”

“That’s Praetor Gilda to you, Captain. I see the Fleet’s fancy new ship is up and running.”

Nodding, Applejack looked around, “We’re here to help. We brought down some medical supplies, but...it doesn’t look like you need ‘em. Those fancy shields of yours were pretty effective--how’d you get so many high-power unicorns to move out here to the boonies?”

Gilda smirked, her crest raising slightly. “You Equestrians don’t have a monopoly on creativity, ya know--you just saw the first field trial of a genuine Little Roc innovation! Our crystals emit shields as effective as any princess, but even a foal can contribute a little power to keep it up.”

“Huh,” AJ rubbed the back of her neck, “that’s pretty impressive. Don’t suppose you’ve got any extras lyin’ around…”

“HA!” Gilda’s grin became predatory. “Sure, we’ve been making a surplus...and once we put them on the market, Starfleet will be able to buy them at a fair price.”

Looking disgruntled, the Captain said, “Well I’m sure that’ll be a big hit, but we aren’t exactly planning to stick around, and-”

She was cut off by an explosive BOOM that echoed over the city, rattling the windows. Everybody in the square ducked, and looked around warily.

Rainbow Dash was the first to look upwards, and spot the oncoming silhouette. “Captain! It’s the Trailblazer!”

Everybody followed her gaze, and Gilda spat out, “What the squawk!?”

Applejack pulled a communicator from her uniform pocket, and activated it. “Applejack to Trailblazer; Commander Rarity, just what the hay are y’all doin’?” She paused. “This is the Captain, Rares, come in!” She shook her head and turned to to Gilda, “get your people ready--something’s up.”

The Praetor ground her beak, and turned to her people, as the Trailblazer came into position over the city, thrusters keeping it hovering overhead.

“Captain, what should we do?” Lieutenant Dash was nervously staring at the underside of the ship.

AJ looked uncertainly at her, then winced and glanced upwards, as the Trailblazer fired a photonic torpedo. She nodded at her crewmen, “Grab weapons and find some cover. This may get nasty.”

The sonic boom made Reg duck his head. He peered upwards, but couldn’t see much of the sky from within the canyon formed by the warehouse walls. He huffed quietly, then moved down a bit further, and peeked into one of the large structures, hearing movement.

He quickly moved forward into the building, then blinked, and ducked behind a pallet of hamdingers. He edged an eye around the side, looking incredulously at the bipedal creatures that were quietly stripping crates from a shelf 50 meters away. ‘Such ears. Wow.’ He considered simply confronting them, but then noticed what lay next to their pile of stolen goods.

Piled haphazardly on the floor were people of different species--several griffons and at least two ponies. He gaped for a moment, then noticed that he could see them still breathing--slowly, but noticeably. ’So they’re stunned and/or drugged.’

He kept the aliens in view, and reached into his peytral to grab his comm unit. He turned the receive volume way down, and had just turned it on when sound of heavy weapons fire from somewhere outside drew his attented back towards the door. Then he heard a sharp exclamation from the aliens, and realized their attention was probably in the same direction...and his fool head was still peeking out from behind his cover.

Pulling fully behind the hamdingers as some sort of beam weapon was fired at where his head had been, he screeched into his comm unit, “Central! This is Reg! The aliens landed and are gathering up supplies and people in Warehouse 13! Need a militia team, now!”

He tossed the communicator aside, and broke from cover as the aliens continued to fire at him. He dodged around a shelf, slunk under some loading machinery, and ran down a short throughway. Almost there… He was diving over a pile of pipes when they got a lucky shot in that winged him--literally.

He hit the floor, and rolled painfully across it. As he came to a stop, he tried to stand up, but found he couldn’t make the left side of his body obey him. He managed to turn his head, and stared blearily as one of the aliens came into view.

“Stoopeed greeffawn,” the figure muttered.

‘How could I understand that?’ Reg thought, as the alien fired its weapon again, and the world disappeared.

“Commander, the enemy ship is in range, approaching the colony at high speed. Their shields are down,” Twilight announced, as she cycled the viewscreen to display the other craft.

“Fire a warning shot across their bow with the phase cannons, try to warn them off,” Rarity ordered as she stepped towards the viewscreen.

“Belay that!” a new voice ordered, as the sound of hooves stampeding across the deck filled the bridge, “stand down phase cannons and fire a low-yield photonic torpedo--use proximity fusing.”

Rarity turned and found Pinkie leaning against the captain’s chair, panting heavily. She turned to face Shining Armor, and nodded, “go ahead Lieutenant Commander, but make the yield minimal--we cannot risk actually shooting them down over the city.”

She raised her eyebrow at Pinkie and calmly walked over to her, “what was that about?”

Pinkie shook her head, “You take the ship down into the atmosphere and you didn’t think you should tell me about it?! We’re flying on thrusters right now. The phase cannon recharge is tied into the impulse engines, but when they’re offline it’ll fall back onto the main EPS grid.”

“Pinkie, I’m not an engineer--” Rarity started to explain.

Pinkie grabbed onto her disheveled mane with both front hooves, “The thrusters are being fed by the main EPS grid, and if the phase cannons start recharging it causes a momentary energy drop, the thrusters lose power, and at this altitude, the ship crashes!”

“Commander, they ignored the torpedo. They’re continuing to advance on the colony--” Shining Armor reported.

“Detecting energy spike--they’re activating transporters! Shields are coming online…” Twilight announced, “detecting another power surge...plasma buildup?”

Pinkie rushed across the bridge and looked at the sensor readout on Twilight’s console. “They’re generating a warp field… they’re trying to go to warp in the atmosphere?!”

“How can they even--” Rarity got out before the ship on the view screen disappeared in a flash of light and an earth shattering bang, the deck tilted under her feet as several alarms began blaring throughout the bridge. “Report!” she ordered, as one of the bridge consoles flashed, and a shower of sparks flew from it.

“Intense atmospheric turbulence--attempting to compensate,” Vinyl answered as she fought with the controls, trying to maintain their position without overtaxing the already struggling thrusters.

“Jamming is gone, I’ve got the captain!” Fluttershy exclaimed as she put the signal through to the bridge speakers.

“Trailblazer, do you read--they’ve taken hostages!” Applejack had to howl at her comm badge, trying to be heard through the tornadic whirlwind the departing ship had kicked up.

Gilda was still staring at her comm unit, from which Reg’s panicked report had come.

Rainbow Dash was following the Trailblazer’s path across the sky as it twisted in the wind. She grimaced as the ship listed hard to port--going nearly vertical on its side as it descended precariously close to the ground--then sighed as a bright flare lit up the ground. The ship's lateral and ventral thrusters fired painfully bright bursts as it swept lazily over the colony in a wide arc before leveling out.

”We read you,” Rarity responded, ”We’re stabilized, and prepared beam you up at any time.”

“Alright, keep tracking them.” She looked over to Gilda, “Do you want to come with us?”

Gilda glanced around, then shook her head sharply, “That blast did a lot of damage. There are more people in this city that need me than on that ship.”

