Twilight's Voyage

by ProfCharles

Rating: teen
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Other, Spike, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Adventure
Length: 13839

AU- MLP in space. Celestia sends Twilight to live aboard the spaceship Ponyville. Cue adventures.

Sci-fi AU. Twilight Sparkle has lived on the Cantalot Space Station, capital of the Solar Empire, all her life. But can she adapt and make friends when her teacher, Queen Celestia, sends her away to be the new science officer of the spaceship Ponyville on its voyage to explore the galaxy for much needed resources for the war against the Confederacy of Species?

Additional background information can be found within the Data Files Collections. If you wish to see a part of the universe explained, let me know and I'll throw in a data file.

'Dark' tag refers to the war, which appears mainly as a background event. Other, dark elements may appear in later chapters.

Whilst I assembled the image (in Inkscape), the vectors used were created by Lazy-Joe and Emkay-MLP.
Recently undergone a complete rewrite.
TV Tropes page
Disclaimer—All orginal ideas are mine. All copied ideas are not mine. Work out which is which yourselves.

Published 2012-09-12 07:14:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-06-25 14:02:16 UTC

Chapter 1

Fifteen years after Nightmare Moon’s banishment...

The sharp clop of hooves on marble echoed throughout the eerily silent halls of Canterlot Castle, perpetually coated in an orange glow from the angry sun outside. The pony whom the sounds originated from hurried past empty rooms, abandoned guard posts and bare walls, before reaching a pair of massive, golden doors. Pausing, he shivered, feeling the waves of power emanating from the room.

Three short knocks broke the ever present silence, followed by the slow creak of the great doors as the opened, admitting the night blue unicorn. He quickly trotted up to the the throne at the end of the room, and its inhabitant.

“Princess Celestia,” he said, bowing to the large white alicorn, her pastel mane blowing in a nonexistent breeze. Exhaustion was clearly stamped on her face, whilst a golden light emanated from her horn, her magic constantly keeping the sun at bay..

“Arcane Scroll,” Celestia replied, her normal calm and grace replaced with weariness.

“Your Highness, when was the last time you slept?” Arcane asked, worry wrinkling his brow.

Celestia sighed and closed her eyes. “I haven’t slept since... since I banished my sister. I have... Nightmares.”

Arcane Scroll took a step back with surprise. Princess Luna had been banished to the moon fifteen years ago.

“Princess, I—” Arcane began, but Celestia cut him off with a wave of her hoof.

“No Arcane, not Princess.” She sighed again. “My parents are dead, my sister is gone. I am your sole sovereign now. I am your Queen. Not that I deserve it.”

“Very well, Your Majesty.” Arcane bowed again. “We have finished the evacuations. All those who are fleeing are now on the starcraft.”

“All those who are fleeing?” Celestia asked, her tone dangerous.

Arcane gulped. “There are reports of some ponies—mostly the old—who have elected to die here on Equis, rather than in, and I quote, ‘Some strange metal contraption’. We have done everything we can to persuade them otherwise, but they are quite stubborn. I doubt even you could change their minds.”

“Very well.” Celestia sighed. “More burdens on my shoulders. What of the other nations?”

“They finished their exodus last week. Their craft have already left the system.”

“I see.” Slowly, laboriously, Celestia stood up, her horn still lit with magic. “So its just us then.”

Together, they walked down the hallways, open windows displaying the devastation laid upon the land. Where once there had been lush fields, only scorched wasteland remained. Forests were missing, with only burnt stumps indicating they ever existed. Rivers and lakes were dry, leaving empty hollows where they once flowed. In the center of it all sat New Canterlot, a gleaming machine of steel, one of the three newfangled starcraft to help the ponies of Equestria escape the hell their world had become over the last fifteen years, the other two being the Cloudsdale and the New Manehatten, both already in orbit with their precious cargo.

And hanging above them was the reason for it all. Red and angry, the sun hovered, gripped in a solar storm, its ferocity never seen before. The only reason Equestria had lasted this long was because Celestia had spent every moment since the fiery orb became unstable pacifying it, and the toll was clearly shown on her face.

A Chariot—one of the newer, vacuum-sealed machines, rather than a traditional pegasus pulled chariot—was waiting for them, ready to take them to the starcraft. One short, quiet flight later, the scenery flying past at incredible speeds, and they arrived at New Canterlot, their new home.

“Welcome, Princess,” a guardspony said, bowing low.

“Queen. I am now your queen,” Celestia corrected. To the guard’s credit, he didn’t react to the proclamation at all.

“Your government awaits you at the royal observation lounge,” he informed her. The guard led Celestia and Arcane Scroll through the steel hallways, a clear contrast to the marble of the palace. Somber faced ponies lurked in the adjoining corridors, watching in silence at the procession.

A small pegasus filly, her coat light green with a white mane, approached the group. She looked up at Celestia for a moment, before leaning in and hugging the large white alicorn. Celestia stopped as the ponies surrounding her gasped.

“You’re so pretty,” the filly said, “pretty and sad. Someone as pretty as you shouldn’t be sad. So I’m giving you a hug. Hugs make everything better!”

Celestia stared in shock at the filly clutching her leg, before cracking a small smile. “Thank you, little one. And your right—hugs do make everything better.”

The filly grinned up at Celestia, before letting go and scampered of, only pausing to give a quick wave.

“I haven’t felt like smiling in years,” Celestia said wondrously, reaching up and touching her face, where the smile remained.

“Prin—Your Majesty,” Arcane prompted. “We have to keep moving.”

“Of course.”

They continued their journey, and arrived at the observation lounge with no further distractions. There the members of Her Majestie’s Parliament stood, a window set in the far wall, Old Canterlot standing proud, its white walls washed with orange light.

“My Queen,” Arcane Scroll said. “The communication system is online. Everypony can hear you.”

Celestia nodded her thanks. “Mares, stallions, my little ponies. This is your Queen speaking. Today is a tragic day for ponykind. But also a great day for ponykind. Today we leave our homes behind. Today, we travel to places we could never of dreamed of before. Before the sun grew wild, before my sister fell to darkness. The last fifteen years have been hard on all of us. But not once did we give up. Not once did we despair. Not once did we falter in our search for a solution. And we found it—the starcraft. Designed to take us to the stars, so that we may begin anew, they are our greatest achievement as a race—and our greatest hope for survival.

We step into a new dawn today, my little ponies. A new future for our people. And we will embrace it.

Today, we say goodbye to our world, and hello to a whole new one. Captain Wing, you may begin.”

Celestia’s voice fell silent, replaced by the equestrian national anthem, as the engines roared into life. The ship vibrated, and the view dipped, the land falling away as they rose upwards into space.

To Celestia, it felt like it took mere minutes for them to leave the planet, passing the solitary moon, her sisters face still engraved upon it, Luna’s tainted soul still bound within it.

“Celestia, its time,” Arcane eventually said, forgoing all formalities.

She closed her eyes and lowered her head. A moment later, the light on her horn winked out. The effects were instantaneous. The sun flared, tendrils of fire lashing out at the planet below, cleansing the surface of everything. A second burst and the moon was treated to a similar fate. Again and again, the sun lashed out at the planet, as if making up for the fifteen years it’s fury had been bound by Celestia’s magic.

“It’s over,” Celestia said, a tear flowing down her cheek. “It’s finally over.”

She swayed, unnoticed by the other ponies watching the destruction of their home, before collapsing, their startled exclamations being the last thing she heard before unconsciousness took her.

985 years later...

"I'm tardy! Tardy–tardy–tarrrr-dy!" Twilight Sparkle cried out as she rushed down the gleaming steel hallways of the New Canterlot Space Station, hooves clacking against the metal floor, the occasional viewport offering brief glimpses of the infinite majesty of space. The narrow halls of the space station were like an old friend to her—born and raised in the metal space station, it was all she knew.

She paused, trotting on the spot, and looked at a holo-screen on a wall, ignoring the news report on the continuing war with the Confederacy of Species, instead focusing on the clock in the corner of the screen.

Oh no, I'm tardy! she thought with a panic, the word ‘tardy’ reverberating around her skull. Wait, I have an idea...

Pausing, she slowed her breathing. She needed to concentrate if she wanted to pull this off perfectly. Scrunching her eyes up, she focused on her horn, drawing arcane power into it. With an ease born of practice, she then concentrated on her destination—the teleport pad outside her teacher’s office. This was the most important part, for if she missed her destination, she would end up as a pancake on the far wall, thanks to magic’s weird quirk of negating the conservation of momentum—and with the space station traveling at 30 KM/h around the star of Equis-2, momentum was something Twilight was keen to keep.

Twilight’s horn glowed briefly, followed by a purple flash; and the world changed. Sparks shot away as her hooves made contact with the magically charged floor, the archaic red and gold runes guiding her jump. Opening her eyes, she looked at her new location—her teacher’s study.

Glancing at an antique clock—made with real wood—on the wall, Twilight realised that she had made it just in time. She made one final check to ensure her navy uniform—a plain black jacket with a yellow sash; indicating her role as a military scientist—was straight, although it still clashed with the unicorn’s purple fur, before approaching the door to knock.

