At her own instruction, the human crew had departed. It was night, or what their ship’s photocycle considered night. Nights exactly as long as they were on Equestria. They felt as long as Moondancer remembered.
She was left alone in the shuttle bay, because she worked best alone. The humans were ingenious creatures, and they worked quickly. They had a degree of intuition, of mechanical knowledge, but they were loud. Endlessly noisy and endlessly moving. Moondancer needed quiet. To consider what she was doing. Time to think.
The ship's light was only marginally dimmer—and if not dimmer, then different. A harsher color. Like the lights of her own laboratory, the facility where she had built the prototype, deep in the iridescent plains of the dark side of the moon. Few ponies dwelt there, and the silence almost never ended. There had been other ponies at her facility. Other staff. She knew none of their names. She had never met them.
A bluish light that flickered over her, originating from a single tetrahedral crystal flashing with a strange internal glow--a crystal powered by a machine devised at her instruction from the parts the humans had available and powered by her own magic.
Above it sat the image of the cockpit she had spent months painstakingly forging—an looking backward, and slightly to the left, where she had mounted the synchronization crystal to the main control array. And in this image, she saw herself, dressed in her flight suit and staring forward at her readings with terrifying resolve.
There was noise. Interference, and sparking as conduits burst and as the fire suppression attempted to contain part of the smoldering cockpit. She watched herself and, in a small and tinny voice, heard herself speaking.
“This is Moondancer, pilot of the Dancer-One Prototype FTL ship. I am presently being pursued by hostile aliens and my primary drive shell is experiencing a containment collapse. A core breach is imminent unless I redirect power.” She heard herself pause, taking a breath. “I am too far to teleport to safety. The core will survive. I will not be recovered. If any living members of my family can be found, please inform them and provide them with my liquidated estate. I am sorry I failed. . But my work will continue in my absence. Recover the core, and continue my work. Goodbye.”
Then the final spell, charging her desperate shield and diverting all power to the core protection shield—even as the center of her body started to glow with strange alien light and fade as she was pulled apart by their so-called transporter. Then a sudden burst, noise, and a blinding flash of light.
The crystal vibrated slightly, and the recording was replaced once again with the mathematical construct of tits records from the moment of detonation. Moondancer saw them and comprehended the numbers, but did not know how they came to be.
She looked up at the severed core of her starship, now surrounded by a fully constructed scaffold of gray-colored human metal linking to it at various points with sensors and supports. A complex armored device, now burned and charred in places, its central cylinder marked with the symbol that Moondancer had come to hate. It was as if it were mocking her.
“Why?” she said. “Why did you allow yourself to be damaged? Why did you protect me? I’m the only pony with nothing left to go back to. Why jeopardize everything I worked so hard for?”
She heard a footstep and felt her magic clamp around a screwdriver—but she forced herself to release it. She instead turned to find Mr. Scott approaching across the shuttlebay.
“I specifically requested that I be left alone.”
“That ye did, lassie. But I still need to walk down and have a check on you every now and then. I don’t normally tolerate working alone. Especially with unstable parts like this.”
“So you doubt my competence, then.”
Mr. Scott smiled and held up his hand. He was missing one of his fingers. “Everyone makes a mistake once in a while, lassie. And it helps if friends are there to help mop it all up.”
Moondancer grumbled but reluctantly allowed the human to approach.
“Talking to your ship, I see?”
Moondancer frowned. “Don’t you?”
“Aye. No engineer worth his salt would go his career without saying a word to the most important lady in his life, now would he?”
Rather than stand with him, Moondancer approached a badly disrupted hole in the armor and began performing forensic diagnostics to determine the extent of the damage to the control-wire interface for the forward thrust.
“For almost half my life, it’s been the only thing I’ve had to talk to.”
“You didn’t have a crew, then?”
“They would just get in my way. They would make mistakes. It has to be perfect, and I’m the only one who can do it perfectly.” She grimaced. “And even then it wasn’t enough.”
