• Published 14th Aug 2020
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Star Trek: A Knights Gambit - Sparky Brony



The Enterprise is off on another adventure...but this time, sentient quadrupeds?

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Chapter 3.

Lieutenant Reginald Barclay has always suffered from social anxiety, it’s why he had turned to the holodecks in the past. He often felt intimidated by people, pressured, unable to cope with some of the most basic of social situations. He was on board the Enterprise because he was a genius in subspace field manipulations, gravimetric science, and a very capable engineer.

These ponies however were his worst nightmare. They were outgoing, forward, inquisitive, friendly. They were so far out of his normal comfort zone, that he dreaded working with them. It was the end of their usual day when they were brought aboard ship, and over the last several hours, one by one, they had retreated to the quarters assigned them, with the exception of two. He didn’t have to walk them to their quarters, he really didn’t want to, the science lab they were working in was only down the corridor from those quarters.

The one pony left awake is struggling to work on the computer system. The other pony, whose name he thinks is something akin to Starlight Glimmer or Glitter, has curled up in the corner of the lab and is snoring softly. The prismatic Pegasus sitting at the console, however, is occasionally grunting in frustration. It isn’t the fact that she’s using the computer, but instead Barklay does finds her way of interfacing with the computer is rather novel, instead of hands or hooves she uses her wings, the stiff primaries on the tips, to control the computer. The muscle control she has to accurately use the computer is both breathtaking and confusing to him.

His own duties have kept him busy, first to give a basic rundown of how the computer works, for this he just pretended he was alone, and talked to himself not looking at the ponies. It was only when they asked questions that his anxiety and stuttering came back. When Starlight Glimmer had walked in with dozens of books from the surface floating in her own personal anti-grav field. His first response was to grab a tricorder to try to measure the field she was creating. The sensors however it had insisted there was nothing there, not even the books, it wasn’t until she had set them down, releasing them that they registered. Commander Riker had walked in right behind the pink pony with another armful of books.

Barclay’s next task was much more relaxing and didn’t require interaction, one by one, page by page he had scanned the contents of the books into the computer. This allowed the information to be able to be cross referenced and searchable. As well this allowed for the computer to translate the texts, though native mode would still be available.

The other pink pony, however, had been a total terror to him. While she had been utterly fascinated by what he was doing, bouncing from her computer terminal over to his workstation, her constant exuberance and invasion of personal spaces wanted him to retreat to the safety of holodeck again. Several times he found himself panicked as he turned only to see her face smiling brightly only inches from him.

With a deep breath he looks at the report the computer has generated, text scrolling down, “Ru. Ru… Rainbow Dash.”

She looks over at him, blinking owlishly. The long night for her is certainly taking its toll as well. “Yeah?”

“One word,” He looks quickly down at the computer display, “One word is getting flagged by the computer.”

She tilts her head. “And that means…what?”

“Well, I um,” clearing his throat Barclay, taps the screen, “The computer has been running translation of your written language. This… This will allow our crew to learn this information easier. But there are always, well, artifacts I guess, words computer has issues with. It usually runs contextual analysis, which means it looks for other uses of the same word in other context.” Glancing to the pony he quickly looks back at the screen, “It learns, trying to figure out what it means. In this case though, since these aren’t stories, but essentially technical manuals or text books, it’s kicking out more for review because accuracy of the data is the highest priority.”

“Chillax, breath more,” She shakes her head and looks thoughtful for a long moment before backing from her terminal and taking to the air. She floats over to look over his shoulder. “I’m probably not the best pony for this Sir Barclay. Twilight would have…” She stops as she looks at the highlighted word in native mode. “Oh, that, that’s just thaumic. I see that all the time in Daring Do books.”

He blinks. “Thaumic?”

She giggles. “It sounds funny the way you say it.” She reaches over his shoulder and runs a hoof along the screen. “It’s a term for magic I guess, thaumic power would be the magical energy required to do something, thaumic for would be the magical force applied via said power. Us pegasi might refer to things in wing power, but the books might call it thaumic energy.” She looks around. “Wouldn’t you have an equivalent word when it comes to your own magic?”