"Come in, Twilight," said a warm and motherly voice, the doors opening before she had a chance to knock.

Twilight entered the room, bowing deeply before the inhabitant within—a large, gleaming white alicorn with a pastel mane.

"Admiral-Queen Celestia. And Fleet Admiral Spitfire!" Twilight said with surprise, throwing a sharp salute that nearly gave her a black eye.

Admiral Spitfire, a yellow pegasus with a flame like mane, chuckled, her golden sash over a white admirals jacket bobbing up and down with her. "Well, you did say she was eager, Your Majesty."

Celestia gave a slight smile at this, which would have gone unnoticed, had Twilight not been familiar with her mentor’s moods by now.

She never seems truly happy, thought Twilight. I don’t think I have ever seen her laugh.

"Do you know why I asked you to come here, my most faithful student?" Celestia asked, cutting straight to the point, as always.

"No, Your Majesty."

"You are here because I believe it is time for you to move on."

Twilight cocked her head, confused. "Excuse me, Your Majesty?

"Twilight, you are to no longer be stationed with the science division upon Canterlot. I am assigning you to serve on an Imperial Navy exploration vessel."

“You’re sending me away? Did I do something wrong, Your Majesty?" Twilight said, feeling the fear of failure creep up on her.

"Of course not, you silly filly," Celestia said with that small, yet sad, smile. "It’s just that I don’t feel you have a future here in Canterlot. Due to our... unusual relationship, I cannot guarantee fair treatment among the senior officers. Some may seek to curry favour with me by accelerating you through the ranks faster than you deserve, or perhaps prevent you from doing anything to keep you safe. You are a very special young mare and you deserve to grow, at your own pace. I feel that this can be best achieved away from Canterlot and my influence, on a ship that will spend many months in deep space."

"But I'm happy here, by your side," Twilight adamantly argued, stamping a hoof.

"Are you?" Celestia countered. "All you seem to do is either spend time with me or with your work and your books. Do you even have any friends on Canterlot? That is not the life of someone who is happy, that is the life of someone lonely. And loneliness is a terrible thing to inflict upon yourself."

Twilight sunk her head at these words of wisdom, even if she silently disagreed. She didn’t need friends—she already had Spike and Shining Armor, although the latter had been too busy to visit lately, and books were an adequate replacement. At least books didn't judge you.

"That is why I have proposed that you be moved out of my command chain and into Admiral Spitfire's," the Queen continued, oblivious to Twilight's doubts, gesturing to the yellow pegasus beside her.

Twilight's head shot up, eyes boggling at the proclamation. Ponies never moved between the different command structures in the Imperial Navy—you were sorted into one of the five fleets and remained there for the rest of your career. This, of course, encouraged interfleet rivalries; although it mostly manifested as harmless pranks during shore leave.

"That’s right, kiddo." said Spitfire, ruffling Twilight's mane with a yellow hoof. "You work for me now. And have I got a nice spot on a good ship for you—The Ponyville, an experienced exploration ship, with a brand new prototype ‘Gallop’ engine. When I mentioned to Her Majesty that I was having trouble finding a suitable Science Officer after the last one retired, she suggested you immediately."

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Twilight paused and thought for a moment. "Wait, Science Officer? But I’m just a cadet!"

Spitfire nodded. "That’s right, kid. Consider this your first promotion, Science Officer Twilight Sparkle."

“You see, Twilight?” Celestia said. “You would never have gotten this opportunity if you were still in my command structure.”

Maybe this move wouldn’t be so bad after all, Twilight thought, dumbfounded by her new rank.

"Um, if I may ask, but what about Spike?" she asked, growing concerned for her number one assistant.

"Spike? Who’s that?" Spitfire looked at Celestia questioningly.

"Spike would be the baby dragon she has been raising in her free time. She managed to hatch his egg as part of her entrance exam into the Arcane Science division of the navy." Celestia answered.

Spitfire raised her eyebrows in surprise at this. Very few ponies were able to do that, the test secretly being a method of seeing how applicants coped with stress and failure. She realised just what a talented young unicorn she had been given. Spitfire made a mental note to get Celestia a nice thank you present—maybe a cake, with real icing.

"I am sure I can make arrangements for you to bring him with you," Spitfire reassured. "If you do a good enough job on The Ponyville, then maybe one day I will see you on my support staff. Anyway, I had best be going. I cannot afford to be away from the front lines for too long." She threw a salute and walked out.

After Spitfire had left, Celestia turned back to her student. "Twilight, come here please. I have something to give you."

"What is it, Your Majesty?" Twilight asked, approaching Celestia.

"It’s a surprise. Now close your eyes and stick your hoof out." Celestia smiled, a mischievous undertone highlighting her words,

Twilight approached the alicorn and followed her instructions. A moment later she felt something click around her fetlock. Opening her eyes, she gasped.

"An omniwatch! Oh thank you thank you thank you, Your Majesty." Twilight stared at the device. Incredibly rare and expensive, omniwatches were the pinnacle of micro-computing. Celestia held Twilight’s hoof and turned it over, revealing the customised strap depicting her cutie-mark—a purple star surrounded by six white stars, with a seventh behind it.

"Now then, my most faithful student, you had best go back to your quarters and start preparing. I'll send you a recommendation list on what to pack. The Ponyville leaves at the end of the week. Dock 23; look for a Captain Rainbow Dash," Celestia instructed Twilight. "And don’t forget to tell your family."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Twilight said, before deciding to throw decorum to the wind by hugging the Queen, barely holding back a sob. "I'll miss you, Your Majesty."

"And I you, Twilight Sparkle."

After a moment, Twilight ended the embrace and turned to leave, when a thought struck her.

"Your Majesty, how did you know I was on the other side of the door?

Celestia smiled. "It’s simple, my little pony—I saw the flash of your teleport underneath the door frame."

"Are you sure we are going the right way?" Spike asked from Twilight's back for what felt like the hundredth time as they wandered down yet another gleaming steel corridor, their cart of luggage trundling along behind them. A week had passed since Twilight’s meeting with Celestia and the pair were making their way to the docks, where The Ponyville waited for them.

"Yes Spike, I'm sure. Ah, here we are; junction 12B. Now according to my directions, we need to take a left here followed by two rights. Or was it a right followed by two lefts?" Twilight replied, a thoughtful expression on her face. Spike smacked his face with his hand.

"Twilight, why don't you use the omniwatch?" he asked.

"Oh, I didn't think of that!" Twilight exclaimed. She brought up her hoof and started messing with the controls on the device. A holographic interface popped up and after a small amount of experimentation, Twilight found the correct route to docking bay 23.

Wandering into the massive hall, the first thing she noticed was the teeming crowd - dock workers preparing the ship, crew saying goodbye to families, merchants selling last minute "essentials"—including a few bottles of Apple Family Hard Cider, which was as rare as blue diamonds. The hubbub produced by the crowd was so loud Twilight had difficulty thinking and Spike had to resort to tapping her on the head to grab her attention. Looking back she saw the diminutive dragon pointing at something ahead.

Following his outstretched claw, she gasped and fell on her rump, nearly dislodging Spike. Beyond the docking bay doors, The Ponyville could be seen in all its enormous glory. From the outside it bore the appearance of a long cylinder with a pair of rotational thrusters, a set of autocannons and two plama lances running along its sides, but Twilight knew that its outer shell was just hiding its true majesty. From her studies of the ship, she knew it had four decks to it, each one wrapped around the central gravity core that ran the length of the ship.

Due to the nature nature of the gravity core it had to be parked in zero gravity conditions and a steady stream of traffic was flowing between it and the dock. This was her first time seeing a spaceship first hand and looking at it, Twilight suddenly felt very small.

This is just a small exploratory vessel, with a crew of 150! she thought I can't imagine how big the capital ships must be.

Spike tapped her head again, this time pointing to a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane hovering in the air, directing the dock workers. At this distance Twilight couldn't see her rank, but the blue sash she wore indicated that she was part of the command structure. As she approached, Twilight noticed that she had captains’ pips. Glancing proudly at her own brand new officer’s pips, she moved forwards.

"Excuse me, but are you Captain Dash?"

"Yes, I am," the Captain said without looking around. "Something I can do you for? Oy, you! If you drop that box I will personally throw you out of the nearest airlock!"

"Uh, I'm Twilight Sparkle-" Captain Dash's head snapped around.

"Finally, you're here! We've been waiting ages for you. Look, I'm a little busy—I thought I told not to drop that box! Look, just go speak to Commander Applejack would you, she'll sort you out." With that she flew into the air and resumed yelling at the dock workers. Twilight glanced around and quickly located the orange earth pony with a blue sash the Captain had indicated.

"Well howdy there, Sugarcube. I reckon you're Officer Sparkle, on account of you being the only officer not to check in yet. And this must be your assistant, Spike, right? I'm Commander Applejack and it is a pleasure to meet you," the earth pony said as Twilight approached, grabbing her hoof and shaking it vigorously. "Y'all met the captain yet? Don't worry about her, she always gets stressed before a departure. Nerves you see." Applejack caught a look of concern in Twilight’s eye. “But don’t worry, once we are on the ship she’ll cool down. She's a good captain, and I’ve served under a fair few of them.”

