Season 1 Episode 5: "Those Academia Days..."
STAR TREK: PHOENIX
S01E05
“Those Academia Days...”
“Personal log: Stardate 47012.2
It’s been a pretty busy past few months here at the Academy. I’ve been so busy that I forgot I could even record one of these! Though maybe the concussion Maia gave me that first week was partly why. And that wasn’t the last one she gave me, either. Every week on our PT day she’s been helping me train up, to get better at fighting. She doesn’t hold back much, though, so I still end up pretty injured. The drill instructors get on her over it, but I’ve told them as long as there is no permanent harm, it’s fine with me. Hurts, but, well… at least we’re pretty friendly now. She’s not the only friend I made though. Sunset told me about her friend, Wesley Crusher, and he’s been mentoring me with a few of my classes. He is smart. I like him a lot.
I’ll be starting my newest set of classes today, including one with Mother! She’s teaching a basic xenobiology course required by all cadets. I’m looking forward to seeing her on a regular basis, even though I know she’ll be grading me pretty hard. Hopefully next term I can take a class with Mom, who’ll be even more fun. Okay, how do I end this log–”
I found the right button on my PADD and hit it. “There we go.”
“Are you done talking to yourself?” grumbled Maia.
Letting out a quiet sigh, I leaned back in my chair and gave her a polite, if strained, smile. “Yes, I’m done. You can study now.”
Maia glared at me for a moment, then one corner of her mouth quirked up. “Good. How’s your head?”
Another sigh escaped me as I reached up to tap a hoof at the latest pair of cortical stimulators Doctor May had me wearing. “Well, I don’t have any headaches or dizziness, so that’s a good sign. Though it’d be nice if you could stop smacking my head every week.”
“Stop making it so easy to smack, then,” Maia replied with a snort.
The insensitive comment rankled at me, reminding me of what happened just after the original fight.
As I sat in my chair, slowly whiling away the hours till I could get some sleep, trying desperately to ignore the cold stare constantly aimed my way, a page came over the intercom. “Cadet Sparkle, Cadet Maia, please report to Commander Riviera’s office immediately.”
“Mom?” I whispered as I stood up as quickly as I dared.
“We’d better go,” Maia said, staring at me impatiently.
I nodded. “R-right, okay.” As I headed out the door, a small part of me whispered worries in the back of my head, that Maia would decide to finish the job as she followed so close behind me. Or worse, of punishments from mom.
Fortunately nothing happened and we reached my mom’s office within a few minutes. I tapped the door chime. “Enter!”
Maia and I went inside. She snapped to attention while I moved to it much more slowly, still aching from my injuries. “Reporting as ordered, ma’am,” said Maia. Then she corrected herself. “Ma’ams.”
I’d seen my mom’s office several times in the past, when visiting the Academy, but it was an altogether different feeling to stand in front of her desk while she glared back, in full Commander mode. T’Lona standing behind her, the corners of her mouth curled downward in a show of disappointment only added to the growing fear in my heart.
“So,” Amina said, setting her hands down flat on her desk. She locked her authoritative gaze squarely on Maia. “I understand you fought with Cadet Sparkle earlier today. You nearly killed her.”
Maia stared back, stoic like a stone statue. “Ma’am, I–”
“Your hands were on her jaw and her horn, Cadet!” Amina barked, louder than I’d ever heard her speak before. “You shattered several of her limbs and did serious harm to her spine. Doctor May reported to me earlier that you came within literal millimeters of paralyzing Cadet Sparkle for life!”
Nodding her head ever so slightly at that, Maia replied, “I realize that, ma’am. The drill instructor made that clear–”
“No, no I don’t think he did,” Amina interrupted, jabbing a finger into her desk. “Tell me, Cadet. Are you aware of the maternal connection Commander T’Lona and I have with Cadet Sparkle?”
For the first time I saw Maia’s eyes widen. “No. I wasn’t.”
“I gathered,” Amina growled. “So, you tell me, Cadet. Explain, in detail, why you thought it was necessary to nearly paralyze my daughter?!”
“Mom!” I shouted, unable to stand watching this any longer. “Stop shouting–”
“Sparkle, you will not speak unless asked to speak, is that clear?!” Amina roared.
I took an involuntary step back, tears filling my eyes. I squeezed my eyes shut, then bowed my head. “Yes ma’am,” I whispered.
“I provoked her, ma’am,” Maia spoke up. Her voice didn’t waver, her demeanor stayed firm, but nevertheless I could hear a note of sorrow in her words. “I insulted her magic and her intelligence, and I allowed instinct to drive me.”
“In other words, you did exactly what you were sent here to unlearn,” Amina finished. “I see.” She turned her eyes on me, causing me to gasp in fright. “Sparkle?”
“T-that’s what happened, ma’am,” I answered, my voice shaking like crazy. “She provoked me, I fought back. We’re both at fault.”
She nodded, then spent a good solid minute glaring at the two of us. “Well. I will be entering an official reprimand into your file, Cadet Maia, subject to review by the superintendent. Cadet Sparkle, you will also be officially reprimanded, though mitigating circumstances could see that dropped.”
A reprimand was bad enough, but hearing my Mom speak to me like that tore at my soul. I’d upset my parents a few times when I was growing up, just like Sunset did, but… they never yelled at me like this. Like I was trash. “Yes, ma’am,” I chorused with Maia.
Amina glowered for a moment more. “Cadet Maia, you are dismissed. Please wait outside.”
Maia nodded once, then disappeared through the door, leaving me alone with Amina and T’Lona. There was a moment’s pause, where neither moved or acted, till Amina tapped a single button on her terminal. Then she relaxed, her Commander’s glare fading into something I was more used to seeing. “You can relax now, Twilight. I turned off the cameras,” she said, her voice shaking. She opened up her arms. “Come here, please.”
I hesitated. “But… Mom… you just yelled at me.”
“Amina acted within her purview as your superior officer, Twilight,” T’Lona said, coming around the desk. “I realize it was unpleasant to hear. But we are speaking as your parents now.” She held out a hand.
Still uncertain, I took a few hesitant steps forward, then raised a hoof to place in T’Lona’s hand. I let her lead me behind to Amina, who threw her arms around me, careful not to dislodge the medical equipment. “I’m sorry, Mom,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry too, honey,” she said, clutching me like she was afraid I’d vanish into thin air. “How are you feeling? When I read Doctor May’s report, I almost had a heart attack!”
I swallowed some of the tears clogging my throat. “Um, still kind of hurts, a little. And I don’t like these things very much. They sting.”
“Why did you let Cadet Maia provoke you like that, Twilight?” T’Lona asked, setting her hand down on my shoulder, letting me feel the concern emanating through the telepathic touch.
“It’s…it’s so hard here, Mother, Mom,” I said, shaking my head. “I thought I was prepared, but…”
T’Lona and Amina exchanged a look, nodding at each other. Then Amina turned back to me and placed a kiss on my forehead. “You’ve always been more sensitive than Sunset. I’m glad you’re okay, sweetheart. I know it’s rough, and I know I didn’t exactly help just now. But I also know you understand what the uniform sometimes requires of us. I know you can make it through this, Twilight. Just please. Please don’t do this again.”
“Indeed. If you must fight with your fellow cadets, please ensure you do not risk lethal harm to yourself,” T’Lona added, giving my shoulder a squeeze.
“...okay,” I whispered. “I won’t get another reprimand. I promise.”
“Oh, that?” Amina winked at me. “I think it’s safe to say the superintendent will drop that one. I’ll try to make sure she does.” She smiled, gave me one more squeeze, then released me. She held a hand to her mouth and cleared her throat, then tapped that button again. I saw the authority slip back into her gaze, albeit this time without any disappointment or fury. “Very well, Cadet. You’re dismissed.”
A sad little laugh escaped my throat, but I stood to attention all the same. “Yes ma’am.”
Maia returned to her own work, pouring over the material for her latest class. “Your next class is in five minutes, by the way.”
“What?” I glanced down at my PADD and paled. “It is!” I hopped to my hooves and double checked my cadet uniform for neatness. I galloped out the door, speeding down the corridor, weaving through the throngs of fellow cadets and arriving at the lecture hall on the far side of the campus. Fortunately there was a free seat front and center, exactly where I liked it, so I took it and logged into the terminal.
I looked up at the lectern and smiled at T’Lona, who eyed me curiously with a single arched eyebrow. “It is good that you are on time, Cadet Sparkle,” she said.
“Yes Mo–I mean, yes ma’am.” A faint blush warmed my cheeks. Had it been Mom, she would’ve giggled, or winked. As it was, Mother gave me an impassive stare, a brief nod, then moved on to addressing other cadets. She tapped at one key on her lectern.
“Good morning, cadets,” she said, her voice echoing through the speakers in the lecture hall. “Welcome to Xenobiology 101. I am Lieutenant Commander T’Lona, your instructor for this term. You will be expected and required to achieve a satisfactory grade in this class to continue your stay at the Academy, regardless of your chosen career path.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I chorused with the other cadets.
She nodded in acknowledgement, then tapped another key on her lectern. “Joining me for this term as a teaching assistant will be fourth-year cadet Jacqueline Cadeneza, due to her specialization in the field. Cadet Cadeneza, please step forward.”
What?! My hackles rose, my heart accelerating as every muscle in my body tensed at once. A scowl twisted my features as I turned my neck to fire off a harsh glare at her. Cadeneza sauntered down the middle aisle, caught sight of me, then flashed me a cheeky grin and a wink.
At least she wasn’t wearing that stupid jacket. Whenever she wore it, she’d constantly stirred trouble. That, and I saw the kind of looks she liked to give Sunset. No one looks at my sister like she was a… a… a piece of meat.
Still scowling, I leaned back in my chair as Cadeneza joined T’Lona by the lectern. “Hello, everyone,” she said with a casual wave. “I’ll be here to help you out whenever you need it.”
“Good,” T’Lona said. “Please assist me as we begin with the first lesson.”
I seethed throughout the lesson, despite my Mother’s repeated glances my way. I hung behind once class ended, long enough to join Cadeneza in leaving the lecture hall. “Oh hey, Sparkie.” She smirked. “What’s up?
“What are you doing here?” I hissed.
