Chapter 4.
Captain Picard looks around as the transporter released him. The chamber was not well lit, though he could see well enough as his eyes adjust. It is a large octagonal room, made from huge white and clear crystal. Tunnels ran out from the main chamber wall in eight different directions. In the center of the room is a series of five steps which led up to a central pedestal. A large crystal floats, suspended in some kind of energy field, glowing brightly. Several crystals around the chamber resonated the glow, providing a dim light which is the only source of illumination. The alicorn of the moon stood in front of the crystal, head low, her wings drooped limply by her side.
“Princess Luna?”
Stiffening, Luna spins on the spot. “What are YOU doing here? Did I not say I would handle this?!”
Walking forward, Picard looked around the chamber. Its size and the size of the crystals dwarf him. Looking back to the princess, he nods. “We have some new information.”
“This place is private!”
Looking around slowly, Picard smiles. “It truly is amazing. The crystals here are breathtaking.”
“That… Is not why it is private,” Luna says, turning away from him, her face glowing in a blush.
“Princess, my staff thinks it might be possible to use the energy field to save the planet, to save both planets.” Picard says, then walks forward slowly, “I wouldn’t intrude otherwise.”
“A thousand years,” Luna says softly.
“Pardon?”
“I spent one thousand years trapped here, imprisoned here, in this very chamber, walking these very halls. A thousand years of anger, of hate, of rage.”
Picard blinks as he digests this information. “This place is a source of pain for you?”
“Yes! No! Yes!” She sighs deeply. “It’s complicated. I was sealed in here, I couldn’t teleport away, I couldn’t escape, no matter what I did. But all I wanted to do was exact my revenge. I was trapped in body. And in mind, all I could feel was rage but it wasn’t my own. For that time, I didn’t contemplate the reasons I was trapped here. Why I needed to be sealed away from the ponies. Celestia was right, I was a danger. But it took Twilight Sparkle and her friends to remind me.”
“Remind?” Picard said, walking up to her slowly.
“What it meant to care for our ponies. What I was supposed to protect. To show me what it means to be a Princess again, that it wasn’t about power, it wasn’t about adoration, but about service, about duty.” Lowering her head more, “I betrayed so many, I risked so many, but I couldn’t stop myself.
This is merely a control point. The crystal that powers our barrier is beneath us, and it far larger than your starship, it goes nearly all the way through our moon.”
She stands there for a long time, silently contemplating. Picard slowly moves up beside her, watching her ears, her body before speaking softly, “Some years ago, we encountered a species called the Borg. They are a combination of humanoid and artificial life. They are a force of nature, that can not be reasoned with, nor be negotiated with. They came for the Federation, to enslave and convert all life forms to serve them.”
Luna looks up at Picard, flicking an ear.
“In the course of our encounter with them, one of them beamed aboard right next to me and transported me to their ship.” His voice goes flat as he continues. “They implanted devices throughout my body. They stripped away my individuality, my humanity, my will, everything was washed away in favor of their linked hive mind. They took everything that made me who I am.”
Luna nods slowly, both ears focused on the human.
“My knowledge, my experience, my intelligence was used to serve them. It was used against my crew, against the Federation. We had a plan that should have destroyed their ship.” He stopped and sighed. “They were able to counter that plan with my help. They were able to withstand everything the Federation could throw at them. I became Locutus of Borg, and no amount of screaming in my head could stop me from helping the Borg. There was nothing I could do to stop them from dismantling our fleet at Wolf 359. Thirty-nine starships destroyed, eleven thousand two hundred thirty people dead.” Clenching a fist, he took a deep breath before he looked up, the blame and guilt evident to Luna. “If it weren’t for my crew, their faith in me, their strength and power of will. Locutus of Borg would have taken Earth. All of Earth would have been turned into Borg, then the rest of the quadrant.”
“How,” Luna starts before lowering her voice more, almost meekly, “how did they stop them?”
“They raided the ship, were able to sneak onboard the ship, they stole me away from the Borg. Though with all of their machines inside me, I was still Locutus, I was still Borg. I still wanted them all turned, to join in the Borg perfection. They pierced through, they never stopped believing in me, and they were able to find the smallest sliver of me, of my individuality, that was left. Then they used that access to shut down the Borg ship, knock it out and save my people, save the entire Federation.”
