The Conquest of Space

by Marcus Centurian

The Prime Directive

The Conquest of Space: The Saga of Dawn Sparkle

Chapter 4: The Prime Directive

I awoke to sunshine and birds chirping. I slowly opened my eyes and gazed upon a green field, a small grove of trees, a bunch of nice little flowers and a small family of bunnies hopping by. “You’re awake, eh?”

“Honeycrisp?”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

“Where am I?”

“In the core room on board the Magic.”

“How did I get here?

“We signed up for service in the Equestrian Space Command fleet and after years at the ESC academy we earned a position aboard the starship Magic. I’d hope your temporary amnesia would allow you to remember that.”

I faltered for a second before answering, “…I know that part. I mean from my, dare I say, epic teleport to the Saber, how am here in the Magic’s core room?”

“Right. Well, Joe handled the rest of the diplomacy and returned you to the Magic to rebuild your arcana.”

“And what of the Avians and Captain Swift?”

“It turns out that the Avians are also here to study the nebula, but it seems like some cultural exchange is also in order due to our...presence. In fact, Captain Swift of Thought is on board the Magic.”

“Ah! I’m being a bad host and not showing her my baby!”

“You’re pregnant?”

“What?” I paused for a second letting my thoughts catch up to my mouth, “I’m not pregnant. What made you think that?”

“You said that you were going to show Ms. Swift your baby. I just put two and two together and got…”

“Twenty-two. I was talking about the ship.”

“You think the ship is your offspring? Your psychological state is worse than I feared.”

“Are you trying to add psychologist to your list of duties on this ship?”

“Maybe. I could use more titles after my name. I wonder how many bits it would cost to engrave that plaque on my desk….”

I snarked back, “Honeycrisp Apple: Medical Doctor, Psychologist and Love Doctor.”

“Oh. I forgot about being a love doctor. I think I’ll need a bigger desk, eh?”

“Which will require a bigger office. Which requires a larger ship.”

“Which demands a bigger ego.”

“Now who has the psychological problem?”

We just stared at each other before letting out a good natured laugh that lasted for a few minutes.

“You’re medically fine. Captain Swift wanted to meet with you in the boardroom with your officers when it’s convenient.”

“Thanks Honeycrisp.”

“Anytime, dear.”
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I decided that I needed to contact the ESC command to let them know we ran into a group of friendly aliens before formally meeting with Captain Swift of Thought and her officers. I trotted on to the bridge to the sound of a few cheers and nods, no doubt due to my teleport earlier.

“Nice ship, Ms. Sparkle.”

“Yours is nice too, Ms. Thought.”

“You haven’t been on it yet.”

“I hope to do so before we part ways.”

“I’d expect nothing less.”

After my exchange with Captain Swift, who was engaging in an excited conversation with Stardust, I trotted up to the commutation console and told the pony there to patch me through to the ESC command.

“I can’t get them, ma’am. They are too far away, but the Friendship is in range.”

I grumbled. If I had to talk to the Friendship, I had to talk to Cream Pie, her captain.

I sighed, “Patch me through.”

“Hello Dawn Sparkle. Pleasure seeing you,” she said in the blandest monotone.

I responded in the most friendly voice I could manage, “You too, Cream.”

Cream Pie, the youngest of the Pie sisters and the littlest sister of the infamous Pinkie Pie, is the captain of the HMS Friendship, the pride of the Equestrian fleet. We were classmates at the ESCA and fast friends and friendly rivals. We competed at almost everything: academics, athletics, lunch, you name it. We both graduated at the top of our class, her valedictorian, me salutatorian. She was granted her command first due to her higher standing and she got the Friendship, the first ship ever launched by Equestrians.

But therein lies the problem. The Friendship is a much larger ship than the Magic, harboring a full four acres of Equestria within and having a compliment of a hundred and eighty or so. The large size and special facilities dictate the Friendship’s purpose and primary focus which is on terraforming and colonizing nearby planets. This leads to boring orders like, ‘Orbit planet X and send teams down to its surface to investigate if its inhabitable by ponies,’ which are carried out for weeks or months at a time.

Although Cream has been a robot stand-in as long as I’ve known her, I get the feeling that she is a might bit jealous. Granted, it is nearly impossible to tell due to her utter lack of emotion and lack of inflection in her voice. That being said, some emotion can be seen in subtle ways, but you really have to look for them to see them: a gleam in her eye, the glimmer of a smile or maybe the slightest inflection in her voice.

“How’s the Magic? Still in one piece I see.”

“I wasn’t so sure for a minute there. Discord decided to pay us a visit mid-teleport.”

“Wow. Someponies get all the excitement. I suppose you have a reason to call me up, it’s not like I have a thousand other things to do.”

“We have established First Contact.”

“First Contact?”

“Yeah. As in we met a group of aliens and they are friendly.”

I heard the slightest hint of a sigh, “That’s really amazing. What are they like?”

“Actually, there’s one here on my bridge. I’ll ask her to come over.”

I called over to Captain Swift with a gesture of my hoof, “This is Captain Swift of Thought of the Avian ship the Saber.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Cream responded.

“The pleasure is all mine, Ms. Pie. You and all your fellow Equestrians are utterly fascinating!” Swift commented.

“I’m glad to meet you. It would seem that my supervisor wants a word.”

“Supervisor?” I asked, dumbfounded. To the best of my knowledge, all of our supervisors were back in Equestria or orbiting it.

Princess Luna, herself, came on the commlink or rather at it. The screen only showed her blue undulating mane. I heard Cream mutter something like, “You’re too close, princess,” then a few seconds elapsed before Luna backed away from the camera and said in the Royal Canterlot Voice,

“HOW ARE YOU DOING DAWN? I HAVEN’T SEEN YOU FOR A WHILE.”

