//------------------------------// // Recoveries // Story: The Quest For Iscanter // by eternalsquire //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle just woke up from happy dreams of her childhood playing with Cadence. Pinkie Pie had been shaking her shoulder. "Twilight! Breakfast!", Pinkie whispered urgently. "What've you got?" "Your favorite fifty-fifty barley and brown rice mix, in a self-serve feed bag. Apples and carrots for you and Trixie to share.", Pinkie said. "Captain's orders. Roughage in the majority of our diet shall be mandatory. Bread and desserts will only be served on evenings. Nothing more embarassing, Avatar said, than to see a pony need to see the dentist we don't have." "Thanks", Twilight yawned. "Look, I've got something to tell you about the doctor." "Really?" "He's Trapper McIntosh!", Twilight exclaimed. "So what?", Pinkie asked. "So what!", Twilight exclaimed. "This is the vet who eight years ago mercy killed two ponies injured badly from a train wreck northeast of Manehatten. Don't you care?" "Of course I care!", Pinkie claimed. "But he was found not guilty. What's the problem? Is our chief medical officer a vet?" "No.", Twilight answered. "He emigrated to Big Island and went to thier medical school. That's not the problem." "I can't believe," Pinkie said, standing with forelegs crossed, "that you'd be such a hypocrite as to hold what he absolutely had to do, against him, just because he had follow higher laws than existed on the books. I read the news too, you know!" "Pinkie! That's not the problem either!", Twilight responded with an edge to her voice. "So what is the problem?" "Fluttershy had been involved. He let it slip to Luna and I today." "So, Fluttershy helped him mercy-kill those ponies?", Pinkie asked, incredulously, wide-eyed. "NO!", Twilight Sparkle growled in frustration. "Then DON'T WORRY!", Pinkie Pie smiled brilliantly at her friend. "I passed the doctor on his way up to the bridge to make his report to the captain about Trixie. My Pinkie Sense says the poop should be hitting the fan for Fluttershy just about any moment now..." . . . Trapper walked up the stairs to the bridge. Good exercise, he thought, I should do this more often!. He had never been up this way before. He and the captain had only met once, on Big Island, and that just before launch. He wondered what the bridge would look like. He should actually have been wondering who would be on the bridge, because the destiny he had given up on finding a very long time ago, was now about to finally arrive and hit him harder than a metaphorical ton of bricks. He entered the bridge through the rear hatchway. Captain Avatar Apple was sitting behind a console half a furlong in front of the entrance. Rarity was in the front, right center. Rainbow Dash was in the front, left center. Forest Snow was at the far right, and Luna was at the far left. "Welcome to the bridge, finally, Doctor!", Avatar said. "Glad to see you at work, finally, Captain!", the physician said. "What brings you up here?", the captain asked. "I need to make a report on a patient:", Trapper said. "Twlight Sparkle is going to...." Trapper's voice trailed off, because he just noticed one more crew member. A pegasus. Blonde body and wings. Bright red mane. The cutie mark of butterflies. Could it be..., he thought in amazement. "Uh, doctor, just why are you starting at...", Avatar started. The pegasus turned toward Trapper. Defintely a mare. Definitely emerald green eyes beneath very feminine eyelashes. Her jaw dropped in surprise the instant she saw his face. "By the sweet virgin mare...", she breathed softly in astonishment. "IT'S YOU!", they both shouted at each other in amazed joy. Trapper walked to the front of the bridge where she was standing, They looked deeply into each others' eyes. "Ahem...", the captain attempted to interrupt. "I'm...", Trapper tried to begin. "Doctor Jock 'Trapper' McIntosh, exiled from Equestria long ago.", the beautiful pegasus spoke softly to him, smiling. "But I never did learn your name.", the doctor said. "Fluttershy.", the pegasus told him. "Our communications officer.", Avatar supplied. "You were so incredible out there, Fluttershy.", Trapper said. "I couldn't help but fall in love with you from afar." Complete silence reigned on the bridge as the others witnessed the scene, dumbstruck. The doctor raised the stakes. He knelt in front of Fluttershy, bowing his head before her. "I can't help but completely adore you now. I choose you as my destiny, you as my forever. Will you marry me?" "I always hoped I'd find you once again someday", Fluttershy said softly, her forehooves clasped together, and her eyes filling with happy tears. "Now get off the deck, my silly pony, and hear my answer." Trapper stood up to face her. "Yes, Jock.", she said. "I love you more than I can possibly understand. I love you more than you can possibly imagine. Most definitely, without any doubt whatever: yes. I will marry you! "CAN SOMEPONY KINDLY TELL ME WHAT THE SERVICE IS GOING ON IN MY BRIDGE?", Avatar demanded. Luna left the bridge engineering station, approached the captain, then whispered quickly and urgently into his ear. Jock didn't hear him. Neither did Fluttershy. Right now the only world which existed was each other, as they embraced and then began kissing passionately. Luna finished her whispered explanation. "Aw, perdition..", the captain said in a much more subdued tone. He clapped his forehooves together in applause, and the other onlookers followed him. Jock's flank shimmered. Butterflies identical to Fluttershy's then appeared there. His cutie mark had finally arrived, so late in adulthood, because after much searching he found that his destiny was to love and care for Fluttershy! Avatar was hard pressed to remain stoic upon seeing the magic finally happen to Jock, as he had an example to set, but otherwise there wasn't a dry eye on the bridge witnessing it. The loving couple soon came up for air. They faced the captain. "Captain", Trapper said, "in deep space, you speak for Equestria and for The Crysanthemum Empire, do you not?" "I know what you're about to say, Doctor.", Avatar replied. "I have the power to marry you two." "May I respectfully request that power be used on behalf of Fluttershy and I?", Trapper asked. "May I respectfully point out we have a war going on?", the captain replied. "I might make you two ponies one till death do you part, but that one