Princess Twilight Sparkle’s Personal Log, August 27th, 3382 AD
The ES Harmony is underway once more, our FTL drive quickening our trip home thanks to the efforts of the alien known as Xal and my chief engineer, Silver Wrench.
But all is not well, the Serenity has been destroyed and we now know we are being hunted by the same four vessels who attacked us initially. The Serenity damaged one heavily before she was destroyed, and another stayed behind to assist their ally, but now two of the vessels are on an intercept course and closing fast.
We couldn’t outrun them even with a fully operational FTL, which is something we most certainly don’t have. They won’t stay behind us for long.
The ES Harmony sped through space at faster-than-light velocities, the distant stars being mere blurs as they sped by and debris and other particles whirling on past them. The bubble around the ship as produced by the FTL drive, a warp field as Xal would call it, also created an almost transparent blue tunnel around the ship as it traveled.
Atop the ship the upper nacelle was still quiet and dark, having no power fed to it and neither could it use any if it had. The engine was still heavily damaged, and would likely remain so for the duration of the trip. Below the ship, the second nacelle was very much alive with the bussard collector on the front working overdrive in the absence of its twin, working hard to keep the field around the ship active so not to drop back to sub-light speeds.
And but a short distance behind, not yet in visual range, but very much gaining on them were two vessels speeding along at a much faster rate than that of the Harmony. Their warp fields were stable and undamaged, giving them a distinct advantage over the crippled starship that was to be their prey.
“Time?” Twilight asked towards Iynx.
“Ten minutes, twelve tops. Then they will be in weapons range.”
“They won’t be able to get too close to us,” Nimble Star noted. “Magic affects their systems, and our engines rely on the stuff. The wake we leave behind must be a nightmare for them.”
“They can still get close enough to use weapons without serious issues,” Iynx reminded him.
“What if we slowed as they approached, got them caught right in the magic?”
“It might buy us some time, allow us a few good hits on them,” Iynx admitted. “But not enough, they’d compensate and evade quickly enough and then we’d be in serious trouble.”
“Your tactical officer is correct,” Xal stated. “My calculations suggest such actions would give us a window of around ten-point-six seconds at most. Our phasers may be able to do some damage in that time, but not enough to destroy or disable either.”
“What if we targeted their engines specifically?” Iynx suggested. “Knock out their warp drives.”
Xal shook his head. “Doing that, we could likely do so to one of the ships in that time, but it’s highly unlikely we would get both.”
“And one is more than enough to end us,” Twilight noted solemnly. “We’d increase our chances, but not by enough. We need another option.”
“If I may,” Nimble spoke up. “Sensors are picking up a nebula nearby, if we change course we could be there in five minutes, just ahead of those raider ships.”
“Let me see,” Xal said as he moved up to the helm. “I recognise this sector, we surveyed it aboard the Serenity. It is designated YD-136, a sizable proto-nebula nearing full maturation, it is full of ion storms that causes havoc for traditional power systems and shielding.”
“Could we use it to our advantage?” Twilight asked.
“Perhaps,” Xal said, in a state of though. “The raiders would be reluctant to enter, but I do not know how magical systems and shields will compare to our own, it may protect us but it may make no difference at all.”
Twilight sighed, looking towards the viewscreen. “What other choice do we have, set course for YD-136.”
“Aye ma’am, setting course,” Nimble reported. “Course set, maximum speed.”
“Six minutes until intercept,” Iynx warned. “We don’t have much time!”
After its turn, the Harmony sped towards its new destination, the alien ships changing course to follow them. The two starships kept getting closer and closer, charging weapons and raising shields in preparation for the coming assault. For the next several tense minutes they approached as a predator does their prey.
“One minute to intercept!” Iynx shouted in alarm. “They’re in visual range!”
“On screen!” Twilight ordered.
The screen shifted, and the vicious looking vessels coming clearly into view.
