Star's Trek: The search for Luna

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6

Chapter 1

The dark blue Pegasus mare beamed as she looked out across the space dock at the massive ship that was being constructed there. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and it was all going to be hers soon. Her head turned slightly when she heard her name being called out from the other side of the recreation room of Spacedock 16. She raised a hoof to signal the pony, but never took her eyes off the ship for more than a moment. A large metal arm descended from a housing above the saucer section of the ship, spray painting something on the bow before making its way along and adding all of the other details to the hull, along with a twin stripes on each of the cylindrical ney-cells that protruded from the ship’s stern.

“So CAPTAIN Star Shot, what do you think?” asked the pony that had been calling her name; a white unicorn mare with a purple mane and tail. Her chief engineer, Rarity. Named for the fabled element of generosity who had lived over four hundred years ago.
“Oh Rare, she’s so stunningly beautiful. I can’t wait until I’m sitting on the bridge and setting out for the next galaxy over,” Star Shot told her as she ran her hoof through her light blue mane. Rarity let out a light chuckle.
“Don’t get too ahead of yourself Star, we’re just going to Aquestria Prime remember? To take the sea pony ambassador home.”

“I know this is just a test flight for her, but still…” she smiled, turning to face her friend. Rarity gave her a sly wink and gestured toward the bar with her head. Star nodded once and started walking. The launch of the ship would be taking place in another two hours, leaving Star and her crew some downtime before they disembarked. At the bar, the two mares met up with the stallion who was to be their tactical officer. His name was Swift, and he was a former royal guard for Princess Celestia.

“So Swift, any news on whether our beloved ruler will show up to this little shindig? Or is she going to hole up in her castle again?” Rarity asked the white earth pony, who smiled in between sips of his synthohol.

“I’m already here, commander Rarity,” said a voice from behind them. Star Shot struggled to stifle her laughter as her friend tensed up and turned around to greet the alicorn Princess.
“Heads up,” whispered Swift, eliciting a sharp look from Rarity.
“Hello your majesty, I’m glad you could be here to witness the launch of our institute’s first warp five starship,” said Star as she bowed to Celestia. She remembered seeing pictures of Celestia from a few hundred years ago, and it always surprised her how she had barely aged a day, with the only indicator being a streak of grey in her gravity defying mane.
“Glad to be here Captain, I trust you are prepared for this mission,” said Celestia sweetly, seemingly forgetting about Rarity’s little comment.

“This and any others you think we would be ready for.”
“I may take you up on that. Hello again Swift, are you enjoying your time in the Luna institute?” Celestia enquired, turning to her former guard, how nodded happily.
“I am indeed your majesty, it’s nice to be doing some work that will benefit everypony,” Swift replied.
“And am I right in understanding that your wife is also going with you?”
“Yes ma’am. Heartstrings is the ships physician, working alongside chief medical officer Neuron.”
“She’ll learn a lot from him. Doctor Neuron has a tendency to get the job done, albeit a little… Unorthodoxly,” Celestia told him as she levitated a drink off the bar and took a long swig.

“So I’ve heard,” Swift replied flatly. Celestia laughed, ordering another drink and finishing it in one gulp.
“I’d best mingle. Those hyper logical Pinto’s must be suffering amongst all of this emotion,” she told them, rolling her eyes at the thought of interacting with the aliens.

The Pinto’s were a highly advanced race of ponies that seemed to take pride in meddling with other cultures as soon as they developed warp drive. Incredibly intelligent, they had, in the past, abandoned all emotion in the sake of logic, and as a result, thought themselves above other species. Star thought they were nice enough, but wished they hadn’t been so opposed to her being posted as captain of the new starship. When she confronted the Pinto ambassador, she was simply told that choosing somepony else was ‘the logical choice.’

“I have nothing but pity for Celestia right now,” said a new voice from behind Star, but it was one she was expecting; her science officer and second in command, Time Turner. The light brown stallion was very popular with the mares, mainly because of the rumour that he was a thousand year old time travelling alien. He loved to perpetuate it by showing them photos of his ancestor’s, all of which looked very similar to him and had the same name. Technically he was Time Turner the four hundred and fifth, but he joked around by saying that it was too hard to say in conversation.

“Well she can soon just forget all about them and go back to Canterlot castle, where I’m certain she’ll be much happier,” said Rarity, making the others laugh. Rarity was renowned for being born into the New Lunar Republic, and was never afraid to voice it.

Her bridge crew began to talk amongst themselves, but Star soon drifted away as her eyes were drawn to the ship outside. In just under two hours, she would make history.

***

Launch time had come, and Princess Celestia had gathered Star and her entire crew in the airdock in order to make a speech.

“Space… The final frontier. This is the beginning of the voyage for the starship Twilight. It’s mission; to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilisations. To boldly go where no pony has gone before,” she said proudly, beaming as the whole fifty pony crew started to cheer. “And now, I officially christen the TS-01… the Twilight!” With a small burst of magic from her horn, Celestia manipulated one of the spacedock’s arms into smashing a bottle of champagne over the bow, releasing a glob of gravity independent liquid into space. With another cheer and a round of applause, the ceremony was completed and the crew began to enter the airlock, eager to begin their journey.

***

As her crew started to get settled into their quarters, Star Shot headed for her own at the top of the saucer section. From there, she had an almost three hundred and sixty degree view of space around her, which she knew would come in handy later on. Laying her suitcase and trunk on her bed, she had a quick look around to make sure that it was as she pictured it. Spotting something on her desk, she walked over to find a rectangular package wrapped in brown paper. When she opened it, she was surprised to find a data pad with a note stuck to the screen that simply said; ‘play me.’ Star’s curiosity got the better of her and she immediately pressed the play button. The screen came to life, revealing the face of Princess Celestia.
“Hello Captain, I have something I needed to discuss with you but I never got the chance at the party,” Celestia said, waiting for her to respond. When she didn’t, Celestia kept speaking. “Star Shot? This is a video phone, not a recording.”

“Oh! I’m sorry Princess, I was confused for a second,” she said, embarrassed.
“It’s okay. Now like I said, I have something very important to tell you. It is a secret, but I will allow you to discuss it with your senior staff,” continued Celestia, giving Star a serious look.
“Whatever you need ma’am, I’m all ears,” she replied happily.

“Star, what do you know of Discord?” Celestia asked, prompting a puzzled look from the Pegasus.
“Only what the legends say I’m afraid.”
“Then you know the story of his last escape?”
“I think so. It was about one hundred and fifty years ago right?” she asked and Celestia nodded. “You and your sister Luna fought him off, accessing the elements of harmony for the first time in millennia. Unfortunately, both Discord and Luna were killed in the final battle over old Canterlot.”

“Very good, but I’m afraid that you don’t know the whole story. Luna wasn’t killed. Discord, being a creature of chaos, played with her mind until she reverted back into Nightmare Moon, but with my meagre control of the elements, I was able to free her slightly. She took off into the stars because she was afraid to hurt anypony ever again,” explained Celestia sadly. Star’s mouth was agape in shock. It was a huge blow to her ego to discover that the stories she had been told since she was a foal weren’t true.

“So what does this have to do with the Twilight?” Star asked finally, making the princess smile.
“About six months ago I received a subspace message that was half a set of coordinates as well a single sentence that said ‘I’m ready to come home Tia.’ I have no doubt that it came from Luna and so I am sending you to retrieve my sister.”
“I’ll do my best your majesty,” promised Star, giving the alicorn a quick salute before her face was replaced with a white screen with the half set of coordinates.

‘Looks like the mission to Aquestria Prime just got a whole lot more interesting,’ she thought, getting up from her chair and starting to unpack as thoughts of the moon princess danced in her mind.

***

“Are you bloody kidding me?” exclaimed Rarity, making Time Turner and the other senior staff jump. Star had gathered them all into her ready room, a small office that was attached to the bridge.
“Calm down, there’s no use getting worked up over nothing. For all we know it could be a hoax,” said Swift, the voice of reason. “Celestia is a renowned prankster.”

