The galaxy is in peril. The Galactic Federation is on the verge of being destroyed by the human supremacist Rebels, and their last hope is Captain Chris Malott and the crew of The Kestrel.
While fleeing the Rebel Fleet, the crew investigates a planet with signs of intelligent life, obtaining help in a way they never would've expected.
With the help of their newfound allies, can Captain Malott and his crew save the Federation? Or is the Milky Way Galaxy doomed to be oppressed by the Rebels and their hatred for anything not human?
Extremely special thanks to GIULIO for helping me with editing! This fic would still be as stiff as sandpaper without your help!
EDIT: GIULIO has been promoted to the rank of coauthor! This should make the fic better than before, as well as make it easier to crank out chapters!
3/1/2017, 5:45 PM MST: In the popular box already? 
Wow! Sure, it's not exactly Featured, but it's a close second! I'll take it! 
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.
A little better than the first, but what I said still stands.
Anyway, I'm just going to leave this here...
7991813 Noted. I'll see what I can do about improving description and length. The problem is the one friend I have who I can always count on to proofread my stuff complains whenever I send him a chapter that's over 2,000 words. And even then, he thinks a proofreader is just an editor (which is most certainly not the case).
Anyway, I'm still looking for a supporting author to help out with description, length, and fluidity. My usual supporting author/coauthor (not to be confused with my usual "proofreader") claims that he can't help out because he knows nothing about FTL. Are you interested in helping to fill that void? I'll credit you in the description, as well as in the author's note for every chapter. Plus, every mention of you would be a link to your account.
Also, that video was hilarious!
Too bad that tactic doesn't work with Rock Cruiser Type B (the one with no airlocks).
7991871 Sure, why not, I've never been a proofreader/coauthor before, so this will be a first time for me.
Not exactly sure how one would go about that though :/
Anyway, have more Door Monster videos:
7992251 Actually, someone already accepted the offer. Sorry about that. But I'll keep you in mind in the future. Just in case.
7992276 Meh, ok then.
What is this a crossover of?
7992839 It's a crossover with FTL: Faster Than Light. It's an awesome game. I highly recommend playing it. Best fun I've had in a game in years.
7992967 lol I keep dying at the end.
7993246 Check the Chapter 1 comments. I left some pretty good tips on how to make that fight a cakewalk. But if you're playing on easy or normal, a good rule of thumb is to kill all of the flagship's crew except for the one manning the beam artillery. That room is isolated from the rest of the ship on easy and normal, and it's there in all 3 phases of the fight. If you kill the entire crew, the flagship's AI takes over, and it starts functioning like an auto ship. If you play on hard, still reduce them to one crewmember, but remain aware that the missile and beam artillery rooms aren't isolated from the rest of the flagship on hard. Still, with only one crewmember, the Rebels will have a lot of trouble repairing the flagship.
Once again, I have more tips in one of my Chapter 1 comments.
The story seems pretty good so far. As long as you continue to focus mostly on the characters and events rather than too much technical detail, this will be a pretty darn good story.
Reeeaaaaallly hoping the "racism is bad" overtones in the intro don't play out in the story. What I'm reading so far is good, but the style of writing is direct and unsubtle. That's not bad by any means, but it means that moral/ethical/political/etc values will beat the reader over the head like an anvil. Never pleasant.
7996345 Nah. Not going that far. FTL is actually a (heavily modified) retelling of the US Civil War, but in space. The Federation represents the Union while the Rebels represent the Confederacy. The Rebels are revealed to be human supremacists multiple times in-game, after all. All non-human races are basically the equivalents of the blacks in the Civil War era, as well. The Rebels think that humans are superior to all other races, while the Federation believes in equal and fair treatment for all sapient lifeforms.
That's really the big difference here. I'm not going to constantly beat you over the head with the idea of "majorities should feel guilt just for being majorities." Humans are the most common race, but the Federation believes in all races being truly equal. There's no "human privilege" guilt-tripping going on. Just the idea that humans, Engies, Zoltans, Slugs, Rockmen, Crystalmen, Mantises, and Lanii should all be given equal treatment. Personally, I'm proud to say that I'm racially colorblind. I don't see blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, etc. I just see fellow human beings. So, that's what I'm going for. Instead of seeing humans, Engies, Zoltans, Slugs, Rockmen, Crystalmen, Mantises, and Lanii, the Federation just sees fellow sapient beings sharing the same galaxy (though the Mantis and the Lanius are sometimes subject to prejudice from the other 6 races all because most of them who aren't Federation citizens are savage killers (sadly resulting in some Federation citizens treating them as if they're no different from the barbarians they just happen to be related to). Likewise, the Slugs aren't very well liked because of how greedy and dishonest most non-Federation Slugs are. But, under Federation law, all sapient beings are to be treated equally, without exception). The Rebels are the ones obsessed with the idea of humans before all others. They're kind of like a combination of the Nazis and the KKK, except that their bigotry is aimed at all non-humans.
