Chapter 6.
The Captain of a starship has many pressures set upon him or her. Being the final arbiter of everything that goes on aboard the starship, the Captain’s time is usually filled with endless tasks and decisions that more junior officers kick up to the Captain so as to not be acting outside of their authority. As such, time spent in the ready room, when not occupied by computer work and other administrative tasks endemic to being captain that cannot be offloaded to a loyal yeoman, is a rare treat. Captain Picard sits comfortably in his chair as he sips on his tea and sighs as he leans back.
“Captain Picard.” Worf’s voice comes over the com system.
Mentally suppressing the urge to sigh, Picard glances at the chronometer, eight blissful minutes. He looks up a bit, projecting his voice to be more easily heard by the computer. “Yes, Mr. Worf?”
“Communication from the Galaxy, Captain Sershek wishes to speak with you, and he says it’s quite urgent.”
That gets Picard’s eyebrows to rise. A Vulcan saying something is quite urgent. He nods. “Patch him through, please.”
The changeover is instantaneous as Captain of the USS Galaxy appears on his desk screen. “Captain Picard.”
Picard fights the urge to laugh at the disheveled look of the other officer. Sershek’s normally immaculate hair is in disarray, and the look on his face could almost be called panicked. Though his voice is fairly even as he speaks. “Captain Picard, as a Vulcan serving in Starfleet. I have been trained to be accepting of other cultures. I have dealt with the arrogance of Andorians, the stubborn pride of Tellorites, I have endured species as driven by emotions as Klingons, but these ponies defy any form of logic.”
Picard savagely suppresses the urge to smile. “Yes, they are almost human in nature, aren’t they?”
Picard again fights to keep his composure as the other captain presses on the bridge of his nose as though he’s trying to suppress a massive headache. Sersheck sighs and looks back up at Picard. “Captain Picard, are you cognizant of what this colonization will entail? The chaos we will be unleashing among the galaxy?”
“Chaos, Captain? In my conversations with the rulers of Equestria, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, chaos is the opposite of the nature of the ponies. In fact, they’ve rarely had any internal wars, and have never instigated wars with their neighboring kingdoms. Though being the arbiter of night and day for the whole world would have a chilling effect on any potential aggressors. Though I’ve communicated with the leaders of the Griffon Kingdom and Saddle Arabia, and they all hold the Princesses in high regard. I hardly see the ponies as agents of chaos.”
“Be that as it may, Captain. We have transported six thousand four hundred fifty seven ponies aboard our ship over the last six hours. In that six hours, we have had a unicorn randomly teleport onto the bridge. A group of ponies have started a song and dance number that involved nearly a third of our crew. A female unicorn child somehow snuck into main engineering and was discovered with her magical aura around our main reactor. She claimed that the crystal inside was misaligned, and the wrong shape. So she went about reforming the dilithium crystal in its cradle, in an active reactor. Then when she was done, her flank glowed brightly and she got one of those marks there, a wave somewhat like a warp frequency wave with a multifaceted crystal over it. She implied it was her special talent, even though she doesn’t fully understand it yet.”
“And, how has your reactor performed since then?”
“My chief engineer took it immediately offline and is currently inspecting the crystal for flaws. You know how dangerous the antimatter reaction can be.”
Picard leans back, taking another sip of his tea. “Captain Sershek, I understand your misgivings about the ponies. But cutie marks have been explained to me. And my crew has been learning of some of the ponies special abilities, they have been known to do some very intricate and specialized work going solely off of instinct. The fact that your reactor had to be taken offline rather than detecting a problem and going offline on its own tells me that the ponies, at times, have an intuitive sense, if you will, of how things work. Twilight Sparkle herself has astounded me with her grasping knowledge that would be decades, if not centuries, ahead of their knowledge base.”
That gets an uncharacteristic sigh from the Vulcan. “That was just the tip of the iceberg, as you humans say. Another child, this one a colt, got into one of the monitoring rooms for the starboard core of the main computer. Then he proceeded to reconfigure the subspace field around the core. And then when we tested the system after he was sent to his herd, the computer was operating nearly thirty percent faster. But it now randomly breaks into song, complete with musical accompaniment. This is intolerable.”
Picard nods. “I understand. I will inform Princess Celestia to let the migrating ponies know that they need to follow the rules of the starship before they are brought aboard. Perhaps you would send a few crew members down to the beaming sites to inform the ponies of your rules?”
Sershek blinks a few times. “That is an excellent idea, Captain Picard. Provided that we can get our reactor going in time, we should be departing in five hours time. The one way trip is estimated to be twelve days. The Galaxy will do its duty and return for more ponies.”
“Have the dragons been beamed aboard?”
Sershek nods. “We have the entire clutch of recently hatched dragons. As well as some of the smaller adults along with two of the larger ones. How big can dragons get?”
“According to the ponies here, truly enormous, to where they wouldn’t fit onboard our ships without some serious refitting.”
“It would be labor intensive, but roughly a third of the internal volume of the ship is open space, as you well know for our class of starship. Perhaps we can make that space minimally habitable while we are underway, and can take some of our larger guests aboard there.”
Picard nods. “Make it so. And I will see you in roughly twenty-eight days.”
Sershek nods before his face disappears.
***
Twilight Sparkle blinks slowly at Dr. Crusher. “Not outlive my friends? What do you mean?”
