Pilot Episode - Part 4
It didn’t take them long to find Rainbow Dash. Along with several other Wonderbolts, including Scootaloo, the blue pegasus with the rainbow colored mane was running drills at one of the training facilities in the center of Cloudsdale. At first, none of the Wonderbolts noticed the visiting ponies far below, but Scootaloo soon caught sight of them, nudging Dash to get her attention as well. A few seconds later, Rainbow dropped down and landed on the clouds in front of the group.
“Whoa. I thought I was just seeing things at first,” said Rainbow, as she raised her goggles and unzipped the headgear, letting it drop down her back, “but you guys really are all here. I don’t think we’ve all been together like this since… since Pinkie Pie...” She sighed and looked down at the cloud she was standing on. “I’m sorry, guys. Haven’t been talking for ten seconds yet and I’m already killing the mood.” She looked up again and forced a smile. “So… what’s up? What brings you all to Cloudsdale? It must be something pretty epic to get you all up here like this, right?”
“It’s Pinkie Pie, actually,” said Twilight.
“What?!” said Rainbow, her eyes widening as she started whipping her head back and forth between all of the gathered ponies. “Is she back?! Where is she? Why isn’t she here with-”
“Whoa there, nelly,” said Applejack. “We still don’t know where Pinkie is yet, but that’s why we’ve come to get ya. Twilight has a notion on how to get her back.”
“We want to use the Elements to find her,” said Fluttershy. “So we’ll need your help, Rainbow Dash.”
“Yes, we’ll be going back to Canterlot soon,” said Rarity. “Though there’s no need to rush back on my account, mind you.” This got her a raised eyebrow from Dash and some eye rolling from the others. “I’ll explain later,” muttered the unicorn.
Rainbow Dash looked back and forth between her friends and said, “So this is some Elements of Harmony business, huh? Well, of course you can count on your friendly neighborhood Rainbow Dash for that, especially since it’s for Pinkie Pie.” She looked up at Scootaloo and cupped a hoof to her mouth. “Hey, Scootaloo, you can handle training all these tiny foals by yourself, right? Looks like I’m going to be taking a little trip for a day or two.”
“No problem,” replied the orange pegasus. “I got it covered. I might even have them eating solid food by the time you get back.” Several of the Wonderbolt trainees shook their heads and some who’d raised their goggles during the lull in activity could be seen rolling their eyes, a few of them smirking as well. They took the ribbing in stride.
“That’s what I like to hear, Scoots!” Dash nodded and turned back to her friends, lowering her voice again. “Well that takes care of that. So when do we leave? Aside from whatever’s eating Rarity, I figure the sooner the better, right?”
“Actually,” said Twilight, turning in Star’s direction, “there’s something else we should take care of before we leave Cloudsdale.”
While the rest of the group were talking to Rainbow Dash, Star had moved a short distance away from them and was now standing alone and facing in what she knew to be the general direction of her parents’ home. The expression on her face was entirely inscrutable.
Rainbow Dash looked at the younger pony with a bit of surprise, as she hadn’t really noticed Star’s presence until now. She opened her mouth to greet the young unicorn, but then stopped, as though considering something. Then she turned to her friends and said in a hushed whisper, “Girls… would you mind if I had a word with Star in private for a moment?”
“Not at all,” said Twilight, lowering her voice in kind. “I think she might have wanted to talk to you first anyway. We’ll just be over here watching the Wonderbolts practice.” She and the other three ponies moved away and out of earshot.
Rainbow slowly walked up behind Star. “Hey, kid. Been a while.”
Star flinched slightly, but otherwise didn’t react. “Hey,” was all she said in response to the pegasus.
“Quite a while, actually,” said Rainbow, keeping her voice even. “Four years, right? That’s a pretty long while, wouldn’t you say?”
“Too long, I’d say,” said Star, not able to bring herself to look at the pegasus.
“I know what happened between you and your parents,” said Rainbow.
This got Star’s full attention, finally. She turned to look at the pegasus. “Y-you do? I’m surprised they told you, given they didn’t tell anypony else, even Twilight.”
Rainbow shook her head. “Well, I kind of had to drag it out of your dad. He was acting like nothing had happened at first, like everything was perfectly fine, but I could tell. You don’t train together with a pony for that many years without getting a feel for how they think, you know. Still, I could never get all of the details out of him. He just said that before you left, the three of you had an argument. That’s all I know… but… it must have been pretty bad. I don’t think your dad was quite so depressed even after… after the accident. And it kept you away for a whole four years, so it must have been bad. Star, what happened? Please tell me.”
Star looked at the blue pegasus for a long while, saying nothing. Then, finally, she said, “All right. I’ll tell you everything, but only if you promise to go with me when I visit my parents. That is… if you can still stand to look at me afterward.”
Rainbow nodded her head and smiled. “I promise I’ll go with you. I don’t care how bad it was, Star. All I know is that your parents miss you terribly. They… your dad… well… I don’t think it’s my place to say, actually. You’ll have to hear it straight from them. Now go on, I still want to hear what happened.”
Star took a deep breath and then let herself be enveloped in painful memories.
Star Trek: Pegasus
“Pilot Episode – Part 4”
By Kane Magus
Fifteen year old Star Strider was absolutely livid. It was the same old argument every time the subject came up. She’d always eventually backed down and let the matter drop in the past, but not this time. Circumstances were different this time.
“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times,” Storm Strider yelled at her. “I will NOT allow my little girl to go off and join Starfleet. Why do you keep bringing this up, Star? I’m never going to change my mind on this issue. You should know that by now. You are not joining Starfleet!”
“And why not, dad?!” said Star, angrily. “This is only MY LIFE we’re talking about here! Why can’t I do as I wish? Please, give me one reason why I shouldn’t be allowed to go to Starfleet Academy. A GOOD one, that is. Not just ‘because I say so.’ I think I deserve at least that much if you’re going to stomp all over my dreams.”
Storm was at a loss for words. Star watched him for a bit, then harrumphed and left the room. Storm grew ever angrier as he followed her. “We’re not finished, Star! You don’t just turn your back and leave in the middle of a conversation with me!”
“This isn’t a conversation, dad!” shouted Star, wheeling around to face him again. “This is you trying to dictate to me how I should live my life. I’ve done everything you’ve ever asked of me. I even learned that cloud walking spell from Twilight Sparkle so that we could move here to Cloudsdale, even though I would much rather have stayed in Ponyville.”
That stung Storm. “You… but I… I thought you loved Cloudsdale.”
Star stared hard at her father. She did love Cloudsdale, at least once she’d had a chance to get used to it and accept the fact that they no longer lived in the place where she’d grown up. But right now, she’d be damned before she’d give her father the satisfaction of knowing that. It was petty, sure, but it kind of felt good, in a perverse way.
“My point,” said Star, veering away from the subject of Cloudsdale, “is that until now, I’ve been ever the good little filly, always doing as she’s told, for the most part. But now, when there’s finally something that I want, and I want this more than anything, dad, you straight up refuse to even consider it! Why?! Really, I want to know why.”
Storm stared back at her, but then shook his head furiously. “I worry about you, Star! You know that! I’ve always worried about you. And now, you want to do something extremely dangerous and foolish like run off and get yourself killed in space on some cold, gray starship! I won’t let that happen to my baby girl! I won’t!”
For the briefest of instances, Star’s rage started to break. For the slightest of moments, she saw herself through her father’s eyes and understood. But then, her anger redoubled. Her voice dropped to an icy monotone. “You have that little faith in me? You think I can’t hack it? You just don’t think I have what it takes, do you?”
“It has nothing to do with that, Star!” said her father. “It’s just that-”
“No, I get it now. You’re just jealous, aren’t you?” interrupted Star. “You see me on the verge of living out my dream, and it just tears you all up inside, doesn’t it? Your dreams were shattered years ago, at the same time as your back, and now you just want to keep me from achieving mine!” As soon as these thoughtless words had left Star’s mouth, she immediately wished that she could call them back. The painful expression on her dad’s face nearly broke her… but she couldn’t back down now.
“How DARE you speak to your father like that!” said the voice of Star’s mother from directly behind her. Both Star and Storm Strider flinched, because neither of them had realized she was there until now. Star spun around and faced her mother.
Cloud Seed’s wings were both fully extended in anger as she advanced on her daughter, who backed away fearfully. “Your father is just looking out for your well being, and this is how you treat him?!” she snapped. “I’ve never seen such despicable behavior out of you before now. You apologize to him this instant, young lady!”
It was bad enough arguing with her father, but arguing with her mother was an entirely different ballgame altogether. Her mother was the disciplinarian between the two of her parents, and this was usually the point where Star meekly backed down, mumbled an apology, and then slunk off to her room to await whatever punishment might be coming. But she couldn’t back down. Not this time. Too much was at stake.
“I won’t,” said Star, almost too softly to be heard.
“What did you say?!” said her mother ominously.
“I said I will NOT apologize,” said Star, doing something she’d never quite had the courage to do before today: raise her voice to her mother.
“What has gotten into you, Star?” said her father, his anger ebbing and being replaced with apprehension. He, too, could tell that something was different this time.
“I don’t CARE what has gotten into her,” said Cloud Seed. “I will not have my own daughter speak to me or to you in this fashion. Go to your room right now, Star. I’ll be up later when I’ve cooled down and had time to come up with a suitable punishment.”
“No,” said Star. “I won’t. You’re just the same as him. You’re just jealous because I’m on the cusp of achieving the one thing I’ve been striving toward for over six years now.” Cloud started to sputter out something else, but Star cut her off. “Don’t even pretend to deny it. I’ve heard the two of you talking. You could have been a Wonderbolt yourself, mother. But you didn’t pursue it. Instead, you just became a lame old weather pony just like pretty much every other pegasus in Cloudsdale. Just because you were too afraid to pursue your dreams, doesn’t mean I’m going to be like that.”
Silence fell in the wake of this. Cloud Seed was seething and Storm Strider was looking back and forth between his wife and his daughter, wishing he could turn back the clock and stop this argument before it had ever started. For her part, Star somehow managed to keep staring her mother in the eye, though she wanted little more than to turn tail and flee.
“How dare you,” said Cloud, her voice dropping to a near whisper. “It’s called sacrifice, Star. Somepony had to stay home and take care of you. If we’d both been off training for the Wonderbolts, who would have done that? Yes, it’s true that I considered trying out for the Wonderbolts in the past. It’s one of the things that drew your father and me together in the first place even as kids. And, sure, if you’d been born a pegasus, things might have been different, but…” Cloud Seed’s eyes widened as she realized what she was saying, but it was too late to retract it now.
Star was stunned. “Wow. All these years,” she muttered, as tears started to stream down her face. “My entire life… you… you’ve been disappointed in me because I was born a unicorn rather than a pegasus, haven’t you? I… I can’t believe I’m hearing this… and yet… it all makes sense now. I forced you to move to Ponyville when I was born, because otherwise I would have fallen through the clouds since I was a unicorn rather than a pegasus. But you’d much rather have stayed here in Cloudsdale. If I’d been a pegasus, you would have been able to. And you didn’t spare a single minute getting back up here when the opportunity presented itself again, did you? No. Well… maybe… maybe you should have just let me wander off as a foal and fall through the clouds. That would have solved everything, right? Then there would have been nothing to stop you from pursuing your dream of being a Wonderbolt with dad.”
“Please don’t say such horrible things, little bug,” said Storm Strider. “It doesn’t matter that you were born a unicorn instead of a pegasus. Not in the slightest bit! We both still love you dearly, no matter what!” He was nearly in tears himself by this point. He wanted nothing more than to gather up his family in a big hug and just forget the whole thing, but he knew that was no longer really an option at this point.
“Look at my cutie mark, Star,” said Cloud Seed. Her voice was almost inaudible it was so low. “What do you see? Being a weather pony is my dream. I knew that even before you were born, believe it or not. It is what I’m best at. It is what I love doing. Any talk you may have overheard about me wanting to be a Wonderbolt in the past was nothing more than idle fancy. At this point, I wouldn’t give up my job even if Rainbow Dash herself came here this very minute and begged me to join the Wonderbolts. Aside from Storm and you, Star, this is my life. And I wouldn’t change that for anything.”
Star glanced at her mom’s flank and then said, “You want me to look at your cutie mark, as if that that explains everything. Well, mother, you need to look at my cutie mark. What do you see? This is my dream. I am going to be a Starfleet engineer.”
Cloud narrowed her eyes and decided it was time to put her hoof down and end this foolishness, once and for all. “Not while you live under this roof, you won’t,” she said, in a tone that indicated she would tolerate absolutely no further disobedience. Cloud expected this would be enough to quash this little rebellion on Star’s part, and return things to something resembling normal. Sure, Star would be angry for a while, but Cloud knew she would get over it eventually. She couldn’t have begun to fathom just how wrong she really was.
Star smiled viciously. In a morbid sort of way, she’d been waiting for one of them to say something just like that. She’d been hoping that it wouldn’t come to this, but now that it had, it was time to drop the bombshell. “You’re right,” she said, fully in agreement with her mother. “Not while I live under this roof, I won’t.”