“I’m not too sure of that, she sounded very sincere,” Star told him, looking at all of the others for suggestions. The Twilight had long since left Spacedock 16, but as per regulations, they had to remain at impulse until they cleared the asteroid belt, which was going to take them five hours. Star had decided to try and brainstorm some ideas for find Luna while they were waiting.

“What I’m curious to know is why the princess didn’t go and find Luna herself? She obviously has enough magical power,” asked the brown maned grey Unicorn, Doctor Neuron.

“It’s quite simple really. Without Princess Celestia rotating the planet, everything would be dead within days,” Time Turner explained, which made sense. Due to the fact that the Earth’s core had solidified, the planet was no longer rotating under its own power, and required the immense magical power of an alicorn to keep everything going. In the past it was thought that the two princesses made the sun or moon move in the sky, but as science tends to do, that theory was debunked by the first orbital satellite.

The ponies all sat in silence for a while before Rarity raised her hoof into the air, much like a school filly.
“I know that this is a bad time captain, but I was wondering if you had chosen a comms officer or a helmspony?” she asked, the thought of rescuing Luna apparently gone from her mind, which was very surprising to Star.
“Uh… I have the helmspony, and I think you in particular will like her Rarity, but as for the comms officer I have no idea,” Star responded, once again opening the floor up for suggestions.

“How about ensign PrimProse? She’s phenomenal when it comes to languages, and I have a feeling that she really wants to get out of the xeno-biology lab,” suggested Heartstrings, Swift’s mint green Pegasus wife. Star nodded as she recalled reading PrimProse’s file before she got on board.

“Make it so. And as for the matter of Luna, why don’t we just wait until we drop off the sea pony ambassador?” Star asked and the others all nodded their acceptance. “Right, everypony to your stations, we should be past the asteroid belt by now… time to test out the new warp engine.”

***

Star Shot had to cover her ears as Rarity exited the ready room and squealed loudly with delight. Sitting at the helm was a young white unicorn with a pink and light purple mane; Rarity’s little sister, Sweetie Belle. Star had always found it curious how enamoured Rarity’s family was with the Element of Generosity, even going so far as to name any foal with the barest hint of resemblance after the famed pony. Sweetie Belle was no different. Star had been Sweetie’s mentor throughout her time at the Luna institute, a fact that even Rearity wasn’t aware of. Sweetie Belle had proved herself to be an exemplary pilot and it was for only for that reason that she was chosen as helmspony.

Star could see that Rarity was utterly shocked to see her little sister at the controls of the very starship that she helped design.
“Oh my Celestia! Sweetie, what are you doing here?” she exclaimed happily, drawing her sister in for a tight hug.
“I’m surprised Star Shot didn’t tell you; I’m the helmspony,” Sweetie Belle said smugly as she gave Star a wink. Rarity burst out laughing and continued to hug her sister.

“Come, come. Now is not the time for a family reunion. We have a planet to get to,” laughed Star as she sat down in her chair that was situated in the centre of the bridge. “Ensign Belle. Set a course for Aquestria Prime, warp four. Let’s not go crazy with her just yet.” Sweetie Belle released her sister and began to press buttons all over her console, inputting all of the information that the captain wanted.

“Ready Captain,” she said as she finished, holding her hoof right over the warp button. Star took a deep breath and looked around the circular bridge at all of the ponies she would be spending the next few months, or even years with.

“Engage,” she said finally and Sweetie Belle lightly pressed the button. All over the Twilight, massive amounts of power were collected, all of them being channelled into the warp reactor. Matter and anti-matter collided, creating a warp field and sending the necessary energies surging into each of the ney-cells, which started to glow blue as they charged. The Twilight suddenly shot forward at an incredible speed and continued to accelerate until it settled at four times the speed of light.

The Twilight was away.

Chapter 2

Star Shot and Time Turner sat in her ready room, scouring through hours and hours of sensor logs because he had picked up a single subspace anomaly. Normally Star would have left the work up to him, but she was determined to learn as much as she could about different aspects of her ship, such as the science station, which was one of the few areas of the ship she was unfamiliar with. Her next area of study was going to be the tactical station. Star didn’t feel as though she was unprepared, but during college, her main area of study was warp field theory, plus a little xeno-biology and stellar cartography thrown in as minor subjects. The Twilight was still a week away from Aquestria, and the entire crew was already starting to become irritated with the sea pony ambassador.

The sea ponies, as they were called by the inhabitants of Equestria, were a race of amphibious ponies that had evolved on a planet that was eighty per cent water. The main problem that they had with diplomatic missions to other planets was the fact that their maximum time they were able to survive out of the water was only a single hour. As a result of that weakness, the sea ponies had developed special suits that were full of water, and allowed them to spend extended periods of time with other cultures.

The ambassador, K’avir, had taken up quarters in one of the smaller cargo holds. It had been flooded to accommodate him but he seemed to have constant complaints about the smallest of things.
A trio of three beeps signalled the comm system in the ready room, and Time Turner groaned when he saw that it was coming from the ambassador’s quarters. Star giggled at the earth pony, before pressing the answer button on her comm system.

“Star Shot here,” she said pleasantly while she waited for his demands with bated breath.
“Captain! I urge you to come down to my quarters at once. I need to talk to you,” he snapped and Time Turner rolled his eyes.
“I’ll be there in a moment, Star Shot out,” she responded, hanging up the comm.
“Have fun on your swim” joked Time Turner as Star got up to leave. She gave him a very exaggerated smile in spite of him and headed onto the bridge. As she walked across the room toward the turbolift, she heard her name being called and turned to find ensign PrimProse waving at her. Star made her way over to the comms station and gave her the ensign a smile.

“Hello ensign, did you find anything interesting?” she asked, and the pink unicorn nodded fervently.
“Yes Captain, It seems to be some kind of distress signal coming from a Pinto ship about three light-years away,” she explained happily and Star raised an eyebrow.
“You seem far too happy about a DISTRESS signal,” said Star, making PrimProse blush.
“Sorry captain, I-I just-“
“It’s okay ensign, I’m only playing. Have Sweetie Belle set a course, warp four,” Star told her, and PrimProse nodded, already transferring the coordinates to the helm. Star smiled and continued her quest to the ambassador’s quarters. Along the way, she made a point to greet every single one of the ponies she came across, hoping that she would get a chance to meet all of them properly as time went on. When she finally arrived at the cargo hold, she entered the door to the survey gangway that ran along the upper edge of the room, allowing for her to communicate with the ambassador without the need for her to wear an environmental suit and go into the water.

“Sh’aal vatir ambassador,” said Star, greeting the sea pony in his own language. A few seconds later, she saw a dark shape beneath the surface of the water, and then a few seconds after that, a scaly green head broke through the water, a scowl plastered across his face.
“What can I do fo-,” she started, before she was interrupted by the sea pony barking at her.
“You’re late! What if I was in danger, nopony would have been here to help me and I could have died!” he said dramatically, his voice gurgling with every word. Star Shot bit her tongue against a few choice words, instead, she gave him a very toothy grin as he continued his complaints.

“I offer my sincerest apologies ambassador, but there was some urgent ship’s business I had to attend to before I could come to you,” she told him, which seemed to silence him, at least for the moment.
“Yes, well… my water is far too cold. My gills are starting to seize up,” he explained irritably.
“I’ll have a talk to the chief engineer, perhaps she can provide some more power to the environmental controls and increase the water to a more comfortable temperature,” said Star as she turned to leave, only to have the sea pony hold up his hoof to stop her.

“One last thing captain, I noticed that we seemed to have changed course. Would you be so kind as to tell me why?” he enquired. She was surprised to find out that he already knew, but she had seen aliens do stranger things.
“Good catch. We just picked up a distress call coming from a Pinto vessel about three light years away. I felt it necessary to investigate.”
“Be careful captain, there are few species in this area of space that are capable of disabling a Pinto ship,” he warned, giving her a concerned look that only served to make her nervous.
“Now we don’t know that they were attacked, it may have just been a malfunction,” suggested Star. K’avir just laughed, which was something that she was not used too; sea ponies rarely laughed.

