Xal’s Personal Log, Equus Year 3382 AD, August 27th.
This is my first log aboard the ship of my rescuers, and I thought it prudent to use their time keeping system since it will be logged in their computer and likely be of keen interest to those back on their world seeking to study this voyage.
Their first interstellar voyage with faster-than-light travel, I might add.
Their lack of experience in the depths of space shows, but I can’t help but be amazed at what I have thus far seen.
Magic.
Or at least, that’s what the translation stated when we first discussed that particular topic. And I had to believe it. The things I’ve seen them do certainly bring back memories of sorcerers within our own fiction, but never anything real. And yet here I am, with an alien species with abilities I can only really describe as ‘magic’. That even seems to be the actual name outside the translation, now that I am endeavouring to learn their language to no longer have to rely on any translations.
Telekinesis would be one thing, but their abilities spread far beyond.
They described controlling the elements of their world, natural elements as well as… other elements I am not so clear on. Either way, the wide range of abilities of the unicorn, the ability to control the weather and interact with simple clouds as if they were solid objects with the pegasi…
And the earth ponies…
I have experienced that for myself.
Their magic, it is doing something to me. At first I simply began feeling an alien sensation within myself, and an examination by the good doctor revealed that I myself may be developing magical abilities, specifically that of earth ponies. It’s very small right now, a slight connection to natural ground like dirt, and the ability to pick things up with my hooves.
Some sort of low level levitation spell, as I am told. This would have made our species’ development far easier for previous generations.
With the advances we could bring to them, and their magic potentially being exposed to the rest of our species, I sense a time of great change coming ahead for both of our worlds.
But that is a discussion for tomorrow, for now repairs are almost complete. With Mr Wrench’s assistance I have been able to convert some of my ship’s warp core components to be compatible with their FTL drive, the engines are similar in design but have notable differences that provided a hurdle, namely the magic. Their magic would interfere with my technology’s systems and eventually burn out those we integrated, before they were modified to accept the energy.
The patch job is not ideal, and we won’t be able to achieve high speeds the ship would usually be capable of, but it will turn the journey from decades, to around six months.
If it works, that is.
ES Harmony
Xal held the pad he was writing on with his hooves, and once the log was finished and uploaded, he couldn’t help but hold out one hoof and just let the pad hang there. He watched it intently, impossibly clinging to his hoof as if by magnets, and yet of you really squinted you could see a small glow where the pad contacted the hoof.
“I could get used to this,” he commented.
A chime came from his assigned quarter’s entrance, and with a call of admittance it opened to reveal a red coated unicorn.
“Morning Xal,” Silver Wrench greeted. “I just wanted to let you know that the repairs are complete, and the core is powered up. Now we simply need to pray for the best.”
“Pray? Does your kind have gods?” Xal enquired out of curiosity.
“Some,” Silver stated. “The old gods from Queen Platinum’s era are still worshipped by some, and other smaller groups worship the alicorns, much to their chagrin I hear. But most have stopped believing in such things, myself included. I think it’s likely because of the princesses not believing, which in itself is because they themselves have been worshipped as such.”
Xal nodded in understanding. “I see. So none of the crew believes in such things?”
“Oh no,” Silver shook his head. “Geneser believes in the zebrican gods, I was mostly referring to ponies. Zebras still are quite religious, as are griffons with their gods of war. What about you?”
“We have our gods,” Xal stated. “I’m more on the fence.”
“Right… why are you asking about this again?”
“Ah,” Xal said, placing the pad onto the table. “I’m simply interested in your world’s culture, which is unusually diverse with the amount of species living on it.”
“We are a pretty ragtag group,” Silver Wrench smirked.
“Honestly, it’s amazing you made it this far with such a chaotic amount of races on one world,” Xal commented.
“We had some close calls,” Silver replied. “But one thing we are good at is making harmony from chaos, as Princess Twilight would be happy to explain in more depth I’m sure.”
“So ‘Harmony’ is the ship’s name for a reason, then?”
“Of course,” Silver Wrench stated with a nod.
“I must say, I find your culture rather fascinating,” Xal commented. “There is much to learn about you.”
“We could say the same for you,” Silver responded. “Don’t be surprised if the Princess gives you an unintentional interrogation in her eagerness to learn more about you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Xal stated. “On another note, I’ve noticed that magic interferes with non-magical systems that aren’t designed to deal with the energy, like my ship’s own systems for example….”
“And?”
“Well, I also noticed your weapons don’t appear particularly magical in nature. Surprising, given the advantage it would give.”
“We tried,” Silver Wrench stated. “We have ways of containing large scale destruction spells like we do with teleportation spells for the transporters, but it was far too unstable. The beam would last a little while, but then degenerate and the crystal would be destroyed. We tried other avenues with similar results, so in the end we had to go a different route.”
“Phaser technology,” Xal noted. “We prefer plasma beams ourselves.”
“Yeah, I saw when I poked around that ship of yours, the Serenity,” Silver stated, just as an alarm blared and red lights flashed throughout the ship.
“All hooves, this is Princess Twilight,” Twilight’s voice came over the intercom. “Battle stations.”
“Battle stations?!” Silver exclaimed.
Xal jumped to his hooves, and quickly made his way towards the door before turning back to the engineer.
“You best get to engineering, I will check on the bridge.”
Silver Wrench nodded, and the two parted ways.
Silver Wrench entered a nearby elevator, heading down to engineering as Xal headed in the opposite direction.