Her smirk vanished, replaced by the cool, calm expression I was used to seeing by her. “It’s part of my career path,” she answered. “I need to earn some credits as a TA with Commander T’Lona for my specialization. Didn’t I tell you this was going to happen?”
“No, you didn’t,” I shot back, raising a hoof as if to poke her in the chest before I thought better of it and dropped it again. “You didn’t say anything.”
She halted and crossed her arms over her chest with a frown.“Fine. I forgot. So what? Why’s it such a big deal, anyway? Why’re you so mad?”
“I’m not mad!” I paled at the sight of various onlookers eying us and pulled Cadeneza into the closest unoccupied classroom. “I’m not mad,” I repeated in a quieter voice.
“Yes you are,” she said, scrutinizing me with her expression. “Why? I thought we were friends.”
I bit back my initial harsh response and said, “Friends is pushing it. And…” I let out a sigh and pointed at the blinky devices on my head. “It might be these. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, yeah, I heard about that.” I noticed the corner of her mouth curled upwards into a faint smile. “You and your roommate keep kicking each other’s asses like you’re practicing a Klingon mating ritual. So when’s the wedding?”
My stomach soured as a nasty taste filled my mouth and sank down my gullet. “Ugh! No! What? No!”
She chortled with laughter, snorting like a pig. “Oh Twilight, you’re so easy. Relax, I know you wouldn’t go for her. Honestly I’d be surprised if you went for anyone ever.”
That set my teeth on edge. “Yes, well, unlike some people, I don’t spend half my freetime drinking like a fish and sleeping around with any female with a pulse!”
“Hey, that’s unfair.” Cadeneza grinned. “I only do that a quarter of the time. And besides, that qualification leaves out a few of the more interesting cadets, like the Phylosian. Have you ever spoken to Cadet Acantha? The things she can do with those tentacles of hers–”
My horn lit up and slapped a telekinetic field across her mouth, instantly silencing her. “Nope. Don’t want to hear it. I am not interested.”
She glared at me until I cancelled my spell. “Spoilsport. Look, what’s the real reason you’re upset? Because I know it’s not just about me. Maybe we don’t always get along, but we’re not exactly enemies.”
Oh please. LIke I’d tell you. “Look, just forget it, okay?” I pulled out my PADD and sighed at it. “I need to get to my next class.”
“Alright,” Cadeneza shrugged. “Fine. Just for what it’s worth, I’m not your Mother’s TA just so I can be a jerk to you, Twilight. Like I said, it is for my career.”
I tried to put the thought of Cadeneza out of my mind, at least until much later in the day, when I returned to my quarters. Maia was nowhere to be seen, so for once I had some privacy. I tooled my time away studying for my new subjects until the doorbell chimed, startling me. “Uh, enter?” I called.
The doors slipped open, revealing a taller human cadet with a friendly smile on his face. “Hey, Twilight. Thought I’d come by and see how you were doing with your first classes of the term.”
“Wesley!” I said, a relieved smile spreading on my muzzle. “Yes, please, come in.” I gestured to the absent Maia’s chair. “I’m glad to see you. It’s been a bit of a rough day.”
Wesley Crusher took the chair and scooted it closer to me, then sat down. “So what’s on your mind? It’s not Maia, is it?”
“No, no, we’re getting along pretty well now,” I said. Then I winced and tapped at the cortical stimulators. “Well, mostly. I held my own against her the past few times we fought. Still lost though...”
Wesley snickered. “I’m not surprised. I’ve told you before how much Maia reminds me of Tasha Yar, right?”
“Yeah, since they’re both from the same planet.” My smile tightened. “Err, well, was, in Tasha’s case.”
Wesley waved a hand dismissively. “Hey, don’t worry about it. Tasha’s been gone a long time. I’ve accepted that.” He scooted his chair a bit further forward. “And I noticed you trying to change the subject. What’s wrong?”
It took me a few moments to find the words to respond. “It’s… it’s about my Mother. Sort of. Kind of. Not really?” I screwed my face up in confusion, then shook my head. “I was, well, I was hoping that after the first few months here I’d be able to relax a little. Seeing my Mother every day in class would’ve been nice.”
“But?” Wesley prompted.
“Buuut, then that stupid little jerk Cadeneza decided she had to be a TA for the class!” I slammed a hoof down on my desk, startling poor Wesley into jumping back. “It’s bad enough she took up so much of Sunset’s and Mother’s time at our house before I came to the Academy. She… damn it, Wesley, I know she has a good reason for it. I know it’s got nothing to do with me. But it feels like I had one of the only good things I’ve looked forward to yanked out from under me!”
My anger swiftly boiled away. “Ever since I came to this Academy, I’ve been mocked, and insulted.” Tears filled my eyes. “My parents shouted at me over the first fight and I can’t even relax in my own quarters cause my roommate might kill me if she gets bored... and then--” I let out a sob “--this morning I received this…”
I reached out and tapped on my terminal that played Sunset’s message. “Hey, Twi. Hope you’ve been doing okay. Listen, I know I just reached out to you the other day, but, well… something happened that I wasn’t expecting. It’s good news. At least, I’m pretty sure it’s good news. Anyway, you know my roommate, Ensign Smith? Well, one thing led to another, and, uh… We kissed. I know, I know, it felt like it came out of nowhere, but… I think she’s been developing feelings for me for a while, and I just hadn’t noticed. I think.”
I cut off the message there. “Yeah. So now Sunset’s got herself a girlfriend, meaning I’m even more alone.”
Wesley sat back in his seat and stared at me impassively for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then he frowned and shook his head. “Twilight, you’re not alone. You do have friends here. I mean, I’m here, right?”
I sniffled, feeling tears run down my cheeks. “I know, but–”
Wesley wrapped his arms around me. “But nothing. I know it’s hard, Twilight. Believe me, if anyone here gets what you’re going through, it’s me. You and Sunset are the only friends I’ve got after that stupid stunt I pulled.”
I eased into his hug. “I guess so...” His touch soothed me and I could feel my frazzled nerves slowly fade. Wesley was good for hugs. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be insensitive.”
He patted me on the back then let go. “You’re not, trust me. I’ve been where you’re at too. The first year of the Academy… it’s pretty rough. And, uh, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re pretty sensitive.”
A fresh blush bloomed to life on my cheeks, this time from embarrassment. “I… no I’m not!” He gave me a flat look. I trembled, spluttered, then broke. “Okay, okay, maybe I am. I thought I was prepared for how military-like Starfleet is. But I wasn’t.”
He shook his head. “I wasn’t either. And I served on a starship, as an acting Ensign. But here it’s different. It’s a lot like what I’ve read boot camps used to be like for militaries on Earth centuries ago. They want to break you down, then build you back up in their image. They ease up on it after the first year, but…”
I nodded, a flustered frown making its way onto my face. “Yeah. It’s that first year that’s hard.”
“Well I know one thing.” Wesley grinned. “Sunset Shimmer made it through. And you’re not weaker than Sunset Shimmer, are you?”
“What? No way!” I snorted. “I’m not weaker than my sister. Why would you even ask me that?”
His grin shifted to a smirk as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “I guess that means you’ll make it through the Academy just like she did, right?”
Rolling my eyes, I shot back, “Of course I will!”
“Well there you go.” Wesley winked at me, then scooted his chair closer. “So, what’re your new subjects?”
Recognizing the distraction for what it was, I nonetheless took it and allowed him to fulfill his mentorship role. I made a promise to myself to speak with Belle when I had some free time on the weekend. I could definitely use some counseling.
Carved marble, cool to the touch, sapped the heat from my hooves as I trotted in through the large wooden door wrapped in wrought iron. A fire burned cheerfully in the hearth near one of the walls, while nearly the remaining space was filled with stuffed bookshelves that towered above and groaned under the weight of its tomes. The only other free space was occupied by a writing desk carved from oak that sat underneath the lone open window that looked over the courtyard below and down past the mountainside. Completing the room was a four-poster bed, squat and low to the ground, but with sheets made of the finest silk and pillows stuffed full of pegasus down.
“Wow,” I whispered, as I stepped inside my room in Canterlot Castle. I trotted over to the desk, where I found a copy of some scrolls I’d written for Princess Celestia and an old note was pinned to the desk. “Right, she wants to meet with me during her morning tea break from Day Court, to discuss my latest studies. The shield spell.”
I spotted movement outside the window and nearly jumped back, only to realize it was just the pegasus guards flying a typical patrol route. How long has it been if I’ve forgotten about that? I wondered.
Sticking my head out the window I spotted one of Canterlot’s many plazas on the left, just outside the main gates to the castle. Hundreds of ponies bustled about on their daily business; perusing shops, hawking fruit and vegetables, or mingling with each other, chatting about their day. Every once in a while some street musician would strike up a familiar tune, allowing the gentle musical notes to drift on the wind and float in through my window.
I closed my eyes and let the hum of the city fill my senses for a few minutes before heading out into the corridor. Everything was laid out just as I remembered it. There was the spiral staircase leading down from my tower. The corridor that opened up at the bottom of the stairs, with flowers and banners hanging from nearly every wall, and doors branching off to the War Room, Celestia’s private dining room, and more. I nodded to the occasional Royal Guard as I passed them by, though none of them paid more than a passing glance in return.
I passed into the main chambers, the foyer where supplicants for Day Court gathered each day. Dozens of ponies and other creatures milled about in orderly queues with bored expressions on their faces. A few shot glares at me as I walked past them, and the guards alike, cutting to the front and pushing my way into the throne room.
The stained glass windows showcased various events from Equestrian history separated by the pillars and walls that hung murals and held up the high marble ceiling. Even the long red carpet stretching up to the throne itself, high on a golden dais flanked by a pair of fountains, was exactly how I remembered.
And her.
Princess Celestia herself, idly sitting on her throne, patiently listening to some earth pony discussing farming in Baltimare. He’d be her last petitioner before her morning tea, so I waited. And as I waited, as I watched, I found myself feeling weaker and nervous. Then he finished, trotting out the foyer and giving a polite nod as he passed by. Unable to delay any longer, I approached the throne. I approached Celestia.
Celestia gave me a warm, wide smile. Just like I remembered. “Ah, Sunset! There you are.” She hopped up off the dais and gestured to a side door. “Come along now, my most trusted student.”
