With access to the computer, Luna was able to pull up the ships libraries. One of the most important things Luna had learned was that the gates could be locked down to prevent use. The first thing she studied was how the locking system worked and how to lock the gate. She brought up access to the local gate and initiated a lockdown, but she also learned that the locking system had a fatal flaw. Gates didn't have any form of faster than light communication, in order for a gate to be able to communicate with another gate, a node first had to be activated. The node was opened just enough for an identification code to be sent through. Then the receiving gate would either open the node entirely, or disconnect.
It would be trivial to send a spell through the node that would trick the receiving gate into accepting any identification code. Even a first year student at the Royal Academy could write such a simple spell. With this knowledge, the ponies could lock their gate down, but use any Chk'rain controlled gate that they wanted.
She and Celestia brought Twilight, the rest of the Elements and hundreds of other ponies up to the ship. Nearly two years went by while ponies studied and read all that they could about the Chk'rain.
Ponies stared to replicate Chk'rain technology. It would be a while before they could make their own ships, but clean fusion reactors to replace coal power were already being built.
Ponies had slowly begun to convert the the Tck'Wrath to suit their own needs. New pony size furniture was installed, adjustments were made to the control structures to make them easier for ponies to use. The ship itself was rechristened as the Manehattan in honor of the fallen city.
The always studious Twilight Sparkle spent more time going through the ship's library than any two other ponies combined, it was she that discovered the history of the Chk'rain empire.
Twilight brought up a file on the command console and motioned for Celestia to come over.
"Look here Celestia, it says that the Chk'rain have conquered 11 other species. Based on the description, it looks like they are using those species for slave labor," she said gasping.
She and Celestia continued to read the document. The more they read the worse it got. Trillions of slaves, billions slaughtered in horrific wars of conquest. There were no words for this injustice.
"We have to help them Celestia."
"That would mean leaving the system Twilight," Celestia pointed out.
"But what about all those slaves? You saw the report, how can we sit by while these monsters murder billions" Twilight said sniffling.
Celestia reached over and nuzzled Twilight.
"I am not saying we should not do it, I am saying it is not a decision to be taken lightly. It would mean abandoning our safe haven and going to war with the Chk'rain. Luna and I cannot possibly be everywhere at once, and one of us would have to remain here, to keep everything running. That means sending regular ponies in ships. Ships that would have to fight the Chk'rain fleet. Even with assistance from Luna or myself, many ponies would die."
"Oh" Twilight said, she hung her head and let out a few tears. It still didn't seem right.
"I am not saying no Twilight. There are many bad reasons ponies have gone to war in the past. For land, for power, for the gods, or even for money. War is a terrible thing and it is often best avoided. Sometimes, though, something comes along that even the terrible price of war is not too high of a cost. Something like fighting for freedom. Being willing to put your own life at risk, especially when it would have otherwise remained safe, for the freedom of others is an admirable quality," Celestia said, drying Twilight's tears.
"I understand, but I still think we should help them. Just thinking about it though, it's such an enormous task. Where would we even start? The Chk'rain control so much space, so many star systems. Even if we can duplicate their ships, it will take us decades just to learn how to build the infrastructure we need to build ships. Then we'd have to actually build up a fleet, which would be at least another decade and then spend years fighting to reach the core of their empire," Twilight said.
Celestia brought up the screen again and quickly skimmed a few sections.
"Here, we would start here." Celestia said, indicating at a section of text on the screen.
"The Heliosians?"
"Well, first off they are the closest to our own system. Just six gate jumps away. Second, they were recently conquered, they may yet retain the will to fight. They are the most advanced of all the races the Chk'rain have conquered. They have an understanding of Chk'rain technology and experience in space that far exceeds our own. Lastly they have a colony with shipyards, which could be used to accelerate our industrial capacity far faster than we could alone."
Celestia paused to bring up some more information in the computer. She read a few pages of text and then turned to Twilight.
"Twilight, I think you are right, not only will we help these beings, but we have less than a year to prepare."
"What? We can't build ships that fast."
"We will send the Manehattan."
"Why so quickly?"
"Because in just over one year, gateships will arrive at the Heliosian colony system. The Chk'rain will then gate in and wipe out the last of the resistance."
"Once we learn how to fly it, the Manehattan should be able to handle the small fleet that this report says will be sent. Then again, there is no guarantee that Chk'rain won't change their plans. They do not know what happened here, they may divert more ships to the Heliosian assault, if they are fearful of losing again. That is why either I or Luna will accompany the Manehattan on this quest," Celestia said.
"We need to spend the next 11 months training a crew for this ship, that will give us enough time to launch it, and arrive at the Heliosian home system just in time to smash the Chk'rain fleet before they jump to the colony and destroy it."
Twilight started pulling up computer records. She pulled up a datasheet on the Heliosians system and started skimming it for information on the species.
" Heliosians... First and only class 1 race discovered... Put up resistance at a scale never seen before.... First time in history a Chk'rain ship was lost to enemy action... Species is highly adaptive and able to assimilate new technology at extremely fast rates... blah blah blah... Oh look here's some information on their system," she said, reading aloud.
"Heliosians live on the 3rd planet from their sun, it is orbited by a single moon. In the Heliosians' common tongue the name of this planet is..."
"Earth."