Star Trek: Pegasus

by Kane Magus

Pilot Episode - Part 2

The homeworld of the Equestrian ponies floated in serene orbit around its star. The star, officially dubbed Equus by Federation star charters in honor of the dominant species living on the third planet, had eight other planets in its system. The star, however, didn’t care that one of its nine children was teeming with life, any more than the third planet itself cared that it had gained a second child of its own within the past twenty years. Luna’s moon was no longer alone in its orbit around the planet, for it was joined by a smaller sibling: a massive Federation starbase.
Deep Space Twenty, the station was called. It was the identical twin of the Earth Spacedock, sharing the mushroom shape of its distant sibling in the Alpha Quadrant. Actually, there was some debate as to whether DS20 was the farthest or closest of the deep space stations. On one hand, it was almost fifty thousand light years away from the heart of the Federation, if one judged by straight line distance, making it by far the most distant in that respect. On the other hand, it was a short thirty minute flight by sub-light shuttle between Equus III and Sol III, thanks to the portal that connected the two planets.
The primary purpose of DS20 was to act as a headquarters for ships operating in this sector of space. It also acted as a dry dock for repairing such ships as necessary. It was this secondary purpose that was required for the time being, for one of its own was badly injured and in dire need of succor.
The USS Crazy Horse disengaged her tractor beams from the USS Pegasus and then made her way for the portal to Earth, her current task completed and a new one awaiting her somewhere in the Alpha Quadrant. The Pegasus limped the final short distance to DS20 under her own power. She would be enfolded in the protective embrace of the starbase soon, and then the healing could finally begin in earnest.

“Personal log. Ensign Star Strider. Stardate 66050.29
“It’s morning. I feel like my head only just touched my pillow a few minutes ago, but the computer tells me that it has apparently been ten hours. I think the computer might be lying, but I can’t be sure. I don’t know why the computer would hate me enough to play such an evil prank, though, so I’m going to have to assume for now that it’s actually telling me the truth.
“Needless to say, because I’m sure anyone listening to this will be able to tell just from the sound of my voice, but I’m going to say it anyway: I don’t feel any better than I did last night. At all. I had trouble escaping from the bed sheets that had somehow gotten entangled in my legs because, as I feared, my magic is still gone. I don’t know if I will ever get used to that feeling, no matter how long it may last… and it may end up lasting the rest of my life.
“As I look out my window, I see that the Pegasus is minutes away from docking at Deep Space Twenty. It’s shortly after 0830 hours, so I suppose I should get out of bed soon. I did promise Ensign Tompkins that I would meet him for a drink at that bar of his, after all. I briefly considered cancelling this… date, for lack of a better word, but that would just mean that I would have to beam down to the planet all the sooner. I’m actually a bit thankful for this small reprieve, even if it means potentially giving Tompkins the wrong idea about how I feel about him or about our relationship… whatever that relationship may be. I consider him a friend, but I get the distinct impression that he’s hoping for something… more than that. In any case, I have invited Doctor Marie to join us on our excursion, to serve as something of a chaperone for us, given that she had been planning to see me off anyway. I don’t really expect Tompkins to try anything… inappropriate, as he’s way too bashful for that I think, but it doesn’t hurt to have some support just in case, and the Caitian doctor is a rather formidable presence. I have decided that I like her, and I think she likes me well enough too, but I’m not sure we could quite be considered friends, yet. I’m just an ensign and she’s a lieutenant commander, after all. With time, I think we could be, though. I hope so. Perhaps this little bar trip will help with that.
“As for this bar we’re supposed to be going to… Tompkins tells me that it is run by a Ferengi. Strange, I thought this was DS20, not DS9. But apparently, it’s true. How a Ferengi got a job as a bartender on a purely Federation starbase, I have no idea. Well, maybe I’ll find out when I get there. Then again, talking with a Ferengi is pretty close to the top of my ‘Things I Really Don’t Want To Do Today’ list. I think I’ll let Tompkins or Doctor Marie handle ordering any drinks.
“As for what comes after all of that, though… I don’t know what I’m going to do. My current plan, such as it is, is to just beam down to Ponyville and then… well… like I said, I just don’t know. I’m probably going to simply wander around for a while… see where I end up. I do have a final destination, but I’m going to avoid that for as long as is reasonable… and possibly a bit longer. And then, once my business is finished in Ponyville, it’s onward to Cloudsdale. One way or another, things are never going to be the same for me after I get there. I just hope it all works out in the end.
“Well, the Pegasus just passed through the doors of the docking bay, so I guess I should finally try to force myself out of this bed and back out into the real world again.”

Star Strider walked alongside Ensign Jim Tompkins and Doctor M’rrre as they made their way through the bustle of travelers on the mercantile deck of the starbase. It was a large, brightly lit concourse, lined on either side, and often in the middle, by a wide variety of stores, restaurants, and recreational facilities. The three of them mostly remained quiet as they ambled toward their destination.
M’rrre had been a bit hesitant to join them at first, mainly because she initially thought that Star should take care of this issue with Tompkins sooner rather than later, and preferably on her own. However, the pleading look on Star’s face finally won her over. For his part, Tompkins didn’t seem too put off by having another companion, though he didn’t seem particularly thrilled by it either.
They approached the door of the bar and were just about to head through when Star suddenly stopped in her tracks. She’d glanced at a sign posted on the wall next to the door as they walked by it, but then had done a double-take and was now backing up to get a better look at the sign. As she read the sign, she could see Tompkins grinning at her out of the corner of her eye.
“I was hoping you’d like that,” he said, as though he were giving her a Hearth’s Warming gift. In a way, it was a gift. When she glanced at him, his smile got bigger and he added, “What? Did you think I was bringing you here just for the Ferengi bartender?”
Star turned back to look at the sign again. In smaller letters near the top, it said, “Brunt’s Bar Proudly Presents:” Then, in enormous lettering in the middle, it said, “THE DULCET DUO: DJ PON-3 AND OCTAVIA!!!” Accompanying this was a picture of two ponies with whom Star was most familiar, at least by reputation anyway, though she had never met them directly. Beneath the picture, in even smaller print than at the top, was the phrase “For a limited time only.” And lastly, below that, was a listing of various menu items and their associated prices in gold-pressed latinum. Federation credits were not accepted, apparently.
The grin on Star’s face was wide enough to fly a starship through. “Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” she said turning back to Tompkins again. “I could have been looking forward to this, rather than… well… kind of dreading it, actually. Aw man, this is so cool! I have every one of their albums on holotape. All the shows they did on Earth while I was in the Academy… the Sydney Opera House… Carnegie Hall… Madison Square Garden… I made it a point to go to every single one of them and to sit as close to front row center as I could get. Seriously, this is amazingly awesome. But… why the hay are they doing shows in a Ferengi-owned bar on a starbase? That makes no sense at all. And how have I not heard of this before now?!” In her exuberance, Star had completely failed to notice how Tompkins’s face had fallen slightly at her thoughtless use of the word “dreading.”
Dr. M’rrre, however, had been more observant, as she quickly said, “Let’s head on in, shall we? I could do with some tea, I think.” With that, the three Starfleet officers approached the door and, when it slid open, were immediately assaulted by sound. Star’s grin got even bigger and her ears perked forward, whereas M’rrre’s ears flattened back against her head. The Caitian bared her teeth slightly in distaste.
As they made their way over to the few remaining open seats, which were at the bar itself rather than any of the tables on the floor, Star turned her eyes to the stage. There they were, just as she had seen them in countless holotapes and at live shows over the past ten years or so. Standing to the left on her hind legs and supporting herself against a cello was a light gray earth pony with a long, darker gray mane and tail and the cutie mark of a purple treble clef. To the right was a white unicorn with a striking, spiked-out, blue/cyan striped mane and tail. She was wearing large purple-tinted shades as well. Her cutie mark currently wasn’t visible behind the large electronic booth that the pony was operating, but Star knew it to be a black double quaver.
The music was a unique blend of Octavia’s cello and DJ Pon-3’s various styles of techno, depending on the mood of the song being played. Star knew that it really shouldn’t work, but somehow it just did, and very well at that. Most everypony back home who heard it thought so, and the duo’s fame had long since started to spread off-planet as well. Apparently not everyone was a fan, however, as Star noticed that Dr. M’rrre kept her ears pressed back against her head and was continually grimacing.
