Small Spoiler Warning for for those who haven't read the ST: Destiny trilogy novels, but intend to.
Sunlight! I thought to myself, stopping for a moment after exiting the hospital. The weather outside was perfect and beautiful. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature was more than comfortable.
"Beautiful day today, isn't it?" Twilight asked, turning to face me after she noticed I had lost pace with her.
"It's perfect," I told her, reaching up to rub my aching shoulder.
"I'll be sure to pass that along to the town's weather team, it'll mean something to them that a visitor appreciates their work."
"You have weather control technology?" I asked with surprise coming through in my voice then picking up my pace to catch up with her.
"No, all pegasi have an innate ability to manipulate clouds, allowing them to affect the weather." She told me in a matter-of-fact tone. Wow, she really is like my sister. "How does your society control the weather?"
"We didn't always have the ability to do so, so we were at the mercy of nature in that regard. A little over three hundred years ago we developed means to artificially manipulate weather patterns and were able to stabilize Earth's climate. It was a good thing we did too. At the time our species had started weaning ourselves off of our reliance on burning fossil fuels for energy, which produced a lot of pollution causing what we called the 'greenhouse effect', the pollution trapped the heat from our sun in the atmosphere and raised temperatures globally." I explained, having her undivided attention. "But don't ask me how it works, I'm not an engineer or a scientist."
We continued our pleasant walk towards the field where I had crashed when a thought dawned on me.
"How are you so calm?" I asked.
"What do you mean?"
"About all of this. You, and everyone else who knows about me, just found out that you're not alone in the universe. You're whole world view just changed." I told her. "I've been part of two first-contact situations before this, and both of them were with species who had no idea there was really alien life out in the cosmos. One of them couldn't handle it and to this day their government has taken a xenophobic isolationist stance and cut off all outside communications."
The winged unicorn next to me, who's head came up to my shoulders, just laughed. "Would you believe me if I told you that I've been through weirder things?" I met her gaze with my own that was laced with skepticism. "Two weeks ago I traveled through a mirror that links this dimension with another one where there are copies of everyone in this town, but they were human like you." She stopped in her tracks and looked up at me as I processed what she told me.
"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one, but you're going to have to tell me about that later. Next you're probably going to tell me that I wasn't hallucinating when I saw that small unicorn I met yesterday levitate something with her mind."
"No, you weren't, telekinesis is an easy magic spell to learn, even for a filly her age."
Don't say it. My brain told me. You get rude sometimes when you don't believe something.
"You're shitting me." Oh, here we go.
"All unicorns can use magic to varying degrees, even alicorns like myself can use magic; although we can perform it more powerfully." She told me without missing a beat. Everything about her voice, her mannerisms, the look on her face; it all told me that she was telling the truth. "In fact, all ponies have at least some magical affinity. It's how pegasi can manipulate clouds and control the weather. It's how earth ponies have a natural affinity for growing plants."
Then a mischievous smile crossed her face as her horn was bathed in a soft lavender glow and she literally blinked out of existence and appeared several feet away where she lapsed into a fit of giggles as she stared at my face that, embarrassingly, was left slack-jawed.
"What... How'd... What?.." I stammered. Feeling dizzy, my knees weakened. "I think I need to sit down." Twilight then, teleported I guess, back to my side and allowed me to place my hand on her withers and helped me sit on a nearby boulder.
"Now who's world-view just changed?" She asked, not even bothering to hide the sarcasm in her voice.
"Well. That's a thing." I finally said after a long pause.
"Humans must have some magic as well," Twilight stated, sitting on her haunches next to me.
"I'm afraid we are somewhat lacking in that department."
"Every species in Equestria has some innate talent that's common to all its members, what's the one thing humans are known for?"
"Probably our curiosity. Discovering the unknown," I started explaining. "You know, it's funny, I joined Starfleet right after the Dominion War. It was a bloody conflict that waged for almost three years, just over a billion people lost their lives. There was a big push for new recruits after the war, recruiters were making bold promises of seeing the galaxy, exploring new worlds, and making first contact with unknown cultures." I continued, lightly elbowing the, She said she was an... Alicorn?, beside me.