Nodding, the Captain went over to stand near Rainbow Dash. “I’ll leave my medics with you to help. Don’t worry, we’ll catch them.” She tapped her comm unit, “Trailblazer, start burning for orbit as soon as we’re onboard--two to beam up.”

AJ grit her teeth as the transport took hold, and the world hazed to a static-filled white. Then her view clarified, and faded in to reveal the Transporter Room, and Chief Petty Officer Lyra watching her pensively.

Applejack stumbled slightly on her hooves and shook her head. “Nnngh...always tastes like electricity,” she muttered, as she worked her mouth up and down, “Remind me not to do that again, if ya don’t mind.” She nodded at Lyra as she and Lt. Dash trotted out of the room and made their way to the Bridge.

“Welcome back, Captain,” Rarity greeted with strained smile.

Applejack nodded to her, and looked over at the helm and viewscreen, noticing that the ship was nearly out of the atmosphere.

With a grin, Rainbow Dash took the helm back from Vinyl Scratch, “Nice flying there, Ensign.” Vinyl just ducked her head.

“Report?” Applejack asked as she settled into her chair.

“Long range sensors show the ship departing at warp three, well within our ability to intercept,” Twilight answered with a smile, finally something at least was going their way.

”Warp power will be available in forty-five seconds.” Pinkie’s voice announced from the bridge speakers.

Rarity looked around as if to confirm Pinkie had left the bridge, as the pink mare’s departure had managed to escape her notice. She kept these thoughts to herself.

“Cutting over to impulse,” Rainbow Dash announced, as she pushed the sublight throttle assembly forward on her console. The dull thrumming of the impulse drive reverberated through the deckplates as the ship accelerated.

“I’ve got a lock on their vector,” Twilight announced, “sending data to the helm.”

“Laying in intercept course. Warp power is available. Captain?” Rainbow dash asked as she turned around in her chair.

“Let’s go get our people back,” Applejack said softly. “Engage.”

Unruly Acquisition

Captain’s Log, supplemental. We’ve in pursuit of the unknown vessel that has abducted people from the Little Roc colony. On a related note, I’ve put Ensign Vinyl Scratch in for a commendation for her quick thinking during the aliens' attack.

The aliens have accelerated since they noticed us closing the head start left by their atmospheric warp, but their ship appears to be nearing its limits. All we can do is catch up, and hope the abductees are alright...

Reg was making a groaning noise even as he struggled back into consciousness, the feel of somebody poking his side insistently drawing him toward the waking world. He forced his eyes open, and focused them to meet the gaze of a burly looking female griffon who was standing over him.

"Good...rise and shine, sleepyhead. How do you feel?"

Ruffling his feathers and rolling over, Reg took stock. ’Two arms, two legs… check the rest later’ "Not too bad I guess, just a little groggy."

She nodded, "I think whatever weapon they used was less effective than they expected, probably because of our natural resistance to lightning." She muttered under her breath, "I doubt they could have taken me out if they hadn't come from behind..."

Reg just raised an eyebrow at her.

"Anyway, the griffons are the only ones awake so far. We're trying to figure out a way out of here." She paused, and focused on him again. "Name's Ash. You're Reg, with Special Engineering, right?"

"Mmm...yeah." Reg stood up, and glanced around, taking in what appeared to be a simple cargo bay. Seven other griffons were spread around the area, engaged in various tasks, and several ponies and a canid were carefully stashed behind a large...crate? Reg blinked at the realization that the stolen goods from the Little Roc warehouse were lying all around.

"Thought so." She gestured about. "Maybe you can figure out something with all of this stuff. The door seems pretty flimsy, for a pressure bulkhead."

Reg wobbled across the hold, still a little unstable from the stun blast. He raised his brow as he examined a promising crate, before he pried the lid off and began to dig through the boxes the aliens had haphazardly tossed inside. Microchips and sections of power conduit, spent energy cells and hydrostatic calibrators clattered onto the deck plates as he dug deeper, confident that he’d find something even more worthwhile in the bottom of the container.

His clawed finger fell across a transparent package with several shimmering objects within, and the corner of his mouth curled up in a smirk. 'Paydirt'. He opened the package, and snatched out one of the magically enhanced anodyne relay crystals, rolling it in his grasp as he turned back towards Ash.

"Not a problem...give me ten minutes."

“No change, Captain: it looks like they've maxed out at Warp four point eight! We should catch up in about ninety seconds.”

“Thank you, Miss Dash.” Applejack looked to Twilight, and raised an eyebrow. "What do you have for me, Lieutenant Sparkle?"

Twilight fretted for a moment, still looking at her scanner, but then nodded and spoke, "Despite the differences in design, I'm confident that their warp nacelles will behave like ours. With their shields still down, one good shot from the phase cannons should destabilize their warp plasma relays."

"Very well. Shining Armor, pick a nacelle to lock onto and fire as soon as we're in range. Dash, bring us out of warp right on top of them, I don't want to give them room for any shenanigans."

"Yes Ma'am."

A bead of sweat formed on Shining Armor's brow as they drew near, and he narrowed his targeting solution, and... "Firing."

The beam lanced out and kissed the aft side of one of the alien ship's gently curved nacelles, striking with a pulse of angry red light, and causing the warp-plasma emissions to flicker. The star field resolved as the alien ship dropped out of warp, listing harshly to one side as the warp field collapsed asymmetricall. The Trailblazer followed suit, ending up less than a hundred meters away.

“Very good. Open a channel.”

The center of the bridge viewport went dark as the comm system activated, "Sorry Captain, I'm having a little trouble with their comm protocols, but I think-"

"Back off, Akkord!" cried a harsh, high-pitched voice. As it spoke, the viewscreen synced, revealing an angry, swarthy biped with enormous ears and frighteningly sharp teeth.

The Captain winced, then narrowed her eyes, “Just give us the people you’ve abducted and we’ll think about it!”

The alien pointed aggressively with a finger, “No, you back off, or we keel the ho-stages!” The alien was sweating profusely, and as Applejack grew a little more used to its features, she sensed what felt akin to panic on its face.

Reg looked up from the clump of crystal and tech as the ship shuddered, and the ambient noise changed slightly.

Ash listened for a moment, then looked at Reg. "I think we just dropped out of warp! Are you ready?" she asked with a fierce look.

"Y...yeah. One sec." He made a final adjustment, and then activated the bomb, tossed away the safety pin and Fledgeling Mint he'd been using, and shouted, "Cover!" as he ducked behind a crate, claws going up to cover his ears.

The explosion rocked through his body, leaving him feeling a bit shaken. He looked out to see the entire bulkhead torn up, and the cargo bay doors lying in the hall, looking bent and abused. "Eheh...maybe I went a bit overboard."

"Looks good to me!" Ash and the rest of the griffons ran for the door. She peeked outside, and was greeted by poorly aimed weapons fire from the right. "Nnng. Two of 'em out there. The corridors are a bit tight, but don't stop moving. And..." She paused, glancing back towards the other, still-unconscious abductees "...do your best not to kill them. That could just make things worse." Another random burst of fire flew past the doorway, earning a glare from her. "A few broken bones, though...that should be fine." That said, she seemed to focus for a moment, and spread her wings slightly.