I swallowed, nodded, and followed her through the doors into the adjoining chamber. The room was small, with a smattering of furniture sized for Celestia, and a wide open-air view of the city below. Tea and various accompanying sundries awaited us on a table where two chairs had been prepared. “Please, come sit down,” Celestia said as she took her own seat.
I trembled. “I…” My breath caught in my throat.
Celestia’s horn lit up with yellow light, levitating the teapot to dispense into two mugs. She handed one over to me, and I took it in my magic by reflex. “Well, Sunset, I hope you’ve enjoyed your morning so far.”
Blinking, trying to quell the hammering of my heart, I set about pouring cream into my tea and mixing in two sugarcubes. “Y-yes, Princess. I-it’s… it’s been… it’s been good.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Celestia replied. “It’s been quite the exciting one for me. The minotaur ambassador came by today.”
The ambassador. Right. She’s going to suggest I help with negotiations. “O-oh?”
“Yes. She had a number of interesting demands to make.” Celestia drank her tea, then floated a scone to her mouth and took a bite. “Of course, I turned most of them down. They were a bit over the top.”
“Well, o-of course, Princess, you can’t let someone l-like that… bully… you…”
Celestia paused, giving me a curious look, then shook it off. “No, but that’s just the way she is. She always makes such outrageous demands, hoping we’ll agree to the thing she really wanted because it’d seem reasonable by comparison.”
I froze. I knew how I was supposed to respond to that. I was supposed to laugh, to say something insulting, something prideful. Something that would lead Celestia to turn this into a lesson. That’s why she wanted me present.
But as I looked up into her eyes, my teacup halfway to my mouth, I found myself shaking. My magic lost control until I dropped the cup, and it shattered on the table.
Celestia frowned, giving me a stern look that almost immediately softened into concern. “Sunset? Are you alright? Is something bothering you?”
A gasp escaped my throat as tears filled my eyes. “...Princess, I… I can’t…”
She stood from her seat and trotted over to me, raising a hoof to trail through my hair. Her eyes scanned me. “Sunset, I can tell something’s wrong. What is it?”
Tears ran down my face and my throat ached from the repressed sobs that threatened to break free. “...it’s not, you don’t… how…”
She wrapped a wing around me, pulling me in close. Then she placed her chin atop my head. “I don’t know what’s bothering you, Sunset, but you can always tell me. I’m here for you.”
That did it. I couldn’t take it anymore. “Computer! Freeze program!”
The holographic Celestia froze and I quickly pulled away from her. I couldn’t take two steps before I collapsed to the floor, crying my heart out. “This was so stupid!” I shouted, slamming my forehooves on the floor. “What was I thinking?!”
The electronic wheeze of the holodeck doors opening was my only warning. “Sunset?!” cried Smith as she ran over to my side. “Are you alright? What’s wrong, hon?
Through my tears I could barely make out Smith running towards me. “Alma? What’re… what’re you doing here?”
Smith gave me a quick hug. “Don’t you remember? We were gonna have dinner together, an hour ago. Ah was gettin’ worried ‘cause you were so late, so Ah asked the computer where you were.”
“Oh,” I sniffed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“S’alright, hon,” Smith said. She stood, her head swiveling to stare all around her. “Ah don’t think Ah’ve seen this program before.” Then she halted when she saw the frozen Celestia. “What in tarnation? I’m guessin’ that’s another pony, though she’s huge! Sunset, is this what Ah’m thinkin it is?”
“It’s Equestria. Where I came from,” I replied. “I’ve been working on this program for a few years, off and on. Finally got a chance to test it properly; that’s why I was late to dinner. I’m sorry I forgot what time it was.”
Smith’s gaze softened considerably. “Then Ah’m guessin’ that must be that Princess Celestia you’ve told me about a few times, right?”
I looked back at the holographic Celestia. Now that she was frozen, unmoving, she seemed far less intimidating.
Far less real.
I let out a wistful sigh, and nodded. “Yes. It is. I can always show you this another time, since we have a dinner date. Computer, end program.”
The holographic throne room faded away, replaced by the smooth black walls lined in a golden grid. “That’s better,” Smith said as she led us out the door. “Ah never did like holodecks. Ain’t real enough.”
“It felt too real, at least while the program was running,” I said. I trudged alongside her, each hoof step difficult, like I had lead weights attached.
Smith waited until we were safely in our quarters and sat down on our small sofa before she replied, “Ah could see that. You okay there, hon? You were cryin’ pretty hard.”
I pressed my lips together and nodded. “Yeah. I… I knew she was there, Alma. I knew she’d be in the throne room. I designed the program. But when I came face to face with her, I… I broke down.”
Smith pulled me in closer, running her hand through my hair. “Ah saw that. Ah remember everythin’ you’ve told me about Princess Celestia, why she matters so much to you. Ah wasn’t expectin’ her to be so big though.”
That got a laugh out of me. “I think I made her a bit too big, actually. I forgot how much smaller I was when I first came to Earth.”
“So why were you in there tinkerin’ with that holoprogram anyway?” Smith asked as she switched to rubbing at my neck.
“Mmm,” I said as I savored the sensation. “Um, well, I… we’ve been through a lot lately. The ship, I mean. I wanted a distraction.”
A sultry chuckle slipped from Smith’s lips. “Well if you wanted a distraction, hon, why didn’t you just say so? Ah’m sure Ah can think of somethin’.”
“Oh yeah?” I let my eyelids droop to half mast as I looked up at her. “What’s that?”
In response, she closed the distance, prepared to kiss me.
“La Forge to Shimmer.”
Smith pulled away at the last minute, groaning in frustration as I slapped my combadge. “Yes, sir?”
“Sorry to interrupt you when you’re off-duty, but I need you to report to my office in Engineering immediately.”
I saw Smith mouth something which caused me to roll my eyes. “On my way, sir,”I replied. I tapped the badge and deactivated the signal before pulling out of Smith’s grasp. “Sorry. Guess dinner’ll have to wait a little longer.”
Smith sighed. “You mind if Ah go ahead and eat, then? Ah doubt you’ll be back before 0300.”
“0130, and leave some leftovers for me, dear,” I said, patting her on the hand with my hoof. I made my way out the door in a hurry, ducking into the nearest turbolift. “Main Engineering.”
The turbolift carried me swiftly to my destination, dumping me out just a few steps around the corner. I passed by a few of my fellow engineers as I rushed to La Forge’s office, or what he termed his office anyway. It really just meant the partitioned area behind the glass wall next to the warp core, but who’s to judge. To my surprise, though, I found Commander Riker waiting with him. “Sir? Reporting as ordered.”
“Shimmer, good,” La Forge said, stepping forward. “Commander Riker and I have something we need to speak with you about.”
A frisson of fear trickled down my spine. “May I ask what, sir?”
Riker gave me his usual smile. “Relax, Shimmer, it’s nothing to worry about. The truth is, we were trying to find the right time to present you with this.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box, handing it to me.
“Usually there’d be a bit of a ceremony,” La Forge added as I took the box. “But given recent events we figured something low-key would be better.”
I opened up the box. Inside, resting on a bit of cloth, was a single gold pip, fully filled out. “S-sir?” I started up at them with equal parts confusion and anxiety. “Is this what I think it is?”
Riker nodded. “That’s right. We’re officially promoting you, Shimmer, to Lieutenant. Congratulations.” He offered a hand to shake.
It took every bit of my focus to avoid shaking his hand like a school filly on a sugar high. “Thank you, sir, but I don’t understand why–”
“Why are we making you the new Lieutenant on my staff instead of Takahashi?” La Forge asked with an understanding grin.
“Yes sir,” I said. “I thought Takahashi was going to be the new Lieutenant once Savil left. We all did. He deserved the promotion, and he’s already a JG.”
Riker withdrew the pip from the box and attached it to my collar. “And you’re right,” Riker said. “But Takahashi just requested a transfer to Starbase 375. A position opened up that he’d been interested in for a long time, and he jumped on the opportunity. ”
“Wow,” I murmured. “I had no idea. But that still doesn’t explain why me.”
“Well, the truth is,” La Forge replied, “I believe you were the most qualified. You proved yourself when you were put in charge of Engineering during the latest mess with the Borg. And you were critical to the implementation of the metaphasic shielding, without which the Enterprise would’ve been destroyed. And with Savil gone, well, I do need another lieutenant. Plus I’ve seen you demonstrate your leadership skills.”
Riker continued, “We already have your new quarters prepared, Deck 32, section 12. I’m sure you’ll appreciate the chance to have your own quarters for once.”
I took a moment to breathe deeply, composing myself. “Thank you, sir. I’ll get my belongings moved over tonight.”
Riker nodded. “If you’ll excuse me, Shimmer, Geordi.”
After he left, I turned back to La Forge. “Sir, I don’t know what to say. This is the second time you’ve done something special for me.”
La Forge shook his head and shrugged. “Don’t be too quick to thank me, Lieutenant. You’re about to have a whole slew of new responsibilities and duties waiting for you on your next shift. I’ll send over the details to your terminal so you can review them tonight. I expect you to be prepared by 1200 tomorrow.”
I smiled proudly. “Yes, sir. I won’t let you down.”
Letting out a laugh, he said, “You haven’t yet. See you then, Lieutenant. Dismissed.”
Nodding politely, I made my way back to the turbolift. Any leftover anxiety, worry, or frustration over my experience in the holodeck was completely gone, replaced by a flutter in my stomach and a bounce in my step. I practically skipped my way back to my old quarters. When I entered, I found Smith sitting at our table, a pair of chopsticks cradling a piece of sashimi halfway to her lips.
“Sunset?” she said, setting her sashimi down on her plate. “You’re back early.”
I sauntered in and elegantly waved a hoof through my mane. “So I hope you weren’t planning on eating all of that yourself,” I said, my voice coated with sheer smug.
Arching both eyebrows, Smith glared at me with narrowed eyes. “Uh huh. Sunset, what’d you do this time?”
“Do? Why, I didn’t do anything,” I replied with a laugh in my voice. “It’s what they did for me.” I raised my head and pushed my collar forward.
Smith shot up from her chair so fast she spilled her plate on the floor. She hooted and hollered as she ran forward to embrace me, pulling me off the floor into a hug tight enough to strangle. “Oh mah stars, Sunset! You got promoted! And not just JG either! Ah’m so proud of you.”
“That’s–thanks–can’t–breathe! Put me-down!” I squeaked, flailing my limbs helplessly in the air.
