MLP 40K: For Celestia

by Moosetasm

Chapter 1: Embarkation

Bashkir Secundus: High orbit

Sens

The charcoal pegasus stood before the airlock door with an air of impassiveness. With his short clipped red mane and piercing violet eyes, anypony could feel the authority practically radiating off of the Accord's executive officer. Commander Sens Chal's ears twitched as they picked up the faint clop-clank of hooves on the steel deck-plating as somepony approached him from behind.

Without turning he addressed the quite expected intruder with a brusque tone. "Mister Tar Mack. I trust you have a sufficiently good reason for being here after I dismissed both you and your loading crews?"

Sens had received the order earlier in the vessel's day cycle that a group of Inquisition agents would be boarding the vessel. Included with the orders were strict secrecy policies including one to minimize the number of ponies on-board who saw or interacted with the group. He should have known that the launch bay's load-master wasn't going to just sit back and be dismissed... Not from his own loading bay at any rate.

The clop-clanks continued until an unruly slate mane and silvery muzzle entered Sens' peripheral vision. Sens continued to look forward even as Mack's head turned to face him to try boring a hole in the side of his face with a stare from his golden eyes.

"With all due respect, Sir, while I get the need for all the sneakiness, I really need to be in there. You know you can't trust the servitors alone. They'll wreck my bay and do Celestia knows what to the visitor's ship.

Keeping his eyes forward, Sens mentally weighed his options. Option one: Order Mack back to his quarters till the visitors were squared away... And spend the rest of his tour of duty hearing about that one time his loading bay got "wrecked." Option 2: Let his best load-master in and pray that the Inquisitorial agents wouldn't shoot him as a "non-essential pony."

He decided. "Your funeral if they decide you look better floating in the void."

The golden eyes widened for a moment before becoming skeptical again. "Who are these ponies anyways? They couldn't... I mean they wouldn't..."

Sens figured he might as well tell the poor pegasus what he had just gotten himself into. "They're Inquisition. If they think you 'don't need to know' then who knows what they'll do."

Mack seemed to consider this for a second before turning his head back towards the door. Sens heard Mack swallowing quite loudly.

A harsh buzzer sounded and the amber light above the airlock door changed to an emerald green. With the whine of hydraulics and a sharp hiss of equalizing air pressure the heavy airlock door began to lift open. Sens felt the chilled air wash over his pasterns, then his fetlocks and cannons. The door's snail's pace might have been excruciating had Sens actually been looking forward to this meeting.

VIPs always wanted the impossible from him, to get a grand tour of the ship, demands to see the captain, suites that were better than the other passengers... And these were Inquisition agents, nopony knew what they would want. Everypony had heard stories about the Inquisition. Sens was pretty sure that most was just bridle gossip, but he also knew that most rumors had some grounding in truth. The question always came down to "how much?"

As the door raised passed his withers, Sens ducked his head and moved forward into the expansive launch bay. The servitor ponies had already been active for a few minutes and were in the process of attaching refueling lines to the aquila-class shuttle that had been clamped to a docking sled.

As Sens approached the boarding ramp of the shuttle he noticed that Mack had flown over to the servitors and had started barking out orders. Despite the unintelligible yelling and profanity Sens was able to figure out that the servitors had managed to tangle the fluid lines and were about to put the wrong liquids into the wrong tanks. Sens felt much better about allowing Mack into the bay now. The guests would have been... mildly upset if the fuel oxidizer had accidentally been added to the engine lubricant.

When Sens reached the base of the craft the boarding ramp had already lowered and the shuttle's inner airlock was opening. He had prepared a small welcoming blurb for the occupants. He had practiced it several times since he had received his orders earlier, including once while waiting for the loading bay to pressurize.

"Welcome esteemed Inq..." Was as far as Sens got before an animate cyan blur rocketed past him.

Sens' eyed widened as the blur continued around to the other side of the shuttle yelling "Get those things the Hay away from My Ship!"

