Star Trek: Equestria: Starfleet Academy Season 1

by Captain_Cosmos

Episode 5: Let the Journey Begin

"And so, thanks to the advancements made by scientists of the early 21st century, Planck was able to determine that the universe is 14 billion years old, and still has many billions of years left. Thank you." Jessica's astronomy class applauded as she finished her presentation about the age of the universe. The professor nodded.

"Bravo cadet. Another job well done." Jessica nodded.

"Thank you professor Kidman." Jessica returned to her desk next to Twilight as Kidman took center stage again.

"Alright cadets. We are out of time so here's your assignment over the weekend. It's supposed to be clear skies Friday Saturday and Sunday so here's a challenge. See how many different constellations you can see by Monday." The bell sounded, signaling the end of the period. "Have a good weekend everyone, I look forward to seeing what you come up with next week." The cadets got up to go. Twilight nodded towards Jessica.

"Great presentation there Jessica. I had no idea the universe was that old." Jessica chuckled.

"Realistically it'll only ever be an educated guess. The only true way to know is Through time travel, but nothing good ever comes from that." Twilight shivered.

"Believe me, I know." Jessica smirked.

"I'm sensing you probably dabbled in it before." Jessica and twilight made their way out to the hall and started in the direction of the dorms. Twilight nodded.

"Let's just say time travel is something I never want to do again, ever. Because bad things." Jessica chuckled.

"Don't worry Twilight, I'm sure the Federation won't be able to develop time travel technology until well after we're all dead." Twilight nodded.

"And I destroyed the only known written record of the time travel spell so we shouldn't have any problems on that front." At that moment, they both heard an explosion coming from the door they just passed. They both whipped their head around just in time to see Starlight, Sunset, and Pinkie gallop out of the room, followed by several other cadets. A professor called out to them.

"Cadet Pie! From now on DON'T MIX RANDOM CHEMICALS WITHOUT MY AUTHORIZATION!" Pinkie nodded.

"Oki doki Loki."

"And it's Professor Odin! Don't call me by my first name!" The three ponies spotted Jessica and twilight and smiled. "Oh, hya twilight, Jessica. How was class?" Jessica and twilight arched eyebrows.

"Uh, Good?"

"But what happened in there?" Starlight coughed smoke out of her mouth before answering.

"As you might've heard just now, pinkie here managed to get her hands on some, volatile chemicals." Sunset nodded.

"Don't ask why, but long story short, boom." Jessica and twilight nodded.

"We heard."

"No one got hurt right? Everyone's ok?" The three ponies covered in smoke nodded.

"Everyone's fine. Just covered with smoke."

"Hey Jessica, the supersonic shower should clean all this off right?" Jessica nodded.

"Of course. A supersonic shower can wash off anything."

"Good. Because I for one do not want to be covered in smoke for tonight." Pinkie nodded.

"Of course not, we want to be all nice and—" a horrid scream interrupted pinkie.

"Pinkie! What in Equestria happened to you?!" Everyone turned to see Rarity dash towards them, with Fluttershy coming up behind her. Pinkie smiled.

"Oh, hi Rarity, how was..." Before pinkie could continue, a duster appeared right in front of her and started dusting her off. The duster being held in Rarity's magic.

"Sweet celestia, you three look like you've been through the junkyards of Manehattan." Starlight nodded.

"Yeah Rarity, we know."

"Pinkie here managed to create a chemical explosion in chemistry class." At that, rarity's eyes widened.

"Explosion?! Why ever would you do such a thing Pinkie?" Pinkie shrugged.

"I don't know. To see what happened I guess?" Rarity shook her head.

"Please Tell me you only got off with a warning." Pinkie nodded.

"Yeppers, just a warning." Rarity sighed in relief.

"Thank celestia. I was worried you'd miss Open-Mic night tonight." Pinkie shook her head.

"Never Rarity. I wouldn't miss that party for the world." Pinkie chuckled. Sunset and Starlight sighed.

"Oh yeah. Thanks to the explosion we need to head back to our dorm to clean up beforehand." Rarity nodded.

"Indeed. Come pinkie. I shall assist you to makes sure you get every spot." Pinkie nodded.

"Oki doki loki." Rarity, pinkie, Sunset and Starlight trotted off. Leaving Fluttershy twilight and Jessica.

"Ok. So that happened." Twilight chuckled.

"Yep."

"There are gonna be more explosions before we graduate aren't there."

"Probably."

"That pinkie pie is just random like that."

"So I've seen, multiple times this week." The girls shook their heads out of their shock and began walking towards the dorm. Jessica checked the time.

"Hey twilight, that stargazing assignment? Wanna tackle that together this weekend?" Twilight nodded.

"Yeah, that would be great. Two pairs of eyes are better then one." Jessica nodded.