Twilight extracted her hoof from Applejack’s Iron grip. “Well thats good to hear. To be honest I've never left Canterlot, so I’m a little nervous myself.”

Spike snorted. “Twilight, you’ve never left the palace district, let alone the station.”

“I have too!” Twilight snapped back. Spike merely raised an eyebrow in response. “It was before you were born.” Spikes eyebrow remained in place, causing Twilight to sigh in defeat.

“Anyway, we need to be moving, the shuttles are here,” Applejack said, indicating with her head to a group of small Chariot class vehicles lining along the dock.

“Why don’t we just teleport across?” Twilight asked.

“Teleportarium’s broken,” Applejack replied. “Hoping you can sort that out actually, our last Science Officer couldn’t figure it out.”

“Oh, well I should be able to fix that. Arcanophysics is my speciality, after all.” Twilight paused and thought for a moment. “Why did the previous officer leave anyway?”

“Medical reasons,” Applejack replied. “We had to go down to a planet to recover a downed probe. Turns out the fool is highly agoraphobic.”

Twilight gulped audibly. “A planet? But they’re dangerous! They have volcanoes and earthquakes and storms and lightning and floods and—”

Applejack cut off the frantic pony with a well placed hoof. “Easy, Sugarcube, easy. Planetside missions are always voluntary, and we’ve never had an incident with them before.”

“I-I see,” Twilight said once Applejack had removed her hoof.

“Welp, here’s our ride.” Applejack nodded at a Chariot that had just drawn up. “Come on in, I’ll give you the grand tour of the ship.”

Together, they climbed into the Chariot and in moments they had left the dock, heading for The Ponyville.

Chapter 2

"This, as you can probably tell, is the Chariot bay," Applejack said as she, Twilight and Spike disembarked. "Now the bay itself can hold up to twenty Chariots, but we only have ten at the moment—most of which are ferrying the crew across right now, along with 10 Wonderbolt Class Fighters, although we have the space for 15."

"How come you have so few craft?" Spike asked, gazing at the hangar.

"Well, since we're not going to see much combat, High Command figured that we wouldn't need a full complement of small craft," Applejack replied. "A waste of resources, they see it as."

"I suppose that makes some sense, considering how stretched the navy is at the moment," Twilight said.

Applejack grunted in a noncommittal manner, leaving the hangar and walking down a corridor. "Anyway, this corridor leads to the hydroponics labs and the fields—we have just under two acres of land dedicated to growing crops, including an apple orchard."

"An apple orchard? Really?" Twilight asked. "Isn't that a little... frivolous on a ship this size?"

"Not when the ship is sponsored by the Apple Clan," Applejack said with pride.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at this. It wasn't unheard of for civilian groups to sponsor a navy ship, but it wasn't common either. She hadn't been aware that The Ponyville was such a ship, however, and by a group as prestigious as the Apple Clan as well. Clearly there were gaps in Twilight’s research.

"Now, let's get you acquainted with the hydroponics labs—as science officer, this will fall under your jurisdiction." Applejack lead the pair down the corridor to a set of labs.

Twilight gulped. "Uh, I'm afraid that I never really studied agriculture."

Applejack waved a hoof dismissively. "Don't worry about that. Carrot's one of the best when it comes to this sort of thing, and I’m always willing to lend a hoof. As long as you are willing to learn on the job, you'll be fine. Ah, there she is."

Applejack pointed out a yellow earth pony with an orange mane, before waving her over.

"Commander," the earth pony said coolly as she approached. "Who's your friend?"

"Junior Officer Carrot Top, this is our new Science Officer, Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike," Applejack said. "Twilight, this is Carrot."

Twilight stuck her hoof out. "Nice to meet you."

Carrot ignored Twilight's hoof. "The Queen’s personal protege. Tell me, do you know anything about how to run a hydroponics lab?"

Twilight faltered and lowered her hoof. "It, uh, it never came up in my studies."

"I see," Carrot Top said, her glare disapproving. "I suppose you expect me to run this lab myself, then."

"Actually, I'm rather hoping to be able learn more about the labs," Twilight responded. "Food is, after all, highly important to us all."

"That's an interesting stance," Carrot Top said, her glare lessening slightly. "Your predecessor was keen on dumping the responsibility of the labs onto my shoulders. Keep that attitude up, and I can see us getting along fine indeed. Anyway, I have work to be getting back to. Commander, Officer Sparkle."

After she had left, Twilight turned to Applejack. "Well, she was... Interesting."

"Don't let it get to you. Carrot's cold to everyone at first," Applejack said. "Honestly? I think your answer impressed her."

"If you say so," Twilight said dubiously.

"Now come on, I'll so you residential so you can drop your luggage off." Applejack lead them from the labs to one of the many elevators that bisected the ship.

One painfully slow elevator ride later, and they had reached the residential deck.

"As a senior officer," Applejack explained as they walked down another corridor, "you'll have your own room—although I think you have to share with your assistant."

"Wouldn't want it any other way, right Spike?" Twilight said, turning to her assistant.

"Right!" Spike answered happily.

"That's all worked out fine then," Applejack said, stopping outside of a door. "Here's your room."

The door slid open, revealing a small functional room. The furniture was sparse, consisting of a bed, a desk with a computer and a wardrobe.

"It ain't much, but it's yours," Applejack said.

"My own room..." Twilight said reverently, walking into the middle of the room.

"Sure beats the dorms we used to live in, right, Twilight?" Spike said.

Twilight looked around the room. "No shower?" she asked.

"Nah, only the Captain has her own private facilities," Applejack replied. "The rest of us share a communal washroom just down the corridor."

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by a grumbling stomach. "Oh, excuse me. I must be a little hungry."

"It is nearly lunch time," Spike complained, holding his own tummy.

Applejack chuckled. "Good thing the mess hall's our next stop."

Applejack left the room, followed by Twilight and Spike, who had left their things behind. The trio wandered down the corridor, following signs for the mess hall.

Suddenly, Twilight heard hoofsteps echo down the corridor, but aside from Spike, herself and Applejack they were alone. Looking at the commander, Twilight noticed a furious look on her face.

"Girls! Get down from those vents this instance or you will be on cleaning duty for so long your cutie-marks will be mops!" Applejack shouted at the ceiling.

A hatch on the ceiling opened and out popped three young fillies—a yellow earth pony, a white unicorn and an orange pegasus. Twilight stared in surprise at the three foals. Whilst it wasn’t unheard of for foals to join the cadets, they usually had their cutie-marks, but the flanks on these three were as blank as the day they were born.

Applejack scowled at the trio. "Girls, those vents are highly dangerous for you to go wandering around in. I don’t want to catch you doing it again."

"Sorry sis. Uh, I mean Commander Sir. Ma'am," said the earth pony, her accent matching Applejacks.

Applejack sighed. "Anyway, girls, this is Science Officer Twilight Sparkle and Spike, Twilight, these three are Command Cadets Applebloom and Scootaloo, and Security Cadet Sweetie Belle, or the Cutie-mark Cadets as they prefer to be known as."

"Oh, hello girls. It’s nice to meet you." Twilight wobbled as the three cadets rushed forwards and began asking questions, nearly knocking her down.

"Is it true you were taught by the Queen?"

"Woah, where did you get a dragon from?"

"What does your cutie-mark mean?"

"Leave the poor mare alone, would you? And don’t you three have jobs to be doing? Get going now." Applejack shooed them off, her tone stern, but not entirely unjust. The CMC's saluted and rushed off down the corridor. "Sorry about that. They get a bit over eager at times, but they're good fillies."

"They're awfully young," Twilight said, a hint of concern in her voice.

"Aye, but Big Mcintosh and I didn’t feel comfortable leaving Apple Bloom in the orphanage. I imagine the Chief felt the same way about her sister, Sweetie Belle. No idea what Scootaloo’s history is, but personally I reckon she ran away from home. Well, The Ponyville is their home now. Anyway, the mess deck is just down here," Applejack said as they continued down the hall.

"Big Mcintosh is your...?"

"Brother. And head of engineering—You'll meet him in a bit."

The two mares—and dragon—continued down the hallway, before entering the mess hall. The hall resembled a rather basic cafeteria, with stairs leading to an elevated section that overlooked the rest of the hall.

Applejack pointed to the elevated section. “That there is the officer’s mess. Not much to say about it really, it’s a nice enough cafeteria. Come on, lets get you some grub.”

Applejack walked up the stairs, Twilight following. Looking around, the purple unicorn saw several tables dotted around the room, and along the far wall was a food-serving counter. Ahead of them were two more ponies—a yellow pegasus in medical colours and a white unicorn in mareine colours.

“‘Sup, Doc, Chief.” Applejack said, approaching the pair.

"Commander," the unicorn said with a refined accent. "I presume this is our latest science officer?"

"Yup. Twilight Sparkle, meet Chief Rarity and Doctor Fluttershy,” Applejack introduced.