Reg noticed a faint glow forming around them. 'Wingkata? Who is this griffon?'

Before he could ask, Ash nodded. "Let's go." She brazenly stepped out into the corridor, moving swiftly to the fallen bay doors. Orange-colored beams lanced out towards her, but she just raised her wing, blocking the incoming fire without even a flinch. As the beams faded, she reached down and in one smooth motion plucked up a chunk of door debris and heaved it down the hall, earning a panicked exclamation from the aliens.

She glanced back to see the others gawking at her from the doorway. “What are you waiting for? Come on!” She picked up another large piece of debris, using it as a shield. “Charge!”

“Hey now!” Ears back, Applejack held up her hooves. “Let’s not be hasty!”

The alien was about to respond, when one of its bridge crew came up close and whispered something to him.

AJ signaled Fluttershy to mute their audio, and asked Twilight, “You picking up anything?”

Twilight fretted for a moment before responding, “There was some sort of minor explosion just after we dropped out of warp...it could have been secondary damage from our interception, but I’m not picking up any plasma leaks…”

The alien’s expression grew even more panicked, and he responded shortly to his cohort before waving him away.

Applejack did her best to smile reassuringly as Fluttershy restored the audio, “Now, I’m sure we can come to an agreeme-”

“No! You want a deal, here’s your deal!” The alien gestured vaguely behind itself. “Go home now, or--or I give the order!”

Reg finished dragging the stunned body of an unlucky griffon down the hall, and returned to where Ash and two others were hunkered down at a junction, held in a standoff by a group of aliens.

Ash glanced at him as he came up. “Having fun yet? Beats my first job anyway. Hate retail," she said with a harsh bark of laughter. "Any ideas? I not sure we can get by these guys without more casualties.”

“Uh...cover me.” As the others fired down the hall, Reg peeked out, trying to take in as much as he could of the view of the next section. “Huh...looks like some sort of relay station…wait.” He glanced around the junction they were in, then tapped at a section of wall, muttering, until he suddenly jammed the hydrostatic calibrator he'd found earlier into a seam and pried a panel open.

“Wha…” Ash raised an eyebrow at him. “What’d ya find, Mr. Wizard?”

“It’s a power conduit that feeds into that relay.” He ground his beak for a moment. “If we overload it with a disruptor blast, it might discharge down the hall. It depends on how well shielded their power system is…” He looked doubtfully at her.

She winced as another volley of fire blazed past, and blindly responded, before looking back at Reg and shrugging. “Worth a try.” She tossed him her weapon.

He caught it, stood back, and fired into the open wall section, holding the shot until the weapon burbled a warning and stopped.

The griffons all stood by, warily looking around as a low noise hummed through the area, slowly building in intensity until a muffled ZAP echoed from down the hall, eliciting strangled noises from several of the aliens.

Ash glanced down the hall, and saw one of them still standing, weapon at the ready as he glanced back to his fallen comrades. One of the other griffons leaned out to fire, but the frantic alien saw it and fired first, striking his arm and making him squawk in pain. Ash saw that the shot had left a serious burn mark--'guess they turned up their weapon power...well screw this.'

Ducking around the corner, she raised her wing and blocked the first shot, grunting as it blew away the last of her focused wing magic and scorched a few feathers. She dodged the next shot by leaping into the air and grabbing ahold of the ceiling, then pounced on the alien as it was gawking up at her. A kick to the arm yielded a satisfying snapping of bone, and a sock to the jaw cut off the creature’s cry of pain as it slumped to the floor.

Reg shuffled up as Ash was prodding the other aliens, making sure they were out for a while. “Uh...wow.”

She just grunted at him, then said to the others, “Gather up their weapons and figure out some way to secure them.” She gestured at Reg. “So...that stun blast was you sending a pulse from downstream of this relay, right?”

“Y...yeah?”

“So…” she grinned wickedly “...what happens if you send a pulse to whatever’s upstream?”

“--or I give the order!”

Applejack’s smile turned dark, and she spoke through bared teeth, “Now, I’m offering to end things peacefully here. I don’t know how you think killing our people is going to get you any better outcome, but trust me--it won’t.”

The alien’s stared at her, its left eye twitching nervously, but before it could respond the lights on his bridge began to flicker, and his ship was rocked by a small explosion.

“Captain!” Twilight whispered, “I’ve been reading what I’m pretty sure is weapons fire, and now I’m picking up power fluctuations all across their ship--it looks like their EPS grid is overloading.”

AJ just raised an eyebrow as she turned back to the alien captain, to see him frantically tapping at a console. He glanced up and started, before letting out a rather feeble, “Just go away!”

As his lights flickered again, Applejack spoke in a slightly more relaxed tone, “Now, it seems to me that you have a situation on your hands over there. Never let it be said that a Starfleet captain isn’t helpful to someone in need, so how’s about a new deal: power down your engines and weapons, and I’ll go on your intercom and try to get your shipload of angry griffons to stand down.”

Shining Armor kept a close eye--as well as the business end of his phase pistol--on the sullen-looking ‘Ferengi’ who were standing to the side near their ship’s airlock. A group of dazed-looking abductees had already passed by, and the stolen cargo had been transported away.

Now a string of battered, bruised, and in one case scorched-looking griffons were sauntering into the docking bridge, looking rather pleased with themselves. The last to leave were a rather scrawny fellow, followed by a female that moved like a trained fighter.

Nodding to the other members of his security squad, Shining Armor sidled towards the door and let them pass through first. He looked at the angry ship’s captain, and just said, “Thank you for your cooperation.” He received nothing but a heated glare as he backed through the door and hit the awkwardly small close button, breathing a sigh of relief as the door hissed shut.

He turned and entered the bridge between the two ships, seeing the tail of a security officer already disappearing into the Trailblazer. A groaning noise made his ears flick backwards, and then a ripple through the docking bridge made him stumble. 'They’re tearing away from the ship!'. He shoved himself to his hooves, and desperately tried to make it down the flexing length of the tube--ten meters.

Eight.

Six.

A horrible, tearing, screaming noise of tortured metal and liberated air told him his time was up, as the bridge’s gravity plating gave out, and then a rush of air sucked him away from the Trailblazer airlock. He reflexively slammed up a small shield, capturing as much air as he could. His adrenaline-charged brain idly noticed that the docking bridge was ripping away on the other end--as it twisted away, slamming into and cracking his shield, brushing him further from any salvation and sending him into a spin.

'...Two minutes.'

That was what they said, at least. Two minutes of air was all a standard, personal mageshield could hold. He tried to control his breathing, as his view swung about wildly, debris from the two ships’ docking systems still spreading around him.

The Ferengi ship, pulling away--running? But then it began to turn.

His view was still obscured by the bulk of the bridge, but he could make out the Trailblazer holding station. 'What are you doing? They’re coming. Evasive maneuvers!'

A flash, as the Ferengi ship came back into view--blobs of hot plasma flying by, only a couple dozen meters away. He couldn’t tell if it would hit. Another flash, as the ship left his view, and this one came close.

Too close. It slammed into the expanding debris field, and a wave of hot shrapnel tore into his already abused shield. As a chunk of the Ferengi airlock slammed into it, he lost the battle, and the last of his air rushed out through the fading fragments of his protection.