Her face bloomed like a garden of roses as she dropped me in a hurry. “Yes ma’am,” she said with a shit-eating grin. “Sorry about that, ma’am.”
As soon as I caught my breath I shot her a withering glare. “Haha, very funny.” She continued to chuckle as I made my way around the table, taking a moment to clean up her spilled food with my magic and toss the leftovers back into the replicator. “I’ve already got new quarters assigned. Help me move my stuff over.”
“Is that an order, ma’am?” Smith said, her grin wider than ever.
A matching grin spread onto my muzzle. “You know what? Yes, it is. Ensign.” I pointed my hoof at my bedroom. “Get to it.”
We both broke into laughter as she made her way inside. I followed her soon after and helped gather up my belongings, since I didn’t have much. “In all seriousness, I hope your new roommate is tolerable.”
Smith paused for a moment. “...you know we could always ask to share quarters, right?”
My face heated up as my eyes widened. “Huh?”
She set down the stuff in her hands and turned to face me, cupping my face with one hand. She stroked my cheek with her thumb. “Well, Ah mean, we’ve been together for what, six months now?”
Uh-oh. I trembled under her touch, my mouth drying up. “I mean, we’ve been having a lot of fun together, yeah.”
Smith blinked in confusion at that statement, then gave me a hesitant smile. “Sunset, Ah don’t want to have any other roommate. Ah know I gotta, ‘cause Ah’m still an Ensign, but Ah’d rather stay with you. If you don’t mind.”
Oh. Okay. Phew. I gave her a quick peck on the palm of her hand. “Yeah, I don’t have a problem with it. Like I said, we have a lot of fun. Why don’t you keep getting my stuff together while I put in the request with the quartermaster?”
“Sure,” she said, her smile growing. As I stepped back out into the main room and sat down at the desk, I heard her quietly humming to herself.
It took me just a few minutes to put in the request and sent it off. To my surprise, the quartermaster responded instantly, authorizing permission and advised me that my quarters would be extended with hers while we were both on shift tomorrow. After thanking the quartermaster I returned to my old bedroom and gave Smith the news.
“Wow. Ah’m surprised he agreed so fast,” Smith said as we finished packing up.
“I’m hoping it means I’m not the only one who’s been promoted,” I replied as I carried my stuff out the door. We swiftly made our way to the turbolift. “Deck 32, section 12.”
“Ah hope so.” Smith blew a sigh out through her teeth. “Ah’ve been workin’ real hard to make up for things since mah last evaluation. Ah’d like to think Ah’ve earned JG at this point.”
“You have in my book,” I said as the turbolift dumped us out. It took me a moment to locate my new quarters, but then I spotted it, with my name and rank etched into the door. As I stepped inside, I took a moment to examine the place. It was a little larger than the quarters I’d shared with Smith, with a desk tucked away in a nook like a small office instead of shoved against one wall. The living area had more room, with a large couch, and the bedroom featured a larger, comfy looking bed as well. There was also a single window looking out into space. From my low down posture I could clearly see the starboard-side warp nacelle.
“Wow, you even get a window, huh?” Smith said, grinning like a loon. “Ah heard that not all senior officers get windows in their quarters.”
I shrugged. “Lot fewer crew quarters in the stardrive section versus the saucer. And it’s narrower.”
“Still, Ah’m bettin’ they’d be jealous.” She dumped everything in her hands on the table. “Where do you want this stuff?”
“In here,” I said, pointing to the bedroom. “Should all fit in the same places as before.”
It took us only a few minutes to finish putting my belongings away. “Well, there you go, ma’am,” Smith said with a cheeky grin. “Whaddya say we celebrate? Ah can break out one of the bottles Ah brought from mah farm.”
I lit up my horn and gently pulled her towards the bed. “I’d rather break something else in.”
“Oh…” Her laughter turned sultry. “Well why didn’t you say so sooner?”
Our lips met and we fell back against the bed.
I trotted through the Academy corridors with a smile on my face and my PADD in my magic field by my side. I ignored the occasional whisper I heard from some of the nastier cadets. After half a year at the Academy, I’d finally learned some proper coping strategies.
I reached my destination, a studying room adjacent to my Mom’s solar physics classroom. Inside I found a couple of classmates, as well as Amelia Wattson, a fourth year engineering cadet and Mom’s teaching assistant for the class. She smiled at me, showcasing her brilliant white teeth, a stark contrast to her dark skin tone. “Oh, hi Sparkie! What’s up?”
I’d always liked Amelia. Granted, she was Cadeneza’s best friend, but unlike Cadeneza she was friendly, nice. Always ready with a joke, or an electric pun. She’d been the one to bestow the ‘Sparkie’ nickname on me, and from her I didn’t mind it. From her it was a sign of appreciation, of adoration. A sign that she really liked me.
A sign she was my friend.
“I was hoping to go over a few things with you,” I said, bringing forward my PADD. “About the solar surveys assignment.”
“Sure!” she replied. She held up a pair of fingers. “Give me two seconds.”
While she busied herself with checking on my classmates, I took my preferred seat on the far side of the room, near the corner. As I activated the built in terminal, I brought up the solar surveys assignment. As part of the solar physics course Mom had us examining orbital periods for the planets of fifteen systems, as well as the star’s orbital periods in the Milky Way. It was fascinating, if a bit basic. But then, I was in the most basic of the classes she taught. I’d have to go into the more complicated ones later on.
And oh did I plan to. Somewhere, somehow, stellar cartography and solar physics would be the key to locating Equus. I still held faith in Celestia’s ability to move the Sun, despite having been on Earth for a decade. I knew it was unusual at best, and I had a lot of hypotheses as to how it could be possible. But it still had to be the key.
Wattson sat down next to me. “Okay, Sparkie. You’ve been grasping this subject easily so far. What do you need help with?”
“Well,” I said as I brought up the first solar system, the Sol system itself. A charming infographic of Sol, its planets, dwarf planets, and other important bodies popped up, everything moving slowly around the sun. “I understand the orbital periods of the planets. It’s Sol’s orbital period around the Milky Way I’m not sure I fully grasp.” I zoomed out the image till we were looking at a rotating infographic of the galaxy, focused on the Orion spur of the Sagittarius arm.
Amelia arched an eyebrow at me. “I don’t get it. What’s hard to grasp? Sol orbits the Milky Way every two hundred and thirty million years.”
I shot her a flat look. “Yes, thank you, I know that. That’s not what I mean. It’s this part of it that’s throwing me off.” I pointed out some of the finer details of the gravitational interactions between Sol and nearby stars, the way it stayed on its orbital path.
Wattson nodded in understanding. “Okay. I see why you’re getting confused.” Her hand danced on the terminal’s keypad. “This is why, see?”
When she showed me the new calculation, I wanted to slap myself upside the head. “Ohhh. That’s so basic! How did I miss that?”
“Because I know what you’re really trying to do, Sparkie,” Wattson said in a sing-song voice. She winked at me. “You’re not that subtle.”
“Wha–I don’t know what you mean,” I retorted, my face burning.
Her eyes twinkling with mirth, Wattson crossed her arms over her chest. “Sure you don’t. So why don’t you go ahead and bring up the other stars, hmm?”
“Okay…” I brought up the others, and showed how I’d calculated them in turn. “What about it?”
She pointed to several of them, including Wolf 359, 40 Eridani A, and Barnard’s Star. “Look. Look at what you’ve done with each of them. You keep trying to find a way to show how the galaxy might orbit around them, rather than the other way around.”
A strained, nervous smile sprouted on my muzzle. “What? No. No, I wouldn’t do that. I-I’m smarter than that. It’s not possible for a larger body to orbit a smaller one! Hahaha… haha… ha…”
Her smile flatlined into a glare as her eyebrows rose to the top of her head. “Oh? Sparkie, how many times have you told me about what this Princess Celestia allegedly does for Equus?”
“Sssh!” I looked over at the other cadets nearby, horror stricken, but they didn’t seem to be paying attention. “Please don’t tell anyone about that!” I said in a much more quiet voice. “I’m enough of a laughingstock as it is.”
Her gaze softened. “Sorry, Sparkie. Look, I know it’s important for you to find Equus, but you’re not going to do it by inverting basic solar physics. I think someone would’ve found Equus by now if it was that simple.”
“...I know.” I laid my head down on the table. “I’m… impatient. I’ve been waiting ten years just to begin my Starfleet career. Ten years, Wattson. I’ve been on Earth longer than I ever was on Equus. It’s changed me. And I don’t want to forget where I came from.”
“I hear you,” she replied, clapping me on the shoulder. “But moping and messing up your assignments won’t help. Look, how about this? I know you’ve got leave from the Academy this weekend, and I do too. Why don’t I take you somewhere, just the two of us? We can go have some fun. Get physical. You ever play Parrises Squares? Or gone skiing, or snowboarding?”
“No, I haven’t done any of that before,” I said with a shake of my head.
She grinned a toothy smile. “Well, I happen to know of a place in North America that’ll be perfect for trying out all three, and we can even fit in some relaxing too. Ever heard of Glenwood Springs, Colorado?”
“Um, once, I think,” I said, staring up at the ceiling as I searched my memory. “Oh, yes, I remember I did an essay on that for geology in middle school. Glenwood Caverns. It’s a huge cave system, and there's natural hot springs in the area.”
“That’s right! It’s been far too long since I soaked in a hot spring,” Wattson said. “And they have skiing and snowboarding during the winter, plus it’s a really popular stop on the amateur Parrises Squares circuit.”
“Isn’t Parrises Squares really dangerous, though?”
Wattson snorted. “Oh come on. You’ve been practicing CQC with Maia nearly every PT day. I’ve seen the bruises. You wear those silly neck thingies so often I’m beginning to think they’re jewelry.”
“Cortical stimulators,” I corrected gently. “And point taken. Will we have a place to stay? I’m trying to save up my transporter credits for special occasions.”
“Pfft! Of course!” She shook her head and laughed. “I’m saving my credits too. There’s plenty of places to stay, so we’ll be fine. Whaddya say, Sparkie? Up for some real fun for a change?”
“Uh, well…” A concerned frown crossed my face. “You’re not bringing Cadeneza along, are you?”