Dr. Crusher turns to her computer terminal, tapping a few keys the display of Twilight’s magical aura floats out from the display and takes on a three dimensional aspect. “I don’t have a full accounting of everything to do with your magic, but I can see energy signatures. As I told you, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash have been scanned with this new setup. But I can see their unique signatures, their magical fingerprint if you will, intertwined with yours. Look at this.”
The doctor taps several keys, keeping an eye on the holographic display. Twilight’s own aura shifts over to the side, and several other imprints bring themselves to the forefront. Dr. Crusher turns back to Twilight. “From what I can see, this is an ongoing connection you have with your friends. I can see five other signatures in addition to yours. And in their scans.” A few key taps has the entire holographic display shrinking and moving to the side as another signature shows up. This one is obviously a pegasus. “I can see that your own signature is intertwined with theirs.” She moves away from the computer console, picking up her medical tricorder again before running the handheld sensor over Twilight’s horn. She leans down and looks seriously into Twilight’s eyes. “You are somehow connected to them, and I’m trying to figure out the nature of this connection.”
Twilight eyes the sensor as it’s passed over her again, her ears twitching at the faint sounds the device makes as it scans her. Crusher can see the pony is lost in thought. Finally, Twilight brightens. “The elements.” Then her face falls. “But they were destroyed. How?” Her eyes dart back and forth, trying to work through the conundrum. Then she smiles. “Now I know why. Whenever one of my friends gets close, I can feel them even without using my magic. How I can feel what they are feeling when their emotions are strong.” She turns to look at the display. “The elements, when they hit me, sending me to that place, where I became an alicorn.” She narrows her eyes. “I felt something, before the magic changed me and gave me these wings.” She extends one a bit. “I could feel their terror, their panic, as the elements were pouring all that power into me. I knew they weren’t doing it on purpose, that this was something beyond mere ponies, but elemental, a connection started there.” She smiles brightly. “They established a connection with my friends, and it’s endured even through the destruction of the elements themselves.”
“I’m sorry, what elements?”
Twilight blinks. “Oh, yeah, you don’t know about the Elements of Harmony.” She sighs, “Now that is a story. Well, the quick rundown would be, there were six elements from the Tree of Harmony. It was formed over a millennium ago when Starswirl the Bearded and his companions imbued the fledgling tree with the aspects of each of them. Loyalty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Magic. When they disappeared, the tree grew, its magic allowing it to tame the Everfree Forest. And then, to defeat Discord, the Princesses removed them from the tree, using their power to turn him to stone for a thousand years. Princess Celestia held the stones until Luna returned as Nightmare Moon, where I and my friends first used them against her, and reformed her, removing the darkness that made her Nightmare Moon. And boy, we’ve had some other adventures with them. But when I was able to figure out Starswirl’s unfinished spell, that’s when they made that connection between us. Things changed a lot that day.”
Dr. Crusher pats the alicorn gently on the withers. “Well, that helped me understand a lot more about you and your friends.” She looks at the display then back at Twilight. “Any other ponies have something like that happen to them?”
That gets a bark of a laugh from Twilight. “Oh, no. The Elements were unique. The only others to wield them were the Princesses. And their connection goes way back.”
Crusher puts the hand scanner back into the tricorder. “Well, that’s all the scanning I need to do for you. Do you have any questions for me?”
Twilight looks at the scan information as the computer digests everything, the diagram of her becoming clearer and more detailed as the computer adds the new information to the display. She looks at the Doctor. “No, but I’ve got to say, your computer system is just…amazing.”
“Yes, it has so many uses. It’s a wonderful tool for me, and for everyone on board.”
Twilight grins. “Well, I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
***
Princess Celestia walks slowly through the palace. Among her many duties as ruler of Equestria, her time at her school is easily her favorite. Working with young minds, helping bring these young ponies to the peak of their magical abilities. And while the school is said to be for unicorns, that’s not exactly exclusive. At this point, there are two pegasi who’ve shown exceptional magical abilities, and one of the rarest of the rare, an earth pony that also has magic. That little colt is going far in her estimation. He will be among the ponies last to be sent off on one of the starships that has been dispatched to help with this crisis.
As things are, the first ponies to emigrate are volunteers from major cities. If Equestria survives this, they will still have colonized a second planet, which is amazing for her to contemplate. There are other planets out there with intelligent life. And they are willing to help! The generosity of spirit of these members of this Federation continuously astounds her. Were she to walk the streets of Canterlot, she would encounter some of the different species that make up this huge assemblage of very different cultures, yet they are all working together to create harmony. That fact has a bright smile on her face as she walks into the school wing. She doesn’t have a new protégé at the moment, she hasn’t had one since Twilight Sparkle. Distantly she thinks that perhaps she should choose a new young pony to guide and show them the wonders of magic. Then her smiles freezes on her face. If they don’t figure out a solution to this crisis, all of this will be gone, destroyed in massive matter antimatter explosions as their planet is broken apart, to save billions of lives on another planet. She suppresses her emotions, Twilight and her friends, and the valiant crew of the Enterprise are going to do everything in their power to prevent that necessity. Betazed will be protected, and life will go on, not just for her, but for her beloved ponies.