With a painful pop, all sound disappeared, and he was left only the feeling of his heartbeat. He lightly closed his eyes, as his sublimating tears began to sting.

'Cadence.' He began to shiver, as his lungs reflexively tried to pull in air that just wasn’t there.

'Twilight.' The sliver of a view from between his eyelids began to fade to black.

…

As something heavy-yet-soft slammed into him, he felt a grip like iron take hold around his withers. His eyes shot open, revealing the face of a determined looking griffon.

As he felt the griffon’s grip begin to pull him back towards the ship, he lost what was left of his consciousness.

“Report!” Applejack shouted, as she resettled herself in her seat, ship still rumbling with structural vibrations.

Ensign Scratch’s hooves were flying across her console. “The Ferengi ship moved away without undocking, Captain! Reading failures all over the port dock, but no other damage.”

“Ma'am,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “I’ve got a decompressional thrust coming from port. Something isn’t sealed up right.”

“Hold position for the moment, Lieutenant, we--”

“Captain!” Fluttershy spoke with rare volume, “I’m reading Shining Armor’s locator outside the ship!”

Applejack blinked at Fluttershy, then turned back to Rainbow, “Hold position, hard.” She moved quickly over to Fluttershy, “get me anybody near the port dock!”

The comm wavered for a moment before a harsh voice came on over a howling background, “Security here.”

“What’s your status? We’re reading decompression, and Commander Armor off-ship!”

“Confirmed. The inner airlock door has failed, and I think two of the griffons are going to attempt a rescue of the Commander.”

Forcing herself not to glance at Twilight, Applejack asked, “How long?”

“...Unknown……..One of the griffons just jumped!”

“Captain!”

Applejack looked up at the sound of Twilight’s voice, ready to calm her, but found the unicorn was staring at a scan readout.

“The Ferengi ship is charging weapons, and I think they’ve got their shields back up!”

“Polarize the hull plating! Auxiliary power to inertial dampeners. Dash...hold position...of the dock.”

“Aye Ma'am! Thrusters on full…”

“They’re firing!”

The ship groaned as it it pitched forward, swinging around with the port dock as a pivot point.

“Missed!”

AJ turned to Rarity, who had taken the tactical station. “Return fire, aft cannons only.”

“Firing.”

“Their shields emissions are at eighty-four percent,” Twilight reported.

“Nnng. We can’t risk torpedoes until we can get away from this debris…”

“Incoming!”

The ship twisted again, then shook from an impact.

“Ensign?”

“One hit to the port pylon. Minimal damage. The blast was diffused by some of the debris.”

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie’s voice came over the comm, “She can’t take much more of this, Captain! I’m getting microfracture warnings on some of the medial supports!”

“Captain…” Dash hesitated as she successfully dodged another volley of plasma, “I think the decompression is gone!”

Applejack looked to Fluttershy, who had a hoof to her ear, listening. A tick later, the pegasus nodded, “They’ve got him!”

“Break away, full power--ready all forward weapons!” Applejack watched as the Ferengi ship came into view. Her face set into an angry snarl, “Light ‘em up!”

The forward phase cannons lanced out, impacting the Ferengi shields, as three torpedoes fired, their trails lancing out towards the ship.

Twilight turned from her station, “Captain, high energy signature approaching at warp...nine!?”

Applejack gave her an incredulous look, then turned back to the viewscreen as a massive Ferengi ship appeared, eclipsing their view of the smaller combatant. The Trailblazer’s torpedoes impacted the ship’s shields with minimal effect.

“Woah, nelly…”

“Ma’am, their weapons are charging,” Twilight’s tone became confused, “they’re firing...on the other ship?”

“What? Lieutenant Dash, take us up, z-plus five-hundred.”

With a few hoof swipes, the view outside shifted, revealing the small Ferengi ship, its shields down, with a broad blue beam surrounding it.

“It’s a graviton tractor beam, ma’am.”

The Captain rubbed a hoof along the back of her head, “Just what the hay is goin’ on… Helm, back us off, give’em some breathing room.”

“Aye, Ma’am,” Dash replied as her hooves slid across the controls, the ship in the viewport came into full view as the Trailblazer reversed on thrusters.

Applejack stared in awe at how casually the other ship had immobilized their attackers. “We’re so outclassed…” she muttered under her breath. “Can we go to warp?”

“Engines are ready at your command, Cap’n.”

“Be ready to jump to maximum warp--if we’re lucky, they’ll lose interest...”

Fluttershy spoke up suddenly, “Captain...they’re hailing us!”

“On screen.”

A new, more weathered-looking Ferengi appeared on screen. The Captain of the smaller ship was visible behind him, to his side, looking seriously crestfallen. He seemed to hesitate for a moment as the viewscreen synced, then spoke.

“Ah, greetings Federation ship! I must...apologize for the actions of my son and his friends, but you know how kids can be, eheh. They’ve been a bit rambunctious, but it seems like no harm has been done--certainly nothing that can’t be fixed with a little… latinum, yes?”

“Your...son?” Applejack asked with some confusion. This Ferengi had mistaken her ship for one belonging to some other organization and, given the circumstances, she wasn’t about to disabuse him of this notion.

“Yes, yes,” the Ferengi paused to glare back at his child, “When I told him he could take my old skipper out while I was gone, I never intended for the weapons to be charged, much less for him to be firing on our good friends in the Federation!”

“Yeah, well.” Applejack narrowed her eyes, looking at the--apparently--young Ferengi in the background. “I’m not sure how much Junior there has told you, but we definitely don’t take kindly to our good friends firing on colonies, stealing supplies, abducting citizens, and then spacing my tactical officer!”

The elder Ferengi seemed to blanch a bit at that, his smile turning into a grimace. He held up a hand, and said, “Ah...one moment.” He stalked back to his son, and grabbed a firm hold of his left ear--a situation the youth seemed none too happy about, as he let out a piercing shriek.

Applejack grit her teeth, and waved to Fluttershy to cut the sound. She then paused, and turned back to the pegasus, “Get me Sick Bay.”

After a moment, Cadence’s voice came on, “Y-yes, Captain?”

“What’s the status on Shining Armor? Will he be alright?”

“Yes, he’ll recover. He was exposed to vacuum for about a minute--generally he’ll recover in a few days, though his lungs and ears will take a little longer. If those griffons hadn’t helped…” her voice broke.

“Well, I’m glad they were in the right place. I know he has the best of care now, and I’ll let you get back to it.”

”Yes. Sick Bay out.”

As she turned back to the viewscreen, the Ferengi father was just wrapping up what appeared to have been a vehement dressing-down. Applejack signaled for the sound.

”--to the lowest bidder!”

”Fatherrr, they heard you!”

”They were supposed to!” With that, the Captain returned closer to the view, and smiled ruefully. “I must deeply apologize for the actions of my wayward son. Despite my best efforts to raise a proper, upstanding youngest son, it seems I’ve ended up with a brat who would rather burn the Rules of Acquisition to fuel his pirate ship. Do rest assured he will be…reformed to the best of my abilities.” He glared over his shoulder. “Starting with the sale of all of his possessions!”