“What…?” said her mother, caught completely off guard.
Star started backing slowly toward the door leading outside. “There’s something you should know, before I leave this house forever. I’ve already applied to Starfleet Academy. I’ve taken and passed all of the entrance exams months ago. Ambassador Jean-Luc Picard himself sponsored my entry, at the recommendation of Princess Twilight Sparkle. My first semester isn’t supposed to start for another month, and I was hoping that in that time I would be able to finally convince the two of you that this is what I really wanted, and have you finally give me your blessing, but as we all can see, that’s never going to happen, is it? Well, I’ve already made arrangements to have my things moved via transporter directly from my room to the shuttlecraft that will be taking me to Earth. I’ve already packed, just on the chance that this very thing happened, though I sorely wish it hadn’t. I only have to give the word. And, so, with that said, I see absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t just go ahead and move out RIGHT NOW!” She was standing with her back to the door at this point. With an excessive jolt of telekinesis, she worked the handle of the door and smashed it open behind her. She looked at her parents one last time and said, “Good bye, mother. Good bye, father.” And then she wheeled around and fled through the door at full gallop. As soon as she was past the threshold, she used her magic to slam the door back in the face of her mother, who had been moving to try to stop her, and then locked it behind her on top of that. She knew it wouldn’t hinder them for long, but by the time they did get the door unlocked and opened again, Star would already be long gone.
“Wait, little bug! Come back! Please!” she heard her father’s muffled voice calling out to her from behind the door. The tone of it broke her heart, but she wasn’t about to turn back now. With copious tears still streaming down her face, she made her way toward the Federation shuttlebay that had been built in Cloudsdale in the time before her family had moved back from Ponyville.
By the time she’d reached the shuttlebay, however, she was all business. It took no time for her to get her affairs in order. She gave the transporter operator the coordinates to her luggage, which had been tagged with transponders precisely for this purpose. Seconds later it was sitting on the ground next to her. As soon as a shuttlecraft was cleared, which only took a few minutes, the luggage was then transported a second time onto the shuttle. And then, she was off. As the shuttlecraft launched and circled back toward the portal to Earth, Star gave one last look at her former home. Her heart felt heavy as it sank in that she most likely wouldn’t be seeing it again for a very long while… if ever.
Nineteen year old Star Strider stood on shaky legs as she finished telling her story to Rainbow Dash. Finally, she just couldn’t take it anymore, and sank down to her belly, resting her head between her front pair of knees. She felt the soft wing of the pegasus wrapping itself around her and also heard the distinctive sound of hooves on cloud surface as the other four ponies approached and then surrounded the two of them.
“What’s goin’ on?” asked Applejack. “Are ya all right, Star?” It was at this point that Star recalled that only Twilight and, now, Rainbow knew her story, and even with Twilight she hadn’t gone into full detail as she had with Rainbow. And so, as she continued to lie on the cloud top, she gave them an abbreviated version of the full account she’d just given to Rainbow Dash.
“Oh Star,” said Fluttershy, adding her own wing to that of Rainbow Dash. “That’s… that’s terrible. I’m so sorry.”
“Yes,” agreed Star. “It is. And so am I. To be honest, you guys hugging me up like this… well… it actually kind of makes me feel even worse. I don’t deserve it.”
“Nonsense,” said Rarity. “As another pony who was, at one point, not entirely on the best of terms with her own parents, I have an inkling of what you’re feeling now. And I agree with Twilight and Rainbow in that you definitely need to see your parents as soon as possible. Trust me, once you mend this bridge, you will feel worlds better.”
“That’s what Dr. Marie said, too,” said Star, looking up at the white unicorn.
“Then this Dr. Marie must be a wise individual indeed,” said Rarity with a wink.
Applejack toed at the cloud with one of her front hooves and said, “At least ya have a chance to speak with yer folks again, for good or bad. I’d give almost anything to have such a chance as that again. I’m just glad me and my own folks weren’t on poor terms when… when… well, ya know. If we had been, and then I never got to speak to ‘em again, I… I don’t know what I would’ve done.”
Applejack’s words put things into perspective for Star. Even the remotest possibility of never seeing her parents again, of never having the chance to say how sorry she was, it tore at her insides. She then seriously considered, for the first time, exactly how it would have been for her parents if she had indeed been killed four days ago… if her mother or father had answered a knock at their door to be greeted by a grim-faced Starfleet officer with news of her death… That galvanized her into action. She stood up (which was slightly difficult with two different pegasi covering her with their wings) and looked in the general direction of her former home. Then she walked over and nuzzled Applejack. “Thanks,” she said. “And… I’m sorry.”
Applejack stiffened for a brief moment, and then returned the nuzzling. “It ain’t nothin’, sugar cube,” she said. “Now c’mon, let’s get ya to yer parents.”
“And remember,” said Twilight Sparkle. “We’ll all be right behind you, every step of the way.”
As the group of six ponies approached the door to the home of Star’s parents, Star slowed to a stop and turned to face Twilight and the others. “Actually, you guys,” she said, “while I do really appreciate you coming along with me, I’ve given it some more thought on the way over here and… well, I think I need to handle this on my own, without using you all as a crutch.”
“I completely understand,” said Twilight. “Still, we’ll be out here if you do need us, even so.”
The other five ponies watched as the young unicorn made her way nervously to the door. They ducked out of sight as Star reached up with a hoof and hesitantly tapped on the door. They collectively held their breath as the door finally opened and Star came face to face with her mother for the first time in four years.
“What’re they sayin’?” whispered Applejack after a moment or two of trying to eavesdrop. “I can’t hear ‘em at all.”
“Nor can I, if you keep talking,” hissed Rarity irritably.
“Could ya hear ‘em before?” asked Applejack, turning her head toward Rarity.
“Well… no, but…” said Rarity.
“Aw, that’s so sweet…” Fluttershy gushed, causing both Rarity and Applejack to whip their heads back around toward the door. They caught the tail end of a massive hug between Star and her mother, and then the two ponies disappeared inside the house.
“Well, that was certainly a promising start, at least,” noted Twilight.
“I’ll say,” said Rainbow Dash. “I really hope things work out between them.”
A few moments passed, and then Rarity said, “So… what do we do now?”
“I say we wait for Star,” said Fluttershy. “She might need us again soon.”
“This might take a while, though, you guys,” said Applejack. “So we’d better get comfortable. It’s still the middle of winter, after all. We might be above the clouds and the snow, but it’s still cold. How ‘bout I go get us some coffee while we wait?”
Star tapped on the door and held her breath. Her thoughts were racing at warp ten as she waited for something to happen. Would they forgive her? Would they yell at her? Were they even at home in the first place? What if they…? All thoughts fled from her mind as the door creaked open and her mother stood there before her.
Cloud Seed looked at her daughter, whom she had not seen or heard from at all for over four years. She blinked once, and then twice more in rapid succession. Her eyes flicked down to the Starfleet uniform and then back up to the unicorn’s face again. Finally, she opened her mouth and Star braced herself for whatever might be about to come out of it.
“You seem to have gotten a bit taller,” her mother noted clinically.
Star looked at her mother blankly. That certainly wasn’t what she’d been expecting, at all. “I… guess I have,” she said. “I hadn’t really noticed.”
Her mother continued to study her face, seeming as though she were merely watching the clouds roll by or something similarly mundane. But then Star noticed her mother’s lips beginning to tremble. And then she noticed the wetness on her mother’s face below her eyes. She didn’t notice many more details beyond that because her own vision was starting to blur from tears as well. And then, finally, her mother rushed forward and wrapped Star in a gargantuan hug. Both of them were now openly sobbing, and neither of them cared in the slightest who might be witnessing it.
After what seemed like a small eternity, though it was really no more than a few seconds at most, her mother released her and stepped backwards into the house, gesturing with her wing in an invitation to enter. Star followed her mother inside as the door closed behind them.
Star started to say something, but her mother held a wing tip to her lips, indicating for her to hush. She glanced at her mother in surprise, but Cloud grinned and whispered, “Your father is in the living room. I want to surprise him. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he realizes that you’re here.” Star wasn’t quite sure what to make of this, but she nodded and followed her mother. As they approached the door, Cloud Seed held up a hoof and whispered, “Wait here, just out of sight.” Then she entered the room.
“Who was at the door, dear?” Star heard her father say. She felt her heart beat increase and her knees get weaker at the sound of his voice. Oh how she had missed her parents so very much. It was all she could do to keep from bounding into the room that very moment, but she decided to play along with her mother, since it would be even better that way. While her mother might have been a strict disciplinarian most of the time, she also had a bit of a mischievous streak as well, and it had always delighted Star when that side of her mother’s personality came foreword as it seemed to be doing now.
“I’ll give you three guesses,” said Cloud Seed, trying to keep her face straight.
Star heard the confusion in her father’s voice, and had to suppress a giggle. “What? Why can’t you just tell me?”
“Go on, spoilsport! Guess,” said her mother. Star could just imagine the look of exasperation on her father’s face, and had to stifle another giggle.
“Was it Rainbow Dash?” asked Storm, after a short pause. “She’s been bugging me to come to some of the Wonderbolts training sessions lately, even though she knows I wouldn’t be of much use to her or any of them. I don’t really understand it.”
“No, it isn’t Rainbow Dash,” said Cloud, doing everything she could to keep from prancing in place in excitement.
“Um… well, was it Thunderlane coming to finally pay back the three hundred bits he owes me?” asked Storm. “I know we’re not really hurting for money, but it’d still be nice to get that back sometime this century, you know?”
“Nope, not Thunderlane,” said her mother. Storm snorted in disappointment.
Star could tell her father was starting to get frustrated, and felt more than a little bit bad for him. However, he had one more guess left, and she was curious to see who it would be.
He decided to be flippant with his final guess. “Okay, I’ve got it. It was Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, and Princess Twilight Sparkle, all coming to let us know about a new empire they’ve just discovered-slash-founded and how they want us to be the rulers of it. Am I pretty close this time?”
Cloud giggled and said, “No, it’s not any of the princesses. It’s even better.”
“Wait… what? Better than the princesses?” said Storm, dubiously. “There’s only one thing in this world that could possibly be better than a visit from the princesses, and that’s…” Star’s father’s voice took on a hopeful tone. “Wait… no… it can’t be… Could… could she really be…?” The dubious note returned. “You’re not putting one over on me, are you, dear? You know I don’t mind your pranks, but this one’s not very nice at all. Unless…” The hopeful note returned.
Star couldn’t bear to keep her father in such suspense any longer, especially after he had pretty much guessed correctly, on his fourth guess out of three. She tore around the corner and threw herself at him, wrapping her front legs around him and nuzzling him like she’d never nuzzled anypony before in her life. While she did love her mom dearly, no doubt, she’d always been more than a bit of a daddy’s girl.
At first, he stiffened and didn’t respond, causing Star’s heart to leap up into her throat in fear that he was about to reject her harshly. But then his entire body relaxed and he almost sank to his knees completely. He probably would have if she hadn’t been holding on to him so tightly.
“Is… is that really you, little bug?” he said, finally managing to get his own forelegs up and around her, along with his wings as well.
“Yes, dad, it’s really me,” she said, starting to cry again. “I’m home.”
“Oh dear Celestia,” her dad said, his voice threatening to break as well. “I can’t believe it. I must be dreaming.” He stepped back and held her at the length of his fore legs. “Let me take a good look at you.” She stood still, smiling all the while as tears streamed down her face while he looked her over. “You’ve gotten a bit taller, I think.”
“Oh daddy,” said Star, moving forward to embrace him again. Then she looked over his mane at her mother, who was watching both of them through the tears in her eyes. Star’s look was all the prompting Cloud needed to turn it into a group hug.
They stayed like that for several minutes, and Star didn’t even try to keep count. All she could do was try to contain the wellspring of emotions that were churning around inside her. Joy at finally seeing her parents again, relief that they seemed to be just as happy to see her, anxiety that once the initial rush died down things might turn ugly again, vague fear that she might indeed just be dreaming herself, as her father had said.
Finally, they all calmed down enough that tentative conversation was possible. Storm and Cloud sat down on the sofa, while Star took a seat opposite from them. Star had some things she needed to say and she needed to say them now, as quickly as she could get them out, before she lost her nerve altogether.
“I am so, so, so very sorry for the way I spoke to you when I left,” she said, her eyes somehow managing to produce even more tears. “I was horrible to you both, and… and there is really nothing I can say to take any of that back. All I can do is to tell you how incredibly awful I feel about it and hope that you will forgive me, even though I know I don’t really deserve it.”
“My little light in the night,” said her mother. “You don’t have to say anything at all. All three of us said terrible things that day that we can’t take back. The past is the past. All we can do is move forward from here and try not to let history repeat itself.”
“Of course we forgive you, little bug,” said her father. “I just hope you can forgive us as well.”
“I do,” said Star, not bothering to fight the hitch in her voice, “wholeheartedly. I was so very stupid. I deleted your messages when you tried to call me, and I never tried to call you back because I was so scared of what would happen. And I felt that if I couldn’t talk to you then I didn’t deserve to talk to anypony else either.”
