Chapter 1: Impact
A rectangular starship, one that looked more like a collection of junk thrown together to somewhat resemble a misshapen metal donut, suddenly jumped to a Faster Than Light (FTL) beacon that hadn’t been used in quite some time. The system housing the beacon didn’t match the descriptions from Galactic Federation star charts at all; somehow, the system was geocentric, which was supposed to be scientifically impossible.
“New objective: investigate central planet,” the humanoid robotic lifeform in the captain’s chair ordered in an emotionless female monotone.
“Affirmative, Captain,” another robotic lifeform replied as the green rectangular screen that served as its eyes started scrolling letters and numbers. “Linkup complete. Now piloting ship to central planet. New science ours upon arrival. Benefit both Engi society and Galactic Federation.”
These beings were known as Engi: fully-sapient, robotic lifeforms who lacked most emotions and were made of nanites instead of cells. In spite of their almost complete lack of emotions, they still had their own forms of entertainment, and clung to the same social structures as many of the more organic races.
As the ship approached the planet in the center of the system a comet collided with their ship, disabling the shields and heavily-damaging the oxygen system. Even the mechanical Engi needed to breathe, and no oxygen would quickly become a problem.
As warning lights blared and alarms went off, the crew aboard the ship didn’t panic. There was only a strong sense of urgency about them as they employed their race’s knack for machinery to try to repair things quickly.
“Captain, message from engine room,” the pilot announced. “Engine performance depleting rapidly. Immediate emergency landing highly recommended by engineer. Awaiting orders.”
“Commence emergency landing procedures,” the captain replied after taking a picosecond to process the information. “Repair ship on planet surface.”
“Affirmative,” the pilot replied, taking hold of the controls in the event of linkup failure.
The ship entered the planet’s atmosphere, but was struck by a meteor on the way down, which smashed into the already failing engines, shutting them off entirely as the engineer scrambled to repair them.
“Captain, impact imminent,” the pilot announced. “Requesting orders.”
“Aim helm at upward angle of 45 degrees. Change trajectory and reduce damage from impact,” the captain replied. “Expected probability of crew survival with successful trajectory change… 86.34 percent. Expected probability of crew survival with no trajectory change… 0.56 percent. Probability with incomplete trajectory change incalculable within allotted time preceding impact.”
The pilot wrestled with the controls after wireless communication with the navigation computer failed to work, but even the manual controls were sluggish in their response. It was too late to pull up enough, and the spacecraft smashed into the ground in a formerly-serene forest, crushing trees and scaring away animals that weren’t killed by the impact. The entire crew perished instantly upon impact, and the resounding crash heard for miles was followed by dead silence aboard the cruiser as all lights went dark.
Moments earlier, in a settlement near the aforementioned forest, brightly-colored sapient equine lifeforms who called themselves “ponies” looked up to see the approaching object. Fear quickly gripped the residents of the town of Ponyville when they realized the object was headed straight for the town. Before they could even begin to panic however, the object began to tilt upwards, changing its trajectory enough to miss Ponyville and plummet into the Whitetail Woods instead.
CRASH!
The sound of the impact could be heard for miles in every direction, and though most of the residents decided it would be best to just leave it be, a lilac Alicorn Princess wanted to investigate. That was no meteor.
With that in mind, Twilight Sparkle left her tree castle and made a beeline for the impact site. Along the way, a yellow pegasus joined her, a very worried expression on the newcomer’s face.
“Oh, hi Fluttershy,” Twilight said, addressing the mare, “What’s wrong?”
“The poor animals must be terrified after that thing crashed,” Fluttershy replied with almost motherly concern. “I have to help in whatever way I can.”
Twilight smiled. Fluttershy’s concern was heartwarming to see.
“Well, as for myself, I want to inspect the impact site itself,” Twilight explained, in spite of not being asked. “Whatever that was, it wasn’t a meteor.”
“Oh, my,” Fluttershy replied quietly. “Do you think it’s dangerous?”
“We’ll find out when we get there,” Twilight said with a shrug. “If it’s dangerous, we can head straight back to Ponyville and get help.”
Fluttershy nodded, and the two went silent; the woods were abnormally quiet for the middle of summer. Whatever had crashed into the woods had apparently shocked every living thing into dead silence.
After an hour of nothing but the sounds of their own hoofbeats, the two reached a crater in the ground where the trees that had been there were snapped in half, thrown in every direction.
Fluttershy separated from Twilight to check on the animals in the area, and Twilight continued to approach the crater until she finally saw what had crashed: an amalgamation of parts that resembled junk loosely held together to take the shape of a lopsided rectangle with a gap in the center.
“What is that?” Twilight asked aloud. “And where did it come from?”
“Beats me,” a raspy voice responded from behind Twilight, causing the the Alicorn to jump into the air and spin around, gasping for breath.