“Well Sir, it seems that despite all that’s occurred, there’s been no irreparable damage done, so I think I’m willing to accept such a promise. Everybody deserves a second chance.”

“Ah, yes, yes. There’s that Federation spirit!” He grinned almost too widely, “Now, as a way of beginning his return to my…to our favor, I think he would do well to pay for your repairs, and any damage to the colony you mentioned.” He fiddled with a control panel to his right. “I hope the thousand bars of gold-pressed latinum I’m beaming over to your cargo hold will suffice?”

“Errr...” AJ glanced over to Twilight, who just shrugged. “Yes, that sounds quite reasonable…”

“Very good!” The Ferengi captain nodded vigorously. “I do hope this little incident won’t taint any future business relationship we might have with you or your colonies out here in the Beta Quadrant. In fact--” he snapped his fingers “--do tell your colony that Freg Zum will offer them a five percent discount on their first order! I am a specialist in acquiring all sorts of, ah, esoteric equipment.”

Applejack nodded. “I’ll do that. Y’all take care, now.”

Captain Zum nodded over clasped hands, and the transmission ended. The bridge crew watched in dazed silence, as the ship turned away and went to warp, towing the smaller ‘skipper’ behind.

The bridge was quiet for a moment, until Rainbow Dash stirred, and with her ears pinned murmured, “Uh, Captain? What just happened here?”

“I...I have no idea,” Applejack sighed as she rubbed her head with her forehoof. She slouched in her chair, “set a course for Little Roc, warp four. Engage.”

“...so all that’s left is to attach the new docking bridge hardware and we’ll be good to go. The weapons damage was quite minimal, thanks to Ms. Dash.” Rarity nodded to the named pegasus, who was standing across from her.

An uncharacteristically quiet Rainbow Dash perked up upon hearing her name, and then smirked, and shrugged nonchalantly, while Fluttershy responded, “That’s good. I know the Captain is a little impatient to get moving, now that Little Roc doesn’t need our help anymore.”

“She’s not the only one,” interjected Lt. Dash, “I’m getting tired of docking maneuvers.”

Before either of them could respond to that, a distinct griffon’s voice could be heard approaching. Dash’s ears flattened a little as her earlier thoughts returned to her. Will she ignore me again? You’d think after years, she’d at least say ‘hi’, no matter how things ended before…

The voice clarified, “...and I know that we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but… thanks again. Who knows what that ‘wayward son’ would have done with our people.” Gilda turned the corner, walking next to Applejack, and glanced around at the ponies waiting there, her gaze lingering for an instant on Rainbow Dash. Reg and Ash trailed behind the two leaders.

“Yeah, I could hope that Freg would have caught him and returned your people, but, well…” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Let’s just say I didn’t get an entirely honest vibe from him. I hope you’ll be careful if you decide to take him up on his ‘discount’.”

“Ehh, he’ll just be getting his own, uh, ‘latinum’ back. Not like we’d do anything else with it.”

Applejack nodded, and stopped as they arrived at the starboard airlock. She looked at Rarity questioningly.

Rarity blinked, and then spoke up, “Ah, unfortunately Lt. Pie had to be outside, supervising the portside dock repairs. She sends her regards.” Gilda snorted softly, while Rarity continued, “As for Ms. Sparkle-”

“I’m here!” With a clatter of hooves, the Lieutenant arrived at the airlock. “Sorry, I was in the Sick Bay.”

Nodding, Applejack looked to Gilda and spoke up, “Well, I just wanted to send you off with my thanks for your help with our repairs. It’s not that far anymore, but I still much prefer not heading back to Eros for repairs...you know bureaucracies.”

“Yeah, that’s why I moved out to the middle of nowhere. Though I guess you’re going further than that, eh?”

Applejack laughed, “You might say that, yeah. The universe is a big place, lot bigger than we used to think. We’re gonna need friends if we’re gonna make it, you know?”

“Well ah.. I mean that is… you’ve already found two friends, right?” Reg piped up nervously as he glanced over at Ash, who smiled.

Dash smirked at the cheesy line, and noticed Gilda looking askance at the engineer, then staring into the distance for a moment. Did she just glance at me again? I wish she’d say something...

“You know…” Gilda said, grinning “...you were interested in our shield crystals before, and I could really see them helping you out there, I mean, if Freg had been hostile, you’d have been toast, right?”

“Uh, well, I’m sure we would have figured somethin’ out,” Applejack muttered, not seeing where this was going.

The griffon waved an arm. “Of course, of course, but any little bit helps, right? Well, all it would take is a couple of crystal components to shield your entire ship! Who needs deflector shields when you’ve got unicorns on your crew?”

“Well…” Applejack started, rubbing the back of her head with her hoof. “I’d have to run that by my chief engineer of course…”

“You’ll have plenty of time to figure that out, don’t even worry about it; I mean, you’d need an experienced Little Roc crystal engineer to keep the system up and running anyway, and we happen to have one right here in your friend Reg!” Gilda’s grin was perhaps a little too wide.

Ash caught on before Applejack and eyed Gilda before ruffling up Reg’s feathers with her claw, “Well, I can’t leave him by himself you know, who knows what trouble he’d get into without the proper supervision.”

Gilda smiled a bit wider at that suggestion.

Reg glanced between the two, looking a bit baffled, but then turned to Ash, “Well, I guess a face from home would be welcome, if we are doing this…”

Rainbow eyed Gilda and Ash with a bit of suspicion, but then added, “Well, you know you wouldn’t be the only griffons here--not for long at least. We’re picking up a mixed combat specialist team on Starbase 3 on our way to the frontier.”

Applejack nodded, “Yeah, that’s right.” She eyed the three griffons for a moment, then said, “Well, I’m not one to turn down generosity, as long as you two are willing to come along for the ride. I can’t promise it’ll be a safe journey, but I’m willing to bet you’ll have some good stories to tell when we make it back home.” She said to Ash, “Given the skills you showed on the Ferengi ship, I think you’d make a fine Security officer.”

Ash saluted at that, while Reg thought for a moment, then nodded to the Captain, “It sounds like a real opportunity! And as long as Ms. Pie is okay with it, I think I can get the shield working before we reach the frontier.”

“Great! I’ll send a shuttle up with your things in a few hours!” Gilda’s grin was definitely too wide now, and Dash promised herself she’d keep an eye on their new crew members.

The gathering at the airlock broke up, as Twilight took it upon herself to get their new friends settled, and took them off to see Shining Armor. Before long, Applejack had given a final profuse thanks to Gilda, gave Dash a look, then nodded and walked off.

Dash blinked, and looked around, realizing she was alone with Gilda. She looked nervously at the griffon. “Uhm...hey.”

Gilda looked at her without much of an expression, then grunted, “Yeah. I hear you did some fancy flyin’ out there. Still a showoff, huh?”

“You know it.” Dash smirked at her, then grew serious. “Hey, listen...I know you’ve probably got your own reasons for doing this, but...thanks for the help. When that Ferengi ship came in at warp nine...well, I knew we’d probably be the runt of the herd out there, but I guess I didn’t feel it until right then.”

