//------------------------------//
//  In The Beginning  
// Story: Galactic Defilement 
// by Defensive flight 
//------------------------------//

"Almost 2632 years ago ponykind built their first interplanetary ship capable of carrying a crew of 15 and up to 50 passengers from on colony to another. Built in orbit of our homeworld Equus, it used an advanced sunlight engine system and took a a year to reach the edge of our system. Only 75 years later we managed to create our first faster than light capable starship called the "ESC Jumper" which due to a still unknown accident instead of jumping to the next system over it vanished. Assumed destroyed everypony was in awe when it turned up 10 years later, a third of the crew dead and the remainder raving about "The Holy Star". supposedly they had jumped to the central cluster of the galaxy. There was extensive damage to the ship and that's how some crew died and yet they claimed to have been saved by some sentient star that they saw as a god, that was the formation of the first space related religion however its widely believed that it died out along with the crew when they returned to that location" 

Suddenly lights brightly illuminated a large room full of ponys and a stage with a single one on it bowing as the crowd erupted into applause, "Thank you, thank you" the lone pony said "Now if you follow your guides out the doors on the left and please enjoy the rest of out orbital museum of history" pony after pony drained out of the room and into hallways full of replicas of ships and engines going from the first Luna landers to the current concept designs for the next line of military and exploration vessels. 

The orbital museum was one of many space stations around Equus, hundreds of ponys from colony's through out the galaxy came to the station to learn about the history of the current era most came from the planet, not surprising considering the difference in price between orbital transport and interstellar transport. along with the museum there where habitation, shopping and transport stations not to mention the absurd amount of military platforms through out the system. 

That where are story is focused really, on board a  state of the art 85th generation Rainbow class frigate sitting in dry dock waiting to be launched for its maiden voyage. The 'Equees Naval Vessel Dash' with a crew of 25 ranging from pony, griffin and dragon a like making it the most racial divers ship in the hole of all the pony fleets across the galaxy. The 'ENV Dash' would be joining the Luna fleet; a forward exploration fleet consisting of one 68th gen princess class carrier, two 67th gen Faustian class light cruisers and an escort of four 68th gen armour class frigates. 

The 'ENV Dash' was to depart from the dry dock, jump to the edge of the system and preform basic system test and then jump to a point to meet up with the Luna fleet at the Intal sector in the far rim, once there it would commence with the fleets mission. So how about i go back to telling you about the 'Dash'; she is the latest generation starship, with state of the art weapons and engine systems. her weapons consisted of an array of forward mounted missile tubes, ten twin barrelled rail gun turrets on her sides and one top deck gun, a heavy gauss turret which is meant to be capable of punching a hole in a cruisers hull and it better be powerful as it took up the hole upper deck for its systems. She has a rear assembly of powerful thrusters and on either side of the rear of her hull  nacelles of thrusters like small wings on a pegasus flying through space. Her main hull was a similar shape to a crossbow bolt except she had a large stern where her main engines lay. And of course she was in the Equees naval colours of black with a royal blue along the centre of both sides.

Her captain was a fine pony by the name of 'Pike Fishing' who had until recently captained the forma flagship the dreadnought 'ENV Faust' which was recently retired after its long service, the master gunner was a dragon by the name of 'Striker' like most of the crew he was fresh from the academy along with the pony coms specialist 'Tick Tack' the helmsmen a griffin know as 'Barrington' the chief engineer a pony called 'Snowfell' and the second in command 'Blue Sight'. 

"All right then you shines" Captain Fishing said as he got himself comfortable "Lets get ourselves under way, nice to have leather seat. Engineering hows it looking down there?" 

A slight crackling came from the intercom as a reply came "lieutenant commander Snowfell here, all systems nominal captain"

"All right lets get those docking clamps off and flare the sublights lieutenant Barrington" the captain said with a hint of excite in his voice.

The lieutenant started tapping coloured shapes on the screen in front of him, a shudder and a large clunking echoed throughout the ships corridors as she started to thrust slowly out of dry dock. As she cleared the station her main engines began to lightly glow purple propelling her forward slowly before she sped of as they emitted a harsh light blue glare she they flared up.

"Nice one Lieutenant" the captain complemented as he stood and tapped a hoof on his back "Now i want all batteries to have their training slugs removed, load with standard rounds and started to charge before we begin jump prep. You okay with that Striker?" he looked towards the weapons system check screen to his left.

"Under way sir! Though i believe the main gun will only be at 40% charge by scheduled jump time"

"make it 60% before the jump point Striker." He said sparsely before relaxing "I want to see if a dragon gunnery crew can out do a pony one"

Striker bite back through the intercom "WE WILL HAVE IT DONE BETTER THAN ANY PONY TEAM WONT WE!" a collective roar followed the comment as the captain sat back down with a smirk on his face.

the dragons down in the weapons decks worked hardly to eject the large ammo crates from all the racking systems and installing the next ammo crate types while others where working on the capacitor systems and activating generators to begin the charging of the rail gun systems. On the top deck a group of dragons where furiously getting the loading system to load a set of rounds into the gauss cannon while another worked on regulating the power flow to its capacitors getting it ready for firing, on their monitors while numbers scrolled in the corners a large black bar slowly began filling from the left with green while above it a percentage counter ticked up with it.

back on the bridge captain Fishing looking at the weapons screen seeing ten green bars all saying 100% and one large black and green bar saying 28% "Well glad to know who to get him working" he chuckled to himself as he watched the bar charge up faster and faster, 35%, 37%, 40%, 44%, 49% 

"Okay everyone strap in and lock down" the captain when back to his seat flicked a black switch on the right arm of his chain and a belt system shot around him and and the chair shot rods into the floor to prevent any movement, the rest of the bridge crew did the same in their positions and the coms specialist sent a ship wide hail for jump preparations. He looked back over to the weapons screen seeing the bar at 62% he turned to the front and spoke up "Nice one Striker, i want that same effort every time." He held down a small button at the front of his chairs left arm opening ship wide coms "All hands prepare for jump drive activation" 

The Dash began to slow as sparks began to lunge of her hull, he engines seemed to stop as they went dark before a large bolt of white light seemed to come from them and the Dash was gone, leaving only a short after image for any on lookers.