The Sovereign Chronicles - Of E-SEL and Sabotage

by Herononafence

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Dark, Human
Length: 2340

A signal from a distant world invites ponies to explore the galaxy.

It is the future, and science has advanced without end. Many astronomical projects have been created to answer the big question. Is there life out there?

Bristle Sparkle is a scientist working at one such project, and his succeeds.

Now a giant spaceship, the ESS Sovereign has been launched to investigate this alien world, with Bristle reluctantly onboard. It should be plain sailing, but the galaxy is far from perfect. Many dangers await the Sovereign and it's crew, and the journey of discovery becomes a fight for survival.

Destination: A bizarre planet called EARTH.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-06-20 16:25:25 UTC

Prologue: E-SEL

Before we can understand the E.S.S Sovereign, we must first understand its intergalactic voyage of discovery. It is the most famous Equestrian mission of discovery of all time, and all sparked from one crucial moment.

Whitetail wood is among the remotest places in Equestria. Since its first seed fell onto the fertile soil of the area only one civilization has attempted to live within it. The skies were always clear above the wood, so it is of no surprise that the Equestrian Astronomical Guild (EAG) chose it for their most ambitious project. It was called E-SEL (The Equestrian Search for Extraterrestrial Life) and consisted of five radio telescopes and a single lab which linked all of them. The lab was quiet, except for a rather bored scientist throwing a small rubber ball at a wall. This scientist’s name was Bristle Sparkle, a relative of the late Twilight. He was proud of his heritage. How could he not be? His great great grandmother had saved Equestria many times and was most famous. But somehow, it was her he blamed for the monotonous job he had ended up with. Every day he would walk into the lab and stare at a dashboard full of lights that remained off for the duration of the day, hoping that they would light up, but knowing that they wouldn’t. Quite similar to this was his love life. Hoping it would light up, but knowing it wouldn’t.

He threw the ball at the wall with an anger driven force. It bounced back too hard and flew past his hoof.

“Great, there goes my source of entertainment” he thought.

He stood up, untangled his long, black mane from his legs and walked over to the ball. He bent over and picked it up in his teeth. He walked back to his chair and resumed his position. For a few more minutes he threw the ball at the wall, and then he saw something he expected never to see in his life. One of the LEDs was flashing. He dropped the ball and walked over to the console. He watched the LED for some time, amazed at what he was witnessing. Then he realized something remarkable. The LED was flashing in Morse Code, and in fluent Equestrian. The message spelt out;

“Greetings from Earth”

Bristle had done it. He had found an alien planet, with intelligent life. This would mean Starswirl Awards, fame and even fortune! He smiled picked up the phone and phoned the EAG’s headquarters.

What Bristle actually got was far from what he had imagined. The EAG unveiled Project Sovereign, a manned mission to the alien planet “Earth”. Bristle was taken on board as chief science officer and an advisor to the engineering staff. He achieved the Starswirl Peace Prize and received more than enough to begin work on the ship. After 5 years of dedicated work and endeavor, the project was finished, and was to be launched with full crew compliment after a week. Much to his surprise and dismay, Bristle was assigned as chief science officer aboard the Sovereign. He protested, but eventually gave in to the mounting threats against his career. The ship launched without any trouble, and began on its journey. Its mission: Make contact with the inhabitants of Earth.

A Slight Hitch

"Apple pie, extra crispy"

The S.P.M hummed slowly into life and began to glow. Bristle watched as the photons of light swirled and condensed into the perfect apple pie. He took the pie from the machine and sat down at the dining table. The dining table was his second favourite place to be on the whole ship and when he was there he was happy. He began to cut into the apple pie. The smell that met his nose was perfect, as usual. That was the problem with this ship, everything was too perfect. Nothing went wrong and no meal was overcooked. He bit into the pie and smiled.

"Perfection" he said happily "Isn't all that bad"

The intercom bleeped. "Great" sighed Bristle "Something else has gone wrong"

He trotted over to the intercom and pushed the "ACCEPT CALL" button. The intercom flared into life and there was the face of Captain Beerbanks.

