The Insignium

It´s now about a month after the first contact with a Changeling Battleship and the captain has once more been called to the Chamber of the council, as the throne room is called now, to talk with the Princess and her ministers.

” I have traveled here as fast as possible as I received your message, something new about the Changelings I presume.”, he asked as he entered the room,

“More or less.”, Twilight answered,

“Do you remember the Insignium Project?”, Rarity asked with a strict voice,

“Of course Ma’am”, the captain answered quickly,

“The General and I discussed for hours and came to the conclusion that you are the perfect fit as captain for the Insignium. ” She explained,

“I’m not sure if I’m really the pony for this, shouldn’t a unicorn who can control a lot on his own command such a big ship?”, the captain replied humbly.

“I think you are the perfect pony for the job”, said the immortal mare who just entered the chamber,

“Oh…Hello General Spitfire”, the captain exclaimed raising his hoof to salute her,

“Put your hoof down captain”, she said hating the whole military respect that her rank gets her. “By now you are officially captain of the Insignium”, Spitfire explained to him, “now follow me to the Spaceport your crew is waiting for you”. As they walk out the captain whispered to the general,

“I’m sorry ma’am I have to ask: Is it true what ponies say about your immortality?”, General Spitfire well knowing that by now it is common knowledge that her immortality wasn’t granted by the princess but is due to an incident that occurred while testing the first healing station , an overload of said healing station to be precise which caused nanobots to be a permanent part of her answered:

“Yes what they say is true”. After that nothing wanted to be said anymore and the two trotted to the shuttle and after they entered the Space station, they part ways, the general went to her office and the captain to airlock 3 to enter his ship. At the door he was immediately greeted by a unicorn sergeant:

“Hey pal you got assigned to the Insignium too?”, the captain was surprised by the mares tone but quickly realized that she didn’t know that he’s the captain so he answered:

“Yeah but not as voluntarily as I wanted, did you meet the captain yet?”,

“No”, she answered simply, “but I heard he is a combat expert and a star graduate of the Royal Starship School”,

”Oh do they talk so good about me?”, he asked teasingly,

“Oh I’m sorry sir I didn’t-”, the unicorn mare started,

“Expect an earth pony neither did I!”, he said with a snicker in his voice, “And put your hoof down that isn’t needed”, he added.

“So, I’m here to take you to the bridge Captain”, the unicorn said motioning him to follow her, “this way please.”. He followed her through what felt like a thousand lifts and triple the number of hallways they stood in front of a huge open doorway which leads to the bridge. “Captain on deck lads!”, the sergeant barked across the big room only now showing her slight Scottish accent, the captain trotted to this seat which surprisingly matched his cutie mark perfectly and with that showed that his special talent is not just being a captain but commanding the Insignium.

Four ponies lined up in front of him, the first one, Citrus, a yellow coated Pegasus mare with a joystick as cutie mark was the lead helm and essentially commands every thrust of the engines, the second one, Bullet, a brown coated Pegasus stallion with a bullet as a cutie mark and surprisingly of all things that make one special he wears a black fedora with his standard black uniform was the tactical officer which meant he commanded every shot erupting from the canons and launchers, the third one, Gearhead, a red earth pony stallion with a gear as his cutie mark was the technical officer whose job it is to keep everything running,Midnight Flyer, a white coated unicorn with helmet as her cutie mark was the drone commander commanding the drone pilots over a special intercom, the grey coated unicorn sergeant with the brown mane was the second in command and according to her red cross cutie mark the lead doctor on the ship.

Each of those five ponies had their own little spot on the bridge with their own terminals which connected them to their designated soldiers on the ship, all that was centered around the captains chair which was surprisingly empty except for a few buttons:

The Battle mode alert which would sound a siren through the ship and set the weapons and the medical section to immediate full attention, a button to activate a microphone integrated into the chair to communicate over the loudspeakers all around the ship, then two buttons next to each other, one activating a virtual interface to make/receive calls over the holocom in front of him and one to send an emergency broadcast, both blink if they register a broadcast directed to the ship, every other broadcast is handled by the Communication Officers.

And with that he opened the holocom and contacted the stations docking office,

“Space station Celestia this is the Insignium requesting permission to start.”,

“Permission granted captain good flight”, a robotic male voice replied. And with that the Insignium detached from the station fully loaded up on fuel and drones to join her fleet.