"Yep. Anywho, I'll catch you girls later. I gotta run over to cosmic harmony practice." Twilight and Fluttershy nodded.

"Oh yes, have fun Jessica."

"Um, im looking forward to hearing you guys play tonight."

"You'll love it. See ya." Jessica jogged off leaving twilight and Fluttershy to continue on.

"So, Fluttershy, you planning on singing tonight?" Fluttershy nodded.

"Rarity and I are performing "find the music in you" with pinkie acting as the musical accompaniment, and Rara Applejack and spike backing us up." Twilight smiled.

"That's Great. Tonight should be a blast, what with Jessica's band and the ponytones performing and all."

"I'm curious as to what kind of music they play."

"When Jessica and I were talking earlier today, she said something about, any kind of music." Fluttershy smiled.

"Oh, then I'm curious as to which kind they'll play tonight." Twilight nodded.

"Me too. There are so many different kinds of music, it'll be near impossible to predict which one they'll do tonight." Twilight and Fluttershy giggled as they headed back to the dorms.

Halfway across the academy, T'Nea and Luke were in the practice room of the academy, getting their instruments tuned.

"Thank goodness we could get one last practice in before tonight. You excited T'Nea?"

"Of course I am. Cosmic Harmony's chance to make a smashing first impression. It has to be perfect." Luke chuckled.

"And it will be. Considering how much we've been practicing one song. Seriously, maybe we should've been practicing more songs in the event of an encore." T'Nea shrugged.

"Eh, we can do that next time. Open-Mic nights are typically one song per performer." Luke nodded.

"That they are." At that moment the door to the room slid open and Ivan and Jessica stepped through.

"Whose ready to rock and roll?"

"Oh yeah. Let's do this!" Ivan nodded.

"Yes. Let us create harmonious music from 4 instruments that seemingly can't work together first glance." Ivan sat himself down behind the drums and Jessica readied her guitar. Though as she was doing it...

"Ooh, musical entertainment for yours truly? You must really like me being in you're mind cadet."

Jessica ignored the voice.

'Just ignore the voice Jessica. It has no power over you.'

"Not yet, but it's only a matter of time"

Jessica froze for a split second. Whoever was rooting around inside her head can read her thoughts! Jessica shook her head. Pushing that to the back of her mind as Luke went for the mic.

"Ok, 'let the journey begin', take, whatever number we're on because I lost count." Luke's band mates chuckled a bit. "Ivan, count us in." Ivan tapped his drum sticks 3 times in the song's rhythm and Sonic Harmony launched into the song.

Later that evening, the mess hall was nearly filled to capacity with cadets and faculty, all of them there for the entertainment that was Open-Mic night. Some of the attendees had instruments, lyric sheets, and at each table was a PADD. Including the table Sonic Harmony and twilight and spike sat at.

"Ooh, my first Open-Mic night offworld. This is the perfect opportunity To see how different races define music." Jessica giggled.

"I for one am looking forward to seeing what Fluttershy and the ponytones come up with. Up til today I've never heard music from Equuis." Spike laughed.

"Oh, then you're in for a treat Jessica. The ponytones are Ponyville's top A cappella group. There's just no topping them." T'Nea eyed spike.

"Oh, is that a challenge? Because we put a lot of work into our performance, right Cosmic Harmony?"

"Right." The 6 of them sat in silence for a second, then all burst out laughing, save for Ivan the Vulcan.

"Did my Romulan pride just compel me to inquire about a challenge when talking about something as casual as Open-Mic night?" Luke nodded, still chuckling.

"It's fine T'Nea, humans often make competitions out of the simplest things." Twilight nodded.

"Not just humans, when spike and I first met rainbow dash, she initially turned anything we were doing together into a competition." Spike nodded.

"And it wasn't just us either, she was probably the most competitive pony ever back then." Jessica chuckled.

"Try living with Luke when we were kids, he was so convinced that he was the best at everything." Luke chuckled.

"Hey, I thought we agreed to never mention that phase again." Jessica patted him on the back.

"Just teasing Luke." The laughter died down as pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rara, And Applejack arrived.

"Well howdy there y'all, Everyone ready to sing your heart out?" Everyone nodded.

"Yeah, it's awesome that the Ponytones are gonna perform tonight. I can't wait to hear what you guys do." Rarity held her head high.

"Well, to not spoil the performance, all I'll say is that you darlings are in for a treat."

"So we've been informed." Suddenly, a new voice came from behind the group.

"So, whose ready to shake their groove thing tonight?" Everyone looked over to see Harry approaching.

"Harry, this is quite a surprise. I hadn't seen you since last Friday." Harry chuckled.

"Makes sense. I'm mainly in Uniform Requisition fixing cadet uniforms. But tonight! I'm hosting Open-Mic Night. Anyone here itching to sing?" Twilight nodded.

