The First Equestrian Starliner

by computerneek

Chapter 16

Author's Note:

If you're a returning reader, I recommend you go back a chapter or two for a refresher; this one's very context-driven, and told from the POV of a character that doesn't know all the others' names.

“Wha… Was that me? Did I do that?”

“Yes, you did,” Twilight states. “Good job! Probably the best first spell I’ve ever seen.”

“Wha- um… I… I guess that would be normal to you, wouldn’t it?”

Twilight blinks. “Wha- huh?” She looks around the room. “... Oh. Um, yes, but… not around here, I guess. Well, everypony, first practical demonstration of unicorn magic! … or something. Try not to mention it to anypony else?”

“Uh… Sure, no problem,” the pegasus states, after blinking.

The unicorn closes his jaw. “Um… Yes, no problem. Now I can hardly wait.” He glances at Twilight, but she seems to miss it completely.

Then Twilight turns back towards her. “Sooo, how do you know about Equestria?”

“Uh… it goes back several thousand years,” she warns.

“I’m listening.”

“It’s a long story.”

Nod. “I’m listening.”

“Stuff is happening?”

“Athena can handle it.”

She sighs. “Fine. According to the texts, we didn’t used to be ponies. At least ten thousand years ago- that’s the earliest we’ve been able to date anything, but we haven’t been able to date many of these texts- we instead walked on two legs. We stood tall, using our ‘arms’- what became our forelegs- to manipulate the world around us. At the ends of these arms existed hands.

“Except, it wasn’t an acronym. It was an actual, biological part that we used just like we use our ‘hands’ devices today.

“These ancient… Well, people, built spaceships. They built starships- most notably, one with something called a ‘Distortion Drive’, a machine theoretically capable of propelling their ships faster than light. They left a few fragments of the blueprint for it, so just about everypony alive has heard of it, but nopony has ever seen a working one. Just about everypony is trying to build one, though.

“Anyways. These people. They built a ship with a distortion drive, and traveled the stars. Many of their voyages came up with nothing- but in one of them, they found an odd world.

“A world that turned them into ponies as soon as they came close. Pegasi that could fly, unicorns that could do magic. Earth ponies that could… they never were very clear on that.”

“Extra strength and an affinity for plants,” Twilight states. “They’re natural farmers.”

She blinks. “Uh… okay. Anyways. When they returned home, they brought that power with them. Anypony that touched it was transformed- so before long, even the holdout groups had been transformed.

“Then they invented a machine called the ‘transporter’. It let them teleport around, regardless of type.

“Only, as they used it, their power faded. They slowly became the ponies we are today. It took them ‘many, many years’ to get civilization back on track. Most of them died before the first ‘hands’ device was produced and, eventually, mass-produced, the way they are today.

“Most of their technology broke down and disintegrated at the same time. The only records we have of them… are from the few databanks that survived the ages.”

“Ahh… You said that micronation was trying to find Equestria?”

She nods. “Yes. We don’t have any record of where it was, only how they found it. And how long it took- some five hundred years or so, we think. So, they’ve been trying to find it. Thousands of unmanned probes, scattering into space. Reporting the locations of potential targets, for when we finally get a working Distortion Drive.”

“... You’re really making me regret overheating ours.”

Her gasp mirrors both the pegasus and the unicorns’ gasps, then she speaks the same words as them- and not quite in tandem. “You had a working Distortion Drive?”

Twilight blinks. “Uh… yes.”

“But- but that’s impossible! The technology hasn’t been refined yet!”

The alicorn shrugs. “It got us here,” she states. “Hopefully, once it cools down a bit, it can get us back.”

“But it’s- it’s-!” She lets out a sigh, hanging her head. Her new wings droop at her sides as well. “It’s no more impossible than me doing…” She glances up at the hand, still sitting on the floor. “That. And…” She stretches the wings now, glancing back at them. “You said ‘ascension’ happens more often to princesses than not… what did you mean by that?”