Luna smiles softly. “I see examples all the time, friendship truly is magic.”
Picard nods. “You are quite accurate there.” He holds out a hand. “I offer my hand, I offer myself, as your friend. I pledge to do everything within my power to save your world.”
Luna looks at the outstretched hand for a long moment before taking a step forward and extending a hoof. He takes her hoof gently in his hand and holds it for a long time. Looking into Luna’s eyes. Finally she smiles and pulls away. “I thank thee. Now we shall see what to do about this barrier. I was prepared to do damage, to break the crystal, I do not see there being an ability to fully dissipate the field here.” Her horn lights. “But if this barrier, what happens in my moon, can be used to end this threat to your world and mine, I believe I can adjust the size and intensity of the barrier.” She closes her eyes as somehow the hornglow melds with the control crystal. There is silence for several minutes as the alicorn concentrates.
Picard pulls out his tricorder, and again is frustrated as the device refuses to see any of the obvious magic going on in front of him. He steps closer to Princess Luna as she works. There doesn’t seem to be any obvious control panel or the like, just the crystal. He looks over at her, her jaw is clenched, her entire body is tense. Though it amazes him that these alien ponies have such similar body language to horses of his home world. Just looking at her, he can see she is putting all of her effort into whatever she is doing. He distantly wishes he could assist her in her endeavor, but without access to their magic, he’s forced to simply be an observer.
As she relaxes, his combadge chirps. He taps it. “Captain.” Worf’s voice comes through.
“The barrier?”
“Yes, sir. It has shrunk, it was originally in excess of twenty-one AU’s, it’s now just over one.”
Picard grins as a sweat covered Luna smiles at him. “Yes, Mr. Worf. I was successful.” She leans over and rests her head on his shoulder. “I’m quite spent. It will be a few hours before I can return home. Princess, I would be happy to offer the services of my ship to return you back to Canterlot.”
She stands there, panting softly. She glances at the communicator on his chest and then looks him in the eyes. “I humbly accept your offer.”
“Mr. Worf, alert the transporter room, two to beam up.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Energize.”
The transporter chimes at it takes the two figures from the underground chamber.
***
Twilight Sparkle perks up as the sound of the transporter greets her ears, Picard and Luna forming before them. She gets a wan smile from the alicorn of the night.
“Dear sister!” Celestia says before bounding over to her sister and nuzzling her happily. After a long moment she looks at Picard. “I could feel her effort from here. I take it you two were successful?”
Luna nods. “We have bought, at great effort, some weeks of time for both our worlds. Now the Enterprise crew needs to see what makes this world worth saving.”
Picard starts. “I assure you, I assure you both, we are very much aware of the gravity of the situation.”
Celestia stamps a hoof on the marble of the palace floor. “There is knowing. Captain, and there is experiencing. I am asking you, please, let as many of your crew visit as want to. The ponies will accept them, get to know them. Make friends with them. In the event your efforts fail, your crew will know what was lost. What you were forced to destroy to prevent a greater loss of life. The ponies that migrated will remember, but please, let your crew see and feel what Equestria has to offer.” She smiles. “So long as such visiting doesn’t interfere with their duties.”
“There are over a thousand souls aboard, children, families.”
Celestia brightens. “You bring your young with you on voyages?”
“They are not my children.” Picard says. “However, yes, there are families aboard, it is, and has been Starfleet policy that families are allowed to live on starships. Exploration starships can spend a significant amount of time away from home. We’ve only charted about a sixteen percent of our galaxy. Our ship, and her sister ships, are intended to expand the bounds of human knowledge.”
Luna flinches. “Wait a moment, those ships you were talking about, those?”
Picard grimaces and nods, getting a deep sigh from Luna. “How noble.” Celestia glances at her sister then at Twilight. “I would love to meet human children if you could arrange it.”
Picard nods. “It most likely will not be today, but in the next few days, I will ensure that more of the crew will visit, including our younger members.
“Thank you, Captain Picard. But for now. I would like to introduce you to the pony that will be on one of your first colony ships to this new world.” Her horn lights. “Come on out.” She calls loudly as the door into the throne room opens.
In walks a stallion, pure white with a blonde mane and a compass star as the mark on his flank. “You summoned me, Auntie?”
