Star Trot

Note: This chapter is UNFINISHED. It will NEVER be finished; I just wanted to post what I had. Read why at the authors notes below. It hasn't been pre-read either; same reason with the answer on the same location.

Or will it be finished?... I kinda miss writing this story, I've gotta say... No, shouldn't go there.

Chapter 5 - When good mares go to war

Deck 1, Captain’s Office, PSS Equestallation,

Deep Space, 12 light years from Starbase 67,

Stardate 64429, 0700, Shipboard Time

Twilight sat in the chair behind her desk, staring at the glowing computer monitor in front of  her as if she was terrified of it. She had just awoken from a rather delightful, but in her tastes too short nap in her quarters, and now the first task of the new day loomed to her: Recording the captain’s log.

She had completely forgotten about recording her thoughts in the ship’s log yesterday due to all of the excitement… She could hardly believe this. Never, EVER had she forgotten about something in her schedule. Then again, she’d never been a captain of a flagship before, and she CERTAINLY hadn’t experienced such a devastating attack like the one they had experienced. Looking around, she took note that her office was still messy; several PDA’s(which she had quite a lot of to keep track of her large amount of tasks and reports) had fallen from her desk and the two chairs which stood on the other side of the desk were standing around not at all in the straight and symmetric way she wanted them to.

Shaking her head to snap out of her thoughts about useless things, she realized she was procrastinating: She had always hated captains logs… They were worse than commanding the computer, as if she was talking to herself. Clearing her throat, she began to speak.

“Captain’s Log, Stardate 64429.

This morning at 0107 hours the Equestallation was attacked by an unknown alien vessel upon trying to hail them. The… The…”

“Computer, restart captain’s log…” She muttered in frustration, her voice suddenly rather venomous.

”Begin Captain’s Log of the P.S.S. Equestallation, Captain Twilight Sparkle. Stardate 64429.

Yesterday’s launch of the Equestallation was a success. All crew performed satisfactory and all systems operated without any trouble. However, over the course of our first mission we were attacked by an unidentified alien vessel. We took heavy damage and most of our systems were disabled in the attack. After fending off boarding parties, we managed to escape the area when our FTL drives came back online.”

A slight smile of satisfaction creeped onto Twilight’s face; This was going a lot better than she had expected. Then again, her expectations hadn’t been all that high.

”Scans done on the alien life forms can be found in our medical records in case the federation wants to investigate them further. As  a captain, it is my duty to note that I believe this is essential to understanding and maybe finally coming to peace with the aliens for now dubbed ‘Unidentified Life-Form 451’. I  must also note that the crew has unofficially been calling them the Griïnd. Apparently this is Chiropteran for Gravel, referring to their unique skins.”

For a few seconds she found herself at a loss for words, not being able to come up with anything else to say. What she had formulated so far had been good enough for a report to federation command, but she was forgetting something. A frown began to develop on her face as she considered summarizing everything from the launch of the ship to the present hour, but that wasn’t really necessary and it wasn’t was she wanted to add…

Suddenly her face lit up a bit as she found herself victorious over her thoughts, finally remembering the last thing to add.

”I must also note that my XO, Commander Rainbow Dash, has frequently belayed orders and has a tendency to speak her mind when she should not. If this continues, I shall bring this up at the first performance review.”

Deck 3, Quarters of Commander Rainbow Dash, PSS Equestallation,

Deep Space, 12 light years from Starbase 67,

Stardate 64429, 0800, Shipboard Time.

Commander Rainbow Dash uncomfortably tossed and turned on the soft mattress in her bunk. She had been excused from her duties on the bridge in order to get some much needed rest after being up for most of the night, and she had only gotten around an hour of sleep before waking up again.

It wasn’t that the bed was uncomfortable. Quite the contrary; she loved bunk beds. She could have gotten a much bigger and, in the eyes of many, more comfortable bed, but bunk beds were cool. No, it was more that This was going a lot better than she had expected. Then again, her expectations weren’t all that high she was completely occupied with thoughts about recent events. Of course the attack on the ship played a major role in these thoughts, but it didn’t bother her the most. She had been kept awake by the memory of the Captain’s outburst the previous night(or rather, earlier that morning). She hadn’t meant to aggravate the captain. She was only giving her a suggestion… Was that a bad thing? Wasn’t that her job?

She sighed dejectedly, burying her head in the soft pillows. True, she had thought that it would be a much better idea to attack the alien ship, but Twilight could have convinced her that the retreat was a better idea by just talking to her instead of scolding her.