Twilight blinks. “... Yeah, I did word that a little weird, didn’t I? Well… back in Equestria, all Alicorns are automatically Princesses… because, excluding whatever made you and Midnight alicorns, there’s only one way to ascend, being to align oneself with the Elements of Harmony so thoroughly you manage to actually merge yourself with one or more of them, briefly. Then…” She sighs. “Princess Midnight admitted she wasn’t even a pony, let alone an alicorn, until after she boarded our ship… and now you ascend just by stepping aboard.” She looks up at the ceiling. “Which reminds me, Athena? Was there anything to suggest she’d ascend before she came aboard?”

“Negative. Anomaly is thaumic in nature; ascension completed within zero point three seven seconds of first suggestion of such.”

“Right… Then, how’re you so confident everypony else will just gain their normal pony magics?”

“Simulation confidence to that effect is seventy-nine point three one percent; based on thaumic behavior analysis in both interactions spotted. Ascension appears to be caused by thaumic levels beyond a specific threshold; status as female royalty during thaumic rejuvenation process appears to boost levels beyond this threshold.”

“Female specifically?” the unicorn asks, an eyebrow raised.

“Affirmative.”

“... Huh.”

She raises her hoof. “Um…”

She gets Twilight’s attention. “Yes?” the purple alicorn asks.

“Why is it ‘ascension’?”

“Huh…? Oh, you mean, why is it called ascension?”

She nods.

“That’s an easy one. In ascension, we ascend above our tribal limits; we Alicorns possess the magic of all three tribes, we’re extremely powerful, and of course, we’re also immortal.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Immortal?” she asks. “Like, can’t-be-killed immortal?”

“What-? No! Alicorns can still be killed, don’t get me wrong- we’re just harder to kill than other ponies, and won’t die of old age.” She glances up at the other two. “I’ve noticed a similar difference between ponies with magic and those without; the ponies on this world seem positively fragile… and short-lived.”

“Wouldn’t ponies get jealous?”

Blink. “Uh- no? I mean, sure, there’s the odd power-hungry pony that tries to take it, or even a monster like Tirek… but everypony else just looks up at us. After all, with great power comes great responsibility.”

“I… I don’t get it.”

“I think I do,” the pegasus states, trotting forwards. She stops next to Twilight. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds to me like you’re basically goddesses.”

“Wha- no!” Twilight exclaims. “We’re not- … Though, come to think of it, it really isn’t that far off.”

“It does make me wonder, though,” the unicorn states. “What happens when your family grows old and you don’t?”

The purple alicorn shudders. “Short Flight won’t need to worry about that for a while yet; the immortality doesn’t set in until full adulthood… but I do dread the day my friends die.”

She tilts her head. “Is there a way to make them ascend, too?”

This produces another shudder. “In theory, yes. In reality, not really. And if we did that… ascension would start to feel like something you get at the market, and we’d have to do it for everypony. Then there’d be a coup by the nobles, Celestia would be overthrown, and the entirety of Equestria would be ruined. We’d be lucky to survive even this far away.”

“Wow. That bad?”

Nod. “Alicorns are powerful. And that doesn’t even count the fact we don’t know yet if stallions even can ascend!”

Comments

[LostArchivist]

Eh, I still think it's a good idea. I wonder if Athena is listening in and planning something? :D
After all, it has a nice large sample grouping by this point.

For that matter, now that they have someone who can cast spells, I wonder if the medbay is working on a fix for Twilight's horn?
Or they could just try to teach Short Flight a healing spell, but that's probably really complicated.

[computerneek]

9537144
Or ask Rarity or Luna to cast it, since they have prior knowledge of how magic works... (They can still cast, now that they've gotten over their concussions). They've probably done that- but as Twilight mentioned in a previous chapter, there is no spell that can heal a broken limb or horn.

Yeah. Just like there is no spell for interstellar travel...