Equestria's first warp drive

by CCC

Three Days

It was a long three days, in Equestria.

Celestia tried to send another letter to Spike. There was no reply.

Rarity spent the first day pacing, back and forth, back and forth, in the room the Princess had provided for her.

Rainbow Dash took to the air and flew. She didn't care much for where – she just flew, caring only for speed. There were no less than fifteen sonic rainbooms that day, spread through Equestria, and rumours abounded.

Applejack sat on the balcony, and watched the skies.

Pinkie got into the castle kitchens, and began to bake. And bake. And bake. After the first three hours, one of the royal cooks quietly sent some of the guard out for more flour, sugar, and eggs, and the Princess ended up sending the extra cakes out to close on half on Canterlot.

Fluttershy calmly took the train back to Ponyville. She arranged for her animals to be fed and cared for, over an indefinite period; informed the Cakes that Pinkie would be away for a while; hung a 'Closed' sign on Rarity's door; talked to the mayor about a temporary substitute librarian; and told Big Mac (over supper) what was going on, and that Applejack would be a while.

Twilight Sparkle studied. In the afternoon, she studied under Princess Luna, learning how to modify a shield spell into a space-twisting warp drive, and how to track it once it had passed.

In the morning, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia had had an argument.

* * *

“I do not see why.” said Luna, coldly.

“Because,” said Celestia, “I need you here.”

“Thou art able to raise both sun and moon.” pointed out Luna.

“Yes.” said Celestia. “That's not why I need you to stay. It's a matter of security.”

“Thou hast kept Equestria secure for a thousand years without our aid.” said Luna. “What is it that hath changed so in the short interval since that time?”

“The Elements of Harmony found new bearers.”

“And?”

Celestia sighed, and looked out over the balcony. “Do you remember Sombra?” she asked.

“Ruler of the Crystal Empire? Was he not destroyed?”

“By the Elements.” said Celestia. “Do you remember Obsidian?”

“Aye, I recall that he was defeated -”

“By the Elements of Harmony. Do you remember Discord?”

“Aye, he -” Luna stopped, as she realised what Celestia's point was.

“Was turned to stone, by the Elements of Harmony.” finished Celestia. “We both thought he was dead. And then, once they had new Bearers, he broke free to terrorise Equestria again.” Celestia took a deep breath. “The Elements have been used, Luna, and used often. It may be – in fact it is likely – that all of those defeated by the Elements have been destroyed permanently. But what if they are not? The Elements and their Bearers, Luna, are about to leave this entire solar system. If any one of these threats raises itself again, I may not be able to handle it on my own. And I can't ask the Bearers of the Elements not to go; not with Spike, and their younger sisters, among the victims. I need you, Luna. I need you to stay here with me.”

Luna glared at Celestia for several minutes. Then she asked, “Who will track this 'Pog', if I am to remain?”

“I need to ask that you teach what you know to Twilight.” said Celestia. “In three days, I am quite certain that she could master it.”

* * *

On the second day, the Royal Guard reported to Celestia that there was no sign of anyone called Red Dawn having gone missing in Manehatten a week ago.

Rarity sat in the same room as Luna and Twilight, trying to understand how the warp spell worked. It was quickly clear that she was very, very far out of her depth.

Rainbow Dash, thoroughly exhausted, spent most of the day asleep.

Applejack had moved from the balcony to the top of Canterlot's tallest tower. She watched the sky.

Pinkie Pie managed to bake, and decorate, even more cakes than she had made on the previous day.

Fluttershy said her goodbyes, and took the train from Ponyville to Canterlot.

Twilight, much to Luna's surprise, managed to find a correlation to Starswirl's Third Law showing that magic could not penetrate a warp bubble. This explained why nothing more had been heard from Spike. She also managed to create a very small, approximately one-millimetre diameter warp bubble, which took a small puff of air almost as far as Fillydelphia before collapsing.

* * *

On the third day, five of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony stood on the roof of the tallest tower, staring at the sky, and waiting.

The sixth, Twilight, continued her studies, gathering a selection of some books to bring with, in case there was time for further research on the way.

Celestia spoke to the Admiral again, confirming the arrival time of the promised spaceship.

It was a long three days, in Equestria.

* * *

It was a long three days, in a Ferengi prison cell.

Much to Spike's dismay, there was no further word from Celestia; no letters arrived. Frem returned, on occasion, always holding a rectangular device; a few taps on it caused another meal to appear in all the cells, and emptied the bucket.

