• Published 21st Aug 2018
  • 922 Views, 75 Comments

The First Equestrian Starliner - computerneek



Twilight has developed an insatiable hunger for new information, and not just that which can be found in her library. Thus, she is overjoyed when her hunger is sated by a computer glitch.

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Chapter 5

“I sure hope there’s something up here for decoration,” Rarity declares. “All this metal is driving me crazy.” She’d originally expected to be able to retrieve her supplies once she got an idea of what it might take- but she’s already seen enough drab hallways to eat up all of her supplies at least twice over.

Twilight nods, as the next door in line slides smoothly open, revealing yet another long, undecorated metal hallway. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

“Huh? Somepony say something?” Pinkie yawns loudly.

Rainbow nods. “Exactly. Why is it so boring in here?”

The response, the disembodied voice that had once inhabited that control panel, comes quickly. “This is one of the undeveloped sectors aboard this vessel.”

“What?” Twilight asks.

“So we’re walking through the starship equivalent of the Everfree Forest?” Applejack asks.

“Affirmative.”

Several hooves meet their owners’ faces.

“How big is it?” Twilight asks.

“This undeveloped sector covers thirty-seven decks with an average area per deck of one point three million square meters.”

Luna tilts her head. “How much of the ship is undeveloped?” she asks.

“Approximately zero point one three one percent of this vessels’ volume is undeveloped.”

Twilight mirrors everypony else’s sharp intake of breath. “How much space is undeveloped, in total?”

“Total undeveloped space, across all decks, is approximately nine point three seven one trillion square meters.”

She facehooves. “Can you guide us to the, uh…” She looks briefly at Luna. “To where all those giant windows I saw are?”

“Destination, Observation Deck. Confirm?”

Nod. “Confirm.”

“Destination confirmed. At next intersection, turn right.”

Everypony releases a collective breath- and the party canters forwards.


Thirteen minutes or so later, seven mares trot through one final door into a truly enormous room. At this point, Rarity has relaxed; the passages up here aren’t quite so drab. Pinkie has also returned to full wakefulness- and Luna’s mane is back to its normal star-filled wave.

Seven mares then emit a collective gasp, gazing into the room.

Windows cover every wall, dozens of meters high. Even the ceiling is made with a significant quantity of glass- and out each and every window, at almost every angle imaginable, is the night sky. Why that one star, almost directly above them, is so much brighter than the rest… nopony knows, nor cares. The few parts of the walls and ceiling that are not glass, forming a regular gridwork across, are elegantly decorated with gold, silver, and even the odd gemstone. The floor shows a regular gridwork pattern, displaying a rather simple elegance radiating out from the center of the room. A giant square in the center of the room, at least a hundred meters across, is occupied by an ornate table of sorts. The top of the table seems to be made out of glass, with a faint glow coming off of it.

The truly breathtaking feature of the room is floating above the table. At least as far across as the table, a gentle sphere, rotating slowly, silently. Sparkling blue covers much of it, but shapes of green, brown, and even red are visible, sparkling gently. Fluffy white covers some parts of it.

Seven mares walk slowly up to the edge of the table, staring up at it. Once they get closer, individual features make themselves known. Labels become visible, identifying continents… Nations… Even cities and landmarks.

Rainbow eventually becomes the first to speak up. “Equus sure is huge,” she mutters. “I hafta wonder, Twilight, how did you run out of stuff to discover?”

Twilight can only stare at the display for several seconds. “Good question,” she eventually mumbles- before brightening up. “But with this, we can discover so much more!”

Luna walks around the table a few times, ignoring Twilight’s fairly wordless fawning over it, before wandering to the windows to gaze out at the night sky. A night sky far clearer than any she had seen before. So many sparkling stars, glowing in the blackness. So simple, yet so… Elegant. If only she could make something like this shine upon Equestria at some point; unfortunately, even when she tries, she can never get it quite so clean-cut.

Probably, she considers, because there’s no air to be clear up here.

Then she looks over at that one blindingly bright star. She doesn’t remember any stars quite that bright. She looks back down at Twilight, studying the Equestrian continent on the floating image of their world. “Twilight,” she calls.

The other alicorn turns in midair, raising an eyebrow. “Yes Princess?”

She points a hoof. “Do you know why that star is so bright?”

Twilight twists in midair, gazing up at the bright star as well. “I don’t know,” she mutters- then glances down at the table she’s floating over. “Why is it so much brighter than the others?”

The answer floats back immediately. “Distance to local star, eight point three light-minutes. Distance to nearest neighboring star, two point five light-years.”

Blink. “What’s a light-minute…?”