“Rainbow Dash! Don’t startle me like that!” Twilight berated the multi-hued pegasus. “How long were you following us?”
“The four of us saw ya two leave Ponyville,” Applejack cut in as she joined them. “We couldn’t let ya’ll go alone.”
“Thanks for the concern, Applejack,” Twilight said with a smile, also noting the arrival of Pinkie Pie and Rarity. “I came here to inspect whatever that thing is. Does anypony have any ideas?”
“It looks like a starship!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing excitedly.
The other five turned to stare at her, their expressions all asking the same question: What the buck is a starship?
“You know, like the ones from Spike’s science fiction comics!” Pinkie explained. She was met with more confused stares. “You haven’t read any of them?” The others shook their heads. “Well, it’s a ship that flies between worlds!”
Rarity shook her head. “Pinkie, dear. Wouldn’t such a craft have to be elegant? You have to leave a good first impression when you go somewhere new. This is just a pile of junk!”
“What about that?” Pinkie exclaimed, pointing a hoof at a large rectangle of metal in an indentation in the side of the object. “It’s gotta be a door!”
“Well, let’s see if you’re right,” Twilight said hopefully before approaching it. She lit up her horn to engulf the panel in her magic, but the instant the magic touched it the aura around the door split apart, with magic flying in all directions before fading into nothing.
Taking a deep breath, Twilight focused more magic to her horn than before and wrapped the door in magic again. Once again, the magic instantly flew everywhere, charging the air before dissipating and making everypony’s fur stand on end.
Growling at the stubborn piece of metal, Twilight focused even more magic to her horn, causing the magenta glow to bathe the entire area, washing out all other colors. Now bent on wrenching the door open no matter what, Twilight covered the door in a thick layer of magic, which still exploded in all directions, this time severely damaging a tree before fading to nothing.
Biting back a scream of frustration, Twilight focused so much magic to her horn that the aura around it became blinding.
After noting the shattered tree, Applejack quickly cantered over to Twilight and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Sugarcube? Ah think Ah should handle this. Ah’m gettin’ the feelin’ magic ain’t gonna work.”
Twilight opened her mouth to protest that it was impossible for magic to not work, but Applejack stopped her and simply gave the piece of metal a hard buck, sending it flying into the object’s interior.
“Ow…” the farmpony grunted before announcing, “There ya go, Twi! See? It’s open now!”
Twilight stared for a couple seconds before she tried to save face. “I loosened it for you, at least,” she grumbled.
Pinkie bounced up to Twilight, gave her a caring smile and said, “Don’t worry, Twilight! I’m sure you’ll get it next time.”
Twilight sighed but nodded, right before Pinkie bounced away towards the metal object. The party pony bounced right through the opening and shouted, “C’mon, girls! We’ve got a ship to explore!”
“I still doubt something like this could be a ship of any type,” Rarity groaned as she and the others followed the pink mare inside.
After Applejack bucked down another door, they found a room with a strange metal object with a red medical cross adorning it, as well as three bipedal metal forms collapsed on the ground.
“See? Aliens!” Pinkie cried excitedly.
The majority of the group stared at Pinkie in stunned silence, but Twilight shook her head and approached the party pony.
“Pinkie,” Twilight groaned, “There’s no such thing as…” She suddenly noticed the appearance of the forms on the ground and did a double take. “Aliens?”
Twilight was stunned into silence like the rest, but Rarity regained her composure and trotted over to one of the clusters of scattered parts that vaguely resembled bipedal entities, placed a hoof behind what appeared to be the closest thing to a head, then glared at the green rectangle she assumed served as its equivalent to eyes.
“Franky, I am appalled at the appearance of this ‘craft’ you arrived in!” the fashionista exclaimed. “Have you ever heard of ‘first impressions’? By the look of this poorly-designed excuse for a ‘ship’, it certainly looks like you don’t!” She clicked her tongue, shaking her head in disappointment.
The being didn’t say anything in response, nor did it do anything to show it heard Rarity at all.
“Don’t you know it’s rude to ignore a lady?” Rarity snapped, “Don’t they teach that where you come from?”
“Rarity?” Pinkie cut in. “You’re talking to a girl.”
“How did you…?” Rarity began before blinking and cutting off. “Never mind. I don’t think I want to know.”
“I think they’re all busted,” Dash remarked, getting up close to one of the beings. “They didn’t move at all while Rarity yelled at them.”
“You mean, they’re dead?” Fluttershy gasped. “The poor dears!”
“They’re made of metal,” Twilight remarked. “I think I can revive them. I’ll just take them home with me and try to energize them with magic.”
With that, Twilight carefully wrapped one of them in magic, but before she could lift it, the magic scattered, just like it had with the door from earlier.
“Not this again!” Twilight huffed. “Rainbow? Pinkie? Applejack? Could you help me get them home?”
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie chirped as the other two mentioned mares nodded. The three of them each put one of the metal beings on their backs and the group left the ship, heading back towards Ponyville.