Scottie just nodded. Then he pointed upward at the star insignia. “But you didn’t build this part, did you?”
“I don’t want to talk about that.”
Scottie shrugged. “Fine, then. I’ll leave you to it. But I heard what you said. And it’s not a good thought.”
“What?”
“That you have nothing to go back to.”
“I don’t.” She gestured upward. “Everything I ever had is right here. Blown to bits.” She paused, her eyes once again catching the star insignia—and she stared at it for much longer this time as Scottie turned to leave the shuttle bay.
“She was my friend,” she said.
Scottie stopped walking. He said nothing, but turned to listen.
“My best friend. My...only friend. We went to Celestia’s university together since we were children. I...didn’t get along well with other ponies. Spells and machines, I understand those. But not what to say when somepony is sad, or when to laugh at the right time, or how to ask a mare to a dance without looking like an idiot...it was easy for everypony else. But not for me. But her...she...”
“I see. But what happened, lass, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“She left me.” Moondancer looked over her shoulders. She felt the urge to cry, but did not. There were no tears left. “She left me all alone. My only friend, the only pony who understood me, and she left. She went to go work for Division 51. To built this.” She gestured to the core. “And did she ever come to see me? Did she ever visit me, even once, or even write me a letter? No. As if I stopped existing. She forgot me, and it was that easy.” She paused, looking down at the hole in the machinery. “She...was the thing that mattered most to me in the whole world. But now I only have my work. I left Equestria. To the moon. And never bothered to have a friend ever again.”
Scottie paused, then sighed. “Lass, I might not be the best person to be having this chat with. Some of the larger ships have counselors, but the best I can do is send you to the yeoman...”
“No,” snapped Moondancer, probing the hole and grasping part of the ruined machinery, trying to get deeper, to where the cable had retracted and jammed. “This is fine. This is the way it’s supposed to be. I have a job to do, and I’m—doing—IT!”
She pulled hard, and was suddenly thrown backward as the part she was holding broke loose entirely, gutting itself on the floor. Scottie was barely close enough to catch her, but she stood up and waved him off—and then stared at what she had pulled out.
“That, lass, is why we don’t work alone, if ye had fallen on some machinery you’d be sliced to ribbons--”
“What is this?”
“What do you mean ‘what is this’, I’ve been asking that every second since I laid eyes on your damn wooden ship--”
Moondancer held the part up to him. “NO. What is THIS?”
Scottie stared at it, then the look of agitation vanished from his face. It was replaced with one of great surprise and interest. He took the hunk of burned machinery and wires from Moondancer, turning it over in his hands. Then, seeming to understand it, he grasped one of Moondancer’s borrowed tools and pried part of it out. He held it up to the light, and then up to her.
“This...this is a duotronic enhancer.”
Moondancer’s brow creased. “Are you sure?”
“Aye, lass, I’d know it anywhere I’d seen it!"
He started walking suddenly to a set of diagnostic benches that had been set up for the humans to help analyze and organize the debris from the prototype ship. He set it under one of the microscopes and immediately lit the light system and engaged the focus.
“Lassie, you said your planet was still on vacuum-tube computers!”
“We are.” Moondancer shivered. “Mr. Scott, what is that thing doing in my ship? Where did it come from?”
“That’s the harder question to answer, isn’t it?” He pulled his eyes back from the scope. “Duotronics is a universal technology, every planet has at least one manufacturer, sometimes hundreds. I don’t recognize this one. It’s not any of the main Federation sources, though. I’m sure on that at least.”
He picked up the hunk of metal and began probing it with various sparking tools. Moondancer stood on her hind legs, bracing herself against the table, watching—and the more he took it apart, the more she saw that it was and exceedingly complex system. Far more complex than it should have been.
Scottie stopped. “Lassie,” he said. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“No. But...”
“But?”
“But I think there’s something I’m not being told.”
Scottie pointed at the damaged core. “How, exactly, does that thing function?”