"Well, hello darling,” the white unicorn—Rarity—said, whilst Fluttershy gave a small meep and hid behind a curl of her mane.

"Nice to meet you," Twilight said as Spike slid off her back.

"Beautiful..." He muttered under his breath, eyes only for Rarity. Before anypony could respond, however, he was whisked off by Fluttershy, who squealed in delight.

“A baby dragon! Oh, I've never seen a baby dragon before. He's sooo cute!”

“Cute! I'm not cute! I'm a dragon! I'm ferocious! Roar.” Spike gave a weak growl that could only be described as 'cute'. The ponies around him all stifled giggles.

“Oh my, you certainly are a ferocious little thing, aren't you?” Fluttershy humoured, not even trying to conceal her grin.

"See, Twilight?" Spike said smugly, flexing his arms. "Somepony thinks I'm ferocious."

"Ha-ha, sure thing, Spike," Twilight laughed.

"So tell me,what's it like being a dragon?" Fluttershy asked.

“Well, what do you want to know about?”

“Everything!” The two drifted off to one corner, where Spike began regaling his life story to the doctor, although he kept shooting longing looks at Rarity when he thought no one was looking.

Twilight turned back to the security chief as she began talking. "Huh, took me hours to get more than a peep out of her—the Doctor is normally very quiet. Now darling, I have only one question for you—why science?"

"Well, because my Cutie Mark—"

"Yes, yes, but that sash! It clashes horribly with you beautiful mane. Yellow and purple? Really? I have sent command countless petitions for a redesign, but they just won’t. Something about it being 'traditional'. I don’t even mind if they use someone else's designs—although mine are quite good if I say so myself—just as long as they get rid of that hideous yellow sash!"

"Wait, you design clothes?" Twilight asked in surprise. Whatever she was expecting from the Chief of Security, this wasn't it.

"Oh yes, always wanted to open my own fashion boutique, but Father wanted me to follow him into the mareines. We compromised—he accelerated me to chief position and I can design body armour. Have you, perchance, ever heard of the Blue Diamond range of armours?"

"The Blue Diamond armour range? My brother won’t stop talking about it! He paid out of his own pocket to equip his entire company with it!"

"Company?" Rarity said with a hint of shock in her voice.

"Oh, yes, my brother is General Shining Armour of the Royal guards. The bean counters wouldn't pay for new armour, but he had been saving up his wages anyway."

"Sh-Sh-Sh-Shining Armour is your brother? And he loves my armour? Oh my." With a dramatic flourish, the white unicorn fainted.

"Uh, Medic?" Twilight called, but Fluttershy had already sped to Rarity’s side.

“Ugh, not again,” Applejack groused, planting a hoof on her face.

"This happens often?" Twilight asked, watching idly as Spike rushed to Rarity's side, getting in Fluttershy's way.

"Yup. She is quite the drama queen." Applejack shook her head, before nudging the white unicorn less than gently. "Rares, get up. You're getting dirt on you from the floor."

With a shriek, Rarity leapt upwards, hopping delicately. "Ew ew ew! Get it off me, get it off me! I need a bath!" She dashed out of the canteen, blowing over Spike and Fluttershy, galloping down the corridor.

"I'll um, follow her, make sure she's okay... If that's okay with you?" Fluttershy said, picking herself up off the floor with a lot more grace than Rarity had.

"If you think that's best, Doc," Applejack said.

"It was, um, nice meeting you, Twilight. You too Spike," Fluttershy said as she left, following Rarity.

"Do you think she needs my help?" Spike asked.

Applejack snorted. "I doubt it. Now come on, lets get you some grub."

After eating a quick, apple themed meal, the group made their way to the science labs.

"The rest of the crew should be at their posts now, so we can meet your team all in one go," Applejack explained as they trotted down the corridor. They were on the lowest level now, and being this close to the gravity core was having an effect on Twilight’s ability to walk, causing her to stumble over every other step.

“How do you get used to this?” Twilight asked as she nearly fell flat on her face.

“Oh, ya’ll find your space legs soon enough,” Applejack reassured.

Twilight felt a small amount of apprehension as they approached the labs. Within them would be her team—a group of ponies she not only had authority over, but also responsibility for. With the exception of Spike, she had never had somepony working for her before. The thought made her more than a little bit nervous.

"What should I be expecting?" Twilight asked, trying to keep her nerves under control.

She obviously failed, as Applejack halted and looked her in the eye. "Honestly, Sugarcube? Eccentricity."

"Eccentricity?" Twilight repeated, not at all reassured.

"Yup. The Ponyville has a weird crew, I ain't going to lie. The science division just happens to be the weirdest of the weird." Applejack saw that her words weren't reassuring Twilight, so she tried a different track. "Don't worry, they are all quite nice ponies... Just odd. Watch out for Trixie, mind you. Girl's got an ego the size of a star. And... Well, it'll be easier just to meet them."

They continued down the corridor and through a doorway, entering a large room filled with lab benches and expensive looking prices of equipment—all of which had seen heavy use and could probably do with replacing.

"Gather round, everypony. Got somepony for you to meet," Applejack called out, and within moments a small herd of ponies was stood around them. "Right everypony, this is Officer Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike—who is a baby dragon, so watch your mouth, Bon Bon. Twilight, these are your Specialists."

"Hello everypony," Twilight said nervously, as they all looked at her. She shrank under their searching looks.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is less than impressed," a blue unicorn mare wearing a cape said.

"Oh give it a rest, Trixie," a cream coloured earth pony with a pink and blue mane said. "Welcome, Officer Sparkle, I'm Bon Bon, head chemist. The loud mouth is Trixie, head of arcanophysics, Carrot—"

"We've met," Carrot Top cut in.

To her credit, Bon Bon didn't even blink. "Lyra, head of astrobiology—"

"Not that astrobiology is a real subject," Trixie interrupted.

"Hey!" objected Lyra, a mint green unicorn. "Astrobiology is a valid subject!"

"Aside from the fact that non-equestrian life forms have never been discovered," Trixie replied smugly, "and those humans of yours don't count—they're just a myth."

Lyra made to respond, but Bon Bon cut her off. "Girls! You can compare the size of your horns later, in private! Sorry about that Officer Sparkle."

"It's no problem. And please, call me Twilight,"

"Sure thing," Bon Bon replied. "And last but not least, Time Turner, head of artificial intelligence."

"Charmed," said a brown earth pony with a bow tie and, weirdly enough, a fez. He was also the only stallion in the group.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Twilight said. She looked around. "So now I've meet the heads, when will I meet the rest of the division?"

Silence followed Twilight's question, and Bon Bon coughed awkwardly into her hoof.

"This is the entire division. We... er, we have no other ponies. Not even cadets," she said. "At least, not in pure science. They're all in engineering, fawning over that new engine."

"Which is just typical, really," Trixie said. "The theoretical sciences get little love these days."

"Yeah, it's all about bigger and better engines," Lyra groused. "No one cares about the academic side anymore."

Twilight looked in shock at the ponies before her. She knew science divisions were often small, but a ship this size typically had a couple of dozen ponies, not five. Suddenly, Twilight wasn't sure if this was going to be an easy post, or a challenging post.

Bon Bon caught Twilight's look. "Don't worry, between the five of us we can handle all the relevant duties. Speaking of which, what are your specialities?"

"Oh, I, uh, I passed the Specialist exam in arcanophysics, astrophysics, applied magic and computing, but I never got promoted to Specialist myself."

"Wait," Trixie said. "Do you mean to say that you were promoted straight to Science Officer from the Cadets?"

Twilight rubbed the back of her neck. "Uh, yes? I think I was held back for political reasons, though, being the Queen’s personal student and everything."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is disappointed at whichever foal hired this inexperienced filly, especially when somepony as great and powerful as the Great and Powerful Trixie is here,” Trixie pronounced, somehow sticking her nose even higher into the air.

“First of all, Trixie,” Applejack said, a touch of anger colouring the stoic mares words, “use first person pronouns. Secondly, calling Admiral Spitfire a foal is typically a bad idea.”

Trixie opened her mouth to respond, only to stop, her eyes growing wide. She took a step back, before turning and running out of the room.

Applejack just sighed. “One day that mare’s big mouth is going to get her in trouble.”

“So...” Twilight coughed awkwardly into a hoof, before turning to face the only stallion of the group. “Time Turner, you’re head of AI, right? Can I see?”

“Of course, of course,” the Doctor said, waving Twilight over enthusiastically. “I was about to wake Derpy up anyway.”

He moved over to a console and began tapping away at it. A few moments later a see through grey Pegasus mare with a yellow mane and crossed golden eyes appeared.

"Good morning, beautiful!" Whooves sang to the hologram. "We have a new science officer. Derpy, meet Twilight—Twilight, this is our AI, Derpy."

"Hello Twi-light!" Derpy cried, waving a hoof enthusiastically. "Do you like muffins?"

"Uh... Hi," Twilight said. "Um, I guess I do?"