“We don’t have magic, at… at least I don’t…” Barclay says looking down, “Rainbow. And you can just call me Reg. If you like.”

She tilts her head to the side. “Reg, that’s an interesting name.”

He nods, tapping a few commands into the computer. “Magic, especially how you ponies express it, is not something we’ve really dealt with. I mean, there’s Q, and the Organians, I guess what the Betazeds do might be kind of like magic, and a few other species that have abilities we’ve been unable to quantify.” He looks back at her. “But, well, I guess you ponies have not only quantified the energy. But have given values to so many of its aspects.” He shakes his head. “This is a first. We can’t even detect your magic. I used a tricorder to see how you are flying without disturbing the air. We would use antigrav, but I can’t detect an antigrav field. To our sensors, you are simply flapping your wings. But that would require quite a bit of air movement to keep you flying. Yet you are hovering next to me, and I can barely feel any air movement.”

“Oh, sorry.” She folds her wings and lands on the deck easily.

“Oh, no, don’t stop because of me Miss Dash. I can’t explain your abilities,” Barclay says, looking at his tricorder. “That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do what comes naturally to you.”

She yawns, sitting down on her haunches and putting a hoof over her mouth. She flicks her ears and smiles, “I didn’t expect us to be able to fix everything with us just learning things.” She walks over to the central computer station and taps on a few keys. “Your computer system is amazing. We don’t have this at home, nothing near this, well, that I know of.” A wire frame globe appears above the table, rapidly filling in with sensor data showing a detailed rendering of their planet. “But you can put all sorts of books into your computer, and it can analyze those books faster than Twilight could even read them. Do you think if we get enough magical information into your computer, it can come up with some spell or trick to use?”

Barclay taps a few keys, then inserts the next book into the reader. “Given that the computer has no context, and our sensors don’t even seem to recognize magic.” He huffs for a moment and shakes his head, “I’m sorry, but even now I’m hesitant to call it magic. Because our term magic tends to talk about vague unexplained phenomena, or things base on faith over science. If you can’t explain it, it must be magic, or sufficiently advanced technology that appears to be magic, like transporters. But some of what you do can be explained. Then Starlight was able to turn a hypospray into a bird, pattern resequencing at the subatomic level. Though it seemed to be alive, she was able to have it fly around the room before turning it back.” He shakes his head. “I, I, I, I…” He stops, stuttering has always frustrated him. “I still am at a loss to explain it.” He stops, looking at the rendering of the planet.

“And that bugs you? Come on, don’t sweat it, Reg.” Rainbow Dash says. “We got the best egghead on the problem, she will figure it out.” She sits next to him looking at her home. “She always does.” She intones softly.

***

Lt. Commander Data looked at the purple alicorn curled up by the entrance to stellar cartography. She had asked him to wake her in three hours, which is about the time the sun would be rising in their hometown of Ponyville. They had been working almost the entirety of her night to find a solution to their problem. He shook his head, turning back to the display. Real-time sensor data of the little pocket of the universe they were currently residing in was being displayed. The energy barrier that closed this little system off from the rest of the universe was well mapped by now. Though the type of energy is still unknown to the computer. In fact, the sensors can’t really see the energy, just its effects. His hands flew across the control panel, bringing up different scans of the planet and of the moon and sun. He had noticed a slow oscillation of the barrier, as though it were affected by something.

Twilight had explained that the sun is magic, pure concentrated magical power. And through her connection to that magic is what made Princess Celestia so powerful. And while he would normally doubt such an assertion, he can not dispute what the sensors are telling him. They can see the radiation in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet spectrums, but no ionizing radiation, nothing to say what should be going on, a fusion reaction. And to top things off, the sensors really don’t tell him more than that.

Geordi’s engineering duties had pulled him away some hours before, and Data had simply been working to complete the ordered level one scan of the system. But he has kept finding himself focusing on that sun, being such an enigma to physics. Though much about the ponies and this system are mysteries to the android officer. A thought occurs to him and he sends a request to the bridge, which gets a rapid response and the ship rotates, bringing the powerful long range sensors situated in the deflector dish to bear on first the sun, then the moon of this world. His eyes take in the massive amount of date being scanned by those sensors. His fingers flying as he brings different sensor packages to bear on the stellar bodies. After a few minutes, he sends another message to the bridge informing them he’s completed the scans. He pores through the data, then he stops. His eyes flick back and forth as he digests the information. The moon. His positronic brain chews through the information. The moon is the key.

