The Travels of Trivial Knowledge

by CCC

Prologue

It was two hundred years after the defeat of Nightmare Moon when the faster-than-light ultra-long-range teleport spell was first created. It was first named the FTLULR teleport, but a dyslexic pegasus misread it as the 'flutter' teleport, and the name stuck.

Within three years, Princess Celestia created an expedition, to seek out what lay beyond the one barrier which no pony had ever cast; the last hurdle, the final frontier. Space.

A building was created; the very strongest and sturdiest house that any pony had ever created. More than large enough for the five ponies that would be living in it. Magical sigils and spell-filled gems adorned the outer walls, with most of the available space going into the patterns necessary to power the flutter-teleport; while on the inside, every imaginable tool had been laid out. The library contained just over a thousand volumes, individually selected for the most useful information on a long journey to a completely unknown destination; the greenhouses contained vast numbers of fruit trees of all sorts; and the main exercise room was large enough that even Swift Wing, the pegasus, required a good two minutes to cross it at full speed.

It was named the Friendship.

Five ponies were personally chosen by Princess Celestia to pilot the Friendship through the depths of space, to seek out new worlds and new civilisations, and to attempt to make friends with beings from every reach of space.

Most senior of the ponies was the Captain, Swift Wing the pegasus; her cutie mark showed merely three lines for speed.

Second in command was Magic Surge, the unicorn; her talent lay in providing the vast raw magical power that the flutter-teleport required.

Third was Healthy Growth, an earth pony, whose talent lay in the biological sciences; his job consisted of ensuring that both the trees used to grow their food, and the ponies who ate that food, remained healthy and strong through all the troubles that they were to face.

Fourth was Fine Control, another unicorn; her talent lay in casting magic with incredible precision, and it was to her that the task of ensuring that the Friendship arrived at the desired destination.

Finally, the junior-most member of the crew was Trivial Knowledge; a unicorn with an excellent memory for small details, who had been sent along as a recorder and chronicler, to write down the discoveries made by the Friendship on its journey for the Princess to peruse after their return.

This is the tale of their journey.

This is the voyages of the Friendship.

Author's Note:

This is a bit of en experimental story; my aim is to write a science-fiction story as it might be written in Equestria. Thus, magic powers everything; Princess Celestia is a given (and may well be the only character from the show to be mentioned); but the fictional author's idea of 'modern scientific thought' may seem a little strange.

I hope you enjoy it.