The clop of the hooves of one of her guard snaps her to the present. The earth pony stallion slides to a stop and salute. “Princess. Communication from the Enterprise, they are beaming down the school children.”
That gets an uncharacteristic squeal from the Princess as she prances in place for a few moments. She smiles happily at the guard. “They are beaming down to the rotunda as requested?”
He nods and she whirls around and gallops off, keeping her wings tight against her body as she runs. Sometimes it’s the most wonderful thing to simply run. She skids around a turn and slows her mad dash to a more leisurely canter before stopping at the rotunda. Standing there are a multitude of these students, some truly small, all the way up to lanky teenagers. All of them are wearing simple jumpsuits in muted colors. She takes a deep breath, it wouldn’t do to greet them in a lather.
“Greetings and welcome to Equestria, young ones.” She intones softly. She notes the one adult in the typical Starfleet uniform, instead of red like Captain Picard, the front of the shirt is blue, though the rank insignia on her collar is not the typical small pips like the officers.
She steps forward and places her hands before her before bowing slightly. “Princess Celestia, I am Chief Petty Officer Gladstone. I am the primary school teacher on board the Enterprise. This is my class.” She names the children and each one acknowledges their name, getting a nod from the Princess and a warm smile as each name is pronounced. These are children from other worlds, not just their Earth, but from several planets in the Federation. Princess Celestia fights to contain her excitement, children born in space, or born on completely different worlds.
“As this is part of your education, I will show you around our magical school. Equestrian magic is unknown to your Federation scientists, but we are working to help your scientists and engineers understand the ways of our magical abilities. I am going to show you how we teach young magic users on our world.” She turns and starts walking, the class shambling along behind her. “One thing that is common with your science and with our magic is math. Mathematical theories are used in magic just as they are with the science and technology you use on a daily basis. In fact, much of your technology, from instantaneous translation to your matter replicators, we have magical equivalents. For example, I am not speaking your language. I am speaking mine, but once one of my mages figured out the translation matrix that your universal translator uses, we’ve applied it magically so what I’m saying sounds like the language you are familiar with. And matter replication, we have similar spells to turn common materials into things we desire. We accomplish with our magic what you do with tools.” She smiles brightly at the children.
She turns a corner and opens a door. “In here is a basic telekinesis class. While telekinesis is a basic skill almost all unicorns have from birth, this teaches handling of finer objects, and also bolsters the strength of the caster.” She nods to the teacher. “If you understand energy conversion, we don’t actually generate magical energy. We use it, it’s everywhere, imbued within the universe is energy that we can tap into with our horns. That is not to say that using our magic isn’t effort, and can be quite taxing. So, unicorns in particular, crave high sugar foods to keep our own energy up as we channel large amounts of energy. And what this teaching does is trains the casters to use the energy more efficiently.” She gestures at a small filly, her eyes squeezed shut as her horn is brightly lit. Dozens of colorful balls are dancing around her head in an intricate pattern. “Experienced casters can pick up and manipulate dozens of items at a time, some more than others.” The teacher tosses several new balls towards the unicorn filly, who integrates them into her pattern. “This is what is known as magical fundamentals. We have group projects where one pony will set a gear in motion, and others add more gears, keeping them all spinning, but they have to get creative, not just a single plane of gears, but many directions and speeds, all powered by the one initial gear.”
As they move through the school, Celestia works to show the children different disciplines among her school ponies. Answering questions as the children bring them up. Finally they get to a large room, filled with shelves of books. “And now, my dear children, is the library. I’m sorry to say that you haven’t been taught our written language, but here is a large assemblage of our written history. Many of these books are being scanned into the computer on the Enterprise for reference when it comes to combatting our current problem. Captain Picard has talked about, if our efforts to save Equestria bear fruit, sending down a computer system much like what is in your starship, allowing all of this information to be preserved.” She smiles warmly. “Hopefully this will happen in the near future. Now, I want you all to move among the ponies here, sit down and talk with them, get to know them. Make friends.”
The children slowly scatter to various parts of the large room as the officer moves up to Celestia. “Truly amazing.”
Celestia tilts her head slightly. “Hm?”
“When you were described to us, given your technology level, I did not expect the amount of teaching going on here. You ponies have a tremendous knowledge base to draw from. About disciplines that are completely unknown to the Federation. If we can save this world, teams of scientists could spend lifetimes learning about you ponies.”
That gets a warm smile from the solar diarch. “I sincerely hope that will be the case. Not just for my sake, but for all the ponies and the citizens of your Federation. I hope we can be friends.”
The petty officer nods. “I hope so, too. And I do hope Captain Picard works on formalizing a relationship between the Federation and Equestria.”
“Oh? Formalizing?”
She nods. “I don’t think you would qualify to join the Federation, you are a special case though. Normally we are completely hands off when it comes to civilizations without the ability to travel faster than the speed of light. But given the circumstances, perhaps associate status, or protectorate might work out.” She stops and thinks for a moment. “I mean, if you would want ponies involved in life outside your star system.”
Celestia brings up a hoof and taps her chin. “I would want to talk to Captain Picard about that.” She smiles at the human. “Thank you.”
***
Captain Sershek is in his ready room, much of his time when in his sanctuary here is either spent meditating, or doing necessary computer work. As of right this moment, he’s reviewing the report sent to him from his chief engineer. He looks up at the door chime. “Enter.”