After several minutes, his initial analysis complete, he swivels his chair around and quickly strides to the sleeping pony. He crouches down and places a hand gently on her withers. “Twilight Sparkle.”

She only mumbles in response, so he shakes her gently. “Twilight Sparkle, please. I need information.”

“Huh…wha?” Her eyes open, but are initially unfocused. She pops her head up and looks around, her eyes wide, then she focuses on him before grimacing. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Two hours, forty-seven minutes, sixteen seconds.”

She blinks at him. “I said…” She shakes her head. “Doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t have woken me without reason.”

“You are correct. I need information.”

Twilight nods before standing up. She extends her wings and shakes her body before yawning hugely. Then she folds her wings and follows him to the control console. “What can I do to help?”

Data taps on his console, and the view around them changes. “I am showing you the entire system we are in, and this is the energy barrier that seals you off from the outside universe. Now, we can not see the energy field composing that barrier, but it does cause gravimetric distortions, which essentially bend light around your little pocket. Those distortions are not really a danger to a starship, or a device with a structural integrity field and shields. But that will also be the first to impact Betazed. And that would be quite devastating. It would strip the planet of most of its atmosphere and possibly crack the crust with gravimetric distortions. And that would be weeks before your system approaches close enough to finish the devastation, which would also devastate your world. So, in addition to working to see what we can do with your planet, we would have to address the barrier field.”

She nods, as he was talking, the computer had been extrapolating what was going to happen, so in addition to his words, she got to see visually what the field would do. “So, what have you figured out? What can I do to help here?”

“I have been taking measurements of the dimensions of the field. It is large enough to require subspace ranging. And I had assumed that the field would be centered on your planet. The theory was that the destruction of the planet would collapse the field.”

Twilight shudders. “Go on.”

He taps a few keys. “It is not centered on your planet, but on another celestial body in this system.” A marker shows up.

Twilight blinks, looking at what is indicated. “So, it looks like we will certainly have to involve both princesses in whatever solution we come up with.”

He nods. Looking at the moon. “You said your Princess Luna had dominion over your moon. Would she be knowledgeable when it comes to the energy barrier?”

Twilight looks at the moon for a long time. “Princess Luna has always been focused on protecting the ponies. I wonder if that protection extends to creating this.” She taps her chin. “She sets the stars in the sky, and they are magical creations, not stars like the one that Betazed orbits around.” She stops, her eyes unfocused as she thinks intensely. Finally she brightens. “If she were able to shrink or stop that barrier, that would buy us weeks, don’t you think?”

His eyes dart side to side for a few seconds before focusing on her again. “That is a viable theory.”

Twilight turns and gallops towards the exit. “Then there’s no time to lose.” Data breaks into a run to keep up with the galloping pony.

***

William Riker walks to the transporter room, six ponies and a dragon following him. While the crew of the Enterprise is as professional as always, he’s already heard rumbles from the lower decks about the new visitors. Though the nature of the guests most certainly have curiosity spiked among the members of the crew. Captain Picard has limited the away teams to engineering and senior staff, despite both Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight’s insistence that any member of the crew is welcome to visit Equestria. As the doors to the transporter room open, he nods to the operator and gestures for his guests to step onto the various pads. As every pony and dragon is arranged, he looks at the operator. “Energize.”

The operator nods and quickly operates the console, the cool wash of energy suffusing through their bodies as the transporter effect takes hold. Only moments pass and he looks around. They are in the town square of the appropriately named Ponyville.

“Wow, I don’t think ah’ll ever get used ta that.” The orange pony says as she shakes her body. She looks up at Will. “So, tall stuff, ya gonna head over to Twilight’s castle, maybe continue research?”

Riker shakes his head. “No, this is basically a meet and greet, to get to know some of the ponies down here. “Most of the research is being carried out by the staff on board the ship. The first engineering teams are going to head to Canterlot and start working with the Princesses. Though isn’t Princess Twilight in charge of the town?”