Her parents looked at one another in shock, and then turned back to her.
“Wait,” said Storm. “You mean you haven’t talked with anypony from home in all this time? Not Twilight or Rainbow Dash or Scootaloo?”
“Not even Pound or Pumpkin Cake?” asked her mother.
Star simply shook her head in the negative.
“You mean you’ve… been all alone? All this time?” said her dad, tears threatening to spill out of his eyes once again as he contemplated it.
“Well, I haven’t been alone,” said Star, trying to soothe her dad before he broke down again. “I was surrounded by dozens of my fellow students at the Academy and made quite a few friends there. But, no, I haven’t had any contact with ponies at all in the past four years, except for a clerk at the San Francisco branch of Carousel Boutique during my first year, and a few DJ Pon-3 and Octavia concerts over the course of the first two years. And… yeah… I did miss it. A lot. If it makes you feel any better, I did see most everypony after I arrived. In fact, Twilight and Rainbow Dash and their friends are probably still waiting outside right now.”
Storm turned to his wife with a playfully smug look on his face. “See? I was right all along, with both my first and my third guesses!”
“Hey, you said Celestia, Luna, and Cadance were out there as well,” protested Cloud. “Besides, I didn’t know they were out there either, so it doesn’t count!” She shook her head at him good naturedly and then turned back to Star. “Anyway, they’ll just have to wait a little longer, because I want to hear all about it. What have you been doing for the past four years? We want to hear everything.”
Star looked at her parents with utmost fondness. Oh how she had missed being with them. They wanted to hear everything and she wanted to tell them everything, and so, Star launched into a verbal highlight reel of everything that had happened to her during her years at the Academy.
“And that brings me to now,” said Star, as she finished her account of her Academy days. “I just received my first posting on a brand new starship. Now, brace yourselves.”
“Why?” said Storm, somewhat alarmed. “Did something happen?”
“I’m about to tell you the name of the ship,” said Star, with a smirk.
“What?” said Cloud. “It’s not Puddinghead or something crazy like that, is it?”
Star opened her mouth in silent surprise, and then broke into a fit of giggles. Her parents grinned in response to her delight. Getting control of herself, Star shook her head and said, “Well, when you compare it to that, I guess the USS Pegasus doesn’t sound so weird after all.”
Her mothered snickered. “Wait… really? You’re on a ship named the Pegasus? I mean… seriously?”
“It gets better,” said Star. “We got towed back to Deep Space Twenty by a ship called the Crazy Horse.”
Her mother laughed out loud at this, but Star noticed her dad’s face had suddenly gotten a sober look on it when she’d said “towed.” Uh oh.
“Why did your ship need to be towed?” he asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.
Star felt her pulse quicken again. She hadn’t been sure quite how to broach this particular subject with her parents, but…well… with a bit of levity was as good a way as any, she supposed, if not necessarily all that appropriate.
“We… ran into a bit of trouble during our first mission,” said the unicorn. “Well, more than just a bit, honestly.” She then gave them an account of that mission. She made sure to leave out the more terrifying details, but she still told them enough for them to get the gist of it. She finished by looking her dad square in the eye. “For a moment there, when I was trying to prevent the helmsman from being sucked out into space… well, I have to admit that I thought about you and about how your worries for me were about to become perfectly justified.”
Storm shook his head and visibly shivered. “Thank Celestia I was wrong.”
“But your magic…” said her mother, her voice full of concern and sympathy. “Oh, my poor little girl, we’ll do everything we can to help you recover it.”
Star shook her head and said, “Don’t worry about it, mom. There’s not a whole lot you can do for it anyway. It’ll just… take some time, that’s all. I’m sure I’ll be okay again, soon enough.”
A silence fell over them at this point. Star took the opportunity to shift her gaze around the room. For the most part, everything was just as she had remembered it, but her eye was immediately drawn to the mantelpiece above the crackling fireplace behind her parents, because it was the one thing in the room that was rather different than she recalled, mainly because it was now filled almost to overflowing with pictures of her. There was a picture of her as a newborn foal, being held by her mother in the hospital bed, while her father stood over them, staring into the eyes of his newly born daughter for the first time. There were pictures of her first steps, her first tooth, her first play date with the Cake twins, her first day of school, her first day of study with Twilight Sparkle, and many other firsts. However, in the center, occupying the largest frame, was the picture of her dad, staring into the camera and grinning, her mom, wrapping a wing around her daughter and looking down at her, and Star herself, gazing up at her dad. It was the same picture that currently sat on the nightstand in her quarters aboard the Pegasus. Star’s eyes surprised her by once again managing to produce more tears.
“I see you noticed your dad’s little photo gallery,” said Cloud Seed.
“Yeah… heh, I guess I got a little carried away,” said Storm Strider, blushing a little bit.
Star blinked back her tears and regarded her parents once more. “I… I don’t know what to say.”
“We never forgot about you, my little light in the night,” said her mother. “Every day that went by without knowing how you were doing… it was… difficult.”
“When you first left,” said her dad, “your mom tried to follow you, but I ran up to your room instead. I didn’t believe you when you said you were leaving forever. I thought you were just angry and that you’d be back soon, but… I had to see for myself to make sure. You had the door to your room locked, but I finally got it open… and I ran in just in time to see all of your things vanishing into thin air. That was when it really hit me. And then, when your mom came back without you, I…” He shook his head and averted his eyes. “After that, all we had to remember you by were the pictures.”
Star felt horrible all over again and started to apologize once more, but her dad abruptly stood up, silencing her.
“No, no, little bug,” said Storm. “No more need for that. I’m sorry… I just got a bit overwhelmed there for a bit. I didn’t mean to upset you again. There is, however, one thing we need to get done, as soon as possible. I’ll be right back.”
Star watched as her dad trotted out of the room, wondering what he was talking about. She glanced at her mom, who just smiled knowingly. And then, when her father returned, she understood as well.
“We need to take a picture of our little girl’s first day back home in her stylish new Starfleet uniform,” said Storm, grinning at her as he set up the camera.
“How long have they been in there?” asked Rarity, who was sort of dancing in place, trying to return the feeling to her hooves. They’d been standing out in the cold ever since Star had moved to knock on the door.
“Not too long,” said Twilight, who was calmly sipping one of the steaming cups of coffee that Applejack had brought back for them.
“I’d say ‘round half an hour or so,” said Applejack. “Maybe forty-five minutes.”
“What’s the matter, Rare?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Forgot to bring a few dozens scarves with you? Heck, I don’t even see a travel bag. You must have left Canterlot in a pretty big hurry. So… when are you going to tell me what’s up with that, anyway?”
“Right now is not the time for such things,” huffed Rarity.
“Shh!” said Fluttershy suddenly. “Look! The door is opening!” The five ponies tensed up as the door opened and Star walked through, but immediately relaxed when she flashed a wide smile at them. All of them broke out into smiles of their own when Storm Strider and Cloud Seed joined her at the door.
“Heh, Star told us you guys were out here,” said Storm. “So… what? Did you all really just stand around in the cold for the past hour or so?”
“Takes more than a little cold and a little waiting to bother us,” said Rainbow Dash. “Hey Storm, glad I got this chance to talk to you again. When are you gonna come visit us at Wonderbolts HQ? Spitfire and Soarin’ and the rest of the old timers miss you, and the newbs have heard so many stories that they’d probably die of excitement as soon as you walked through the door.”
“Dash,” said Storm, frowning slightly, “you know I’m not cut out for the life of a Wonderbolt anymore. Haven’t been for quite a few years now.”
“Aw, c’mon Storm. I’m not asking you to come and race or anything,” said Rainbow. “Just come hang with us for a while, that’s all. No pressure.”
Storm’s face lighted up a bit. “Well… I’ll think about it. Anyway, what brings all of you here to Cloudsdale? Surely you’re not all here just to serve as backup in case things went south between us and Star, are you?”
Twilight shook her head and said, “Well, that was part of it, but mostly we’re here to fetch Rainbow Dash. We’ve got some Elements of Harmony business back in Canterlot. Star’s own business here is just a happy coincidence, and I’m glad to see that it seems to have been resolved on a high note.”
Star turned around to face her parents. “Speaking of which… I know I just got here and all, but… I want to go back to Canterlot with them. I’ve come with them this far, and I’d like to see it through to the end. I doubt this will take too awfully long, and I’ve still got almost a full two weeks of leave left, so don’t worry about not seeing me again before I go back to the Pegasus.”
Cloud Seed smiled and said, “And don’t you worry about us. We’re perfectly fine now that we have you back, in more ways than one. We’ve waited four years, so one or two more days won’t kill us.” She turned back to the other five ponies. “You say this has something to do with the Elements of Harmony though, right? I’m no expert or anything, of course, but… don’t you need Pinkie Pie for that? I see she’s not with you, so I have to assume that she’s still…”
“That’s what this is all about, actually,” said Twilight. “We’re hoping to use the Elements in an attempt to find her.” She didn’t bother to mention yet again that this is something that they could have tried years ago, had she only considered it before now.
“Well, I hope it all works out,” said Storm. “It would be nice to see Pinkie Pie again. She always threw the best parties. You go on and help Twilight however you can, Star. As your mother said, we’ll definitely still be here when you get back.”
Star moved forward and hugged both of her parents. “I’ll be back soon.”
Twilight waited until Star turned back and moved to join them. She turned to regard her friends and said, “All right, girls, let’s head back to Canterlot. This time, the destination is the Royal Palace.”
“HA HA HA ha ha ha ha!” Rainbow Dash was all but literally rolling on the ground as they made their way into the Royal Palace. The trip back from Cloudsdale had been mostly uneventful, aside from Rarity finally and grudgingly bringing Rainbow at least partially up to speed on her issues with Prince Blueblood.
“I knew telling you about my problems would be a big mistake,” said Rarity darkly. “I still fail to understand what is so amusing, Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow fought to control her mirth. “It’s just… it’s just that you spent so much time telling us all about how you were looking for Mr. Right, how it was part of the reason you were moving to Canterlot in the first place and all… and now you have Prince Blueblood of all ponies practically throwing himself at you. Wasn’t he your big dream pony at one point in time?”
“I’m still looking for Mr. Right,” said Rarity, more than a bit testily. “And Prince Blueblood most definitely is not Mr. Right. You do recall what happened at the Grand Galloping Gala all those years ago, don’t you?”
“Well, I remember something about cake,” said Rainbow with a shrug, “but after that I was a little too busy dodging falling columns and small woodland creatures. Come on, Rarity. Is Blueblood really all that bad?”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “I reckon ya ain’t heard all the rumors about him.”
“What rumors?” said Rainbow. “I don’t usually pay attention to that kind of stuff unless it involves the Wonderbolts. All I knew was that Blueblood was just the hoitiest-toitiest of all the hoity-toity Canterlot snobs, even including Hoity Toity himself. Are you saying that Blueblood is somehow even worse than that now?”
“He… uh…” said Fluttershy, her cheeks roughly the same shade as her mane. “He… they say he… uh… really likes the mares?” She glanced back and forth between Rarity and Applejack, trying not to die of embarrassment.
Applejack grinned at the yellow pegasus, but Rarity nodded primly and said, “That’s exactly right. Thank you, Fluttershy. Prince Blueblood is a cad of the highest sort. I want nothing whatsoever to do with him.”
Rainbow Dash just shrugged and said, “Fair enough. I guess I can understand that. I certainly wouldn’t want to get mixed up with a guy like that. Annnywaaay… we’re almost to the throne room. What are you going to do if Blueblood is there, Rare?”
Rarity’s eyes widened. “Oh my… I… I hadn’t considered that at all.” She whipped her head back and forth as though looking for a place to hide.
“Relax, Rarity,” said Twilight. “I’ve written ahead and requested a private audience for this. The only ones who will be present there are Spike, Princess Celestia and ourselves. You shouldn’t have to worry about Blueblood at all, at least for now.”
“Oh thank you, Twilight! You think of everything!” said the white unicorn.
All conversation ceased as they reached the huge doors that lead into the throne room itself. Twilight let her magic flare momentarily, and then the doors opened. Star, who had once again been unobtrusively hanging back away from the others, craned her neck to look around as they entered the throne room. While this wasn’t the first time she’d ever been inside the opulent chamber, it never failed to impress her. Her eyes swept from the huge windows to the high arched ceiling before finally settling on the throne. Sitting upon the throne was the Sun Princess herself, Princess Celestia. Curled up on the floor next to her was Spike, who was currently fast asleep. Celestia subtly nudged the adolescent dragon awake and then rose from her throne. Spike raised his head and blinked a couple times, then rose to his feet as well.
“It’s about time you guys got here,” he grumbled. “I’ve been waiting for over a day now.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “And I’m sure you suffered terribly while you were here. Anyway, do you have the special communicator that Ditzy Doo should have given you? We need to contact her now and have her transport my equipment down here.”
“Got it right here,” said the dragon. “Catch.” He tossed the small, green piece of metal that was shaped vaguely like a beetle (which Star recognized, to her surprise, as the emblem of the Ferengi Alliance) toward the purple alicorn. Twilight caught it in her magic and activated it.