The door slides open, admitting his first officer and several ponies. Sershek looks at Zaitsev. “I asked for the child and her parents.
A peach colored unicorn steps forward. “We are her family. I am Light Step, lead mare for our herd. If you must pronounce punishment for our little Light Speed…” She looks at the filly cowering between the front legs of a Pegasus stallion. “We will all be involved. She was our responsibility.”
Captain Sershek stands up, unconsciously tugging at his uniform tunic. “I have no reason to pronounce any punishment. I merely summoned you here so I can understand more of what happened.”
Poking her head out more, the little filly looks up, “Mister Captain sir, I’m sorry. I didn't mean to cause problems."
“Actually, apologies are not necessary. I was reviewing my engineers report. He included scans of the crystal before you did what you did. And it turns out that there was flaws in the crystal, the passage through the barrier around your world had caused harmonic fracture within the crystal. It was sufficient at lower power levels. But once we had gone to warp, it likely would have caused the crystal to fracture. It took detailed analysis of the routine scans to find that flaw. Without that analysis, we would never have known that the flaw existed. You very likely saved the ship. But what I need to understand is…how?”
Light Speed gulps and takes a few steps forward. “Well, mister Captain, it didn’t sound…right. I could hear it vibrating all through the ship. It sounded sick to me. So, when I got to engineering, I reshaped it so it could be strong again, stronger than it was before.”
“Sick?”
Light Speed nods. “I don’t know fully what this cutie mark means.” She turns sideways, “But, I have discovered my special talent, and to think I discovered it my first time on a starship. I can feel the resonance inside your power crystals, the heart of the ship. I’ve always liked going to Canterlot and going through the crystal caves below the city. But that dilithium, I can feel it better. It sings to me, I can feel it. I know you turned your reactor thingie back on, I knew the moment it turned on cuz of its singing, right now. And it sings beautifully.”
“And that brings me to what you did. Federation and Vulcan science, among many others, have spent centuries to perfect the shape and composition of dilithium crystals for use in warp engines. And you did in seconds what trained scientists have spent their lives on. How?”
The filly looks down at her light blue hoof, pawing gently at the carpeted deck. After a moment, she looks up. “I really don’t know. It’s not always easy to explain what a cutie mark means. I was sad because I’m older than most ponies in my class and I didn’t get my cutie mark in school. And then I come on to your ship. And then I could feel your crystal. And it was sick…” She looks up at him. “I knew I could fix it, its happy now.”
Sershek nods. “Well, you will be happy to know, the reaction is now significantly more efficient now. I have approved the use of the new crystal for now. If it proves to be as efficient as initial tests show, we will transmit the new design to Starfleet Engineering. You will get credit, young…filly…for making all of Starfleet more efficient. So, for that, thank you.”
The filly beams as his first officer leads the ponies from his ready room. As the door closes he sits down in his seat heavily. “Completely illogical…” the first officer murmurs softly.
***
The transporter field fades from around Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher. Nestled in somewhat of a valley is a well constructed animal sanctuary. Though Picard takes a moment to look, the numbers of creatures are nearly identical to Earth creatures is breathtaking. The yellow Pegasus is walking slowly towards them. Dr. Crusher leans over towards him. “Amazing, Jean Luc. I’m going to have to do DNA scanning, but these look like Earth fauna.”
Fluttershy stops, hiding a bit behind her mane. “Welcome.”
Picard smiles brightly. “This is your sanctuary?”
She nods. “It’s called the Sweet Feather Sanctuary. All the animals here are being rehabilitated so they can be released back into the wild.” She flinches as a white rabbit has come up and is tugging on her mane. “Oh, Angel, wait your turn.”
The rabbit chitters at her, then she shakes her head. “No, I’m busy right now, Angel.” She looks up at the two humans. “I’m sorry, but Angel can be very insistent when he wants something.
Crusher blinks slowly. “You can understand what he’s saying?”
She nods. “Of course. But with your translator thingie, can’t you?”
Picard and Crusher look at each other for a long moment before shaking their heads. Fluttershy smiles. “Well, most ponies can’t understand my animal friends, either.”
“Are they sapient?” Picard asks.
Fluttershy narrows her eyes. “I think I understand what you are asking, whether they think in the same way ponies do, or griffons, or minotaurs.” She looks up at Picard. “Or you humans. And I would have to say…no. They are smart, in their own ways, but limited. They tell me their needs and wants, but they don’t think about much beyond immediate needs and desires. I can’t have a philosophical conversation with a deer or a duck.” She smiles brightly, which falters as her eyes focus behind the two humans. “Oh, hi Discord.” Her smile comes back, brighter than before.
Picard and Beverly spin around, and they look up. A creature is standing there, the most insane amalgamation of different species parts that either have ever seen before. The creature ignores them and exits a hole in the air, which snaps closed behind him. “Oh dear Fluttershy, are you ready for our tea?”
Picard frowns, something is familiar about this creature.
“Captain Picard, Doctor Crusher, this is my friend, Discord.”
Discord perks an eyebrow then twirls around the pair looking them up and down, "Bipedal hairless, dogs or primate?" Standing up to his full height he looks down at them, "No magic? Ugh, these creatures have barely crawled out of the muck." Sticking his nose into the air he huffs, "This kind of creature probably zips around in space between the stars, thinking they are superior to everyone else, trying to do good but actually messing everything up. Blah."