***

“Bring it up on the main screen,” Star said to PrimProse as they approached the stranded Pinto ship. The main viewer flashed on and revealed the open expanse of space and the endless amounts of stars that stretched into eternity. In the middle of it all was the massive Pinto starship. Pinto ships were approximately four times the size of the Twilight, which was the Luna institute’s biggest ever starship. The particular class of Pinto ship that they were looking at was specifically designed for scientific exploration and terraforming.

“Scans?” she asked, looking over at Time Turner, who had his eyes pressed against a binocular like viewer.
“Warp drive is down, as are weapons and impulse engines,” he explained, pressing a few buttons on the viewer. “Life support is minimal and there are about twenty bio-signs.” Star bowed her head when she heard how many of them were left; the ship would originally have had over one hundred and fifty crewponies.

“Hail them,” she said to PrimProse, who quickly opened a channel, understanding that time was of the essence. “This is Captain Star Shot of the Equestrian starship Twilight, do you need any help?” A minute passed with no response and Star started to get worried. “I say again, this is the starship Twilight, do you need any assistance?” Still no response was received.
“Captain, I suggest we take a shuttle over and check things out for ourselves,” said Swift and Star nodded, gesturing toward the turbolift. Swift got up from the tactical station and made his way over with Star in tow.
“You have the bridge Time Turner,” she said as the turbolift closed. Together the descended to deck ‘E,’ otherwise known as the shuttle bay.

While Star got settled in the shuttle and started to get it ready to launch. Swift walked over to the nearest weapons locker and retrieved two shiny silver bracers that had a small silver box on top of it. One of them he strapped to his wrist and the other he kept for Star. He jogged back to the shuttle and passed her the bracer.

“Are you sure we’re going to need a mage pistol?” she asked as she strapped it to her wrist.
“You never know,” Swift replied, giving her a shrug. Star sighed as she continued to run final checks on the shuttle. The shuttle bay was then evacuated and the bay doors were opened, releasing the bullet shaped ship out into space.
Being an accomplished pilot, Star Shot was able to make the smallest adjustments in course and dock with the Pinto ship in one of the smoothest maneuvers that Swift had ever witnessed. The airlock of a Pinto ship sealed around the shuttles, and with a pneumatic hiss, the small space was pressurised.

***

When the two ponies entered the ship, they found all of the corridors surrounding the airlock deserted, a fact which made Star slightly nervous, as most of the escape pods were nearby. Swift gave her an uneasy look as they started to head toward the bridge where the twenty bio signs were located.

As they continued, Star tried to look for any sort of reason why the ship had been stranded. There were no signs of exterior damage, and the interior was no different, aside from the four or five areas that they had to navigate around due to depressurisation.

It took the better part of an hour, but Star and Swift finally arrived at the bulkhead to the bridge. After knocking and shouting in the hopes that one of the Pinto’s inside would hear, and with absolutely no luck doing that, Swift broke open the electrical panel to the side and started to pull out wires in a random attempt to unlock the door. Surprisingly, a loud clunk was heard from within the door and with a smile, he tore out another wire and the door slid open just enough for the ponies to squeeze through. Swift went first, leading with the mage pistol just in case there was anything dangerous inside, even though Star was confident that they would only find some Pinto’s in danger.

***

Star’s mouth dropped open as she looked around the bridge and at the Pinto’s that were inside. It was like a small shanty town completely contained within the confines of the bridge. Tents made out of blankets and pieces of metal that looked like it was pieces of the wall were scattered throughout the room. When they entered, a female Pinto noticed them and walked over to greet them. She looked extremely dishevelled but she remained stony faced as was typical of Pintos.

“Hello, my name is Tashin. I assume you received our distress signal?” she enquired flatly, cocking her head to the side slightly, as though she was studying them.
“Yes we did. I am Star Shot, Captain of the starship Twilight, and this is my tactical officer; Swift. We tried to hail you, but we got no response,” she told her, giving her a warm smile.
“That is because we took the comm system offline in order to provide more power to the life support and environmental controls. It seemed logical.”
“What happened here? Were you attacked?” Swift asked as his eyes rested on an injured Pinto receiving medical attention not far away.

“In a sense,” said Tashin cryptically as she turned and started walking through the bridge with Star and Swift in tow. “About a week ago, we came into contact with a Taurian ship who demanded that we surrender our vessel and all of our supplies. In return, they were going to allow us to take some shuttles and file as many ponies on it as possible, as well as leaving an amplifying beacon for our distress signal. We naturally refused, feeling confident that we would be able to beat them in combat. We managed to disable their warp engines, but then they fired some kind of modified torpedo at us. It struck our Starboard cargo hold and detonated with some kind of energy that knocked out most of our systems, life support included. They fled and we were stuck here with diminishing air until our engineers were able to get it going again. However, it was not perfect, and we had to continually re-route air here just to survive.”

“What happened to the rest of the crew?” Swift asked, continuing his mini investigation.
“Dead. Most of them were trapped due to locking bulkheads in areas that were already low on air,” she replied and Swift gave Star a confused look.
“So this is just the bridge crew then?” assumed Star, which Tashin confirmed with a nod. “Okay, pack up anything you need and make sure any of your wounded are fit to travel. We should be able to get you all back in one trip.”
“That seems unlikely. Your shuttle is only rated for a maximum of ten ponies,” Tashin said, raising an eyebrow.
“She’s right captain. I’ll give the Twilight a call and get Time Turner to send Sweetie Belle with the other shuttle,” said Swift, already retrieving his communicator.
“Make it so. Tashin, is there any way I can help get your people ready for travel?” she asked and the light blue Pinto began to provide her with instructions on all of the things that would need to be packed up. Star went to work while Swift got in contact with the Twilight, simply glad that she was able to help.

***

It was an hour before the second shuttle finally arrived and the Pinto’s were being packed into each one, albeit with a little difficulty. There were four of them that had to be carried on stretchers due to different kinds of injuries, taking up a considerable amount of room.

With one final bio scan to make certain that there were no more Pinto’s on board, Star and Sweetie Belle released the docking clamps on their respective shuttles and activated the thrusters, ready to make their way back to the Twilight. Swift was seated next to Star, unnecessarily acting as navigator, when the comm suddenly went off, and she answered it to discover a very concerned Time Turner.

“Captain, you and Sweetie had better get back here, long range sensors have picked up a Taurian ship on an intercept course at high warp,” he said quickly, and she could tell that he was afraid. The Taurians were a war-like race of bi-pedal aliens, and in fact, they were the only space-faring bi-pedal species in this part of the galaxy. They closely resembled minotaur, and the only differences between the two were that Taurian horns are serrated, as well as a few key differences in the genetic makeup of each species. Certain Pinto’s have the belief that the Equestrian minotaur are distantly related to the Taurians.

“Acknowledged, we’ll be there in a moment,’ replied Star as she put on a burst of speed. She did not want to be out in the open when the Taurians arrived.

“This is going to be close,” noted Swift.

Chapter 3

The first impact rocked the Twilight just as both shuttles were secured in the launch bay. Tapping the button on her comm, Star Shot called for an emergency medical team, hoping to get the Pintos into the safety of the med bay as soon as possible as she and Swift galloped to the turbo lift. It only took about ten seconds for them to reach the bridge. Star stumbled as another impact hit them, sending her colliding with a wall.

“PrimProse, hail them,” she said through gritted teeth. “Charge up the hull plating.” PrimProse proceeded to press buttons in a panicked fashion, the kind that Star had seen with many new officers during their first space battle. A moment later, the main screen lit up, revealing the grey fur and the deep red irises of a Taurian. The top half of his left horn had apparently been broken off, which only served to increase his visage of terror.

“Prepare to surrender your vessel,” he growled in a deep voice. Everyone else on the bridge turned to look at Star, who was panting heavily as she thought of a way out of the situation.
“I’m Star Shot, captain of the Equestrian Starship Twilight, what can we do for you?” she asked, splaying her wings to show that she was angry. The Taurian smirked at her display.