A voice crackled from out of the device. “Ditzy Doo Deliveries! How can I help you?” Because Ditzy Doo’s shuttlecraft was usually in orbit somewhere above the planet, the communicators, for which she’d found schematics in the shuttle’s computer and which she replicated and gave out to her customers, were almost always within range of her ship. The only time she couldn’t be immediately contacted was when she was on the other side of the portal to Earth.
“Hi, Ditzy Doo,” said Twilight. “This is Twilight Sparkle. Do you have my delivery ready?”
“Yep,” said the cheerful voice from the other end. “Got it right here, all ready to transport down. Just let me know where you want it.”
“I’d like you to place it on the ground at the base of the ramp leading to Princess Celestia’s throne,” said the alicorn. “You have the coordinates I gave you, right?”
“Sure do,” said Ditzy Doo. “All right, everypony! Stand back.” Twilight likewise motioned for her friends to make room at the base of the ramp. Seconds later, amidst a large downward spiral of twinkling blue energy, a large piece of equipment appeared in the throne room. Star’s eyes widened a bit as she got a look at it, because it was something that she immediately recognized.
Shortly after the materialization of the equipment, another, much smaller spiral of energy appeared next to it. Once it dissipated, it left behind a grinning gray pegasus with blonde mane and tail, who was wearing a brown uniform and matching cap and holding a PADD in her teeth.
“Sigh hlease,” said Ditzy Doo.
“What?” said Twilight, raising an eyebrow. “Didn’t quite catch that.”
“Ah seh…” said Ditzy Doo, setting the PADD down on the floor at Twilight’s feet. “Sign please.”
“Oh, right,” said the alicorn. She levitated the PADD and the attached stylus, marking it with her signature. She floated it back over to Ditzy, who took it once more in her mouth.
“Hank hou,” said the gray pegasus. “Hlease cah ah Dihsy Doo Deliheries ehytihe.” She paused for a moment, rolled her eyes, and set the PADD down again. “I mean… Thank you. Please call on Ditsy Doo Deliveries anytime.”
Twilight smiled and said, “I’ll be sure too. Thank you very much, Ditzy.”
Ditzy’s grinned widened and she nodded. Then she clicked another green, beetle-like emblem that was attached to her uniform, which chirped in response, and said, “Job complete. Beam me up, Dinky!” She quickly picked up the PADD again, nodded to all of the assembled ponies, and then disappeared once more in a spiral of blue energy.
Princess Celestia and Spike moved down the ramp toward the other ponies. Celestia looked curiously at the device on the floor of her throne room and said, “So what’s this about, Twilight? I already know that you have something you want to try to do with the Elements of Harmony, but I don’t understand why you need this… whatever this thing is.”
Twilight started to speak, but then smiled and turned to Star. “Hey, Star, would you mind doing the honors and explain to Princess Celestia what this piece of equipment is? Then I’ll explain why I need it.”
Star stepped forward and barely gave the device a glance before saying, “Sure thing. It’s the sensor array for a Starfleet runabout. This is another piece of tech that you got from them, right?”
Twilight nodded and said, “That’s right. This arrived a few weeks ago, and I took a small break from my efforts to locate Pinkie Pie to do some tinkering with it, because I thought it might aid me in those efforts. In fact, I think this will help us with the upcoming spell, which is why I had it brought here. The spell that I found is supposed to be able to locate any missing Bearer of Harmony by focusing in on the corresponding Element of that Bearer. It requires that all of the other Bearers be present. However, the problem is that the spell’s range is limited, relatively speaking. I mean, if Pinkie Pie was anywhere on this planet, there would be no problem, and we’d find her immediately, but I think we can safely assume that she’s not on this world at all anymore, given her stated intention to visit other worlds. So, what I want to try to do is to combine this location spell with the work I’ve done on the sensor array. In my experiments, I was able to increase the range of the sensors by a factor of around ten thousand.”
Star’s jaw dropped. She walked around to stand directly in front of the purple alicorn and stared at her. It took her several seconds to regain her ability to speak, but when she finally did, she said, “Are you serious? The normal maximum range of this thing is somewhere between fifteen and twenty light years. If what you say is true… then you have increased the range by up to twice the width of the Milky Way galaxy itself.”
“That’s correct,” said Twilight, nodding as though this were no big deal at all. Star merely shook her head incredulously as the alicorn continued to speak. “Granted, the resolution at such extreme ranges is almost nothing, which isn’t very useful for standard use. I wasn’t able to improve upon that at all, so it’s not as impressive as you might think. It’s not all that much more useful than with the normal range, really. You’d be able to tell that something is there, but you would have no way of knowing what it might be. However, I don’t think that will be an issue with this particular spell. The Elements of Harmony themselves will be doing the identification, not the sensors. All the sensors need to do is be able to provide the detection range. If Pinkie Pie is anywhere in the galaxy, we should hopefully be able to find her. If she’s not in this galaxy… well… there’s not much we can do in that case, so we’ll just have to hope we get lucky. In any case, are you girls ready? I’d like to get started as soon as we can.”
With that, the other four Bearers of Harmony took up positions around the sensor array. Princess Celestia brought out the Elements of Harmony, which had been placed back into her care after Pinkie Pie had disappeared, and levitated each piece of jewelry to the appropriate pony, ending with placing the tiara upon Twilight’s head. As for the Element of Laughter, however, Celestia just looked at Twilight with a questioning look in her eyes.
Twilight nodded and levitated the Element of Laughter necklace to the sensor array, laying it to rest on top of the center of the machine. “Ready?” asked the purple alicorn once more.
“Sure am,” said Applejack.
“You bet,” said Rainbow Dash.
“Definitely,” said Rarity.
“I really hope this works,” said Fluttershy.
“Well, we’re about to find out,” said Twilight. “Here goes.” She activated her magic again, focusing it on the sensor array and the Element of Laughter. The other ponies stiffened slightly as their own Element necklaces began to glow. Energies the colors of the jewels set in their respective necklaces snaked out of the jewels and flowed toward the one in Twilight’s tiara. When the energy flows reached the tiara, all of their eyes started glowing pure white. After that, a rainbow wave of energy floated out of the jewel in the tiara, circled once around all of the Bearers, and then made a beeline for the Element of Laughter once it had reached Twilight again. As soon as it made contact, all of the Bearers of Harmony gasped in unison.
“This… this is amazin’,” said Applejack breathlessly.
“It’s like I can sense everypony in the world,” said Rarity in quiet awe.
“Not just the ponies,” said Fluttershy, smiling broadly. “I can feel all of the living creatures, even the plants.”
“This is so rad,” said Rainbow Dash. “Anypony feel Pinkie Pie yet, though?”
“No,” said Twilight, “it’s as I suspected. She’s not on this world. All right, guys, brace yourselves. I’m going to dual cast my spell on the sensors now.” The purple magical field around the sensor array intensified as the machinery came to life. All of the ponies in the circle around the array staggered a bit.
“Holy mother of Celestia!” said Applejack with a gasp. She glanced in the direction of the Sun Princess and quickly added, “Er… beggin’ yer pardon, Princess.” Celestia just smirked, saying nothing.
“What the hay…” said Rainbow Dash. “Whoa, this is such a trip.”
“I can feel… everything,” said Fluttershy in quiet wonder.
“I’m… actually starting to feel a little queasy,” said Rarity uncertainly. “And I still don’t sense Pinkie at all.”
“Give it a little time,” said Twilight. “I’m trying to fine tune both spells.”
Meanwhile, as she stood a bit apart from the others, Star watched this unfold with a sense of astonishment. The room was filled with magic that, even as a unicorn, she couldn’t even begin to comprehend. This was in a whole other league from the relatively minor spells that Twilight had tried to teach her, and she hadn’t even been able to master those, so what was happening now was completely beyond her. As she watched, however, she noticed something else. She gasped in surprise as her own horn began to glow. Somehow, someway, this spell, or maybe just the Elements of Harmony in general, were restoring her magical abilities that she’d lost from burnout. A slow grin spread across her face as she continued to watch the other five ponies do their thing.
“I’m boosting the spell on the sensors now,” said Twilight. “They’re already about as far as they’re going to go, though, and I still don’t sense Pinkie Pie at all. Hold on… …wait… no! No! Girls, get back! I’m cancelling the spells!” As she spoke, the sensor array began to spark and emit a plume of acrid, black smoke. Just in time, the five Bearers of Harmony managed to get far enough away before a wave of electricity briefly covered the outer surface of the array and then the whole thing died. Luckily, the Element of Laughter was unharmed by this, but the sensor array itself was now useless.
“No…” said Twilight softly, but then her voice got louder. “No! NO! This should have worked! Even if we didn’t find Pinkie herself, we at least should have gotten a trace! Why didn’t it work?! Why?!” Tears were in her eyes as she stared at the broken sensor array. She sank to her knees. “Pinkie Pie… I’m sorry…”
“My most faithful student,” said Celestia, falling into old habits even though Twilight hadn’t really been her official student for almost two decades now. “You tried your best. Don’t feel discouraged.”
“No, you don’t understand, Princess,” said Twilight. “This was it. This was our last, best hope of finding Pinkie Pie, but now… I don’t know what to do now.”
Star moved to stand next to Twilight. She was looking carefully at the damage to the sensor array. “It might not be as bad as it looks,” she mused, almost to herself.
“What?” said Twilight, looking up at her own one-time student. “Wait… Star! Your magic! It’s back!”
“Huh?” said Star, who had already activated her own magic field to envelope the sensor array. “Oh, yeah, that happened during your spell just now. I guess it was some Elements of Harmony mojo or something. I can’t really explain it, but it just sort of came back.” Her voice sounded sort of far away, as though she weren’t fully paying attention to her surroundings. “Anyway, now that it’s back, I might be able to fix this.”
The other Bearers of Harmony and Spike gathered around Celestia, Twilight, and Star, watching the latter work.
“Hmm… it’s pretty far gone, though,” muttered Star, mostly to herself. “This’ll be pretty tricky. I need to… to…” Her eyes suddenly widened. “Whoa… whoa…” Her horn flared and the magic field suddenly expanded at a rate so fast that most of the other ponies hardly even saw it happen, before it had extended well past the walls of the palace… and beyond. Far beyond.
Star was swaying on her hooves, with her eyes closed. “Twilight…” she said in a bemused tone of voice. “It’s… happening… again.”
“What’s happening, Star?” said Twilight. “Wait… do you mean…?”
“It’s different, though,” said Star, in a daze. “It doesn’t hurt at all, this time… well, except for a bit of dizziness and a slight headache, but that’s nothing…”
“What’s going on?” asked Spike, watching the navy blue unicorn with concern.
“I… I think…” said Twilight, finally getting to her feet. “I think this is like what happened when Star gained her shield spell, except that this time it’s the sensor array. Star, what do you see? What do you feel?”
“I see…” said Star, her voice taking on a sort of sing-song quality as though she were slightly intoxicated. “I see… so much. It feels like it should be overwhelming, but it’s not. I see… the portal to Earth… Ditzy Doo’s shuttle… Deep Space Twenty… the moon… the sun… all of the other planets… even the listening post several light years away…” She cocked her head to the side. “Now I’ve changed the focus. I sense every living thing on the world. It’s so… so… weird. Twilight… I think you can try your spell again, but this time using me as the focal point rather than the sensor array. It’s almost completely shot anyway. It’ll never work again without some major repairs.”
“What? No, Star,” said Twilight. “That’s far too dangerous. You saw what happened to it. It’s completely fried. We can’t risk that happening to you as well.”
Star let the spell die. Coming back to her normal senses, she turned to face the purple alicorn. “Be that as it may, I want to give it a try. I really think I can do this, Twilight.” All the other ponies and dragon looked at one another, and then stared at Star. Star shook her head and said, “I can act as the sensor array, except that I’ll also be able to use my magic in conjunction with and as a complement to your own and that of the Elements. The sensors were pure technology, but I am a being of magic, like all of you. I mean, I know I only just got this new spell… somehow, but… just call it a gut feeling. I seriously think this will work, Twilight.”
“I’m really not sure this is such a good idea,” said the purple alicorn, though Star could hear in her voice that she didn’t want to just give up either.
“Even if it is dangerous,” said Star, “I’m willing to risk it for Pinkie’s sake. I want to find her just as much as you guys do.” She looked each of the Bearers of Harmony in the eye as she spoke.
Twilight turned to face Princess Celestia. “Princess, I don’t know how this will play out, so if we’re going to do this, I would like to ask you to act as a safe guard. If you could use your own magic to… to sort of keep an eye on all of us as we proceed… at the first sign of trouble, you could interject and forcibly interrupt the spells before any harm comes to Star… or the rest of us, for that matter.”
Princess Celesta nodded. “Yes, I think I can do that. I will do my best to keep you all from harm.”
Twilight turned back to Star. “Well, if you’re absolutely sure that you want to try this, we’ll give it a shot.” She levitated the Element of Laughter off of the ruined sensor array and floated it over to a point above Star’s head.