Fluttershy’s voice gains some hardness. “Now, Discord, be nice. They are trying to help our world.”
“Help? What help can they be compared to all-powerful the lord of chaos!” He spreads his limbs wide and laughs, out of nowhere the sky turns dark and black clouds appear with lightning flashes as bolts silhouette him.
It’s Fluttershy’s turn to roll her eyes. “Oh so dramatic. This isn’t Ogres and Oubliettes.” She says sarcastically.
Dr. Crusher steps forward. “This world is in danger, Discord.”
He turns quickly and fixes her with a stare with his yellow eyes. “Danger. No. Not with me around. I’ll never let anything happen to Fluttershy.” The yellow pony clears her throat loudly. Discord rolls his eyes. “And her friends.” Getting a beaming smile from the Pegasus.
“Then perhaps you are not aware that this world, and the bubble of space around it is hurtling into the…”
“How boring, she just keep yapping away,” Discord turns and snaps his fingers, and with a bright flash, Dr. Crusher is turned into a large dog, which barks at him.
“Discord!” Fluttershy snaps.
He turns and looks at her. “What?”
“Turn. Her. Back!”
“Would you rather I turned her into a bunny?” He stops, looking down at Angel. “On second thought, one of those is more than enough.” He looks at Fluttershy and sighs. “Oh, very well, for you, Fluttershy.”
He snaps his paw and with another flash, Dr. Crusher is standing there. “…Betazed. And not to mention the entire system is in danger!” She stops, looking around. “What happened?”
Picard is jolted from his thoughts. “I know you.”
“Of course you do, we were just introduced,” shaking his head Discord smirks. “I’m pretty famous around here, I even have my own stained glass image at the castle.”
Picard takes a step forward. “True, but you are more than the ponies know, aren’t you?”
Discord whirls around, bending down to glare at the Captain. “You would presume to know my identity? I am Discord. I am Chaos incarnate. I am Fluttershy’s friend. Do you want to take this outside?” With a snap of his fingers Discord opens a rift to a realm of pure chaos.
“I know that voice, Discord.” He glances at Fluttershy then back to Discord. “In fact, I think we’ve met on a few occasions.”
He glances at Fluttershy then back to Discord. “In fact, we’ve met on a few occasions.”
Discord rolls his eyes. “Oh, someone might have met them, I mean, humanity has gotten farther out from their home system than was expected. Likely someone was ordered to make contact with them.” “Discord.” Her voice is carrying a lot of warning, getting the creature to flinch. "What? I was in stone for 1000 years remember? That was before you and I became friend.” Discord half shrugs,
“The arrogance of these primates.” Discord flows over and embraces Fluttershy. “Now, don’t you worry, Discord will take care of any dangers to our home, you don’t need to worry that pretty pink mane of yours.”
Fluttershy blinks. “What is he talking about, Discord? How do you know him?”
Discord rolls his eyes. “Oh, we might have met, I mean, humanity has gotten farther out from their home system than was expected.”
“Discord.” Her voice is carrying a lot of warning, getting the creature to flinch.
“Oh, no offense intended, Fluttershy. That was before you and I became friends.”
“Discord, you come clean right now. Tell me how you know these humans!”
Picard crosses his arms and smiles smugly. “Yes, I’d be happy to hear you spin the tale, Q.”
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The plot thickens! And geeze, that filly. Imagine working on the boiler of a steam engine while the engine is running! Ah, foals.
Repeated text.
Edit: Now I'm hoping that Discord isn't Q. Why? Because in my geeky little heart, I want to see Discord and Q in a competitive duet of "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better".
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Repeated too.
combating
diarchic
thingy
a grate chapter i love it.
Well that cat is out of the bag. Let’s see if he can explain away this.
Morphing an active Warp Core to repair a fault and recover performance? Well, its said that foals cutie mark surges can exceed all boundaries because they just dont know it cant be done.
That, and its pure Harmonic Chaos and so backed by energies uncomprehensible to all but the near deific, insane, and Pinkie.
If the planet is so many weeks from gravitational intersection, whats th minimum vector delta v needed maybe applied through pushing the sun and moon further out as gravity tractors and taking the thermal drop, or bringing them in faster to roll the BBQ for stronger pulls?
Or even take the shield and move it asynmetrically so the planet curves round the new centroid and becomes steerable?
Oh, I knew Q would come into this eventually.
Hey, why not just store all the dragons in the transporter?
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I have a theory that discord is q but he has no memory of being a q due to the bubble giving him some form of amnesia
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Well remember all Q are named Q so is Discord the Q Picard knows or is he A Q the Q Continuum punished by limiting his powers and sending to Equestria? Or is it even more complicated since Q live outside regular space time and he is Q but from a diffrent point in history? Maybe then way Q acts around humans is his weird way of trying to be Friends? It would be really fun if Q and Discord got in an argument And it turned out they are just the same person from different times.
I like the fact the Filly was named Light Speed. Cutie marks might fast track Equestria joining the Federation. Light Speed's talent is related to Dilithium and that one colt got a mark for Computer Programming with out knowing anything about it! The possiblity of technological breakthroughs just by teaching Fillies and Colts basic science and one or two getting cutie marks in fields preciously unknown to ponies is staggering.