“I’m so glad you invited me along for this, Ensign Strider,” said the Caitian, having to speak loudly to make herself heard, even though Star was sitting right next to her. “Whoever wrote that sign out there really knows what the word ‘dulcet’ means, that’s for certain.” The biting sarcasm in her voice was enough to make the unicorn wince slightly. So much for using this as an opportunity to befriend the doctor, Star thought to herself with no small disappointment. M’rrre noted the look on Star’s face and said, “Wait… don’t tell me you actually enjoy this cacophony.”
Star smiled in slight embarrassment and said, “Well… like I said, I do have every one of their albums and have been to just about all of their live shows.”
M’rrre just rolled her eyes, feeling thankful that the song, if one could even call it that, seemed to be ending. Her relief was short lived, however.
“SO HOW ARE YOU GUYS ENJOYING THIS FINE MORNING?!” shouted the white unicorn, her voice projecting loudly throughout the large room. At the buzz in response from the crowd, DJ Pon-3 yelled, “I CAN’T HEAR YOU! I SAID, HOW ARE YOU GUYS ENJOYING THIS FINE MORNING?!” The buzz of the crowd grew louder in response.
“Speaking as a medical practitioner,” muttered M’rrre, “my diagnosis for the reason she can’t hear is because she’s probably all but completely deaf by now.”
“Oh come on, doctor,” said Tompkins lightly, looking at her over Star’s head. “It’s not all that bad, is it?” He quickly decided to find something else to occupy his vision when he saw the death glare the Caitian was giving him.
The gray earth pony said, in a voice that seemed almost too soft to be heard, yet which also managed to project throughout the room, “We have one more song for you in our morning set.” The crowd groaned in disapproval at the fact that the show was almost over. “Don’t worry,” said Octavia in response. “We’ll be back this evening with our next show. But for now, without further ado, here is a piece I like to call ‘Serenity.’”
They started playing something that, to Star at least, sounded rather more subdued than their normal oeuvre. It was quite tranquil, relatively speaking. It made her want to forget all the worries she’d been having over the past day or two. She glanced at the doctor to see if she at least enjoyed this one a little better.
“Ugh,” said the Caitian. “There’s nothing ‘serene’ about that, at all. The cello is nice enough, I suppose, but the rest…”
Tompkins, looking for an excuse to both get away from the crabby doctor and to also have a chance to talk to Star alone, said, “Hey, look, a table just opened up there near the stage. Want to go grab it and get a better view of the show?”
Star nodded and said, “Yeah, I’d love to.” She turned to look at the doctor. “You want to join us?”
M’rrre looked at the unicorn as though she were certifiable. “No, I think this is plenty close enough for me. You kids run along and enjoy the show. I need a drink, and now.” The doctor noted the relief in Tompkins’s face at her refusal to join them, but didn’t comment on it. She watched as they gave her one last look, and then moved away to the empty table. The Caitian turned to the bar, behind which an absolutely miserable looking Ferengi bartender was standing, his hands pressed tightly against his ears. Unfortunately for him, unlike the Caitian, he was not able to fold his ears back.
“Aren’t they just wonderful!” said the bartender thickly, grinning far too widely as he noticed the doctor looking at him. He moved closer and, most reluctantly, removed his hands from his ears in order to more easily talk to her.
“How and, more importantly, why do you withstand such… entertainment as that?” asked M’rrre. “You clearly appear to like it about as well as I do.”
“Do you see that crowd out there?” said the Ferengi, looking at her incredulously. “Even your friends are enthralled. They’re happy, and when they’re happy, they buy more drinks. When they buy drinks, I’m happy. I can put up with a little permanent hearing loss for that.”
“And let me guess,” said the doctor, “you also make a pretty piece of latinum from those who were dragged here by their friends and who wish to try to drown out the noise with heavy drinking, is that right?”
The Ferengi smiled toothily and nodded. “There is that as well. My name is Brunt, by the way. Speaking of drinking heavily, what can I get for you?”
M’rrre sighed and said, “I’ll have an herbal tea, please.”
“Any particular herbs you have in mind?” asked Brunt, with a knowing look.
The Caitian glanced back over her shoulder at the stage, shook her head in exasperation, and then said, “In this case? I think I’ll go with some Nepeta cataria.” She placed a slip of gold-pressed latinum into his waiting palm.
The Ferengi gave her an odd look. “Very well, though I don’t normally keep that in stock. I’ll have to replicate it first.”
“Fine, fine,” said M’rrre, nodding impatiently and dropping another slip of latinum into his still extended hand. “Just make it quick, please.” As the Ferengi bowed to her shallowly and moved away to make her drink, the doctor turned to watch her two companions. She had a feeling that something was about to happen as far as the little problem Ensign Strider had discussed with her yesterday was concerned.
At first, the human and the pony just watched the show, but then Ensign Tompkins turned his head toward Strider. Even with her superior hearing, M’rrre couldn’t hear what he was saying, especially given that the music was almost drowning out her very thoughts, let alone any other sounds in the room more than just a meter or so away from her. Strider turned her head toward the human in response to whatever he’d said. For a moment, they just looked at one another, and then Tompkins said something else, leaning toward her a bit as he spoke. Strider didn’t respond to this, though she did continue looking at the human. The unicorn had a sort of “deer in headlights” look on her face, to use an old Earth phrase that M’rrre had heard once or twice before. Tompkins spoke again, and at this Strider finally said something in reply. After a few more moments of what seemed to M’rrre like awkward silence (relatively speaking), Tompkins spoke again, slowly reaching out a hand toward the pony as he did so. Strider looked at his hand, and then lowered her head and shook it slowly. Then she looked back into his eyes and spoke again. Tompkins face assumed an expression similar to what he’d probably wear if he’d been kicked in the gut. He withdrew his hand and let it drop to the table. Strider said something else, and Tompkins nodded in response, looking down at the table as he did so. Strider spoke yet again, this time with a somewhat concerned expression appearing on her face. Tompkins looked up at her and smiled wanly, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. He said one last thing as the song began to wind down, though it didn’t seem to assuage the unicorn’s worry much.
As the song finally ended, unheard by either of them at this point, M’rrre’s two companions rose from the table and made their way back in her direction. A lot of the others in the bar started to make their exit now that the show was over, thinning out the room considerably. Just before the doctor’s companions rejoined her, the Ferengi bartender returned with her drink. M’rrre nodded at him, took a rather large swig from it, and then turned back to her approaching colleagues.
When the two ensigns reached her, Tompkins nodded at the Caitian, a cloudy expression on his face, and said, “I’m sorry, Doctor, but I’m not feeling well right now. I think I’ll return to the ship and help with repairs.”
Knowing that what was ailing him lay beyond her talents, the doctor ignored the slight contradiction and simply nodded. After he shuffled out of the bar without giving either of them a second look, M’rrre turned to the pony, who had resumed her seat next to the doctor, and said, “I take it that didn’t go as well as you would’ve liked.”
Star sighed and shook her head. “No, it didn’t. When he finally made his feelings unmistakably clear to me, I tried to be as polite about it as I could possibly be, but he didn’t seem to take my response very well, regardless. I told him I still wanted to be friends, if he was willing, and he seemed to accept that, but… I don’t know. I’m honestly a little bit worried about him now.”
“I hate to sound overly callous,” said the Caitian doctor, “but it’s not really your problem anymore. He’ll have to work this out on his own or, failing that, seek advice from the ship’s counselor. Thankfully, that’s not me. I already feel like I’m stepping on Counselor Zobraff’s toes as it is, to be honest with you. So, with that said, my last piece of advice to you as acting ship’s relationship counselor is that I think you should just give him some space, at least for the time being.”
“That’s going to be pretty difficult,” said Star. “We’re both bridge officers after all, so we’ll be seeing a lot of each other in that respect. I hope this doesn’t interfere with our duties at all.”
Dr. M’rrre raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” When the unicorn looked up at the Caitian in confusion, the latter said, “You do recall that you have direct orders from a superior officer, namely me, to beam down to the planet and spend the next two weeks there recuperating, do you not?”
The unicorn opened her mouth as if about to say something, and then closed it again. She shook her head. “No, sir, I haven’t forgotten.”
“Well,” said the doctor, “while you’re down there, I don’t want you to worry about Tompkins at all. You can’t do anything for him at the moment anyway. I’m sure in the two weeks he’ll have away from you, he’ll be able to get himself sorted out. If not… well, we’ll deal with that when it comes. But for now, I want you to put him out of your mind as best as you can.”
