"Captain's log, stardate one-five-one-three-point-one. Today is the anniversary of the founding of the Federation, and to mark the occasion my crew and I have received special orders from Starfleet. We're to meet up with a delegation who were sent to conduct peace talks on the border of the Yakkon Empire and safely escort them back into the nearest starbase. With the Golden Oak having recently been given a full tune-up by our Chief Engineer, I have no doubt that we'll be able to get there ahead of schedule." Twilight closed her communicator as she finished her log, giving her gold uniform a quick brush down before finally hearing the hissing sound of the turbolift opening.
Stepping out onto the bridge, she was immediately spotted by her second, the young dragon clad in the blue uniform of the science division, whose hands were clasped behind his back. The youth gave her a quick nod before speaking up to the rest of the present crew. "Captain on the bridge."
Twilight nodded back to him. "Thank you, Mr Spike." Moving over to her chair, she got herself comfortable before looking to her right hoof once more. "What's our status?"
Spike looked over to the nearest console, giving it a quick look-over before relaying the information to his Captain. "All's well so far. We just entered into the last stretch of our journey and should be meeting up with the delegation's vessel shortly."
Nearby, their Communications Officer, Rarity, looked over from her own console, all while holding her earpiece to her head. "Any word on their success, Captain?" Seeing the grimace Twilight gave from that, Rarity nodded, understanding. "Ah, that bad, was it?"
Twilight sighed. "They tried their best, but things with us and the Yakkons are never going to be sunshine and rainbows I fear."
And speaking of rainbows, said mare now entered the bridge off the turbolift herself, followed shortly by their resident Chief Medical Officer. "For the last time, Fluttershy. I'm fine!"
The Doctor looked to her with not only concern, but also some degree of tiredness, no doubt from her patient's lack of cooperation. "Now, now, I just want to make doubly sure you have all your blood back. You were in quite a pickle yesterday."
Rainbow gave a huff as she moved over to her station. "Hey! How was I supposed to know she was actually a giant space-leech in disguise?!"
Fluttershy arched an eyebrow. "Well, you didn't have to be as, well, eager as you were."
A dry chuckle from Rainbow. "Hey, you know our line of work, Fluttershy. Put me on a mission and then have me meet a pretty, green-furred mare? What did you think was gonna happen?"
Fluttershy put her hoof to her forehead in exasperation over that, but said nothing as their pilot, Pinkie, looked over to the Captain. "So, got any plans for the big anniversary?" she asked excitedly.
Twilight smiled as she reclined into her chair. "Oh, nothing special. Just curling up with a good book, as usual."
Pinkie deflated just a touch, then perked right back up as she started recounting her own plans. "Well, I'm gonna start by trying out this super-special cake recipe I've been dying to try out. And then, just to make sure it's special, I'll double the recommended sugar content!"
Fluttershy winced. "Well, I'll save you a spot on my check-up list. You're going to need it."
They all had a good giggle at that, but then they were interrupted by a sudden beeping from Rarity's side of things. All eyes turned to her, and after listening to her earpiece for a few moments, the pale unicorn turned to the rest. "General warning from Starfleet. We've got a problem in the area and they want every ship on alert just in case we're needed to go in."
Rainbow frowned, then looked to the data on her own console, specifically which region of space they were currently in, before groaning and looking back to Rarity. "Uuuuuuugh! The giant, green space hand?"
Rarity nodded. "The giant, green space hand," she confirmed.
Rainbow buried her face into her console's buttons. "Again?! It's like every Thursday with that guy!"
Twilight sat upright, looking the very model of professionalism. "Be that as it may, we have our orders. Rarity, send word ahead to the delegation. We might be late picking them up if we have to go into this proper." After seeing Rarity nod in agreement to her orders, Twilight then pushed a button on the armrest of her chair, speaking into it. "This is the bridge. You read me, AJ?"
"Loud an' clear, Cap'n!" the voice called back.
"Any chance we can squeeze out a bit more speed out of our engines? We might need it in a moment."
"Ah'll try, but ah'll warn ya right now, she might not take it," the engineer warned.
Twilight nodded. "Understood. Bridge out."
Rainbow slammed one hoof into another, grinning to herself. "Oh yeah! Getting ready for a fight! Now that's more like it, space-hand or not!"
Fluttershy frowned disapprovingly to her. "Rainbow!"
Rainbow shrugged. "What? You all know that's way more exciting than escorting a bunch of stuffy ambassadors home."
Rarity added her own voice to that. "I say, Rainbow. You can truly be anathema to proper priorities sometimes. Need I remind you that those ambassadors are still dangerously close to Yakkon territory? We cannot simply leave them to go rushing headlong into a space battle."
Rainbow tapped her own chin, then shrugged again. "You know, you're right. I'm sure the ambassadors will be pretty grateful we decided to come to them instead of going on the more exciting mission. Including that, oh, what was his name?" She then took on a sly look as she focused her gaze on Rarity. "Ambassador Blueblood, was it?"
Instantly, Rarity's eyes widened with horror, and after chuckling nervously she looked over to her Captain. "Well...you know...Rainbow might not be entirely wrong to suggest that we deviate from our orders."
Twilight shook her head to this, looking down to her second-in-command. "Times like these just remind you how hard it is to be Captain, eh?"
Spike smiled to her. "Oh, I know all about hard choices, Captain. I am, after all, a dragon raised by ponies. Deciding where I belong and who I am are questions that have plagued me all my life."