Dawn would sometimes talk with Flam, or the Crusaders, or Spike; but never while Frem was in the room. And Frem never tried to talk to her. Flam found himself idly wondering how Dawn had persuaded their captors that she was not intelligent, but he had no wish to end the strange charade. After all, it might be helpful later.

Whatever strange engine was vibrating the floor continued to do so.

Applebloom spent most of her time kicking at one spot on the back wall. She didn't have the strength of her older sister, but perhaps if she kept going, she could knock something loose.

Following her example, Spike tried turning teeth that could casually chew diamond to the wall.

After three days, the wall was unchanged, unmarked.

Flam spent most of his time sitting quietly, observing.

It was a long three days.

Comments

[CCC]

3342579

I am glad to hear it.

3368297

Some ponies more so than others...

[FaceDeer]

Oh, this is fantastic. I love the way Equestria's contact with the Federation is just a normal part of the background that both sides are adjusting to well, allowing the two "universes" to interact without getting too hung up on all the details of first contact and such. And how both the Ferengi and the ponies have tricks that the other are unaware of, allowing for some nice even cat-and-mousing.

There's one other fanic I know of that uses this sort of premise, if you're interested in reading another; Just Plain and Simple Tailors.

It's also quite interesting how you've had Chyrsalis replace Cadence so far back along the timeline. Shining will need to re-propose to her right before the proper wedding, I guess. :)

[Gyro Pony]

This is a beautiful union of trek-science and mlp pony magic!
It's all in how you you've taken two impossible worlds (warp speed star trek and mlp magic) and managed to fit them together.

I never thought I would hear Starswirl's laws used in the same sentence as warp field mechanics.
And the characters aren't OOC either. Keep it up!

[CCC]

3378722

Thank you, that's the nicest sort of comment to get.

It makes a lot of sense to me that they should both adjust well; Starfleet often meets other, previously unknown civilisations, from virtual cavemen right up to the Q Continuum. They've got entire fleets of diplomats trained in hundreds of First Contact scenerios, and enough problems that the last thing they want is another war. And, on the other side, the ultimate authority is Celestia, who's a great believer in the power of Friendship and knows exactly how not to start a war (and, should that fail, how to end a war with a decisive victory). It seems far, far more likely that they should adjust well than not.

I enjoyed that story you linked; though I kept expecting Rarity to quietly report back to Twilight on Garak's esionage in an epilogue...

3382621

Thank you, this is also the nicest sort of comment to get. Even without using DisQord, these universes can be made to fit well... simply assuming that their seperate magics (and subspace is magic, never let anyone tell you different, it's simply sufficiently studied magic so it seems sciency enough to look like science) run off the same basis usually works. If I were to ever cross over MLP with Star Wars, then unicorns in that crossover would be gaining their magical powers by using the Force.

[FaceDeer]

3383256 Oh, indeed, I think the Federation and Equestria would get on wonderfully. It's just that the "normal" fanfic pattern would be for the two groups to meet, and then immediately some horrendous world-threatening event would occur that the two would have to work together to defeat. Or one would be horribly threatened and the other would have to save it. Like it turns out that those crystals under Canterlot are dilithium and the Romulans want to destroy Equestria to mine it or something like that.

It's very refreshing that the Federation makes contact and then everything goes fine. To such a degree that the first hint of trouble is six months later, when a couple of kidnappers show up to nab some foals and a baby dragon - the sort of "threat" that is really kind of routine in the grand scheme of things, and can be resolved with a court case and jail time rather than a battle for the survival of the galaxy in which Luna is swinging Equestria's Moon around like a mace smacking Borg cubes out of the sky while Geordi frantically tries to channel the Elements of Harmony into the Enterprise's main deflector dish and Discord duels with Q.

I mean, there's certainly a place for those sorts of scenarios too. But MLP is a slice-of-life show as well as an adventure show so it's nice to see this side of things. :)

[CCC]

3385056

Ah, the epic adventure genre. Yes, I see what you mean... (though the nitpicker in me is thinking that Celestia's sun makes a better anti-borg weapon than Luna's moon, unless the Borg cubes are too close to the planet).

I think that the saddest part about this crossover, as it is, is that Celestia can never leave Equestria, never go on holiday through the Federation. Her subjects can, and Luna might even be able to talk Celestia into letting her take a week off every decade or so (as long as the Bearers are there, for security)... but Equestria hasn't been in a stable orbit for centuries, and putting the planet in a stable orbit is probably at least as difficult as balancing an egg on the point of a needle... so Celestia is basically trapped by her responsibilities. I mean, there are others who could move the Sun (Discord, after being reformed; probably Luna; possibly Twilicorn) but I don't see Celestia as someone who'd be comfortable leaving her responsibilities in someone else's hooves.