She rolled her eyes and flashed me an amused grin. “No, no. I told you, it’s just you and me. I’m not gonna spring Jackie on you like that. I know you and her barely get along at the best of times. She can live without me for a weekend.”
“Well… okay then!” I held out a hoof to her. “I’ll do it.”
She made a fist and bumped my hoof. “Sweet. Okay, so let’s get back to helping you with this assignment. Shouldn’t take long, right?”
As it turned out, it didn’t, once I stopped making silly mistakes at least. That left me plenty of time to return to my quarters, inform Maia of my plans for the leave time, and file the official request for leave outside San Francisco.
The next day, as Wattson and I took a walk out to the transporters, we found ourselves joined by a surprise third. “Wesley?” I said as he lined up behind us. “Where’re you headed?”
Wesley had grown more and more sullen over the past few months, despite our friendship. Although he smiled when he saw me, it was tight, small, and dropped almost as soon as it formed. “Vacation. I’m going to Starbase 310. Going to meet the Enterprise there.”
“Oh!” I brightened up, bouncing eagerly. “Then you’ll get to see Sunset! Would you please say hello to her for me? I haven’t heard from her for weeks and I really want to know how her Lieutenant duties are going.”
He reached out to pat me loosely on the shoulder, a single, quick gesture, then withdrew his hand. “Yeah. Sure. I’ll… I’ll do that.”
Wattson tugged on my uniform. “Come on, it’s our turn.” She stepped forward into the booth and vanished.
“You okay, Wesley?” I asked, looking him over, seeing his haunted eyes, his apathetic expression.
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it,” he replied, and gestured for me to move forward.
I gave him one final glance, muttered, “Okay,” and then stepped into the transporter. The tingling sensation of toothbrushes all over my body preceded me appearing aboard Earth Spacedock. Wattson waited just ahead and pulled me forward. I lingered just long enough to see Wesley step into view before Wattson had me lined up for the queue to Denver, Colorado.
Once in Denver, we hopped aboard a mag-lev, switching at a couple of stations till we arrived at Glenwood Springs, little more than an hour’s journey. “Too bad we couldn’t transport here directly,” Wattson sighed as we departed the train. “But they put a stranglehold on you first years when it comes to your credits.”
“I appreciate that you didn’t force me to take this trip by myself,” I replied as I took in the sights. I breathed in the fresh mountain air, cold and brisk, crisp with the dryness of winter in a semi-arid climate, so different from San Francisco. The peaks of the Rockies rose all around us with their dense forests of conifers and pines coated in a thick blanket of snow. I shivered despite wearing the Academy provided scarf and winter jacket. “Wow, it’s cold.”
“It’s about six degrees below zero, of course it’s cold.” Wattson scanned her surroundings then headed off in a seemingly random direction. “Come on. Let’s get checked in so we can go skiing.”
Of course it wasn’t that simple. Like so many other things, skis weren’t designed for quadrupeds. I did attempt to ski while rearing up on my hind legs, using my forelegs to hold onto the ski poles via straps, but that resulted in me tumbling end-over-end halfway down the mountainside before I was brought to a halt via safety equipment installed along the slope. An attempt to put me on four skis with the poles controlled by my magic ended in a similar disaster.
But then they tried me on a custom, extra-wide snowboard that felt more like a sled than an actual board. Still, that worked like a charm, and my howls of excitement and exhilaration echoed throughout the entire valley as I snaked my way through the fresh powder. Compared to the expert snowboarders around us I was clumsy and slow, but it didn’t matter to me. I had far too much fun to care. This was exactly what I needed to help me get away from the stresses of the Academy.
Parrises Squares though… as much as it thrilled Watson, watching her dodge to and fro on the ramp, I didn’t care for it. I played one game and then went straight back to snowboarding.
Later that evening, the two of us got to soak in the hot spring. Wattson hadn't prepared me for how huge it was--olympic didn't begin to cover it; it was more like a gridiron football field. Several dozen people thronged in the spring, playing, laughing, having a blast. I, however, was too tired to do more than soak, but wow did I soak. The warmth seeped into my muscles that erased the lingering aches and pains from the daily life of the Academy. And the light smell of sulphur added to its soothingness and nearly lulled me to sleep.
By the time we rode the mag-lev back into Denver, I’d forgotten all about my worries at the Academy. Even the pursuit of the mystery of Equus seemed distant and unimportant. At least for a while.
La Forge wasn’t kidding when he said being a Lieutenant would be rough. The very next day after my promotion, I found myself run ragged, caught between directing various Ensigns and enlisted personnel in their duties and overseeing my own repairs to the starboard nacelle EPS conduits. Days quickly turned into weeks flashing by, broken up only by the occasional strange event, as ever aboard the Enterprise.
Smith was promoted a few days after me, to Lieutenant Junior Grade. They put her in charge of a new set of experiments that kept her busy at odd hours. Between that and my own change in duties we rarely saw each other, despite sharing quarters. We still made time once a week to have some fun and go on a date, however. She was a good friend.
La Forge put me in charge of Engineering as a whole for a couple of shifts after an incident with his mother’s ship, the Hera. That was quite the experience, above and beyond just my normal duties. Answering Captain Picard’s queries about various shipboard operations personally left me quaking in my boots. Fortunately that was only for a couple of shifts, and then La Forge took over again.
As the weeks went on, I rarely paid much attention to events outside Engineering. I remembered feeling awful when Captain Picard was pronounced dead–for all of two days–and there was some nonsense about warp travel damaging subspace. That occupied all of Engineering with ridiculous experiments for a while.
Commander Data tried to stab me while I was in Ten-Forward one day because he was having nightmares–yes, really. A while later, upon returning from some leave he took, Lieutenant Worf saw me in the corridor and abruptly fled the other way. I only learned a few days later, when he sat down with me for a meal, that he’d apparently been shifting through parallel realities and I was, to quote him, “more and more intimidating and terrifying with each passing reality, until I was like a demon who ruled over Engineering like an evil queen.”
Wish he’d gotten pictures.
Then there was… Barclay’s Protomorphosis Syndrome. I still can’t remember what exactly happened beyond galloping around the ship hiding in panic from every predator, while desperately wishing I could eat some grass. The nasty taste of arboretum Kentucky bluegrass stuck in my mouth for a week.
But right after that, a guest came on board that I was all too happy to see. Wesley Crusher, on vacation from the Academy. As soon as I heard he was aboard I made sure to visit him in his quarters, in hopes of inviting him to dinner. I had to tap the door chime twice before he called for me to enter.
“Oh, it’s you,” he said when the doors swished open.
I took in the sight of him. Sullen, haughty, a sense of disgust. My hackles rose as I took in his apathetic sneer, so similar to one I’d worn all too often prior to coming to Earth. “Well hello to you too, Wesley,” I snarked. “Not happy to see me?”
He glowered at me for a good moment before sighing. “Sorry. It’s good to see you, Sunset.” He eyed my collar for a moment and stiffened. “Ma’am.”
Snorting in amusement, I trotted over and wrapped a foreleg around his shoulders, pulling him closer to the ground. “Forget ranks, Wesley. We’re friends.”
“Yeah. Friends.” He shrugged my foreleg off, then walked over and collapsed onto the couch. “Twilight says hello, by the way.”
I bit back the instinct to growl something nasty. What the hell is up with your attitude, Wesley? Instead I joined him on the couch. “How is Twilight? I know she’s been better since that first fight with Maia, but–”
He cut me off with a single downward chop of his hand. “She’s fine. When I left, Wattson was about to take her skiing in Colorado.”
I took in a sharp breath to steel my patience. “Skiing, huh? That sounds fun. Never been, myself.”
“It’s not that interesting,” Wesley shrugged, looking away from me.
Okay. That’s it. “Wesley, what’s going on? Why’re you so moody?”
His head shot up, eyes glaring at me like twin laser drills. “None of your business, Sunset!”
I hopped off the couch, fed up with his attitude. “Excuse you? Wesley, I’m not trying to pry. I’m just trying to figure out why my friend’s being such an ass!”
He snorted and faced away from me again, raising one hand behind his back, his middle finger extended. “Leave me alone.”
My blood boiled. “Okay, you want to cop an attitude like that? Fine. I’ll leave.”
“Good,” he shot back as I trotted to the door.
I stopped right at the threshold and turned back to face him, summoning up every bit of the authority I did have. “I better not see you showcasing that attitude in public. Cadet.”
He stiffened in place, and faced me just long enough to say, “No, ma’am,” before turning away again.
Scoffing, I trotted away before my temper could get the best of me. Instead I tapped my combadge. “Shimmer to Smith.”
“Ah’m here, Sunset. You on your way with Wesley?”
Hearing her voice helped splash some cold water on my burning anger. “No, Wesley’s… not coming. We’re having dinner by ourselves.”
It was only a few days later that I learned why Wesley was so upset. His issues with the Academy, with authority, with a lack of belonging. The Traveller, that mysterious Tau Ceti alien he’d mentioned to me showed up again a short while later, to take him away, far away. He came by just long enough to apologize and wish me goodbye, before he vanished like a mirage.
I made sure to send Twilight a message right afterwards, letting her know. Maybe if she was lucky, Wesley would take the time to say goodbye to her too.
In the meantime I busied myself with my duties again, until, a few weeks later, I was on the Holodeck with Smith. I was showing her around the holo recreation of Equestria. “You’ve done some amazin’ work here, Sunset,” Smith commented as we passed through one of Canterlot’s bustling marketplaces. “Almost feels like Ah’m really there.”
“Not entirely,” I said as I watched the crowd of holographic ponies milling about. “There’s a lot of details that still aren’t quite right. And look.” I pointed to a pair of identical yellow coated earth pony mares. “There's only so many individual ponies running around.”
“Huh. Almost like they’ve got a bunch of clones,” Smith chuckled.
I laughed with her. “Or the computer’s being lazy and copy/pasting everywhere. Still, it’s… something.”
Smith wrapped an arm around me and gave me a tight squeeze. “Well, Ah hope someday you… you… what in tarnation?”
My ears perked up as I scanned the surroundings. “Is that… a train whistle? But I haven’t programmed Canterlot Central Station yet!”
Smith gulped and pointed down the street. “Uh, Sunset, is that a light comin’ towards us?”
“What light?” I squinted and focused beyond the fake sunlit sky. Then I saw the tell-tale puffs of smoke billowing from the locomotive’s stack. “Look out!”