Nimble turned to the alicorn. “Your highness, we’re coming on the nebula now!”
Twilight nodded. “Not a moment too soon, bring the thaumatic drive back online and bring us out of FTL.”
The ship decelerated and came to a halt just outside a large growing blue cloud, white flashes indicating the storm within.
“Those ships are right behind us!”
“Take us in!” Twilight urgently commanded. “Shields to full.”
The ES Harmony started moving forwards and into the cloud, the gases dancing over the hull as they passed over the new object entering its territory. Not far behind, two vessels suddenly decelerated with a flash and exited warp. Their impulse engines glowed brightly as they moved to follow, training their weapons on the Harmony.
Only for the ship to disappear from their sensors as they were submerged in the nebula.
On the bridge of the Harmony, the lights flickered and the structure gave the odd jolt when bolts of ionically charged particles struck against the ship’s shields. But, aside from the bumpy ride, they seemed to be holding.
“Incredible,” Xal muttered. “Your shields seem to be holding the ion storm at bay. The Serenity would be going through hell around about now.”
“It seems our friends are of a similar situation,” Iynx stated. “They’ve stopped just at the nebula’s border.”
The whole ship gave a sudden, violent shake as flashes of light not of the nebula streamed by, before dissipating.
“They’re firing into the nebula,” Xal realised. “We should go further in, their weapons will be quickly destabilised by the nebula’s interference.”
“Nimble, make it so,” Twilight agreed.
The Harmony began to go further in, the alien ships continuing to fire torpedoes into the nebula itself; ultimately, this was to very little effect as they destabilised on being struck by the ion storm.
“It’s working…” Twilight allowed herself a small, smug smile. “They can’t hit us, and they cannot follow.”
“Well, our shields are effective, but they won’t last,” Iynx reported. “The drain this storm is placing on them is quite substantial.”
“We might not have to stay,” Xal stated. “As I said, this proto-nebula is near maturation and thus is quite vast. We could simply move on out the other side, and it would take them a while to realise it and then even longer to navigate around to play catch up.”
“Admittedly,” he continued. “We ourselves moving from the other side of the nebula might add a few days to your trip home, but…”
“What’s a few more days, right?” Twilight finished for him.
“Quite so,” Xal agreed.
“I’ll lay in a course,” Nimble Star stated.
“Good. Stand down combat alert,” Twilight commanded.
“Standing down alert,” Iynx responded to the command. “All sections confirm that the alert has ceased.”
The next hour or two was spent checking over systems and readouts, making sure the ship continued to handle the stress of the ion storm within the nebula. After a while, the torpedo fire outside stopped, and with interference from the nebula they couldn’t actually tell whether they were still there, but it was likely. Silver Wrench gave the all clear on the engines, and Geneser only reported in a few light injuries, nothing at all serious. Twilight Sparkle, Commander Iynx, Ensign Nimble Star and Xal all remained on the bridge during that time as the previous tense atmosphere began to call. This eventually allowed more casual conversational paths to emerge as they continued to work. But there was one conversation that had remained on Princess Twilight’s mind since it had first been brought up.
Now, Xal,” Princess Twilight turned to their alien guest. “What about that explanation you owe us?”
“Right…” Xal took a breath in. “These raiders, they’re from a reptilian species called the Gaecha. They’re quadrupeds, generally that is, they’re capable of bipedal movement. Their front limbs contain claws, and they are around about the size of the average sharin or you ponies, if a little taller.”
Twilight hummed. “They sound not dissimilar from dragons, do they breathe fire or have wings per chance?”
“Um, no and no…” Xal responded in slight confusion, he had yet to learn about the dragon species. “Not as far as I am aware anyway. They do have quite sharp teeth though.”
“Why did they attack us?” Nimble asked. “Why the whole raider thing?”
“Most gaecha are reclusive, violent, and quite territorial,” Xal stated. “Though we have had the odd few leave their space to live more peaceful lives among other species.”