Moondancer looked over her shoulder at the core, and took a breath. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you ‘don’t know’? It’s your ship, you talk to it--”
“It isn’t about to tell me, it’s a hunk of wood and metal, it’s not alive!” She pushed herself back from the table, staring at the hole. A hole that had been allowed to exist in the otherwise inviolable surface by a mistake. It should not have existed—and those parts should never have been exposed.
“The core was built by Division 51, as part of the collaborative effort between Equestria and the Lunar Colonies. It was built as a module, in one piece. I received documentation on the control scheme and interface parameters but...” But she had never thought to question beyond that. “...the documentation never said what was on the inside.”
“Maybe you just missed--”
“I do NOT miss things. I read every page I was given, and I have no idea what is in there. I never had a need to.”
“And you never thought to open it?”
“The documents stated that the core is exceedingly fragile and unstable. Piercing the containment shell could cause a fatal collapse. The radiation levels were listed as extreme and, more importantly, we only have the one. I wasn’t about to risk my life's work for curiosity’s sake.”
“I understand, but...”
Moondancer stared at the piece of machinery. “But now I need to know. That piece. It's alien technology. It isn’t Equestrian. What is it doing in my ship?”
“Well...it’s not easy to tell, is it?” Scottie poked at the hunk and it sparked slightly. “It’s right destroyed. But...in my opinion, the structure is mostly consistent with a kind of in-line replicator or sorts."
"A replicator?"
"Aye, lass, a synthesizing machine. Klingon technology. Bloody daft things most of the time, takes ten times the power as the parts fabricator and makes the foulest coffee you've ever tasted." He pointed at the damaged components. "If I'm right, and I usually am, these are the projector heads, and the matter source-feed on the back. Which means...” He picked up the duotronic chip between a pair of forcepts. “Which means that if it is, this must be its memory center. Which means...”
An idea occurred to him, and he nearly ran across the room. Moondancer had to gallop to follow.
“Means what?”
Scottie opened the front of a large machine, removing a similar chip from the internal hardware and inserting the one he had taken from the Moondancer’s ship. “Replicators all use a common code for matter generation, so it ought to be comparable with the parts fabricator.”
“Meaning what?”
“A replicator is a device which converts one form of matter to another, lassie. It can make virtually anything given the right code.”
Moondancer understood. “You’re trying to see what it was programmed to make.”
Scottie smiled. “Aye, lass. The version won't be perfect, but it ought to shed a light on this whole strange situation, eh?”
Moondancer nodded, and Scottie pressed the activation button. The space below the forge shimmered, and then the light condensed into something—and that something fell to the floor with a sickening splat, splattering across Scottie’s boots and Moondancer’s armored shoes.
“Ugh!” groaned Scottie, stepping back. “The program must’ve corrupted, it smells awful! Hold on, I can make adjustments to the system, we need a better resolution--the fabricator simply isn't designed for organic molecules like this--”
“No it doesn’t. Smell bad, I mean.” Moondancer looked at the brown liquid, poking her hoof into it and picking some up. She sniffed it.
“Lass, no, you’re making me queasy--”
“It doesn’t smell good, no, but not bad. Just...” She stuck out her tongue and licked the solution. Scottie gulped, nearly vomiting.
Moondancer’s eyes widened. “This is food.”
“Lass, just because you eat it doesn’t mean--”
“No. This is food. You can do an assay on it, but I can already taste it. Sugar. Amino acids. Salts. This is food. I’m sure of it.”
Scottie nodded, then looked back at the reactor. “Which begs the question, doesn’t it?”
Moondancer nodded, her expression growing grim. “Why there is alien technology in my core...dedicated to manufacturing food.” She paused, then sighed. “Mr. Scott, how competent would you say your crew is?”
Scottie seemed somewhat offended, but also proud. “I’d say they’re the best crew I’ve ever served with. The best in all of Starfleet on the best ship in all of Starfleet.”
“They had better be. I need them in here. Now.”