"Yay! We can be muffin buddies!" Derpy through an arm around Twilight in order to hug her, but it passed straight through her. Derpy lost her balance and fell to the floor. "Whoopsie-daisy! My bad!"

Twilight shot a questioning glare at Time Turner, who shrugged sheepishly.

"She's a first generation AI," he explained, causing Twilight to gasp in shock. Whilst most A.I.’s were merely sapient machines, first generation A.I.’s, developed prior to the Exodus, had once been living ponies whose minds had been transferred into a computer. Such transfers were usually fatal for the pony in question, and their mind typically degraded within a couple of centuries at the most. They had been outlawed 750 years ago with the advent of true artificial intelligences. The fact that Derpy was still sane, let alone functional, after all this time, was a testimony to her strength of will and the skill of her caretakers.

"Hey, muffin buddy! You wanna get some muffins?" Derpy asked once she had picked herself up.

"Maybe later," Applejack intervened. "Twilight's still got to meet the bridge crew."

Applejack herded Twilight and Spike towards the door.

"Right, well, I suppose I'll see you all later," Twilight called out. "I look forward to working with you all." A series of confirmations followed her out the door.

"So, what do you think?" Applejack asked once they were out of earshot.

"Eccentric doesn't begin to describe it," Twilight says. "Are they like that all the time?"

Applejack snorted with amusement. "Normally they're worse.” She paused and pointed down a corridor. "That elevator will take you to engineering. Shouldn't be any reason for you to go down there, but its best you know where it is."

"Better to know than not know, I guess," Twilight replied.

"And here's the bridge," Applejack said, indicating to a door ahead of them. Stepping through, they found themselves in an oval shaped room with a bank of computer terminals arranged around a central command chair in a horseshoe shape, all facing a view screen. "As Science Officer, this will be your primary station when you are on duty—over there would be your monitor." She pointed to an unmanned terminal of to one side, before sweeping her hoof across the bridge. "Everypony, this here is Science Officer Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike. Officer Sparkle, the bridge crew. Lieutenant Pinkamena Pie is in charge of communications and also the helmspony."

A pink earth pony with candyfloss hair and, oddly enough, a party hat looked up, jumped in the air and bounced over.

"Ohmygosh you’re finally here! Hi my name is Pinkie Pie and as communications officer allow me to invite you to your ‘welcome to The Ponyville’ party!" The hyperactive pink mare thrust a letter into Twilights hand and a party hat onto her’s, Spike’s and Applejack’s heads.

"Uh, thank you?" Twilight asked tentatively. This seemed to be the right answer as Pinkie took this as a cue to leave, bouncing around the room before coming to a stop at her console.

"Now this big lug over here is my brother, Big Mcintosh. He's the head of engineering—worked on the Gallop engine and everything."

"Eeyup," the red stallion said, his accent matching Applejack’s.

"Nice to meet you, Officer Mcintosh," Twilight said.

"Eeyup."

Twilight got a feeling that she was unlikely to hear him say anything else.

"You've already met the Chief," Applejack said, waving a hoof at Rarity, who was stood behind the tactical desk. "And last, but not least, we have our illustrious Captain, Rainbow Dash."

"Sup," the rainbow maned pony said, raising a hoof. Twilight tentatively bumped it with hers. "Sorry I was a bit short with you earlier, but I was a bit stressed."

"That's fine, Captain," Twilight said. "I understand completely."

"Well, we've still got a few hours before we launch—there's going to be a press gathering for the launch," Applejack said. "So why don't we all take a break for a bit?"

"Sounds good to me," Captain Dash replied. "Bridge crew dismissed."

The launch of The Ponyville was a quiet affair, with just a few members of the press and a representative from Admiral Steel Hooves, Captain Dash's direct superior, in attendance. A couple of boring speeches later and the ship blasted itself away from the station, setting course for the uncharted system of Alpha-418-X.

Later that evening the crew was celebrating the departure with one of Pinkie's infamous party's in the officer's mess.

"To Twilight!" exclaimed Rarity, the group raising their glasses of apple juice in a toast.

"You know, a real toast needs something more than apple juice," Captain Dash said, looking slyly at the other officers.

"Surely you don't mean... Alcohol?" Applejack said in shock. "Captain, you know that's against protocol."

"Oh darling, I think we can throw protocol out for one night," said Rarity.

"And anyway," continued Rainbow Dash, "it's proper stuff. A bottle of Apple Family Cider. Been holding on to it for two years now. Glad I did."

"Didn't they go out of business?" asked Twilight.

"Thats because this big idiot here," Applejack said, pointing at Mcintosh, "went and got himself enlisted. Without him fixing up the machines, me and Applebloom couldn't maintain the farm anymore, so we packed up and sold the farm, I got a commision and here we are."

"Wait, you're the ones who made Apple Family Cider?" said Twilight. An idea occurred to her. "So, you know how to brew cider then?"

"Yes." There was a brief look of confusion on the earth pony's face "No. No I will not make a bootleg brewery for you. A drink now, I'll let slide, but I will not tolerate alcohol on this ship." There was a collective groan from the table, but judging by the looks of the other officers, it wasn't the first time the idea had been proposed.

"Just pour out the cider already!" demanded Pinkie, a cry taken up by several others. With a flourish, Dash popped off the bottle cap and poured out a round.

"To Twilight Sparkle!"

Chapter 3

“Good morning Twilight!” Screeched a high pitched and unexpected voice. “This is your personalised wake up call from your one and only communications officer, Pinkie Pie!”

Twilight lifted her head up from her pillow, leveled a glare that could slay stars at the image of Pinkie that now adorned her wall and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like “die in a fire.”

“Oh you silly-willy!” Pinkie giggled. “Why would I want to dye a fire? Fire is already a pretty colour, all those reds and oranges and other fiery colours! That’s what you sciency-wiency ponies do!" Pinkie gasped. "Unless you're saying you want me to help with your sciency stuff, then I would love to! We can be science buddies! Doctor Starburst—that was out last science officer—never let me help, and even tried to throw me out, but I'm sure that was just a misunderstanding, after all, I was helping him—I broke five test tubes, just like he did, and then he started going all red with excitement, like a balloon, even though his fur was a dark blue, which made him look really funny like a clown and so I told him he looked like a clown and then he tried to get me a cupcake from the cafeteria but I think he got confused because he kept trying to force me into the airlock and I was like nuh-huh, the cupcakes are that way, I can smell them, and he said that there were better cupcakes in space, but I couldn't smell them because you can't smell anything in space but we're always in space and I can smell just fine—"

"Pinkie, why?" Twilight buried her head in her pillow and groaned as the stream of words battered against her head, hung over and sore from last night's slightly-illicit alcohol.

"Because I have a cute little nosey-woesy! Hey, Twilight, did you know you can cutify almost any word! Pickle barrel lickle warrel! Twily-wily! Bungalow wungalow!"

"No, Pinkie," Twilight said, lifting her head up once more. "Why are you giving me a wake up call?"

"Oh, silly, thats simple—I give everyone a wake up call! It's one of my duties as communications officer!"

"Wait, you give a wake up call to everyone on the ship? How? There's nearly two hundred of us!"

"I pre-record all my wake up calls in advance! Just like this one!"

Twilight looked up with a start. "Wait—this is pre-recorded? As in not live?"

Pinkie practically vibrated with excitement. "Yeperenye! I haven't even met you yet! Isn't that cool? Anyway, got to go! I need to get started on the rest of your wake up calls! See you later!"

The video cut off, leaving a very confused pony behind. Twilight looked over to Spike to see his reaction to the pink pony's madness, but he had apparently slept through the whole thing.

Twilight groaned and slammed her head into the pillow again. A second later, her carefully set alarm went off, it's shrill cries sounding weak and pathetic next to Pinkie's wake up call.

"Howdy, Twilight," Applejack's voice called out. "You okay Sugarcube? You look like you're about to murder somepony."

"I am about to murder somepony," Twilight growled, stomping down the corridor, before adding a half hearted, "Commander."

"This wouldn't be about Pinkie's wake up call, would it?" Applejack asked, a wary look in her eyes. "Because she meant no harm by it, and it did get you out of bed in time for your shift. Speaking of which, you’d better head on up to the bridge.”

“Yeah, Twilight,” Spike said from her back. “You don’t want be tardy on your first day, now, do you?”

Twilight paused mid step, her eyes growing wide. She spun on the spot, preparing a teleport. It was only at the last moment that she remembered that the only teleport pad on the ship was not only on the agrideck, but was also broken. Teleporting under these conditions would be fatal. Instead she ended the spell with a shake of her head and ran off as fast as she could, knocking Spike to the floor and leaving Applejack wondering where the purple blur came from.

“What... What in tarnation was that about?” Applejack asked.

Spike just smiled ruefully and followed in Twilight’s wake.

Twilight burst onto the bridge, panting heavily and drawing the eye of everypony on the bridge.

"Are you alright, dear?" Rarity asked.

"I'm not tardy!" Twilight all but screeched into her face.

"Uh, no, you're not," Rarity said, stepping back and sharing a concerned look with the rest of the bridge crew. "You're actually five minutes early. Which is more than can be said for our captain."