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Oh, sweet Celestia, that would be GLORIOUS!!!
Repeating himself...
And here. I think you accidentally copy pasted that when you were breaking it into proper paragraphs between speakers, then did some further editing to one of the copies along the way.
Forensic editing, yay?
This should be "my friends and I." This is a bit of a pet peeve, and it's especially bad when the mistake occurs in the dialogue of Twilight, the most obsessive-compulsive of the characters.
The Picard Maneuver is universal!
The first officer is actually the second in command. The term you're looking for here is "commanding officer."
Here you have two characters speaking in the same paragraph. This one calls for a spray bottle and rolled up newspaper.
Oh no, not this cliché again.
I am sick of this. Just because Discord was based on Q doesn't mean they're the same character. They may be similarly bombastic, but otherwise their personalities are very different. I was hoping against hope that this crossover would somehow be different from all of the other Trek crossovers.
Well, there IS this: (official comic) https://www.deviantart.com/iamthejam/art/Discord-IS-Q-440419542
And then the dream I had: https://www.deviantart.com/iamthejam/art/The-Dream-of-February-3-2013-355909381
Discord: What? Havent you heard that sometimes people sound alike? Or even look alike? I do have a weekly chat with a old NID pal named Frank Simmons. Just have to ignore the worm in his neck.
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Wouldn't that be "Anything Q Can Do I Can Do Better"?
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Omake:
"Why, mon capitan'", said the smug man who had suddenly appeared. "You've no idea how happy I am to hear you say tha..." he trailed off, looking around. "In this... Delightfully... bucolic... little... where are we exactly?"
"Oh, what's this?" sneered Discord. "Another human?", ignoring Fluttershy's quiet protestations that he 'be nice, now'.
Worried now, Picard tried to play the peacemaker. Facing Discord, he gestured to Q. "Discord, this is Q, of the Q continuum." Turning to face Q, he gestured to Discord, but was interrupted by Discord moving between them and winding around Q like a snake climbing a tree.
"Why, I can't see any resemblance to my handsome self at all", Discord said dismissively. Q disappeared from within Discord's coils, and reappeared a couple of metres (because Picard is French) away. Discord uncurled and walked away from Q haughtily, snapping his fingers once. "Q of the Q continuum. Bah! Even if he does have some small talent for reality manipulation, it's plain that he has no imagination at all"
"Why should I care about a single word from the mouth of a lesser lifeform such are yourself?" Q asked angrily. Continuing in a disappointed tone, he said "Jean-Luc, you have really got to stop slumming. Well at least I can liven up the place." And there was a mariachi band standing there, playing like this was normal.
"Oh, please. Surprise mariachi bands are so 2013. We're doing kabuki." Discord snapped his tail, and the mariachi band were now kabuki players. And koalas. They dropped the things that they were holding, and one of them cried out when they landed on his foot. Flutter giggled behind her hoof, and then went over to ensure that he was okay.
Picard, out of his depth, commed up to the Enterprise and asked them to turn their sensors on his location. If nothing else came out of this, they had an opportunity to record Q using his power, and not on them as they tried to record it.
"El Mariachi!" Q cried out in feigned anguish. "Why you minced snake, I'll..." He trailed off as Discord had rolled his eyes so hard that they rolled along the ground, and vertically up Q's body, bouncing off when they hit his nose. The hovered in mid air, most of a metre in front of Q, as a mouth formed up underneath them, and the music swelled...
Anything Q can do I can do better.
I can do anything better than Q.
"No you can't." said Q scowling.
Yes I can
"No you can't." said Q, louder.
Yes I can.
"No, you can't." said Q, louder and angrier.
Yes, I can! Yes, I can!
"Anything you can be I can be greater. Sooner or later I'm greater than you." said Q, still refusing to sing.
No, you're not
"Yes, I am."
No, you're not
"Yes, I am."
No, you're not
"Yes, I am, Yes I am!"
"I can cause some trouble, often on the double."
(Q frowned. The line didn't really work, but more importantly, he hadn't really chosen to say it.)
I can cause some chaos, and I don't have to rhy-yme
(Discord literally danced circles around Q, a straw hat in one hand, and a cane in the other.)
"I can destroy the human race!"
I think I know how
"What?"
You show them your face
Picard struggled not to smirk. He had to admit, there were definite differences becoming apparent between the two. This Discord was far more playful than Q, and seemed like his ego was less fragile than Q's.
Anything you can play, I can play straighter.
I can play anything straighter than you.
"No you can't", said Q, grinding his teeth. Instead of responding though, Discord was now in a brown tweed suit, sitting at a delicate-looking, cast-iron French-revival patio table. The table was set for four, and Discord was pouring tea.
"Cucumber sandwich, my dear?" he asked, looking at Fluttershy.
She dimpled, and giving every evidence of genuine enjoyment, responded with "Thank you, Discord, that would be lovely." She trotted over, and as she sat down across from him, she asked, "Now are you sure that this isn't too much for your... condition?"
"Oh, I think that I can handle this much, but thank you for worrying. Won't you join us, captain?" he addressed Picard.
"Why thank you." Picard said, waling over and sitting down between them. "Earl grey?"
"Alas, it's orange pekoe." Discord responded, with the appearance of regret.