Twilight blinked a couple of times before looking to him incredulously. "Really? The child-of-two-worlds speech? Again?"
Spike sighed. "Look, my day just doesn't feel complete unless I've given it at least once, alright?"
Before anyone could say anything further, there was a sudden blaring from Rarity's console. "Incoming distress signal, Captain! It's from an m-class planet in the local system! They're requesting aid!"
Twilight leapt from her chair. "What's the situation?" she asked hurriedly.
Rarity tapped a few buttons, trying to make further sense of the message they'd received, before again looking to her commanding officer. "From what I can gather..." Her eyes widened and she turned to the bridge as a whole. "It's a Yakkon raiding party!"
There was a stunned silence on the bridge after that, ending only when Pinkie gave a disappointed sigh. "Well, so much for peace talks."
Twilight ignored her, pointing straight ahead. "Sound a blue alert for now, and get us to that planet, Ensign!"
Pinkie saluted. "Aye-aye, Captain!" pressing a button, blue lights appeared all over the bridge, fulfilling the Captain's command.
Twilight looked over to Spike. "We'll need to put together an away team to head down there. I'll lead." After seeing Spike nod to her, she turned to Rainbow. "You're our best fighter, Rainbow. So you're coming with me."
Rainbow punched the air. "Yes! Right with ya, Captain!"
Twilight thought long and hard afterwards. "Away teams always need at least three, so I think I'll choose..." She glanced over everyone here, before finally locking her attention on a lone stallion sitting at a corner console, who until now had been utterly silent. "You!"
The stallion, whose name was not even asked for, looked to her with uncertainty, then looked down to his uniform, a bright red, before gulping and speaking up. "Um...maybe I'll be more valuable here and..."
Alas, he had no chance to continue with that, as Twilight had trotted over to him, taken him by the hoof and lit up her horn. Rainbow, recognising what was about to happen, flew on over, placing her hoof upon Twilight's shoulder, before inevitably being taken away by that teleportation spell of hers. With an instant, they were in the transporter room, where their Chief Engineer was waiting for them. "Howdy, Cap'n!" she declared with a salute. "Heard the blue alert and came down ere as soon as ah could!"
Twilight nodded to her. "Good mare. Now..." She, Rainbow and the unnamed stallion took their places on the transporter pad. "Get us down to the planet. Oh and better upgrade to red alert now."
Applejack pondered that. "Ya sure? It will mean changin' the bulb ya know." Seeing her exasperation, she backed off slightly. "Gettin' to it then."
Rainbow looked to her Captain with confusion. "Wait, if you can teleport, do we even need transporters?" Seeing the frown Twilight gave her, Rainbow looked away. "Right, sorry, questions for later."
Applejack gave another salute before pressing the buttons on the console. The machine whirred into life, giving the typical sound it made before bathing the three ponies in its light. After the usual tingling sensation of the transportation, Twilight opened her eyes to look to her new surroundings down on the planet below. "Huh, kind of looks like a gravel quarry."
Rainbow chuckled. "Heh, don't they always?"
Twilight opened her mouth to reply, only to be halted when she realised that it was only the two of them here. Immediately, she whipped out her communicator, opening it before speaking. "This is the Captain. Where's our number three?"
A moment passed before their engineer replied. "Ah hate ta say it, Cap'n, but there were a transporter malfunction. Destabilisation. Poor fella never made it," she answered solemnly.
Rainbow winced. "Oof, never even made it to the planet. That's gotta be a record." Seeing her Captain frown to her, she backtracked. "Um...Rainbow to Doctor. Any chance you can get our boy back?"
"Darn it, Rainbow. I'm a Doctor, not a necromancer!" Fluttershy called back.
After looking to each other, the now understaffed pair of mares looked around, knowing they'd have to go ahead with their mission regardless. And fortunately for the two of them, they didn't have to wait long before seeing their chance straight ahead. A chorus of yells and shouts could be heard for ages, and then finally, from around an especially large rock, they came into view. A group of at least a dozen Yaks, all bellowing together, which got even louder as they saw the two Starfleet officers. "Charge, Yaks! For the glory and honour of Yakkon Empire!" their leader called out.
Rainbow slammed her hooves together in eager readiness for the upcoming fight. "Bring it, hairballs!"
Twilight slumped her shoulders in resignation of this situation. "Guess diplomacy's out the window now." She lowered her horn, ignoring it for the coming brawl.
But then, said brawl never happened, and instead the mares bore witness to a strange sight indeed. The Yaks, as dangerous as they may have seemed, simply vanished into thin air, almost in the blink of an eye. Naturally, this caused both confusion and concern for the two ponies, who again looked to one another. But again, they said nothing, for the sound of raucous shouting was instead replaced with one of mirthful laughter. "Hoho, what a sight you two are! Did you enjoy my little display there?" A bright flash appeared before the two, and when it faded they were left to see a new figure on the scene. It appeared to be a Draconequus, though one garbed in a lavish, red mockery of a judge's outfit. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am DisQord! I knew the call of a distress signal would be a bait you couldn't resist, and now you must play my game! Succeed, and I shall judge ponykind worthy of continued existence. Fail and...oh...I dunno...I'll throw you a pet Tribble as a consolation prize or something."
"Take a dive!" Fluttershy shouted over the communicator.
Looking to her device, then to her new foe, Twilight simply facepalmed. "Well...just another day in Starfleet, I suppose."
Rainbow looked to her with a grin. "I know. Awesome, isn't it?"