Twilight paused and looked around the room, to see everypony except Rainbow Dash and Applejack present and staring at her. The large view screen at the front was currently showing an ever shrinking image of Canterlot Space Station. Twilight blushed and made her way to her desk, where she found a cupcake and a note.

Twilight looked up again and saw Pinkie give an over exaggerated wink in her direction.

She read the note, which was printed on pink paper. You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps!

Twilight felt a small giggle bubble to her lips, but she fought it down, not wanting to look like a bigger fool. That, and she still hadn’t completely forgiven Pinkie for the wake up call yet. She quickly wolfed down the cupcake, however, and grinned in delight.

It was even better than palace food.

A few minutes later Applejack strolled in, Pinkie giving a belated "XO on deck. Chief Rarity is relieved."

Rarity quickly departed, grateful to be relieved, along with Big Macintosh, leaving Twilight, Applejack and Pinkie on the bridge.

"Morning, Officers," Applejack said to the pair.

"Morning, Commander," Twilight and Pinkie said in unison.

"And call me Pinkie," Pinkie added.

Applejack rolled her eyes and gave a hearty laugh, before turning to Twilight. "I sent Spike down to help in the labs, that okay?”

“Oh, um, thanks, Commander,” Twilight replied, blushing. “I’d almost forgotten about him.”

“You alright Sugarcube? You seem a mite distracted."

"Um... Yes, Commander, I'm fine," Twilight said. "Just a little overwhelmed I guess. My first day's work on a spaceship, and it's as an Officer. It’s kind of a big thing."

"Don't worry, you’ll be fine. Derpy should be waking up soon, and she's been doing this long enough that she can probably fly the ship herself. You do know your way around your station, right?"

"Oh, yes, that's fine. I've had extensive practice back on Canterlot—wow, that sounds weird to say."

Applejack chuckled. "I bet it does."

Twilight frowned and looked back at her monitor, tapping a few buttons. "Never used one this out of date before. I mean really, Stable '73? You can't even get tech support for this OS any more."

"Yeah, we've needed a systems upgrade for a while now, but the science division never got round to it, they’re all too busy on account of being short staffed. Heck, the entire ship is short staffed. We don’t even have a proper helmspony, and our bridge crew is half the size it should be. We rely on Derpy a lot to make up the slack."

Twilight sighed. “It’s the same everywhere, too many ships, not enough trained ponies. I’ll look into the OS’s later.”

“Don’t forget the Teleportarium,” Applejack added.

“Oh, and Carrot Top wants to speak to you later about the agrilabs!” Pinkie said. “And Doctor Whooves wants your opinion on some AI thingy he’s working on, and Lyra needs help setting up the geological surveying equipment, Bon Bon has some experiments she wants you to look over and Trixie has already issued twenty one requests for your resignation.”

Twilight groaned and faceplanted her station. “Please tell me this is just hazing.”

“Nah,” Applejack said with a smile. “The hazing comes later. And Lieutenant, deny all of those resignation requests, would you? And let Trixie know I want a word with her. Again.”

“Okey-dokey! And call me Pinkie!”

The doors slid open as a rather disheveled rainbow maned pegasus wandered in.

“Captain on deck, XO Applejack standing down,” Pinkie said

“Morning Captain,” Applejack said, a little too cheerfully. Rainbow only grunted in response, before slouching in her chair. Applejack sat in the commander's chair just to her left, leaving Pinkie at the communications desk at the front and Twilight at the science desk at the back.

“How long until we’re at the jump point?” Dash asked after a moment. Applejack shot a look at Twilight, who quickly scrambled at her monitor.

“About half an hour,” she replied. "Since we're using the gallop engine, we can jump within the gravity well of Equis-2, but there are a few satilites we have to move past first."

“Good, start calculating the jump coordinates. Is Derpy awake yet?”

“Just about, Captain,” the grey pegasus replied, her holographic body materializing on the deck. “Hey, muffin buddy! You had any good muffins lately?”

“Uh... No, I haven’t,” Twilight said nervously.

“Well, you should, muffins are great!”

“Derpy, can it would you? I have a killer headache,” Dash snapped, silencing the AI.

“And this is why we don’t drink, Captain,” Applejack admonished. Rainbow weakly waved a hoof in response.

The bridge fell to silence at that, Twilight busy with her jump calculations. After a while, Derpy joined her and looked over her shoulder.

“You forgot to carry the two,” she said.

Twilight looked in confusion. “What two?”

“That one there,” Derpy said, pointing, her hoof passing through Twilight.

“Derpy, that’s the time.”

“Oh yeah. My bad.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Please tell me—”

“Still not the hazing,” Applejack cut in with a smile, causing Rainbow to snort with laughter.

Twilight groaned and faceplanted the desk once more, to the chuckles of the rest of the bridge crew.

A beeping from her console caused her to look up. “Captain, we’ve reached the jump point.”

“Good,” Dash replied. “Are the calculations done?”

“Done, checked, double checked and triple checked.”

“Uh, you know you only had to check them the once, right?” Applejack said.

“Can’t be too careful with jumps,” Twilight replied. “Besides, maths is fun.”

Dash snorted and muttered something that sounded like “eggheads” under her breath.

“Prepare to jump,” Applejack commanded.

A moment later, Pinkie voice came over the intercom. “All hooves, prepare to jump.”

“Derpy, you got the calculations?” Dash asked. The AI nodded once in response. “Then jump.”

The entire ship lurched forwards as they quickly accelerated well beyond the speed of light, causing Twilight to stagger in place, before coming to what felt like a stop. The ship vibrated gently, almost as if something was tugging it along, pulling it onwards into the deepness of space.

“You alright, Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“Just... just a little queasy,” Twilight replied, looking a bit green. “I’d heard stories, but I’ve never experienced a jump before. And the amount of magic streaming from the engines...” Twilight turned her head and stared at one wall, towards where the engines were placed. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered, almost reverently.

Rainbow glanced at Applejack, before speaking. “I’m assuming that’s an unicorn thing?”

“Hm?” Twilight said, still distracted. “Oh, yes Captain. I can see the magic flows from the engines. There... there are no words to describe it.”

“Well, don’t let it distract you,” Applejack said. “We still have a job to do. Speaking of which, how are the engines faring?”

“Yes Commander. The engines are at... 120% efficiency? That’s not right... Oh, I see, it’s still calibrated for the old ‘Trot’ engines, not the new ‘Gallop’ engines.”

“You’re saying our new engines are 20% better than our old ones?” Rainbow Dash said. “Awesome.”

“Uh, not exactly, Captain. I still need to recalibrate the sensors—”

Rainbow waved a dismissive hoof. “Yeah, yeah, cool. So how long until we get to... Where are we going again?”

“Alpha-418-X,” Twilight replied. “An unexplored star system 10 light years to the ascend-south-east of Equis-2. Estimated time of arrival is six weeks. Oh, wait, that’s the old engines again. Why hasn’t anypony updated this yet? You’d think that on a shakedown cruise of a brand new engine model they’d calibrate the systems. Corrected time of arrival is... ugh, this is so slow... four weeks.”

“Four weeks in jump space? That’s not too bad,” Dash said. “Good, bridge crew dismissed, Derpy and I can handle the rest of the shift.”

“I’m going to check on engineering,” Applejack said, heading for the door. “Mainly to see why Twilight’s computer isn’t synced to the new engines yet.”

“I suppose I’d better go see what Carrot Top wants,” Twilight said, reaching the door first. It slid open, she stepped outside and a bucket of water dropped on her head.

“Now there’s the hazing,” Rainbow laughed.

Author's Note

A bit of a slow chapter, this one. I wanted to slow down a bit and give Twilight a feel for how the Ponyville works, especially after the fast paced nature of the previous two chapters. We'll see some more of this in the next chapter, and then we'll start getting to the actiony parts. I actually already have chapter 5 mostly writen, mainly because it was supposed to be chapter two, but ended up being pushed back.

Data Files- collection 1

The Great Solar Empire can find its roots on the ancient and long lost planet of Equestria. Here, nearly 1000 years ago, ponies lived in peace and prosperity under the rule of Queen Celestia, then a mere princess, who used her mighty alicorn powers to raise the sun each morning and lower it each evening, in defiance of the laws of physics. However, this peace was forever shattered when the orbiting star, Equis-1, as later astronomers would call it, began one of the fiercest and longest solar flare events recorded in pony history. The power and the violence of the event threatened all life upon Equestria. It required all of Celestias power to contain the flares power, but even she could not hold it back forever.

At the time, the study of arcane science was little more than an academic curiosity. However, as the situation worsened, ponies began to investigate it more seriously as a hope for salvation. After a series of major breakthroughs that would have revolutionised pony society if it were not for the threat of the solar flare, a solution was found—flee the planet, into the space between the stars. Celestia, ever weakening against the brunt of the storm, agreed to the proposal. After 10 years of study, experimentation and construction, the first "spaceships" were built and ready to fly to the stars.

