Chapter 2.
Princess Celestia stands there for a long time, looking at the human that has presented himself before her. She examines the furless creature, attempting to understand the expression on his face beyond that it may be a smile. She briefly considers calling for the guard as protocol would dictate again before dismissing the thought. His clothing is fairly form fitting, though somewhat flat in color, and she seriously doubts that any sort of large weapon could be secreted away, magical ability on the other hand is still at question. She puts down her hoof and clears her throat. “By in danger, I would hazard a guess that the threat is not from you.”
She notes that, for a moment at least, he looks vastly uncomfortable before he covers his emotions, that gets her ears to flick. She gestures to the small table. “Please, have a seat.” She turns around and heads towards the door of her suite. Her magic chimes as she opens the door.
“Is anything amiss, Princess?” One of the two guards stationed outside her door asks.
“Oh, no. I would like tea for two, I think a nice Valerian blend will do, no service is required, simply knock on the door when the cart arrives. I will handle the service myself.” Looking to the second guard, “And when Twilight Sparkle arrives, let her in immediately.”
“As you command.” The guard gives a quick salute before turning to head down the hall to the kitchen, the second guard closing the door before returning to his position.
She turns and walks back to the small writing desk in her sitting room. In only moments she has dispatched a small piece of parchment, it disappearing in a flash of fire. The kitchens are efficient as always, and it only requires a few minutes of waiting before there is a quick knock at the door. Celestia doesn’t even step towards the door, merely glancing at it, her horn lighting, as she opens it and pulls the wheeled cart towards her.
“Thank you, you may collect the cart from the hall, in the morning,” She nods thanks to the steward as she closes the door and pulls the cart behind her into her bedchambers.
Picard is sitting on a cushion, though his legs are crossed to easily fit under the table which is rather small compared to his frame. He moves to get up but is stopped by a look from her. Her magic pulls the steaming teapot from the cart and sets it on the table, two cups and saucers fly over, one landing before him gently.
He leans forward. “I apologize, I am not used to being served tea by royalty, Princess. May I at least pour?” He reaches out at her nod while she puts the milk and sugar on the table. He pours the two cups and looks at the sugar then at her questioningly. He spoons sugar into her cup and pushes it towards her. She takes her own spoon and stirs the tea. She settles onto her own cushion regally and takes a sip of her tea.
“Given the fact you appeared in my bedchambers, despite there being a specific ward to prevent teleportation. And you came at night, which I don’t think would be within typical diplomatic protocol. Unless of course it is normal for your species to appear in a strange mare’s bedroom at night.” She looks at him. “Given that, I would guess there is an urgency or time requirement for this, that you did not wish to present yourself to the ponies en mass, and that you studied us at least in part. Would you mind explaining what exactly is going on?”
Picard nods and starts to talk. As he explains, she finds herself fascinated by the translation system on his chest, she has no idea if the voice she’s hearing is his own, or some magically created artificial voice. But she listens intently as he explains.
“You surely must see my dilemma, I have a populated member world in danger, with a population of billions. That danger is from your world. I must act, but the fact there is life here, civilization, makes my job much harder.”
She sets down her half empty cup. “And likely the damage would be twofold, the damage to your Betazed and my world would also be gravely affected by coming so close to this planet.” At his nod, she continues. “And you feel the only viable way to save the most lives would be to move the population of my world, which numbers in the tens of millions between the ponies, griffons, hippogrifs, minotaurs, yaks, dragons and other species on my world.”
He nods, getting her to sit back. “With one ship? It must be huge to accommodate such a mission.”
He frowns, she’s starting to understand more of his facial expressions, no ears to watch, no wings to notice uncomfortable shifting. “I have sent a message to my people, asking for whatever ships available to assist. Sadly, we only have a matter of weeks before this system is physically a danger. Even with every Federation flagged ship and any private ships along with any allies, we would be able to transport a lot of life from this world and get them safely to a similar class planet. There are a few within reasonable journey time, though the time frames involved would necessitate one, perhaps two trips per ship, space is vast, and travel through it takes time.”
Her ears splay back. “So, no matter what, you will have to act. What would you do?”
Again, he looks vastly uncomfortable. “We have weapons on board the ships, we would have to break up your world and use tractor beams to shift the orbits. In the end, this world would become a new asteroid field outside the orbit of Betazed.” He looks down. “I’m sorry, Princess, I don’t see any other way, but I must act to preserve the most life I can.”
“And condemn millions to their deaths. Not just the sentient life, but all life on this world.”
He nods. “We are working, Princess, to find other ways to mitigate this problem. But if all other efforts fail, we must act to save lives wherever possible. The only alternative is the death of millions on this world, and several billion on Betazed, the projections show the gravity shear would be enough to crack the crust of the planet, causing a definite worldwide extinction event, some life might survive, but the death toll would be catastrophic.”
“With them being a member of your Federation of Planets, there is a definite political component to this as well.”
He nods. “While that is true, our number one priority in this matter is the preservation of as much life as possible. I am the first to say politics be damned in many instances. But in this case, your planet has less to lose. Your planet is in motion, your planet would need to be stopped in any case.”
She nods as she sips her tea, thinking furiously. Her eyes widen as the main door to her suite is opened. “Princess?” A soft voice with more than a little panic in it intones.
“In my bedchambers, my faithful student.” She calls out. Picard gets to his feet as the sound of the clopping of hooves announces the arrival of seven ponies and a baby dragon. All of them stop as they see the human sitting there.
The one in the lead, a lavender alicorn, stops and looks at Celestia. “What is going on here?”