Celestia focuses on Picard. “Prince Blueblood will be in charge, though there are some other nobles who have decided it was in their best interests to make this voyage. You have promised that our colony will be supported, no matter the outcome for our world.”
The white stallion walks to stand before Picard. “I am at your service.” He says softly.
Picard glances at Celestia before formally bowing before the unicorn. “The first colony ship will be arriving within a few hours.” He looks again at Celestia. “Every colony ship is being mobilized, not just for your world. but Betazed is also working on evacuation in case our actions prove to be futile. As I have said before, we need to go over the candidate worlds to see what would be most compatible.”
Celestia nods. “You can go over it with Blueblood here, since he will be moving there, I would think he would want a say in deciding where he and those that choose to leave with him will end up.”
Data brightens. “I can present the list of planets for you Captain.”
Picard nods and Data leads the stallion out of the throne room. Celestia giggles and leans towards the human captain. “I’ve been looking for an excuse to get rid of him for years.”
Picard frowns. “You know that you will need capable leaders…”
She waves a wing. “Oh, don’t worry about that, Princess Luna will be among the last to leave, and I’ve communicated with Princess Cadance, her family will be relocating among the earliest ships. Blueblood will simply be a…” She taps her chin for a moment then brightens. “A figurehead, as much as an ass he tends to be, the ponies of Canterlot do tend to look up to him.”
Picard nods, then he tilts his head slightly. “You talk about Princess Cadance, is she like that Blueblood? A Princess without the wings and horn together?”
Celestia shakes her head. “Oh, no. She and her daughter are both alicorns.”
Picard frowns. “There are two more of you? When we scanned your world, we only found three alicorns, you, Luna, and Twilight.”
“There are five of us, Captain. Flurry Heart and her mother Cadance. They currently reside in the Crystal Empire, which is to the north of Equestria, in the cold north.” She lights her horn and before them a representation of the world appears. She points at the Crystal Empire on the glowing globe.
He leans closer. “This is more detailed than many of our holograms.” He watches as the globe rotates slowly. “Right here?” At her nod he inspects the area, watching in fascination as Celestia zooms up the view of the Crystal Empire and brings the Castle into greater detail.
“Within the Crystal Castle is the Crystal Heart, which is the source of life and love for the Crystal Empire, and its effects are felt all throughout our world.”
Picard nods. “Thank you, Princess. I shall return to my ship.” She nods as he taps his combadge. “Picard to Enterprise.”
“Go ahead, Captain.”
“One to beam up.”
“Copy, energizing.”
It’s only a matter of seconds until the familiar face of Miles Obrien is smiling at him. “Welcome aboard, Captain.”
Picard barely notices, though he nods in response before exiting the transporter room. A quick walk has him in the turbolift heading to the bridge. As the doors open he takes a few step onto his bridge. His ears register the normal sounds of his crew, the soft sounds of the air handling systems, the sounds of the computer being worked on, then something else impinges on his thoughts. Childish laughter. He looks around. “Commander Riker.”
Riker walks over and Picard leans close. “There are children, foals, on my bridge.”
Riker’s throat works. “They are related to those that came up first. They are called the Elements, which seems to make them national heroes. Twilight and her friends. The white one is Rarity’s sister, the yellow is Applejack’s sister, and the orange one is sorta an adopted sister of Rainbow Dash.”
Picard sighs before shaking his head to clear his thoughts. “How many ponies are aboard right now?”
Riker’s face flushes. “We’ve been getting requests all evening.”
“How many, Number One?”
“Three hundred forty.” He holds out his hands to forestall Picard. “Many of them are going to be leaders of the new colony, or at least volunteers. We have crew working on teaching them about colonization procedures, and also making changes to the procedures to accommodate their rather unique requirements. The Cutie Mark Crusaders are personal guests requested by Princess Twilight.”
Picard sighs, “I’ll be in my ready room.”
As the door to his sanctuary closes, he sits at his deck and after a moment’s thought. He taps on the com pad. “Picard to LaForge.”
“YES!” Geordie responds sounding almost uncharacteristically stressed.
“Mr LaForge?”
“Sorry sir, I’ve been having intermittent headaches.” Geordie responds, “What do you need sir?”