Star was about to respond when the two stools next to her were filled up. Star idly glanced in their direction, but then nearly toppled off of her own stool when she saw who it was. It was them! Octavia was sitting right next to her with DJ Pon-3 just a single stool away. They weren’t paying her any attention, however. They seemed to have more important business to deal with at the moment.
“Hey, Brunt!” said the white unicorn loudly. “Get your oversized lobes over here, right now. We have a bone to pick with you.”
The Ferengi bartender casually made his way over to them and regarded them with the slimiest expression that Star had ever seen. “May I help you, ladies? Would you care for a drink?”
“Cut the crap, you little troll!” said DJ Pon-3, leaning forward over the bar to get in his face. “What we’d ‘care for’ is you paying us for the last two week’s worth of gigs we performed here.”
“Now, now, my dear,” said Brunt, taking a step back and giving her a big toothy grin. “Don’t be so impatient. You’ll get your latinum soon enough. Don’t worry.”
“Oh, I’m not worried,” said the DJ, leaning back again. “You’re the one who should be worried. Either you pay us, and right now, or we’ll make that ‘for a limited time’ horse apples you have on the sign out there come true sooner than you think.”
“Now just a minute!” said Brunt, suddenly flustered. “We have a contract!”
Octavia chose this moment to break in. “Calm down, Vinyl. I’m sure the three of us can work out a suitable arrangement.”
“Yes, I’m sure we can,” said Brunt nervously, but regaining his composure. “Listen to your partner.”
Vinyl Scratch, aka DJ Pon-3, was just getting started, however. “And another thing, you toad, we’ve been scouting out other locations, some of them even right here on DS20, and they’re willing to pay us up to double what you’re paying us. You’re currently paying us two hundred strips of gold-pressed latinum per week to perform here. So, here’s what I suggest: you pay us what you owe us and raise that to four hundred for future gigs, or we walk today, contract or no contract!”
“What nonsense! Why should I pay you a single slip more?!” shouted Brunt angrily. “If anything, I’m already doing you a favor by paying you as much as I am! You honestly think I believe anyone else would pay you even half of what I do to have you foul the air with your noise pollution?! Seriously, to think that any self respecting sapient creature could actually enjoy that horrible dissonance you call music makes me die a little on the inside. More specifically, on the inside of my ear tubes.”
Vinyl shrugged. “Well then, if that’s how you feel about it... Come on, Tavi. Let’s go pay a visit to Martus Mazur on the upper deck. I hear he has an opening for a musical act at his place. It certainly has to be better than this dive. Maybe he’ll come up with a better name for us than the ‘Dulcet Duo.’ Ugh, I hate that name so much.”
“Wait!” shouted Brunt. “You can’t just walk out of here!”
“Oh yeah?” shouted Vinyl in return, rising from her seat. “Just watch us!”
“Vinyl, please,” said Octavia, “don’t be so hasty. Let’s hear what our friend here has to offer.” Vinyl reluctantly lowered herself back down onto the stool.
Brunt was sweating bullets by this point. “Well, I… I suppose I could raise your rate to two twenty-five.”
Vinyl heartily laughed in his face. Octavia, on the other hand, remained calm. “That won’t do, I’m afraid, Mr. Brunt. What do you say about three ninety-five?”
“Three… three ninety-five?” said Brunt incredulously. “That’s still robbery of the worst sort! Two fifty.”
“Three ninety,” countered Octavia.
“Are you serious?!” said Brunt. “You’re really serious, aren’t you? I’m offering you a fifty strip raise here! Oh, all right, three hundred. Surely that is reasonable?”
Octavia shook her head. “Three eighty-five.”
Brunt’s eyes were bulging out of his head by this point. “You’re killing me here. This is murder. I should call security and charge you for murder! Argh, by the Blessed Exchequer… all right, three fifty.”
Octavia raised an eyebrow. “Three eighty.”
“This is outrageous!” said Brunt, slamming his hands down on the counter. “I was one of the chief liquidators for the Ferengi Commerce Authority! I was Grand Nagus! It’s bad enough having to deal with all these uppity, self-righteous hew-mons, but you prima donna poh-nees are the absolute worst!”
“Unless my sources were lying,” said the gray earth pony, her voice as cool as ice, “you were only acting Grand Nagus, and only for a few short days at that. Another thing that my sources have uncovered is that your claims to be ‘close, personal friends’ of Grand Nagus Rom were… to put it diplomatically… somewhat exaggerated. The way I hear it, you were lucky to be granted this establishment on DS20 at all. It seems that Grand Nagus Rom felt sorry for you and pulled some strings to get you this job. Also, from what I hear, without us to draw in your customers, you would have already been out of business years ago. Come now, Mr. Brunt. Be reasonable. Are you really willing to risk throwing all of this away just to save a few strips of latinum?”
“You presume much, poh-nee,” said Brunt, narrowing his eyes. “This place will be perfectly fine, with or without you. In fact, I-”
“What a load!” said Vinyl Scratch, making as if to get up and leave again. “Come on, Tavi, let’s get outta here. His voice is giving me a migraine.”
“Wait!” shouted Brunt. “Wait! All right! Three seventy-five, but not a single solitary slip more than that!”
“Thank you, Mr. Brunt,” said Octavia. “Now we just need your thumbprint on this, and our business will be concluded. Vinyl?”
The unicorn levitated a small PADD over to the Ferengi. Brunt snatched it out of the magical field, gave it a cursory glance, and pressed his thumb against it. Looking as though doing this had drained him of all energy, he glared at Octavia and Vinyl Scratch. “There, I hope you’re happy. You’re driving me into destitution, but as long as you poh-nees are happy, I suppose that’s all that really matters, right? Oh, how have I been reduced to this? Tending a bar like that ignoramus Quark! You, the hew-mons, Quark, Grand Nagus Rom, the bane of my existence, all of you! Bah!” With a huff, he turned and escaped through a door into a back room.
Several seconds of silence passed in the wake of his departure. Vinyl Scratch used her magic to raise her purple sunglasses, revealing her similarly colored eyes, and looked at her partner. “I can’t believe that actually worked,” she said in a rather subdued voice, at least compared to the much louder one she’d been using up to this point.
“I told you it would,” said Octavia, a slight smirk on her lips.
“Good cop, bad cop,” said Dr. M’rrre, speaking for the first time since the two ponies had taken their places at the bar. “I’m very impressed.”
“Pardon?” said Octavia, as she and Vinyl looked over at the Caitian. Then they swept their eyes around the room and noticed with some surprise that they’d gathered quite an audience during their conversation with Brunt. Nearly every eye in the bar was on them, as though this show had been just as entertaining as their musical one. Now that the show was apparently over, however, most of the bar patrons began to turn back to their own affairs.
“It’s an old Earth term,” explained the doctor. “One of you acts as the gruff, no nonsense, ‘I’ll break your kneecaps if you cross me’ type, and the other acts as the more reasonable, placating partner. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it, given that you demonstrated a textbook example of it in action just now.”
“I… er… thank you,” said Octavia. “So, did you enjoy the show?”
“Which one?” asked M’rrre, taking a sip from her tea. “I have to admit that your music is… decidedly not to my tastes at all, unfortunately, but that little display of business sense was most entertaining. It’s not everyday when you get to see someone out-Ferengi a Ferengi, and so thoroughly at that. By the way, I am Doctor M’rrre, Chief Medical Officer of the USS Pegasus. My friend here, who currently seems to be trying to hide under the bar, is Ensign Star Strider, Engineering liaison to the bridge.”
Star meeped and shrank down on her stool even more when the attention of Octavia and Vinyl Scratch turned to her.
“Hey, wait… I’ve heard of you,” said Vinyl, her face lighting up in a grin. “You’re that pony who went off to Earth and joined Starfleet, aren’t you. Yeah, of course you are. That uniform is a dead giveaway.”
“I… I…” said Star, trying to get her brain to coordinate with her mouth so that she didn’t sound like a broken record. She was having no success so far, however.
“She’s a very big fan of yours, or so she tells me,” said Dr. M’rrre. “It seems she might be just the tiniest bit flustered to be in your presence like this.”
Vinyl regarded the navy blue unicorn for a bit and then hopped off of her stool. She moved around Octavia and stood directly in front of Star. “Well, Ensign Star Strider, Engineering liaison to the bridge, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Vinyl Scratch, better known as the great DJ Pon-3.” She held out a front hoof toward the quaking blue pony. Tilting her head toward the gray earth pony, she added, “And this, of course, is my partner in crime, the one and only Octavia.”