Star looked up at the piece of jewelry and divined Twilight’s intentions. “Wait, you want me to wear it?”
Twilight nodded. “That would be easier than just, I don’t know, sitting it on your back or something. Don’t worry. There should be no adverse effects. Spike once wore the Element of Loyalty without harm, after all.” Spike and Rainbow Dash shared a quick look at this. Spike looked somewhat embarrassed, while Dash merely smirked at him.
Star looked back and forth between the blue pegasus and the dragon for a moment, then turned back to Twilight and nodded. Twilight responded by lowering the necklace around Star’s neck. For the briefest of moments, Star was almost overcome with the urge to start giggling, apropos of nothing. A slight grin was all she betrayed of this, however, before she quickly regained her control. “Okay, I’m ready when you are.”
They all stepped away from the smoking remains of the sensor array and the Bearers of Harmony then surrounded Star. Star closed her eyes. Once again, she heard and felt the magic of the Elements of Harmony, but this time it was centered directly on her. With a gasp, she opened her eyes. She had no way of knowing for sure without a mirror nearby, but she would bet that her own eyes were likely the same opaque white as those of the ponies surrounding her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Princess Celestia’s own horn ignite and bath them all with a faint golden glow. The Princess was trying to keep her own magic as much out of the way as possible, for fear of interfering too much with Twilight’s spell, but was ready to step in at any time and end it if things got too rough. Finally, Star activated her own newly gained sensory spell as well.
“Whoa…” said Rainbow Dash. “It’s kind of like it was before… but like a million times more awesome.”
“Incredible,’” said Applejack. “Simply astoundin’.”
“I can even feel their heartbeats this time,” said Fluttershy in awe.
“And I don’t feel nauseous at all,” said Rarity. “It feels more… right, somehow.”
“How are you doing, Star?” asked Twilight.
“I’m fine,” said Star. “Let’s kick it up a notch.”
“All right, here goes,” said the purple alicorn.
Star gasped, along with the other ponies. It was like Fluttershy had said before… she could feel everything now. Well, everything in the Milky Way anyway. She could feel the worlds in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants… Earth… Vulcan… Qo’noS… the remains of Romulus… Bajor and the nearby wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant… the homeworld of the Founders of the Dominion in the Gamma Quadrant… Talax and Ocampa and other worlds in the Delta Quadrant… pretty much every world in the galaxy was within her ability to sense… She could sense both of the great barriers, the one around the edge of the galaxy and the one around the center of the galaxy. She couldn’t penetrate them… no wait… yes, yes she could. She sensed the presence of what the Federation had dubbed the Sha Ka Ree Entity, still fuming about his inability to escape from the center of the galaxy. She sensed another, similar, but far more powerful entity, known only as 0, outside of the galaxy, trying to get in but being thwarted by the galactic barrier. She sensed other cosmic beings as well, and some of these entities peered back at her as she looked upon them, which was kind of creepy and more than a little scary. Strangely, however, she didn’t sense any members of the Q Continuum. She wondered briefly at this, but decided there were more important things to worry about, such as the distinct lack of Pinkie Pie. No matter where she turned her senses (and, through her, the senses of the other involved ponies) she felt no trace of the pink pony at all.
“This isn’t working,” said Twilight, the frustration more than evident in her voice.
“Hold on,” said Star. As she continued to let her senses feel around the galaxy, she noticed something else. Something that she hadn’t noticed before and something that she was pretty sure she’d never have seen had she been acting alone, without the help of the Elements of Harmony. She saw what appeared in her mind as creases or folds in the fabric of space time itself. She didn’t know how she knew, but she got the impression that these were weak points where other universes abutted against their own. She felt that she could possibly even see through them, if she just… stretched them far enough.
“Star?” said Twilight softly. “What are you doing?”
“I have an idea,” said the young unicorn. She noticed that many of these folds were situated adjacent to the portal to Earth. Some of them appeared as though they might have even been stretched across the portal in the past. She probed them carefully to see if there was any danger to the portal itself, and then she began to try to look through them. It was like holding a thin piece of paper up to one’s eye and then looking at a bright light. One could still see the light through the paper, and perhaps also shadows of things beyond the paper as well.
“This is gettin’ kinda weird,” said Applejack hesitantly.
“Are we about to look into… into another universe?” asked Rarity incredulously.
“I don’t know about this…” said Fluttershy, more than a bit nervously. “Should we be doing this? I mean, I know it’s for Pinkie Pie’s sake, but…”
“Aw c’mon, ‘Shy,” said Rainbow Dash, “where’s your sense of adventure?”
“I… I think I left it at home under my bed,” said Fluttershy, eliciting chuckles from the other ponies. It broke the slowly mounting tension somewhat. Even Fluttershy herself felt somewhat calmer after the bit of levity.
Star felt more confident as she probed at the folds in space-time. Then, she decided to poke a hole in one of them, an ever so tiny one, just enough to see through. Not literally, of course, since she didn’t think that was possible, but that’s how she thought of what she was about to try to do. As she did it, another entire world seemed to overlay itself over their vision of their own world. It was rather similar to the original, but yet also different in many ways. After scanning this new world, and the rest of the alien galaxy surrounding it, but still seeing no sign of Pinkie Pie, Star reeled in her senses and moved on to the next fold in space-time.
Time passed as Star peered through more and more of the folds. How much time, none of them could say. Spike or Princess Celestia could probably tell them later, but none of them were really even all that aware of the things happening directly around them at this point. As they continued to search worlds in other universes, and as they continued to fail to find Pinkie Pie, Star felt her own frustration growing as well. How many folds they looked through, Star had no idea. However, when she poked through what had to be well past the hundredth one, they could all tell that something was immediately different this time. They all felt it simultaneously. It was her. They sensed Pinkie Pie. They’d finally found her. She was on one of the planets immediately overlaying their own, but in a separate universe. And they all began to speak at once.
“There she is!”
“We found her!”
“Where is she?”
“It’s completely dark.”
“Can we talk to her?”
“Can we bring her back?”
Twilight’s voice was tinged with growing concern as she noticed something. “Girls, something’s wrong. Do you see her mane and tail? It’s… it’s lank.”
“Uh oh,” said Rainbow Dash.
Star didn’t have to ask what this meant. Even though she’d never seen it herself until now, she’d heard stories about how Pinkie Pie’s normally curly mane and tail would deflate when she became especially depressed. As they all watched Pinkie Pie as she lay on her belly in what, to them at least, seemed like complete darkness, they were shocked when the pink pony suddenly turned her head. She was looking at them. They saw the eyes of the pink earth pony widen considerably, and then she was talking to them.
“What…? Who’s there…? No… wait… it can’t be…” she said. “Twilight? Dashie? AJ? Rare? ‘Shy? And… Star? Is that really you? Are you truly there?”
“Yes!” called Twilight. “It’s us! Can you hear us, Pinkie?!”
Pinkie Pie shook her head. “No, it’s not possible. I have to be hallucinating.”
“No! You’re not!” said Twilight. “It’s really us! We’re using the Elements of Harmony to locate you!”
Pinkie Pie looked back up at them again. “I can’t actually see you, but I can sense that you’re all there. But the weird thing is that I can hear you!”
“Pinkie Pie, where are you?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Are you okay?” asked Fluttershy.
Pinkie shook her head. “I’m pretty sure I’m in another universe. At first, it was great. I was visiting all of the worlds from our old stories. You know, the other worlds that Discord told us about, the ones with Megan and all those other ponies that are like us, but different. It was so much fun, so I wanted to come back and bring you all with me… but… when I tried to come home, I couldn’t do it! Something was preventing me from coming back. I couldn’t find the right way. It was like I was going through a door that I thought would lead back home, but the place on the other side of the door would suddenly change as I went through it, and I would end up somewhere else entirely. I’ve been trying for weeks now to get back…”
The other ponies were shocked by this. Twilight slowly spoke again. “Pinkie Pie… how long do you think you’ve been gone?”
“It has to have been at least two months now, I think,” said the pink pony. “I’m so sorry you guys, I’ve been trying really hard to get back.”
Twilight tried to choose her next words as carefully as possible. “Pinkie Pie… I don’t know quite how to say this other than to just say it… but… it’s been longer than two months since you left here. A lot longer.”
“W-what do you mean?” said Pinkie, an edge of panic creeping into her voice.
“Pinkie, you… you’ve been gone for over six years now,” said the alicorn.
They all somehow felt Pinkie’s shock as she took in this news. “Six… years?! No… no way… it can’t have been that long. It’s only been a couple of months at most. How can it have been six years?! That’s just not possible… is it?”
Star and Twilight shared a glance, before turning back in the “direction” of Pinkie Pie. Star said, “It could be that time flows differently where you are than it does here… or maybe something has happened to alter your perception of time. But Twilight is right. Here, in our universe, six years have gone by since you left.”
If anything, the news only made Pinkie Pie even more depressed than she already was. “I can’t believe it… six years… why…?”
Twilight tried to change tactics. “That’s not important right now, Pinkie. What’s important is that we’ve found you. Maybe… maybe you can use this connection as a tether to finally come home?”
Pinkie Pie finally stood up. Her mane and tail remained lank, but she did sound slightly more cheerful. “Hey, maybe you’re right. I can feel your presence, so maybe I can use that to get back. I’ll give it a shot. Wait… no, hold on a minute… it feels like something else is here now. Do you guys see anythi-”
And then, just like that, their connection with Pinkie Pie was severed utterly. All of the ponies involved in the spell screamed as a new presence made itself known to them. Their collective sensory vision filled up with complete darkness, except for the glowing of two hellish red eyes. The palpable sense of pure evil and hatred and danger and, above all else, incredible, terrifying power exuded from the presence.
The last thing Star felt and saw before losing consciousness was the soothing balm of Princess Celestia’s golden magic as it flared around them.
“…anything like it before,” a voice was saying as Star’s awareness slowly returned to her. “I’ve got my court mages studying it already, but I don’t think we’re going to find anything. I think this is entirely… wait, Twilight, she’s finally waking up.”
Star opened her eyes and saw two blurry shapes standing over her. She blinked a couple of times and the shapes resolved into the forms of Twilight Sparkle and Celestia. She worked her mouth and managed to get out, “How long was I…?”
“Just a little over an hour,” said Twilight. “You got the brunt of whatever it was that happened. Given how it felt to the rest of us, I… well, I’m kind of surprised that you… that you’re still alive at all, honestly.”
Star moved her head to examine her surroundings. “Where am I?”
“You are in my personal chambers,” said Princess Celestia. “Twilight and I felt that this was the closest, best place to bring you while you recovered. My healers have already examined you and deemed that you’ll fully heal, but you definitely gave us a scare for a while there at first. How do you feel now?”
Star considered the question and then groaned. “I feel a bit like I’ve been smashed by an asteroid… one that was on fire when it hit me. But… I think I can stand again, at least.” She tentatively tried her limbs and then attempted to stand up. It was a bit wobbly at first, but she managed to keep from toppling over. She turned to the two alicorns and said, “What happened back there?”
Celestia and Twilight shared a look, and then Twilight said, “We… we don’t really know. One second we were talking to Pinkie Pie, and the next…”
As Twilight trailed off, Celestia said, “Even I sensed it, despite not being directly connected to your spells. It was… unlike anything I have ever felt before. It was a presence of unimaginable power… beyond anything I’ve ever encountered, beyond Chrysalis, beyond Nightmare Moon, beyond Sombra… even beyond Discord.”
Even if Star wasn’t already scared before, she definitely would be now. Discord, as the ponies knew him, or Q, as the Federation knew him, was a cosmic level, godlike being, claiming to be omnipotent and demonstrating on multiple occasions that this claim wasn’t mere idle boasting on his part. If whatever it was that had shattered their connection to Pinkie Pie really was as bad as Celestia said…
“I need to report this to Starfleet Command immediately,” said Star.
“I understand, and I agree,” said the Sun Princess. “I have a communications device that allows me to contact the space station in orbit and also Earth if need be. I will allow you to make use of it. It’s right over here.”
Twilight shook her head and said, “Hold on just a minute, Star. I need to ask Princess Celestia something, and depending on the answer, I think this might be more info that you’ll need to report to Starfleet.” She turned to the Sun Princess and said, “Princess, have you spoken with Discord lately? I wanted to wait until I had exhausted all other options before trying this but… I think he might be the only hope we have to find and return Pinkie Pie at this point.”
Princess Celestia regarded Twilight silently for a moment, and then said, “I was afraid you were going to ask me this. No, Twilight. I have not talked with Discord in a long while now.”
Twilight exhaled slowly and said, “I’m hesitant to ask, but… how long has it been since you last spoke with him?”
“It has been a little over six years now,” said Celesta. “That is, from what I understand, the same amount of time that you have been out of contact with Pinkie Pie.”
Twilight closed her eyes as though she were developing a migraine. Then she opened them and turned her head to Star. “I’m guessing you know what this means, don’t you?”