"Rise and shine, brains" Beerbanks ordered "We got another loose pressure coupling down on C deck. All the other engineers are off being engineers so I reckon you should be able to fix it, seeing as you built the damn thing"

Bristle blinked and answered “I didn't build it, I designed it"

"I don't care. I don't care if the bleedin' admiral designed it. Hell, I don't care if Princess Cadence herself designed it! I'm the alpha male, and you're currently the person I wanna shove into an airlock and blast out into the depths of space. Now fix that bloody coupling" The captain slammed the table and the line went dead.

Bristle looked at the blank screen dumbfounded and then sighed. He remembered back to the day he found Earth. He was going to go far; He had a career due to his discovery; He was showered in fame, riches and even cute little fillies at one point; He was elected to be Cadenza's royal astronomer at one point. He looked out of the window and into the vast expanse of space. How the buck did he end up here? He sighed again and wandered over to his cupboard. He opened it and removed the toolbox he owned. It used to fix scientific equipment. Now it was just used for fixing pressure couplings. It was a shame, they were good tools. What a rotten way to end their service. He picked the toolbox up with his magic and walked out of his quarters.

                                                                                       ●    ●    ●    ●

Bristle walked through the brightly lit corridors of the ship. Other ponies wandered past him and acknowledged him with a simple nod or an occasional “sir” from the cadets. He turned a corner and saw the coupling that had burst. He was about to walk over to it, but something faded into view out of the corner of his eye. He froze as the shape began to take form. It was a pony shape, and it looked like it was holding a thermal disrupter.

“Freeze” a calm, female voice said.

It was a familiar voice, one that Bristle knew very well.

“Alright Sugardrop, you got me. Now please never do that again” Bristle sighed

Sugardrop’s features came into form. She was a light brown filly with a long, blonde mane. She wore a bizarre looking watch on her front left hoof and also wore a very puzzled expression.

"Something the matter?" She asked. "Or are you being a jerk on purpose?"

Bristle shot her a stern look, to which she pretended to cower against.

"OOOH! The death stare!" She exclaimed in a sarcastic tone "Careful or my head might explode!"

Bristle sighed and looked out of a nearby window. Sugardrop cocked her head and then wandered over to Bristle.

"You really don't wanna be here do you?" She asked, trying her best to be sympathetic.

"No" He whispered. He was trying to hold back the tears that were coming to his eyes.

"Listen" Sugardrop said "You are my inspiration. My king. You're the reason I'm a scientist, and the reason that I'm your lab assistant. What I invented today, this cloaky thing, I invented from your formulae, your theories. You're not useless and you might as well be happy you're here because you're getting everypony down."

"Yeah, thanks. The more you shout at me the happier I'll be" Said Bristle. He tried to cram as much sarcasm into that statement as possible.

"I've got a psychiatric degree" said Sugardrop "If you wanna talk, I'll listen"

"I've got a coupling to fix" Stated Bristle "If you wanna help, I'll take it"

Sugardrop smiled, and then faded from view.

"I'm always here for you" She said.

Bristle smiled. Now he wouldn't know if he was truly alone or not. Trust science to invent things he didn't need. "Ah well" he thought " Back to couplings" He walked over to the coupling and put down his toolbox. Why did he even bring his toolbox? The job was pushing a wire in a hole and hitting the re-engage button. He picked up the wire that was on the floor and plugged it back into the wall. He was about to hit the re-engage button when he noticed something that worried him. The coupling computer hadn't logged any faults in the coupling. He turned to the screen.

"Computer, show engineering log for Coupling 59 mach 2-e."

The computer obeyed and a series of events appeared on the screen.

"Show most recent"

The screen zoomed in to the top of the list. The entry log read "COUPLING MANUALLY DISCONNECTED"

Bristle had discovered a sabotage. He had to report it. "At last, something exciting!" Bristle thought. However, as Bristle pressed the re-engage button he began thinking. Why the buck would anypony disengage a pressure coupling? The worst that could do is switch off the coffee machines. As Bristle thought, a dark pony, whose hair covered his face, wandered over to Bristle.

"Excuse me?" The dark pony asked.

Bristle turned around, only to be met with the sight of a pipe flying at his face at a high velocity. it made contact with the front of his forehead and all went black.

A Virus in the System

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.