Picard pinches the bridge of his nose looking down, “Do you need to go to sickbay?”
“No, sir, I can work through it.”
Picard sighs internally before speaking. “Good, you are aware of how our sensors seem to not be able to even detect the energy of the magic that the ponies possess?”
“Yes, sir. It’s no known energy.”
“We need to fix that,” Picard says firmly before he smiles slightly. He knows his chief engineer is suppressing the desire to sigh.
Finally, Geordie answers. “Aye, sir. We will get right on that.”
“Picard out.”
***
Geordi LaForge rubs his temple above his implant looking down at the mint green unicorn standing before him. His new directive from Captain Picard is an extremely tall order. Detect the undetectable. “Okay, Lyra. Let’s try to get more basic. How do you know when a pony is using their magic?”
She looks thoughtfully at him. Since Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer have been busy with everything else when it comes to saving their planet, he had asked Princess Celestia for her best magic specialists. Lyra Heartstrings was beamed up to the ship, Celestia had assured him that Lyra is one of the best magic generalists in her service, a graduate of the Gifted Unicorn School.
“It depends on the tribe, it’s hard to detect earth or pegasi magic without magic itself, but for the unicorns,” The unicorn lights her horn. “Well, typically, other ponies would be able to see the effects, usually through a lit horn and the aura of the pony affecting whatever we are working on.” Looking up at her own horn, “Aura color tends to be individual to each pony, though usually is the same as their eye color. Our magical senses mean we can feel the magic that other ponies are using, and for more advanced magic users, we can tell exactly what magic they are using by feel.” Her eyes are unfocused as she thinks. “It’s sort of instinctual, and useful so two unicorns don’t grab the same thing and start fighting over it without realizing it.”
Geordi wants to groan, she is really trying to be helpful, but everything keeps tending to go in circles. You need magic to detect magic. Rubbing his temples lightly in small circle he shakes his head.
Lyra is the one to end up groaning first, however. “It’s like trying to describe musical cords to somepony who can’t hear, or explain what pink is to the blind. All the while not being able to use the terms to describe it. Argh, I’d have an easier time describing what a feeling is, without using other feelings.”
Geordi tilts his head a bit. “Let me ask you this. Do you have any secure areas, where magic use is not permitted?”
She nods, “Of course.”
“And how is that enforced?”
“Signs usually,” She flips her mane, tilting her head to the side. “We put up signs that say magic use is not permitted.”
“And the ponies listen to that?”
She nods. “For the most part, sometimes accidents happen, where a pony tries to magically grab something out of force of habit. Though…” Her eyes go unfocused. Then she brightens. “I’m an idiot. Hold on a minute.” Her horn lights and she blinks out.
It’s only a matter of minutes before the mare appears right where she was before. “Whew, ok, having to account for your orbital motion is a chore.” She huffs. “Even with the focus, I had to have my teleport add several kilometers per second to my inertia.”
Geordi frowns, his mind working hard. “Wait a moment, you had to subtract your orbital speed when you teleported down to the planet?” She nods. “And then add that back in when you teleported back?” Again, she nods. “And what is the focus?”
“Oh, It’s just a point set up that I can feel with my magic, well, technically any strong enough magic user can feel it, and get a read on your ship to teleport up.”
“Wait a moment, any magic user strong enough?”
She nods. “Any unicorn who has enough strength could feel the focus and teleport up here. Twilight set it up in your transporter room, I just had to factor in the distance from that part of your saucer section to main engineering.”
Geordi sits there. “You do know, Lyra, that such calculations are actually quite advanced mathematically. Right?”
She giggles. “Trust me, I know. You would not believe the math they teach us in school. I still have nightmares about working out isometric decay rates.” She shrugs out of the saddle bags she had brought back with her. “Okay, when you were mentioning how we would enforce prohibitions on magic use in sensitive areas. I remembered a device we use, okay, some ponies use. When it’s active, it can sense when a magic user is using magic.” She points at the small crystal. Then she points at the metal box that the crystal is grafted onto. “And this sends out an audible warning when magic is used within a certain distance.”
“Princess Celestia, when she said she was sending up a unicorn to help, said you were among the strongest in her service. What service?”
“Mage corps, I’m a reservist actually. I could be a battlemage, but I opted to avoid active duty. My true love is music.”