Okay, that may not have been as convincing as I might've hoped, but believe me, I'm more focused on the story than the underlying elements. I just have to portray the Rebels as human supremacists because, in the game, they are human supremacists. If I didn't portray them like that, the entire Rebellion would be really OOC, and I can't do that.
7996459 I can't agree with your assessment of FTL at all.
7996607 Well, that's what TV Tropes said. (The Civil War thing, anyway.)
But really, the Rebels are human supremacists! How have you managed to never encounter any of the events that show that? Did you ever even do the Zoltan cruiser quest? The Rebel ship involved in the quest spews supremacist garbage while hailing you!
7996607 Guess I'll just have to agree to disagree. Your opinion is noted.
7996988 Every cruiser, every variant. The mantis, slugs, lannis, and especially rocks and crystals show various forms of xenophobia. The rockmen have a very Soviet Russia vibe with a totalitarian state that does not tolerate intruders, foreigners, spies, guests, visitors, dissenters, or questions overlayed atop a hearty people used to physically taxing environments.
But the Rebels as human supremacists? You're going to have to cite some examples, 'cause I'm not seeing it and I sure as hell am not going to listen to tropes wiki about the themes of a game I've dumped 248 hours into.
7997807 You want examples? I'll give you examples:
If you say "Your Rebellion is causing millions of deaths. Your beliefs are dividing the galaxy. Unity is the only option!" to the Rebel ship in the Zoltan cruiser quest, the Rebels respond with this statement:
"Humans are treated as 'equal' to aliens in the weak Federation. The sacrifice of BILLIONS of alien or human lives are justified if it means we reach our full potential!"
And if that's not enough, how about this snippet from the Rebel Checkpoint Event:
As everyone currently awaiting inspection is human anyway, the Rebels let them go. They take your scrap and tell you to hurry along.
And what of every single Rebel being human? if they aren't human supremacists, why aren't there ever any Engies or Zoltans (who are also official citizen races of the Federation) in their crews? They have that non-aggression pact with the Engies, but they break it in the Stealth Cruiser quest. That, and the Engies only agreed to it because they're concerned for their own safety.
And the Rockmen being like the Soviets? That's a good one. Since when were the Soviets religious? Do you mean to tell me you never noticed the boatload of references to the Rock religion in all of your playthroughs? The Rockmen are religious zealots, not Communists! The Soviets didn't have arranged marriages, either. But guess what? The Rockmen sure do! There's an event involving taking a Rockwoman to another planet to turn her over to the Grand Basilisk, her arranged husband. But she doesn't want to marry him. So, if you decide to tell him to go screw himself, she joins your crew as thanks for saving her from the forced marriage. and then there's the one Athiest Rockman who says that the Rock religion is built on lies. Seriously, how have you never noticed any of these?
As an FTL modder, I have the full extent of the resource files at my disposal, and I have access to the text and outcomes of every event in the game. The Lanius aren't xenophobic! They don't speak the same language as the Federation, so no one can understand them or reason with them! In fact, one of the Lanius ships tries to open trading communications with a civilian ship, and the civilians demand that you destroy the Lanius ship! If you have a Lanius of your own, you can resolve the issue peacefully by having your Lanius talk to the merchant ship's captain, which then turns the location into a store beacon.
Really, you need to research the game again. Get a decompiler and decompile the resources.dat file. It has a bunch of xml files in it that I use as references for this fic. Sure, I'm trying to showcase a mod I'm working on, but I'm basing everything on what's already in the unmodded event files.
I know what I'm talking about here.
Wern't there more Engi's in Twilights home?
8004131 Yeah, but the game only gives you one in the event, explaining that you were only capable of reactivating one. Remember how the other Engies were in pieces? It'd take an Engi physician to reassemble them before they could be revived, and no such physician is available (at least, that's how I explain why only one could be activated. Maybe the others were beyond help? I just don't know what Subset Games intended to be the reason, so I'm going with the explanation I gave for now).
Xin Xin controls space...
You know, because he controls the doors...?
8004459 Someone watched the video I posted ;D
8004459 8004488 I guess Xin Xin does. But I pointed out multiple times that Xin Xin is a female Engi. In FTL, there are no gender-neutral names in the files. "Xin Xin" is listed in the female names list (as is "T'ten").
8004517 Uh... okay.
what role would magic play in the game? would unicorns have an activated ability like crystals?
8004983 Hint: All race abilities are hardcoded into the executable, so for the mod I'm working on that this fic showcases, I had to overwrite one of the races already in the code and replace them with the ponies. This made the ponies have the same traits as the overwritten race. I overwrote ghosts so I didn't have to get rid of any races that you can get without mods or hacking, so let's see if you can figure it out.