“Why, lass?”
“Because we’re going to open it.”
“But lass, you just said it’s desperately unstable, and you have no idea what’s inside--”
“I know, Mr. Scott. But I need to know. And it’s about time I did.” She started walking toward it, taking mental inventory of her tools. “Because I’ve been lied to. And I need to see what that horse Twilight Sparkle is up to.”
Scottie nodded, and joined her. “Aye, lass. Aye indeed.”
I half suspect she might find Twilight sooner than she thinks.
Twiggy is the core
Food Synthesizers existed in the age of Kirk. But they used preprogrammed cards or a keyboard rather than voice commands. Think we see them in one episode of TOS, and at least once in the animated series.
Section 51 is about to get a royal visit,I think. But, will it be a nice one from Celestia, or a rock from space sent by Luna at high velocity?
sugar hay apples are the energy source for unicorns the replicators provide for---- Magic power!
what about gems? Yes gems!
be gone Gorn!
Cotton Candy Thrusters!
Cider torpedo juice!
Really, Yer bestie builds a warped space tractor machine thingy and you didn't look under the hood?
It came with extended warranty
Actually they did exist in TOS. They were cassette operated & button activated, not voice activated like in TNG, DS9, VOY, etc. Shows what a century of dev can do.
11091744
11091747
Oh god, I hadn't considered that. That's horrifying.
She mad.
11091827
Could be why the ship/core "protected her".
TOS had one for the episode where they went back in time and had an air force pilot onboard so he wouldn't have to leave the room he was guarded in ...
11091827
It's been hinted at fairly strongly for quite a few chapters now.
11091765
What makes you think Celestia is gonna play soft on the Flim Flam Brothers?
11092143
Yet dismissed because nobody believe Flim or Flam would be cruel/stupid/suicidal enough to pull something like that.
The Sisters, Cadence, Shining Armor... imagine pissing off every single world power in Equus.
11092150
Her entire history? I mean everything we've seen here says these ponies are the penultimate bleeding hearts. Now try to reconcile that with a ruler that summarily executes subjects.
Nope, few fake expressions of remorse and they will be off the hook.
What should scare the Dundering Duo is what happens when Enterprise intercepts their transport signal. My guess is "attempted escape through an airlock without a pressure suit".
11092152
I was speaking to the user, A.P.O.N.I., about what we have seen hinted at in the story, and it has come up a number of times in multiple chapters. Who among the other readers have dismissed the idea with such certainty and in such numbers that you feel comfortable using this tone of absolute confidence? Keep in mind that Flim and Flam, as their normal selves and without any kind of corrupting influence like the Nightmare or the Alicorn Amulet, were such capable villains that during Twilight and Starlight's escapades through time the world they created was canonically declared the worst of all of them. Keep in mind additionally that Equestria the planet is currently worth more than an entire quadrant, if not two or three.
Considering they are very obviously being backed/funded/used by the Ferengi, who are a galactic empire with technology comparable to the Federation, why would they care what the leaders of separate nations on one small world at the edge of the galaxy think? The likely end-goal of the Ferengi is total ownership and control of the planet and its dilithium crystals, and enslavement or bonded-serfdom for the ponies capable of mining it.
11092143
Well I thought she was being held prisoner on their compound, sure.
I wonder if this was her escape plan?
11092150
Celestia would just execute Flim & Flam, then have trials to see if others in Section 51 should also feel the blade.
Luna would just execute all of Section 51. And then send Celestia an apology for the dust cloud the meteor kicked up.
i have a good guess that Moondancer was not alone.
Oooo! The first mystery is slowly being revealed!
11091751
they have them in communal mess halls instead of individual rooms
Guess I didn't see it coming but it did seem like the flimflams didn't presently have twilight. seems like this is a 3 way power struggle with the klingons trying to help them take down the ferengi and then the federation shows up
Replicators use common code because atoms have to be placed in a given pattern to make a given item. I like using the idea of a hologram movie reel to record the vapourisation of a start object,then use carefully tuned cooling lasers to condense the replicated object. Not sure what possible now, this was the stuff from the 80s
This is extremely suspicious and they need to lcear this up fast. It's pretty certain a person is inside the core.
