It was almost twenty-four hours into the journey back to Equestria, when Twilight Sparkle woke up again. She was lying on a soft mattress, covered by some sort of blanket... it felt wrong. It was too light and too warm to be her blanket. For a moment she idly wondered where she was and whether anypony would mind if she slept in for five more minutes...
...and then memory rapidly returned. Three days awake in pursuit of their goal, a legion of bipedal Nightmares, Nightmare Sweetie Belle, a burst of rainbow light, somecreature trying to get into her mind, repelled by Luna...
Twilight's eyes shot open, and she clambered to her hooves. Somehow, the too-light blanket tangled around her legs, and she fell to the side, bouncing on the soft mattress.
“YOU'RE AWAKE!” yelled a familiar voice from slightly above her head. A moment later, a pair of scaly arms wrapped around Twilight's neck.
Twilight looked up, and saw Pinkie looking down, a wide grin on her face. She reached out one foreleg to hug Spike back.
“Pinkie? Spike?” she asked. “Is everything okay?”
“It is now.” said Spike, quite firmly.
“Everything's perfectly-perfect!” said Pinkie, starting to bounce up and down. “Rainbow's sparring with Var'aQ in the hold, the Crusaders and Sunek are taking Rarity and Applejack on a tour of the ship, you're on a mattress on the floor in the forward observation deck, Spike's hugging you, I'm telling you where everypony else is, Fluttershy's the last one who's still asleep -”
“Not anymore.” said a very quiet voice, from behind Twilight.
“- Flim and Flam are exploring the ship on their own – making an inventory, they said – Sarah's gone down to one of the rooms to have a nap, David -”
“Stop.” said Twilight, holding up one hoof. “Varrak? Sunnek? Say-rah? Who are these ponies?”
“Oh, they're not ponies.” said Pinkie. “They're aliens!”
“Are they the ones who kidnapped the girls?”
“No, silly! That was Pog and Frem. They're tied up in one of the holds, and somepony – well, actually, somealien – makes sure to keep an eye on them, all the time! Sunek set it up. He's nice, he reminds me of my sister.”
Twilight mentally began to prepare for an alien as energetic and exuberant as Pinkie Pie. “Then where did these aliens come from?” she asked.
“Weeelllllll... you know the Nightmare got hold of the Crusaders and then we blasted it with the Elements?” asked Pinkie.
“Yes, Pinkie. I was there.”
“Well, they were aliens that had been caught by the Nightmare earlier! And when we freed the girls, we freed them, too! Which is good, 'cause it turns out that flying this thing is super-duper complicated, but lucky some of the aliens already knew how to fly a ship like this, so we're going to be back in Equestria in just two days! Oh, and talking of which, Celestia wanted to talk to you when you got up! After breakfast.”
“Celestia's here?” asked Twilight, suddenly realising that she was by no means presentable – she probably had a terrible bedmane, she hadn't had a bath in far too long, and she had only the vaguest idea of what was going on.
“No, don't be silly!” said Pinkie. “Not even the Princesses can teleport that far. But they've got one of those magic window talky thingys on the bridge, which is a really weird name for it 'cause it's not actually a bridge, it's really just the place they steer the ship from, and I don't know why they call it that because there isn't any water underneath, I checked, and there isn't a parapet to lean on and watch the traffic from either, which there normally is on a bridge if it's a bridge over a road, only there isn't any traffic to watch either, only this really really big magic window thingy...”
Twilight's stomach growled. It was the prolonged, angry growl of a stomach that hasn't had anything put into it in the last twenty-four hours.
Pinkie gasped. “Breakfast!” she said. “You've got to come have breakfast! Come on, I'll show you something neat!”
“Yeah!” said Spike. “This is cool!”
She dragged Twilight and Spike to an alcove in the wall. Pinkie frowned at it for a few moments, then picked up a coin – a little larger than a bit – from a small alcove and put it in a slot on the side of the machine. It fell in, there was a clatter and a couple of rattling noises, and then the coin dropped back into the alcove that Pinkie had taken it from. At the same time, Spike pressed a few buttons labelled in alien script.
Twilight sat down and stared, vaguely hoping that this had something to do with breakfast. Hopefully, there would be coffee involved.
There was a faint humming noise, and then a plate of hay and a bowl of oatmeal porridge appeared, apparently from nowhere.
Twilight blinked, and stared.
“We can make it do water, as well,” said Pinkie, “but those are the only buttons Sunek showed me.”