Picard steps forward, "My name, is Captain Jean Luc Picard, you may find this hard to believe but..."
Pinkie Pie starts pronking on the spot, "Oh, oh, oh, I know this one, You're a human Captain of a large starship currently in orbit around our planet. You're a representative of a multi-planet federation and are here to avert a massive disaster."
All eyes fall on Pinkie blinking, "Pinkie let him talk." Twilight says, leaning over towards her friend.
"Tarnation, how did you get all of that?”
"It's been two weeks since we had to save the world, it was obvious." Pinkie says giving one of her huge smiles.
Celestia smiles at her. “Why yes, Pinkie Pie, you have a good grasp of things. Though he has been explaining this problem to me, and I wish for you to hear as well.” She looks at the Captain. “Would you like to explain again? Or shall I tell her?”
Picard is able to muster a smile once again, glancing at the pink pony bouncing in place. “I would be happy to, this situation is grave enough that I would explain until I’m blue in the face.” He launches into the explanation once again. He could see, though, that this other alicorn isn’t as schooled in the nuances of politics as Celestia is. More than once, her wings flare in surprise, and her facial expressions tell him what she is thinking almost as well as if Deanna were next to him, though the news is grave enough that even the pink one is looking somber by the end of the explanation.
Finally he winds down, Celestia clears her throat. “First off, Captain, I had Twilight and her friends come here because any solution to this problem will likely come from her.” She smiles at her protégé before continuing. “I am also bringing them into the fold, so to speak, when it comes to this problem. You see, Captain. So long as there is a sentient being on this world, I will not leave.”
Picard starts to sputter, but Celestia holds out a hoof. “There is no compromise on this, Captain, either we all go, or we are all saved. My fate will be that of the rest of Equestria and the surrounding nations. I will assist wherever possible. In the morning, I will summon every ambassador that I can, and will explain there is a serious problem. But unless every sentient is brought off this world, I will not be leaving myself.”
“But Princess.” Twilight says, her voice shaking. “If what he says is true, there is no way they can bring enough ships to pull every last sentient off this planet.”
“I know, my dear student. But my fate will be the same as theirs. I cannot call myself the Crown Princess of Equestria without being willing to make hard decisions like this.” She looks over at the human, her gaze penetrating his very soul. “Captain Picard, I would hope that you and your crew are working diligently to avert this catastrophe without loss of life.”
Picard swallows. “Of course, Princess. My crew will be working around the clock, though we have sent messages, as I’ve told you. And ships should start arriving within a few days to start the process. Would it be permissible for some of your population to be among the first to go on those ships?”
Princess Celestia inclines her head. “I will make notifications, and anypony who wishes to help establish a colony on a nearby world will be welcomed and your first ships can make their voyages and work to build the infrastructure of a new place for the ponies to live. Shall I have some sort of landing area prepared, for your ship to land to take on passengers?”
That gets a smile from Picard. “We can use transporters and bring the ponies up that way. Though the Enterprise will not initially be performing the evacuation. If necessary, we will do so, but as it is, we need to gather up as much information as we can, we may also try to perform experiments, to see what is viable. But have no doubt, the Enterprise will be doing her part in this.”
Celestia nods. “Then I shall leave you be, it has been a long day for me, and I must get some sleep.”
Picard nods and looks at the assembled ponies. “Since it is night here, I am now extending an invitation for you all to join me and visit the Enterprise, we can send down away teams once the sun rises.”
Celestia is standing by her bed. “Captain, I would like you to join those away teams, I want you to see as much of our world as you can, so you know the stakes involved.”
“I assure you Princess, I am quite aware. But I will be visiting, I am utterly fascinated by your planet.”
That gets a smile from the Princess as he gestures for the other ponies and the small dragon to gather around him. He takes off his com badge. “Picard to Enterprise, lock onto my location and nine to beam up. Leave the communicator behind. If Celestia needs to reach me, she can use it.” He turns and places the device on the table before standing tall. “Energize.”
Celestia watches as her student and her friends, along with the Captain, dematerialize.
***
As the transporter effect fades, the ponies and the dragon all look around.
“Well, it doesn’t look all that big.” Rarity says.
Pinkie Pie bounces over to O’Brien. “Oh oh oh! That was the craziest thing I’ve ever done!”
The transporter operator looks at the Captain helplessly as the pink pony bounces up and down before his control panel. He steps to the side, putting his body between her and the panel. “Please, don’t touch.”
Picard leads them from the transporter room and down the corridor. Shortly he stops at a turbolift door. He turns back. “It might be a bit crowded.” Though two of the ponies, a light blue one with a shocking rainbow mane, as well as a yellow pegasus with a pink mane, are floating above the others, their wings beating slowly. He allows the rest to precede him into the lift before crowding in behind them. Twilight, as well, takes to the air, giving the other four enough floor space to join Picard. “Bridge.” He says as the doors close. The lift starts to go sideways, though its own inertial dampening prevents even the fliers from being slammed into the wall. Picard briefly wonders how it works. Given their size, there is no way their wings could produce enough lift. Though with three of them flying in such a small space, he would expect the air moved by their wings would produce a significant amount of turbulence. But he barely notices any air movement as the lift stops and shifts to vertical movement. In only moments the lift opens up to the bridge. The ponies follow him out of the lift, the rest of the crew is staying professional and focusing on their workstations, Will Riker walks around from the command area.
“Good day, I’m William Riker.” He says, looking at the lavender alicorn.
