War
By: MOUNT_PILATE1667
"Those damn alarms again!" I yelled, jumping out of bed. Being in a cramped piece of metal everyday doesn't really do anything good for your patience. Mine was beginning to wear down after being stuck here for 3 months.
I ran to the bridge. After reading some of the system reports, I decided that what was going on was not a mistake. The entire fleet had detected it as well as our ship, the capital ship.
"What the hell is going on?" Fleet Commander Alan screamed at us, angry time was being taken out of his already shortened sleeping schedule.
"Apparently some sort of object is approaching from the system we are about to pass. It's probably just an asteroid or comet but the computer doesn't recognize what the object is." I said.
"What the hell are you talking about Paine?" Alan said.
Now you see, Alan is one of those people who gets upset when he doesn't understand something. He says it's helped him survive. I think it helps him keep his sanity. We all have little quirks like that, the doctors say it's perfectly normal to have them when you're stressed out all day.
"I have no idea Commander. I told you everything I know. Shouldn't you be telling the other ships?"
We had one simple mission. Guide some merchant ships through an asteroid field. They couldn't do it themselves because they didn't have the rockets to stop anything from hitting their small metallic ships. We had never been told why they needed an entire fleet to shoot some rocks. Whatever.
By now the commander had left. I wanted to use this to my advantage, so I put the ship into manual. The doctors also say it's a good stress reliever. Something about "being in control", well unlike the psychopaths who end up getting it, I wasn't one for power. I didn't really care for the whole bureaucracy deal at all to be honest. It didn't help that I was good at what I did. I may not have been some hotshot race pilot, but I was efficient, and saved some important ass from space rocks. But none of that mattered right now. Now it was just me, some coffee, and my big flying piece of metal. Alone in the stars.
The five ponies continued walking through PonyVille, intent on catching the missing member of their group to win the game.
"I'm gonna check the sky's. Come on and help me Fluttershy." Rainbow Dash said. Nopony wanted to let Pinkie Pie take yet another flawless victory against all five of her friends.
"We only have a few minutes left guys! If we try we can still find her!" Twilight told the others. They had been looking all morning. The deadline before Pinkie won was noon.
"I'm gonna search the barn again. I coulda sworn I heard her giggling in the rafters." Applejack told the group before heading off to the barn.
"Can we call this whole shenanigan off Twilight? I, for one, am tired of playing in this hot sun. I say we go back to the library where it's cool." Rarity said exasperated.
They all knew they had no chance of finding the little pink pony. She was simply to unpredictable for them to ever have hope of finding her. But they were determined. They spent the last 10 minutes playing right until the clock tower struck noon.
"Guess we're going to the library guys." Twilight said.
They all knew they were to meet Pinkie at the end of the game. After they had all gathered, Pinkie made her grand entrance coming down from the sky with balloons.
"You guys are so silly! How couldn't you see me hovering over ponyville the entire time?" Pinkie seemed oblivious to the fact that her friends were tired and dirty.
"How didn't I see you when I flew over ponyville? Twice?" Rainbow Dash was frustrated that she had lost.
"I was in a cloud! It was like a big soft piece of cotton candy!" Pinkie then went on to tell her friends just how she stayed low enough to see them, and all the other things she did in the cloud for fun. Just as she was finishing though, Spike ran down the stairs, letter in hand, calling for Twilight.
"The Princess sent you a letter! Should I read it or are you guys busy? It looks pretty important."
"Read it out loud Spike, we just finished what we were doing."
"Ahem,
Dear Twilight and Friends,
I need you all to return to Canterlot Castle IMMEDIATELY!
Celestia"
"Tell her we'll be right their Spike!" Twilight told him
Spike sent the letter to Celestia. The princess almost immediately replied.
"Ahem,
Dear Twilight and Friends,
I'm sending over a carriage to bring you to Canterlot.
Hold on until then.
Celestia"
"What could have happened Twilight?" Fluttershy timidly continued "You don't think another dragon came to Equestria do you?"
"We can't be sure until we get there Fluttershy, but if it was a dragon I think we would know by now."
The loud sounds of a carriage pulling up in front of the library got all of them to turn towards the front. A stallion knocked on the door and patiently waited for the ponies inside to emerge.
"The Princess never said how long we would be staying, but we could probably get the things we need in Canterlot." Rarity, the Canterlot expert, told them.
"Then lets head on out!" The others all agreed.
They all got into the carriage one by one, patiently waiting to see what was going on.
"It is definitely not an asteroid, or a comet, or anything naturally found in space."
The object that had been approaching was definitely under its own power. The fact that it had turned to intersect the small fleet of ships and accelerated towards them proved their entire hypothesis wrong in an instant.
"Could it be solar wind?" Alan asked
"No sir, the star in this system isn't giving off any solar wind at all. In fact, it doesn't appear to be emitting anything other than heat and light." I was simply reading off reports as they were entered at this point. Nobody had ever heard of a star that wasn't radioactive.
"How the hell could that ball of gas not be radioactive? That's how the damn thing makes heat and light! Set course for that damned thing. If we're closer we'll be able to test it against the other ships scanners as well." Alan said.
"Setting course for… What do you want to name the star Commander? You are the highest ranking official onboard at the moment, the law says you get to name it." I informed him. I'm sure he knew he could name it, but he may have not known it was unnamed. After a brief moment he responded:
"Sepultra… "
"Setting course for Sepultra Commander." I moved the joystick, and adjusted some of the power to the propulsions on the opposite side of the ship, we would need that to turn. I moved to the terminal, where I entered the coordinates we should pass before I was alerted. I now had some free time.