“Where does it come from?” asked Twilight. “How does it get there?”
Spike shrugged. “I dunno.” he said. “Teleportation?”
Twilight frowned at the basic breakfast. She levitated it out of the alcove and put it to one side. “Do that again,” she said “I want to take a closer look this time.” Her horn took on a faint glow.
“Sure!” said Pinkie. She picked up the coin, dropped it in the slot, while Spike hit the same series of buttons again. There was a shimmer, and another bale of hay and bowl of porridge appeared; apparently identical to the last set.
“...it's not teleportation.” she said. “There's no hint of spatial twisting or another endpoint. It's almost as if it's being... constructed. Out of nothing. But that's... not scientifically possible! You can't construct something out of nothing! You have to construct something out of something! My breakfast is not scientifically possible!”
Pinkie shrugged. “You should probably eat it before it gets cold.” she suggested. “Cold porridge isn't very good.”
Twilight's objections were drowned out by the grumbling of her stomach. But before she even took a bite of her porridge, she noticed something else odd.
“What's this spoon made of?” she asked.
“I dunno.” said Pinkie. “Sunek said something about long-chain polymers or something...”
“Did somepony mention breakfast?” asked Fluttershy's quiet voice, from behind Twilight.
“FLUTTERSHY!” yelled Pinkie. “YOU'RE AWAKE! You're the last one! Now as soon as you've had breakfast and Twilight's spoken to Celestia, we can have our Alien Party!”
UPDATE! what is it with all the short chapters here recentally in all the good stories oh well at least we've gotten another chapter
4257926
Dealing with Equestria leaves the Federation in a bit of a dilemma; on the one hand, they really really want to figure out how the Equestrians do what they do, and on the other hand, the last thing they want is to turn Equestria into 'just another Federation world' - which they probably fear would happen if they started trading technology in earnest. They want the Equestrians to keep being unique until they've had a proper chance to study that uniqueness; but if they don't properly control what does and does not make it onto the planet, they risk cultural contamination.
So they're taking things very very slowly for the moment.
4257839
Here you go.
4263479
It would make sense, then, for Starfleet Command not to tell Picard, wouldn't it? After all, they know his history with the Borg as well...
4263735
For Twilight, sufficiently analysed magic is the cornerstone of science.
4273333 i think ur forgetting something rather important here...the Federation Prime Directive...that they will not interfere with the cultural or technological development of any race or society. a fuller explanation can be found here...
thanks for the update
Looks like Twilight doesn't have atomic-level resolution on whatever divination that is. Also, her first encounter with plastic. I suspect that Sunek and she will be having a long, mutually confusing conversation.
Also, a coin-operated replicator. The ultimate symbol of post-scarcity, and you have to pay to use it. Only on a Ferengi ship.
Eagerly looking forward to more.
4273429
>Star Fleet personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship, unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture.
Plus IIRC, one of the explicit exceptions in the Prime Directive occurs when the Society in question is A) Already aware of the Federation or other stellar civilizations and B) Explicitly requests aid or assistance.
4273333 Fair enough but much like with Harry saving the philosopher's Stone was a "complete secret" And the fact He's basically one of the few case studies they have in de assimilated drones.(I'm sure there's more but aside from the x-men crossover I haven't read any of the novels. So forgive my ignorance if they somehow ended up coming across a few dozen/hundred drones that wound up being liberated.) Along with the fact that the more people are aware of something the harder it is to keep under wraps especially given how effective communications tech is in Star Trek it's really only a matter of time until he finds out.
Also I wonder how Twilight and the girls will handle all of this. Finding out how the Borg work is bound to interest them all to one extent or another. I'm sure Pinkie won't give it much thought but Twilight and Fluttershy are sure to be interested in the information to a great deal. AJ and Dashes' opinions on them are bound to change slightly knowing that the Borg are savable.
Let's not forget we still have one missing changeling drone to worry about. I wonder shy she's seemed to slip everyone's minds for the moment. Something tells me this doesn't bode well at all. Just as I don't think the Flim Flam brothers are going to get much good from their tour and inventory of the ship.
As a side note I love how Pinkie's able to get her money back from the coin op replicator. A decive that I'm sure with confound, inspire, and confuse Twilight to no end once she gets a proper breakdown on what it is and how it works.
And so Twilight Sparkle discovers the wonders of plastic.
This. Is HILARIOUS!!!
I don't even WATCH Star Trek and these chapters have me laughing my ASS off! The idea that ponies can confound all known science and throw it, CASUALLY, in the face of a Vulcun has me giggling to no end.