“Ah, a bold Equestrian, you’re a rare breed indeed. But it matters not. I want the Pinto’s you captured from the ship,” he explained as he reached a clawed hand up and scratched at the broken part of his horn.
“They are not our prisoners, they asked for our help and we helped. It’s as simple as that,” Star replied, surprised that he would think that the Pinto’s were on her ship under duress.

“And that’s all I need to know about your weakness. Prepare to be destroyed,” said the Taurian flatly, before the screen blackened out. Star lowered her wings, sighing as she heard PrimProse let out a worried squeak.
“Swift, deploy the Mage cannons and load the Draconic torpedos,” she said, her voice going serious. Making her way over to Sweetie Belle, Star leant in close and gave the young unicorn a wink. “Sweetie, do you remember that move you showed me in the simulator back at the institute?”

“You mean ‘The Belle Curve?’” asked Sweetie, giving Star a large grin. “I think I can do that, might be hard on the impulse engines and thrusters though, it wasn’t meant to be done with such a large ship.”
“Just do your best. Swift, lock weapons and prepare to fire. We are going to try a rather unorthodox move, so be ready,” she told them, sitting back down on the captain’s chair as a bolt from a Taurian disruptor hit their bow. “Sweetie, engage!”

***

The Belle Curve, the very move that earned Sweetie both her mentor and her position on the Twilight. On a simulator or in a shuttle, The Belle Curve was designed to be a defensive strategy when the pony was outgunned. The difficulty with it was keeping weapons consistently locked onto the target, as well as the g-force strain that was put on the ship.

The Taurians fired again, but Sweetie was ready for them. Her hooves became a blur as she inputted commands and calculations into the console. The green disrupter bolt flew toward the Twilight and just as it was about to hit, the port side thrusters activated and the ship barrel rolled, narrowly avoiding the bolt. She kept flipping over and over, while at the same time moving forward in such a way that the Twilight went underneath the Taurian ship, with the bow pointing directly at the underside of the ship.

“Fire everything!” Star exclaimed, smiling smugly as twin beams of red energy shot out from the cannons beneath the bow, along with two bright green flashes of light that impacted the Taurian ship and detonated in huge explosions.
“That last shot took out their shield generator, they’re a sitting duck,” Swift informed her.
“Target their weapons. Draconic torpedoes, full spread,” she ordered and two more green balls of light rocketed toward the vessel as they continued to spin around it. The torpedoes exploded near the bow, which was now on the fair side of the ship from the Twilight. Star paused, waiting for the Taurians to respond in some way. When nothing came and the ship did not go to warp, Star had PrimProse open a channel.

“This is the Twilight, are you ready to break off your attack?” she asked and when the screen lit up, she had to supress a smile at the angry yet defeated expression on the face of the Taurian Captain.
“You will get no information from me pony,” he snapped and Star saw Swift chuckle out of the corner of her eye. She held up her hoof to stop the Taurian as he continued to complain and tell her that he would never be a slave to her pathetic race.
“That’s fine with me. I have other places to be. I wish you luck with repairing your ship,” she said smugly, pleased that the Twilight had trounced the Taurians so well. The Captain roared, slamming his fists onto the console in front of him and prompting a burst of sparks as the glass top shattered.

“You have made a powerful enemy today Equestrian. I will not let my honour be tarnished by your filth. I will have my revenge,” he screamed.
“Okay… enjoy the rest of your day,” Star replied, pointing to Sweetie Belle, who then engaged the impulse drive and turned the ship to face Aquestria and with a cheerful smile, Star turned off the screen. “Warp four Sweetie.”

***

Star sat with Swift, Heartstrings and Time Turner in the mess hall, taking in her first meal in two days. It wasn’t because she was sick or worried about what the Taurian said, it was because she had joined Rarity in repairing the impulse drive and the thrusters that had been damaged by ‘The Belle Curve.’ She was however, thinking about the Taurian’s promise. She had embarrassed him, tarnished his honour, which for a Taurian is the major part of their life. There was a good chance that if he were to return home, that he would be executed for his failure, or at the very least banished.

‘If he does manage to find me again, I can count on the fight not being as easy as that one. But I suppose I’ll have to deal with that when the time comes,’ she thought, her trance interrupted by Heartstrings waving her hoof in front of her.

“Star, are you alright?” she asked, giving her a concerned look. Star smiled, nodding to indicate she was but saying nothing.
“I have to say, you handled that Taurian very well Star,” said Time Turner as he shovelled mashed potato into his mouth.
“Thanks, but I am kind of concerned that we haven’t seen the last of him,” she told them, making them all go quiet.

The silence was broken by the sound of a chair scraping across the ground as it was pulled away from the table. Star looked up to find Tashin, the light blue Pinto that they had rescued from the ship. Star always thought that Pinto coats looked like a patchwork of colours. Tashin’s was mostly light blue, but it was so pale that the white parts kind of blended into them. One of the other Pintos on the ship had a deep maroon colour mixed with the white. None of them had cutie marks; instead, they had the symbol of their family on their neck. Tashin’s was an open book with binary code filling the exposed pages.

“Greetings Captain, might I sit?” she asked in her flighty, emotionless voice, cocking her head to the side. Star nodded, giving her a warm smile. She sat down and stared at the assembled group. “Please, do not let me interrupt, continue your conversation.”
“Okay… So Heartstrings, how are you acclimatising to the new med bay?” Time Turner asked and Heartstrings’ face immediately lit up.
“Oh it’s great! There is so much new equipment that I’d only read about in magazines as being the next big thing in medicine,” she told them excitedly.
“Did you have any trouble learning how to use them?” Tashin asked.
“Not really.”
“That is good to hear. I have heard many stories about the difficulties your species has with adapting to new technology,” she said and in the awkward silence that followed, a cup was brought over to her by another Pinto.

“So… Tashin, I’ve been meaning to ask; how come you guys were so close to the edge of Taurian space?” asked Star, noticing that Heartstrings was glaring at Tashin angrily. The Pinto noticeably hesitated, stopping the cup halfway through a sip.
“This is not the place to talk about such things Captain,” she replied after a moment.
“Oh come on, it can’t be that bad,” Time Turner interjected, his voice muffled by the large lollipop in his mouth. Tashin sighed, setting the cup down on the table and looking around at the group with what could only be described as nervousness, or at least the Pinto approximation of nervousness.

“Very well, I suppose you deserve to know the truth since you came to the aid of me and my compatriots,” she said and Star smiled, while at the same time becoming concerned by the way that Tashin was fiddling with her front hooves. “Well we were near the borderlands on a scouting mission to find suitable planetoids for terraforming.”
“But that doesn’t make sense, why would your government want a colony on the Taurian border?” asked Star. She could tell that Tashin was lying, simply by the nervous twitches all over her body. Star recalled reading something at the Luna institute that stated that even though Pintos rejected emotion for the sake of logic, younger members of the society often had trouble keeping them in check during times of great stress.

“I was just doing as the high command requested, whether or not you believe me is irrelevant,” she replied, her voice instantly changing back to its previous cold and distant manner. She suddenly rose from her chair and proceeded to trot out of the mess hall. Swift let out an amused snort, only to be elbowed in the side by his wife.
“She’s lying,” said Star, still watching the door.
“How can you tell?” asked Heartstrings.
“You can’t?”

“Good point,” she chuckled. “But what can you do? You more than anypony else know how Pintos can be Star.” She was right, even before the incident with her appointment on the Twilight; Star had been at odds with Pintos. As part of her training in stellar cartography, Star had served on a Pinto vessel for six months, and it had been one of the loneliest times of her life. The other members of the crew had shunned her, simply because of the reason that she was Equestrian and in their mind, it made her inferior. At the beginning of the trip, she had tried to make friends with them, but whenever she tried to introduce herself, the Pintos just looked at her like she had the plague.