His eyebrows rise. “Music? Yet you are a powerful mage?”
She nods. “Well, I’m not at the level of Twilight Sparkle before she ascended to become an alicorn, nor am I as powerful as Starlight Glimmer or Sunset Shimmer.” She smiles cutely. “But I can hold my own. Trust me, I was quite surprised when that scroll from Princess Celestia commanding me to teleport to the Enterprise appeared before me.” She shakes her head. “I would never refuse a request from my princess.”
“But music?”
She nods and hops off the chair, turning her side to Geordie, “A lyre is my cutie mark. I was born with strong mage abilities, and I trained those abilities in Princess Celestia’s school. But my love, my soul, is music.” She tilts her head a bit. “Perhaps I could play for you humans a little some time?”
He nods. “We always love new music and entertainment. I’ll talk to a few officers, and arrange a concert for you.”
“That would be wonderful! I haven’t played a concert in forever! Maybe I’ll get Vinyl and Octavia to come up and join me. Really give your crew a good time.”
Geordie smiles brightly at her before he picks up the device. His VISOR giving him microscopic readings of the crystalline structure. After a few minutes of inspection, he smiles at the green mare. “Lyra, you are amazing.”
She smiles brightly. “Naturally.” Then her smile falters. “For…what?”
He holds up the crystal. “This is a very complex crystal, but everything in it…we can replicate it. It’s not too complex for the computer to scan. Follow me.” He strides from engineering, the unicorn in his wake. After a few moments he’s in a computer science lab, placing the device on the scanner bed. “Okay, let’s see what we see. Computer.”
The computer chimes out its acknowledgment signal. He looks at the crystal. “Focus on the crystal in the scanner. Is the structure repeatable with the replicator?”
There are several moments as the scanner bed lights up and the system works. Finally, the computer chirps. “Affirmative. The entire crystal structure is a repeating lattice of carbon, molybdenum, iron, aluminum, dilithium, astatine, and ytterbium, with trace amount of gallium, uranium, and lawrencium.
“Lawrencium? How can that be? It can only be created by subatomic particle streams, its decay rate should only be minutes?” Geordie looks close at the crystal again with his VISOR and shakes his head.
“Affirmative, it should take 1.036 minutes for all present lawrencium to decay.” The computer responds.
“Well that…” He grins, looking at Lyra. “Okay, now the real test, since our sensors can’t detect magic, let’s see if it can look for voids where something magical would be. Computer, analyze the crystal structure, I have two query’s, is this specific structure something known? And is there any parts of the lattice that have unexplained voids that the sensors cannot detect.”
“Working.” After several seconds, the computer chirps again. “The specific chemistry and lattice structure is unknown to Federation Science. And there are no observed voids.”
Geordi claps his hands sharply. “Okay, now we are getting somewhere. Computer, access the industrial replicator in this room, I want a new tricorder, but within the sensor package, I want a high bandwidth sensor made out of this crystal, embedding the necessary micro-circuitry to use the crystal. Also access the magical textbooks just scanned in, so we can measure thaumic energy via this new sensor circuit.”
“Working.” The computer says primly. After a few moments of work. The replicator hums and a new tricorder materializes slowly. He watches as the system builds the device, finally it’s done and the replicator powers down. He hesitantly reached out and picks up the tricorder. He opens the device, powering it on and noting a few new buttons and some extra spaces on the display. He smiles at Lyra. “Okay, Lyra. Pick something up with your magic.”
She looks at him for a long moment, finally lighting her horn and picks up the crystal.
Geordi lets out a whoop. “You are exerting point zero two thaums of magical power. And I can see the shape of the field you are creating!”
She sets down the crystal. “So what does that mean?”
“That means, this tricorder can sense your magic, not only is it detecting what you are doing with the magic, but also can detect the field you are creating with your horn.”
Lyra smiles. “So, it’s taking the information from the crystal and is able to detect what is going on?”
He nods and she frowns. “Okay, that’s good for that device. But how is your ship going to be able to use that.”
He grins. “I’m going to have to replicate some sensor systems, and it will be a bit to integrate this with the subspace sensors, but once I get them installed in the lateral arrays and the long range systems. We will be able to detect your magic.”
“The lateral arrays?”