“I’m doing fine princess,” I managed to squeak out as me ears tried to recover.

“THIS MUST BE THE NEW CREATURE I’VE HEARD ABOUT? HOW ARE YOU?”

“Deaf and pleased to make your acquaintance,” Swift responded.

“HUZZAH! I MUST MEET YOU IN PONY. I’LL BE THERE ON THE MAGIC AS FAST AS STARDUST CAN CARRY ME. I FARE THEE WELL.”

The princess then dematerialized into a blue streak of stardust and blew off screen.

After my ears recovered I addressed Cream Pie, “So, Cream. When were you going to tell me you had the princess aboard?”

“As soon as you indicated the reason you called. It would seem that alien presence trumps a princess’s presence.”

“Don’t take it like that. You’ll get your chance soon enough.”

“Not soon enough,” she said with the slightest twinge of anger and disappointment in her voice.

“Could you let ESC central know of our meeting with the Avians?”

“Yes, I will. Goodbye Dawn.”

The commlink clicked off. Swift then asked me, “Is Cream Pie always that…. emotionless?”

“Ever since I’ve known her,” I said with a sigh.

“And is the princess always that…loud?”

“Not all the time. That was the classic ‘Royal Canterlot Voice.”

“So she has a lower voice setting?”

“Yes.”

“She’s one of your immortal rulers and goddesses?”

“Yes.”

“Fascinating.”
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An hour later saw me and my senior officers in the Magic’s boardroom with Swift and her senior officers. The conditions were a bit tight, but reasonably comfortable, even for our tall guests.

“This ship of yours is fascinating! Many things, especially your source of power are found nowhere else in the galaxy, or at least that I know of. Avian engineering could benefit from a thing or two learned here,” Captain Swift lauded.

“I haven’t seen much of your ship, but from my engineer and science officer here, it sounds like you could have much to teach us as well,” I responded.

“That brings me to my next point. From my understanding, it would seem that pegisi have the ability to manipulate weather, earth ponies have a knack for growing plant life and unicorns have inherent magic.”

“This is true. Don’t Avians have unique abilities?”

“Not to this degree. These powers are unique. As in, no other race I’ve met has these sort of abilities or to this degree.”

“Well, Equestrians are special, I guess.”

“What I’d like to propose is an alliance of sorts. Ponies could be very useful across the galaxy as all other planets have rouge weather that handles itself, plants that refuse to germinate and a need for specialized magic constructs. If Equestrians were interested, we could establish contracts to work in nearby systems for both of our race’s profits.”

I thought for a long minute before responding, “Your proposal is…interesting. But several problems remain. First is that the princesses have dominion over the ponies of Equestria and they would make or break such a deal. I’m just an envoy of friendship. The second is that the general population doesn’t know about aliens and I’m not sure how they’ll respond.”

At that moment, the princess of the night decided to materialize in the already cramped boardroom. As she became physical, I could almost feel waves of anger flow off of her. I was fearful; being around the mercurial princess made me wary of her temper. However, I failed to understand the source of her ire until she spoke,

“HOW DARE YOU? MY SUBJECTS ARE NOT PAWNS!”

“Princess Luna, can we talk about this like civilized beings?” I pleaded.

“DAWN SPARKLE, THERE IS NOTHING LEFT TO DISCUSS. IT SEEMS LIKE OUR NEW FOUND FRIENDS HAVE ONLY BITS ON THEIR BRAIN.”

“But both of our races can profit…” Swift repeated, visibly shaken from Luna’s outburst.

“YOU SEE? I MUST PURGE THIS DISCUSTING BEING FROM THE GALAXY. PREPARE YOURSELF FOR REMOVAL.”

Luna began to charge her horn. As quick as thought, I jumped up from my seat to intercept the bolt aimed for Captain Swift. Time seemed to slow down as a blinding flash engulfed the room. I braced for the impact of a spell that never came as I hit the ground behind the Avian commander.

The room was silent for a minute as I came to me hooves and all eyes stared between me, Swift of Thought and the immortal princess. Princess Luna was the first to speak,

“I was too quick to judge you. There are some of my little ponies who value profit and still have the magic of friendship in their hearts. It is not my duty or right to remove that which I find distasteful, for that is the path that lead me to become Nightmare Moon.” She paused for a second, “So Captain Swift of Thought, Captain of the Saber, and CEO of Avian Avionics, please accept my apology and my hoof in friendship.”

Captain Swift was taken aback for a minute before she shook the princess’s hoof with her claw, then proceeded to hoofbump it.

Luna smiled at the hoofbump, then she frowned, “Now about your proposal….”

Swift piped up, “I’ll retract it. It seems silly anyways.”

Luna responded, “Now that I think about it, it may yet work, but I need to talk to my counterpart, Celestia before I just go making a decision as monumental as this. Dawn is also right that even if this works, we don’t know if the pony on the street is interested. However, I would like to propose a more serious alliance than yours between the Avians and Equestrians. I propose full cultural, scientific and technological exchange between our races plus… lucrative, exclusive contracts for Avian and Equestrian merchants when dealing with other planets, should that part of the deal go through.”

Swift squeed with delight, “That is an even better plan than mine! This will lead to the betterment of all!”

“Furthermore,” Luna continued, “I would like to declare that from this day forth the primary mission, the Prime Directive if you will, of the Equestrian Space Command shall be to spread the magic of friendship not only to our fellow ponies but to all races.”

Everypony and everybird in the room cheered at the proposal and declaration. I was particularly glad we were able to placate the princess and Swift of Thought and, for the second time today, I wasn’t dead due to something rash I did.

Comments

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Luna seems way to wish wash. Maybe get rid of the threat part