***

“What in the t’aal shalik was that?” K’avir shouted, spraying water all over Star. He had called her down to her quarters under the premise of having some updated information on the coordinates of the area he needed to be dropped off, but he had instead started to abuse her for risking his life in what he called a futile endeavour. The last five minutes had just been K’avir shouting at the captain. To her credit, Star had waited patiently for him to finish, despite the choice words that had found their way onto her tongue.

“I apologise ambassador, I was unaware that the Taurians were the ones responsible for the attack on the Pintos, nor the fact that they were on their way back to finish the job,” she explained calmly, which seemed to placate the scaly pony. He snorted, diving under the water to take in a deep breath.

“Well at the very least, tell me that we are headed home,” he grumbled once he had resurfaced.
“We are indeed, and it shouldn’t take too much longer, I promise. In the meantime, might I invite you to dine at the captain’s table tonight? The ship’s cook is well versed in Aquestrian cuisine,” she offered, partly to be polite, as it was common custom on Aquestria to recompense somepony you have wronged by providing them with a feast. But the main reason was that she wanted the chance to prove to K’avir that she was the right pony for the job, that she was dedicated to The Luna Institute and to her ship. He accepted, his previous issues with her forgotten with the promise of a good meal.

Star left the cargo bay and headed straight for her quarters, looking to catch a few hours’ sleep. Along the way, it seemed as though she was stopped by the head of every single department, from xeno-biology to sanitation, all looking to get her approval on an upgrade or modification. When she did finally arrive, she collapsed onto her bed, looking up at the ceiling with exhausted eyes.

When she crawled under the covers, Star retrieved the book she had been reading since they left spacedock. It was a history of her family, as compiled by her great-great-grandmother; Dinky, who had lived through the third great griffin war and the resurgence of Discord. Since that time, members of her family had added to it, leading all the way to Star and her younger brother, an Earth pony named Cheshire.

Star had read the book before, and for whatever reason, continually found herself drawn to the entries the involved Dinky’s own mother; a Pegasus mare by the name of Derpy Hooves. She saw a lot of herself in Derpy, the way that the mare had never had anypony believe in her because of her disability. It was only when Derpy had met Dinky’s father, a stallion who referred to himself as ‘The Doctor’ that her life had changed. Derpy had become a well-known member of Ponyville, somepony that could be trusted with anything, and who never turned down a pony in need. It was Derpy that Star had always tried to emulate during her time at The Luna Institute, and even influenced the kind of captain she wanted to be; kind, compassionate, but respected all the same.

‘I just don’t know what’s going wrong,’ she thought, feeling the pressures of the last two days collapse on her shoulders.

Chapter 4

Star fought to suppress the bile rising in her throat as she stared down at the plate of traditional Aquestrian cuisine in front of her. K’avir had insisted that she share his food, as a sign that there were no hard feelings between them. The cold mushy seaweed-like vegetable and the grilled sand worm that she had been given was a delicacy on Aquestria, but it was far from anything she found in the least bit appetising.

From the corner of her eye she could see Rarity smirking as the plate of hay fries and eggplant steak under her nose steamed. The white unicorn was lucky enough to have a severe allergy to Aquestrian food, as well as Pintoan, or at least Star considered her lucky.

With a reluctant smile, Star stabbed her fork into the vegetable and swallowed the lump in her throat at the squelching sound that it made. Taking a deep breath, she lifted it to her lips and into her mouth and as the extremely salty and moist morsel met her tongue, she immediately regretted inviting the ambassador. Persevering, she started to chew, giving K’avir a warm smile that seemed to placate the sea pony. He was scarfing down his food as fast as he could, not wanting to waste the hour he could spend outside of a body of water or an environmental suit on things like chewing. After some time and with far too much chewing than should be considered necessary for edible food, Star managed to swallow, her eyes watering at the feeling of the slimy lump travelling down her throat.

“So what did you think?” K’avir asked, pausing his gluttonous shovelling only long enough to speak.
“It’s a bit saltier than I expected, but not all that bad,” Star replied, her voice croaky on account of the salt drying up her mouth.
“Authentic Natara root isn’t that bad, but this has been freeze dried for far too long,” he explained, surprising Star with his jovial attitude. “Look Captain, I really must apologise; space flight brings out the worst in me.”

Rarity shot Star a quizzical look. She knew that he was simply happy to be getting some more traditional respect and that space flight had nothing to do with his sour treatment of the crew. Even in Equestria, he was notorious for keeping meeting running for days simply because one of the other dignitaries, usually the griffins, had not adhered to his people’s customs. Star suspected that since the he was not the highest ranking pony on the ship, and therefore had to answer to somepony, that it was just a case of damaged ego and he was lashing out in the same manner as a spoiled foal. As much as she didn’t like it, she understood that she needed to humour him for the sake of interplanetary relationships and perhaps even her posting on the Twilight.

“It’s fine ambassador, I understand,” she told him, giving him another wide smile. The comm on the wall let out a triple beep and Star found herself silently thanking Celestia that she wouldn’t have to eat any more of the Aquestrian delicacies. “Star here, what’s the problem?”
“It’s Sweetie Belle sir, Tashin is on the bridge and is requesting your presence in the ready room.”
“Can it wait? I’m busy entertaining the ambassador,” Star responded, but much to her pleasure, K’avir held up a hoof to stop her.
“It’s fine captain, I have a feeling that our Pinto guest needs you more than I do,” he said and Star gave him a nod to say thanks.
“Tell her I’m on my way.”

***

When she entered the ready room, she found Tashin carefully studying a large painting of old Canterlot, with its massive towering spires and the way that it had been built straight onto the side of a mountain. New Canterlot had been built at the base of the same mountain and the palace had been completely constructed from leftover materials from the old city.

“I have heard tales of this city,” said Tashin, not taking her eyes off the painting. “My home planet is very close to our sun, so our entire civilisation is built under ground. But to see something so large and so in the open is amazing.”

“Maybe you’ll get the chance to see it one day?” Star told her, sitting down at her desk and pressing a button on the table that caused coffee to be dispensed into a cup.
“Perhaps…” Tashin smiled, mumbling something else that was inaudible to Star.
“So what did you want to talk to me about?”
“It’s a little hard to talk about, but I’ve been meditating, and I feel that telling you the truth is for the best. Remember how I was telling you about our mission?” Tashin enquired and received a confused nod in response. “Well we were looking for a planet where we could set up a military outpost.”
“What! A military outpost on the edge of Taurian space, why?” Star shouted, utterly shocked at what she was being told.
“Please understand that I was only doing what I was ordered,” said the blue Pinto, sitting on the couch in front of Star. The Pegasus could tell that Tashin was scared, as she could see past the cold expression on her face and into the raw emotion behind her eyes.

“It’s okay, now why were they doing that?” asked Star, rubbing the bridge of her nose with a hoof in a mix of frustration and disbelief.
“When I say ‘military outpost’ I’m not really talking about barracks or a weapons development facility. It’s just a simple listening station with no more than a single thirty pony contingent protecting it,” she explained, putting great emphasis on the word ‘simple.’
“But that still doesn’t answer my question. Why was this listening post going up?” Star asked again, looking Tashin dead in the eyes. The Pinto sighed and Star could tell that she was thinking of the right way to word herself.
“We have… contacts on the Taurian homeworld that informed us of a plan to expand their territory, so the high council decided to pre-emptively prepare for that by setting up the listening station,” she explained and Star turned away and ran a hoof through her mane in contemplation.

“So let’s get this right. Your people have spies in the Taurian high command who say that they are expanding, and so your response it to actively antagonise them.”
“Well when you say it like that…” Tashin started and Star immediately slammed her face onto the desk in anger.
“You know, for all of your ‘logic’ the Pinto can sure be stupid sometimes,” she snapped. She was so tired of the Pinto’s believing that they knew what was best for everypony in the galaxy. Ever since they made first contact with Equestria, they tried to lower their dependence on magic for the sake of science. Their reasoning was that magic was unpredictable, but it was generally considered that it was because they were jealous as the Pinto race consisted only of Earth ponies. A thought suddenly occurred to Star, one that made her feel a little sick.