Props to you Sir!
Edit: and they have a Q, stoned out of his mind (pun intended), in the garden. Love it.
4274083
ok, ouch...
Pinkie's sister is a vulcan, it all makes sense now. Just like how spock's half brother was that creepy emotional guy trying to find a starship for god.
4273970
There is also the Omega Directive I believe it was called. It's so dangerous that they will ignore the Prime Directive to destroy the particles because it literally makes travel impossible beyond Sub light levels of Impulse.
4273429
Technically, after the first chapter, Equestria is no longer exactly a pre-warp civilisation. Despite this, the Federation is trying to keep any interference to an absolute minimum... there wouldn't be any ponies in space at all if it wasn't for the actions of a couple of Ferengi, which the Federation is trying to correct for (mainly in order to rescue the victims. The Federation's not entirely heartless).
It also helps that, as Alanith pointed out 4273970 , the Princesses are aware of the Federation, they asked for help, and it's most certainly not an internal Equestrian matter.
(There may be some argument about what happens to the Ferengi ship afterwards).
4273483
4273531
Pog wouldn't allow any other type on his ship. How else will he get all of Frem's money, after all?
4274065
A good point. No doubt Picard will find out eventually. But it might take him a while.
Dawn will be mentioned again... and you're right, it doesn't bode well.
Anypony can; someone's broken the lock on the little chamber at the bottom that normally holds the coins. I suspect one of the Klingons, or possibly Applejack.
4274083
yay!
4274069
Wonderful, isn't it?
4275727
She'd just fit right in on Vulcan, wouldn't she?
4276744 ok yeah, prior to making that post, i had not read the story at all, so i didnt know about the foalnappings or anything else...still, the Prime Directive would still seem to apply...
4276744 Awe I thought she'd figured out how to game the system. I could so see pinkie Pulling a Bender and having the coin on a string.
Indeed it Might take Picard a while to work this out but once he does his reaction should be priceless. Even more so if Q ever tells him about his relationship with the peoples of Equis.
4277784
Gasp! Commenting on a story without reading it first? What madness be this?
...but you've read it now, right?
Good, then, it's all okay.
4278142
She has; you game the system by forcing open the box at the bottom that collects the coins.
Besides, I have no doubt that Ferengi coin-operated machinery can pick up whether or not there's a string tied around the coin. Ferengi take their coin-operated machinery very very seriously.
(The fact that I honestly hadn't thought of tying a string around the coin may also be a factor...)
4283824 it was a logical assumption to be made, given the information at the time. but u r correct, had i not read the story...i would still be living in blissful ignorance about that terrible pun regarding Discord in the comments...
4283824 Weather you thought of it or not isn't the point. the ferengi likely would have. They also would have thought about slugs as well. Still without known the coin op was broke my mind jumped to her pulling a Bender because while I have my issues with Pinkie Pie I still quite like her and could easily see her being cleaver enough to fool24th century tech.
Before anyone asks Pinkie's so called "Forth wall" breaking/reality warping and loony toons esc abilities drive me up a wall sometimes especially with her being innocently oblivious or not giving all the information and still being "in the right" like what happened with "Swarm of the century" and "Feeling Pinkie Keen." I like her but yeah she drives me nuts.
4283952 i believe...thats the idea...
4283952
I like to think that she just randomly guesses a whole lot of stuff all the time, and is only rarely right. But because those rare times are more dramatic, they're all shown on camera.
4283858
The puns... will last... FOREVER!
(We need a Nightmare Moon emote)
4286860 what a drama queen...
4422005
I have no idea. I can only imagine it'll help when I finish it and stick that 'completed' sign up.
4423278 conceivably. I've read all of what you've written, and even though some factual issues exist, I still think that this very well written. just saying.
4423669
Thank you very kindly. I do appreciate it.
How did I not see a Vulcan / Maud comparison coming. Well played.
What you did there, I see. Haha, I say.
See, silly? I knew you could laugh!
Laughter is illogical...
Yes I am!!
Did somepony forget about mass-
energymagic conversion again?Did the Borg probe get harmonized?
4274069
Don't you need plastic for film? Think: that old video explaining wing power and lifting water to Cloudsdale.
Well, it's not coming from nothing, just that the atoms being emplaced are assembling rather fast.
9806584
I think the probe left the Ferengi ship as bait for the Bearers, and redirected a cube based on the known speed of Captain Anderson's ship. They weren't harmonized.