[FaceDeer]

3385916 The Moon is more fun because you can use the glowing craters to keep score.

I wonder if perhaps the Federation's resources and technology might be able to help the Equestrians develop a more secure and less "hooves on" method of managing their Sun. For one thing, I have always assumed in these sorts of "science fiction but Celestia's nevertheless really moving the Sun" scenarios that it's not a *real* Sun, not as we know them anyway, but is some sort of much smaller artificial Sun. My impression is that the Equestrian Sun and Moon are of roughly similar size. And Equestria itself might be smaller than most Earthlike planets, further reducing the scale of what needs to be done. But that's just me, of course, it's your cosmology in this particular sub-universe to do with as you please. :)

Even if Celestia never leaves Equestria, contact with the Federation and other stellar civilizations is going to bring plenty of wonders right to her own doorstep. So don't feel too bad for her. It's going to be exciting and interesting times for Equestria in the decades to come.

[CCC]

3386278

Oooh, that's a good point. I hadn't even been thinking about score. Also, another thought occurred to me; if we assume that Equestria's sun is a similar size and distance from the planet as Earth's sun, then it's approximately eight light-minutes away. Given that it must remain eight light-minutes away (give or take a few percentage points) for the safety of the planet, and assuming that Celestia can't move the sun faster than light, and rounding pi down to 3 (which is probably about as accurate as the other assumptions I'm making), it could not take less than twenty-four minutes to safely swing the Sun around from one side of the planet to the other. So if two Borg cubes approach Equestria from opposite directions, then as long as they can get through the Sun-zone in less than twenty-four minutes, at least one of them is guaranteed to be able to get through.

...at which point Luna's moon, being closer to the planet and therefore easier to quickly swing around to the other side with, becomes very useful.

And yes, I'm sure the Federation could help Celestia find a better way to handle the Sun. At the very least, they could tell her how stable a given orbit was or wasn't. But will they? From the Federation's point of view, the Equestrians are doing incredible and amazing things; if the Federation shares all their technology with Equestria, then within a generation or two, Equestria would become merely another Federation world, like the however-many-thousand Federation worlds they already have. On the other hand, if they share the bare minimum of technology - enough to merely hint at the possibilities and stimulate a frenzy of Equestrian research and development, tailored along their strengths - then, within a generation or two, Equestria will probably start turning out some even more impressive things. Then they can start trading technology in earnest...

And yes, I agree, Celestia's cage is a very nice cage, and she'll likely be seeing a whole lot of wonders over the next few centuries. It's still a cage of duty, though. (Of course, she'll probably figure out some sort of solution in a century or two).

[CCC]

3387273

I saw the lesson as more like 'if you accept candy from strangers, they might kidnap you and lock you in a cage'. I think that's a reasonable lesson.

I'd imagine that Ferengi would be more-or-less as blase as minotaurs. It's clear, in Putting Your Hoof Down, that minotaurs are basically unknown in Ponyville (everypony keeps referring to Iron Will as a 'monster'), and presumably they come from far away. Ferengi are also basically unknown in Ponyville, and they come from far away. So I'm assuming that the average pony's reaction to Pog is similar to the average pony's reaction to Iron Will. (Given what he's done, the next Ferengi in Ponyville will probably be treated more like Zecora was). He's hardly undetected; and he doesn't really care about that, since he doesn't believe that the Equestrians have any chance of following him off-world.

[Azreon]

who was the admiral?

[Bronzer]

The Elements have been used, Luna, and used often.

Because Luna and you together, Celestia, always fail to win without them. Therefore, Luna staying with you is pointless and sending the Element bearers away is foolish.

[CCC]

6556571

You try telling Rainbow Dash she's not allowed to go rescue Scootaloo. Make sure you've got an ice pack and some bandages ready beforehand.

[Emerald Digimon]

Whose obsidian

[CCC]

9431100

Random long-defeated background villain.

[Shadow_8472]

3396036
3386278
I may be a few years too late to join in on the conversation about the sun/moon, but we see almost immediate results whenever they are moved. That would mean they are roughly the same size.

I also like the way Celestia is thinking about stuff in the background. This is truly a story set among other stories. My first Star Trek/MLP crossover read. By some of the comments, it looks like I will be disappointed if I look for others.

[wolfie1897]

9802239
If you want to find a great Star Trek/MLP crossover, read Where Nopony Has Gone Before. It portrays a fairly peaceful first contact scenario where nothing goes horribly wrong