He nods. “Well, that means I’m going to have to go EVA.” He looks at her with a big smile. “But some of my engineers will be working in deflector control, installing equipment in the long-range sensor array as well. But give me six hours, and we will be a step closer to saving your world.”
***
Apple Bloom has been having a wonderful time on the starship. She had persuaded the curly headed human in their transporter room to contact and beam up a couple more cutie mark crusaders, Gabby and Babs so they can join her in exploring the huge starship. The officer assigned to escort the Cutie Mark Crusaders is a species called Andorian. She has a willowy thin body as well as white hair and two antennae sticking up out of her unruly mop of hair. Apple Bloom thinks the blue skinned alien is absolutely adorable, better looking than the humans in her estimation. She walks over to the Andorian. “Holly, we are hungry, do we have to go back to the planet to get food? Or is there food we can eat here?”
Lieutenant JG Ejholli Sh’rhothriss or simply Holly to these adorable quadrupeds smiles brightly. “Of course we have food on board a starship. And based on the scans, most of what we eat is compatible with your dietary needs.” She stops for a moment. “But remember, many species on board a starship are omnivores. So, check with the computer to see if there is animal proteins in your meal.”
Scootaloo perks up. “Do you have fish? Or maybe chicken?” That also gets Gabby to perk up happily.
Holly nods. “The replicator can synthesize pretty much anything your little heart’s desire.” She frowns at the reaction of one of the ponies, Apple Bloom, her ears flatten and she takes a step back.
“It’s okay, Apple Bloom.” Sweetie Belle squeaks. She looks up at the humanoid. “Sorry, heart’s desire is a plant that had some magical effects on Apple Bloom a few years ago.
Holly covers her mouth in shock. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that a common phrase would…”
“It’s okay, you had no way of knowing.” Apple Bloom says flatly. “I was desperate to get my cutie mark. I really messed up with that.” She stops for a moment. Then she huffs. “Well, where do we go and get some grub?”
Holly tilts her head, her antennae stretching forward. “Typically crew members and officers use the replicators in their quarters and eat in private. But I think you would prefer a more public setting to share a meal?”
Four foals and a griffon all brighten in unison, getting a giggle from the young officer. “We can head over to Ten Forward, then.” She turns and leads the way, four ponies and a young griffon following in her wake. Holly walks proudly, with the invasion of the ponies on the Enterprise, she is very proud to be one of the officers that have been tasked with escorting the various ponies around. Though most of the ponies have been dealing with the plans for colonization, she’s been given custody of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. And once the term was explained to her, and their relation to Twilight and her friends. Holly has been quite proud to be escorting the young ponies around the ship. By a happy coincidence, they were already on deck ten, so it’s a quick walk over to the lounge called Ten Forward. She leads them through the doors and into the lounge. Dodging a mint green unicorn as she hurries into the lounge. They take their seats and the attendant is quick to take their orders and they all eat fairly quickly. Though as they finish, Apple Bloom speaks up. “Well, the food is okay.” She sighs, pushing the last of her vegetable stew around. “But what about dessert?”
Holly smiles brightly. “I’ve got a sweet tooth, too.” She leans closer. “You like apple pie?”
All four fillies smile brightly and nod. She waves the attendant over and orders quickly. Holly looks around the lounge, noting that over a dozen ponies are sitting with either each other, or animatedly talking with crew members. At the bar, the mint green unicorn is sitting next to Commander Riker. Holly gulps, she hadn’t seen Riker enter. But as she watches, the unicorn places a fetlock on his shoulder and leans close to talk to him. Then she’s distracted as the attendant shows up as if by magic and sets six slices of apple pie before each of them. The ponies have little straps attached to their forks so they can pick up the pie. They all take bites.
And every one of them spits out the pie with the exception of the Andorian officer. She looks down at the foals. “Is something wrong?”
Apple Bloom slams a hoof on the table. “I don’t know what this is, but it isn’t apple pie.”
The server, who was watching the reaction in horror looks around at the various disgusted faces at the table. “I don’t know what you mean, the replicator…”
Apple Bloom is using her fork to disassemble the pie. “I mean, the recipe is all wrong. Not nearly right.” She huffs. She looks up at the ceiling. “Let’s see if I can figure this out. “Computer, ya hear me?”
