//------------------------------//
// Strange New World 
// Story: QQ More 
// by LightStriker 
//------------------------------//

	Jean-Luc was standing on top of a grassy hill and around him unrolled kilometers of green in all direction, not unlike the vast fields of the familiar business. Missing only the red and green dots of the grapes and he could believe he was back in France. The Sun, quite similar to Earth's, was high in the sky and he was almost expecting his wife to call for him for diner. He had months of permission to take and unlike decades before, he was looking forward every days passed with his son. Taking a deep breath, he smelled dozen types of flowers and herbs that helped in no way separating him from his vision of his native planet.

The illusion literally came crashing down the moment he tried to turn around to have a better view of his surroundings. Something with his body wasn't working properly and his face met the ground painfully. He brought his hands forward to get up and for the first time notice they were missing. Picard knew a hoof when he saw one, the family had a few horses and younger, he did enjoy riding them. He even shoed them a few time with the help of his father. In front of his eyes, stood two black hooves with a dark red feathering, not unlike the command red of Starfleet.

"Q!" he screamed. "What have you done to me?"

He heard laughter on his right and managed to roll enough to see its source. "You should see the look on your face, priceless!"

"Q!"

Q was sitting on a large rock, his back against a tree. Somehow his admiral suit was gone, replaced by something that wouldn't be out of style in a ranch in southern America. "Welcome on a strange new world, mon capitaine," he said with a large irritating smile.

"Why did you change me into a horse?"

Q pushed up his large Stetson hat. "Ponies, Jean-Luc... Ponies. Locals don’t really like being call names." He chewed a few time on a long straw of hay. "Don't you have any consideration for the prime directive? The inhabitants haven't built their first orbital rockets yet. Do you really think I would drop the old bald you in a place, a universe, where humans don't exist? You should be happy, I even gave you some hairs."

On that, a breeze of wind blew something black in front of Picard's eyes. He raised a hoof and tried to push it off. It took him a while to notice the move that no equine of his planet could perform. "Are you telling me the sentient beings here are ponies?"

"Not all of them."

Jean-Luc took a moment to think about that last bit of information. "How many sentient species exist on this planet?"

Q's smile went wide. "Always the scientist! Dozen species!"

"That's..."

"Impossible? I told you, Jean-Luc, this is a different universe, different rules apply here. Even the laws of physics doesn't work the same way here."

Picard took a deep breath. "Alright. But does the local really have a red coat like that?"

Q laughed. "It was red or pink. But I'm not all heartless as you would think, I took your feelings into consideration,” he explained while trying to stay serious. “I do admit you would have been stunning in bright pink." Q leaned on his knee with a huge smile that didn't help putting the captain at ease. "You're in for lot of awkward moments, mon capitaine, and I'm looking forward every one of them."

"Hey! You there!" a voiced screamed behind the captain. With some difficulty, Picard managed to turn around without tripping on his hooves. An orange pony was trotting toward him. Its head was much larger in proportion to its body compared to horses he used to ride. As it came closer, he noticed its eyes were also much bigger than any Earth's animal. The pony was wearing a hat quite similar to Q's. Looking to his left, where Q was sitting, he found the omnipotent being was gone, no doubt the incoming pony didn't see him. 

As the pony was only a few meters away, Picard noticed some female features to its shape. But if there is something you learn quickly from performing first contact with dozen species is to never assume anything.

"Hi." At least Picard was happy to understand their language as it would have been very troublesome without the universal translator.

"You're Pie Card, right? My contact in Manehattan said they were sending you to help with the farm, something about a doctorate in agriculture and the need to be in the field?" She said with a southern accent.

"It's Picard."

The pony raised an eyebrow in a very human manner. "Ah, I'm sorry, never understood any fancy accent of them." She lowered her hat and smiled. "Anyway, name's Applejack. Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres." For the first time, he noticed endless rows of apple tree behind her. She raised a hoof toward him.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Jean-Luc raised a hoof in a similar manner and she quickly bumped hers into his.

"And... Who would be your 'contact' in... Manehattan?"

"I never meet him. Name's Cupid from what I heard. A weird fancy name I tell you."

Q... pid?

Picard sat down on his rear which, to his surprise, felt quite natural. "I'm afraid our mutual... friend didn't tell me what I was supposed to do here."

Applejack frowned. "Well, I asked for help in applebucking since Big Macintosh... my brother is gone to help the family in Appleloosa."

"Applebucking?"

She gave him a weird look. "You know, bucking tree so apples fall off?"

"I'm afraid I never did anything like that. But I'm hard working, if you show me how to, I'm sure I can learn very quickly," he said with a weak smile showing up on his face.

There's no point trying to run away, no choice but to play along.

A smile lightened up her face. "At least you're an honest fellow." She turned around and started to walk away. "Come, we'll see what you're made of."

Jean-Luc got up to follow her and promptly tripped on his front hooves, landing face first on the ground. 





The Sun was almost gone when Picard left the farm, his whole body shaking from the efforts. His youth on the family's vineyard didn't prepare his for this. While he was used to the effort of a full day of manual labor, his body never had to kick, or buck he remembered, trees like that. The first dozen trees were the hardest as he didn't know the strength required. His legs didn't let him forget the pain when he bucked his first tree as hard as he could. His whole body vibrated violently and his teeth collided in pain. 

The orange mare laughed so hard at the look of distress painting his face but quickly explained that if he would hit that hard a few more times, he would no doubt split one of his hoof open and his next weeks of work would be over. He had to hit the next few trees multiple times, the apples stubbornly refusing to fall. It took him well over half the day before he could say he found the correct amount of force needed, but even then, many trees required multiple attempts. On her side, Applejack appeared to always need a single buck to clean a whole tree of its fruits.

As the day was coming to an end, she gave him a piece of paper with an address on it. Somehow, it appears Q managed to get him some place to live in the nearby town. Jean-Luc was actually surprised that the omnipotent being would think of some details like that. He was almost half way to the small village when his brain noticed something he failed to the whole day; on Earth, no matter how strong a kick, they would be no way to make every apples fall off a tree. 

I guess he's right about rules being different here. I wonder how different.