Or had she, Rainbow Dash, been wrong for once? Had she gone too far? She’d seen the annoyed looks the Captain gave her when she commented on orders and gave her own suggestions when Twilight had clearly made her mind up about it already. Maybe the Captain was getting more and more frustrated with her behaviour? No, No way… She was Rainbow Dash! She was always right!

…Right?....

“Ugh!” the Commander exclaimed out loud, sounding annoyed as she gave up on the hope of getting some sleep with all these thoughts occupying her head. Without thinking, she jumped out of the comforts of her bed, slightly forgetting that she had been lying on a bunk. A rather high bunk.

There was a short, panicked yelp and a rather painful sounding sound, followed by “Ow! Darn it!”. She sat up a bit, rubbing a small, painful lump that had sprung into existence on top of her head. In some kind of miracle, she had landed head-first. She retracted her hoof for a moment, checking if there was any blood on it. When this was not the case, she let out a sigh of relief, glad that she at least wouldn’t have to get to report to sickbay. This relief was short lived, however, as she winced at a sudden surge of pain. Mumbling a few other curses, she stood up properly and stumbled into her quarters’ small bathroom. This was NOT a good morning for her.

Reaching her target(the sink), Dash looked at her tired and bedraggled looking reflection in the small mirror above it. Even though she was used to staying awake entire nights, she still had small bags under her eyes and her mane was literally standing in all directions. This little detail wasn’t too unique, though; her mane was always standing in every direction imaginable.

Her hooves automatically found their way to the tap, releasing a flow of cool, refreshing water from it. There was all this technology that made their lives better and easier, it even let them explore the galaxy, yet a tap was still a tap and water was still water. There was nothing like a good splash of cold water to the face to wake you up(besides maybe a dive in a cloud).

She was about to go ponder about her Twilight-related issues some more, but right now her brain wasn’t going to think deeply about anything. She was still tired, and right now there was only one way to fix that there was only one way to fix that little problem.

The ship’s coffee replicator pattern was about to get overloaded.

Deck 1, Bridge, PSS Equestallation,

Deep Space, 9 light years from Starbase 67,

Stardate 64429, 0815, Shipboard Time.

Having just about finished all the work that needed to be done in her quarters, Twilight Sparkle came walking back onto the bridge from her office, more or less ready to start her day on the bridge. Everything was quiet as the ship was travelling at FTL-speeds on autopilot. There was an engineer in the corner silently repairing a conduit damaged in the attacks and Ensign Rarity was going about her business at the ops station. She certainly looked more refreshed than the yesterday, her mane being back in style again and her uniform neatly worn.

The only sounds that could be heard were the soft buzzing of a hyper spanner, humming of the engine, some computer beeps and… snoring?

The Captain was pretty sure none of the systems on the bridge could be responsible for any snoring noises. She looked over the bridge again... Rarity wasn’t asleep. Quite the contrary, actually; she was the most awake pony Twilight had seen all day. The engineer seemed to be perfectly normal as well, although a bit grimy. A next thought entered her head: Maybe Rainbow Dash was taking a nap under the-

At that moment, the real culprit caught her eye.

Apparently, Spike hadn’t left his post earlier and fallen asleep out of exhaustion. He laid over his navigation console, resting his cheek on it, his mouth wide open and his slightly pointy tongue hanging out of it. A small puddle of drool had gathered under the gaping hole of his mouth. Rarity didn’t seem to mind this scene of all, although it could be considered slightly disgusting. She still gave the young cadet an adoring glance every now again.

The Captain could hardly blame her for this though… The way he looked utterly at peace in such a strange environment and the way he was sleeping without a care in the world looked insanely adorable to her as well.

However, it was against regulation and Twilight, being the pony she was, immediately trotted up to the cadet, nudging his side, half amused and half annoyed.

“Mhmm-mwhaa-…?” the dragon groaned drowsily, opening his left eye and his surroundings slowly coming into focus for him. Suddenly, his eyes shot open completely as if he had received an electric shock. He both sat upright and cleaned the drool which was staining his cheek using is left claw in one fluid movement. A short, uncomfortable silence followed in which the dragon’s cheeks lit up, slowly changing from purple to red, and Twilight couldn’t help but smirk playfully. Her concern had faded away for a look of complete amusement, enjoying the very sudden change of wakefulness on the dragon’s end. After a while, Spike spoke warily. “Ah, uhm… Is there a problem, Captain?” He tried and failed an innocent smile, making an attempt to play it cool

Twilight’s smirk disappeared quickly and she spoke with feigned strictness, making a frown. “You should get some rest in your quarters, Cadet Spike.”

“I- I just… Uh… I…” Spike was having some trouble finding his words, his cheeks lighting up even more as he realized he was stuck in a corner and would have some trouble getting out of it by himself.