“Tashin, are you going to get into trouble for telling me?” and her heart sank when she received a single nod. “But why then?”
“Because I do not believe that they are doing the right thing and I… I regret putting you and your crew in danger when you responded to our distress call,” she explained, her voice cracking.
“You shouldn’t feel bad, I was happy to help. But I’m more concerned about you now. What is going to happen to you?”
“I expect that once the council finds out that I’ve told you, I’d assume that I will spend the next fifty years in prison for treason,” Tashin told her, cocking her head to the side in her typical fashion.

“Well then don’t tell them.”
“What? I can’t do that.”
“Why not? I promise that I’m not going to say anything,” Star told her, putting her hoof on Tashin’s shoulder. “I appreciate you telling me the truth, but there is no way that I’m going to let you go to prison because of me.”
Tashin stared at her for the longest time, her head remaining cocked to the side. Her eyes were glistening with tears, which was something that Star was very surprised to see.

“Thank you,” she said and in the most unexpected thing that Star had ever seen a Pinto do, she tackled her to the ground in a very tight hug.
“Tashin?! What are you doing?” she asked, her voice high pitched because of surprise.
“I’ve never met anypony so willing to help me before,” she said, sobbing lightly as she climbed off Star and took a step back.
“I didn’t want to say anything, but you don’t act much like other Pinto’s I’ve met,” Star said, still lying on the floor in front of her. Tashin blushed, looking down at the floor in what appeared to be shame.
“I-I… There’s something else you need to know captain, I’m not a Pinto at all. I’m Equestrian.”

***

“I’m sorry, but what?” Star asked flatly, her eyes wide as she watched Tashin’s eyes fill with tears.
“You’re the only pony that’s ever shown any genuine interest in me, and for whatever reason the thought of lying to you makes me feel sick,” Tashin cried.
“But you said that you aren’t a Pinto, what do you mean?”
“Well it’s kind of hard to explain, but from what I’ve gathered, I was found inside a crashed freighter in the middle of the desert and adopted by one of the families.”
“Then how come you look like a Pinto?”
“Genetic modification. I have all of the aesthetics of a Pinto, but I’m really not.”
“How did you discover that you were an Equestrian?”
My parents never made any claims otherwise. Apparantly it was the high council that ordered my modifications so that I might fit in better with the other children,” Tashin explained, looking at the ground as if remembering something painful.
“Oh Tashin I’m sorry. But I don’t understand why you’re telling me all this,” Star told her, moving from her seat to the couch next to Tashin.
“It’s like I said, lying to you feels wrong a-and I also wanted to ask you something.”
“Anything,” she replied, putting a foreleg around her friend.

“I-I need you to help me find my Equestrian family. With your sway in the Luna institute you must be able to get a hold of personal records from any of the space faring organisations on your planet,” Tashin explained, almost pleading with Star. Star considered this for a moment, the repercussions of searching for the answer to a secret that spanned two entire planets. The other thing she had to consider was that she barely knew Tashin. The pony had just unloaded her heart onto Star in a torrent of emotion and tears, and in the back of her mind, Star was feeling a little overwhelmed.

“Look Tashin… I’ll try, but I need you to realise that I may not be able to help,” said Star quietly, her eyes going wide as Tashin embraced her and squeezed tightly again. “In the meantime, I need you to keep up appearances. Go back to acting like a Pinto, simply for the sake of both your crew and mine. This feels like something that others will take the wrong way.”
Tashin nodded once and swore to return to her act and sure enough, her facial expression instantly changed back to its former cold and emotionless state. She cocked her head to the side and gave Star a nod before getting to her hooves and leaving. Once Star was sure that she was out of earshot, she let out a moan and buried her face in her hooves.

‘Could today get any weirder?” she wondered as the comm beeped. Sighing, Star reluctantly got to her hooves and made her way over to the desk, where the comm went off once again.

“Star here, what’s the problem?”

“It’s PrimProse captain, Admiral Nova’s on the line, and he really doesn’t sound happy.”

“Celestia damn it. Patch him through.”

Author's Note

Trivia fact: PrimProse is the name of the pony I designed for my Creative and Professional Writing Professor at university.

(Very dialogue heavy chapter. Sorry about that, but I felt like I had to set up the character of Tashin.)

Also, I have a question you readers: Do you want me to follow the Star Trek formula where I have a chapter or two following characters other than Star Shot. Rarity or Heartstrings for example.

Chapter 5

Star Shot sighed inwardly as she stared at the small view screen on her desk as the Luna institute’s logo spun in one place. She had studied every inch of that symbol during her studies, as it had been plastered everywhere in the institutes building. With the triple beep of the comm system, the screen lit up to reveal the light green face of an angry unicorn; Admiral Nova Shine. He was an older stallion, but had only ever been to space twice, the first time was to open the space station and the other was to see the ‘Twilight’ off. He always used to tell Star that space travel would make a pony’s mane go grey prematurely, but despite that, he hair was almost completely colourless, except for a dark blue streak going down the side of his head.

“So Star… What in Celestia’s name happened?” he growled, grinding his yellow, cigarette stained teeth.
“Whatever do you mean sir?” she asked, hoping that her smile was convincing enough.
“Don’t bother lying to me captain, the ambassador contacted me and told me all about your altercation with the Taurians.”
“Ah… Well allow me to explain-“
“Oh please do,” Nova said sarcastically, putting his head in his hooves.

“My comm officer Primprose intercepted a distress signal from a Pinto terraforming vessel and as we were in the process of rescuing them, the Taurians showed up and we were forced to engage them,” she explained, watching as Nova continued to stare at her with his sharp green eyes. Normally Nova had a cheerful disposition, but ever since the Pinto’s had started to complain about Star’s posting on the Twilight and he had begun to deal with them even more, he had become an irritable pony.

“Nevertheless, the Pinto’s are rather displeased that there was a skirmish on their borders and I am copping so much grief because of it,” he told her, spitting out the word ‘Pinto.’
“My apologies sir, it was not my intention to cause you any-“ started Star, before being interrupted with a growl.
“Don’t suck up captain! I’m in no mood for it. Look Star, you know I like you, I was friends with your father for a long time, but you must understand that this is beyond my control,” he told her, sighing as he slid a file over to himself and opened it. “By order of the Pinto High command, you are to report to the science directorate to explain your actions and to receive judgement for provoking Taurians inside Pinto space.”

“What! I was only defending myself after I SAVED their people!” exclaimed Star, outraged.
“Yeah, well like I said; there’s not much I can do about it now. But don’t let it interfere with your mission. Just take the ambassador back to Aquestria and head to the Pinto home world when you can. I’ll… see if I can take some of the pressure off you,” said Nova, his voice going soft for a moment. Star gave him a nod and the admiral cancelled the connection, leaving Star alone in silence.

***

The high pitched scream pierced the recirculated air in the Twilight, ringing down the halls of the ship. From the bridge, Star, Swift and Time Turner were shocked out of their mid-shift trance and rushed to the source of the commotion, which turned out to be the med-bay.

When they arrived, they found Heartstrings cowering in a corner, with Doctor Neuron giggling like a school colt and stroking a caterpillar that was the size of a housecat.
“What’s going on here?” Time Turner asked, as Swift rushed to comfort his wife. Doctor Neuron gave her a wide smile and placed the caterpillar in a large, plexi-glass enclosure.
“I’m very sorry about that captain. I was unaware of our dear Heartstrings had a phobia of caterpillars,” he explained, pushing the enclosure under of one of the counters and closing a curtain.
“Okay, but why is there a caterpillar that big on my ship?” asked Star, keeping her eyes trained on Heartstrings as she was lead out of the med-bay.
“Oh, well that’s simple; how do you expect me to make all of the medicines and stuff without ingredients?” he smiled and Star gave him a quizzical look.