Q came over and petulantly said, "Can't even get the smallest detail right" Snapping his fingers, they tea was now Earl Grey.
"HA!" Discord jumped up, suitless. "Charlatan! Mountebank! I told you I could play it straighter than you!" Q's eyes widened as he realized he had failed in his attempt to be banal, and he disappeared. Smug, Discord turned back to the two still in front of him and said, "Now we can have a real tea party." And Picard was so disconcerted by the fact that the furnishings were now floating above the ground, that he very nearly didn't notice that his tea was now Earl Grey, let alone the fact that it was grey, and the teacup had a little monocle.
Edit: A Discord carrying a guitar walks in from offscreen. "When are we doing the Crossroads reference?"
Responded Discord, "Oh that was cut because no-one would have gotten it." Grumbling, Discord stalked back offscreen.
OOOOOOO..... BUSTED DISC... *SNAP*
(Age Regressed)
:'(
WAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!
HEhe... Nobody loves a bragging brat. -Discord/Q
10688652
Yeah, i'll take the blame for that. I was reading, making suggestions, then throwing stuff back at him with the original line followed by the edit or change idea... and skype formatting doesn't translate into word formatting so when you copy and paste everything gets messed up.
10689425
"Anything you can sing i can sing higher, i can sing anything higher then you."
Q Crosses his arms, "no you can't."
Discord floats up a bit singing higher pitched, "Yes i can."
Q Raises his voice, "no you can't."
Discord twirls floating higher, "Yes i can."
Q yells out, "No you can't, no you can't no you can't!"
With a snap of his fingers Discord morphs into Celestia flying up in a spiral with an angelic "Yes i Cannnnnnn!"
"Ok, how'd you do that?" Q asks blinking.
"1000 years as a statue mimicking her singing about her sister in the garden." Discord says changing back, "Boohoo i banished my sister cuz i couldn't figure out how to be nice to her."
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"And that last is magically stablized (now look again at the first statement!) ..."
Or its actually breaking down then being recrystallized as its exposed to magic as the magical energy forces the dilthium to form lawrencium, and the creation and decay of said isotopes creates the visible light. *goes all meek scuffing a hoof* or something like that in technobabble.... i guess... if that's ok with you.
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I shouldn't've been eating.
10690066
Ah, yes. Truly, there is no greater compliment than pre-chewed food.
There's two spots where there's duplicate lines when Picard and Discord are talking.
The lack of concern for the Prime Directive still bothers me (it almost comes up again when Celestia is talking to the schoolteacher), though at this point I can't see how this story would be possible with it being in consideration. Even in a worst case scenario where some ponies were to become aware of the Enterprise's presence trying to figure out how to save everyone without a Prime Directive violation, Picard would work with Celestia to cover up their presence as best as possible to limit cultural contamination. Evacuation would not be an option in the first place; if anything the Prime Directive would demand the planet is destroyed, though Betazed (lol I typed it as Betamax at first) being in the way would force Picard to seek a third option beyond the destruction of both worlds, and a blatant Prime Directive violation as we see in this story.
At least, that's how I'd see it playing out. There's potential to craft a good story with those restrictions but clearly you're heading in a different direction, so I'll try not to bring this up again, I think I've already mentioned it a couple times.
I also wouldn't have had a small colt save the starship AND apparently revolutionize dilithium engineering. Or even, either one of those. You can certainly have a pony do something small that the crew would expect to be impossible, and thus make an impression that way.
Also I would expect an evacuation would be a standard procedure for Starfleet which is more controlled than we see in this chapter. It sounds like ponies can just wander around everywhere and Starfleet has no plan at all. The idea of briefing the ponies on the rules they would be expected to follow doesn't even occur to the Captain. I would expect such a thing to have been already done before any ponies are allowed on board.
We never see an issue like this really addressed on screen in the TNG area, the closest I think being the Voyager episode where the crew is gradually replaced with aliens, where Janeway orders guards posted at sensitive areas of the ship (they get replaced too so it doesn't work). The aliens are malicious though, so it doesn't work for a comparison.
A feasible approach is still easy to imagine. Instruct the ponies before boarding that a section of the ship with quarters has been assigned to them, and they will be shown how to utilize all the comforts of the quarters. As the crew are very busy making sure their world doesn't explode, it would be appreciated if the ponies would stay in their quarters. They will be instructed on how to contact a liaison officer using a comm panel (one or several officers will be assigned full-time to handle the ponies' questions and requests). The liaison officers will address their concerns, escort ponies out and back into their assigned areas if they have legitimate need to go elsewhere, such as speaking to the captain, etc. Finally the liaisons might also be given power to escort groups of ponies for tours to non sensitive areas of the ship to help keep them occupied. I would imagine most ponies (or other reasonable species) would be happy to agree to such an arrangement. Violations of the arrangement would likely be minimal and could be handled by configuring the computer to lock down access points outside the area from pony access unless accompanied by a crew member, and alerting security if someone did manage to sneak out (eg unicorn teleport).
Discord being Q is a pretty common trope, though it sounds like he's a different Q. I think that's an interesting twist on the idea. Maybe Discord won't admit anything openly but in private with Picard tells him to shut up, he's in hiding from the continuum and would like to stay in retirement. Maybe TNG's Q shows up (thanks to Picard pointing Discord out) and harrasses him a bit but in the end Q doesn't really care. Q's never been on best terms with the continuum anyway, and it's always nice to meet a fellow Q who is likewise not in favor.