"I was assigned to the USS Galatea, a dream posting for a new officer fresh from the Academy, it was everything I was promised when I signed up. The Galatea was sent into an unexplored region of space, I saw things that can only be seen to be believed." I paused for a moment, my expression became sullen, soliciting a concerned look from Twilight. "Then news came that the Borg, a cybernetic race who's sole goal was to assimilate or destroy other cultures in their pursuit of perfection, had begun invading the Federation. One of the first planets to fall was Ramatis III, they wiped everyone out, I lost my parents there.
"And here I was, onboard the Galatea, we were a month at maximum speed from Federation space. There was nothing we could do. A lot of the crew, myself included wanted to head back and join the fight anyways, but Captain Sigrengar told us that Starfleet had ordered us to stand by and wait for orders, so we listened to her."
"That's terrible." She told me. After a moment of silence, she began to speak again. "How bad was it?"
"They killed sixty-three billion," I told her flatly. "After that the Galatea was recalled and I requested a transfer to the Juno Beach and now here I am." Getting up, I straightened the front of my uniform and turned to Twilight. "Well, enough of this, we've got work to do."
It didn't take us long to get to where they were going, but the silence made it seem otherwise, and what I saw next didn't help either.
"Well, she'll never fly again," I said aloud.
"That thing could fly?" A scratchy voice said from above. "It doesn't even have wings!" a blue female pegasus with startling rainbow coloured hair said, landing on the ground in front of them.
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight admonished.
"What?" Rainbow said, feigning innocence.
"No one's been inside?" I asked Twilight.
"The guards we passed on our way here have been keeping the towns ponies away, and I asked Rainbow Dash to keep an eye on it till we got here." She answered. "Dash, this is James.
"Nice to meet ya." Rainbow Dash greeted, extending a hoof towards me. I started to extend my arm to shake it, but before I could open my fist, she gave it a bump with her hoof. "So, what'ya got in there? Ray guns? Ohh! Lasers! Tell me you have lasers in there!"
"I have to have a look first to see what survived the crash," I told the eager pegasus. "I'll let you know when I'm done."
Stepping up to the aft of the shuttle, my nose was again assaulted by the acrid smell of burnt electronics. Despite the damaged appearance of the exterior, the cabin had faired remarkably well. It took a few tries testing every computer interface panel in the shuttle till I was able to find one that works next to the emergency transporter. The burnt hanging wires coming from the top of the transporter told me that it was most likely damaged beyond my ability to repair.
After working through a few subroutines and transferring what little emergency power remained, I was able to bring the main computer online.
"Computer, give me an assessment of functioning systems," I ordered, getting confused looks from Rainbow and Twilight
"Impulse reactor in standby mode, replicators offline but undamaged, short and long range sensors online." An omnipresent disembodied female voice responded, shocking both ponies.
"That's a short list," I remarked quietly. "Status of subspace communication systems."
"Destroyed."
The news hit me like a ton of bricks. Leaning back on the bulkhead, I slid down and sat on the deck. Twilight caught the look of despair in my eyes and walked over to my side. I looked up at her eyes which were full of concern. "Looks like I'm going to be here a while."
Destroyed.
I'm surprised he hasn't commented on the existence of psionics. Since Kes and the species from 'Metamorphosis' did some 'magical' stuff.
I see a phaser demonstration in the future.
Also, I'm surprised that Twilight didn't have a visible reaction to all of those lives lost, or more questions.
5844088
Abilities like that are exceedingly rare in Star Trek, with only 7 instances in all of the series put together, so knowledge about it wouldn't be common, and James is just a Pilot, not a Xenobiologist.
i.imgur.com/tupyaSo.gif
Stop! You're giving away plot points from the future!