She ducks her head shyly. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, these are my friends.” She points at each pony as she names them. “This is Spike, Rainbow Dash, Starlight Glimmer, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie.”
Riker smiles genially. “What colorful names.” He looks up at Picard. “We are holding orbit, though the proto-sun seems to have a will of its own, nearly all active scans are simply being reflected. We’ve pretty much learned nothing about it while you’ve been planetside.”
Picard nods. “Thank you, Number One.” He looks around. “Where is Commander Data?”
“Astrometrics, with Geordie, they are trying to figure out this little pocket of the universe as best they can.”
Picard turns to the ponies, who have clumped together, all of them looking curious and more than a little scared. “This is the main bridge of the starship, where most of the operations of the ship are handled. I will be heading to Astrometrics to help with our efforts here. Will, would you continue to escort the ponies around the ship, show them what is going on, and how we are trying to figure out how to save their world?”
“I would be glad to, Captain.”
“Captain?” Twilight Sparkle speaks up. “May I join you? I’m not the student of astronomy that Princess Luna is, but I have some knowledge in that regard.”
He nods, gesturing for the alicorn to follow him back onto the turbolift. Will stops as he watches the captain and the pony disappear into the lift, then he looks down at the ponies and small dragon standing before him. He’s given basic tours of the ship to various dignitaries many times over the years, but this is the first time the dignitaries barely reached his waist in height, and were all quadrupeds. He clears his throat nervously. “Well, since you’ve seen the bridge, let us start by heading this way, into the observation lounge.”
***
Twilight stands next to the human captain in the little room they called a turbolift. She knows of lifts, usually in tall buildings to make it easier to get between floors, but this one, after dropping several levels, has shifted to go sideways. She briefly lights her horn, just to feel around, and confirms that, yes, the lift is travelling sideways. She looks up at the Captain. “How am I not feeling the acceleration? We are moving quite quickly.”
Picard smiles down at her. “Starships have inertial compensation. Sensors determine acceleration and produce a gravity field directly opposite of that acceleration to cancel it out. It’s not perfect, but it does protect the crew. The turbolift has its own system, for the safety and comfort of those onboard.”
“Generate a gravity field?” She narrows her eyes. “I know spells to generate gravity effects, but they are really advanced…” Her eyes widen. “And you have machines do this, automatically?”
He nods. “Our technology is quite a bit different than what you are accustomed to, Princess.”
“Just Twilight, please.”
He looks at her for a long moment. “As you wish, Twilight.”
“I mean, you are working hard to save my world, I would think we should be on a familiar basis.”
He smiles. “That is true.”
She taps the floor. “So you have faster than light travel, you have magical gravity built into your ships, weapons powerful enough to carve a planet into pieces. Ponies have airship travel and are barely mastering electricity.” She frowns. “If this weren’t such an emergency, wouldn’t you be afraid that your technology might hurt another civilization that wouldn’t be ready for such things?”
Picard looks at the pony princess standing next to him. “In fact we have very strict rules regarding different societies and their technological advancement. It is called our prime directive, it mandates us to leave developing cultures alone until they discover faster than light travel. Had circumstances been different, we would observe you, for months if not years, before anything else, watching to see if you would make the leap to the stars. Only when your kind would have discovered how to bend space and time, then we would have initiated first contact, and gotten to know your leaders and your citizens.”
She looks up at him. “So, because of where my system is going, that is why we meet?”
He nods. “If it weren’t a life or death emergency, I would not have waived the requirements of the Prime Directive.”
The door opens and Twilight follows Picard down the corridor. She looks around at the various crew members walking around. More than one gasp reaches her ears, along with quite a few crew members stopping what they are doing to see her. She nudges closer to Picard. “Why are they surprised? I would think you see aliens regularly in your line of work.”
He guides her through a doorway and stops in the small antechamber. “In our experience, quadrupeds such as yourselves, don’t achieve sapience, much less tool use and other requirements that lead to spacefaring. Your species, in fact, your whole planet is quite unusual by our standards.”
She scoffs. “How can that be?”
“Most, but not all, planets end up with one sapient species, they dominate the other species, and those that are threats to them end up going extinct. Add in the fact that equines such as yourself, are typically prey. Which is also another strike against becoming sapient, though there are exceptions, for example, the Denobulans. But with all of that, Miss Twilight, your species is quite unusual in your success on your world.”
“Something that might be destroyed in a matter of a few weeks.” She says softly.
He gestures for a larger door to open, she walks in and stops, sitting down quickly. He steps up next to her. “Breathtaking isn’t it?”
A large catwalk extends into the center of the large spherical chamber. Computer controls and a couple of seats are set up at that center station. Two are standing there, a pale human looking creature, but something is off to her about his movements, and a dark skinned human, who is wearing some sort of device on his face. Picard steps forward to his crewmembers. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, this is my chief engineer, Geordi LaForge, and my chief of operations, Lieutenant Commander Data.”
Twilight offers a hoof, and the dark skinned human shakes it. The pale one called Data comes up next to him and also shakes the pony’s hoof.
“Okay, this whole evening has been an absolute whirlwind.” Her horn lights for a moment, then she gasps. “You aren’t even alive.” Her eyes are glued to the operations officer.
“You are correct, I am not biologically alive, I am an artificial life form, an android.”
Twilight shakes her head as though a gnat is buzzing around her ear. “And are you a half android?” She looks at Geordi.
That gets a short bark of a laugh from the chief engineer. “No, I’m blind, I use this device.” He touches the VISOR on his face, “So I can see. With it, my vision is different than how humans see, but I can see a lot of things you cannot.”