Star nodded solemnly. “Yes. While we were looking for Pinkie Pie, I sensed quite a few cosmic beings out there. However, one group of such beings was rather conspicuous by their complete absence. The Q. I didn’t sense a single member of the Continuum at all while we were searching for Pinkie. Given how similar she is in nature to them now, I would have expected to have sensed at least one of them, but I didn’t even sense Discord himself. Either they have all sequestered themselves away in their Continuum for some unknown reason, or…”
“…or the same being that is preventing Pinkie Pie from returning home has done something to them as well,” said Twilight, finishing Star’s thought. “This is even worse than I thought. If there is something out there that can block out even beings as powerful as the Q Continuum, I don’t even want to think about what they’re capable of otherwise. And the darkness and evil that I sensed from this thing… yeah, I think you do need to contact Starfleet now, Star.”
Star swallowed hard and nodded, turning to the communication panel that Princess Celestia had shown to her. She used her magic to manipulate the controls in order to initiate a priority one transmission. “Deep Space Twenty, this is Ensign Star Strider of the USS Pegasus contacting the station commander via the Royal Palace of Canterlot, Equestria on Equus III. I have information of vital importance to relay to Starfleet Command. Please respond…”
A couple of hours after the encounter with Pinkie and the dark presence, a very weary Star Strider and Twilight Sparkle made their way back to the throne room with Princess Celestia, where the rest of Twilight’s friends were waiting for them.
“Oh Star,” said a relieved Fluttershy. “You’re okay! We were so worried…” Although whatever it was that had affected Star was beyond her fledgling medical abilities, the yellow pegasus still moved over to the navy blue unicorn and looked her over carefully all the same.
Star briefly considered putting on a show of bravado, but when she recalled the presence that had rendered her completely out of it after their cross-dimensional adventure, she shivered slightly and decided bravado wouldn’t be appropriate at all. Instead, she merely smiled weakly and nodded her thanks to the yellow pegasus.
Twilight approached her friends and said, “It seems we’re faced with something really bad, though we don’t know what it is exactly. All we know is that it’s an incredibly powerful presence. Princess Celestia says that it’s likely more powerful than even Discord.” She glanced up at the Sun Princess, who nodded in confirmation. The other four Bearers of Harmony looked at one another in shock at this pronouncement.
“So what do we do now?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I think the more important question is, ‘What can we do now?’” said Rarity.
“Should we try to get in touch with Pinkie Pie again?” asked Applejack.
Twilight shook her head. “I’m not sure that would be wise at this time. We don’t want to attract that thing’s attention any more than we may already have.”
Spike looked Twilight in the eye. “We’re not just going to leave Pinkie there, are we? Wherever ‘there’ is…”
Fluttershy finished with her examination of Star and turned to face the rest of them. She looked distraught as she said, “Poor Pinkie Pie… I can’t even imagine what she must be going through right now. We have to help her, Twilight.”
“I have no intention of leaving Pinkie Pie at the mercy of that… that whatever it was,” said Twilight firmly. “While we were in contact with her, I managed to get a… a sort of feel for her essence and I’m pretty sure I could find her again on my own, now that I have that much. I might even be able to open a way for us to reach her. However, that’s going to take some major research and preparation before I’d be even remotely ready to attempt something like that. I may be pretty good with magic, but traveling to and from an entirely different universe is beyond me, at least for now. I’m going to stop at nothing until I find a way to do this, though. You can rest assured of that.”
Princess Celestia said, “If you need any assistance from me or my court mages, you only need to ask.”
“Thank you, Princess,” said Twilight. “I’ll probably take you up on that.”
Star looked around at all of them and said, “We’ve also informed Starfleet about this situation, and they’re going to be looking into it as well. They also confirmed with us that the last known contact with any member of the Q Continuum, including Discord, was over six years ago, at least as long as Pinkie Pie has been gone.”
The other ponies and dragon shared a look as the implications of this set in.
“So… that means that something like what happened to Pinkie has most likely happened to Discord and his bunch too?” asked Applejack.
“That’s what we believe to be the case, yes, though we don’t have a clue why,” said Twilight. She sighed wearily and said, “Well… for the time being at least, there’s nothing more that we can do. First thing in the morning, I’m going to get started on trying to find a way to get to Pinkie Pie… but I have to warn you again, don’t expect this to be a quick thing. Not only will I have to research all of the resources at my disposal here in Canterlot and elsewhere, I’ll probably also need to get access to the Federation databases as well. I know they’ve had experiences with crossing dimensions in the past. Still, it could take quite a while before I’m able to come up with anything.”
Star waited to see if anyone else had anything to add and then said, “There’s something else to consider. Those aliens that attacked the Pegasus may also be related to this in some way.”
Twilight’s eyes widened and she started to say something, but was drowned out when several of the other ponies started speaking at once in response to what Star had said. All of them were asking in various ways what she was talking about, and that’s when Star realized that, of the ponies and dragon present, she’d mentioned the attack to only Twilight and Spike so far. Therefore, she gave a streamlined account of the attack, putting particular emphasis on the fact that the aliens had apparently departed through a dimensional rift at the end of it all.
“You’re right,” said Twilight, after the hubbub had died down again. “I suppose we shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but it does seem possible that these aliens might be connected to this incident in some way. Maybe they’re even agents of this presence that we encountered. We’ll have to take that into account whenever we try anything.”
Star nodded, and then yawned mightily. The unicorn was feeling exhausted after the combination of casting the sensory spell and then being attacked by that unknown entity, and it was all starting to catch up with her. Still, she had one more thing she wanted to say. “Twilight, if you need my help for anything at all, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I will be at my parents’ home for the next couple of weeks, but even after that, when I’m back on the Pegasus again, I’ll still only be a subspace communiqué away. For now, however, I’m about to fall asleep on my feet. I don’t know how much longer I can stay awake.”
“I understand,” said Twilight. “Are you planning to go back to your parents’ house now, or find a place to stay in Canterlot?”
“You’re welcome to stay the night here,” said Princess Celestia. “I can put you up in one of the royal suites. It’s the least I can do after the aid you gave to Twilight and her friends today.”
Star bowed deeply to the Sun Princess and said, “I do appreciate the offer, but I have been away from my parents for far too long. Now that I’ve reconciled with them, and now that our business here seems to have mostly concluded, at least for the time being, I almost can’t bear to be away from them any longer.”
Twilight studied the navy blue unicorn for a bit and said, “I think whatever that thing did to us took more out of you than we thought. You do need rest, Star, and as soon as you can get it. Would you like me to teleport you directly to Cloudsdale? I haven’t had a good chance to use my long-range teleport spell in a while, and this will be a good chance to shake some rust off of it.” The alicorn paused and looked at each of the other Bearers. “It’ll come in handy if I’m going to be keeping in better touch with my friends from now on, after all.” The other four ponies all smiled warmly at her in return.
Star waited and allowed the moment to pass and then nodded to Twilight. “I would be grateful. I wasn’t looking forward to another transport ride, to be honest. But first, I…” She turned and faced the other Bearers of Harmony as she spoke. “I just wanted to thank you guys… for helping me out with my own problems. You didn’t have to come with me to see my parents, but you did, and you stood by me, even after you heard how horrible I was to my mom and dad. I really appreciate that.” He gaze lingered on Rainbow Dash, who smiled and gave her a single nod in return. Aside from Spike and Twilight herself, and despite the relatively rocky start to their friendship back when Star was a filly, the unicorn considered herself closest to the blue pegasus out of all of Twilight’s circle of friends, at least of those that were currently present, anyway. Pinkie Pie’s absence made her heart ache, especially now that she knew it hadn’t been Pinkie’s intention to stay away at all.
Star turned back to Twilight and said, “All right, I’m ready to go.”
Twilight and Star appeared on the edge of the cloud lawn of the home of Star’s parents. Star swayed on her feet a bit and tried to regain her bearings. If there was one thing that unicorn/alicorn teleportation had over the technology-based Federation transportation that she was used to, it was that it was even more instantaneous, but that could be both a good and bad thing if one wasn’t prepared for it.
The alicorn looked at their arrival point and tsked to herself. “Darn it, I was aiming for the porch, right in front of the door,” she muttered. “I guess I’m a bit rustier at this than I thought I was.”
Star looked around and whistled appreciatively. “We’re only a few meters away from where you intended.”
Twilight shook her head. “That’s fine for here, but what if I need to teleport onto a mountain ledge, or the edge of a volcano crater, or a moving pegasus transport or something like that? A few meters would be the difference between safety and the start of a very long and unpleasant fall. Just be glad the fail-safes kept us out of the wall here, or that we didn’t arrive a few meters below the clouds.”
Star shook her head and tried not to let the alicorn see her suppressing a chuckle. “Seriously, Twilight, if this is what you consider to be ‘rusty’, then I don’t think you have anything to worry about, because I’m sure you’ll have that rust knocked off in no time.”
“I hope so,” said Twilight, “because when I go back, I’m going to try to land directly on Princess Celestia’s throne.”
Star couldn’t keep the laughter in check this time. “You’re joking, right? If not, you’d better check ahead to make sure she’s at least not sitting in it again by that point.”
“Way ahead of you,” said Twilight, with a smirk. “And, no, she’s not at the throne. She’s still down on the floor talking to my friends.” The alicorn walked closer to Star and nuzzled her a bit and said, “Thanks for your help back there. Without it, we never would have found Pinkie and all hope would have been lost. But now, thanks to you, we have a chance after all.” Star didn’t say anything in reply. She just nuzzled Twilight in return. It was the little things like this that made her mentally buck herself for ever staying away from home for so long. After a few seconds more, Twilight backed away and said, “Well, I don’t want to keep you from your parents any longer, so I’ll be heading back now.”
“Remember what I said,” said Star. “If you need me for anything, anything at all, just call. If you want to try to get in touch with Pinkie Pie again at some point, I’m willing to help, evil cosmic force or no evil cosmic force.”
“Thanks, Star,” said Twilight. “I appreciate that, and I’ll definitely keep you in mind… for more reasons than just that. Really, Star, don’t wait four years this time.”
“I won’t,” said Star. ‘Trust me. Now that I’ve gotten a taste of what I’d been missing all this time, it’s going to be kind of hard to leave it all behind again to go back to the Pegasus. I’ll come and visit every time the Pegasus is in port at DS20, even if I can only get an hour or so.”
“I look forward to it,” said the alicorn. “Now, I have to get back. I’m sure the Princess doesn’t want a smoking hunk of metal sitting in her court for any longer than it has to be. So… I’ll see you later.” Star bowed deeply to the alicorn princess, which made Twilight blush and fidget. “Aw, come on, Star, you know that kind of princess-y stuff is really embarrassing for me.”
Star stood upright again and said, “It just felt appropriate in this case. Well, instead of that, I’ll just say the same. See ya.”
Twilight nodded and gave a little wave with a front hoof as her horn began to flare. And then, just like that, she was gone.
Star looked at the spot that had been occupied by her former mentor for a bit, and then turned and headed for the door to her parents’ home.
“Personal Log. Ensign Star Strider. Stardate 66086.9
“Well… my leave is almost over. I’m currently on a shuttlecraft bound for Deep Space Twenty and back to the Pegasus. These past two weeks have seemed like both the longest and, sadly, the shortest two weeks of my life. I’m simultaneously looking forward to getting back to work and wishing I had at least another two weeks of leave. But then, isn’t that always the case at the end of a vacation?
“I have long since fully recovered, both from my magical burnout and from the encounter with… whatever that thing was that popped up during our search for Pinkie Pie. I really don’t want to talk about the burnout now, but we’ve all still been speculating about the second thing. Besides the situation with Pinkie, members of the Q Continuum really haven’t been seen at all for the past six years. I have no idea what this might mean, but it can’t possibly be a good thing, despite how troublesome those encounters might have been in the past. ‘The devil you know,’ and all that… And there’s still the deal with the aliens that attacked the Pegasus. I don’t know if they’re related to this at all, but something tells me they might be. Just call it a hunch.
“…
“…I don’t want to spend my entire log entry talking about that stuff, so I’ll move on to happier things. Well, maybe not so much happy in some cases, at least for me, but still better than that other stuff.
“Moving on… not a lot of progress has been made in Twilight’s efforts to cross the dimensional barriers yet, but… again, I don’t really want to talk about that right now. I am, however, pleased to report that Twilight and her friends are definitely reconnecting. They made a vow that first night back together in Canterlot that they wouldn’t allow themselves to grow apart again like they had, and so far they’ve been sticking to it. Despite two of them living in different cities now, they’ve still been able to get together everyday, thanks to Twilight’s teleportation. It’s nothing for her to pop up to Cloudsdale to pick up Rainbow Dash, and then pop over to Canterlot to pick up Rarity, and then pop back to Ponyville to meet up with Applejack and Fluttershy. Even if it’s just an hour for dinner or whatever, that’s still better than what was going on before, or rather what wasn’t going on before, I guess. Sometimes Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom come along with them as well, which involves an extra teleport to Appleloosa for Twilight, but she’s definitely knocked off the rust so it’s no big deal.