Star felt like she was about to die of excitement and embarrassment. She took the white unicorn’s hoof in both of her own and shook it, and then did the same to the one proffered by Octavia as well. “Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh you can’t possibly know what this means to me,” she managed to squeak out.
“To be honest,” said Octavia, “you’re a bit of a celebrity yourself, you know, being the first pony to attend Starfleet Academy and all that.”
“Me?!” said Star, incredulously. “No no no, I’m not a celebrity at all. Am I? Even if I am, I’m certainly not anything like you guys, anyway.”
“Hey now, we didn’t say you were as big as us,” said Vinyl, but with a grin and wink that let Star know she was just joking. “Seriously, though, there are plenty of ponies back home who have been keeping tabs on what you’ve been up to. Last we heard, you’d just graduated from school. I didn’t know you were already on a starship, though.”
At this, Star and M’rrre shared a somewhat uncomfortable look. “Well… yeah, I was. I mean, I am. But we had a little… mishap… on our first mission. The ship is in dry dock here at DS20 for repairs, and I… well… I’ve been given leave for the next two weeks in order to go home and recuperate.”
“Recuperate?” asked Octavia, concern in her voice. “Are you unwell?”
Star sighed and said, “I… kind of burned out my magic. It hasn’t come back yet.”
Vinyl Scratch winced in empathy. “Ooh, that’s pretty rough. So… you’re going home to recharge, huh? You heading to Ponyville, by any chance?”
“That’s right,” said the blue unicorn, “and then on to Cloudsdale.”
Vinyl nodded and said, “Well, how about this? We’re heading back down to Ponyville in a bit ourselves. You want to tag along with us?”
Star’s jaw dropped, her eyes widening into saucers. “I… I…”
Dr. M’rrre chuckled and said, “She means to say ‘Yes, I’d love to.’” Star nodded vehemently in response to this. The Caitian looked at the navy blue unicorn and said, “Well, that settles it then. I’ll see you in two weeks, and not a day earlier. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” said Star dutifully.
“Very good,” said the doctor, draining the rest of her glass. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and try to burn off some of this catnip tea.” She patted Star on the shoulder good-naturedly, nodded to the two musicians, and made her way to the exit.
“We should be going, too,” said Octavia. “Shall we?”
“We shall,” said Vinyl, sniggering slightly. Octavia gave her a look, but then smiled and rolled her eyes.
“So awesome,” squeaked Star, as the three ponies made their way out of the bar.

About ten minutes later found the trio of Star Strider, Vinyl Scratch, and Octavia making their way out of the transporter facility and on their way to Ponyville proper. The transporters were part of a larger research complex that had been built on the edge of the Everfree Forest by the Federation Science Council, intended to study the forest itself. After around three years of study, the best minds in the Federation had come to the conclusion that the Everfree was a “relatively normal forest, albeit inhabited by some unusually sapient wildlife.” The ponies of Equestria, of course, had some disagreements with this assessment, given that “normal” was, to them, the ability to control the environment with their magic, which wasn’t the case in the Everfree. At any rate, the research project had ended and the complex had been converted to a medical facility.
As they made their way toward Ponyville proper, Star noticed that the pegasus weather teams had apparently scheduled a moderate snowfall for this morning, and the ground was already starting to turn white. As they walked along the path from the medical facility, their hooves crunching in the snow, Star found herself opening up to her famous companions. “So I was wondering,” she said in a mostly casual manner that would have been unthinkable to her as recently as an hour ago, “how did you two end up working in a Ferengi bar on DS20, anyway?”
Vinyl Scratch rolled her eyes and said, “Thanks to a ton of stupidity on our part.”
Octavia sighed and said, “I would have used the word ‘naiveté’ but I suppose Vinyl has the right of it. Here is how it happened. Vinyl and I have been roommates for over twenty years now, but it was only within the past twelve or so that she first convinced me to join her on stage in a duet. I was… skeptical at first, mind you.”
“You thought I was crazy, you mean,” said Vinyl, giving her partner a playful nudge. “It took me almost half a year to finally convince you what an amazingly fantastic idea this was. I figured that since I had the night club crowd locked up, and you had those Canterlot snobs eating out of the frog of your hoof, if we joined forces we would absolutely dominate the music scene. And I was totally right about the night club crowd. I was… I guess… less right about the Canterlot snobs, I’ll admit.”
“I did warn you,” said Octavia, arching an eyebrow at her partner. “The Grand Galloping Gala was by far not the best place for us to debut.”
“Anyway,” said Vinyl, “I learned my lesson and we stuck to the night clubs, at least at first. Let me tell you, Octavia was a real hit with all those dudes. So... we’d been working the clubs for about ten years, and our fame had spread far and wide. We’d started getting bookings at some of the swankier clubs in Canterlot by this time and, even cooler, at some super big shot concert halls on Earth as well. I can’t even begin to tell you how rad that was, but then, from what you’ve told us, you were there, so I guess you know how rad it was, right? Well, anyway, one night around two years ago, this odd looking little humanoid guy came into one of the Manehattan clubs we had a gig at. Biggest ears I’d ever seen.”
“Brunt?” Star asked.
“Brunt,” said Vinyl, nodding her head. “So he comes in and everypony is staring at him. Even I slowed down in my spinning for a bit to get a good look at the dude. He waltzes up to the stage and takes a seat at one of the closest tables and watches the rest of the show. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. So what if one of those Alpha Quadrant types wants to rock out at one of our shows? The more the merrier, right?”
Octavia took over the narrative. “After our show, he approached us backstage. He claimed to be scouting talent for a musical act for his bar up on the space station. Well, to make a long story short, we knew nothing of the Ferengi or their reputation at that time. What he proposed to us seemed like a decent enough deal. We knew nothing of gold-pressed latinum at that point either, or the relevant exchange rates between it and bits, which is practically nonexistent, to be quite honest. And on top of that, he’s quite persuasive when he wants to be. So, thanks to our… naiveté, we signed a contract with Mr. Brunt. The rest, as they say, is history. We’re not exclusive to Brunt’s Bar, thank Celestia, but our scheduling according to the contract makes it somewhat difficult to book many shows elsewhere. Now that we’ve renegotiated our payment with Mr. Brunt, we’re in a somewhat better position, but before that…”
Vinyl ground her teeth a bit and spat to the side. “Once we found out what vile little worms these Ferengi really are, that’s when we started doing a little digging into the background of our host. We got a lot of really good dirt on him, some of which Tavi slammed him with today during our little contract renegotiation. Still, all in all, even with today’s pay increase, he still got the way better bargain in the end.”
Star looked back and forth between the two of them. “That’s terrible,” she said. “You guys should fire your agent.”
“You… were paying attention to our story, were you not?” asked Octavia.
Star tilted her head. “What? Of course I was. What do you mean?”
“She’s talking about our ‘naiveté’ again,” said Vinyl, doing a reasonable facsimile of Octavia’s accent. “You see, we didn’t have an agent at the time we met Brunt. We’d just been kinda, you know, winging it, as the pegasi say. And until we met him, we’d been doing pretty well for ourselves without needing one.”
“And now, thanks to our contract with him, Mr. Brunt himself technically is our agent,” added Octavia, the distaste in her voice readily apparent.
Star shook her head, feeling disgusted on their behalf. “Isn’t there anything you guys can do?”
Vinyl shrugged. “Not really, no. About all we can do is to wait out the contract. There’s less than a year left, thank Celestia. Getting that three-year time-limited clause put in was about the only smart thing we did when we were dealing with him. In fact, I bet that’s probably the only reason the little hobgoblin agreed to raise our pay at all, since he has to know we have absolutely zero intention of ever signing with him again once our prison term is up. Despite my bluster back there, we really couldn’t have walked out on the contract. It’s all perfectly legal, by Ferengi, Federation, and Equestrian law. He made sure of that. Honestly, I was kind of hoping that he wouldn’t agree to pay us, just to give us a real reason to leave. Of course, he had no way of knowing for certain that we wouldn’t walk on him, but he also knew that we knew that he’d have us tied up in court forever if we’d tried. But a lawsuit would cost him more money than he’d be willing to spend even if he won, the cheapskate, so I guess he figured it would just be cheaper to give us what we wanted.