Twilight drums her hooves on the floor quickly. “If I wasn’t so overwhelmed, I would be wanting to take you apart to see how you work.” She looks over at Geordi. “And I would love to see how that works, and also what can be done about your eyes, why your natural ones don’t work anymore.” She stops, sinking her front half to the deck. “I’m just…I don’t know. This has been an utter shock of an evening.”
Picard kneels down, putting a hand on her withers. “Princess, if you need to rest, I can show you to some quarters.”
She shrugs his hand off. “Saving my home is more important than anything, Captain.” She claps her forehooves together. “Alright, let’s see what we have to work with here.”
***
Commander William Thomas Riker has given starship tours to dignitaries dozens of times as first officer of the Enterprise. But right now, he’s seriously considering to never do that again. The pink pony, Pinkie Pie, has both impressed him, and has been driving him nuts with her outbursts. If he didn’t know better, he would think he were in a cartoon, since she’s fit her body in impossibly small confines, and has done other things which he would have said was completely impossible.
He keeps the diplomatic smile on his face as he passes through the doorway. “This is our ten-forward compartment. This is a lounge for when crew members are off shift, to allow them a communal space to converse and enjoy food.”
The white unicorn, Rarity, walks up next to him, then she slowly walks to the massive windows in the front of the compartment. “That is our world? Our home, from orbit?”
He nodded. She gazed out at the blue, green, and white orb seemingly hanging motionless before them. Her tail waving, she seems absolutely mesmerized by the view. One by one, the other ponies crowd over to the many viewports in the front of the compartment.
“So, these are our guests?” Comes a new voice, getting every pony to turn and look at the dark skinned humanoid in flowing robes and large hat.
“This is Guinan, she runs ten forward.” Riker said with a gesture.
Rarity walked up to her. “On our tour, I’ve seen so many different aliens, and now another hoomon.” She sticks her tongue out a bit at the odd word to her. “And even among hoomons, you have a rather narrow coloring scheme, going from very pale, to as dark as you are.” She cocked her head to the side. “But I must say, your garments are absolutely beautiful. Have you considered some diamonds or other gems along the hemline? I think it would set off from that beautiful skin color you have and really shine.”
Riker has very rarely seen Guinan flush, but the bartender flushes a bit with a shy smile. “Why thank you, my dear. But I’m not human.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything.” Rarity sputtered.
Will comes to the white pony’s rescue. “Not all humanoids are human, Miss Rarity. Guinan here is a long time friend of Captain Picard.
“You seem to be looking at me a lot?” Pinkie pie said softly, her ears cocked to the side.
Guinan shook her head. “I’m sorry, but there’s something about you…” She sighed. “I’m sorry, was not trying to be rude.”
The pale pink pony with the multicolored purple mane stepped closer to Riker. “While I do appreciate the tour of the ship, and getting to see all that you hoomans have made. I would like to know more about what is being done to save our world. I know Twilight Sparkle is off starting on this mission. But we all are here to help.” Her horn starts to glow. “Can you help me learn the basics of how your computer systems work? You’ve mentioned the main computer of this ship many times. How do I use it? Research what is necessary?” She glanced at the other ponies around. “Please, Mr. Riker. This is our home, we want to help.”
Riker glances between the ponies before nodding. “While I’ve been conducting this tour, we have been working on one of our science labs to give you as much access as you would need to learn as much as possible. We will also be showing you a couple of candidate worlds that we would work to relocate as many as we can from your home.”
Starlight Glimmer stamps a hoof on the carpeted deck. “I do appreciate the idea of moving our population. But we all know that even a ship this size cannot move enough. My goal, and the goal of everypony here is to make sure we save our world.” She looks around. “Both worlds. Who would I talk to, to send me back to Canterlot for a short time so I can get magical reference materials? Perhaps we can find a way, using your technology and our magic, to fix this horrible problem.”
That gets a smile from Riker. “I will take you to the lab, let you meet your liaison, his name is Reginald, and he will get your friends settled to start work. Then I will go with you, help you pick up what you need, sound good?”
She nodded. “Thank you, Mister Riker.”
“Call me Will.”
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Woo! A nice update!
Twilight manages to create the first Magically Assisted gravity field manipulation and enhancement device, designed specifically to redirect and move the orbits of massive celestial bodies and 2-3 planet solar systems.
a few changes made i did not know of, i like it.
and one change that needs to be made.
i love the author note.
i wonder were things will go from here.
Twilight.exe has stopped working please use books to restart. I don’t know why but I feel like that’s going to happen in the future
You would think Guinan would be very interested in Pinkie, unless she is too put off because she thinks she is a member of the Q Continuemunium? That might explain her unease at Pinkie, Rarity just was accidentally very insensitive.
As for Celestia I hope she has fully thought her request through.
Is it wrong that I ship Picard and Celestia?
The lack of calling Discord even to ask him if he knows anything that can help with a threat from completely outside their expertise or in fact known universe is rather disconcerting. We know he's likely a Q, but no one in the story does. Sure, he'd likely be mysterious about it and not appear in front of Picard, but not even mentioning him?
Ok, maybe it's too soon and they'll try and look at things before the shock wears off enough for anyone to think about it. Likely Fluttershy, since she's his friend.
Other than that it looks like an interesting development, even if their decision to abandon their world seems to be waaaay too quick and without drama.
10407860
They’ve all been in life-or-death situations before, and keep in mind this is all over the course of a couple hours. There hasn’t been enough time for the ponies and dragon to fully realize what they’re talking about.
