A slice of life of the Main 6 living aboard the Starship Voyager.
After a natural cataclysm destroyed their homeworld and the Equestrian nation scattered to the stars in the evacuation, the Main Six and their immediate family in Ponyville drifted among the stars in an escape pod for weeks before they were found and adopted into the crew of the Federation Starship Voyager.
Princess Twilight Sparkle was sitting in her chair at the Golden Oaks Library deeply engrossed in her latest book, Six of Crows.
She was getting deeply invested in the story. The main characters had jumped down a well to escape capture and were now being carried by the current of a hidden underground river, they were all struggling to keep their breath as they were being thrashed about by the current, and when it seemed that Kaz was on his final breath- “Seven of Nine to Twilight Sparkle, please report to astrometrics.”
Twilight nearly jumped out of her seat, almost dropping her book and losing her place. She took a deep breath, relaxed, and responded to the voice, tapping a communications badge on her right breast.
“Acknowledged,” she says as she got up from her seat, bookmarked her place and put the book in a bookshelf.
“Computer,” she says aloud as she walked towards the door. “End program.”
The Golden Oaks Library faded away, revealing a plain empty room with light gray walls and floor, one wall on the opposite side of the room from the door had the appearance of thin metal scaffolding.
Once the library faded away, the Holodeck doors opened, and several of the books that were on the shelves that were not holographic, and thus did not fade away with the rest of the library, no longer had a shelf to hold them up, and so fell to the ground, making a collective and loud thud. Twilight yelped then lamented that she yet again forgot the fact that she brought a few of her own books with her to read during her time on the Holodeck, and now she has to clean up her mess.
Twilight tapped her comm badge, “Twilight Sparkle to Seven of Nine... I’m going to be a little late.” and she proceeded to pick up the fallen books.
Twilight was sprinting down the halls of deck 11 on the starship Voyager, her quarters were there while astrometrics was on deck 8. Maybe if she ran fast enough to the turbolift, she would be able to make it to astrometrics before Seven of Nine was likely to get impatient and call her on her comm badge for the fourth time in ten minutes.
As Twilight ran, she passed by Rainbow Dash’s quarters, who barely opened her door just as Twilight ran by. Rainbow finished zipping up her gold-yellow Starfleet officer’s uniform and caught up to Twilight, dressed in a blue variant of a Starfleet uniform. Rainbow appeared to be keeping up at a leisurely pace while Twilight seemed to be struggling to go as fast as she can.
“Hey, Twi. Where’s the fire?” Rainbow said casually.
Twilight, however, didn’t sound so casual, “No fire, Rainbow. *huff* Just trying not to keep Seven of Nine waiting in astrometrics for too long.”
Rainbow Dash grimaced. “That woman. I don’t like her. She’s all about efficiency and stuff. She’s no fun.”
Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes, but you wouldn’t be able to hear her sigh over all her huffing and puffing from her running so hard.
Soon after, they reached the turbolift. Rainbow stood in front of the doors, casually stretching, while Twilight was hunched over gasping for breath as she waited for the turbolift to arrive.
When Twilight caught her breath, she straightened up and said to Rainbow, continuing their conversation from earlier, “Seven WAS Borg, remember? Do you remember what they told us about the Borg?”
“Yeah, yeah. They’re evil genocidal psychopaths that want the whole universe to be just like them.”
Twilight gave a tired glare, “No. They’re a collective of cybernetically enhanced beings that want to assimilate everything with the ultimate goal of attaining perfection.”
“So... They’re not evil?”
Twilight rolls her eyes. “Not everything is as clear cut between good and evil as it was back home. But yes, they are pretty much evil.”
“So, does that make Seven of Nine evil?”
“No, that makes her reformed now. Starlight Glimmer and Sunset Shimmer used to be evil.”
“Yeah, but we didn’t do the butt whooping that made Seven good.”
Twilight face-palms and groans aloud as the turbolift doors open, revealing a dark-skinned man with pointed ears and sharp eyebrows that make him look like he’s always scowling, standing inside.
“Lieutenant Commander Tuvok!” Twilight yelped as she stood straight and placed her right hand at her forehead in a salute. Rainbow repeated the gesture without panicking.
Tuvok quirked an eyebrow at the display of 21st century Earth military attention.
“At ease,” he said, showing Vulcans’ usual lack of emotion, despite him being curious as to why the two of them saluted him in such a way. Twilight and Rainbow Dash returned to a relaxed position.
“Miss Dash,” he said, “I came here to inform you that the captain has accepted your request for an assignment on the bridge.”
Rainbow’s eyes widen, and she holds her hands up to her face, her knuckles barely touching her lips. “Really? The bridge?” she squeals. “Will I be piloting the ship?”
Tuvok quirks an eyebrow again. “That, I am unaware of. The captain merely stated that she accepted your request for an assignment on the bridge.”
“Well then, best not to keep the captain waiting,” Rainbow says as she leaps past Tuvok into the turbolift, waiting patiently for Twilight to enter so, she can get on her way to the bridge.
Tuvok then moves out of the way to allow Twilight onto the turbolift and follows her in.
The turbolift doors closed, and Rainbow Dash requested the lift to go towards the bridge, while Twilight asked for deck 8. When they reached deck 8, Twilight bolted out of the turbolift and made a mad dash for the astrometrics lab.
Seven of Nine was standing at a console in the astrometrics lab analysing a unique cluster of six stars that appear to be in perfect synchronous orbit around a nonexistent body at a distance of 2 light-years from the center when Twilight enters the room panting and gasping for breath, looking about ready to collapse at any moment.