Once they had arrived back at Twilight’s castle the procession headed to the basement, where Twilight’s lab had been relocated to after the loss of the library she used to live in.
The three metal beings were laid out on a large table, and Twilight bid her friends farewell as they left before turning to her three new specimens.
“Let’s see if I can wake you up,” the Alicorn muttered as she pulled on a lab coat and goggles. She aimed her horn at the one Pinkie had called a girl and tried to probe “her” body for anywhere that could be easily shocked so as to to revive the metal being.
Still, just like before, the magic split apart as if repelled, and Twilight groaned. This could take years to figure out.
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Oh, I love/hate this game! It took me forever to beat the boss, but it felt like such an accomplishment when I did!
7989609 I'll admit, the flagship is pretty tough the first time you fight it. But I have my own master plan to make sure I can beat the thing every time:
First up is augments. Unless the cruiser I choose comes with an augment built in, I almost always go for the following:
1. Automated Reloader
2. Stealth Weapons
3. Weapons Pre-Igniter
Next is systems. I try to obtain all of the following:
1. Backup Battery
2. Cloaking
3. Hacking
4. Mind Control
As for drones, I don't ever use them unless my cruiser comes with a Drone system already. I save drone parts for hacking.
When it comes to weapons, I try to get a Chain Vulcan if at all possible. The Weapon Pre-Igniter and the Automated Reloader help me to get it up to full speed really fast, as well as make it fire every .9 seconds at full speed.
For phase 1, I hack the enemy's Cloak so I can shut it off whenever they try to cloak. I use my own cloak right after they fire the missile artillery so they all miss. I focus my own attacks on the enemy artillery and the enemy Hacking and try my best to kill all but one crewmember of the flagship (don't kill them all, or the flagship's AI will take over and it'll start acting like an auto ship).
For phase 2, I knock out the enemy artillery again, hack their drone system so I can make their drones self-destruct, then cloak after the swarm of drones appears.
For phase 3, I use all the firepower I have to knock out the Zoltan Shield, take out the artillery again, and hack whatever system ends up causing me the most trouble. I then proceed to cloak whenever the laser barrage happens to make them all miss, and with that setup, I win practically every time.
If I don't get the Chain Vulcan, I may use other augments, but I always use the Stealth Weapons. Being able to attack while cloaked without shutting off my cloak in the process really helps.
As a matter of preference, I try to get the most diverse crew possible (1 Human, 1 Engi, 1 Zoltan, 1 Crystalman, 1 Rockman, 1 Mantis, 1 Slug, and 1 Lanius). If I can get Virus, KaaazakplethKilik and Envoy in my crew, that helps even more, for all 3 of them are masters in all 6 skills.
Well, I hope that helps at least somewhat. My strategy makes the flagship a cakewalk. Of course, I'm not giving the main characters that easy of a fight. That'd be anti-climactic and cheap.
Hey! No problem! I like good FTL crossovers when I can!
7990799 Always nice to know I have the support of fellow FTL fans. I love that game to death.
I'm really, really hoping this turns out to be good.
img12.deviantart.net/2531/i/2013/021/b/a/ftl__the_united_federation___by_tink29-d5s9gfl.png
How will the ponies help a spacefaring federation? I had hoped they would have a technological level more advanced than in the show.
Sorry to say, but its a little too short and under-detailed.
Maybe add more detail and make it longer, and then maybe ill read it ;)
Wait, there is?
What is it?
7991268 Well, there's one thing they have that is completely unknown to both the Federation and the Rebels: magic. The Rebels have no idea that magic exists, so you'll see.
7991562 I'll see what I can do about detail and length (note that it's listed as incomplete. This fic goes all the way to the flagship). The first chapter wasn't that good, I admit it. I was trying to do what no other FTL/MLP crossover fic has done before: explain what the heck happened to crash the Engi cruiser in the first place. It gets better as the chapters go on, I can assure you. In fact, I'm actually going to be posting Chapter 2 today!
As for the special donor event, there's a rare event in the code called "DONOR_PONY". It can occur in any sector (except The Last Stand, for obvious reasons), but only once per game. It only can occur at a beacon where a generic event should occur, but only if the sector has already run out of standard generic events. And even then, it's selected at random from a pool of spare generic events.
For the sake of the fic, I've heavily expanded upon that event to make a full-length adventure out of it. Normally, the best you can get is an Engi out of it, but since I'm trying to showcase some mod ideas I have in this, suffice it so say that things are going to diverge from the game a bit here and there.
7991077 Hey! That's my usual crew! (Except you're missing a Lanius. I try to assemble all eight races in one crew. The diversity in abilities really helps.)
And don't worry. I have big plans for this. Really big plans.
>Be Twilight.
>Does not know what a Starship is.
>Does know what an alien is.
Seems legit.
Also, how is this not International news on Equus by now?