10407860
I think with Discord the unreliably of Chaos magic can be sighted as a reason. By it's nature it can do things you don't want it to for no reason at all.
We talking about one Lieutenant Reginald Barclay?
10408115
I dunno, is there any other star Trek characters with the first name Reginald?
10408166
Doubt there is. Just waiting for what shenanigans ensue.
10408166
Not on the NCC-1701-D.
10407860
If you watch Star Trek TNG, some get the impression that Q is, in effect, testing and teaching the Federation about the wider universe (My case in point is the final interaction between Picard and Q).
Based on that, I am lead to believe that Q / Discord will withdraw from this interaction to try and let the Federation and Equestria try to solve the problem themselves and only step in if there is no other acceptable option. This way, even if they fail, they learn and move forward.
10408166
One thing I thought might have been a bit out of character was that, when Twilight stated:
I was reminded of the episodes, "The Measure of a Man" and "The Offspring" where Captain Picard enthusiastically defended Mr. Data and secured his rights as a sentient being as well as a potential father, respectively. However, Captain Picard did not immediately rebuke Twilight is odd. However, it could be because of the scene change.
As for when Captain Picard said:
I also remember that in several Star Trek novels, there are several members of Horta in Starfleet and, in one book, a Horta ambassador. This, I believe, would be one of the most unusual species that the Federation knows.
10408395
Valid point. He'd likely intervene if equestria is to be blown of though, if only to preserve Fluttershy's animal friends. She'd be heartbroken if they were all to die.
Edit for clarification: when they are about to blow the planet up, not a moment before then.
There is a section in this chapter where you forget to insert paragraph breaks.
This guy Star Treks. Does need a few proofing passes, but this is an interesting story.
Tracking Beacon activated. Let's see where this goes.
10408412
There's also Hwii, a Delphine of Triton II. In essence, a dolphin in a forcefield swimsuit. (TNG: Dark Mirror novel. One of Diane Duane's best.)
Equestria has already done both those things without even leaving their planet, and if you count mirror travel, they have left their world before too. So, I guess they're not breaking the prime directive anyway.
I'm surprised none of the crew on the enterprise hasn't offered a carrot, or an apple, or a some sugar to the pones.
10409103
I'm thinking on how the ponies will react to replicated food.
10409006
That'd be playing super fast and loose with it, but sure. However, it's usually used in the context of pre-warp civilizations, those that haven't achieved space travel to begin exploring the universe (at least, in the context the Federation would know it as such). Given what we know of Equestria as of the final episode of the FiM series, it doesn't look like they would be heading towards that end anytime soon (if at all). I've yet to read any of the Season 10 comics, but so far nothing seems to be indicating that actual extensive space travel was ever on the horizon for the ponies.
G5, with its setting apparently being several generations down the line for Equestria, might show us a setting where technology got bumped up a few notches while under the guidance of Princess Twilight Sparkle, but we still have about a year to wait and see on that. Ultimately, even though faster-than-light travel is technically done several times a day by unicorns capable of teleportation/gate travel, and space-time manipulation spells exist, Equestria would still fall under the Prime Directive simply because it's looking for warp-capable, space faring civilizations, which nothing on Equestria's planet is capable of (princesses being shot to the moon not withstanding).
10409338 Well obviously, they would freak the %#@$ out!
The interesting thing is the Dark Queen on the chessboard is Luna. The mare that moves a small world might be able to move Equus. Though it might kill her to do so. The other issue the inability of Starfleet to move a planetary population of Equus's size. Even if the used every ship in the fleet and got the Klingons to help they couldnt do it.
I really hope this doesn't become the Star Trek crew running everything while the helpless pony savages get uselessly strung along. Having Twilight be amazed by elevators isn't setting a good precedent.
I also wonder why they don't simply have the princesses juggle objects around to trivially make the problem go away. It seems a little silly that they're talking about destroying Equus as some sort of solution, given that the stated problem is that the entire Equus solar system is contained inside an energy barrier on course to collide with Betazed.
Have they completely forgotten about the solar-system-sized gravitic barrier that Enterprise needed its warp field plus shields to penetrate? Why are they talking about destroying planets? Planets and stars are very small compared to solar systems. Just because the barrier containing the system will collide with Betazed doesn't mean that any of the objects within it are even going to come within light minutes of it. Chapter 1 stated that the barrier is ~20 AU in diamater. That's thousands of times larger than our sun, and if Equus' star is similar in size...the scenario here is like taking an Olympic-sized pool with both a ping pong ball and a grain of sand in it, dropping that pool onto another grain of sand, and worrying about the ping pong ball or grains of sand hitting each other...rather than the olympic pool.
The problem here isn't planetary or star collisions. It's the energy barrier. 20 AU is roughly the distance from the sun to Uranus. So what if you carve up the planet and star inside it, if something as big as your solar system hits you instead?
10409338
Unless you're going for the "pony savages" angle, I would expect team Star Trek to be more impressed by Team Pony than the reverse. Most of Team Pony isn't going to have the context to understand why anything Team Star Trek can do is impressive. For example, unicorns routinely teleport out-of-sight objects to themselves. That's probably what a replicator is going to look like to most of them.
Meanwhile, even if Twilight is perplexed that Team Star Trek finds converting energy to matter to be more convenient than simply cooking...is she really going to be amazed that theyr'e capable of it? More amazed than they'll be to watch her turn an apple into an orange and then accidentally create a living frog-orange hybrid? From their point of view, that's right up there with Q-level stuff, and that was pre-ascension season 1 Twilight.