“My own reasons, huh?” Gilda glared at her for a second, then nodded roughly, and turned and walked through the airlock door. She looked back, her claw on the door control, and then grinned. “Yeah, I guess so. I’ll see ya when I see ya.” Her look softened ever so slightly. “Fly well, Rainbow Dash.”

The door slid shut before Dash could respond, and she stood there stewing in confusion while the docking hardware clicked and thunked, as the Little Roc shuttle disengaged.

Finally, she shook her head, and turned to leave, but her ears were drawn backward by one extra little thump that she didn’t recognize. She glanced over her shoulder at the interior wall, but saw nothing but storage lockers and an emergency kit. New ships settle, right?...I should tell Pinkie.

She walked away, not hearing the breathing coming from one of the lockers.

Captain's Log, fifteenth spring. After a successful--if unplanned--first mission, we are now beginning the first leg of our official mission, and making our way to Starbase 3. With two new crewmen, and a bit of new tech in the works, I feel even more confident that we have the strength, smarts, and will to push the frontier to its limits. Our experiences on this brief detour solidify in my mind the need for us to complete this mission--as much as I would like it to be different, we’re small fish in a very big ocean, and we are going to need all the friends we can get.

Applejack sighed, then saved the log entry, and left her ready room. She nodded to her officers as she took her chair back from Rarity, and keyed the comm.

“Ms. Pie, how’s my ship doing?”

“Purring like a kitten, Ma’am! We’re good to go at your command.”

“Very good.” She turned to Rainbow Dash. “Set course for Starbase 3, warp four.”

“Aye aye!”

“Engage.”

Jean-Luc Picard stirred in his chair and looked up from his book, feeling a change in the air of his quarters. Before he could look about, a voice spoke from behind him.

“Don’t call security, it’s, well...me.”

“Q.” Picard closed his eyes and sighed. “What are you doing here?”

“I have a message.”

“I’m not sure I care what you have to say,” Picard said after a moment’s pause.

“It’s not a message for your benefit, just listen. You are… the only one who I really trust with this information Jean-Luc. Take from that what you will but I come to you in complete honesty this time.”

“...go on then.”

“How’s your history, Jean-Luc? I can’t give too much away you know, even for the right reasons but… Are you familiar with the NX-Class starship Odyssey?”

“What does--”

“Just...be prepared, it’s a big universe for them and they’re going to be lost.”

He turned towards Q’s voice, but further questions died on his lips when he saw the room was once again empty. He thought for a moment, then regretfully put up his book, and went to look up what he could on the Odyssey.

“A lost ship? He couldn’t mean the crew…” the aging captain mused to himself. That would be far too simple for Q to even bother getting involved, and it wouldn’t have been the first time either, he figured, remembering the incident with the Bozeman.

He rubbed his forehead, not for the first time lamenting his interactions with Q. Still, as far as Q encounters had gone, hunting down a ghost ship was probably the least problematic.

He looked over at the clock and decided, however, that this would be a problem to be tackled in the morning.

Author's Notes:

So it took a while, but it was totally worth the wait I'm sure.

Many thanks to the "A"-team.

Epona Pt. 1

Author's Notes:

How many years has it been? let's open on a two parter.

Captain’s Log 14th of Spring, 1015 C.C.,

We’re just over three days out from Little Roc--well on our way to the frontier. Thus far, this ship and her crew are performing admirably. After thorough shakedown tests, Ms. Pie has nudged our cruising speed up to Warp 5.2, which means it’ll be only another week till we reach Starbase 3.

I have faith in the mission. Even if our experiences so far have been somewhat less pleasant than we’d been anticipating, the crew handled it well. I have every confidence that they will continue to do so.

I’ve decided, in light of the events on Little Roc, that we can afford the time to make a small course diversion past the Epona colony. We don’t expect trouble, but it would be a nice gesture to the colonists… to let them know that they’re not quite so alone anymore.

~

The star lines in the bridge window slowly shrank as the ship decelerated, the deck vibrated as the engines throttled back from high warp and the starship slid into an orbit over the small blue and green ball below.

Vinyl looked over her readouts and nodded before turning in her chair, “Captain, we’ve entered orbit around Epona.”

“Very good, Ensign.” Applejack turned towards Fluttershy. “Anything?”

A pensive look on her face, she replied, “Still nothing, Ma’am. I’m definitely getting return pulses from their transmitter, but nobody’s answering my hails and I’m not reading any live data connections.”

“Well, maybe it’s a good thing we decided to drop by…” Applejack trailed off.

“Captain,” Vinyl turned to speak, “you never know with the outer colonies. Sometimes they don’t even regularly staff their comm stations, and it wasn’t like they were expecting us.”

“Maybe, but I’d rather not take any chances, maybe Little Roc has me uneasy but… we’ve got the time. We’ll send a team down. If nothin’s wrong, even better,” Applejack reasoned.

“Unofficial shore leave, nothing wrong with that,” Vinyl laughed.

“Ah, well, we have a volunteer then.” AJ raised an eyebrow.

The ensign’s face fell, but then she saluted. “Yes ma’m.”

Fluttershy softly added, “Um, Captain, maybe I should go. If there is something wrong with their comm systems, I could help.”

Applejack gave her a measuring look, then nodded. “Very well. In fact, I’m going to give you command of this one.”

The pegasus’ pupils contracted, and she let out a weak, “Ahh, umm...”

“Come now Lieutenant, I’ve seen your command simulation scores,” she said with an encouraging smile. “You’re qualified for this, but you need some real-world experience. A little colony liason like this is just the thing.”

Fluttershy swallowed, then nodded, determination coming to her face. “Yes Ma’m. I’ll take care of it.”

~~~

As the shuttle gave a small shudder, Fluttershy clutched at the crash cage that held her firmly to the copilot seat. She forced her mask of determination to stay to the fore as she looked askance at Ensign Scratch.

“Just a little reentry turbulence!” shouted the exuberant mare. “Should be smooth flying in a minute!”

The Lieutenant could only manage a weak grin as the shuttle shivered again. She glanced at the panel in front of her, where she’d opened a view of the rear cabin. Her four-pony security team was waiting, one of them apparently having fallen asleep. The craft gave one last shake, and then the air smoothed out. Fluttershy’s flight instincts told her they were in the clear even before the Ensign spoke.

“Looks good.” She gently adjusted their heading. “Coming up on ten kilometers to the primary colony site, heading in from the southeast.”

Peering out the forward viewscreen into a clear afternoon sky, Fluttershy could see the spires of the colony’s small downtown sector. She tapped a few commands into the console, then sighed. “Still no contact, though the automatic beacon is responding.”

“Yeah, I got it...locked on.”

Still staring out the window, ‘Shy suddenly noticed she was rubbing her hooves together, and forced herself to stop the old, nervous habit. “Um...circle us around the colony before you bring us down. Maybe we’ll get someone’s attention.”

“Yes’m.”

The colony grew a little larger as the ship swung around in a wide arc, yielding good views of the streets below. The wide, empty streets. Activating the lifesigns sensors, the Lieutenant let them sweep the ground as the shuttle passed overhead.

“Anything?” Vinyl’s voice betrayed a slight nervousness.

She pursed her lips as she replied, “Well...these scanners don’t do well through the prefab buildings, but there’s nothing definite yet.”

“H-how many people live here?”

“Just under four thousand, last report.” She looked over just in time to see a bead of sweat fall down the Ensign’s brow and curve around her glasses. Summoning up her best reassuring smile, Fluttershy reached over to pat Vinyl’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. There’s nothing nasty in the streets, and there are emergency shelters in the core colony buildings. If something bad happened, I’m sure they just pulled everyone back to safety.”

She didn’t mention that those same emergency shelters should definitely have had hardlines to the colony transmitter.

Doing her best to recover her nonchalant attitude, Vinyl nodded. “Of course, ma’am. We’re coming around onto the Spaceport… Reading all automatics fully operational.”

“Good. Bring us into the main dock and then seal it up after us.” She glanced at the approach vectors, then keyed the shuttle-wide comms. “Okay, get ready everypony--two minutes to doors open. No sign of any contagion, but I want us all in breathers for the moment.”

She was briefly envious of the speed at which the sleeping security officer came to life, jumping up and kitting out with the rest of her team. ‘Shy unlocked and raised her own crash cage, and then paused in her seat, and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, holding it. This is it. No more sims. This colony is depending on us. On me.

She quietly let out the breath, as the shuttle settled gently onto the landing pad.