Sens felt a chill run down the length of his spine as the sounds of metal on metal impacts and yelling erupted from where he now imagined Mack to be. He was about to run towards the commotion but stopped himself when he spotted movement at the top of the ramp. His ears picked up a faint sound that he could almost mistake for... His ears perked up again as the sound repeated itself, if he didn't know any better he would have sworn it sounded like a... chuckle?

Slowly walking down the boarding ramp was a bluish purple unicorn. He wore a dark grey cloak that would have covered him entirely had the hood not been down. Crimson eyes stared out from under a mane of raven black to meet Sens' own. As he reached the bottom of the ramp, one of the unicorn's ears swiveled in response to a loud clattering and renewed yelling from the far side of the shuttle. The unicorn's face took on a dour cast.

When he spoke, the tone was quite somber. "I will apologize now for your load master. It seems that my pilot has gotten ahold of him. She tends to get a little... murderous when anyone but her touches our... well Her ship."

Sens felt the color drain from him face. They wouldn't... just because... Sens almost jumped out of his skin when the unicorn suddenly leaned in towards him, stopping a mere hoof's length away. Sens had no idea what to do. There was no protocol for when things went this horribly wrong...

His attention was drawn by the sound of frantic galloping that began to work its way around the side of the shuttle. His mind worked overtime feeding him horrible images. He had seen plenty of boarding actions and seen the horrors of shipboard combat first-hoof. What he saw was so unexpected that he actually turned his head in disbelief. He stared, nonplussed, at the spectacle that presented itself before him.

His best load master was running at a full gallop, wide eyed and covered in hydraulic fluid. He was being chased by an angry cyan pegagus who was swinging around a length of rubber hydraulic tubing. Every swing sprayed the already soaked load-master with more of the tacky substance.

Sens felt his right eye begin to twitch. When he returned his gaze to the unicorn he saw the unicorn was no longer leaned in close and his face was all scrunched up. The look of barely contained mirth was unmistakable.

Sens' ears drooped and both his head and eyes fell to half mast as the unicorn sidled around him and tossed his left foreleg around Sens' shoulders.

When he opened his mouth to speak again, the gruffness had been replaced by a surprisingly normal albeit deep voice... Which was also interspersed with chuckles and downright laughter. "You... You might wanna give that poor... poor.... pony a double shower ration tonight, he's..."

He was laughing then, his foreleg clopping up against Sens' shoulder. Clopping... might as well be clopping right up against him for the level of discomfort Sens was feeling at the moment. Sens idly thought how if the unicorn had been physically assaulting him from the other side he would at least have been able to draw his sidearm and shoot... himself. As things were, he just released a weary sigh.

The unicorn detached himself and moved back to face Sen's front. He offered a purple hoof. Sens looked at it for a moment like it might suddenly bite him. He raised his own hoof and was thankful that there was only a single, normal shake.

"I'm Interrogator Tracks." The unicorn stated. "You must be Executive Officer Sens Chal."

Sens' mind continued to spin as Tracks talked. "Don't worry about the mess, Free Fall over there will clean it up once she cools down a bit. I wasn't lying when I said she got crazy over other ponies touching her ship... Hello?"

Sens realized that Tracks was waving a hoof in front of his face. This whole situation had Sens in some kind of shock. He realized that he just needed to grab the initiative in the conversation again.

"We have guest quarters..." He stopped and blinked his eyes. He saw Mack, who was chasing the now cyan and splotchy white pegasus. He was chasing her with a look of vengeance upon his features and a portable fire suppression unit. Mack depressed the trigger and blasted the hysterically laughing, Free Fall?, with the white powdery fire retardant. She was laughing like a crazy pony and his load master was laughing maniacally as well. As he continued to watch the back and forth he started giving serious thought as to how to properly word his report to the Accord's captain.

Comments

[Sanguine Eyes]

lol awesome

[Moosetasm]

5680749
Thanks, I've had this idea cooking for a while. I'm really hoping it translates well into story format. If the opening is any indicator, it's going to be a long one.

[Sanguine Eyes]

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