will still be subject to the needs of the many, and death might part you two tragically at any time." "Our marriage will yield to the mission, and to you, at need, sir.", Fluttershy replied soberly. "We promise." "Fine.", Avatar said. "Let it be recorded in the log of our ship the Yamato that Jock 'The Trapper' McIntosh, medical doctor and chief medical officer, is now the husband of Fluttershy, the communications officer. I wish you two many happy years together, assuming we all survive the times which are to come. The two of you have my permission to share quarters." "Thank you, sir.", Trapper said modestly. "Don't thank me yet, Trapper", the captain warned. "I want you and I up in my quarters to make the report you originally intended before all this pony manure just happened. Fluttershy, kindly keep your mind on your work until the end of your shift." "Yes sir.", Fluttershy said. "Thank you, sir." Now, I wonder what my XO would have thought of all this had she seen it? , Avatar wondered. . . . The target of Avatar's musings leaned against a padded wall and ate her breakfast. She then went to the medical bay's lavatory to take case of essential needs. Upon her return, she noticed Trixies eyes were open. Then she noticed Trixie was smiling at her. "Hi, Trixie!", Twilight greeted her. "Why am I here?", Trixie asked. "One moment it's flaming rocks falling and destroying everything around me, and the next moment I've just noticed I've been packed away like a spider's lunch!" "You've been having a very bad time. Call it a nightmare, at least for now." "Sure. But The Great Trixie is supposed to be a stage magician, not an escape artist. Am I supposed to entertain you?" "Not today." "So..." "Trixie, a little while ago, you were having a terrible nightmare, and we begged Luna to end it for you, which she did, but the price was high. We didn't know if the nightmare would carry over once you woke up, so we wanted to make sure you didn't hurt yourself." "Oh. Sometimes nightmares do work like that, don't they? What did Luna want in exchange?" "It's not like that. It wasn't anything Luna asked for nor got." "Look", Trixie sighed, "It's really great for you to be keeping me company. But I want you to stop being so mysterious. Tell me what's going on." "We're not sure you can handle the shock of hearing the entire truth all at once. We've all be facing a nightmare far worse than the one you just left. That's why you're in restraints. As a precaution." "Twilight, I'll only tell you this once. Quit patronizing me." The purple alicorn sighed. "You sure?" Trixie glared at her. "All right. Eight years ago, a civilization far away in space wanted our world for themselves. They dropped rocks on us having enough energy from motion alone to devastate our biosphere, and decimate us along with it. About a year ago, Celestia contacted a different civilization in space for help. The enemy are the Gallopon, and our friends are the Iscanter. The princess of Iscanter offered us some type of magic to restore our world, but said we had to come get it ourselves. She gave Celestia directly the plans for the engine system of the ship we're riding on now. About a month or so ago, Iscanter sent a messenger with the power core for that engine." "So, we're no longer in Equestria?" "We're been in deep space for five weeks now." "How deep?" "We've already made our first jump to another star.." "Oh my!" "And that's only the first step. Iscanter lies at the edge of the Cloud of Dreams." Trixie just blinked. "Eight years ago, you say. But to me, that was just moments ago. Just what did you do to me?" "Um... everything you knew or ever were fond of had been destroyed by those rocks and as a result you lost your sanity. Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and I agreed to stop time for you till we had a better idea. In a way, you're lucky. The price you paid for your rescue was to lose eight years of history... the history the rest of us have been going through." "Oh. So why aren't I screaming crazy now?" "At least a couple reasons. The main one, is that our doctor gave you a medicine to make you sleep once Luna lifted the time stop spell, to break the mental state you were suffering which made the spell necessary in the first place. Now that you are awake, a smaller dose of it will keep you calm until you are more certain of yourself. The other, I suppose, is you have a good friend looking after you to give you answers to questions." "You, I suppose." "Yes, Trixie, me. You've been a trial to me and others at times, but I think all you've ever really needed during those times was just a friend you couldn't intimidate, who''d you allow to show you the truth about yourself so you could learn." "So, we're aboard a ship?" "Yes." "How many of us are on board?" "Between fifty and sixty." "And now, you have another. How many of us left on Equestria?" "A tenth of us, in underground shelters. We have eleven months to restore Equestria... or else..." "They die." "That's right...", Twilight Sparkle sighed. "Or else... they die." "If you only had room for fifty or sixty, why pick me to go along with you? Is it because I'm The Great Trixie?" "I'll only tell you this once. We have a captain upstairs, name of Avatar Apple, who won't stand for that kind of nonsense. You're either 'just Trixie' now or you'll learn to be 'just Trixie' the hard way from him. He's the most experienced sailor we have left, an earth pony who in deep space Celestia has decreed outranks even royalty. He's been tough on me. He's been tough on us all. Cross him, and suffer the consequences." Trixie nodded. "So why..." "How do you feel now about the kind of creatures who did all this to us?" "I want to KILL... THEM... ALL!", she shrieked in rage. "Good. We'll be happy to turn you loose on some, but you follow the captain's order when, all right?" "What weapons can I use?" "We're hoping just yourself will be weapon enough. I'm the only teleporter on this ship. Over the past eight years, I've learned to turn teleporting into a devastating weapon. You're the only other pony who even has the potenital to learn what I know. That's why we brought you. We need more than one of us to deal with point defense." "What's 'point defense'?" "We'll tell you as you learn how to use teleporting for point defense." "I've tried learning how to teleport from you one once before. What makes you think I'd be successful this time?" "Luna can help us."