“Wait, so instead of stocking up on actual medicines, you filled the med-bay with insects?”
“Of course not! We are fully stocked with meds for at least eight months, barring any kind of plague, but after that, I’m going to have to make my own meds. And it’s not just insects. I have lizards, mammals, birds and sea life, all of which have some kind of healing properties in their bodies or secretions,” explained the doctor cheerfully. Gesturing to Star, Doctor Neuron led her over to a curtained off section of the med-bay, pulling back the curtain to reveal a menagerie of strange creatures in cages and enclosures.

“Wow, this seems very inappropriate,” Star said, stunned. Beside her, a cloudsdale thunder beaver squeaked, causing a tiny arc of electricity of branch out between the bars of its cage. She took a step back, bumping into Time Turner, who, much to her surprise, was looking at the miniature zoo with a look of awe on his face.
“Are you kidding? This is fantastic!” he exclaimed, pushing past her and staring at all of the various animals with a look of sheer elation on his face.

“Thank you very much Time Turner, these guys here are the pride of my collection. Like little Boom the thunder beaver over here,” said Doctor Neuron, as he started making cutsie faces to the beaver.
“And what kind of medicinal properties does he have?” Star interjected, trying to change the subject before the boys got too weird.

“Ah! Now that is the interesting part. This little guy has two functions that I can use. Firstly, the secretions from his pancreas can help fight malignant tumours, and secondly; if for whatever reason we run out of power, I can run the entire med-bay off his bio-electricity for about a week if nothing super bad happens.”
“Okay, that is fairly awesome,” Star admitted, genuinely impressed. “Look, I’m going to go check out how Heartstrings is doing, but seriously, keep this kind of stuff in check, especially the caterpillar apparently.”
Doctor Neuron gave her a single nod and Star turned and walked out of the med-bay, sighing with relief when the doors had closed behind her. A cold shiver ran up her spine when the thought of all the insects on her ship.

***

Star found a crying Heartstrings being comforted by Swift in the mess hall. In front of her was a large bowl of her favourite mint ice cream covered in bon bons.
“Hey… how are you doing?” she asked, sitting down across from the couple. Heartstrings looked up and gave her a weak smile.

“I’m okay, just in a bit of shock,” she replied, nuzzling a bit closer to Swift.
“It’s okay sweetie, I’m sure Star talked to him,” said Swift, giving Star and expectant look.
“I did indeed, but as he explained, they hold too many potentially helpful qualities for me to condone getting rid of them, but he has promised to make it considerably easier on you,” Star told her and while both Swift and Heartstrings gave her a deadpan look, they eventually relented.

“Fine, but if I see it again I won’t hesitate to fire it out of an airlock,” Heartstrings warned, making Star chuckle.
“So how come you are so afraid of Caterpillars?” she asked as she tried to subtly slide the bowl of ice cream over to her. Heartstrings sighed and Star saw Swift smirk as though we was remembering something hilarious.

“Well my older brother got his cutie mark in studying bugs and so he always had them around the house. I didn’t really mind, but then I was practicing my mother’s antique lyre and got bitten by a rare poisonous species of caterpillar. I had to spend a week in hospital because of it, and lost all of the fur on my right foreleg, where I got bit. OH! And my remaining fur got turned fluorescent yellow. I’m just happy that my brother was able to help the doctors find and antidote, otherwise I may not be here right now. Since then, I just cannot be near any kind of caterpillar,” Heartstrings told Star, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment. Heartstrings suddenly noticed that her captain was trying to steal her ice cream and snatched it back.
“Fine. You know what, how about I talk to Neuron again and see if he can keep it in his quarters, might make the work environment a bit better?” Star suggested and Heartstrings agreed.

***

After the mess in the med-bay had been sorted out, Star, Swift and Time Turner returned to the bridge, only to find it completely empty, save for Tashin, Sweetie Belle, PrimProse and Rarity.
“What’s going on here?” Time Turner asked, taking a seat at his station. The four assembled ponies that were already on the bridge looked at each other awkwardly, as though they didn’t know who should talk first. Finally, it was Sweetie Belle that spoke up.

“Well… It’s bit hard to explain. But basically we have a multitude of problems at the moment,” she said, taking a step away from Star and pushing Rarity in front of her slightly. Star let out an annoyed sigh and slumped onto her chair.
“Let me guess, the warp reactor is about to explode,” she joked irritably.
“Uh, actually…” said Rarity.
“Wait, WHAT?”

“Yeah, apparently there was a defect in the dilithium casing, so we are leaking anti-matter at a steady rate,” she explained, lifting a tablet off the table next to her and passing it to Star. The image on the tablet showed where the reactor had developed a crack in the anti-matter dilithium casing, causing a potentiall disastrous leak. Since anti-matter destroys almost all matter, it wouldn’t be long before it cut through the hull of the Twilight, causing mass depressurisation.
“So, what are our options?”

“I managed to contain the leak somewhat, but at the rate its going, my makeshift repairs aren’t going to hold up. I’d suggest dropping back to warp two and finding somewhere I can get some dilithium repair kits,” Rarity told her, as the screen on the tablet changed to a list of parts she was going to need.
“Right, and what’s the nearest inhabited planet?”
“A… uh… A diamond dog merchant outpost,” replied Sweetie Belle. Star gave Time Turner a quick look, just in time to see him smack his face into his console.

“Celestia damn it. Plot a course, warp two. So who else had problems?” Star asked drily as she gave a hard look to both Tashin and PrimProse.
“I-I don’t know now. My news seems a bit unimportant in the light of the reactor issue,” said PrimProse quietly. Star raised an eyebrow and signed again, prompting her to continue. “I’ve been getting reports from all over the ship about altercations between a group of earth pony from the stellar cartography lab and some unicorns from the xeno-biology lab. Apparently some racial remarks have created issues.”

“Who started that?” Star enquired, slightly disgusted by the attitudes of her crew.
“One of my friends in the sanitation department told me that it was the unicorns that started calling them ‘mud ponies’ and ‘useless.’ But then I really don’t know,” Primprose told her and Star saw the looks of rage on the faces of the earth ponies Swift and Time Turner. She had thought that all of the crew had been screened for things like racism, and finding out that it had already started so early into their voyage simply made her mad.

“I’ll sort it out as soon as I can,” Star assured them, before turning to face Tashin, who was looking around the room in a curious manner. “And what about you Tashin, what did you need to see me about?”

“Oh nothing much captain, it’s just that two of our injured people just died and I’d like your permission to take and empty torpedo casing and fire them into the nearest star,” said Tashin in her typical flat tone. Suddenly feeling very uncomfortable, Star simply nodded her approval and Tashin immediately left the bridge.

“Okay… So one problem at a time then,” Star said to herself.

Author's Note

Sorry about the wait everyone. Just got back into university study and got held up.

And since I didn't get a response on my previous chapter,I'll ask again;

Would people like to see me follow the Star Trek formula and follow around characters other then Star? Heartstrings or Time Turner for example.

Chapter 6

Time Turner was jolted awake as the Twilight rocked violently to the left, throwing him from his bed and onto the cold metal floor. Scrambling to his desk as he was continually shunted from side to side, he grabbed his uniform band, a piece of red material that went around his neck, and activated the comm badge that was pinned on it.

“Time Turner to bridge, what’s going on up there?” he asked, fearful that the Taurians they had faced only a week earlier had finally caught up with them. After a second, the cheerful voice of Star Shot filled his ears.
“Sorry about that Time Turner, we took a bit of a detour through a small nebula that had a few anomalies weaved through it. We’re just going through a bit of space turbulence that’s all,” she replied and Time Turner groaned.
“Space turbulence is not a real thing, it’s just varying gravitational forces acting on the ship. But that’s not the point, as the chief science officer on the ship, you should have called me when you first detected the anomalies.”
“Well get up here then,” Star said, disconnecting the comm badge. Time Turner facehooved, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes as he struggled to restrain the frustration that was building up inside him. He and Star Shot were the best of friends, but she always found a way to irritate him with her carefree attitude. She loved to ignore the safety protocols and charge into a situation without all the facts, something he found utterly stupid.