The yellow pegasus hides behind her mane. “Mayor Mare is who you would want to talk to.” She breathes a few times. “Though I have to head home, I have my creatures to take care of.” She looks at her other friends. “I will see you all soon.” She walks off.

He looks around at the remaining ponies, then at the dragon. Spike huffs. “I guess I’ll take you around and get you to meet…”

“AHHHHHH! A monster!” a cream colored pony with a blue and pink mane screams.

“Oh, horsefeathers.” Rainbow Dash mutters before streaking towards the pony.

Riker watches as the ponies that had beamed down with him scatter to comfort the townsponies. Rarity heads to two that have passed out, Applejack is gathering up several foals that are cowering in fear. And the others are helping to comfort other townsponies.

Spike chuckles as he looks up at Riker. “Well, you’ve met the ponies of Ponyville, then.” He gestures and the tall human follows him dutifully.

As they are walking, Riker finds himself looking behind them. After the initial fear and panic, the ponies have recovered fairly quickly. Spike had explained that monsters sometimes make their lives difficult, so the ponies tend to panic and flee at first. But once the visitor is shown to not be a danger. Which in this case, being with the Elements. Curiosity takes over. By the time they make it to the town center with the city hall, a solid dozen ponies are following. He glances over his shoulder as Spike draws him into the city hall.

Apparently Spike is well known to the ponies here. They greet him happily and inquire warily as to his guest, but are immediately put at ease by his answers. In almost no time, they are before Mayor Mare.

She looks at Spike then at Riker. “Spike, what’s going on?”

Spike sighs heavily. “I’m afraid there is bad news, my new friend, Will Riker, will tell you.”

Riker nods grimly before launching into the situation. He expounds for several minutes, though he’s impressed by the questions the gray maned mare asks as he continues.

When he’s done, she places both forehooves on the desk, pressed together. “So, you are saying that Princess Twilight and her friends are working on this?”

They both nod.

She lets out a huge sigh. “Then no worries. They will take care of it. They always do.”

Riker flinches. “I don’t think you understand the magnitude of the problem.”

She smiles brightly. “Over the past few years, they have ended what? three? World ending catastrophies.” She looks at Spike, who nods. “When I first got in office, I would panic with everypony else.” She shrugs. “Now, not so much.”

"I don't think you understand, this could end all life on the planet, Mayor Mare." "Nightmare moon tried to imprison the Princess of the Sun, so the sun would never rise again, half the planet would have burned, the other half frozen solid. And that’s if the Wendigos didn't show up and send the planet into another ice age, killing off all plants and animals. Then there are demons out there to steal all magic. There are even creatures that want to drain all emotion and leave ponies lifeless." Mayor mare shakes her head. "World ending disasters are a yearly event, sometimes lasting an entire season. Others are over in a week."

He nods with a frown.

She smiles brightly. “We will talk to the ponies of Ponyville. Let them know what is going on. I will do my duties, Mister Riker. But I doubt you will have a lot of ponies taking you up on that offer.”

Riker huffs. “I must point out that the Federation and Starfleet will offer as much support as possible to make this transition to be as painless as possible.”

She nods in response. “I know. And thank you. But I don’t think you’ll get many ponies here in Ponyville to take you up on that offer.”

Riker reaches into his pouch and pulls out a communicator. “Princess Celestia has one, with this, you’ll be able to simply tap on the front and tell it that you want to speak to the Enterprise. Please, keep in contact, and let us know of any changes if you find them out.”

She nods as he stands up, straightening his uniform. She offers a hoof and he shakes it before following Spike out into the town. He breathes in. “Sure is beautiful here.” He looks around. “Very colorful.”

Spike nods. “Told ya.” They walk through the town, heading towards Twilight’s castle.

***

Twilight paces back and forth in the corridor of Canterlot Castle. “What is taking her so long?”

Data looks down at the purple alicorn. “We were told she was consulting with her sister. We need to be patient.”

“But it’s past sunrise. We’ve been waiting for hours!”

He nods.

She stops with her pacing, turning to look at him. “Why are you so calm? An entire world could be destroyed, and you are simply standing there?” She slaps a hoof on the marble floor with a loud crack.

