Chapters After the space exploration project had succeeded, Twilight decided to expand the horizons even further and make a brand new form of defense. She decided that the new soldiers should be based in orbit on board a space station and protect the world from any potential alien threats. She decided that Thorax should be in charge of the new defense group, so she sent word to him to meet with her in Canterlot. She also sent word to Flurry Heart, since she had been so meticulous when designing the airports and the planes' emergency functions.
Flurry and Thorax arrived in Canterlot early the next day.
"It would be an honor to command the space defense force once it is in perfect working order.", said Thorax once Twilight had explained the plans.
"I would be pleased to help with designing the ships for the defense soldiers. Just as I was able to lay out the schematics for the planes, this should be a piece of cake.", said Flurry Heart.
She and Thorax boarded a train that would take them to a shuttle in the San Palomino Desert. They were going to work on the ships and defense tactics from on-board the Equestrian Space Station or ESS for short.
Designing the Defense Force Ships
Once the shuttle had docked on the space station, Thorax and Flurry Heart headed to a meeting room to begin designing the ships for the defense force.
"If we want to be able to neutralize any threats, then the weapons need to be powerful enough to destroy anything they hit.", said Thorax.
"I agree with you. The engines need to be powerful as well, in order for the ships to launch as fast as possible.", said Flurry.
After deciding that the ships would be boarded by having the pilots' seats lowered down and then pulled up once the pilot was seated, they began drawing up the designs for the wings and how the weapons would be stored. The wings would include panels that swiveled upward when in attack formation, and swivel back down when in general flight position. The weapons were designed to deploy from either inside the wings or from inside the ship's nose. Weapons ranged from various types of energy blasts to explosive shells that detonated on impact with their target.
"How will the ships be launched upon deployment from the space station?", asked Thorax.
"I have been thinking about that myself. I think if the hangar for the ships has rails on the floor and the ships are attached to the rails, they can zoom forward and out through the hatch into space.", said Flurry.
Thorax was wide-eyed. He knew how Flurry was creative enough to figure out how the airports functioned, but he had no clue in Equestria that she was creative enough to figure this out too. They contacted Twilight and told her the plans for building the ships and how they would launch. Twilight was pleased and told them to go forth.
As soon as the flyers were distributed for the Equestrian Space Force, countless applicants were lining up for training and getting certified. All of the applicants, which ranged from ponies, to yaks, changelings, griffins, hippogriffs, or even dragons, were accepted and given harsh exercises to make sure they knew how to operate their ships.
The training consisted of many stages, which all started with how to take off from and dock on the space station or cruiser. They were also given tutorials on how to report in and acknowledge each other on radio. Pilots were often paired up to watch out for each other during attack runs and whenever in defense formations.
After several weeks of radio training and how to operate the wings and controls on their ships, the pilots were given strong target practice runs. They started out with stationary targets before shooting at training drones for moving targets. The drones came in different styles, with some shooting lasers for self-defense exercises, while others did not shoot and only fled from the trainees for chase practice.
After the target practice was finished, it was time to learn how to land on planets. This was more dangerous than shooting the targets, because one wrong move on descent could be a pilot's last mistake. Both the personal ships and the cruisers were designed for landing on solid ground and water in any situation. This training took two months to perfect, but everyone was able to land smoothly by the end of this regime.
With all of the exercises completed, Flurry Heart and Thorax reported back to Twilight in person to give her the results. Twilight was pleased greatly and appointed Thorax to his post as the Defense Force's Commander on the space station.
Nine months after the defense force was established, Thorax was making his rounds on the ESS when a signal came up on the radar. Several mysterious signals had been seen recently, but these were mainly for asteroids that needed to be destroyed to avoid becoming a major threat. However, something about this signal was different.
When he and one of the radar technicians analyzed the signal, they saw that the object from which it came contained much more metal than any of the asteroids. Once the source had gotten close enough to be scanned properly, Thorax realized that this was a starship, not an asteroid. Upon trying to call to the ship, he was unsuccessful six times in a row, which made him suspicious that this ship was coming to attack.
He got ready to have some of the defense pilots mobilize, but then he stopped to read the scan results, which revealed the true reason why the ship's crew was not responding. The ship was damaged badly, the radio was fried, and the structure showed signs of failure any minute. Realizing this was a dire situation, he rushed to his desk to send word to Twilight.
**
That evening in Canterlot, Flurry Heart was visiting Twilight during Hearth's Warming Eve. They were in the middle of dinner when a nearby alarm began beeping to indicate an incoming message.
"I'll get it.", said Flurry as she got up from the table.
Twilight nodded and Flurry headed over to answer the alarm. When she looked at the report on the computer screen, she suddenly became worried.
"Aunt Twilight, you might want to check this out. Thorax just sent it to us. It appears that an unidentified starship is on approach.", she said.
"Can he contact the ship's crew?", asked Twilight.
"That's a negative. He tried to call to the ship six times, but the radio is fried. He also says to keep an eye out for multiple streaks of fire, because the ship is badly damaged and looks like it could break apart on reentry.", Flurry replied.
"Understood, dear. Assemble the Young Six for a rescue mission.", said Twilight.
Flurry immediately radioed the Young Six and explained what was coming. They boarded flights to Canterlot in a flash and were ready to track down the ship upon reaching the palace. They knew that this would not be an easy mission, since it was likely that the crew had bailed out. However, in case the crew was hostile, they were ready to defend themselves.
After getting Twilight's approval, Flurry and Thorax began constructing prototypes for the defense ships. After a month of systems testing; the wings' swiveling mechanism was smooth as silk, and the cockpit controls functioned flawlessly.
All of the ships were run through rigorous weapon tests to make sure the lasers and torpedoes fired properly and hit their targets with accuracy and precision. After testing the weapons, the engines and launching rails were checked to make sure the ships would not hang up during deployment.
Once the weapons and the engines were in perfect working order, the heat shields were carefully checked to ensure they held up to the blazing heat during atmospheric entry. Once the personal ships had been thoroughly tested and prepped for missions, Flurry reached out to Twilight.
"The personal ships have been completed. Thorax and I are beginning to build the cruisers and transporters.", she reported.
"Understood, you are doing well, my dear niece.", said Twilight.
The cruisers and transporters were geared towards moving large groups of soldiers at the same time. They came together quickly and had their own weapons and shields in case enemies tried to shoot them down. As soon as a larger space station was constructed as a hangar for the cruisers and transport vessels, all of the ships were tested for warp capability to make sure they reached their destinations as fast as possible. Once this was confirmed, Flurry and Thorax knew that it was time to begin training the pilots. So they returned to Equus and released flyers for any citizens who were interested in defending the world.