My Little Starfleet: Beginnings

by DW_Beast

Prologue 3: Changing Times

When twilight came to the next morning she was as usual slumbering in the bed with Rarity holding her. This in it's self not that unusual as Twilight remembered the white unicorn constantly shared her bed. The memories of last night came flooding back to her, remembering the words Rarity spoke. While she did have feeling for the unicorn she didn't know if she was ready for a serious relationship that was just thrown at her like that. She had rushed in with Flash and paid the price. Now while she was nearly 100 percent sure Rarity would ever use her, what if she was mistaking gratitude for love, what id her herself was as well. With a gentle nudge she awake the sleeping mare getting rewarding with a cute yawn.

"Rarity, dear I think we should get up and have breakfast. Then we need to have a conversation about last night okay," asked Twilight with an soft expression on her face.

"Ohh, of course darling, anything you want," Rarity responded with a voice filled with nervousness.

Getting up the lavender mare helped her friend out of the bed and off to have breakfast with the others down in the dinning hall of the castle.

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After the meal the two horned mares of the group meet up on the balcony to talk.

"Rarity, first of all I am not saying no. I want to make that perfectly clear," she stated looking into the mare's bright blue eyes. She reached out and took her fellow mare's hands in her own holding them firmly.

"We need to make sure this is the right thing and we are not jumping into something that could damage our close friendship. One of the only good things about immortality is that we have all the time in the world to take this. Now while I am not a fool and I know not even an immortal wants to wait forever, how about we start a little slower then the others. We could go on dates hang out in more social settings, getting to know all that stuff we keep hidden from each other that only Hoity would have known. The stuff hidden beyond the barriers that you don't let us see with the link we posses. I want to see this work I really do care for you but I have learned to be cautious," Twilight said squeezing the hands in her own.

"Okay darling if that is what you want. We could take it as slow as you feel is needed. Though I do have a question about the sleeping arrangements if you want to take this slow," She replied hoping she wouldn't loose her favorite sleep spot.

"I would never deny you a place in my bed to cuddle Rarity. We both need it, need the comfort. But nothing more then cuddling for a while, okay." Twilight finished getting a nod from her friend and a tight hug before both left to start their daily activities.

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Time moved quickly for them, Twilight continued her duties as a princess and teaching at the university, she also went out regularly with Rarity both enjoying one another's company. It was around 400 years after, was they started referring to as DoL or Day of Loss and 300 after the start of their relationship. They had used that day when they had to bury their own children as a day when their worlds changed and as a turning moment in time.

It was on that day 400 years after DoL when the first great breakthrough came at the university as one of the most promising engineering students in years had made something that would change everything. In the engineering lab the young stallion named Monkey Wrench had built the first engine powerful enough theoretically move a rocket out of the planet's gravity and into space.

It had taken 5 years after the invention before a suitable vessel for the engine could be built giving birth to the Equestrian Space Program. With help from the mane 6 the program had a base of operations 16 miles outside of Ponyville bringing more tourists to the now massive city. The mane 6 attended every launch of the rocket. With help from Twilight and Pinkie who could now be a professor in engineering much to the others surprise the rocket and engines evolved to allow them just short of light travel. With the work of all three minds barely 60 years after the first rocket engine was built, they launched the first impulse powered shuttle into space. Unfortunately the father of the space program Monkey Wrench was not their to see his final creation lift off into the heavens, so the launch was dedicated to him.

It was after the launch of the shuttle that Twilight and Rarity decided to settle down and in a private ceremony. With only the other girls and the two remaining princesses attending, though it made Twilight wish her brother and sister-in-law were still alive to attend. Celestia presided over the wedding as the two mares said their "I dos" and shared the most heart felt kiss that they had ever had.

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Working with Pinkie, Twilight started to get to work on the most difficult project either had ever been apart of. The two had begun to work on breaking the light barrier. Twilight had set up a lab for it just off the university's campus, and had interns from the engineering school to help hoping to find another Monkey in the midst.

The privately funded project took another 400 years of work finding many new discoveries in the process including artificial gravity, which gave birth to new forms of land travel. It also meant the discovery of antimatter, a material which meant the lab had to be moved to a more secluded area as any accident with the volatile material could destroy half of the city and kill hundreds of thousands of ponies.

The long period of time it took was not just the difficulty of the invention but also came as two events caused Twilight to have to shift her focus for a time. The first was the unification of Equuis, this was caused by the idea of star travel feeling a united Equuis would be better represented by a unified front. Each region in the world were allowed two representatives to the newly formed Equuis ruling counsel. The only down side for Twilight was that her title of princess became only that a title, she had no real power anymore and was only viewed as a celebrity. She would only have any power if Luna or Celestia where to step down and none of the three really wanted that.

The second was the most problematic for her as a scientist, the drop in the number of stallions being born every generation. Although their population was always female dominate with maybe 3 mares to each stallion, that gap had been growing. The problem became apparent at around 700 DoL when a census showed it was nearly 6 mares to a single stallion and the number of births of colts dropped a little every year. Twilight with a team of scientists set out to discover a way to save their race from possible extinction if the trend continued. it took nearly a decade of research and many mistakes to finally create a special potion. This potion would allow two mares to mix their blood in would allow the mare who drank it to become pregnant with their mate's foal. This would not only allow fillyfoolers to have a child and thus preserving their race but also gave geneticists time to find a way to strengthen the male gene in order for more to be born.

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Now with the creation of the first faster then light engine they set to designing a ship for it to be used and used a simulator on a computer to test the concept ideas and wither or not the ship could theoretically survive at faster then light speeds. After the initial design was figured out a full size replica of the cockpit was developed so that they could train a pilot on how to fly the ship while the work on the actual vessel took place.

It was Rainbow who volunteered to become the pilot on the first possible interstellar ship and with her reflexes and eye sight she was the best choice. So while Pinkie and Twilight supervised the creation of the new space ship Rainbow spent hours upon hours in the simulator to make sure she knew how to not kill herself and her crew.

So it was on the day little over 900 years after the mane 6 found out they were immortal that the fist warp ship piloted by Rainbow and manned by Twilight and Pinkie took off from the space center outside Ponyville and into the heavens to began its trial run.

Author's Note:

This is the last chapter that takes place exclusively on Equuis and will start going to Starfleet Academy next chapter. I used the term DoL as a personal one to the girls it is not actually the way the other number the years like we do with AD and BC this will change to star dates and Federation time after they join the Federation. I also gave Twi and Rare as main cast outside of mane 6 since they will have a little more focus then the other. not to say they will be background I will give each attention but like the show Twi is the main of the mane.

Sam Cole, who I have respect for being one of my favorite RariTwi writers commented on me rushing the relationships, while there isn't much of a way to fix that with out going back and revising the previous chapter completely. I can not have that conversation and leave it hanging with them for a few hundred years while I make a run through of time till the main part of the story. I am going to have to let it fly and will have to show romantic moments between them all later in this story and the rest of the series I have planned out.

Thinking back on it I probably could have put the relationships on hold until I have them going to SFA and had them slowly develop but I don't like doing revisions so I will have to roll with it.

Secondly I am looking for a proof reader for this story to review my chapters before I publish them and let me know the mistakes. Problem with grammar in school is I had no reason to be interested especially when math and sciences came so much easier then the what I felt nonsensical rules that was English grammar. With me writing though and wanting to get my stories right I will learn faster. Sure I will make the same mistake more then once this way but in the end I will learn it and that to me is worth far more then someone else fixing my problems.