He slipped the uniform band around his neck and left his quarters, grunting as the Twilight rocked again, shunting him into the doorframe.

***

On the bridge, Time Turner took over his station, relieving a young ensign who gave him a strange look as he walked away. Star Shot gave him a nod and a smile, before turning back to the main view screen, where a massive cloud of purple dust surrounded the ship, with light from unknown sources refracting off the tiny particles throughout.

“Wow, that’s beautiful,” said Primprose, her eyes glazed over in awe. Time Turner smirked at the girl’s innocence.
“It’s just a cloud of dust PrimProse,” he told her as he started up the scanners, searching for any sign of the anomalies that Star had previously mentioned.
“I know, but… I’ve never actually been inside of a nebula before,” she replied, pouting at the stallion for ruining her fun.
“Yeah Time Turner, lighten up, we’re out here to explore remember?” Star smiled as she turned to face Swift. “How’s the hull plating holding up?”
“Not bad, a few micro-fractures, but the magi-seals are taking care of them with no issues,” he replied, not looking up from his console.
“Keep an eye on the mage reactor levels,” Time Turner said, sending a file to Swift’s console. “Stellar Cartography are doing a few experiments in cargo room four.”
“On it, thanks.”

For the next few hours, they carefully studied the anomalies in the nebula, finding that they were simply reverse gravity wells, pockets of ‘negative gravity’ that forced matter away from it rather than toward it.
“I don’t think we are going to find anything useful out here captain, just some run-of-the-mill stellar anomalies,” said Swift, looking slightly disappointed, but mostly exhausted. One of the things that Time Turner most admired about Swift was that some of his more ‘efficient,’ if not self-harming, traits had translated from his former position as a royal guard to his tactical officer status. The main one of those qualities was the tendency to work ridiculous hours on next to no sleep, and after taking a quick look into the bridge logs, Time Turner found that Swift had been working for the past twenty-one hours, with only a single half-hour coffee break at lunch time. Shooting another quick look over at the tactical station, Time Turner tried to get a read on just how much damage his ruined sleeping pattern was doing. But sure enough, and much like he expected, Swift was like a block of marble. A few bags under the eyes and some slightly ragged breathing were the only indication of his body protesting.

The only times that Swift ever showed true emotion was when he was with Heartstrings, as though she was the final key to his heart, able to carve away the marble.

With a quick flurry of hooves, Time Turner sent a quick message through to Star’s screen on the captain’s chair, informing her of Swift’s condition. Star looked at it for a moment, letting a single concerned sigh escape her lips.

“Swift, I just had a quick look at the logs here and it tells me that you are long overdue to be relieved. Go to bed,” said Star, instantly snapping back into her authoritarian voice. Time Turner’s heart skipped a silent beat, as though her voice had woven though his soul and frozen him in place.
‘What are you doing fool? Science!” shouted the rational side of his brain. Throughout his time with Star Shot, his mind had a tendency to wander. Not because he was attracted to her, not at all, but rather the fact that she represented everything he hoped to be in the future. He wanted his own ship, his own crew and his own adventure. Serving on the ‘Twilight’ was just the first step.

“But, uh¬¬... um. C-Captain, I really don’t–“ Swift started, before a single raised hoof stopped him.
“No arguing my friend. You can barely make a sentence. Now go back to your quarters. Heartstrings will have my hide if I were to let you pass out on the console,” she said, her words jovial but her tone as serious as Time Turner had ever heard. Swift simply closed his eyes and nodded once, before stepping away from the console and being relieved by the same ensign that had previously occupied the science station.

After Swift had left the bridge, Star turned to Time Turner.
“I swear; that stallion will be the death of me.”
“Death of you? More like the death of himself. We need to crack down on this, captain. You saw today’s work log, now have a look at the rest of the week,” he told her, swiping at his console and sending the rest of the files to Star’s screen.
Breathing out yet another dejected sigh on Swift’s behalf, she skimmed over the logs, and Time Turner could tell she was only getting more and more worried about her friend. Collapsing onto her chair, Star Shot ran an irritated hoof through her mane.

“What is wrong with him? Why is he trying to torture himself?” she asked nopony, staring out into space. Time Turner watched her closely; her breathing was calm, her eyes were active, internally running though all of the possibilities and solutions to the problem that was her tactical officer. She never once scowled, never slammed her hoof onto the armrest in frustration. She just thought. “We have to talk to him, find out why.”
“I agree, although we should wait until he goes for his next scheduled shift and do it just before then,” he suggested and Star nodded, before shooting a look back at her screen.
“Uh, Time Turner, did you know that his next shift is in four hours?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at the science officer.
“Delay it to eight?”
“Yep, delay it to eight.”

***

Following a hasty reshuffling of duty rosters, Time Turner and PrimProse managed to make certain that Swift received his eight hours of sleep, but when the time finally came to talk to him about what was going one, Time Turner found himself in an unwanted situation.

“Why do I have to be the one to talk to him? Where are you going to be?” he asked Star, as they stood a few doors down from Swift’s quarters.
“Because you are the one who has had psychologist training my friend. And besides, PrimProse will be there to assist you,” Star replied, gesturing to the pink pony beside her, who smiled awkwardly.
“Fantastic,” he said in a deadpan tone, before pushing past them both. Making his way up to the door, Time Turner pressed the doorbell, wincing slightly at the grating electronic buzz that it made. A few seconds later the door opened to reveal Swift looking only slightly rested. The dark circles under his eyes were the size of saucers and Time Turner could barely make out any flecks of white from inside his bloodshot eyes.

“Oh, hello sir, how can I help you?” he asked, stepping aside and gesturing them in.
“Well, the captain ordered us to come and talk to you about something very important.”
“And what’s that?” Swift inquired, taking a seat on his bed. Time Turner sat next to him while PrimProse took the chair at his desk.
“We need to know why you have been taking such long shifts on the bridge,” Primprose said simply, giving him a kind smile.
“And more importantly, we need you to stop. So, go on. Regale us with your story,” Time Turner said with far more drama than he had intended. Swift gave him a small scowl, before bowing his head in knowing defeat.

“I-I have been having a lot of nightmares and stuff lately. Not to mention feeling physically weak. I can’t concentrate. I can barely see though this haze that has come over my vision I-I’m just having a rough time,” he explained, his voice cracking slightly.
“Have you been to see Doctor Neuron or hey, even your wife?” Primprose asked, giving him a quizzical look and Swift just nodded.
“A few times now. But they aren’t overly sure what is going on. But after conversing with some family and friends back in Equestria, I know what is going on.”
“Okay, go on…” said Time Turner, now thoroughly intrigued.

“Have either of you ever heard of the theory about the three types of pony magic?” he asked, and received a shake of the head from both of the others. “Well the theory states that every type of pony in the main three races has their own breed of magic. Pegasi can fly and move clouds, make weather and what have you. Unicorns have more control since they have their horn to guide their energy. But Earth ponies? Our magic is connected to the earth, and since I’m away from it, it’s affecting my body. But then I’m not the only one. All of the issues that have been going on between the Earth ponies and the others on the ship? Same problem as me, we need earth to get our magic back.”
“But that’s ridiculous! I’m an Earth Pony and I’ve had no such problems,” Time Turner objected, snorting at the very idea of Earth pony magic.

“Oh no? You haven’t felt extra tired, hard of breath when you first wake up and just before you go to bed?” Swift asked knowingly. Time Turner paled. The breathing problems had started about two weeks ago, but he had just attributed it to a mistake in the pressure sensors of the life support system, and had even submitted multiple maintenance requests as a result.

“I-I…” he stammered, unsure of how to respond.
“That’s what I thought. I didn’t want to go the captain until I had enough evidence that this was the case, but after a lot of research I think I finally have it,” he told them, pointing to a large folder that rested on the desk next to Primprose. “Basically Turner, if we don’t find an M-class planet with a magical resonance similar to Equestria’s soon, Earth Ponies are going to start dying off.”

Author's Note

Yay! I finally managed to update. I'm really sorry for the long wait guys. If all goes well it shouldn't happen again.