I dove to the side and dragged Smith down with my telekinesis, just quick enough to dodge the steam locomotive that barralled toward us and watched as a series of train cars passed by before plowing through the street and every unfortunate holographic pony in its way, like cute equinoid bowling pins.
“The hell… computer, end program!” I shouted. Nothing happened. “Computer?” Again, nothing. “Exit?” That, at least, summoned up the arch and the doors. “Okay, let’s get out of here .”
“Sounds good to me!” Smith blurted, her voice shaking.
As we exited the holodeck, we nearly ran right into two very familiar figures. “C-captain, Commander! I’m sorry about that,” I said, snapping to attention.
Captain Picard, imposing as ever in his captain’s uniform despite the cut on his cheek, narrowed his eyes at me, then shook his head. “Nevermind that, Lieutenant Shimmer. Were you and Smith in the holodeck just now?”
“Yes sir, we were,” I answered with a frown. “Sir, something very strange just happened.”
Commander Data, who wore some sort of Shakespearean costume, perked up at that. “Was it by chance a train, Lieutenant? One that came from nowhere?”
“It sure was, sir,” I said.
“We tried shuttin’ the holodeck down,” Smith added, “but the computer weren’t respondin’ at all.”
Picard nodded, bringing a hand up to his chin. “We encountered the same thing just now. It seems it wasn’t just in our program. Mr. Data, I want you to perform a full diagnostic of the holodeck systems, see what could have caused this. And discontinue all crew use until further notice.”
“Of course, sir,” Data replied. He nodded politely and walked away.
Picard turned back to me. “Miss Shimmer, I’d like you to head down to Engineering, work with Commander La Forge. See if the two of you can’t figure out what’s going on, just in case this isn’t simply a holodeck issue.”
“Aye, sir,” I replied in a clipped tone.
“Good. Now if you’ll excuse me,” Picard replied, tapping at his chin, “I need to head to sickbay.”
As the Captain walked away, I headed down the opposite path towards the nearest turbolift. Smith stayed in lockstep with me, letting out a sigh of relief. “Ah swear, every time Ah’m face to face with him Ah feel like Ah’m gonna have a heart attack.”
I smirked. “That’s because you’re way too jumpy. Relax. Captain Picard’s not that scary.”
“Speak for yourself,” Smith muttered.
Of course, once I got to Engineering, La Forge and I swiftly discovered there was far more to this than a mere holodeck issue. The whole ship was becoming intelligent, all so it could produce some sort of offspring. It took several more days before we got the ship back under control, and once we did both the thing it created and its own intelligence vanished as if they’d never been there at all.
I did my best to put that incident out of my mind, chalking it up to yet another bizarre aspect of serving aboard the Federation’s flagship. Everything returned to normal, more or less, outside of some drama involving a Bajoran lieutenant I’d never heard of and, supposedly, Captain Picard wandering around in his bathrobe muttering about the date.
Sometimes I wondered why none of the other Starfleet ships seem to attract these sorts of strange events. At least, judging by Starfleet’s internal reports, they rarely seem to have any. And when they do, half the time it’s the Enterprise who comes barrelling in to save them.
Eventually, one night found me in my quarters with Smith, having a nice dinner together, complete with glasses of wine. Synthehol wine, not the real stuff. I insisted. “You know,” Smith said as she clinked her glass against mine, then took a sip. “Tonight’s pretty special.”
“Yeah?” I said as I took a generous drink of my own wine. “Wait, don’t tell me. It’s your Granny’s birthday.”
She gave me a flat look. “Ah think you know what Ah’m talkin’ about.”
Ooh dear. Like always when this subject came up, goosebumps ran up and down my skin. “We’ve been together a while,” I provided.
“Eeyup,” Smith said with a smile. “Pretty sure it’s been a year to the day. Ah know it hardly feels like it some days, but it’s really been that long.”
In an attempt to hide my growing sense of panic, I took another drink of wine. “R-right. Well, you know, time flies when you’re… having… fun?”
She stared at me for a moment, then sighed and set down her glass. “Sunset, Ah get the joke, but Ah’m bein’ serious. We’ve been together a long time. That means somethin’ to me.”
Oh no. Ooooh no. “Means something?” I questioned, my voice starting to shake.
She reached out to take my forehoof between her hands. “Sunset, Ah… Ah’ve been wantin’ to say this for a while, so Ah’m finally gonna say it. Ah love you.”
And there it was. The three words I’d been dreading. Ever since I realized the mistake I’d made. I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. But, like an idiot, I’d ignored it. I pushed away the problem; acted like I could always tell her tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day. And then I never said anything and led her on, like an ass.
While I was busy thinking to myself, she dropped my forehoof on the table and scooted her chair back. Her eyes filled up with hurt. “You… you don’t love me back, do you?”
Shit. I sighed, bowed my head, and decided to get it over with. “No. I don’t. Not, not romantically.”
She let out a quiet whimper as she stood up from her chair, backing up further towards the door. “Ah… oh my god. Ah’m such a fool.”
“No, Alma, wait, please!” I said, shooting up from my chair. “I didn’t mean to–I should’ve… I’m sorry!”
Smith turned back from the door and glared at me with tears dripping from her eyes.“You’re sorry?” she snarled. “Sorry ain’t gonna cut it! You’ve been usin’ me! Ah thought we had somethin’ special, Sunset!”
“I know. I know! I should’ve… damn it, Alma, I didn’t mean to mislead you.” I kicked my chair with my right rear leg, knocking it to the floor. “I tried to tell you.” I growled. “That’s,” I hesitated, “that’s why I kept saying we had a lot of fun. I… I thought you’d get the idea,” I meekly added.
She sneered. “Thought Ah’d get the idea? Why didn’t you just say somethin’?! It ain’t like we don’t talk about all kinds of other things!”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered as tears came to my eyes. “I never meant to hurt you.”
She continued to glare for several moments before her glare eased. “...Ah can see that.” She came back over from around the table, reached down, and gave me a hug. “Ah know you pretty well by now, Sunset. Ah should’ve realized you weren’t interested in nothin’ serious.”
“You don’t have to hold me,” I said, half-heartedly pulling away from her, to no avail. “I’m the one who acted like a jerk.”
“No. It weren’t just you, sugarcube.” She released her hug, and pulled me over to sit down on the couch. “Ah should’ve said somethin’ too. Ah’m, Ah’m not big on casual datin’. When Ah’m interested in someone, it’s ‘cause Ah think there’s a chance of makin’ a life together with them. And Ah should’ve told you that before we started this.”
Now I was the one giving her a hug. “You really thought that about me, huh?”
Smith shrugged, her cheeks blooming red. “Well, yeah. Ah don’t have to tell you why. Ah think you know why by now.” She gently pushed me away. “Well, Ah think that’s enough of that. Ah think it’d be best if we stopped sharing’ quarters too.”
“Yeah. Definitely.” I gulped, then looked up at her. “I really am sorry.”
She nodded. “Ah know. Ah am too. But it’s gonna take me a while before Ah’m ready to be your friend again, Sunset. Whether you meant to hurt me or not, you did.”
“That’s fair,” I whispered. I stood up from the couch, sniffling as moisture ran down my face. “I’ll… I’ll go put in the request with the quartermaster.”
“You do that.”
I retreated immediately to my bedroom side of our shared quarters, opting to use the terminal in there rather than the one at my desk. Mercifully, the quartermaster responded immediately, and said it’d be done by the end of our next shift. So after sitting in silence for a few moments, just to try and deal with the overwhelming emotions, I went to tell Smith.
“Ah already heard,” she said by way of reply. “Ah’ve been assigned new quarters. They’re in the saucer section this time. Ah’m… Ah’m gonna go move my stuff.”
“...do you need help?”
She shook her head. “Ah’d rather you not.”
Nodding in sorrow-filled understanding, I backed away and retreated back into my bedroom, this time locking the door. I collapsed onto my bed, and only then did I let myself shed the tears I’d built up. I cursed myself out, using as many inventive profanities as I could think of. Then I asked the computer if Smith was gone, and she was.
So I returned to my bed once more, and this time pulled out my PADD. “Computer, begin recorded message. Dear Twilight…”
The rest of Sunset’s message played out on my terminal, “...and now she’s left. I’m such an idiot, Twilight. You ever get together with someone, learn from my mistakes. Ask them what they want out of the relationship, versus what you want. Don’t mislead each other for a year. Trust me, you’ll only hurt yourself if you do that.”
“Wow,” Maia commented after the message ended. “She’s an idiot.”
I scowled. “Don’t be a jerk,” I said, though she did have a point. Sunset was usually a lot smarter than how she acted with Smith. Okay, so Smith was her first girlfriend and neither of us had bothered with high school romances. Not that many humans, or others, found us that interesting, and vice versa. Granted, I wasn’t interested. At least not now, not when I had too many other things to worry about.
But even if I wasn’t, I knew my sister was. She and Smith had been together for a year before things broke apart. That… well, I wish I was there on the Enterprise to give her a hug.
So, ignoring Maia’s snort of disapproval, I moved over to my terminal and began recording a message. As the video feed began, I made sure to put a concerned, apologetic look on my face. “Hey, sis. I’m so sorry to hear about you and Smith. I know you two were pretty close, and I’d be giving you plenty of hugs if I was there.”
Maia leaned in, shoving me over. “You’re an idiot and you should’ve been open with her from the beginning!”
“Maia!” I shrieked, wrapping her up in my magic and hurtling her over to her side. “I’m sorry about that, Sunset. Maia doesn’t know when to butt out.” I fired off a glare Maia’s way, my horn igniting in a threatening show of light.
Maia’s teeth pulled back in a savage grin. “Oh? You want to do this here?”
“Grrr…” After another moment of glaring, I doused my horn and refocused my gaze onto my terminal. “Anyway, Sunset, I’m here for you. I know it takes a good week or two for our messages to reach each other, since the Enterprise is on the far side of the Federation right now. But if you need to hear from me, reach out to me. Oh, um, while I’m at it… thanks for letting me know what happened with Wesley. I’m glad he found a way to be happy. He never really was happy with Starfleet.”