The computer chimes compliantly. Getting a smile from the yellow filly. “Is Applejack on this here ship?”
After a few seconds, “Applejack is on board the Enterprise, currently in Science Lab two.”
“Can I speak to her?”
A few second delay. “Sis?”
Apple Bloom brightens. “Sis, can you get here to Ten Forward?”
“Ahm kinda busy, Bloom.”
Apple Bloom sighs. “These humans don’t have a clue what real apple pie is.”
A long moment of silence. “Ahm on my way.”
Apple Bloom smirks at the Andorian. “Don’t worry, we will fix this travesty of Apples.”
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You know, if I know the Federation they took the time to find the best possible examples of each menu selection for their replicator database. Which means that sooner of later this is going to be a culinary feud between the Apples and some Terran pâtissier.
Or we're cross-referencing a replicator episode with a "save the indigenes" episode...
Of course replicated Apple Pie is going to be off. It's just made form baseline of what an apple is!
The part with the apple pie just reminds me of the episode where they find Scotty, in a transporter buffer. How he complained that the synthahol they used now, is NOT Scotch.
10576407
....if I don’t see aj say synthetic apple pie synthetic commanders there will be Tartarus to pay
The destruction of the Enterprise D was the saddest moment of my childhood.
I see that young Apple Bloom is channeling her inner Montgomery Scott.
Missed a paragraph break, there.
Either Sweetiebelle's gone French, or you missed an h.
Because some things are important, darnit.
10576548
Diana troy: "Computer i would like a real chocolate sunday." "Define real in context." "Real, as in real, not one of your perfectly synthesized ingeniously enhanced simulations."
Deep space 9 - "It may look like Chicken and rice, but you and i both know, what we are eating is replicated protein molecules and carbohydrates, and to me it still tastes like... Replicated protein."
Data: This is not an efficient manner for the creation of sustenance" Riker: "Oh you're right Data, the ships computer would be more efficient but it wouldn't allow for the subtly required for great cooking. It would give you all the ingredients in predetermined measurements but wouln't allow for flare or individuality."
All through star trek TNG, DS9 and even Voyager, they talk abut replicated food not... being up to the real thing. At least those who have tasted the real thing.
10576569
It's too bad it was proven that Will had a LOT of work ahead of him when he made that egg dish... And only Worf ate it all!
10576571
I think that had more to do with... the quality of the eggs... if the eggs taste bad to begin with... theres not a lot you can do to help...
Of course klingon taste buds are different then human so.
but even warf says the replicators can't do a good war nog.
10576553
i just tore this apart and sent the corrections to Sparky,
he has had a really bade time IRL and is tired and a few things slipped threw,, ok several things.
10576548
"What kind of an apple is that?"
"its," Applebloom blinks and looks closely at it tilting her head. "It's" Sniffs it once then makes a face. "It's Green!"
And thus was Equestrian Apple Pie declared a controlled substance by the Powers That Be in the Federation, as its consumption immediately reduced humanoid life forms to unconsciousness at best, or mindlessly enslaved them to the whims of whomever should control the supply ever after at worst.
Oh, and Betazed was forgotten and suffered some kind of tragic fate, but PIE!!!
I think what they are missing in the apple pie is the bit of Earth pony magic that is in Equus apples.
I'm pretty sure that if they had a non-replicated Terran apple, they would find it to taste flat. Edible, but flat.
10576569
Has several of those clips in it plus others.
Knew that pie would not go down well. And Miles still on board. That puts this in a limited window then.
10576541
It's funny. There is a analysis on YouTube pointing out how much of a failure the class was initially being both underpowered and under armed for what they went through and losing three ships of the class within ten years of there launch in canon (in books, especially early on they lose a few more) due to various issues ranging from weak armor to computer failure. It was the Dominion War that finally upgrades the Galaxy Class to reaching there full potential.
Actually, it's most commonly based on cutie mark color when applicable. When that's not applicable (the mark is black-and-white or they don't have one yet), then it defaults to eye color. There's probably some in-universe explanation for those few ponies like Sweetie Belle whose colors match their eyes instead of their marks when the marks are colored.
Apples gonna Apple.