Luckily for him, Twilight just giggled lightheartedly(Rarity could be heard doing the same, albeit much more gracefully and ladylike, of course), smiling down upon him. She then spoke calmly, as if nothing embarrassing had happened at all.. “How far are we from Starbase sixty-seven, Cadet?”

“Oh… Uh…” Spike immediately perked up again, visibly calming down. He turned his chair to face his many terminals, checking out the numerous flashing counters before looking back up to Twilight. “9 light years, Captain. We’ll be there in about three hours at this speed.” He said, his voice sounding utterly grateful.

“Very well, thank you.” The Captain replied, voice still cheerful, turning her back in Spike, walking to her chair and sitting down on it. After a minute of just sitting, she took out a PDA with a mildly resentful sigh. Even though she had finished her log and quite a lot of paperwork in her office, there were always reports to take of as a Captain of a starship, especially of such a large one. It was one of the things that had always bugged her endlessly at the academy. Everypony there seemed to be ignorant of the fact that even if you had made it to the role of a Commanding Officer, you couldn’t sit around on your plot all day making others do work for you.  Even though the Executive Officer, in this case Rainbow Dash, always took care of most of the paperwork submitted by different department heads which in turn got reports from crewmembers below them in the ship’s chain of command, she still had to check quite a lot of things. Then there were the classified files for Captain’s eyes only, and then finally you had random requests and the really little things that weren’t too important but still had to be seen to by her.

Exploring new worlds and having a say in where to go was still worth the hassle of paperwork, though. The feeling of landing on an uncharted world and really being the first to stand on new ground, breathing in the fresh air and seeing all the exotic landscapes… Such a sensation never gets old.

Twilight was gently snapped out of her reverie by Ensign Rarity, who coughed very softly and politely, clearly to get her attention. She put down the PDA again, glad to be able to put off the boring tasks for a little bit longer, and looked up at Rarity with a neutral expression. “Yes, Ensign?”

“Ahem, Captain, do you remember those transmissions, or rather scans, I mentioned yesterday during the meeting?” Rarity asked slowly, as if not completely certain what she was talking about herself yet.

Twilight turned her head in confusion, unsure where this was going, but nodded hesitantly. “Indeed I do… You said you suspected them to be communications of the alien ship right?”

Rarity nodded gladly, and continued with what she was about to say, still a bit of uncertainty in her voice. “Well, they actually have more of a scan-signature, but I had concluded they  were meant for communication purposes. I am still not certain of what they are, but I do know that they came from two different sources and, well, they…” She paused for a second or so, as if to add a dramatic effect to her utterly scientific speech. “Didn’t stop…”

“…Huh…” Twilight said, then immediately kicking into overdrive research mode. “That would mean they are still scanning us! Maybe it is monitoring our systems to see if we are trying to take hostile action, or… They could be spying on the federation? What else do you know, Ensign?” she blurted out in an extremely fast and barely coherent way. If Rarity didn’t know better, she’d say the Captain had just been reduced to a filly just before the Federation Academy’s exams…

“Nothing, madam.” She said, still a bit flabbergasted by the captain’s sudden outburst.

“Well, get on it, Ensign! I want to find out what it is…”

Deck 2, Senior Officer’s Mess, PSS Equestallation,

Deep Space, 12 light years from Starbase 67,

Stardate 64429, 0800, Shipboard Time.

On most ships in use by the Equestrian Federation there was no mess hall reserved for senior officers; the greater part of the ships got a special lounge for that at most. Even if they did have a special mess hall, it wasn’t used all that often since the officers and usually even the Captain preferred to socialize with the rest of the crew. They were still built in ships for special occasions, however. Diplomatic dinners were a prime example of this on flagships; When ambassadors were invited to eat on the ship, peace and quiet was usually desired.

This morning was one of the special occasions on which most  of the senior crew did actually eat in the officer’s mess, it being the first breakfast since the launch. One might find this a silly ritual, but on most ships it was  a tradition, and a tradition that was not to be broken. This didn’t mean everypony ate at the same time, though. For example, the Captain had already eaten way before most of the others had even thought about getting up from their relatively short times of rest.

By the time Rainbow Dash entered, only a tired-looking Fluttershy and strangely awake Applejack were present in the roomy but strangely cosy dining room. Windows adorned one of the walls as with most rooms assigned to senior officers, giving a view of the aft of the ship and the bright vortex-like effect that accompanied their FTL engines.

“Lieutenant, Commander.” She grunted to Applejack and Fluttershy respectively, giving them polite but short nods on her way to the food replicator. She was still obviously quite tired and not all that cheerful.