And the abilities apply to all ponies universally. You'll see. But, magic-based weapons and drones will be a thing. Just wait.
Okay, this may just be me not knowing, but isn't the speech pattern you're using for the Slugs the same as the Mantis? I don't remember that being true. Though, admittedly, I never really used Slug crew. I avoid Nebula sectors like the plague.
8027319 The Slugs extend all "s", "z" and "sh" sounds in their speech, regardless of what letter actually makes the sound. There are no exceptions, and they always extend the letter to be exactly 3. The Mantis just speak like most races do. Only the Engi, the Slugs, and the Lanius have altered speech (and the Lanius only speak in a weird way because they have trouble with the standard language).
As for Slug crewmembers, you can get them in certain non-nebula sectors, but they're much rarer in sectors that aren't nebula sectors. You can't actually get them in sector 1, but I modified it so you could in the mod I'm working on that this fic is based off of.
8027319 Forgot to mention this in my previous reply, but I'm putting this in a new reply so you don't miss what's in this second reply.
Slugs are quite useful, actually. They have the same health, attack power, and movement speed as humans, but their race's abilities all stem from the Slugs' psychic powers: First, they're immune to mind control, so an enemy mind control system (or your own mind control system while hacked) can't target them.
In the case of being in a nebula, Slugs can help make up for your Sensors being rendered useless: all rooms adjacent to the room your Slug is in are fully visible, even if you have no crewmembers in them. Also, Slug crewmembers allow you to see the locations of all enemy crew, even when you can't see into their ship (or they're in your ship in a room you can't see at the time). In this case, all enemy crew show up as all-red versions of their sprites.
The Slug Cruisers are a pain to use, though. None of them come with Sensors built in, forcing you to buy Sensors from a store if you want Sensors. But, buying Sensors too early makes obtaining one of the Slug Cruiser achievements almost impossible: "We're In Position". That achievement requires you to make all rooms on the enemy ship fully visible without the aid of Sensors (requiring you to board their ship and move your Slugs around until their ability to see through walls into adjacent rooms makes every room on the enemy ship fully visible).
Nebula sectors are hard, but if you're properly prepared. you can make it through them. Though, since the whole sector is mostly one huge nebula, the Rebels are prepared for the different conditions, making nebula beacons only reduce their pursuit speed by 25% instead of by 50%.
The Slug Home Nebula is really difficult, especially since the Slug Cruiser quest begins with an event that's almost identical to a bunch of decoy events (in fact, you only find out whether the event you ran across was the actual event or just a decoy after you decide to spare the slug ship that attacked you. The stuff that occurs after you spare them reveals if it was a decoy or not. Decoys will just give you low amounts of scrap and other basic resources, while the real McCoy gives you an option to demand information from them. They first try to interest you in their information on a new Slug weapon: the Anti-Bio Beam. Should you turn down the offer on the weapon info and demand other information, they'll reluctantly inform you of the location of the Slug cruiser being developed, placing a quest marker on your map). But should you manage to complete the Slug Cruiser quest, not only will you get the Type A Slug Cruiser unlocked, but you'll also receive the Slug Repair Gel augment, which causes breaches to gradually repair themselves (and every enemy Slug ship has that augment, explaining why breaches on their ships eventually disappear on their own if the Slugs don't repair them first. Well, I think they all have it, anyway. Some of them might not, but I've seen breaches in enemy Slug ships auto repair themselves before).
I wanna see a Lanius.
Those FTL jumps mid-battle always stress me out
so is the magic bubble time limited?
Is magic a resource off of Equestria?
Luna survived for a thousand years but she was on a magical moon that may have been replenishing her magic.
8057758 No limit. As I said before, I had the ponies replace the Ghost race.
Ghosts:
50 hp
Don't need air
That's all Ghosts are in FTL. Nothing else. So, the bubble lasts until it's not needed.
8057281 Patience. Sector 2's an Abandoned Sector.
Heh heh heh. All in due time. They make great firefighters!
A new crew member and they dump a big load on her.
8074946
That's how Hollywood does it, right?
On a more serious note, I'd like to apologize on behalf of Dolphy since I'm the reason that we are still working on the seventh chapter. I've gotten a helluva schedule change and I'm no longer able to work with Dolphy as we had for the other chapters.
Like he's said, we're working on this story, but new chapters will most likely come more slowly than they have been up until now. Hope that you all understand.
Man that woman was a bitch. Kind of want the crew to encounter her so Matthieu can get some satisfaction by seeing her being just as miserable as she made him and his dad. Whould serve her just right.
Hah! Bitch got put on Sensors!
That was a good written fight between The Kestrel and the Eliminator Class.