5844940
Are you counting the Q, Prophets, Metrons, and Pah-Wraiths in that number?
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Super Nerd Trek Powers Activate!
Q, Pah'wraiths or the Metron's don't really count since Q's extradimensional omnipotent being, and the Metron's did their thing by manipulating energy, which possibly means they have some form of high technology. The Pah'wraiths/Prophets are also extradimensional energy beings and fall into the category of Q, they also don't have physical bodies unless they possess a host.
Also, the majority of the examples of psychokinesis in Trek were unnatural. The Platonians developed their powers artificially from their environment, Gary Mitchell got his from exposure to the barrier at the edge of the galaxy, and the Children on the Darwin Genetic Research Station (TNG Epi Unnatural Selection) were the result of illegal genetic engineering.
The only 'true' natural examples shown in canon were the Ocampa, Vorta and the Humanoid known as Gem (TOS Epi Empath), and even the Vorta don't really count since the Founders genetically engineered the Vorta from a tree-dwelling primate to what they are now.
*ceases rocking out with my Trek out*
"That's a short list," I remarked quietly. "Status of subspace communication systems."
"Destroyed."
I dont think it matters one way or the other. He may not even be in the same universe he started out in, given the rather odd physics of Equestria... -unless DisQord carved out a pocket universe/solar system out of dark matter to hold a kidnapped planet as his play-toy...
Nice story so far, hope to meet up with you in STO.
*Cough*
Other than that unscientific pontification, nice chapter.
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Marauder sighted! Lock LRMs and fire!
What are humans known for?
Curiosity. We just fought a war where a billion people died and then things got worse for us. So... what's funny about this exactly?
This seems like a very strange segway. Why is he giving such a detailed recent history of events without explaining the context? What is the Federation? What is Star Fleet? It's like Twilight has a casual tv watchers knowledge of Star Trek and she only needs to have explained a few details.
I was curious at the premise, but I'm afraid you lost me at the story about the war, and the borg, and his family dying. The tone is just too weird for that sort of story, as well as the segue from talking about humans. Thanks for sharing your story, regardless.
8586304
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Borg_Invasion_of_2381
I included it because it happened in this story's universe and is a core part of his character.
His scepticism about Twilight traveling into a paralel universe really strains my SoD.
I will bet that most starfleet officers know about the various instances of contacts with other universes and there has to be some form of rule in the protocoll about what to do if some „mirror mirror“ stuff happens.
That he does not know about things like the Q is okey, as it seemed that starfleet kept such stuff deliberately under wraps. Probably for the better as you could litteraly call him down onto you by talking about him.
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Do you honestly believe that the ability to travel to another dimension through a mirror that only worked on certain times of the month (keep in mind that I wrote this before Twilight figured out how to use it at will), and then be transfigured from pony into a human as a result, doesn't at least raise some doubts?
Plus, in my headcanon at least, knowledge of having ACTUALLY gone to another dimension, especially one as volatile and dangerous as the Mirror Universe, wouldn't be readily available to a Lieutenant, and even then, on a need to know basis.
This would explain how, while Discovery had known about the Mirror Universe years before Kirk and Crew went there, Kirk's crew didn't know about the Mirror Universe. Compartmentalized information. Kirk didn't need to know, so he didn't. (Retcon, I know, but my point still stands. And yes, Disco is Prime Universe canon, whether we like it or not)
Ponies being a empathic race would have made Twilight react in horror at a billion killed and much more at 63 billion killed by the borg. She would have been in character to have stopped his monologue to react.
What happened to the Prime Directive? There's no way shape or form Starfleet officer would blab about Federation wars in front of the primitives that can't build their own FTL engines yet. Also, I guess thanks for the exposition.
I was going to wait until I finished reading the story to leave a comment, but I must point out that both of your pictures are missing.
(Edit: All of your pictures are gone.)
So far, this is a fascinating story! I do agree with other commentors that James is probably breaking the Prime Directive by talking too much.