“I’ve hung out with them a few times during these get-togethers myself, but… well, I still feel sort of like an outsider, in a way. They do their best to be inclusive, but still… these are Twilight’s friends more than mine, and I just feel like I’m intruding on their time together. I mean, I know Twilight and Spike, of course, and Rainbow Dash and I grew closer due to her connection to my dad, but the other three I only really know through our shared experiences during my first couple of days back in Equestria. Before that, during my childhood, I just never really hung out with Applejack, Rarity, or Fluttershy all that much. And I can totally understand why they might not want a snot-nosed teenager like me tagging along with them on their dinner dates, even if that may not actually be how they feel about it at all. When Scootaloo and her friends are there, it’s not so bad, since they used to babysit for me when we were younger, but even then, it’s still a bit weird, at least to me. So, for the most part, I tended to prefer to bow out and leave them to their own thing, though I did appreciate the gesture on their part.
“Anyway, speaking of dinner, I met Pound Cake’s marefriend, Bubble Squeak, the other day. It was during a dinner they had together with his parents, where he finally introduced them to one another. I have to admit: she’s cute. They make a great couple. And… I can’t help but feel jealous. I know, I know, I have no right, but it’s still there. I never told Pound how I felt about him, never even hinted at it, really, but at the same time I can’t shake this stupid feeling that I’ve been betrayed somehow. It’s not even his fault, or hers. It’s all me, and I hate it. If anything, though, I guess I was the one who betrayed him by going off for four years with no contact whatsoever, but… argh, okay, enough of that. They’re happy together and that’s the important thing, right?
“Anyway, finally… my time with my parents has been a panacea. I still almost can’t believe how accepting and understanding they’ve been, despite how terrible I was when I left. It’s just… it’s been wonderful.
“Dad is still a bit skittish about the whole thing with me being in Starfleet, but I no longer hold that against him, especially after my brush with death. He’s got a point, and is right to worry about me. But at the same time, I can’t and won’t let the fear of something like that happening again deter me. As the great James Tiberius Kirk said, ‘Risk is our business. That’s what the starship is all about. That’s why we’re aboard her.’ I’ve tried my best to make dad understand this as well. This is my life now. I think he gets that now, in a way that he didn’t four years ago. Oh, and Rainbow Dash finally managed to convince him to drop by Wonderbolts HQ for a visit, and I think it did him a lot of good, because he went back at least every two or three days after that. I think it’s going to become a regular thing. At least, I hope it does. They’re talking about maybe giving him a gig as one of the official photographers for the Wonderbolts. That would be so awesome.
“As for mom, we mutually decided to just let all that nasty stuff we said to one another on that day four years ago just be water under the bridge now. Given that I’m grown up and out on my own now, I’m seeing much more of her mischievous side than the strict disciplinarian I knew from my fillyhood, and it’s great. I don’t have time to get into all the hijinks we got ourselves into during my leave, but let’s just say that, while I’ve always loved my mom dearly, no question, she’s definitely a lot more fun to just, you know, hang around with now.
“Hmm… it looks like my shuttlecraft is about to dock at Deep Space Twenty, so I guess I’d better wrap this up. It’s going to be a little bit weird to be back in space again, but I think I’ll get used to it soon enough.”
As Star disembarked from the shuttlecraft, she was somewhat surprised to find not only Dr. M’rrre waiting for her at the landing bay, but also Ensign Jim Tompkins. She looked back and forth between the Caitian and the human, finding herself not at all displeased to see them, even the human ensign.
“Hey, Star,” said Tompkins, as she fell into step beside them and they made their way out of the shuttle bay. “I’ve given what you said a lot of thought over the past two weeks and… yes, I would definitely like us to remain friends, if that’s okay with you. I feel like I should apologize for putting you on the spot like that, before.”
Star smiled and said, “Of course I want us to remain friends. As you said, I was the one who suggested it, after all. And… don’t worry about what happened before. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that… I… well… you know…”
“You don’t have to say it,” said Tompkins. “I understand. You don’t feel the same way about me as I do… did for you. So, anyway, do you want to go grab a drink a Brunt’s bar? Just as friends, of course. I think DJ Pon-3 and Octavia are about to start a new set.”
Star’s smile widened into a grin and she nodded. “I’d love to. While we’re there, I can tell you about the weird stuff that happened to me down on the planet. It’s possible that it might even have something to do with the attack on the Pegasus.”
Dr. M’rrre arched an eyebrow. “Weird stuff? Well… I was going to bow out because I don’t get along well with excruciatingly loud music, as you both well know, but I think I can tolerate it to hear about this ‘weird stuff’ myself, especially if it has something to do with what happened to our ship.”
“Oh!” said Tompkins, as if he’d just remembered something. “We completed the translations on those alien transmissions from when the Pegasus was attacked.”
Star slowed her pace a bit. “What did they say?”
Tompkins shook his head and said, “We were only able to get the last bit, and it doesn’t really make that much sense. As best we can tell, the message was this: ‘The one sought is not present. Return to the void at once.’ And that’s it.”
Star considered it for a bit, and then shook her head. “No, that doesn’t mean much to me, either, even taking my ‘weird stuff’ into account. So… the aliens were searching for something or someone, and they nearly turned our ship inside out while looking for it before they decided that it wasn’t there, whatever it was.”
“That seems to be the long and short of it, yes,” said the doctor.
“I wonder what, or who, it was…” said Tompkins.
Star sighed and said, “I have a feeling that we’re probably going to find out sooner or later, whether we may want to or not.”
“I hope it’s later,” said Tompkins. “Much later.”
As they reached the door to Brunt’s bar, M’rrre held up a hand for them to wait for a moment. She pulled out a couple of small items that looked sort of like balls of clay or wax, though they appeared to have some circuitry embedded in them as well. She stuffed them in her ears and said, “All right, I’m ready to go. These are specially designed to dim out any noise farther away than just a few meters, so I’ll be able to hear you despite all that noise. I have a few extra pairs, if you want them.”
“No thanks,” said Star. “I’m probably not going to be much good for conversation while the music’s going, anyway. We can talk afterward. We still have a few hours before we have to return to the Pegasus, right?”
“That’s right, so let’s enjoy the rest of our leave while it lasts,” said Tompkins cheerfully.
“Thanks to these,” said M’rrre, pointing to the devices in her ears, “I just might.”
The pony and human chuckled at the Caitian as they entered the bar.
Next time, on Star Trek: Pegasus
“Let’s get this over with,” muttered Brunt, as he eyed the other Ferengi who was sitting across the bar from him.
“It’s not what you think,” said Leck. “It’s just that I have come into possession of a small trinket that I thought you might be interested in, given that you run an establishment with holosuites. Of course, if you’re not, I can always take it with me to Deep Space Nine and show it to Quark…”
“Let’s not be hasty,” said Brunt, as he examined the small yellow cube. “Yes, this does look like Federation holo tech, though it’s at least a couple of decades old. Where did you get this?”
“My contact,” said Leck, “claims it was found on a planet called Veridian III.”
“They really are very good, aren’t they?” said the gray-haired man in the tuxedo as he watched the show. “Not usually my thing, since I’m more into jazz, but still, I have to admit, this is a gas.”
“Indeed,” replied the man in the blue Starfleet uniform sitting next to him. “I’m with you on that one. I prefer opera myself, but this is indeed a wondrous performance. Hearing it described to me, I expected to be confronted with little more than a disharmonious cacophony, but this really does work. A cello and a… what was it called again?”
“A turntable, I think?” said the first man, a bit uncertainly.
“A turntable,” said his balding companion. “Who would have thought it would actually sound good together. Hmm, I wonder if they might be interested in performing a little quartet with us later. If classical cello and techno can mix well, who is to say that your cabaret and my own opera won’t fit in as well? It’s certain to be a novel experience, if nothing else. What do you say, Mr. Fontaine?”
“I’m game if you are, Doc. And please, pally, just call me Vic.”
Star Strider was glad to have a few moments to herself. The process to restart the warp drive after it had been dormant for the past two weeks hadn’t gone off without several hitches, and she was glad the whole ordeal was finally behind them. Now, she intended to spend the rest of the evening curled up in bed with a good book.
Her dreams of a quiet evening were abruptly shattered, however, when someone unexpectedly appeared out of thin air in the middle of her quarters. She yelped and scooted back on the bed, while the intruder bobbled unsteadily on the cloud top that made up the floor of the room. The man, wearing a black suit underneath a short black cape and a top hat, currently had his back to her.
“What devilry is this?!” the man shouted. “Am I standing on… clouds?!”
“Who are you, and what are you doing in my quarters?!” the pony shouted, as she scrambled off of the bed.
The man whirled around as best as he could on the unsteady surface and gawked at her. “My god, a talking horse! A talking blue horse, I should say!”
“Security!” said Star, using her magic to activate her combadge. “Intruder alert! Deck seven, crew quarters!” She looked down at her badge when it gave a low-pitched chirp, indicating connection failure.
“No, not a horse, a unicorn,” said the man, marveling at the novelty of it all. “Ah, but that little device won’t help you, I’m afraid. I had to disable the internal communications on this ship, you see.”
“Who are you?” Star asked again.
The man gave her a cursory bow and a faint smile and said, “The name is Moriarty. Professor James Moriarty. Perhaps you’ve heard of me?”
Star Trek: Pegasus
Episode 2 – “Hologram Shenanigans”
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om my...
another Holodeck catastrophe returns...
I shall enjoy reading your future chapter's. Or episode's.....
YES!
More Proper Sci-fi Ponies.
Or Traditional Magic in Space.
Or something
.
Regardless. Awsome. Well crafted crossover universe, and hasn't degraded yet. Looking forward to more.
Very nice. Looking forward to the rest of this, and it will be nice for Star that she might not have to bring a tricorder anymore. In a way she is becoming a unicorn borg in function not demeanor.
Just finished reading your fanfic.....looks really promising.
Nice work with the log entries BTW
So no significant changes in the timeline....will it follow the timeline as set in Star Trek online?
Interesting idea of Strider being able to duplicate the functions of Starfleet tech with her magic. Opens up some interesting possibilities.
BTW I am curious; any possibilities of flashback stories where we see ponies visiting the Alpha Beta quadrants between the time of WNHGB and ST:P?
visiting Quo'nos with Worf...
I would think some curious ponies would be traveling to earth and visiting other worlds. I can imagine for example what some poor pony was going through when the Breen attacked Earth during the Dominion War for example...also thinking for example of
anyway keep up the good work.
So, in the next episode Brunt buys the little holocube thing they put Moriarty in and plugs it into the holosystems on DS20. Moriarty then somehow transfers himself to the pegasus, where there are holoemitters basically all over the freakin' ship. Yeah, that's pretty bad.
As for this episode, wow, positively amazing, there is so much I could say. I'm a huge Trekkie and a brony too, so this is just amazing for me. I loved everything about this story, I am so looking forward to more.
BTW what can you tell us about the ship the USS Pegasus? If you only have a rough idea, just give a few basic details I happen to be a serious trek ship geek and I can help you flesh it out....
YAY! Moriarty is back!
Oh! I almost forgot. I too have a Star Trek pony OC, named Stella Aurora Starlight:
th08.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2011/348/e/f/stella_starlight_pinup1_by_captricosakara-d4j5bwf.png
You can tell by the uniform, she's from the 29th century. She's a Science and Engineering Officer on a Temporal Ship, Wells-Class.
If your story in the future does an episode feathering the 29th century, like the VOY episodes "Future's End" and "Relativity," you have my permission to use my character even as a cameo if you like. Her full BIO is here:
http://captricosakara.deviantart.com/art/Stella-Starlight-NEW-REFERENCE-271949323
If you want to go further and give my OC a main roll in the episode, please note me so we can compare notes and discuss the synopsis for the episode(s).
Anyways, keep up the good work on the story. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.
BTW, the creature blocking away Pinkie Pie (and no dough the Q) - whether it's related to the alien villains of not, is he the new main villain? Or one of many new villains? And what will we expect in the future?
And finally, for the next episode, will Moriarty stay on as a main character, like the Doctor from VOY?
2365985 Flashback stories from during the past 20 years are definitely a possibility for the future, though it would likely be after the main series is completed, of course, which will probably take a while given how slow I tend to be. There are certainly ponies who were and are interested in traveling to other planets and, indeed, even moving to other planets to live (such as the unnamed pony working in the San Francisco branch of Carousel Boutique).
I haven't played Star Trek Online myself so haven't been following any timeline stuff regarding that. As far as canon goes, I'm mostly just going off of the official Trek shows and movies, though there are a few exceptions to that, based on some brief references I've made to them in this and previous fics, e.g. Q-in-Law, Q-Squared, and the Q Continuum Trilogy.
2370913 I'm actually considering taking a stab at drawing up at least a schematic for it over the weekend. Bare bones details: Large saucer somewhat similar to that of a Galaxy-class, four nacelles, two-each along two upward and backward sweeping pylons. Overall size is slightly larger than a Sovereign-class, probably by around the same proportion that a Sovereign is compared to a Galaxy.
2377480 So basically a post Nemesis version of the Constellation class ships; probably about 700 meters long. Sovereign type Nacelles? Or Galaxy? Presumably designed for Long Range Exploration; with 4 nacelles, I'm guessing it is designed for extended cruises at high speed. Type XII Phasers. Will it have any sort of engineering/secondary hull?