“Light-minute. Noun; a measure of the distance light will travel in one minute’s time. Equal to seventeen trillion, nine hundred eighty seven billion, five hundred forty seven thousand, four hundred eighty meters.”

Twilight almost falls out of the air before looking at Luna. “Um…”

Luna raises an eyebrow. “Where is Celestia’s sun?”

It answers. “Eight point three one light-minutes, bearing one-seven-three-point-four by eight-three-point-three.”

Rainbow lands solidly on the floor. “Wait, did it just say what I think it said?” she asks.

“Did it just say Celestia’s sun is a star?” Twilight asks.

“Affirmative.”

Six ponies stand slack-jawed, staring up at Celestia’s sun, floating in the middle of the night sky. Of what looks like the night sky, at least. One pony falls out of the air whilst staring at the same.


Celestia’s sun is casting long, faint shadows across the floor of the well-lit room by the time the next pony moves.

It’s Fluttershy.

“... Are they okay…?” she mutters.

Rainbow shakes her head back into her senses. “Huh? Are who okay?”

“If… If Celestia’s sun is a star, and there are so many more… How many Equestrias are there? Are they okay?”

Rainbow looks up at the planet still floating over the giant table. “Uh…”

Twilight shakes herself out of her trance. “Wha- oh. Um… We just have to find out.” She looks up at the ball of water and land floating over the table. “How many are there?”

It answers instantly. “One.” At the same time, the floating planet spins around, facing a glowing Equestria towards them.

Twilight facehooves.

“Is…” Luna’s eyes widen. “If there is no Equestria to control each of those stars, there must be something else,” she states. “What is it?”

“Error: The target of your query is beyond current maximum sensor range.”

Twilight drops her jaw. “It doesn’t know,” she mutters. “Can we go there? Where’re the controls?” She looks left and right.

“Affirmative,” it answers immediately. “Confirm directive: Deploy secondary bridge controls on the Observation Deck.”

She blinks. “Uh, yes?”

“Orders confirmed. Deploying control stations.” The voice is marred slightly by a sudden high-pitched hum from beneath them- and the distinctive sound of moving metal.

Then Fluttershy lets out a yelp, leaping diagonally backwards through the air to land in a scrambling heap. Twilight’s first response is to search for the reason- but of course, she doesn’t need to look for long. She just doesn’t have quite as sudden- or violent- of a reaction to seeing sections of the previously unbroken floor suddenly drop downwards and slide away. She watches open-mouthed as, with a second strange humming noise, a number of desks and chairs rise up from the new holes in the floor. She counts them as they come.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven… She pauses, and counts again. Yes, there are definitely nine desks rising from the floor.

Seven ponies, including the wide-eyed Fluttershy, stare at the various desks and chairs. Some of the desks have more than one chair- but every single desk and chair seems to have come with its own new piece of floor, neatly sealing up the brand-new holes.

“What just happened?” Rainbow asks.


“But Princess-!”

Princess Luna stops Twilight’s response short with but a look. Celestia’s sun has disappeared and reappeared- even though, according to Twilight’s ship, they’ve only been aboard for about five hours. They’ve spent the last hour alternating between examining the new ‘control stations’ and gazing up at the amazing night above them. “This is your discovery, Twilight,” she declares. “If anypony does, you should be the one to sit there.”

Twilight’s ears go flat, but she doesn’t give up. “I won’t sit there!”

Scowl. “Then there is a trivial solution.”


Five minutes later, nopony is sitting in the big, elevated chair with the circular desk around it, facing the rest from behind. Additionally, nopony is sitting in the only slightly smaller chair just behind and to its right, with a similar circular desk.

Fortunately, even with everypony seated, those seats are not the only vacant ones. They are, however, the only empty desks. Or ‘control stations’, or whatever Pinkie had called them; nopony had heard her quite clearly, nor asked for clarification.

For example, Pinkie has an empty chair on either side of her. Fluttershy and Rarity each have an empty seat next to them, while Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, and Luna have all selected single-seat stations. Twilight has taken the only station anypony can understand: The one that can only be the helm, if a little strangely designed.

“Everypony ready?” Twilight calls, placing her hoof on what she thinks is the throttle.

A round of nods ensues. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” Applejack declares.

“All-righty. Here goes nothing.” She pushes it forwards.

Author's Note:

Sorry it's taken so long! I'm also sorry it's a little rocky towards the end there... but I couldn't think of any other way to one one thousand or two one thousand so they can/will three one thousand in the coming chapters.

Edit 12/20/2018: I got curious... It's worth note that the numbers the Athena spouts, based on the shape she has in my head, puts her at a whopping 235 miles long... when I allow no space for the spinal weapons or other systems.