I cast a brief look over at Maia, in case she wanted to interrupt again, but Maia had returned to studying. “We’re finishing up our last week at the Academy for our first year. I’m pretty excited. And not just for the month of mixed leave time and optional summer classes. I know I’ll be taking at least one or two of those. But I’m excited because I’m ready to move on from the basics. There’s a chance for an internship at the Sol observatory on Mercury late in the second year. It’s just three weeks, but I’m going to apply. I hope I get it. It sounds like a lot of fun. If a little dangerous. Even with proper shielding they’ll still have to load us up with preventative shots of hyronalin, since Sol’s entering its most active year in its eleven year cycle.”
“Egghead,” Maia taunted, without bothering to look my way.
Rolling my eyes, as by now I’d long since become immune to that particular taunt from her, I continued, “Anyhow, I hope you’re doing okay, the business with Smith aside. I know you’ve been impressing Commander La Forge a lot with your work. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll get posted to the Enterprise in a few years too and we can work together then.
“I’ll also pass along the news to Mother and Mom. They’ll be sad to hear it, especially Mom. I think she was rooting for you and Smith to be together for a long time. But, then again, you know Mom. She’ll probably do that with whomever either of us get together with. You take care now, sis. Love you. End recorded message.”
Once it ended, I briefly considered editing it to remove Maia’s intervention, but I decided to leave it in. Knowing my sister, Sunset would think it was hilarious. So I put in the request for it to be sent off with the morning’s com traffic, and went back to studying for my final exams, which were now less than a week away.
Although I’d had finals in every term for every class thus far, this was the end of year finals, thus the Academy wanted us to take extra time and revisit our older subjects, to keep our knowledge fresh. Refresher courses would be available for second, third, and fourth year cadets going down specific career paths. I made a special note of the few I’d need.
As the finals grew closer, I grew far more nervous. The anxiety pulled at me to the point I’d doubt every bit of information I thought I knew. I was honestly grateful to Maia. She’d know exactly when, and how, when I needed a distraction which helped me check out of my worries and ensured that I stayed physically, and mentally, healthy. I was surprised at how good close we became, especially given where things began.
Still, as good of a friend as Maia was, I question whether she actually understands the concept of friendship. Kinda.. But, with fun fight after fun fight for her, I do think she’s learning… not that I would actually know any better. I am glad, though, that she’d decided that she was fond of me and the constant fights have paid off. I even came close to beating her once, in one of our latest practices. She was probably toying me that day, she loves to do that, but I’ll forever ignore that little tidbit.
Then test day arrived. My first involved a mixture of temporal mechanics and basic warp theory. Easy peasy. I aced that without even trying. Then I aced the next one, and the one after that. When it came to T’Lona and Amina’s subjects, I found myself trembling, quadruple checking every answer. If I even came close to missing a single answer on these exams I feared they’d have my hide.
By the end of the week, when all the exams were over, I found out I’d had a near perfect score with every exam. The exam I actually faltered on was the exam on Starfleet rules and regulations, and that was because the professor strongly disagreed with my essay response to the purpose of the Prime Directive.
But I put that all out of my head, too excited to care. The next week saw us cadets dismissed for some proper leave time, save for those required to stay behind to take remedial courses in subjects they’d failed. I made sure to put in my request for a couple of optional electives over the summer, and then made my way up to Vancouver.
Vancouver in the summertime wasn’t all that different from San Francisco. It was the dry season for the Pacific Northwest, so the sun regularly shined which meant the heat soared, as did my mood. I pranced my way down the street from the mag-lev station till I arrived at home, happy to be back.
Inside I found T’Lona and Amina waiting for me, ready with a small celebration. “I hope you realize we graded you extra harshly,” Amina said as she handed me a plate of Mom’s famous chocolate cake. “We had to, in order to avoid a conflict of interest.”
“I know, Mom,” I said as I popped a piece of cake into my mouth, savoring the sweet flavor. “You only warned me about six or seven times.”
“I believe it was closer to nine,” T’Lona interjected, with that small quirk to one corner of her mouth. “I was quite satisfied with your results. Are you certain you do not wish to change subjects? You would be an excellent xenobiologist.”
“Oh no, you’re not taking my favorite student away from me now,” Amina said as she wrapped both arms around me. “I’ve got three higher levels of classes to teach her in and I aim to do it.”
I giggled and snuggled into Amina’s embrace. “Sorry, Mother, but you know why I’m interested in solar science.”
“Indeed.” T’Lona took a small sip from a cup of tea. “Has there been any news from Sunset?”
That dampened my mood. “Oh, um, yeah actually. Sunset… well… she broke up with Smith.”
“Oh no!” Amina gasped, her mouth twisted into a sorrowful frown. “But they were so good together!”
“Uh, yeah, about that…”
As I gave them the details, I saw T’Lona’s eyebrows rise ever so slightly, while Amina’s frown switched to one of disappointment and more than a little anger. “I thought I taught her better than that,” Amina growled. “Damnit, communication matters.”
T’Lona reached out to set a hand on Amina’s shoulder. “I am displeased with Sunset’s actions as well, but she is still learning.”
“Even so, I think I’m going to go give her a piece of my mind about this,” Amina vowed. She gave me a quick apologetic smile. “Sorry, honey, but… excuse me.”
As Amina ran up the stairs to her office, I exchanged a look with T’Lona. “Oh dear,” I murmured.
“Indeed.”
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You meant to italicize the conversation over the radio, but as you see here:
You didn't properly write the 'end italicize' command
Although, still a pretty good chapter overall!
I personally enjoyed Voyager or Enterprise more than The Next Generation,
but I'm not complaining about how you wrote this story. The crew of Enterprise-D is one of the best there are, in show or in a fanfic
I was only 41 minutes late! Ayyyyy.
"It is!" (Unless you change the previous line to "Your next class starts in give minutes, by the way."
"Of course I will!" (Unless you change the previous line from "you'll" (you will) to "you're going to" (you are going to).
All of the OCs are great so far, but it's amazing to me how much Maia just tonally "fits" into both MLP and Star Trek.
Also, really enjoying your exceptionally fight-y take on Twilight. Reminds me that I really should go and reread Featherfall again. :D
I'm not sure whether there's a contradiction here, or if there's something I'm missing. Where in the chapter does Maia say the thing that Twilight is remembering?
well that's one way to get an F in relationships Shimmer but then again, as mentioned, she's never been in one before. Nice chapter.
10799710
No I did and then messed it up when I was fixing some extraneous line spacing issues. Thanks for pointing it out.
10799765
Thank you and fixed. Sigh. I changed lines prior to them in editing so they did make sense at one point.
10799767
It's a line I need to fix that slipped past us all. Let me go do that.
I promise everyone I am not completely incompetent as a writer. I'm only mostly incompetent.
I have a pet theory as to why Equus is an anomaly. There is such a thing as a rogue planet and if one were to have a source of light and heat, said planet could well be habitable.
Any chance we could see a mirror version of sunset? Even if it's just an omake.
SO, may I suggest something for Twilights' First assignment? Junior Science Officer aboard at the Communications Research Center which becomes the base of operations for the Pathfinder Project (Admiral Paris needed more Scenes in Voyager, and he be a good mentor for her. Plus she could probably relate to Barclay). Then after a while(depending on if she'll stay till after Voyager returns or not), send her on to a New ship as chief Science Officer (a made up class for the fic, called the Unicorn Class- a long range science vessal capable of warp 9.1 {cruising velocity} with a max possible sustainable warp speed of 9.91- High warp and. the rest of what it's capable of, I'll leave to you. as well as when to introduce it.) with a rank of Lieutenant minimum.
The ship is just a flat out suggestion that doesn't really effect anything if you don't want to use it, I do hope you use the suggestion of assigning Twilight to the CRC, even if it's only for a few months or so (Just keep her off Voyager itself, their (Sunset and Twilight) already far from home, don't need to exasperate the situation further).
10799888
It could go one of two ways.
1. Mirror Equestria is just like rest of Mirror Universe and so it's kind of evil and Sunset is basically just herself prior to the rainbow lasers at end of EQG, possibly with some extra killing tossed in. Boring and uninteresting.
2. Equestria is the same and Sunset lands on mirror Earth. Is promptly captured by the Alliance and either put to work, executed, or kept as an exotic pet. Regardless she won't have fun. Twilight would face the same fate.
Either way, I don't know if this would be something I'd write. I'll think about it.
Well now, with this TNG is pretty much over aside from the movies, and I for one am excited to see where you go next. I know DS9 is technically next, and Twilight still needs to be assigned a location, but overall I'm excited to see what happens next. Keep goin and stay golden^^
Im pretty sure thats not even the beginning of what I missed of Star Trek episodes? Saw some Voyager and DS9, but cant remember these Picard days at all.
Given Dyson spheres are supposed to emit in the far infrared, room temperature, just what would it appear as in stellar cartography, given theres hypergiant red stars that are physically larger and being visible, are a lot hotter? Given the mass of such a Sphere is far lower than a stellar mass of appropiate size? Would the data be there in raw scans, but filtered out unless dumped in anomaly data bases?
Sunset's situation with Smith was willful ignorance. She knew Smith wanted more but she didn't want it to end. At least that is the way I view it.
Twilight is more emotional and easier to provoke than Sunset... her time at the academy is a bit rougher. Curious to see what role she goes into once she graduates. Though I think she will come out of the experience a stronger pony.
Also, I have said it before... The Enterprise is a strangeness magnet and I am surprised it doesn't have a higher turnover rate.
"Oh yeah, the ship is becoming sentient and the holodeck tried to kill us with a train. Just another day!" -Starfleet Member who has lost all sense of perspective from being on the Enterprise too long.
Looking forward to Sunset and Twilight serving together on the same ship eventually.
I feel for Sunset but she should have known better. Hopefully she will learn form this. I wonder what will prompt her to not stay on to the E? I wonder if she will realize that continuing to stay there will be bad for her career as it feels like the Enterprise has a very low turnover rate. I wonder what part Sunset will play during Generations because her presence shouldn’t be that big.
If there is one thing I don't like about the Federation People that Twi is dealing with, it's how quick they all are to discount even the possibility of Celestia.
I guess Q, the Douwd, and Trelane are all classified? They could do it with ease, and there are several, less powerful, beings that might be able too as well.
Poor Sunset, that blew up in her face
But she is young and that's just part of growing up.
Generations, stars being killed and the Nexus... Possibly even seeing Kirk, though that is highly unlikely!