This story has a lot of exposition of pony things we readers already know (I mean, this is a MLP:FiM-centric site). There's no reason to really spend words on it. For example this chapter explains the Elements of Harmony. If it's something that will be critical to future chapters to know, great, refresh our memories. Otherwise it's probably best to just say "Twilight provided a brief history of the Elements of Harmony to Doctor Crusher" and move on.
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yep that was my fault, sorry. Normally If I'm adding stuff I'll note down the original text line, then make the modification after it. Once done i'll send it to sparky in Skype. the problem is, skype messes up formatting when he copies and pastes it into word. THEN it messes it up AGAIN when copying it into FIMFICTION. its a pain in the cutemark at times.
10689425 DisQord is now shipped... oh god, I feel ill now.
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Q: "WHAT? It's not like I like him or anything!"
10692279 Would that him a Qundere?
Ow... that pun was so bad I hurt myself.
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C'mon DisQord, shift the pony star system's trajectory.
We know you've done it before with a moon.
Oh so, it's really was him
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the Prime Directive is out the window with this issue
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You know, " It sounds like ponies can just wander around everywhere and Starfleet has no plan at all. " Strangely this has been going on since the TOS era, as well as TNG and Voyager. Civilians, even children are generally allowed to wander around the ship, even into places like engineering and no one bats an eye. TOS they had ambassadors HUNTING each other for food... TNG has had people have free reign of the ship, and problems when some were caught "accessing" sensitive systems such as weapons control, but still allowing it. THEN you get Voyager, where They are at a space port, with dozens of different races visiting the ship, thefts going on everywhere on the ship... etc. Star fleet tents to be a little trusting.
Now, as to a foal "revolutionizing dilthium crystal formation." Oh yeah, except the foals the only one that can really do it, can't explain how they do it or what the foal's doing, is the only one that can really tune said crystal, each crystal is specific to each ship for said tuning, and of course... they would have to stay and keep returning it as needed to keep the rates up. In other words MAYBE... if starfleet worked with the foal for years, after the foal got a full grasp and training in warp theory and engineering, and could explain everything... They could modify all the crystals in federation ships... in a decade or so. LOL. Otherwise... its just what ever ship the foal is on at the time
(“I know that voice, Discord.” He glances at Fluttershy then back to Discord. “In fact, I think we’ve met on a few occasions.”
He glances at Fluttershy then back to Discord. “In fact, we’ve met on a few occasions.”
Discord rolls his eyes. “Oh, someone might have met them, I mean, humanity has gotten farther out from their home system than was expected. Likely someone was ordered to make contact with them.” “Discord.” Her voice is carrying a lot of warning, getting the creature to flinch. "What? I was in stone for 1000 years remember? That was before you and I became friend.” Discord half shrugs,
“The arrogance of these primates.” Discord flows over and embraces Fluttershy. “Now, don’t you worry, Discord will take care of any dangers to our home, you don’t need to worry that pretty pink mane of yours.”
Fluttershy blinks. “What is he talking about, Discord? How do you know him?”
Discord rolls his eyes. “Oh, we might have met, I mean, humanity has gotten farther out from their home system than was expected.)
There is a whole host of duplicate sentences in this section.
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Yeah, it was my fault, as i said before, when i was doing "changes" to discords speech and such to make it more... Discord... I coppied the origional line from sparky, re-wrote it the section with changes then sent it back with the origional + the edits... this ended up with duplications rather then just replaces... sorry. I changed to just using the word doc rather then copy and paste to skype. i hope that helps.
10703112
Just trying to help.
10703820
i know, and i'm taking the blame, it was my fault, and i'm sorry.
Things just got real people!
That makes so much sense, while Discord was locked away in stone, he was out causing issues for the Federation, and with his omnipotence, it makes so much sense!
That's all well and fine, but that hardly justifies coming to the conclusion that she spouted out at the end of the last chapter. Indeed, by her own admission, she should take a few hours/days/weeks/years to figure out what all that shit even means before burping something out in barely the time she had to run the scan on Twilight!
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10695533
Or at least a Q, if not the Q that's been a royal pain to the Federation.
Remember, Q2 from the episode "Q, Who?" complaining about how he couldn't go anywhere without having to apologize for all the crap that deLancie's Q was doing throughout the universe, so much so that he was the one who petitioned Q1 to be kicked out.
Still, everybody's reaction above, as well as those in the story, has been entertaining! So awesome, APONI, Alondro, & everyone!!
I cannot helped but cringed when discord was compare to Q. Not after i see how weak-assed be became in season 8.
Pretty much any continent-level ancient magic artifact can take him down. He also can be outsmarted and manipulated by anyone silver-tounge.
Ah the joys of trying to understand the ways Ponies can make all logical and physics to sit down and shut up. Loved that while bit, and bet that foal is getting a pass to join the Academy in a decade or so.
Also, yay Heartsongs! Always fun!
Loving the interactions been the Ponies and Starfleet, and the Celestia bit was just adorable!
And now, the thing any Trek crossover needs to address. DisQord. Though clearly them being different, if related brings. Besides it's s clear the whole chess motif is being played between those two.