~~~

Vinyl shielded her eyes as the hatch dropped and the sunlight coming in through the dock’s windows poured into the shuttle’s cabin. Her sunglasses quickly darkened in response to the sudden influx of light, but not before she flinched away from the stinging in her eyes.

“You know, I’m really more of a ‘night time’ pony…” she muttered as she descended the ramp.

The senior security officer spoke up, “Maybe next time you could just keep your mouth shut ‘nstead of snarkin at the captain.”

“Nah, could never do it, Cold Case. Gotta be true to yourself after all.” Vinyl swooned dramatically. “I could never live such a lie!”

He rubbed the base of his horn with a grimace. “I have no idea how you even made it through OTS with that kind of personality.”

“That sounds a lot like insubordination, Sergeant,” Vinyl warned, her eyebrow raised behind her lenses.

“You sound a lot like a teenager,” he snapped back.

“I am a teenager,” the unicorn admitted with a shrug, “that gonna be a problem?”

The enlisted pony blinked, his mouth working mutely as his brain tried to process this new information, but he shortly gave up, with a clipped, “No, ma’m. Sorry.”

Fluttershy gave the two a glance as she paused at the top of the shuttle ramp, but her attention was focused on the scanner she held in her left wing. After a few moments, she huffed softly. “No life signs in range.” As she put the scanner away, she added, “Power readings are low as well. Ensign Scratch, could you please check that dock terminal?”

As the pilot walked over to the indicated terminal, Fluttershy gave Cold Case a mildly chastising look, then turned and grabbed a toolkit from storage, adding it to her saddlebags. As she walked down the ramp, a glimmer in the mid-afternoon sunlight caught her eye, and she walked over to the window.

The colony was harsh and rocky, the world barely inhabitable. An uneducated Equestrian pony might have called it a wasteland, but she could see the farms around the perimeter, the carefully processed soil now readily providing for life. The saving grace was the ready supply of water provided by the Lon River, which flowed serenely by at the edge of the town. Dust in the sky tinted the light a yellowish red, making it feel later than it really was. The Lieutenant peered out the window, but could see no sign of whatever movement had caught her attention.

“Well, this ain’t great.”

‘Shy looked over at the Ensign’s words, to see the young mare rubbing the back of her neck. “The power?”

“Yeah, the dock’s on emergency. Drained most of what was left opening and closing the bay doors for us. I’m getting feedback from the rest of the port, so I guess the mains got cut somewhere outside.”

“Hmm...no data access, then.”

“Nah, none of the other systems have backups, and the dock doesn’t have enough to feed anything else. Maybe if we went outside we could pick up wireless to one of the colony buildings?”

She thought about it, then shook her head. “It’s looking less and less likely that this is a contagion, but I don’t want to risk exposure just yet.”

Vinyl looked a little impatient as she responded, “Well...we’ll have to do something. There’s not even enough power left to do full purges as we open up the airlocks on the way to Command and Control.”

“Uh, ma’m?” One of the security officers ducked his head as all eyes turned to him, and he adjusted his red cravat. “Er...I’m familiar with this type of dock layout, and its power systems. I think I could patch the shuttle’s reactor in and power a fair bit of the Port off that. Would only take a few minutes.”

Fluttershy nodded. “That sounds perfect. Ms. Scratch, please assist Mr., um…”

Crimson Attire, ma’m.”

“Mr. Attire. Thank you for your initiative.”

As the two headed around the shuttle, Fluttershy went back to the windows with her scanner, and tried using a probe to pick up any outside signals. As she was sweeping through the bands, the sergeant came up next to her, and after observing for a moment, cleared his throat.

“I’m...I apologize for that, earlier, ma’am...”

She looked at him and gave a small smile. “It’s fine, Sergeant. I’d expect a little trouble in such a new crew. Missions like this will help us all become more familiar so we can pull together.”

He nodded, then looked out the window. “Are you...receiving anything?”

“No.” She tapped a few buttons. “I saw some lights as we passed overhead, but this power outage must be quite extensive. I’m picking up neutrinos consistent with their main power station, so it must be problems with the grid.”

“Huh.” His ears wiggled in confusion. “I thought standard grids were pretty redundant.”

“Normally they are,” said Vinyl, as she approached from behind, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if they cut corners here.”

As she turned to her, Fluttershy asked, “What do you mean? Why would they cut corners on something so important?”

Vinyl coughed. “It was in the colony data. They settled here because this bend in the river is the best of the few places where it slows to a sane flow rate, but it came with a tradeoff.” She waved out the window. “This entire region is a thick bed of olivine-pyroxene with heavy corundum veining throughout.”

She received blank looks from the other two ponies.

“Er...it’s tough stuff. Would be expensive and time-consuming to excavate, even with high-grade equipment.” She shrugged. “For a colony that’s just getting off the ground, I wouldn’t be too surprised if they only cut the bare minimum for utilities, and didn’t go in for extra redundancy.”

Cold Case snorted. “Yeah, when would that ever come back to bite them on the flank?”

Fluttershy sighed, then blinked as the main dock lights came on.

“Cool,” Vinyl said, “it worked. We should be able to-”

They all flinched as a screeching noise played over the audio systems in the room. When Fluttershy glanced around she noticed Cold Case had his weapon halfway unholstered. Then, a garbled audio transmission cut in:

“Lone Star...sheriff...auto-send in a day, just in case.”

The viewscreen at the terminal cleared up just long enough to give a glance of the face of a haggard-looking blond stallion with a dark brown mane, dressed in a brown vest, with a silver star pinned to it. The view distorted and went to static again, as the audio continued.

“Some foals disappearing...ponies...disappearing from the fields.”