He looks down at her. “I am an android, Twilight. I do not have emotions.”

She turns her back to him. Tears forming. “Well, I do, and I’m quite overwhelmed by all of this.”

She feels a strong hand on her withers and turns to see the pale skinned android crouching down to her level. “Twilight, while it is true I don’t have emotions. I do understand what you are facing. The crew of the Enterprise and much of the Federation are here to help you. I will do everything in my abilities to ensure that every one of you survives this.”

She sniffles. “Promise?”

He nods. “Yes, Twilight, I promise.”

The chime of the transporter gets both of them to look as Captain Picard materializes before them. As the transporter effect fades, he looks over at the alicorn and the android and smiles. “Good morning, Princess.”

She runs a hoof along her nose and stands tall. “Good morning Captain.” She looks back at the closed door. “What brings you here?”

“Princess Celestia asked me to come down. Apparently, your inquiry has prompted the princesses to do some research of their own. And they wanted me to come and join you looking at what they’ve founds.” He looks up at the door as it slowly sways open. “Ah, yes.”

The guard standing there looks up at the tall human and the android before focusing on Twilight. “Your presence is requested, Princess. Along with your…friends.”

Twilight nods and looks back quickly before walking slowly into the throne room. Princess Celestia and Luna are standing before the thrones, Twilight’s ears flick back quickly as she walks in.

Princess Celestia breaks the silence. “Captain Picard, I have sent communicators and notices to the nobles in the major cities in addition to the leaders of other nations. Not all have responded as of yet. But we are working as quickly as possible to organize. When would the first ships arrive for this pony exodus?”

Picard nods. “Thank you for acting without delay, Princess. I have a probe staying just outside of the barrier to gather communications and I send one periodically to gather up those messages, as well as send out reports. I just got a report before beaming down telling me seven ships will be here within forty-eight hours, with the first one arriving in nine hours. The capabilities to get roughly twenty thousand ponies and others offworld within a day, and perhaps another fifty thousand within three days. I know that’s a small number, but it is a start. And it is enough to build a viable colony.” He looks at Twilight before looking back at the Princesses. “In the event we are able to avert this crisis, at the very least you will be a rare non warp capable population to inhabit multiple systems. We are asking for ponies skilled with growing food, craftsmen and artisans, those that would flourish on a nearly empty world.”

“And you have located a suitable world?”

He nods. “We have several candidate worlds within ten light years that would be close to the ideal that your world offers. We can go over them at your leisure.”

Princess Celestia glances at her sister before nodding. “And your efforts to make all this effort moot?”

“We are working on that. I was informed that many of your books have been beamed aboard and are being scanned into our computer. That and the work that Princess Twilight and her friends are doing will hopefully help find an answer to our dilemma.”

Luna steps forward. “Princess Twilight, your revelation as to that energy barrier has surprised us. But we have found some information in some of the oldest archives. We went to the Castle of the Two Sisters and found some very old scrolls about the moon.” Her magic teleports in a scroll. “It’s very fragile, so only my magic will touch it. But we think this might be helpful.”

The scroll slowly is unfurled and Princess Luna turns it to show Twilight. Her eyes scan along the page. “This is very old ponish.” She narrows her eyes as she reads. Data leans down to scan the document as Twilight continues. Though as she reads her eyebrows rise. “This is from before the great cataclysm, where the sun and moon were frozen in place, before Starswirl.” She looks up at Luna. “That is amazing!”

Luna nods before looking at Captain Picard. “Thousands of years ago, long before Celestia and I, alicorns were far more numerous. They had aspects, much how Celestia’s is the Sun, Twilght’s is magic, Cadance’s is love, and mine is the moon. But we had two moons.” She turns the script so she can read. “Our sun had become unstable. And to save the ponies, to save our world, we had to sacrifice one of the moons, to ignite it with magic, to be our new sun. And the barrier, as you call it, was erected. Thousands of alicorns died in the process. Nearly rendering us extinct, and bringing about the ponies you know here. Our magic was diffused among the ponies, which raised them up from the simple beasts that they were, to the intelligent and magical creatures they have become.”