“Uhm… Hello.” Was Fluttershy’s soft reply, and from Applejack came a way to cheerful “Well how are ya doin’ this mornin’, Commander?”

“Tired.” Came Dash’s grumpy reply, not at all feeling like making conversation without having some coffee first. How Applejack managed to be so… happy this early without getting much sleep was a mystery to her, and she was one of the most energetic ponies on the ship herself! When she arrived at the replicators she deadpanned “Coffee, black.” And then “And a waffles, hot.” added when she realized she was actually quite hungry as well.

She looked down onto the floor while the food and drink materialized molecule by molecule, giving off a faint purple light in the process. She never completely understood how this worked… Though it appeared to be food appearing out of thin air, there was a very long technical process behind it. To Rainbow Dash, it came down to three things: It was complicated, science-y and the result didn’t taste nearly as good as real food. Sure, it was passable, but nothing could beat the awesomeness of the taste of fresh waffles. Not even an exact molecular copy. Well, at least it wasn’t as bad as emergency rations… Those things were absolutely disgusting…She chuckled inwardly, imagining Rarity describing them. “A downright revolting insult to one’s taste buds!”

Shaking her head and smirking at the thought, she clumsily picked up her newly-appeared food and drink, using her mouth to take the drink while using a wing to support a plate. How earth ponies managed to get around, she didn’t know… Even with her wings to carry her plates, she always had a hard time keeping the balance.

After carefully putting her food and drink down upon the dining table next to Applejack, she pulled out a chair and let herself fall onto it. Her smirk had disappeared already, being replaced with a glum look, now directed at her coffee. Picking up said coffee, she sat back a bit, still not looking happy.

As Rainbow began carefully sipping her still very hot coffee, Applejack shot her a mildly concerned look. “Y’alright, sugarcube?” she asked, voice wary as if not wanting to tread onto dangerous grounds. Meanwhile, Fluttershy kept looking from Applejack to Rainbow and back, quietly monitoring their every move.

Looking at Applejack over her coffee, the Commander sighed. “I guess it’s just… Nah, nothing..”

“Gotta say, that doesn’t sound like nothin’, Rainbow.” The lieutenant said, giving the sky blue pegasus a contemplating look. “You should at least talk to the counselor if you don’t wanna talk about it to us.”

As if on cue, a pony-sized maintenance shaft access hatch disguised as a ceiling panel was thrown open from the inside, a pink pony – Pinkie Pie - falling out. She roughly tumbled onto the floor just half a meter next to Rainbow Dash. “Was somepony in need of counseling?” She chirped cheerfully, looking mostly at  Dash, speaking as if she already knew the answer.

The commander stared at Pinkie speechlessly, her confusion being almost palpable. This scene didn’t change for a few seconds, no-one speaking, Pinkie staring at Dash inquisitively. Finally, the light cerulean pegasus grumbled a few incoherent words, ‘tired’ being the only recognizable one. Then, she spoke clearly. “…I guess?”

By some strange means of non-verbal communication, the counselor managed to make clear to Fluttershy and Applejack that they should leave. Or rather, she made some frantic ‘shoo’ motions towards them, giving the two officers looks that said she needed to speak to the commander in private.

Once the yellow-shaded ponies had left, Pinkie Pie turned her attention back to the now uncertain looking Rainbow Dash. She pulled glasses out of nowhere and put them on, making giving her a ‘grandmother’ look. Or at least, she thought it gave her a grandmother look. Everypony else thought it looked ridiculous. She paid this no mind however and gave the cerulean pegasus a compassionate look. “Okeydokey, why don’t you tell auntie Pinkie Pie what’s wrong, Dashie?” she chirped.

The look of uncertainty on the Commander’s face changed into a look of sincere trouble, a frown dominating the mare’s features. Certainly not without some amount of hesitation, Rainbow Dash spoke. “Well, I-…” She cut herself off abruptly, attempting to find the words she wanted to use. After a sort pause, she continued. “I’ve been having a bit of an argument with the Captain. That’s all, really...”

“…aaand?” the bright pink earth pony asked inquisitively, staring into Dash’s eyes(or from Rainbow’s perspective, her very soul). She knew this wasn’t the whole truth.

Beads of sweat forming on her forehead, Rainbow tried to talk herself out of it, stammering “N-nothing!”, most of the usual layers of bravado gone. The distressed pegasus absolutely hated being in tight spots like this: She wasn’t one to trust her personal problems to others. If she weren’t more or less pushed into this conversation against her will, she never would have talked to a counselor.

As expected, Pinkie didn’t exactly buy this, frowning down upon the sky-blue mare. With a frown like this, the glasses did have the desired effect, making Rainbow feel like she was a foal being scolded by its parent.