//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: Star's Trek: The search for Luna 
// by The-rogue-shadow 
//------------------------------//

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.”