“And, most importantly, I think Brunt knows we have other ways to make his life pretty miserable in the last few months we have together, if he hadn’t agreed to our raise. Take the volume, for example. You might have noticed that we were quite a bit more subdued than we normally are at most of our other shows, right? We keep the volume to a reasonable level, given the smaller size of that rat hole Brunt calls a bar compared to our usual gigs, and due to the fact that some humanoids, like your cat-lady friend, can’t really tolerate what we do, even at the lower levels. Brunt, unfortunately for him, is the same, thanks to those absurdly huge ears of his. But there is absolutely nothing in the contract that says we can’t crank the volume all the way up, if we want. But that’s a last resort, honestly. I’d rather not do that to our fans just to get back at Brunt. In any case, take my advice, Star: never, ever try to deal with a Ferengi. You might think you’re getting a good deal, but… look, just don’t do it, okay? At least not for anything more than maybe a drink at the bar, and even then, keep a close eye on your saddlebags. We learned that the hard way. Ferengi are scum.”
The navy blue unicorn nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“And… here we are,” said Octavia. “Home, sweet home.”
Star looked up and noticed that they’d somehow already reached Ponyville proper without her even realizing it, given how she’d been so caught up in their story.
“Listen, Star,” said Vinyl Scratch, reluctantly, “we’d love to invite you in to visit some more, but we have a lot to do to get ready for our next show at the warden’s bar, and we also have a little side project we’re working on, so I’m afraid we wouldn’t be very good hosts.”
Star nodded. “That’s okay. I have… quite a lot I need to take care of myself.”
The gray earth pony gave a polite curtsey and said, “It was nice to meet you, Ensign Strider. Perhaps we’ll see one another again sometime.”
“I look forward to it,” said Star. “Whenever the Pegasus is in the area, I’ll be sure to look you guys up, whether it’s at Brunt’s bar or wherever else you might be. And even if I’m not able to be there in person, I’ll still definitely be buying all the holotapes.”
“See you around, kiddo,” said the white unicorn, as she and Octavia made their way inside their home. “I hope your magic comes back soon. I’ve never had to deal with that myself, but I can imagine how much it totally sucks.” Star nodded and gave a small wave, which Vinyl returned as she closed the door behind her.
Star sighed and looked around, idly dragging her hoof around in the snow for a bit as she got her bearings. She hadn’t been here in several years, but it was definitely still Ponyville, just as she remembered it as a child. Quaint, rustic little houses surrounded her on all sides. It was a bit strange to think that the now world famous (and beyond) duo of DJ Pon-3 and Octavia still lived here, rather than one of the bigger cities like Manehattan or Fillydelphia. And yet, Star herself had always much preferred Ponyville to the larger cities as well, with the only exception being Cloudsdale. Maybe that was why they stayed here. In any case, lacking anywhere in particular that she wanted to be at the moment, Star picked a random direction and started walking.

After aimlessly meandering around for an hour or so, Star began to smell something in the distance, the aroma getting stronger as she got closer to the source. It was very familiar and very delicious. It also reminded her that she hadn’t eaten anything at all yet, given that she’d skipped breakfast and then ended up not even getting a drink at the bar. There were, however, other reasons that caused her to quicken her pace, as well.
She rounded a corner and there it was. Sugarcube Corner still looked like a giant frosting-encrusted cake, exactly as she had remembered it, and it still engendered the same feelings of excitement and anticipation in her as it did whenever her parents brought her here as a small child. She slowed a bit as she approached the doorway, however. Even this reunion made her feel a bit anxious. Having no idea what to expect, Star slowly crossed the threshold and entered the bakery.
“Be with you in just a sec!” called out a familiar voice in response to the ding of the bell over the door as she came through it and approached the counter. After a short wait, a head popped up from underneath the counter. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! So what can I… get… for… …you…?” said the yellow earth pony with the orange mane and tail and the carrot cake cutie mark. His eyes widened in shock and he pushed his cap back a bit with a front hoof. “Star Strider? Is that you?”
Star smiled a bit awkwardly and said, “Yes, Mr. Cake, it’s really me.”
Carrot Cake rushed around from behind the counter to get a better look at her. “My goodness! How long has it been? Five or six years now?”
“Only four,” said Star, trying to hide her shame and embarrassment.
“Four? That’s still way too long,” said Mr. Cake. He raised his voice and called back toward the kitchen area. “Honey bun! Drop whatever you’re doing and come out here! You’ll never guess who just breezed through the door!”
A harried sounding voice originated from somewhere in the depths of the kitchen. “Oooh, is it the Princess? Her cake order won’t be done for several hours at least!”
“No, it’s not Princess Celestia,” said Mr. Cake. “Besides, she’s not making a pick up. We’re bringing it to her, remember? Now come on out here, please!”
A blue earth pony with pink striped mane and equally pink triple cupcake cutie mark stuck her head through the door from the kitchen, acting as though she only had time to take a quick peek before rushing back into the fray, but when she got a look at who was standing next to her husband, all thoughts of baking fled from her mind, at least temporarily. “Oh my dear sweet Celestia, is that who I think it is?” She rushed forward and circled around the unicorn a couple of times.
Star giggled at bit at the over-the-top scrutiny. “Yep, it’s me, Mrs. Cake.”
“My word, how you’ve grown!” said Cup Cake. “Last time I saw you, you were the scrawniest little thing. I was worried they weren’t feeding you anything but clouds up there in Cloudsdale. Truth to tell, you still look a bit on the slim side even now. Are you eating okay? Hold on. Let me go get you something. We just finished baking some cinnamon rolls this morning. Right out of the oven they are. I’m sure we can spare a half dozen or so.”
Star started to protest, but at the mention of food, her stomach had growled rather loudly. Blushing furiously, Star said, “Well… I guess I did skip breakfast this morning.”
“Oh you shouldn’t do that,” said Mr. Cake, as his wife nearly galloped over to the display stands and scooped off several cinnamon rolls onto a plate. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, after all. I’ll go get you a glass of milk to wash it down.”
As the Cakes bustled around her, Star started to wonder how she’d ever been able to leave any of this behind her. It seemed like only yesterday that she’d last been here. After a few minutes of Mrs. Cake acting as mother-by-proxy and leading her over to a seat at one of the tables to eat her late breakfast, the commotion finally died down. The Cakes both sat at the table with her, waiting patiently for her to finish eating. It was a bit awkward having to use her hooves to eat instead of her magic, but… it wasn’t quite as bad as she’d feared it would be. Thankfully, the Cakes didn’t ask her about this, given that it wasn’t anything unusual to them at all, and she didn’t want to worry them unnecessarily by mentioning her magic just now. Even so, she knew they had to have a hundred questions for her. She, after all, had about that many for them herself.
“So…” she said, just after washing down a mouthful of one of the absolutely divine rolls with a swallow of ambrosial milk that Mr. Cake had gotten for her. “Where are Pound and Pumpkin?”
“You’re in luck!” said Mrs. Cake, with a bright smile. “They’re due back from taking a shipment over to Derpy’s delivery service any minute now.”
“Now now, sugar plum,” said Mr. Cake, “you know she prefers to go by Ditzy Doo these days.”
“Oh, that’s right, I keep forgetting,” said Mrs. Cake. “Ditzy Doo Deliveries and all that. She’ll always be Derpy to me, though. How that mare managed to get a spaceship of her very own, I’ll never figure out, but it’s definitely saved us a lot of time over the past couple of years.”
Star’s eyes almost goggled out of her head at this. She’d just taken a big bite of the last cinnamon roll and it was all she could do to keep from spitting it up all over the table. Managing to swallow it, and then stifling a coughing fit with a large swig of milk, she finally got out what she wanted to say. “Wait… what?! Run that by me again. Derpy Hooves has her own spaceship?!”
“Ditzy Doo,” corrected Mr. Cake again. “But yes, that’s right. She bought an old shuttle off of some big-eared alien that was passing through a couple of years ago. It’s this awful, orange, beetle-looking thing, but Ditzy seemed to take a real shine to it for some reason. Honestly, I think that alien was rather shifty, because from what I hear, he charged her a fore and a hind leg, even though the ship was in a terrible condition. Somehow, someway, Ditzy managed to get it working again, though. Don’t ask me how she did it, but she did. Anyway, after she also taught herself to fly the ugly thing, without any help from the alien of course, she and Dinky started running a delivery service all over the world, and often through the portal to the human world as well.”
Star worked her mouth but no sounds came out of it. Derpy (or Ditzy Doo as she apparently preferred to be called now) owned a Ferengi shuttlecraft and was running a spaceborne courier service now. Would wonders never cease? It was no telling how long she would have remained like that, just gaping in silence at the mental image of Derpy (Ditzy!) and her daughter Dinky flying around in a shuttlecraft, if she hadn’t been distracted by the door banging open.