10577448
And then we got the Sovereign class assault cruisers which had better armor weapons and wasn’t so dang tall and looked cooler
10577448
Yep, she wasn't a "warship" she was the flag ship of the federation, to try an show her as a ship of peace and exploration. That the federation was not warlike but would defend itself. The ship was loaded with civilians and amenities as well as support staff, to make it a more relaxed place to work.
When Captain Jericho, an actual COMBAT military officer comes in, he shakes the ship up badly because he's used to running combat vessels like the Excelsior class.
The ship was made for a federation philosophy and there for found itself outgunned many times, and suffering badly in actual wars.
10577844
Exactly. It was a cruise ship. Not a Excellent Example of a Federation Warship. And the Galaxy Class payed the price when push came to shove.
10577841
Thank god. It was far superior and a actual threat if threatened.
10578094
Oh yeah, it was a mess.
With the encounter of the borg and wolf 359 the federation began building its first dedicated warship classes, The Defiant, SteamRunner, and Norway classes. The problem was, with the borg NOT returning, the classes were all essentially scrapped, as the federation didn't see a need for.. warships again.
Then.. the dominion war broke out, and the federation had to scramble... They quickly pushed the Defiants into service, re-started the Norway and Steamrunner projects... and even came out with the Jaeger class. (personally i disagree with the writeups of the Jaeger. I prefer to think of them as Federation saucers from voyager series which were deemed as not a priority mated to a Klingon hull design. Yes i know its a blown up raider model in reality, but the raider COULD pass for a klingon design too. And essentially transfering several suacer sections to the klingons to get ships built fast would make sense).
Then you get the battle of sector 001, where the borg how up again, and the federation throws everything they have it at... including... the USS bosemen... a 100 year old modified miranda class.
10577414
not really Miles was on TNG for several seasons before he moved to DS9, but you are right this is working inside a vary tight window.
10579980
Its after world 359 but before ds9 so limited window
10580010
eeeeyep
Applejack's reaction after tasting Federation Apple pie:
i.pinimg.com/originals/9d/6f/9a/9d6f9a7dec648b797bc777e90d8f2814.png
10578923 And all the Federation actually needed to defeat the Borg was... one Alondro.
*Borg attempt to assimilate Alondro… the screaming from every Borg drone in the galaxy can somehow be heard through the vacuum of space*
"I tried ta warn em, you don't wanna know what I got in here," Alondro taps his brain, which he took out for demonstrative purposes.
Picard's experience as Locutus was a great way to relate with Luna and the apple pie scene was great. Well done on another update.
Sparky is awesome. Keep bringing us great literature.
And that last is magically stablized (now look again at the first statement!) ...
Chapter 4. This chapter was beautiful.
You captured a moment with Luna and Picard. It flowed, it wasn't forced.
I'm glad that the Crusaders are not cing across as little brats - Apple Bloom's act of wanting to fix the travesty of apple pie is what separates her from Blueblood who would bang his hooves and turn his nose.
I'm enjoying the dialogue with the various characters.
After a few seconds, “Applejack is on board the Enterprise, currently in Science Lab two.”
“Can I speak to her?”
A few second delay. “Sis?”
Apple Bloom brightens. “Sis, can you get here to Ten Forward?”
“Ahm kinda busy, Bloom.”
Apple Bloom sighs. “These humans don’t have a clue what real apple pie is.”
A long moment of silence. “Ahm on my way.”
Apple Bloom smirks at the Andorian. “Don’t worry, we will fix this travesty of Apples.”
That did get a giggle out of me.
10582642
Ah, so you're one of the "Harmony Shoals" group.
That explains a lot. "Always keep an open mind!"
Hmm, this seems kinda jumbled together. Perhaps better to space it a bit:
Mrm.
They let the CMC on board.... time to pity all the lower deckers stuck cleanning up those disasters... At least it's post Mark CMC, no CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS WARP CORE ENGINEERS YAY! Our such. Also, Applebloom needing to fix the travesty they call Apple pie was amazing.
I do love Celestia was taking the chance to kick Blueblood off the planet, just to get him as far away from her as possible.
The learning how to detect magic thing was also a bit rushed verging but that's just how the story did things, get through the required exposition and get to things actually happening.
Oh, and, the field had to have grown since they started drifting. If it had been as large as it was now, it would have included the star that went nova. So nice to see them working it out and buying more time.