I guess the question is, what sort of story do you want to tell? If you want the pony savages to be amazed by technology, that's one thing. But so far they weren't too impressed with the surface-to-ship teleportation, and Twilight was able to immediately identify Data as not a living creature. (And nobody wondered how she knew?) Meanwhile, Twilight seemed particularly surprised by the inertial dampener in the turbolift, so I'm not entirely sure which angle you're aiming for. In chapter one, Data mentioned unicorn telekinesis, transmogrification, and teleportation. So...tractors beams, matter replication, and transporters?
Overall, who's going to be more impressed, that Team Star Trek can do these things with machines, or that Team Pony can do these things without them? And oh by the way, unicorns can basically fire phasers and put up shields too and they just haven't noticed yet?
If anything, it seems like Worf should be freaking out as soon as he understands what they're capable of, because Twilight is a very credible threat to Enterprise. And sooner or later, somebody's going to notice that ponies can move stars around.
This encounter seems more like TOS-era Kirk's encounter with the Organians, where the simple primitives turned out to be advanced energy beings. Here's a video from season 1 of Celestia pulling the energy-being routine, and Luna does similar on a regular basis.
I don't think that having them be surprised by replicated food makes much sense here.
I do love how you capture the spirit of the characters! Can I feel a bit of discord and q (or are you a believer that they are the one and same?)
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I agree, a lot of what the ponies do with inborn magic is comparable to routine trek tech. Twilight was surprised that the turbolift doesn't work as she expects and has its own intertial dampening. I do not plan for the ponies to be "savages" on a technologically advanced starship, I want them to be more peers than anything else.
And as to the system, it will be explained further, but 20 AU is large, but smaller than a star system, and it's been explained that the Equestrian sun is the size of a moon, hence Data hesitant to call it a star. I can tell you is that the working theory would be that the pocket of space could be dispelled by some means from inside. That being said, the boundary of the pocket presents a minor issue, beyond making entry a bumpy ride and preventing timely communication. As to Twilight's reaction to Data, remember, she's tired from a long day, and just hit with an emotional overload. She can and will recover from that and get to business fairly quickly. Realistic characters mess up, flub, and sometime go the wrong way. But no worries, our little Twi and her friends are going to be part of the solution.
As to Q, and Discord...we will see what we will see. I have plans, and I hope they are entertaining.
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And one more thing, I was thinking more about quality vs the fact it exists.
"Whoah there nelly, just cuz these fine folk don't do things the way we do..."
"Computer, one apple cider."
"Tarnation, pinky what are you."
Pinkie makes Aj drink the Synthahol cider.
Blinking a few time, AJ narrows her eyes, "Even Flim and Flam could do better then this, its.."
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Not to mention that IF the planets are indeed anchors to the whole field what would happen to it once it became unmoored? Will it evaporate somehow? Explode? There is likely a massive amount of energy in that front and it WILL go to somewhere no matter what would happen. Currently it has a vector towards the system, what would change that?
The situation might become even more deadly if the thing became unstable somehow.
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oh yeah, starfleet has some odd species in it, Several different cat like races, at least 1 bird like race, a few aquatic species including of course the dolphins. (Jordie: "Have you met our dolphins in astrometrics?" Coms "Lt xxx to cetacean ops".
Horta - silicon life forms.
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What? for some reason i saw certain ponies reacting badly to food replicators. Even some HUMANS complain about food replicators having their items taste... off. taste mechanical. Its why there are still restaurants and why people still actually cook rather then replicating full meals all the time. with a replicator, you can get the same tasting burger every single time. exactly the same, tastes the same looks the same, every single time. while with people they will make changes almost every time they make one so each one tastes ever so slightly different. over time as peoples tastes change, they will change the seasons to match.
This gives replicator foods a lifeless taste at times.
Chapter 2!
Captain Picard seems to be quite at ease with the idea of beaming down, violating the Prime Directive. I mean he's taking it seriously, but the story requires him to move quickly. Maybe someone mentioning it would help (eg the "hanging a lantern" trope).
I do like how you mention in this chapter other ships were immediately called to help evacuate, and it is indeed a last-ditch effort with Picard hoping to find another option. Both these I expected to have been mentioned last chapter but they are expected logical steps the Enterprise crew have taken and it's good to see they did.
I think it would be helpful to show more of Princess Celestia's inner thoughts here, since this is from her perspective. When does she feel terrified about what he's saying? When does she disbelieve something he says?
I think the bit about the translator is not important and could really be removed. It's never drawn attention to on the show unless it's important to the story (Chapter 1's use was fine).
With all the detail you go into with characters' thoughts and events and so forth, I'm surprised you gloss over exactly what Picard tells Celestia to fill her in. Yes, the reader already knows it, best not to repeat, but the reader can still learn a lot about what Picard chooses to say and what he chooses to withhold because it's not important or for diplomatic reasons (eg it may make her distrust him).
For example:
Probably wouldn't tell her about the cloud at all. He hasn't even gotten far enough for it to even be a concern right now.
Also, I wouldn't have Pinkie just guess everything. I never like it when fics do that. Make her like a modern day Nostradamus. What she says is technically correct, but vague enough it COULD have been correct by coincidence... right?
Maybe Pinkie can mention she can tell Picard likes ponies, and she even gets a rare twitchy twitch that tells her he even has his own saddle (I think this revelation would occur when he's not around)! The ponies naturally can't figure out why he would.
Picard wouldn't "sputter". He'd likely be expecting an uphill battle convincing her to evacuate her people. In fact, being a Captain who would rather be the last off of his ship or go down with it in an emergency, he'd be completely understanding with her response.