Xal ran through the corridors, passing by the various and colourful variety of species Equus was home to, all rushing to their stations. A few decks up, he drew close to the bridge where all the action was rapidly unfolding.
“How far are they?” Twilight demanded to know as Commander Iynx worked her console.
“Two minutes, tops,” she responded. “Orders?”
Twilight was about to respond, when Xal stepped onto the bridge, all eyes drawing towards him.
“Princess,” Xal urgently greeted. “What’s the situation?”
“It’s the ships that attacked us,” Twilight stated. “They’re back.”
“Tracking us all this way,” Nimble Star grumbled. “They’re persistent, I’ll give them that.”
“Time?” Xal asked.
“Two minutes,” Twilight informed him. “Less now.”
“Ma’am, we aren’t in any state for a fight. We wouldn’t last long against those four ships!” Iynx reported urgently. “Our ship isn’t up to it, never mind the damage when we consider we were outmatched in the first place at full strength!”
“Then we flee,” Twilight stated.
“FTL is already charging,” Nimble reported. “But with the recent repairs things are going slow, they will be on us before we can jump!”
“I may be able to help,” Xal stated to the Princess directly. “Give me tactical.”
Iynx looked towards Princess Twilight, and when the latter nodded, Iynx gave her station over to Xal.
Xal began rapidly working on the console, the panel showing that they had mere moments left.
“I’m connecting to my ship, and with my command codes I can manually redirect power from life support towards the weapons, setting them to auto fire on anything but the Harmony,” he explained, pressing the least button and looking toward the view screen.
The Serenity went slightly darker in places, but the ship’s weapons blinked online just as four vessels warped in just a short distance away.
“These are the ships that attacked you?” Xal examined them intently. “That explains a lot.”
He didn’t get time to explain further as Iynx quickly took back her station when the starships began to approach, charging weapons.
The ES Harmony turned away from the approaching ships, and under the power of its thaumatic drive began to flee in the opposite direction. The ship’s weapons charged and red beams began to fire from the aft, including a couple of torpedoes that rushed towards the enemy ships.
The four vessels directed power to their forward shields to absorb the incoming volley, which they did effortlessly. They returned fire, blue beams arching back towards the Harmony.
They passed by the derelict Serenity, uninterested in the seemingly dead hulk.
That was until green beams of energy shot forwards from the ship and pierced right through one vessel’s hull and out the other end, it having neglected its side shielding for its forwards emitters.
Fire erupted from the damaged vessel, and as it tried to compensate several shots from the ES Harmony met their mark and damaged the vessel further, weapons fire making gouges into the hull and exposing corridors to space.
“One of the vessels has taken severe damage!” Iynx reported in elation. “The plan worked!”
“Focus fire on the damaged ship,” Twilight ordered.
Several more shots fired towards the troubled starship, but its buddies moved into position to take up shots from both the Harmony and the Serenity.
“Ma’am, the other vessels are moving to intercept incoming fire from the damaged ship,” Iynx reported. “We’ve lost our opening.”
Twilight looked towards the helm. “Status, Nimble Star?”
“A few more seconds!”
Outside, the four vessels focused away from the Harmony for a moment, moving their sights towards the Sharin Scout Ship turned heavy plasma turret. The Serenity continued to fire on the incoming ships, doing more damage to their shields than the Harmony had done.
As such, one of the vessels locked onto the Serenity and unleashed a volley of weapons fire, including torpedoes towards the Scout Ship.
The beams hit first, trailing along the vessel and causing fire to erupt across the hull as the few remaining vestiges of power began to flicker out.
Then the torpedoes hit.
Without any shields to protect it, the torpedoes ripped into the Serenity and tore it to pieces, debris flying in all direction amidst a gigantic explosion as the remaining unused antimatter held in the storage tanks and not yet transferred to the Harmony ignited.
“The Serenity has been destroyed!” Iynx reported. “The vessels are targeting us again!”
“Nimble!” Twilight shouted desperately.
“FTL drive charged and ready!” he shouted back.
“Engage!”
The Harmony’s engines flared up as the FTL activated; there was a slight imbalance in the field as it formed around them and space shimmered, but despite this, just as more weapons fire narrowly missed the hull, the ship jolted forwards and jumped to FTL.
“FTL achieved!” Nimble reported. “We’re under way!”
Clapping and cheers rippled through the group on the bridge, relief flowing through them all.
“Your highness,” Xal addressed Twilight, who still seemed a little tenser than the rest. “I recommend we stay on alert for the time being.”
“I agree,” Twilight stated. “Their damaged friend will not delay them long, and of course they followed us this far…”
“They will continue,” Xal nodded in agreement. “They are a tenacious group.”
“You know of them, don’t you?” Twilight asked with an arched eyebrow.
“I… yes,” Xal stated. “I do. They are a rather infamous group of raiders that prey on ships from time to time, and also take up mercenary work for the highest bidder when they decide to do so. Once they pick a target, it’s unlikely for them to give it up.”
“That makes things complicated,” Twilight noted with a sigh. “We have a long six months ahead of us. I could really use more information about them.”
“In time,” Xal stated. “Let us just focus on surviving the next few hours for now, yes?”
Twilight paused for a moment, before reluctantly nodding.
“Very well, but I want explanations the moment we are clear, understood?”
“Perfectly,” Xal agreed with a bow of his head.
The Harmony continued on at FTL, their journey home that much shorter, and yet all of a sudden far more perilous.