“You can’t judge a book by its cover, or a person by their race,” Twilight noted, remembering a changeling named Thorax she met a very long time ago. “Continue.”
“We’ve tried to make official first contact with their government, but most of our ships have only received weapons fire in response, so we just leave them alone and they leave everyone else alone,” Xal explained. “Only, a few of their rank go rogue every now and then, taking their ships and going out into the galaxy looking for a fight. Plunder, rape and murder… they do it all. Even their own government has disowned them, and that’s saying something.”
“Have they done anything to actually stop these rogue elements?” Twilight asked with concern.
“Oh, they hunt them down when they can. A skirmish a few months… no, over a year ago now actually,” Xal sighed, recalling his long nap. “A skirmish with them led to the first and only time a sharin and gaecha starship fought side-by-side. But despite our efforts, there are still a few of the rogues out there, as you have found out.”
“So were facing a group of sociopathic murderers coming from a civilisation with a history of being brutal militaristic warriors… great,” Nimble Star deadpanned.
“Could be worse,” Iynx shrugged.
“Don’t jinx it,” Nimble begged. “Or it will become worse.”
Iynx smirked, shaking her head at Nimble’s dramatics. “We’ll be fine, just have a little faith.”
“Iynx is right,” Twilight said to everypony as much as to Nimble himself. “Together, we will get through this and will get home. None of us saw this as being what this mission would be like, but life rarely goes as we initially planned it,” she stated, taking a brief glance at her own wings.
“No, things didn’t go to plan. But this mission wasn’t exactly a failure either. The ship works, and look at our new friend,” she motioned to Xal. “Our true first contact with an alien species, and a potential ally on the horizon. Getting Equus to where it was today wasn’t easy, believe me, I was there. This is no different, we will continue to rise from here, and you have all already earned your place in the history books.”
“Our place?” Commander Iynx asked with a smile. “What about you?”
Twilight smirked. “Been there, done that. Besides, who do you think is going to be writing that book?”
“Point taken,” Iynx chuckled, ignoring another rumble as the storm wailed against the shields. “You’ve done it all, huh?”
“Excuse me, Princess,” Xal interrupted. “You’ve ‘been there, done that’? What do you mean?”
“Didn’t we mention it?” Iynx laughed. “The Princess is immortal, and currently over two thousand years old.”
Xal did a double take. “Wait… what?”
“It’s true,” Twilight confirmed. “Immortality is a staple of being an alicorn, it’s the reason why my kind is so rarely produced among the pony species, whether though natural birth or ascension.”
Xal felt a headache coming on at the information overload. “So, you literally cannot die?”
“Not exactly,” Twilight said with a shake of her head. “I don’t age, and thus will never get old. But I’m hardly invulnerable.”
“Tough as nails though,” Iynx stated. “You should have seen her fight Tirek.”
“You say that as if you were there,” Nimble rolled his eyes.
“I saw the movie!” Iynx objected. “It counts.”
“The movie tended to exaggerate it, along with a lot of things,” Twilight grumbled, preferring historical accuracy. “That mountain didn’t explode, I was simply knocked through it from one end to another.”
Xal raised an eyebrow. “I have the feeling I am going to be spending a lot of time going through your historical archives, with your permission.”
“You may feel free to use them,” Twilight stated. “I think you would much of it... enlightening.”
“Thank you, your highness,” Xal bowed his head in respect.
“Please, when we’re not in the middle of any serious operation you can just call me Twilight.”
“Very well then, Twilight. I must say, you’re quite relaxed for a royal. The only time you meet with my perceptions of how a royal should act is, so far, in battle.”
“As I said, any serious operation,” Twilight responded. “I’m the Princess of Friendship, I’ve never been fond of royal protocol.”
“Friendship?” Xal raised that eyebrow again. “How did you earn that title?”
“Read those records,” Twilight grinned. “You’re in for one heck of a story.”