“Mom! Pop! We’re back,” said a deep, masculine voice that at first, for the briefest moment, Star didn’t recognize, since it was rather different from the somewhat higher pitched, slightly stuttering voice that she remembered. When she did, however, she jumped out of her seat and ran toward the source of the voice.
“Oh, it’s so good to see you two again!” said the blue unicorn as she barreled into the two newcomers and wrapped them both in a huge hug.
“Star?!” said a much softer female voice from the other pony that had come through the door. “Is… is that you?!”
“What the hay, girl, where have you been all this time?!” said the male voice.
“Pound Cake, you watch your language!” said Mrs. Cake in mortification. “You’re not yet too old for the soap, you know!”
“Sorry, Mom,” said Pound Cake, attempting to appear appropriately admonished and trying his best not to roll his eyes.
Star released her hold on them and took a couple of steps back to get a better look at them. Pumpkin Cake looked much as Star remembered her, a slender, pretty, yellow unicorn with orange mane, just like her father. Her cutie mark, appropriately enough, was a slice of pumpkin cake. Pound Cake, on the other hand…
“Whoa, you got tall, boy! Well, taller I mean,” said Star, looking him up and down, her eyes going from his head to his pound cake cutie mark. Not only was he tall, he was also huge. He had to be at least as big as Big Macintosh, if not even bigger. Carting baked goods all over Equestria definitely built muscle, it seemed. Even his wings, which he was flexing in excitement, seemed bigger and more powerful looking than she remembered them. His white-golden coat was covered in a light sheen of sweat, and his ordinarily slicked back spiky brown mane was poking out in every direction. There’d been a time during a rebellious phase when Pound Cake wouldn’t have been caught dead delivering pastries for his parents, but apparently his appearance and voice weren’t the only things that had changed over the past four years.
Star felt her heart beginning to race a bit. She had a deep, dark secret that she had only ever confided to one other living pony, and that secret was that she’d always harbored a bit of a crush on Pound Cake. Well, more than just a bit of one, honestly. A gigantic one, in fact. And that was before, back when they’d all just been gangly kids growing up together, but now… Out of the corner of her eye, Star noticed Pumpkin Cake giving her a subtle, but weird look. It almost seemed like… sadness? Pity? What could possibly be prompting that? Why would the one pony who knew how Star felt about her brother be looking at her with commiseration in her eyes?
Mr. Cake said, “Honey bunny, how about we give the kids some space to catch up? We still have that big order for Princess Celestia to fill by the end of the day.”
Mrs. Cake nodded. “Of course, dear. Pound, Pumpkin, we’ll give you the rest of the morning off, but we’re going to need you again this afternoon to help with the delivery for the princess. This is one we can’t delegate to Der- I mean, Ditzy Doo.”
“Sure thing, Mom,” said Pumpkin, as her parents made their way to the kitchen.
“Thanks for the cinnamon rolls, Mrs. Cake,” said Star. “It was good to eat real food again. There are just some things to which replicators can’t possibly compare.” Mrs. Cake beamed and nodded at the unicorn as she and her husband disappeared into the back of the shop.
“What’ve you been up to, girl?” asked Pound, as they took the seats that had just been vacated by their parents. “I really like the uniform, by the way. Pretty snazzy.”
Star blushed a bit at the compliment. She sat back down as well and regarded the twins fondly, eager to share with them what she’d accomplished in the past four years. “I made it through the Academy, and graduated salutatorian from the engineering program. Now I’ve been posted to a starship. Its name is the USS Pegasus, if you can believe that, but despite the funny name, it’s an incredible ship.”
“So what are you doing back here?” asked Pumpkin. At Star’s raised eyebrow, the other unicorn quickly added, “Don’t get me wrong, because it’s absolutely wonderful to see you again after so long. It’s just I figured that, by now, you’d be off having adventures in space with your Starfleet friends.”
Star sighed. “Our very first mission went pretty badly. Terribly, actually. I’m not really at liberty to talk about it in detail, but… well, the ship is in dry dock at Deep Space Twenty for repairs and… I’m here. I… I burned out my magic during the mission, and I’ve been given two weeks leave to recover. Hopefully I won’t need nearly that long, but… well, it’s been about three days now, and it still hasn’t come back yet.” At the twins’ shared wince, Star shook her head and smiled. “But don’t worry about me too much. I’m sure I’ll be okay soon enough. So… how have things been with you guys?”
Pumpkin deliberated for a second or two and then said, “Well, for one thing, Pound has a marefriend.” She said it in a kind of sing-song-y voice as though she were trying to tease her brother, but it was more for Star’s benefit.
“Hey, keep it down, will you?!” said Pound, his face flushing bright red as he jerked his head around to glare at his sister. “I don’t want Mom and Pop to find out just yet. I’m waiting until just the right time to let them know, you know?”
Star felt her heart skip a beat. Well, that certainly explained the look that Pumpkin had been giving her earlier. Pumpkin was watching her carefully and noticed her expression at this unexpected and, to Star, somewhat unwelcome news. Pound, thankfully, was still looking at his sister and didn’t notice it. By the time he’d turned back to Star, she’d managed to regain her composure.
“Well?” said Star, trying to keep a cheerful tone in her voice. “What are you waiting for, boy? Tell me all about her!”
Pound got a sort of blissful look on his face, and said, “She’s wonderful.”
When it seemed as though Pound had nothing more to say on the matter, Pumpkin took up his slack. “Her name is Bubble Squeak, and she’s an exchange student from Trottingham. She’s attending advanced classes at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns in Canterlot, but on the side she’s working as an intern for Ditzy Doo Deliveries. That’s where we met her.”
“And she’s… wonderful,” said Pound again, sighing contentedly.
“Yes, Pound, we’ve established that already,” said Pumpkin, slight annoyance in her voice. She glanced at Star, who simply smiled back at her in return, her real feelings hidden behind a mask of faux cheerfulness, though the blue unicorn was sure the yellow unicorn wasn’t fooled by this in the slightest.
In an attempt to change the subject, Star said, “Okay, I didn’t ask your folks because I didn’t want to risk upsetting them, but… um… I noticed that Pinkie Pie isn’t around. She isn’t still…?”
“Gone?” said Pound, abruptly coming down off of the high that discussing his marefriend had put him in. “Yeah… she’s still gone.”
Star sighed and shook her head. “How long has it been now? Around six years?”
“Six years as of about a month ago, yeah,” said Pumpkin, the sadness evident in her voice. “Just after Hearth’s Warming Day.”
“Gone completely, and to this day nopony knows where she is,” said Pound, sounding more than a little bit bitter. “She just up and left one day, saying she was going to go off and visit other worlds, and she disappeared in that pink flash of light she liked to use and… that’s the last anypony ever saw of her. You’d think with her powers she’d at least be able to pop in from time to time and say hello, but does she? Nope.” He looked at Star, a bit of hardness forming around his eyes. “I’ll be honest with you, Star. I was starting to feel about you the same way I do about Pinkie Pie, but at least with you I knew where you were. I knew you were just over on the other side of the portal. Star, why didn’t you ever come to visit? Why didn’t you at least call or write from time to time?”
Star started to come up with some lame excuse, but then decided she couldn’t do that to them. To him. She lowered her eyes momentarily, feeling tears starting to form in them, and then looked back up at the twins. “Fear, mostly. Fear and shame.”
The eyes of both twins widened at this. “What are you talking about?” asked Pumpkin. “What do you have to be ashamed of?”
Star looked at her in surprise. “Wait… you don’t know?”
“Know what?” asked Pound.
The navy blue unicorn regarded them for a moment in silence. “You mean you didn’t hear about the big blow up I had with my parents just before I left for the Academy? They didn’t tell you, or at least your parents?”
“This, right here, is the first I’ve heard about anything like that,” said Pumpkin, looking at her with surprise of her own. She lowered her voice and added, “Though I might have suspected…”
“Yeah,” said Pound. “I mean, we just saw your parents the other day.”
Star’s mouth dropped. “Really?! You did? How were they? Did they seem happy? Did they… did they say anything about me?”
It was Pumpkin and Pound’s turn to regard her in silence before speaking. “You mean to say you haven’t even talked to your parents in all this time, either?” said Pumpkin slowly. Star just shook her head meekly in response.