"Cosmic Harmony and the Ponytones are planning on performing tonight. Should be great." Harry beamed.

"Yes, it should. Anywho, lets get this thing started!" With that, Harry rushed up on stage and tapped the microphone. Gaining the attention of everyone in the mess.

"Alright everyone, welcome to open mic night, whose ready to have some fun?" Harry was met with cheers from the crowd, widening his smile. "I'm Glad to see you all are itching for entertainment. Now, for those of you who don't know here's how we do open mic night here at Starfleet academy. At each table there is a PADD, all connected to this one right here." Harry held up a PADD he was holding for everyone to see. "If anyone wishes to come up and perform, simply tap your name, band or otherwise, into the PADD and you'll be added to the queue. I will handle the signaling and all that. There is no time limit on the acts so don't worry about choosing a short song. So, without further ado, whose up first?" Almost instantly, Harry's PADD started going off as the queue quickly filled with submissions. Hardy smiled at the result as he began to speak again. "Well, this should be a fun night with this many acts, and to kick off the night. We have, all the way from Equuis, the Ponytones!" There was clapping as Rarity and her A Cappella mates smiled.

"Well, that's our cue."

"Break a leg you guys." Fluttershy nodded as the Ponytones made their way to the stage pinkie carrying about 10 instruments at once. Once they were on stage, Rarity took hold of the mic with her magic.

"Thank you mr legington. Hello everyone. My name is Rarity. Here with my friends Fluttershy, Applejack, Rara, Spike, And pinkie on musical accompaniment. Together we are the Ponytones! Hit it Pinkie!" Pinkie nodded and played a note on her harmonica, which started the song.

By the time of the song's end, everyone was bopping their heads to the beat. When the last note was played and the song ended. The entire mess hall erupted in cheers and applause. Cosmic Harmony and their Equine friends the most.

"Wow. Just, wow. Who knew ponies and a dragon could sound so good together."

"And pinkie, she was playing 10 instruments at once, HOW?!" Ivan's brows furrowed

"From what I could determine throughout this week, there is no rhyme nor reason to her." Twilight chuckled.

"That's pinkie pie for you. Physics breaker, fourth wall breaker, and can do the impossible. Like playing 10 instruments at once." They turned back to the stage as the Ponytones bowed and vacated the stage as Harry took the mic.

"Wow. And who says ponies and dragons can't give a smashing performance am I right?" The entire room chuckled as Harry looked down at his PADD again. "Ok. Next up, we got another full on band. Now, this one, you may have heard playing before, I know I certainly have, and these guys are amazing in their own right. So, join me in welcoming, Cosmic Harmony!" Clapping followed as the members of Cosmic Harmony got up from their table and headed to the stage. Twilight called after them as the Ponytones took their seats next to her.

"Good luck you guys!" Spike nodded.

"Yeah, break a leg." Jessica shot them a thumbs up as the band made their way onto the stage. Luke took the mic as they got set up on their instruments.

"Hello Starfleet academy! Whose ready to rock?" Several people loudly voiced their answer. Luke nodded. "Alright, then you guys are in for a treat. On drums we have Ivan, our Romulan friend T'Nea handling the Keytar, And with my sis Jessica on bass, we call this little number,'Let the Journey Begin'! Ivan, count us in!" Ivan tapped his sticks to he best of the song a few times before the band launched into the song.

Imagine them saying Starfleet instead of Pokémon.

Twilight and her friends watched the show in utter amazement. Rara the most amazed at their musical ability. "Wow. They sure can play can they?"

"They sure can. They're doin things with those instruments I've never seen before. It's almost bringin a tear to my eye." Twilight nodded in agreement.

"It is amazing to see how music can sound so similar, but come by completely different means." Twilight had been to many concerts on Equuis, and while all the acts were talented in their own right, the way Cosmic Harmony were playing their instruments was on a level that she had never before seen. And their singing only added to the show. 'Not even the rainbooms over in the alternate dimension could match this level of talent.' Twilight Just sat there and listened as Cosmic Harmony played on. Definitely seeing why they were called Cosmic HARMONY.

To be continued.

Author's Note:

1. All rights to music in this episode go to their respective owners.

2. There’s a throwback to marvel in this one, let me know if you catch it.

3. The next story will be the finale to the ‘Introductory Story Arc’, after that, I am open to any suggestions or prompts you might have.

4. As always, constructive criticism and feedback is welcome. Don’t be afraid to speak up. I won’t take offense to anything.

5. Anyone wondering why I chose Pokémon’s let the journey begin? Because I felt like it described freshman year of Starfleet academy perfectly. It really is the beginning of a journey.

Comments

[Captain_Cosmos]

Does anyone know how to make the links appear as actual videos that won’t take you from the site?