Ponies were not the only race living on Equestria, but shared the planet with countless others; dragons, griffins, zebras, buffalo, donkeys and many others. Many of these races blamed Celestia, the self-proclaimed goddess of the sun, for the disaster. In an attempt to mollify them, in her kindness and wisdom saw fit to grant each race enough vessels to evacuate the planet themselves.

The largest ship to leave the planet was the Canterlot, named in remembrance of the capital city of Equestria, whose populace now resided in, including the newly crowned Queen Celestia. Hundreds of ships from around the planet, bearing their precious cargos, followed in the largest exodus seen in the known galaxy. As the last ship left the planet, Queen Celestia dropped the spell containing the flare. Almost instantaneously the planet was engulfed by the solar energies leaking from Epona, scouring the planet, leaving nought but a blackened rock behind.

The pony races of Equestria remained united under Celestia's leadership, with the Canterlot becoming the seat of her government. The other species of Equestria, however, refused to have anything to do with the new Solar Empire and set off to found their own civilisation—the Confederacy of Species. However, regardless of species, all involved learnt one of the most important lessons of all—Planets are unsafe. Planets are dangerous. Planets are death.

Never able to trust a planet, spaceships became the new home of ponykind. Metals and ice came from asteroids and other planetoids. Food was grown in specially built agriculture ships. Ponies lived and died on habitation ships, never leaving, never dreaming of leaving. The Empire travelled from system to system looking for important supplies, always one barren system away from starvation. Despite the precarious nature of this lifestyle, ponykind prospered like never before, always striving to improve itself. When the Empire rejoined with the Confederacy, valuable trade agreements were established, allowing large portions of the fleet to become stationary, with the Canterlot, the Cloudsdale and the Manehatten becoming space stations, whilst smaller ships trawled over the galaxy seeking supplies, although this relationship with the Confederacy of Species would deteriorate over the following centuries.

Throughout all this, Queen Celestia has ruled the Empire in her infinite wisdom and kindness.

-from A history of the Great Solar Empire, vol. 1 by Crimson Quill, 973 A.E. (After Exodus)

The omniwatch is the latest in micro-computing devices. Resembling a normal watch, an omniwatch contains the same computing power of that of a ships computer. Omniwatches can fulfil a large number of tasks, thanks in part to the intuitive nature of 'apps', second party programs, or applications, that can be uploaded, allowing the omniwatch to fulfil a large variety of tasks. Skilled arcanoscientists can also program create their own apps directly on to it, giving the tool a large degree of versatility and individuality. The omniwatch can also link wirelessly with virtually any other device with a built in computer, allowing for the flow of data between the two computers. All this can be controled through a clear and easily manipulatable holo-screen. I would go as far to say that the omniwatch is a near essential piece of gear for anypony in the science and technology business.

So when can you expect an omniwatch to appear in stores near you? Not for a long while, I'm afraid. Omniwatches are very difficult and expensive to make. In order to obtain one you must custom order one from Orange inc, the company behind the omniwatch, for a price that easily rivals how much I earn over 10 years.

From the Equestria Daily- Science and Technology Supplement by Oxford Blue

Technical report #2957293- the 'gallop' prototype engine.

The gallop engine is a miracle of engineering design. Combining the principles of the long range teleport spell with conventional 'trot' engines, it allows spaceships to attain greater than light speed travel within the gravity well of a star, whereas conventional engines must first travel to the outermost edge of a system before jumping, in addition to allowing jumps at much greater speeds of light than 'trot' engines are capable of. It also produces a large amount of horsepower, theoretically allowing space stations such as the Canterlot or the Manehatten to once again become mobile once the necessary adjustments are made. The strategic implications of this new technology are astounding. It allows fleets to instantaneously cross systems, negating several hours’ worth of travel, opening up the opportunity for intrasystem ambushes. It also allows the major civilisation centres to become mobile, avoiding combat and sieges, as well as moving them closer to the supply systems as the closer ones become drained of resources. As with all light speed and greater than light speed travel, advanced logarithms are required to prevent collisions and jumps further than 15 light years at a time are highly discouraged.

The Ponyville follows several standard conventions in its design. From the outside it bears the appearance of a long cylinder with a pair of rotational thrusters, a set of autocannons and two plama lances running along its sides. This is due to the gravity core that runs along the center of the ship. The gravity core is an incredibly dense object filled with arcane energies, providing artificial gravity for the entire ship, much like the core of a planet, only elongated along the length of the ship. Each deck is then wrapped around the core. The deck closest to the core, as well as the smallest, is the engineering deck, where the engines and other systems are maintained. The gravity here is a heavy 12 meters per second squared (M/S2). The next deck up is the command deck. Here the bridge can be found, along with the medical bay and the science labs. Since most of the crew will spend their working hours on this deck, the gravity is a comfortable 10 M/S2. Above the command deck is the residential deck. The mess deck, crew quarters and senior officers cabins are found on this deck, along with the gym, where the light 8 M/S2 makes exercising easy. The armoury, mareine barracks and the brig are also found on this deck. The final and largest deck, known as the aggrideck, is where food is kept and grown. The gravity here is a very light 6 M/S2 and it is advised that Pegasus ponies do not fly on this deck. On the Ponyville there are small fields which alternate between wheat’s, flowers and vegetables and, unusually for a ship of its size, a small apple orchard. The addition of a hydrophonics lab ensures that fresh food can be grown all year round and also handles the water purification process from ice extracted from asteroids. The extensive plant life found on the agrideck also produces the much needed oxygen a spaceship requires. Since this is the outermost deck, there is also a shuttle bay with several Chariot class shuttles along with the teleportarium.

From The Equestria Daily- Ponyville Launch Success by Oxford Blue

Data Files- collection 2

15 BE (Before Exodus)—[DATA REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE SOLAR COUNCIL]

15 BE—Equestria's star, Epona, initiates a violent solar maximum, expelling solar flares towards the planet. Due to the magical nature of it's orbit, Equestria faces destruction. It takes all of Princess Celestia's power to hold back the storm.

10 BE—A team of Arcanoscientists propose the Exodus to Princess Celestia. The Princess, weary from maintaining the protective shield around Equestria, accepts the proposal.

0 AE—(After Exodus) The Exodus begins, with the launching of the first space ship, the Manehatten. It takes another ten years before the Exodus is completed, cluminating in the launce of the Canterlot. The non-pony races leave, forming the Confederacy of Species

10 AE—Celestia crowns herself Queen of Equestria. The Exodus is completed and Queen Celestia cancels the spell protecting Equestria. The home world is ravaged by the solar storm, rendering it uninhabitable. Queen Celestia falls into a deep year sleep, during which the Equestrian fleet migrates from system to system.

15 AE—The Equestrian government reorganises itself as the Solar Empire, with the still sleeping Queen as the head of state.

-all records lost-reasons unknown-

100 AE—Queen Celestia awakens from her sleep and takes control of the Empire. The fleet continues its journey through the galaxy.

250 AE—The Solar Empire is reunited with the Confedracy of Species, who have chosen to settle on planets under a democratic rule. Initial meetings are cold, but not hostile.

300 AE—Valuable trade agreements with the Confederacy enable the Solar Empire to establish a stationary base around Epona-2. Both nations prosper.

400 AE—First pirate activity is detected.

410 AE—Prince Goldenhooves, Celestia's favourite nephew, is killed by pirates. In response, the Empire militarises its entire navy, causing relationships with the Confederacy to become strained, who veiw the now armed merchant ships with distaste.

515 AE—The Appleoosa incident. 300 ponies and 200 buffalo, including Chief Thuderhorns, a prominent senator for the confederacy, die. Relationships between the Confedracy and the Empire deteriorate.

600 AE—The Confederate ambassador is recalled from Canterlot over a perceived insult. The ambassador for the Empire is likewise recalled.

650 AE—Galactic economy collapses.

700 AE—The Confederacy places trade sanctions on goods imported from the Empire in an attempt to support their economy. The Imperial economy suffers.

800 AE—Philosopher and Fleet Admiral Sunny Hooves writes the The Science of War. The ideas, tactics and philosophies within are spread across the fleet, granting a greater degree of unity and tactical superiority in fleet actions.

950 AE—The Confederacy breaks all democratic ties and seals it's borders.

975 AE—The Confederacy declares war upon the Empire.

985 AE—Present date

-Timeline of major events in the past 1000 years, from the Royal Canterlot Archives.

Agoraphobia is a common anxiety disorder in ponies, characterized by anxiety in situations where the sufferer perceives the environment to be dangerous and difficult or embarrassing to escape. It is commonly refered to as a 'fear of the outside". Due to the nature of the Empire's infrastructure- cramped, crowded, ceilinged rooms- many ponies become adjusted to small rooms. The worst sufferers feel a sense of panic when forced to experiance wide open spaces, such as the Aggriships, where food is grown, or the Pegasus flight halls. Whilst this fear is common (affecting over 90% of the Imperial population), it is rarely experianced, most ponies living out thier lives within the confines of the great space stations. However, it is not unheard of for Imperial Navy teams to occasionaly be sent on planetry missions. The open skies and endless horizons can inspire panic in even the most exemplary officers, are often a factor that navy captains and their support staff have to account for. Consider the following Case Study:

Lieutenant Starry Skies-Okay, Commander, we have touched down on the planet and I am oppening the hatch now.
Commander Greymane-Thank you Lieutenant , come on boys we nee—OH SWEET CELESTIA THERES NO CEILING! IT DOSENT END IT DOSENT END—[incoherant screaming, followed by the sound of the chariot hatch closing]
Lt Skies-Commander? are you okay?
Com GM-[Incoherant wimpering]
Lt Skies-Uh, come in Vanhoover. We are aborting the mission, and you may want to bring the Doctor to the chariot bay.