“What’s gotten into you, girl?” asked Pound. “Anyway, yeah, your parents still drop by Ponyville from time to time, and they always make it a point to swing by here whenever they do. Our folks asked them how you were doing and they seemed mostly happy, from what I could tell. They’d just say that they hadn’t heard from you in a while, but that you were probably doing okay.”
“They said that they hoped you were doing okay,” corrected Pumpkin. “Unlike Pound here, I’m a bit more observant when it comes to these things. They weren’t happy. That was just a front. I could see it in their eyes, though. Whenever your name came up in conversation, they’d get this faraway look of pain on their faces. They tried to hide it as best as they could, but I could tell. I think Mom and Dad could too, but they never said anything about it. I guess they figured that if your parents really wanted to talk about it, they would.”
Star closed her eyes. A single tear ran down each of her cheeks. “I made a real mess of things when I left. And then, I was too afraid to own up to it, so I just avoided the whole thing altogether. I ignored their calls and I never tried to call them back. And, obviously, I never bothered to come back once I was there, until now. And even now I’m only here because of a freak accident. I kept telling myself I was too busy and that I couldn’t let distractions like that get in the way of my education and my career and… well, you know. Really dumb things like that. I’m such a coward.”
Pumpkin took a deep breath and said, “Okay, Star, I’ll say it again. I’m really glad you’re here and it’s wonderful to see you again, but… well… I’ll ask you again, but more seriously this time. What are you doing here? And by that, I mean here in Ponyville, rather than up in Cloudsdale visiting with your parents?”
Star opened her eyes and said, “I have to be here. Like I said, my magic is burned out completely. Because of that, I am physically incapable of going to Cloudsdale right now. I’d fall through the clouds as soon as I stepped off of the landing pad. There’s somepony I need to see before I can go to Cloudsdale.”
The twins glanced at one another briefly and then turned back to Star. “Twilight Sparkle,” said Pound.
“That’s right,” said the navy blue unicorn. “I need to see my old mentor and get her to cast a cloud walking spell on me. I’m hoping that maybe she can help me with my condition, too. Mind you, I do want to see her for reasons beyond that, but… well… I’m kind of dreading that reunion almost as much as the one with my parents.”
Pumpkin gazed out the window in the general direction of the huge tree that stood in the center of Ponyville. “Um,” she said hesitantly, “I don’t want to alarm you, but… well… Twilight has… changed. A little bit, anyway.” Despite Pumpkin’s words, Star’s eyebrows still shot up in alarm.
“Yeah,” said Pound. “She keeps herself cooped up in the library now practically all the time. Or, more accurately, she stays in that lab under the library. The only one who ever really sees her anymore is Spike, but he’s gotten to point to where he rarely comes out of there anymore either. I think Zecora comes to visit with her occasionally as well, and Twilight leaves to visit with her once in a blue moon, but that’s about it.”
“What about her friends?” asked Star. “Surely they…?”
“They’ve… kind of drifted apart over the years,” said Pumpkin, still gazing out the window. “Rarity still lives in Canterlot, running the branch of Carousel Boutique that she opened there years ago, having left Sweetie Belle to run the Ponyville branch. Rainbow Dash is off in Cloudsdale being co-captain of the Wonderbolts with Scootaloo. Applejack and Fluttershy still live in Ponyville, but they’ve got full plates to deal with in their own ways. With Granny Smith passing away several years ago, and Applejack becoming the matriarch of the local family, she’s had her hooves full. And after Apple Bloom moved to Appleloosa and Big Macintosh got married to Miss Cheerilee and started a family of his own, Applejack has had to hire outside of the family to keep Sweet Apple Acres going. While Big Macintosh does come back to help out fairly frequently… it’s still mostly just been Applejack running things all by herself now. As for Fluttershy, she’s kept very busy working as a veterinarian in that medical facility out on the edge of the Everfree Forest, and I think she’s training on the side to eventually become a full-blown pony doctor too, last I heard.
“All of that was bad enough to keep them from seeing each other as much as they used to, I guess, but then when Pinkie Pie disappeared… well, after that the other five just kind of… parted ways altogether, more or less. I mean, two or three of them might still get together every once in a while, but I don’t think they’ve been together as a whole group since just after Pinkie Pie left, and Twilight herself never joins these get-togethers. A year or two after Pinkie vanished, and around the same time you left for Earth, in fact, was around when Twilight started spending all of her time performing only Celestia knows what sort of magical experiments in her lab. I’m not sure the others are even really aware of what she’s been like lately. I think Applejack and Fluttershy suspect something’s a bit off, but I don’t think they know quite how to handle it.”
Pound Cake watched his sister for a bit and then sighed. “As for what she’s doing, I don’t think even Celestia herself knows what’s been going on down there, to be honest. On more than a couple occasions, at any hour of the day or night, the whole town has been shaken by some terrible explosion that came from the library. Most ponies have been too afraid to confront her about any of it, given that she’s an alicorn princess and all, and can pretty much do as she pleases. Applejack and Fluttershy tried to talk with her about it a couple of times, but Twilight never really explains what’s going on. ‘Oh, I just kept the burner running a bit too long on that bog moss, sulfur, and Tartaros stone concoction I was working on. Nothing to worry about!’ Things like that. I don’t know what she’s trying to do.”
Pumpkin finally turned back to Star. “Rumor has it she’s been trying to find a way to locate Pinkie Pie and bring her home.”
Star twisted her mouth to the side dubiously. “Huh. Not to doubt what Twilight is capable of, because I’ve seen her do some incredible things in the past, but… well, Pinkie Pie is nearly Discord-level in power now. If she doesn’t want to come home, I don’t think even Twilight will be able to bring her back. Or, even worse, if there is something out there that is somehow preventing Pinkie from returning…”
Pound Cake’s eyes widened into saucers. “Sweet Celestia… I… I had never even considered that before. I just always assumed that given how strong she was, if she didn’t come back, it must be because she chose not to come home, but what if that is why Pinkie hasn’t come back? Something is keeping her from returning? Oh man. I… I really hope that’s not the case. But… then again, I’d almost prefer that to be the reason than to think that she hasn’t come back purely by her own choice. I really don’t know what to think, now.”
Star got up from the table. “Well, I know what I need to do now, at least. I need to quit putting this off. I need to go visit Twilight as soon as possible, and for more than just my own concerns.”

“Wow, you guys were right,” said Star, as she and the Cake twins approached the treehouse library in which Twilight Sparkle lived. Star had always found it a little strange, but secretly very cool, that a princess would live in a place like this, rather than a large castle like the other princesses did, but then, Twilight Sparkle wasn’t a typical alicorn princess, after all. However, the current condition of the library filled Star with concern. “It does look rather rundown now. The Twilight I knew never would have let it get like this.” She looked up at the giant tree. The windows were all covered with thick, closed curtains, the windows themselves being caked with dust and grime. Even the leaves of the tree themselves looked dingier than normal, even when taking into account that it was still the middle of winter. All in all, the library had definitely seen better days. And this was just the exterior. Star hoped that it didn’t look as bad on the inside.
“Are you sure about this?” asked Pound. “There’s still time to turn back.”
“Oh, come on, Pound,” said Pumpkin, rolling her eyes. “She’s just going to visit Twilight, not entering a manticore’s lair.” Pumpkin turned to Star. “I hope things go well, though. Maybe you can at least find out what she’s up to, if nothing else.”
“I hope to do more than that,” said Star. “In any case, I guess this is it. Here goes nothing.” She walked up to the front door of the library and knocked on it with a front hoof. A few seconds passed, which turned into a minute, and then two. No answer from within the tree.
“Maybe she’s gone to visit Zecora?” offered Pound Cake.
“Is the door locked?” asked Pumpkin.
Star tried the knob and it turned. The door slowly creaked open, letting them peer into the darkened interior. “Guess not. Well, guys, wish me luck.”
“Good luck,” said the twins together.
“I wish we could come with you,” said Pumpkin, “but we really do have to get back to Sugarcube Corner and help Mom and Dad with Princess Celestia’s huge order.”
Star nodded. “I understand. Don’t worry, I can handle this.” She turned and started through the door, but stopped when she felt a hoof on her shoulder. She turned and noticed Pound standing next to her.
“Star,” he said, “please don’t wait four more years before you come back to visit us again, okay?” He looked at her for moment and then gathered her up in a big hug. The suddenness of it shocked Star briefly, but then she happily returned the hug.
As she embraced the pegasus, Star looked over at his sister, who was a short distance away and giving her a rather regretful look, and then nodded. “I won’t.”
“That’s good enough for me then,” he said, backing away from her and giving her a smile and a wink. “See ya around, girl.”