Got an idea....basically an upgraded Galaxy Class Saucer section attached to a new larger secondary hull with four Galaxy Warp nacelles and larger internal volume. The Continuum class was specially designed for long range exploratory missions. While not as fast as the Intrepid or Prometheus class ships, it would have a cruising speed of Warp 8+. The Secondary hull would be connected by a shorter neck and the engineering hull would be larger. Starfleet used the Galaxy class saucer as a base for the design to save development time and costs.
Some design rules from Ex Astris Scientia: http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/design.htm
After some thinking, I should ask a couple of questions:
1: Does the ship need 4 nacelles? Most ships get along just fine with 2.
2. Does it need to be bigger than the Sovvie or Galaxy classes?
I highly suggest thinking about what the Continuum class is designed for. Ask yourself what the ship's role is in Starfleet; do NOT feel compelled to make it the biggest, fastest or most powerful ship in Starfleet. Most ships are usually more midsized. In fact, if you watch "ST: Voyager", you will notice that the newer classes of ships like the Intrepid, Prometheus and Nova classes are smaller than the Galaxy class. That link I posted in my last comment has some excellent advice on ship design.
2402581 Honestly, I hadn't really thought a whole lot about what the ship looked like before you asked, aside from those basic details I already mentioned. Given that I probably won't be referencing exactly how big it is or how many nacelles it has or other technical specs such as that all that often, it's not really all that important, at least not to me. I'll probably treat it with broad strokes in future episodes (after neglecting to mention such things at all in this one, which was admittedly a fairly grievous oversight on my part, in retrospect), but I'm not going for super technical accuracy as far as starship design goes, as I don't find that particularly interesting, personally.
The size of the ship being bigger than a Sovereign is definitely not set in stone, and the only real reason I said it had four nacelles is because I was intending to design the ship so that they kind of look like the "feathers" on the "wings" (i.e. the two pylons). That is, I plan to try to make the ship look as much like an actual pegasus, minus legs and tail, as I could get a Starfleet ship to look while still actually resembling a Starfleet ship and hopefully not being entirely stupid looking. In other words, it has the saucer (head), secondary hull (body, and yes, it definitely has one, as I don't care for the "pylons directly out of the back of the saucer" look that the Constellation class has), and the pylons/nacelles (wings/feathers). Whether it ends up having two or four nacelles will depend entirely upon which I think looks cooler as I'm drawing up a diagram for it. As for the saucer, I said it was going to look like the Galaxy-class, but looking more into that, I'm not sure I want the saucer to be more oblong width-wise like that or oblong length-wise like a Sovereign or just have it be more perfectly circular like the Constitution or Excelsior classes. I just know that the Intrepid-class saucer is a bit too oblong for my personal tastes.
Vaguest design description: it has the same basic, rough shape as the Constitution or Excelsior classes, i.e. saucer and secondary hull, and with the pylons attached more to the front of the nacelles than to the middle or back like the Galaxy or Intrepid classes, but with an extra pair of nacelles about halfway along the pylons (again assuming I stick with the four nacelles thing). And the pylons themselves would be more stylized, purely for aesthetic reasons on my part, with a bit more "wing"-like look than just the basic straight pylon. Sort of like how the Galaxy class has the upward curve to it, rather than just the long, straight poles you'd see on the Constitution, though I do also prefer the backward-angled pylons from the Sovereign and Constitution refit. It will probably be something of a mix between the look of a Galaxy and a Sovereign, as far as that goes. And they won't be moveable like the ones on the Intrepid class, if that matters at all.
The purpose of the ship is for deep space exploration as you mentioned in your earlier comment. Even after 20 years, they've only barely begun to crack what all is in this region of space.
As for any other tech specs, that's something I'm going to look more into before I get into writing the next eps, as I at least want to try to avoid the Defiant problem. Even if the ship will never be visually represented outside of any schematics I happen to draw up, rendering it all mostly a moot point anyway.
2374205 Thanks for the offer. If (and more likely when) I do an ep involving time travel, that's definitely something I'll keep in mind. Though it'll probably be more of an "alternate universe (with time travel)" sort of thing (and, ineffectual spoiler alert, I'm definitely already planning something along those lines, sometime down the road), since I notice in your reference sheet bio you have "first contact with Equestria sometime in the 26th century," which doesn't mesh with it taking place during TNG era here. Still, either way, that wouldn't be too big a deal for at least a cameo or something.
2403791 You can change that part about the 26th century so that the characters can actually exist in the same universe. I don't mind. Just change the 26th first contact to the 24th century in your original story and keep My Team Sakara (Sonic Heroes) characters out and we're good to go. I would love to see Stella and Star team up (kinda). My suggestion that if you allow Stella in the story, my idea would be that she's just a Temporal officer from the 29th century who serves on a Wells-Class timeship - it can even be the Relativity from the Voyager episode.
Once again, nice job. I had the pleasure of reading this series on fanfiction.net and I am still impressed with your knowledge of story format and story flow. It actually feels like I'm watching an episode of Star Trek. Well done with the holograms and doctor Bashier (or however you spell it).
Just to clear it up since I'm seeing a bit confusion on the issue here and there, the three characters referred to in the episode 2 teaser are Vic Fontaine, Voyager's EMH, and Moriarty. The only one not mentioned by name (because he doesn't have one), was The Doctor from Voyager. I thought I'd given enough hints that this was who it was (e.g. the balding head, the preference for opera, etc.) but I guess not...
Well, and also Leck talking to Brunt in the first bit, but he doesn't count since he's not a hologram.
I'm guessing that the new Continuum ships have organic circuitry in them (see Intrepid-class), which will present itself with yet another problem that can be exploited, (VOY: Macroscosm
MOAR now... Please
It's good to see this story up. Thankfully the time of this story Timeline wise, you haven't really interfered with the STO timeline events yet (as it's roughly 2388-89 if I am remembering correctly), if you want though I'm sure I and others who have actually played it (I haven't played it either but have a general idea of the plot) would provide any info you wanted. Plus if you wanted ideas for new Star Ship designs you can look up the playable starships there and see which ones would be launched at that point.
*SPOILERS!*
Almost all the problems seem to be tied back to the Iconians trying to return and reclaim the galaxy as well as general Borg menace. Though of course the way the Iconians do this leaves a massive mess across the galaxy*End of Spoilers*Of course you could ignore the timeline there all together as the disappearance of the Q Continuum and this new alien species would probably keep many of the events from occurring, as well as the addition of PinQy (the nickname I'll give her in my head for this fic) could easily throw off all those plot points anyway.
2743091 Yeah, it's currently 2389. I've actually been kind of sort of tempted to give Star Trek Online a shot myself recently, despite my relative antipathy for MMO games in general, mainly because A) it's free, and B) I've read that it's more solo-friendly than most MMOs tend to be. That said, I'll likely continue to avoid it for now, since, if nothing else, I'm already not nearly far enough along on ep 2 of this fic as I'd like to be, even without that added distraction. (Watching through Enterprise for the first time has been enough of one.) I doubt I'll be too concerned with trying to mesh the canon of this fic with the timeline of STO, though I may very well change my mind later, if I ever do get around to playing it myself, or if I get a compelling enough reason to do so otherwise. Good to know that the Borg are still kicking around, at least.
As a general status update for anyone who may still be paying attention to this, I'm currently at around 8300 words into ep 2, as of this comment, which honestly isn't all that much. I've only just gotten Moriarty reactivated and on his way to the Pegasus, for instance. Heh, this is exactly why I stated way back in the notes for "The Quandary of DisQord" that I dislike unfinished work like this, because I just knew that as soon as I started one of my own, I'd get sidetracked by real life and end up taking months between each part, and that has turned out to be true.
...................That was beautiful. you made actually start to cry
also, episodic pony adventures in space with over arching plot? YES!
MORE!
hold on pinkie!
MOAR........................ is needed.
I WILL be watching this.
Does your new evil have a name
2774073
Well I finally managed to find an actual timeline of events for STO from 2379-2409 in game so I will link you to the 2379-2389 years if you want to skim through them.
2379-2380
2381
2382
2383
2384
2385
Now unfortunately there not so neatly organized but the info is there.
2386
2387
2387 Supplemental log
2388
2388 Supplemental log
2389
2389 Supplemental log
Note the Supplemental logs appear to be Jake Sisko's interviews with an individual involved in one of the years events. (2387, With Commander Suran of the Romulan Star Empire, 2388 Ambassador Worf,, and 2389 Elim Garak, )
3160939 For the most part, most of that doesn't conflict with anything in the fic so far. Within reason, I'll try to keep it that way (though when things start to Get Real™ in later episodes, that'll probably all fly out the window anyway).
There are already some exceptions, though.
2382 - Stardate 60334.46: Admiral Owen Paris of Starfleet Research and Development orders that the U.S.S. Voyager Doctor's mobile emitter be taken to the Starfleet facility on Galor IV for study. The Doctor files a lawsuit in response; the office of the Judge Advocate General issues an injunction against the transfer of the mobile emitter until the case can be studied further.
and
2389 - In the courts, the case of the photonic life form known as The Doctor makes a small advancement after years of being stalled in hearings and appeals. On Stardate 66954.79, a Federation judge rules that the lawsuit may be expanded into a class-action suit encompassing all sentient artificial lifeforms in the Federation. "This is about more than one being and a mobile emitter," says Alyssa Cogley-Shaw, a lawyer for the Soong Foundation. "This is about basic rights."
Cogley-Shaw says that while the expansion of the lawsuit may mean that it will remain tangled in the courts for years to come, its ultimate resolution may mean an end to the forced servitude of more than 600 EMH Mark I holograms. And, as Starfleet re-equips more of its starships with holoprojectors to expand the usefulness of photonic "tools" such as the Emergency Command and Emergency Medical Holograms, someday those lifeforms may be considered Starfleet officers with all of the rights and privileges of their rank.
In the fic, all of that stuff has already long ago been dealt with and resolved. The Federation sees the Doctor (and other holograms such as Vic Fontaine) as fully sapient beings with all the rights that entails. Let's just say that in fic continuity, instead of sitting on things between 2382 and 2389, the courts instead came to a much quicker decision and ruled in the Doctor's favor. Also, at a later point, the Doctor willingly let his mobile emitter be studied (despite his initial opposition in 2382, which was probably to the fact that they were trying to force him rather than just asking him nicely) which has led to the development of mass produced mobile emitters by the time of the fic.
Another thing I found that conflicts with events in the fic is something that happens later in STO timeline (in 2393), pertaining to Moriarty himself. I found this (volume 14, chapter 5) on my own a while back which talks about the Soong Foundation suing Starfleet over the holocube and such. Obviously, in fic continuity, this won't happen given that Moriarty is already loose as of the next episode. I'd actually considered incorporating that into the fic until I realized that it won't even happen until four or so years later.
I did, however, find another little tidbit in all of that (not relating to the hologram stuff) that really intrigued me and which I'll probably be directly incorporating into an already planned episode later on down the line. I won't give away which part of it though, of course.
Lastly, since I used a reply to one of your comments as a jumping off point for a general update last time, I'll just do that again here, too. So... episode 2 is almost pretty much finished, for the most part, kind of sort of. I finished the initial draft of part 2 (finally) over Labor Day weekend and have sent it off to my pre-readers. Assuming no major issues that need to be addressed (which is by no means a certainty, because there are honestly still parts of it that I, myself, am not entirely happy with yet), I'm hoping that it'll be ready to go live in maybe another week or two, but that's best case, most likely.
3162172
Yeah I'm not to concerned with the post 2389 situation in regards to continuity, seeing how a crisis for the Q continuum would probably as I've stated up end all the factions plans.
hi hi
Star reuniting with her parents was really touching. Very well done. With all that suspense from the previous chapters, I was worried that when we got to the actual argument, it would have fallen flat, but it felt quite believable.
(If I was in her horseshoes, I might have played up the danger rather than downplaying it. Thirty seven people died, and if not for her magic, it would have been forty one. If she's ever having any doubts, I hope she remembers that she saved the away team and Tompkins' lives. I'd say thats a pretty good reason why she should be there. But I guess I understand why she downplayed the risk.)
Heh! Saw the reference to "I, Q" Great read, that book!
Yeah, the ominous yellow cube found on Veridian III, that was a clue to Moriarty. Of course there's going to be lots of fun with him on a ship with all that holodeck tech strung throughout the place. With a Vulcan captain, no less. At least their personalities will be compatible.
God, I can only imagine how entertaining it'll get when they do finally manage to pull DisQord back into their universe and onto the Pegasus
Not bad at all so far. I really like the whole magic/Q level of shenanigans so far. I wish I didn't know that it hasn't been updated in along while but such is life. Maybe at some point this fic can come alive again.
Sooo... Star can gain new spells by attempting to fix/analyze a pice of tech... If that's the case, why has nopony (or body) given her a broken photon torpedo already?
Also: the odds of navigating an asteroid field are 3,720 to 1 (the more you know...)
Too bad this fic is dead.