-End transmision-

As you can see, the commander's extreem agoraphobia hindered the mission (to recover a downed probe) and cost the navy valuble time and resources. The only known way to relive the symptoms of agoraphobia is to either spend several weeks geting those affected used to the concept of being outside, through techniques that will be described later in this text, or to force the pony to focus on more immediate matters-—a pony's brain is willing to ignore it's fears if they can focus on something else more immediate, such as the mission, or the griffin pirate about to disembowel them, for example.

-From An Introduction to Psychological Illnesses, By Dr Bright Mind

Teleporting, whilst a technically easy spell to learn and perform, has a great many issues that prevent it from being more widespread. The most important factor that limits its use is that any pony or object loses any momentum they had during the jump. Since most locations are in constant motion, anypony teleporting would find that the ground beneath them is in fact moving at speeds liable to inflict serious damage. Indeed, a common tactic in warfare is to simply teleport a piece of junk metal into an enemy ship, where the ship's own momentum would finish it off, assuming the opposing ship stays still long enough, and doesn't have its teleport damperners active.

The invention of the Teleportarium is a partial solution to this problem. Consisting of a magically charged framework of metal plates, often connected to a teleporter, the Teleportarium provides a stable location to teleport to, accelerating any incoming teleport to match its speed and direction, preventing any unfortunate collisions.

Due to the expense of this technology, Teleportariums are often small, about the size of a room, the exception being Canterlot Station, which has key parts of both the residential district and the palace district converted into Teleportariums in order to assist the large unicorn population in traversing it.

-From A Beginners guide to Teleporting, by Professor Vanishing Act.

Data Files Collection 3

The ranks of the Imperial Navy can, to a newcomer, seem confusing and arbitrary. To a certain extent, this is correct. The modern navy is an amalgamation from several different sources. Originally it was an ad-hoc organisation created from the navy, air force and traditional military forces of Old Equestria and carried over several naming conventions from them. As the study of the Arcane Sciences and Medicine grew, their tactical importance was not overlooked and they were added to the newly created Navy as separate divisions within the command structure. Over the last five hundred yeards increased hostilities and minor conflicts with the Confederacy helped wean out most of the unnecessary ranks, until eventually leaving behind the four divisions and the ranking system we use today. The four divisions are; Science and technology, Medical, Security and Command:

Command—represented by a blue sash except in the case of the admiralty, this division synthesises information from the other divisions and issues them orders in order to maximise fleet efficiency.

From top to bottom the command ranks are;

Fleet Admiral- the highest possible rank, these individuals are in control of entire fleets consisting of hundreds, if not thousands of ships. There are traditionally four Fleet Admirals at a time, with Queen Celestia acting as an honoury Fleet Admiral. This fifth fleet, referred to as the "Royal Fleet" acts primary as a self defence force due to the Princess' distaste to war and combat. Every pony that joins the navy will be assigned to one of these 5 fleets and will only be transferred under exceptional circumstances, although ponies may request which fleet they join when they enlist. The uniform of a fleet admiral is a white jacket with a golden sash bearing five golden stars.

Admiral- a lesser rank to the Fleet Admiral, each admiral commands between 10-100 ships and reports solely to the Fleet Admirals. Most admirals can be found either stationed in any of the capitals or attending a Fleet Admiral on their grand battle cruiser. An admiral’s uniform consists of a white jacket with a silver sash bearing a single gold star.

Captain- those who hold this rank command a single ship and all its crew, and as such make all executive decisions on a ship—not even a fleet admiral can counteract an order given by a captain to his crew without invoking ancient protocols, and is considered one of the most grievous insults a captain can receive. The captain’s uniform consists of the traditional imperial navy black jacket and a blue sash with five silver stars.

Commander- known as "captains in training", the role of the commander is to assist the captian in his duties, ensure his orders are carried out and help him maintain a presence on the bridge of a ship. A commander's orders are often held in the same regard as a captain's, although the admiralty may overrule them without penalty. It is also the highest rank that can be bought, or commissioned, rather than earned, due to an ancient law put in place to prevent the nobility from having to climb the lower ranks. This has the unfortunate consequence that most commanders are seen as incompetent snobs by the lower ranks. The uniform of a commander is the black jacket with a blue sash with one silver star.

Lieutenant- the jack-of-all-trades of the command division, they are often fill out the specialist roles on the bridge such as communications, helm and tactical. Another commissioned rank, most holders of this rank are senior officers from other divisions who have been promoted 'sideways' into the command division. Such officers can often expect a quick promotion to captaincy, should they meet their superior’s expectations. A lieutenant's uniform consists of the black navy jacket and blue sash with a silver stud.

Command Cadet- the non-com's of the command division and the lowest rank. Typically seen as dogsbodies, they are usually allocated grunt work considered below the upper ranks. Their uniform is the black jacket with blue sash, but no pips.

Security—the security division combines law enforcement with traditional military ground forces, in an elite organisation known as the mareines. The mareines are trained in various forms of combat, both ranged and CQC (Close Quarters Combat) and are a highly efficient military force. Officers of the security division often double up as tactical officers, controlling the ships weaponry and dictating tactics to the captain, although this usually only occurs on understaffed or deep space ships, where redundancy is usually not an option. Due to the vast majority of combat being space oriented, there are significantly fewer security ranks than in the command division.

The ranks of the security division are;

General- equivalent to an admiral, the generals command the mareine forces spread across the fleet. Only the bigger ships with a large contingent of mareines have a general on board. A group of mareines lead by a general is called a company, regardless of its size. A general's uniform consists of a white jacket with a red sash bearing 5 golden stars.

Chief- equivalent to a lieutenant, the chief commands all the mareines aboard the specific ship they are stationed on, unless their authority is overridden by a general. Chiefs often receive training to replace or even become a ships tactical officer. Such officers are occasionally promoted 'sideways' directly into the rank of lieutenant. The chief's uniform the same as a lieutenants, only with a red sash.

Sergeant- an informal rank around which a squad of cadets are trained to work around. The sergeant typically relays orders and information to and from the chief to his squad. As an informal rank they are officially unrecognised by the command structure, being little more than glorified cadets. However, most chiefs pay attention to what the sergeants have to say, being closer to the troops than the upper ranks. Sergeant's use the same uniform as a chief, but without the officers pips.

Security Cadet- the basic hoofsoldiers and non-com's of the mareines, trained to work in groups of 5-20 around a sergeant. They use the same uniform as the sergeant.

Medical—represented by a green sash, the medical division consists of Doctors, nurses and orderlies. Each ship, by royal decree, must have at least one doctor and one nurse on board to serve the wellbeing of the crew. Doctors also care for the crews mental health as well as their physical health, acting as therapists and councillors when the need arises.

The medical division ranks are;

Medical Officer- Equivalent to a lieutenant, medical officers are typically the most senior doctors on board a ship. They utilise the same uniform as a lieutenant, but with the medical division's green sash instead.

Junior Officer- a jack of all trades rank, this is for surgeons, nurses, therapists and non-senior doctors. Their uniform lacks the pip the medical officer wears.

Medical Cadet- the non-com of the medical division, cadets serve as unlicensed medical practitioners, assisting doctors and nurses in their duties.

Science and technology division—the most recent and most flexible of divisions, the science and technology division fills out various specialist roles. These roles are as varied as the disciplines of science, but can be typically be split into two categories; practical and theoretical. Practical scientists are technicians, engineers, mining geologists and the like, whilst theoretical scientists are typically astrophysicists or arcanophysicists.

The ranks in the science division are:

Science Officer- Equivalent to a lieutenant. These officers manage the various projects a ships science team would work on, and integrate them into practice. On the bridge they provide the captain with detailed technical information and manipulate the scanning systems. During combat they work with the tactical division to detect weak points in the shields of other ships. Whilst holders of this rank often specialise in a particular field of science, they have to be familiar with other branches of science as well.

Engineering officer- similar to a science officer, the engineering officer affords the same status, but whereas the science officer deals with various aspects of science, the engineering officer focuses exclusively on maintaining the ships engines and other systems.

Junior Officer- similar to the medical division, this is also a jack of all trades rank, with each holder typically specialising in a different aspect of science. It is the Science Officers duty to ensure co-operation between different Specialists and to ensure that their talents are used efficiently.

Science Cadet- the non-com of the science division, the cadets carry out the grunt work, preparing experiments and assisting the Officers with their duties.

-from A treatise on Imperial Navy customs, by Professor Clever Cogs