Celestia shudders. “This is history that neither of us knew. This was in archives that were forbidden to even us. And for all our time here, we have not violated that prohibition.” She glances at her sister. “It took a lot of magic to open those archives. And we will continue learning from this history of our world.” She breathes heavily for a moment, her gaze fixated far away. “We have to come to terms with knowledge that we didn’t expect to ever find or ever need. But when our star went supernova, a few thousand years later, it pushed our barrier out into interstellar space. That barrier has protected our world, and is fueled by magic we don’t fully understand. But Luna has a theory, and I am loathe to consider it. But you said the destruction of that barrier would not only give us more time, but would be a necessary step to hopefully change the course of our world?”

Data nods. “Fascinating, you are saying your sun is an artificial construct, using your magic to ignite it and make it self-sustaining?”

Both of the diarchs nod.

He looks at Luna. “What is your theory?”

Luna looks vastly uncomfortable, but firms herself. “My dominion is the moon, I must travel to it and gain access to the source inside. A large crystal that focuses and creates that barrier. My hope is that it can be powered down without damaging the matrix so it can be reestablished after the danger has passed.”

“And if you can’t?”

Luna’s ears flick at Picard’s words. “Then I would have to damage it, crack the crystal matrix in such a way that the barrier is dissipated.”

“We would be happy to provide a shuttlecraft for…”

“That will not be necessary, this is a job I must do alone.” She looks at her sister and offers her a smile before lighting her horn and disappearing with a pop.

Twilight blinks for a long moment. “How much history is in this archive?”

Celestia smiles gently. “More than you or I could ever read, Princess.”

Twilight glances at Data. “But probably not more than he can.”

Celestia frowns, looking at the android. Data looks down at Twilight. “Princess Twilight, I do not have the capabilities you might think I have. I have no access to magic, and while I have learned your language, your written language will take time to fully learn, including such old dialects. I would not know what to look for.”

Captain Picard’s communicator chirped twice causing him to hold up a single figure, “Sorry about this.” Tapping his communicator Picard tilted his head, “Yes?”

Over the coms Barclay spoke nervously, “I… umm, sorry for bothering you sir, it’s just. There’s I mean… There could be.” Barclay stammered.

“Mister Barclay,” Picard said firmly but steadily.

“Sorry sir, I shouldn’t…” Barclay started before being cut off by a female voice.

“You’re almost as bad as that pony, Fluttershy,” The voice says, “Look, Barclay has been studying the records and the field, and thinks he might be able to use the field itself to save the other planet.”

“How?” Picard asked.

“Sir,” Barclay started, “There’s an an… anomaly called a Gravity Ellipse. With enough power…” says then stops, “Subspaces submersion…”

“Captain,” Data says with a slight head turn, “I do believe I understand what Mr. Barclay is suggesting. We may be able to use the energy field itself to create a Graviton Ellipse, pushing everything within it into subspace until it is past the planet, once done, we could push it back out. The power requirements for this however would be immense.”

Picard looks at Data, his eyes widening. “But for this to work, we would need that barrier intact.”

“Yes sir.” Mr. Data says, “And Luna has just left to shut it down, possibly permanently.”

Picard looks to his com badge a moment, “Thank you Mr. Barclay.” Quickly he taps the badge then taps it again in rapid succession, “Picard to Bridge.”

“Enterprise here, is something wrong captain?”

“I need you to scan the moon for life signs.” Picard says, looking first at Data then Celestia.

“The moon sir?”

“There is no time to explain, just do it.” Picard snaps.

“Yes sir, one moment.” A few seconds later, “I have detected one life sign on the moon, located in a chamber beneath the surface. The chamber seems to have a breathable atmosphere as well as a survivable temperature.”

“Transport me to those co-ordinates immediately.” Picard says taking a step back and straightening up.

“Sir, shall I accompany you?” Data asks.

“No mister Data, please stay here with Celestia and explain to her what the suggestion means.”

Worf’s voice comes through, “Captain, the moon is well outside transporter range. We will beam you aboard, and break orbit to get to the moon.”

“Understood, energize.”

The Captain disappears as the Enterprise transporter whisks him away.