11092247
"Escape plan" implies that she was able to sneak out without her absence being noticed. Flim and Flam have been holding corporate meetings with her AI simulacrum rather than actually having her present, she hasn't responded to mail or friends or just about anything since she went to Section 51, and it'd be patently insane to make an escape attempt by squeezing yourself inside a warp core. The food replicator made with alien technology that Scottie and Moondancer found secreted behind armor plates is tipping the scales towards the "organic life is intended to be inside this module" side, especially since it arrived as a single piece with documentation stating not to ever open it and Moondancer was the only one working on it. If it was an escape plan, Twilight would have been hiding inside there for months even after getting out of Section 51, so that doesn't seem like the explanation.
11092436
It being a desperate plan, even a bad plan, does not preclude it being a plan.
11092440
I'm not sure if you believe that means something or you're just trying to get the last word or what, because no one said it was not "a plan" and so your response doesn't actually respond to anything that was said.
11092436
So Twi is stuck in the core for months with replicated food,,, Up to her neck in or eating recycled horse apples,,, Air?
11092107
And this is how you can tell if someone hasn’t watched Star Trek.
11092496
The circle of life uses the same basic building blocks at every stage, no? Next to a source of more-or-less unlimited energy, you could replicate all of nature's processes with the right machinery and technology.
11092512
OH THE SMELL!
Nice easter egg, there. Doohan actually did lose his right middle finger while storming Juno beach on D-Day, in Normandy. He was shot six times—the silver cigarette case given to him by his brother stopped the one to his heart.
Indeed. And while I don't think it's Twilight (or any other Sentient) held coercively within, I did wonder if there isn't some sort of biological “meat interface” wet-ware within—akin to the Cylon raiders of BSG—which would require a modicum of nutritional supplication to function. (Which would make sense, if only a biological entity can produce magic to run an Equestrian FTL drive.)
If I remember right, back when I was RP-ing FASA and LUG TOS sessions, there was actually a bit in one of the source books (can't remember which one, now I'm a Graybeard) about Duotronic-based replicators not being advanced enough to reliably produce quality foodstuff meant for (enjoyable) consumption. Those few meal items that were (barely) palatable had specific, programmed data-cards that had to be inserted into the food slot, and it took a good time for it to be ready. After Multitronics superseded Duotronics in the 2270s, there was a great advancement in transporter and replicator technology. However, bulk foodstuffs were still carried aboard capital ships through the 2290s, as we saw during the infamous “galley phaser” scene from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
bit.ly/3yQthmX
Twilight in the core hadn't considered that either but considering the power needed constant adjustments a warp core and field would need a pair of minds is much more logical than a single mind. At least Moon Dancer seems to have dismissed they used matter/ antimatter reactions for power much would required an whole other set of constant monitoring and adjustment of fields thousands of times a second
Now it starts to be really intersting.
What if she was told it was delicate, to make sure she did not pope into what it had been?
Of course, it is far too late for that; now, isn't it?
well isn't this an interesting development. calling it now, twilight sparkle herself is inside that core
From my point of view TOS is too primitive and simplified compared to the redesigned Star Trek. As far as I know Federation had been aware about replicators since Archer flew in his NX01 Enterprise.
Twilight is in there isn't she? The whole food fabricator just adds to it. Yeah they didn't have full on matter replicators, but they did have protein resequencers and other such things that could do much the same thing, just with more limits to it. Basically it could recombine molecules to get something you want, but would need the base atoms/molecules to use, rather then being able to create everything directly from energy.
So..... if this wasn't meant to work.... plan to send Twilight out beyond Equestria's range of detection, have the ship blow up while protecting the core, then have their allies pick her up from the rubble?