Twilight has no authority to say if the Federation is capable of evacuating them all. She can certainly question the viability of it of course.
Princess Celestia probably shouldn't be the one to first mention the idea of establishing a colony on another world. She's putting their survival in the arms of the Federation and has no idea what needs to be done, apart from perhaps vague ideas and assumptions.
Picard should have to define what a "transporter" is, even if it's just that they're bringing ponies up the same way he came down.
Oh, and evacuating ponies first? There's political considerations here. Other countries would probably be upset (assuming they take this seriously) that ponies are given preference.
Picard would not be so quick to invite ponies to tour the Enterprise. He would likely want to limit their exposure, even when evacuating. Just because you broke the Prime Directive doesn't mean you have to shatter it too.
Also I noticed most of the mane 6 plus Spike don't speak in the scene. IMO it's important all characters behave as they would and you don't forget any of them are present! For example Rainbow Dash has a big mouth and would say something, probably about not trusting Picard.
On the ship.. Picard probably wouldn't leave the ponies to Riker. They barely know HIM and they agreed to come with HIM. Passing them off to Riker I think is a diplomatic no-no.
Picard can't waive the Prime Directive. He broke it, or received permission to do so from Starfleet Command. Also I feel he would take a note that Twilight figured out that their influence could be harmful and be hopeful this meant that harm could be minimized through their awareness.
Picard shouldn't assume ponies are prey, Data said there is no relation to Earth equines. That said it's easy to imagine Data's supplemental briefing materials which Picard would have gone over prior to beaming down would have included this. Also Picard wouldn't give examples (Denobulans) that Twilight wouldn't understand, At least not without a quick explanation of why they are an example.
Riker wouldn't describe ten-forward like he does... but now I'm just nitpicking (and probably have been for a while, sorry).
I'll try to make up for it by saying something I really like. I like Guinan's reaction to Pinkie. That's the kinda subtlety I am looking for.
And Rarity isn't pink? Even slightly? If anything I think if you check her color values she's slightly blue but it's imperceptible. She's white. So the description of her being pale pink and with a multicolored purple mane (just "purple" is fine! Multicolored describes Rainbow Dash) is confusing.
OK, so Rarity wouldn't really know what a computer is, I feel, and the crew would probably avoid the headache of trying to explain it if possible. And another prime directive violation for going out of their way to freely share knowledge with the ponies!
Wait, Starlight Glimmer is there? I completely missed that. See, that's because she wasn't talking at all.
Also Riker probably would not encourage people to call him Will in a professional let's-work-to-save-your-planet kind of setting. A more casual setting sure.
Oh dear Barkley is going down to the planet? Riker why. Do you hate him that much. He's not good at that sort of thing you know that.
Yeah I'm not sure I like the direction this seems to be going. Enterprise crew would not just throw the prime directive out the window, they would try to work within its boundaries as much as possible and only bend or break it when absolutely necessary.
I think a good example is the TNG episode with Worf's brother and the relocation of those pre-warp natives. Picard was put into a difficult position but upheld the prime directive at least in spirit as much as he could, even as it meant he was forced into relocating these people which he did not want to do. He didn't stop, open up the holodeck and say "Sorry, Nicoli's a fraud, we're letting you off at the nearest Starbase, good luck".
That said we haven't see how Q is going to work into the story yet. I assume the evacuation plan won't get underway before something changes the direction of the story.
Now for me writing scenes:
I think. If some alien came up to me and told me my entire world would be destroyed, without evidence, and claim my people had to leave it and put my trust in him to do it, I would not agree to it. Celestia probably shouldn't have been so easy to convince either. Or at least have "magic" as an excuse (lie detector spell or whatever). I had this idea for later in a hypothetical version of the story where she doesn't believe him and I couldn't help but share:
You probably don't want to make Celestia antagonistic (but who knows) anyways I thought this scene was too cool an idea not to share.
Also, without further comment:
And... c'mon, this improves it so much!
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Thank you so much for your input! These wall of text comments are wonderful to read. I cannot promise I will use your suggestions, but I will consider them. I do have a plan, and getting the two "crews" together was the priority for the start.
I don't agree with some, Celestia has a long history of letting her protege handle the problems. Though I do try to keep the characters in character without getting excessively cerebral or pedantic. Your ideas will certainly be kept in mind. Thank you so much for your brilliant input!
I am seeing some super amazing comments here from the readers.
hugs all around.
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I think I must have stated something confusingly since I would agree Celestia would try to pass world-saving work onto Twilight as she always does. :)
You've definitely got your work cut out for you with this story. The Prime Directive would limit what contact the Enterprise could have with Equestria which would make any crossover fic difficult to write. Though it seems you are quick to have it ignored in order to keep the story moving forward (not sure I agree with that, though I will be sticking with this story to see where it goes regardless).
Then again Star Trek writers are guilty of the same many times, I suppose.
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yes The Prime Directive is a thing,,but at time star fleet will wave it off if there is a huge reason and i am pretty sure the extension of a entire planet falls under that heading.
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https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Homeward_(episode)
I think 'i referenced this episode in one of my last few posts. I think it is a good example of how, yes, Picard is prepared to allow a planet with civilizations to die, because it would have happened had they not been there and is natural, sadly.