The audio distorted again, and Fluttershy hurried over to the terminal and tapped at it a bit. “It was stored in the transmit buffer. Never sent, and the power loss heavily degraded it. I think I can get a little bit more…” With a last keypress, the audio came back, slightly clearer.

“...predators on this planet! The surveys...big mistake…get away from...ourselves.”

The Lieutenant fretted a bit, saying, “It looks like there’s only a little more, at the end.”

“...in the mines...taste good. ...taking ponies with me...weaponry. ...what’s left of our dead…damned monsters.”

With a final squeal, the audio cut off.

Fluttershy stared unseeingly at the terminal, until she heard a dry cough from beside her.

“M...monsters?” Vinyl sounded very young.

Shaking her head, the Lieutenant said, “It was a broken-up recording. We don’t know the full story, here. In fact, we barely know any of it, and we won’t know more until we move on.” She tapped at the terminal for a moment. “I’m setting up a staged reopening of the doors up to the main communications bay. Sergeant, please proceed according to protocol for unknown threats.

As the security team moved off and began reopening the spaceport, Fluttershy looked over to Ensign Scratch.

The Ensign just grinned, perhaps a little too hard. “Ready for action, Ma’am!”

~~~

Applejack stared in the steam rising off her cup of coffee with a far off glassy look in her eyes. Lost in thoughts, miles away and years ago. Wondering if she’d made the right decision, remembering the mare she’d met back then.

“Bit for your thoughts?”

The orange pony blinked, startled, and looked up to the speaker, “Hey Rare, just thinkin’ about the mission.”

The first officer hummed and nodded her head, “I admit, it’s been on my mind as well.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow and pulled a face, “So, I wasn’t the only one with doubts about it.”

Rarity’s like curled up into a smile and shook her head, “You misunderstand, I would worry no matter who you’d sent down there… But I don’t think you made the wrong choice. You saw a potential in her, and, well, I think that is one of your gifts.”

Applejack nodded with a slight frown, considering the other mare’s words. “But ya still worry?”

“Oh yes, anything could happen down there.”

~~~

The wide, interlocked double doors slid open with a gentle swoosh, revealing the command and control room for the Starport. A simple room with a central display hub and a dozen different consoles around the periphery, it might have been a tad cramped when fully staffed. Cold Case peered through the emergency lighting, then slowly crept inside, but it was as empty as the rest of the port had been. The rest of the away team filtered through the door.

"Ensign Scratch, please check for anything useful in the core colony utilities. I'll look over comms." Fluttershy moved to a terminal and called up basic diagnostics and any records of the system layout. The main antenna was over a mile away, atop a hill that overlooked the city, and diagnostic logs showed it operational up until four weeks ago…then, no response.

Vinyl cleared her throat. "The diagnostic wireless mesh is still mostly working, but it looks like there's a bunch of breaks…mostly around the outside of the city, but there's minimal redundancy, so it was enough to cut the bulk of the city off from the primary reactor and the solar field." She tapped a few buttons, then added, "It looks like the few places that have power are getting it from the emergency reactors in the shelters."

The Lieutenant nodded. "Okay. The antenna and transmitter seemed to be working, but then the link just disappeared." She sighed, and shook her head. "There's very little exposure on the lines, but it looks like the same cost-savings may be the problem. All of the backup lines run through the same conduit as the main."

With a grimace, Vinyl muttered, "So there's a single point of failure…"

"Yes." Her eyebrows rose. "There's a power and data junction in the maintenance tunnels below us. I think…" She tapped a few buttons, and a hatch slid open to one side. "There, maintenance access. I'm going to head down and take a look…maybe I can patch it, or at least get in contact with the shelters. Vinyl, please stay here and try to route power a little better--there’s no reason for the shuttle to be powering the entire port, and we might need it later...”

She turned to leave, then blinked as Cold Case stepped in front of her to peek through the hatch first. He looked back and called out, “March, Time, you stay here. Attire, you’re with us.”

Fluttershy waited for the two security ponies to precede her, then glanced back to Vinyl and gave her a nod before moving on.

The hatch led to a narrow, dimly lit corridor that had obviously not seen use in a while. A cloud of dust rose up from each hoofstep, slowly permeating the air within and making her glad for her breather. After only a few meters, a slight turn opened up to the right, and she called ahead, “This is it. Stairs down to the utility level.”

Cold Case glanced back, the beam from his neck-mounted flashlight wobbling, then waved Crimson into the stairwell. He pulled a small tube from one of the pockets on his red peytral, then bit it and twisted slightly. With a soft crack, the tube began to emit a bright blue-white light. He dropped it at the junction before he noticed the Lieutenant watching. “Ah...just in case, ma’am.” He moved on towards the stairs.

Fluttershy peered down at the glowing tube, then glanced around, down the dark, dusty corridors. With a shiver, she moved on.

The stairwell was surprisingly well lit, as Crimson had been busy, dropping his own glow tubes on every landing. She found herself grateful, as the steep metal stairs were hard enough to safely navigate when lit. They descended several flights, until the minimal noise of the deserted port above had faded away. Despite her generally ground-loving nature, Fluttershy found her pegasus instincts making her sweat at the feeling of bedrock all around.

Finally, they reached another hatch. Crimson Attire was looking off to the side, where the stairs continued further down. “What’s lower than the utility level?”

With a dubious look, Fluttershy responded, “I don’t know. It wasn’t on the schematics.” She squinted downwards. “The walls look more natural down there...maybe it goes into a preexisting cave?”

“Whatever the case, we’re where we need to be.” Cold Case already had the manual release to the hatch in his hoof, and with a jerk, the door slid open a few inches.

Crimson looked through the door as the Sergeant pulled it open, then nodded. “Clear.” He paused. “...Do you smell something?”

The other two sniffed gently at what should have been pure, filtered air coming from their breathers, then Fluttershy nodded. “Ozone.”

With a few more minutes of travel down even dustier corridors, as well as tunnels through the rock itself, they drew into a slightly more open, domed room. Therein, they found the source of the ozone: the sparking remains of what had once been the starport’s main power conduit.

“Well, ponyfeathers. I guess we can rule out accidental damage.”

Fluttershy nodded absently as she examined the wreckage. The light, fenced cage which had surrounded the junction had been ripped open, the door hanging from a single hinge. Inside, it appeared the hoof-thick power conduit had been ripped apart, a good half-meter segment of it completely gone. The communications panel was in no better shape, with entire chunks of circuit boards broken off, and fiber optics shredded and missing. She huffed, then carefully moved into the cage, staying on the comms side. “I’m going to see if there’s any way I can patch into either side…”

“Careful ma’am, there’s a lot of voltage going through those lines, with that damag--”

“I know, Crimson, but we’ve got to find out what happened to the ponies here. That means trying to get a comm link up,” Fluttershy explained as she stepped closer to the frayed end of the comm line, a datapad in hoof.

She hesitated and turned, “Crimson?” Her eyes scanned behind her, “Cold, where’s Crimson?”

Cold Case took a sudden step back and he scanned the room for threats, he hadn’t heard anything, and yet… and yet the other pony was gone. “Ma’am, he’s… he’s not here. We need to move, now!”