The Sovereign Chronicles - Of E-SEL and Sabotage

Bristle slowly gained consciousness and looked around. He was under the engineering decks, underneath one of the generators. This area of the ship could only be accessed from the maintenance shafts which ran the length of the vessel. He was tied to a pole with an old piece of rope. He was trapped. Great.

Suddenly, he heard voices coming up the shaft that was open in the corner of the tube. He watched as three ponies dressed in the Sovereign uniform entered the room.

“Well, look who’s awake” Sneered the tallest “Our founding scientist! The carrier and savior of us all!”

He punched Bristle in the chest, and Bristle let out oof of pain. He looked at the mare who had just talked. He was a Pegasus, orange in colour with a target as his cutie mark. His eyes were blue and his mane was brown and he wore a bandanna over his left eye. Bristle was most disturbed by his cutie mark. The target meant that this pony worked for the ECMD (Equestrian Classified Missions Department), and that meant trouble. He’d be lucky to get out of this alive. He had to be diplomatic.

“What do you want from me?” He asked weakly

The Pegasus smiled coolly and walked over to a table where his earth pony friend had positioned himself, or herself, Bristle couldn’t tell.

“It’s very simple what we want” Stated the Pegasus “Give us the destruction finalization codes and we’ll let you live”

Bristle’s face dropped in horror, his eyes widening in surprise. The destruct code was only to be used to destroy the ship.

“What the buck would you do with that?” Asked Bristle.

“Simple” said the Pegasus "We know our mission of discovery is one of peace, but what if these... other life forms don't agree. If they have advanced enough technology they could turn around and fire a giant laser and destroy Equestria! Well, we don't want that. We're stopping this before it begins. We don't want to see our Equestria destroyed, but this ship means nothing to us, so therefore, we're gonna make some fireworks. Now, the code?"

"You think you're gonna get the code by asking nicely? No way, the code is staying in my mind!" Bristle proclaimed triumphantly.

The Pegasus turned to the earth pony at the table.

"Well then Cherry, guess your skills are needed again" The Pegasus said.

The earth pony wandered over to Bristle. She closed her eyes and frowned. Bristle felt like a drill was being shoved into his head. He screamed in pain and his body contorted into various complex and painful shapes. After what seemed like an eternity the pain subsided and Cherry, the earth pony, stood back and smiled.

"Ten, zero, five, six, Twilight Jetfire" Said Cherry to the Pegasus, who's name Bristle presumed was Jetfire. Bristle couldn’t believe it. She’d guessed it correctly! How the buck did she do that? That was impossible. Lots of technology had been invented, but there was no technology designed for extracting mental thoughts unless…

Bristle realized suddenly what was going on. Cherry was a psychic. The Equestrian Psychology guild had experimented with enhancing a pony’s mental capability, but the results had proven too unstable to exist, and so were destroyed. Obviously some were stable enough to live, and this was one of them. Bristle was momentarily impressed and then remembered the situation he was in. These ponies were going to destroy the ship. Fabulous.

Jetfire, who had the biggest grin Bristle had ever seen on his face, walked over to Cherry.

“Thank you my sweet” Jetfire said, and they kissed.

“Heartwarming” Bristle muttered coldly.

“Isn’t it just?” Said Jetfire “I think we’ll go and watch a big firework display! What do you think Cherry?”

Cherry giggled and looked adoringly into her lover’s eyes. Jetfire stared back, and then turned back to Bristle.

“But don’t worry Mr. Sparkle, we weren’t going to leave you alone. Brush?”

The third pony, who seemed to be getting impatient, looked up and smiled a toothy grin. Bristle couldn’t help noticing that most of them were missing, and so it was one of the most unpleasant things he’d seen. Jetfire and Cherry left the room and left Bristle alone with Brush. Brush walked slowly toward Bristle keeping the unpleasant grin on his face.

“I’m gonna show you what hell is, goody goody science stallion!”

“Great” thought bristle “I’m gonna get killed by a pony with an IQ less than 5!” and he braced for what was to come.