This fic has an interesting twist on the idea that a Federation planet is also in danger so doing nothing is not an option. I also assume evacuating Betazed and allowing Equestria to hit it, killing all the pre-warp civilizations there, is not an option (presumably the Betazeds are against that idea, even if it was practical, which is probably isn't). I still think Picard would uphold the Prime Directive as much as possible, unless doing so would clearly hamper their progress or lessen their chances of saving as many lives as possible. Allowing natives from a pre-warp civilization free access to Federation databanks for research would not qualify, I think.
That said I can sympathize with the author and trying to bring these two worlds together. I've not really seen a really good fan fic with that premise yet for these two worlds (though I understand the author has written some other Trek crossovers I have yet to check out). And in all the official comic crossovers between Trek and other franchises I've read I'm not sure the Prime Directive even comes up. It would seem to be a bit of a pain to write around.
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Bad comparison episode. in that case, the Enterprise had to choose between helping and doing nothing, where doing nothing wouldn't affect any other planets.
This is more akin to "
For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
". This was a non warp culture, on a generation ship/asteroid, who lived as primitives. In this case they chose to ignore the prime directive because, they would either have to KILL the people on the asteroid, or let it slam into a federation planet...
The prime directive would 'prohibit' the federation from destroying the planet, without trying to save the population some how. Cant destroy it, can't let it detroy betazed, so, evactuate who you can and THEN try an stop it... Seems to be the next choice - again looking at star trek Generations where this is done. BUT they don't have time for covert surveillance and building a cloaked holoship... so...
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all i can say is you are in for a few supersizes and this story is just getting started.
and i have a long standing pinkie promos to not give out spoilers.
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I'm not too familiar with TOS so I'm not familiar with that episode, but generally as I understand it TOS tended to have a different definition of the Prime Directive than TNG did. Contact with civilizations was permitted, just not sharing of advanced technology, as I understand it. TNG's interpretation is more strict, prohibiting any contact at all.
I would accept that Kirk and crew in this same fic replacing Picard and crew would have less reservations about breaking even sharing advanced tech if they thought it would help (it helps that this is Kirk we're talking about).
And I would accept Picard would violate it as well, but I think he would have to have a good justification to himself before he did so. Exposing the ponies to knowledge they didn't acquire themselves is unnecessary. Furthermore I think as a proponent of the Prime Directive (usually) he would see the value in allowing a civilization to learn for itself rather than being handed knowledge.
I think it's only fair to say how I would try to move the story forward, instead of just saying I don't like the current direction, though without knowing where the author intends to go it's hard to determine how I would get there. One route the crew could take is to themselves learn as much as they can about magic and do all the research themselves (I mean they have entire science teams on board a ship made partly for scientific discovery, put them to work). The ponies would not be involved except to help distill knowledge about magic for the Enterprise crew, who know nothing about it and wouldn't know where to focus their research efforts. This would likely frustrate the ponies who have to rely on strangers for salvation and aren't being permitted to really help at all, which could be an interesting subplot.
The story would move on. Perhaps some ideas they came up with could be set into motion and we'd get something more crossovery as we could involve the ponies more. For example, maybe the idea of channelling magic to boost their tractor beam output massively, and bring Twilight on the ship (per Prime Directive previously ponies had not been permitted aboard, or had been extremely limited and always with an escort) to serve as an expert and consultant to the installation and use of Equestrial crystals which can channel magical energy. Twilight would increasingly become frustrated as she tries to ask questions about the ship, only to be met with delayed, calculated vague responses, or apologies concerning the Prime Directive.
I think I'll throw in a little scene I have stuck in my head, why not:
So this is a possible direction for a theoretical alternate take. Just to give you an idea of how I might do it, if I had the time, to do it, drive to do it, and the skill to actually make something longer than a page that doesn't suck. Even here I'm struggling to bookend dialog with more than simple "he said"/"she said".
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In TOS the prime directive was the same. Non interference... in the episode balance of power, the Klingons were arming a primitive civilization with musket. Kirks response was... to arm the other-side with the same weapons. to keep a tech parody, though even this was going to far in the eyes of spoke as to the prime directive.
In TOS, like in TNG the federation would "explore" and "Study" pre-warp civilizations. They would use surgically altered spies, duck blinds, hide their tech, and this was fine.
Beaming down to pre-warp civilizations was always considered risky due to cultural contamination, but was done. So thats never been an issue. Now in this situation, since what ever happens, "Cultural contamination" is/was almost automatic. They are on a time crunch, can't surgically alter people to look like ponies, don't have the time for the duck-blind approach, and their actions may require the destruction of an inhabited planet (federation SERIOUSLY frowns on this, and requires massive surveys to be done on planets looking for even the slightest protfungus, before they bomb one for tests) that a breach of the prime directive was allowable.
Right now its more about "gathering" as much information as fast as possible about anything and everything they can... to See what options and solutions they can come up with. And for that, they need to interact with the natives. Study the planet and the natives "tech" and work from there.
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I do understand much of what you are saying. But suffice it to say, the ponies have quite a few surprises in store for the crew of the Enterprise, and Picard among others will see that the Prime Directive will not be the stumbling block that you think. I do have a plan in mind, and I hope you like the execution.
Just go the Kurtzman route and throw some ass-backwards hack idea at it to fix everything.
10421028
Don't worry, I'm sure Westley Crusher will figure out a way to combine magic, a warp field, an the tractor beam, to solve everything before he ascends into alicorn status, and is praised by everyone everywhere, and has all the mares fall for him.
Riker even has a charm on ponies... 😏
10386210
Come to think of it, Discord could actually BE Q in this AU!
So, with all the mythical creatures on this planet, what would it be called? Olympus?
10422619 Starswirl the Picard, "SHUT UP WESLEY!!"