“See ya, boy,” said Star softly. She watched as they made their way back toward Sugarcube Corner, trying to get her churning emotions under control once more, and then finally turned to regard the open door. Taking a deep breath, she crossed the threshold and went inside.
The interior of the library looked pretty much the same as she remembered it, except quite a bit darker. Not a single light was burning and with the curtains all drawn shut, no sunlight made its way inside either, aside from that which was streaming in through the open doorway. It was rather chilly inside of the library, as well, being not much warmer than it was outside in the winter air, and it was only getting chillier with the door still being open. Despite that, Star was hesitant to close it behind her, because it was currently the only source of light. Star slowly made her way across the room and toward the door that she knew led down to Twilight’s laboratory. She’d made it about halfway across the large room when she caught a sudden movement out of the corner of her eye. She sorely wished she had her magic, because then she could have at least had a bit more light to go by.
“Who’s there?” she asked, not entirely sure whether she should be whispering or screaming. For now, she was erring on the side of the former.
“Who?” came the reply.
“I asked you first,” said Star, somewhat irritably. “Who’s there?”
“Who?” came the same reply again.
Star started to say something else, but then smiled. “Oh,” she said with relief. “It’s just you, Owloysius.”
“Who?” said the voice a third time.
“Very funny,” said the unicorn.
“Yeah, you’d think after so many years, we’d get used to that from him, but he always gets us, doesn’t he?” said a deep, rumbling voice from directly behind Star. The blue unicorn yelped and spun around. Standing less than a foot away from her was a large purple dragon with green spikes along the top of his head and down his back and tail. He still wasn’t fully grown yet, not even close, but he was quite a bit larger than she remembered him being even just four years ago, and he was definitely larger than the cute, chubby baby he had been two decades ago. He was almost as big as Celestia herself now, and his features were a lot more angular than they were before. He regarded her closely and said, “I’m really not supposed to let anypony in here at all, but when I saw who it was, I decided to bend the rules a little. I saw you coming, and unlocked the door. It was all I could do to keep from rushing out the door when I saw you coming, but… Twilight wouldn’t have been too thrilled if I’d left without her say so.”
Star rushed forward and wrapped her forelegs around him. “Spike,” she said. “It’s so good to see you again.”
Spike returned the hug. “I told Twilight you’d be back someday, that you hadn’t abandoned us entirely. Still, you could have written a letter or something at least, you know? We’d have written to you, but my magic only goes to Princess Celestia.”
Star released him and stood back. “Wait… back up a little bit. You said Twilight thinks I… abandoned her?”
The adolescent dragon sighed deeply, his breath causing a faint rumbling sound in his chest. “Well, not at first, no. But, you see… Twilight’s changed a bit since the last time you saw her, Star. She’s become a bit… well… …unhinged, to put it mildly.”
“Yeah, so I’ve heard,” said the unicorn. “What’s going on, Spike?” The dragon gestured to a nearby chair for Star to sit in. After the unicorn made herself comfortable, Spike curled up on the floor in front of her. It was a bit strange to sit in almost total darkness like this, but Star felt uncomfortable turning on a light uninvited, since Spike seemed to have no intention of doing so himself.
Spike took a deep breath before launching into his tale. “Ever since Pinkie Pie disappeared several years ago, Twilight has become more and more obsessed with finding her. It was pretty harmless at first, but she’s gotten more fixated with each passing month. According to Twilight, Pinkie Pie was the keystone that was holding the Bearers of Harmony together, though just barely at that. Even before Pinkie disappeared, we’d all noticed that we were kind of drifting apart. Pinkie was affected most of all, as you might expect. She took it upon herself to be the one who scheduled get-togethers, and she made sure that everypony was there. But after a while, it started to bring even her down. It wasn’t any one thing that was driving us apart. There wasn’t one specific issue that she could fix that would make it all better again. It was just life. That’s all. They all had their own increasingly busy lives to live, and while we would all remain friends, we just weren’t hanging around together like we used to in the old days.
“It was hard for Pinkie to accept. She could have probably done something about it using her powers, but… I think she felt that would have been taking things too far. She may have powers like Discord, but Pinkie Pie is not Discord herself, after all. Eventually, though, it just became too much even for her to try to keep everything together like it was in the old days, and that’s when she decided out of the blue that she was going to go and visit other worlds, or wherever it was she decided to go. She left pretty suddenly, too. She said goodbye to the Cakes, but that was about it. She didn’t say goodbye to any of the rest of us, though. I don’t know why. Before we knew it, she was just… gone. We expected she’d come back soon enough, but… well… she didn’t. The Cakes were the last to see her before she disappeared.
“Before Pinkie left, Twilight hadn’t really thought of it as much of a problem. ‘They’re just busy with their own lives, Pinkie, that’s all. We’re all still friends, though, so don’t worry so much,’ she used to say. But after Pinkie left, Twilight herself started to see things through Pinkie’s eyes. She and her friends really were drifting away from one another, and once Pinkie was gone… that’s was pretty much it. I guess we can be lucky that no crisis requiring the Elements of Harmony has popped up in the past several years, but… this is far more important than just the Elements to Twilight. So, now, she’s sort of adopted Pinkie’s resolve to bring her friends back together, and to do that, she has decided that the first thing she needs to do is to bring Pinkie herself back. And that’s where we are today.”
“Wow,” said Star. “That’s… that’s terrible, Spike. Where is Twilight now? What is she doing?”
Spike gestured with his nose in the direction of the door leading down to the laboratory. “She’s down there, same as she always is these days. She’s working on yet another spell that she hopes will let her at least locate Pinkie Pie, if not actually bring her back. At this point, she’s just hoping that if she can merely find out where Pinkie is, maybe she can convince a Starfleet ship to take her to wherever that may be, if possible, and assuming that Pinkie doesn’t just flit away before she can get there, of course. But first, she has to find the right spell. Maybe this one will actually work, for a change.” Spike didn’t sound very hopeful at all. When Star made as if to get up out of the chair, the dragon whipped his head back in her direction and said, “Hold on, now. I can’t just let you go down there and bother her right now. She’d have my hide. It’s bad enough that I let you in this far. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure what Twilight will do if she-”
The dragon was interrupted when a massive explosion rocked the treehouse library to its very roots. Smoke began billowing out from underneath the door leading down to the laboratory. Spike rolled his eyes and muttered, “Ugh, not again. It took me an entire week to get the stench out the last time.”
It was all Star could do to keep from bolting from the chair and rushing down the stairs to find out what was going on. The only thing keeping her in her seat was the sound of heavy hoofsteps clomping up the stairs, getting louder by the second. At the sound, Owloysius took flight and exited through the still open front door. Star briefly wondered if he knew something that she didn’t, but she didn’t have much time to ponder this, because the door from the lab suddenly smashed open and… something came through it. It took Star a bit to recognize what it was, especially in the low light.
Twilight Sparkle stood at the top of the stairs, covered head to hoof in soot and ash. Her horn was glowing, casting her blackened face in an eerie, otherworldly purple light in the darkness. It gave Star the creeps something fierce. Twilight was glaring angrily around the room. When she spotted Spike and the other pony sitting in the chair next to him, her eyes narrowed and her wings extended. As her wings moved, an unintended (Star hoped) effect was that the soot and ash swirled around her, making it all the creepier. Her voice like an ominous storm front, she growled out, “Spike! I thought I told you explicitly that nopony was to be allowed in here!”
“But Twi-” began Spike, but Twilight cut him off.
“NOPONY!” shouted the purple alicorn. “I told you I needed absolute clarity for this spell to work. That’s why all the lights are off, or had you forgotten? Why is the front door open? It’s bad enough with all the other ponies in town muddying the ethereal waters, but to have another pony this close just ruined everything!”
“Twilight, you-” Spike started again.
“ENOUGH!” she thundered. “Now then, who is it that was so important that you would ignore my explicit instructions?! Hmm? Who is this pony who has absolutely ruined days of preparations?!” She fixed her gaze on Star and started marching toward her. Star felt herself shrinking down in the chair. She had never seen Twilight Sparkle this angry before, and it absolutely terrified her.
When the purple alicorn reached the chair, she stared down at the intruder. At first, Twilight’s features remained enraged, but then a flash of recognition washed over her. The anger in her eyes began to war with something else that was welling up from deep within her. Finally, her mouth went slack and her narrowed eyes opened wide.
“S-Star? Is that… is that really you?” said Twilight Sparkle.