10799950
I am inclined to speculate that scans of that size at that temperature reading would immediately go to the 'anomaly' bin and sit there until someone calls up data for a search parameter that would include size, temperature, mass, gravimetrics, background cosmic radiation, and other things that could possibly clue in the fact there is a Dyson Sphere lurking at that position in space-time. After all, how many of those things exist, who put them there and WHY?
I remember Larry Niven wrote an essay about macroengineering projects in one of his collections from the seventies, which I no longer possess because some idiot tossed out my ENTIRE book collection while I was comatose last year... snorts, annoyed at the memory
Wonderful chapter, Dewdrops! Makes me look forward to Mondays now!
I mean, someone WHO JUST MIGHT be nearly as familiar with a handful of strange unusual odd out of the way places, short of asking Q if Q and DisQord are in a narcissistic relation with himself....
Of course, Q would reply while in the form of a statue that Sunset is likely already quite familiar with....
awww man, i was really hoping that they'd be together forever, i think i'm more dissappointed than Amina, and everyone else
10800125
So she never had a chance. If you watch the episode in question the Traveler hides in the guise of a local until Wesley figures him out, and never boards the Enterprise. Wesley says goodbye to her but doesn't give her the chance to ask anything. As for why he might not come back to tell her if he finds out himself... there's good reason for that.
Hold on, so they've been there for ten years, right? Assuming Twilight was about 6 or 8 when she became Celestia's student, and was in her early 20's when she moved to Ponyville, factoring in the time dilation as seen with Sunset, it should be possible for Sunset and Twilight to have plenty of adventures in Starfleet and make it to Equestria before the Summer Sun Celebration.
10799820
No worries. I've been trying to break some bad sleeping habits and, when I'm tired, I sometimes make that kind of mistake within a single sentence.
I really felt bad for Sunset here, especially that simulation where she spoke to Celestia.
I figured Sunset would either be transferred off Enterprise before generations or be in it. She might actually prevent the Enterprise's destruction
this story is just so amazing i am looking and watching for every new chapter.
do keep up the grate righting.
The thing with Alma was pretty rough, not going to lie. Still, yea, Sunset did kinda mess up.
Twilight being the better fighter between the two of them could lead to some interesting interactions later when Twi's out in the great beyond.
And, I'm still concerned what'll happen when Q meets the ponies.
10800023
Yeah, and even just a rogue planet with an artificial sun about the size of a moon orbiting it, or some kind of subspace shenanigans creating a warped local gravity well or something is so far from stretching the bounds of plausibility in the Trek universe. I always imagined that Equestria's sun was some kind of body significantly less massive than an actual star, that maintained fusion via some magically powered compression field rather than normal gravity. Twilight and Sunset just need enough clearance to start digging through all of Starfleet's stellar and subspace anomalies footnoted and filed away. There's no shortage.
I bet Sunset talking about her home world to anyone on the Enterprise hardly registers as strange at all given the shit they regularly encounter.
I will say though that it feels odd that Twilight is finishing her first year and the seventh season of TNG is ending. The whole sixth and seventh seasons just went by a Q missed her every time.
The events of Generati--oh shit. I was going to make a comment about everyone back home being scared when they hear about the Enterprise, but that's not the big thing, is it?
Sunset's going into the Nexus.
10800550
I think both she and LaForge will get captured by Dr. Soren and LaForge gets freed first because Sunset is aware of the fact that his VISOR has been hacked. So Captain Picard has to save Kirk and Sunset. So during the battle she saves Kirk and he chooses to rejoin Star Fleet. It could be possible that they may even prevent the distraction of the D so we don’t get the E yet. That could be her vector for leaving the D, Kirk poaches her because he is intrigued by her uniqueness, and friendship.
The year is 2369 :Holodeck shenanigans.
Well, you never know. The holodeck on the Enterprise had always been defective and created realistic programs
It may not be a Mary Sue/Isekai story but it doesn't mean that Sunset isn't allowed to bond with the crew and had her own Star Trek adventures. In this chapter alone she skips an entire year doing, I assume, boring turbolift repair jobs.
I can see that Sunset recognizes people like Smith or Laforge, or Wesley as individuals but when she gets a new rank, you could just put her in charge of the synthetic crew and it would be the same chapter ending.
I knew it! Cadeneza has a thing for Sunset. Let's see what comes of that then. She should just have graduated from the Academy. Wonder if she'll just happen to end up on the Enterprise now. 😏
Yeah I think the computers at DHX were the same way.
Sunset just got promoted to Lieutenant and now she's going to Captain Kirk it up!
Seems in some of the alternate realities Worf experienced in "Parallels", Sunset more closely resembled the version we all saw in Equestria Girls.
Yeah why is that? 🤔
Certainly some interesting developments here from Sunset's promotion to lieutenant and her break up with Alma. Now she's served on board the Enterprise for a year and finished off TNG. I have a better sense of the timeline of things now. The events of Star Trek Generations are up next. Given it was mentioned last chapter that Alma's brother is on Ivor Prime, that means in two years he may perish from the Borg attack on that planet in First Contact.
I wonder how that'll play out if at all. Also we're about a year away from the events of MLP starting as well. I wonder how that'll play out.
Never actually seen Star Trek Generations but I did see the Nostalgia Critic's review of it. I got that going for me. Still looking Ten-Forward to the next installment. Keep up the good work!
Alma took that well.
Yeah, one with magic powers.
It's not enough to make her a Mary Sue, but that had to have come in handy a few times, right?
Also, how has Q resisted messing with the ponies, even just a little? He must be waiting for something.
Hm, hold on a second, Sunset skipped Lieutenant jg. Does that mean she gets called going to the 'executive' poker? And has yellow jacket?
Excellent chapter!
10800642
We haven't all seen Equestria Girls.
10800221
Well, at least there's still the Q option. He was still a semiregular encounter for the rest of the Enterprise-D's lifespan. Also, Sunset will have Guinan as muscle to help pummel the info out of him...it would've been awesome to see that happen while Q was dealing with being powerless during Deja Q.
Even though this is the fourth season, Qpid is rather toward the end of the year, and Tapestry is rather in the middle of the sixth season period. And can you imagine Picard and everyone else's reaction when the cute and lowly lieutenant suddenly and inexplicably walks up and suddenly starts body slamming THE Most Powerful Being They've Ever Encountered into the walls, ceiling, and floor of the Bridge, yelling "WHERE IS IT!? TELL ME, YOU DENIBIAN SLIME DEVIL!!! WHERE THE FUCK IS IT!!??"
You did say they wouldn't be together forever, but that was fast. Oh Sunset, that was bad but it would've been a normal thing for foolish young people, wasn't it a huge "will not get another lover" flag.
And since I'm an unabashed shipper that makes me sad
I do believe Twiggles is on her own shipping lane with her rather physical roommate
I enjoyed this chapter. I look forward to the next chapter. I'm interested in seeing more interactions with Sunset and Piccard.
10800981
This chapter covers season 7 next up we get generations
10801337
Oh, in that case, we can expect that Sunset and Twilight FINALLY finds their home system...
...ooops!
Honestly, Maia should not have any chance against Twilight if Twilight took her seriously. I mean... sure, if Twilight is restricting herself to non-lethal low power energy blasts, a skilled human could give her a fight, even win...
Except Twilight’s basic telekinesis is “can pick up a full water tower and a 100 ton bear and levitate both several miles” strong.
She’s telekinetically grabbed Rainbow Dash mid flight and held her helpless... Rainbow “I can break the sound barrier” Dash.
Twilight could pin Maia telekinetically and bounce her off the walls like a ping pong ball any time she wanted. She could throw up a personal force field Maia could punch away at all day.
The only reason Maia could beat her is if Twilight is trying to “fight fair” or if Maia caught her by surprise...
Just wondering, are spoilered speculations on how the story might go allowed? I've already got a couple of thoughts about where the story might be going, but don't want to put them out there if you'd rather we didn't.
When did we engage the borg with sunset was a chapter skipped?
10801478
By all means feel free to speculate. I love reading speculation.
10801518
No, he's referring to the events of the Canon TNG episode Descent Parts I and II. During that episode most of the ship's crew went down to a planet to search for Data because Borg, so Sunset was left in charge of engineering. We didn't see it because I didn't want to spend a lot of time having her retread canon events except with her there too unless I have a very good plot reason to do so.
10801518
Got it 👍
10801616
Thanks! So basically, my prediction is that at some point, Sunset and Twilight will make it back to Equestria...and since Twilight wasn't around to make friends and revive the Elements, Nightmare Moon took over and has been in charge for a couple of years. When all is said and done, NMM is going to end up getting a photon torpedo (or five) to the face :-D
Am I anywhere close to correct?
10801657
Nah
I am willing to bet Celestia found another pony to fill the role or if she couldn’t she sent Cadance. However I think the Borg are now aware of Sunset and Twilight. I am willing to bet they will be looking for Eqquis as well. I bet in the end it will be a race against time to stop the Borg and possibly save the entire planet. I think Twilight questioning the Prime Directive is setting up Star Fleet having to make the choice if they should save them or let them get assimilated and the Borg having access to “magic”.
10801414
I speculate that Twilight isn't quite as magically skilled in this story due to missing out on magic school and Equestria's libraries. She only has access to whatever she learned up to the school entrance exam and whatever Sunset learned, to the extent that they remember it, plus what little they've been able to learn from Starfleet's study of their powers. They developed a shield spell on their own (IIRC it was mentioned around the time of the initial fight with Maia), probably with some help via study of Starfleet's force field technology.
10802081
That’s a fair assumption. Certainly Twilight wouldn’t be as skilled magically as the Canon version. But unicorn telekinesis is practically instinctive to all unicorns. Every adult unicorn uses it, regardless of education. Their telekinetic strength wouldn’t seem to be a function of magical knowledge, but rather sheer power. Perhaps also something grown stronger with practice, but it’s not like Twilight would have used her telekinesis LESS in a world designed almost entirely for creatures with hands.
Her telekinetic strength should be pretty close to that of Canon Twilight unless something else is a factor diminishing it. So either Twilight is letting Maia will because she’s “fighting her on even terms” or there is some other reason she doesn’t simply apply her overwhelming powerful telekinesis as an “I win” card whenever her fights with Maia start getting out of hand.