“What do you *gasp* need, Seven?”
Seven turns to see Twilight holding herself up against the door frame of the astrometrics lab as her upper body moved up in down in broad movements in sync with her breathing. Seven replied to Twilight in a neutral tone, not unlike how the Vulcan commander Tuvok would talk, “You asked me that I inform you whenever we encounter a star from your list of favorite constellations back on your homeworld.”
“Yes?” Twilight said, lifting her head to look at Seven.
Seven of Nine turned around back to the console, “I have found constellation number 1.”
Twilight tilted her head, her eyes lighting up, “Which star?”
Seven turned her head to glance at Twilight through the corner of her eye, “All of them.”
Suddenly, Twilight’s fatigue seemed to have disappeared as she walked up next to Seven of Nine, staring in awe at the display showing the data analysis of her favorite constellation, The Harmony Cluster, though labeled 389241 through 389246 on-screen. She could see the six stars forming a perfect circle. The computer showed a projection of each of the stars’ orbits, creating a perfect circle, the paths overlapping each other without deviation as the projection continued.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?”
“I beg your pardon?” Seven said, maintaining her neutral tone but with a hint of confusion, “I only found this approximately ten minutes ago.”
“No, I mean the other four times you called me. Why did you have to call me so many times, making me think that you were getting impatient?”
“I apologize if I gave you that impression. The Doctor has been giving me social lessons, most recently on giving others surprises. I thought I would surprise you with this and not ‘spoil’ it before you arrived. I did not know that you would overexert yourself to get here.”
Twilight winced, embarrassed by her reaction to Seven of Nine's surprise, Pinkie Pie has given much worse surprises before. “Well, I’m glad to see that The Doctor’s lessons aren’t going to waste.”
Seven’s eyes glanced at Twilight, and her face broke into a small, almost unnoticeable smile as they continued to analyze the star cluster/constellation.
Rainbow Dash was waiting impatiently in the turbolift as she was on her way to the bridge. She was audibly tapping her foot as Tuvok stood next to her, showing no emotion whatsoever. She had been told that this display of emotions, or lack thereof, was typical of almost all Vulcans, this unnerved her and the rest of her friends, especially when they first met. Pinkie Pie was the one most uncomfortable with this and spent several weeks trying to get him and the other Vulcan in engineering to crack a smile but to no avail. She only stopped when Twilight pulled her aside, and they did some reading up on Vulcan culture, satisfied with the explanation that they actually suppress their emotions instead of eliminating them entirely, Pinkie concluded that he must have been smiling on the inside.
The turbolift doors opened, revealing the bridge, and Rarity chasing Captain Janeway around the deck with a tailor’s measuring tape in her hands. Both were only “running” at a brisk walking pace, the captain had a full cup of coffee in one hand, while Rarity was wearing high heels.
“For the last time, Miss Rarity, I do not need a dress.”
“Of course you don’t NEED a dress, captain, darling, but you would look wonderful in one...”
“Look, Rarity, I’m not that kind of woman who wants to wear a dress for the sake of wearing a dress.”
Rainbow walks over to Harry Kim at the operations console. “Hey,” she said, leaning against the console, “How long have they been going at this?”
Harry glances at Rainbow, shrugs, and sighs, “They’ve been at this ever since the Captain walked out of her ready room with her morning coffee.”
Rarity was about to retort the captain’s last comment when she passed by Tuvok, and he firmly grabbed her by the shoulder with one hand, stopping her in her tracks, nearly flinging her red-framed glasses off her face.
“Ow~.” Rarity complained.
“If you continue this course of action,” Tuvok said in typical, emotionless, Vulcan fashion. “I will have no choice but to detain you and confine you to the brig for disrupting bridge function.”
Rarity looked back at Tuvok with a wince in pain and a bit of fear in her eyes.
Captain Janeway had stopped her “running” shortly after Tuvok had stopped Rarity. She took a moment to catch her breath and take a sip of her coffee before she waved a hand at Tuvok and said, “Thank you, Tuvok, that won’t be necessary.”
Tuvok let go of Rarity’s shoulder and, like an energetic child who didn’t learn her lesson, she immediately went back to chasing down Captain Janeway, but this time the captain held up a hand with her index finger pointing upward as she took a much larger sip of her coffee.
Captain Janeway then held her coffee mug between both of her hands, faced Rarity, and said, “I’ll make you a deal. Wait until after we’re done analyzing this star cluster, AND when I’ve had my morning coffee, then I’ll come to your quarters, and you can take my measurements then. Deal?” she held out a hand towards Rarity.
Rarity looked back and forth between the captain and her hand, then she beamed and shook the captain’s hand vigorously, sloshing a couple of drops of coffee out of the mug and onto the back of the captain’s hand.
“Deal! Trust me, captain, you are going to look STUNNING in one of my dresses.”
Janeway smiled. “I’m looking forward to it, and Miss Pie’s party. Oh, and do tell her, no cannons this time, please.”
Rainbow Dash inhaled sharply, making a hissing noise as she crossed her arms. “She’s not gonna like that~.”
With a straight face, Janeway stared at Rainbow Dash and said, “Captain’s orders.” then smirked, looking back to Rarity, taking a sip from her mug.
“Don’t worry,” Rarity assured, “I’ll make sure she knows.” she turns to Rainbow, “She’ll be fine.” and she walks into the turbolift.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow Dash could see Harry Kim staring at Rarity as she passed by. He lurched forward an inch before he returned to his previous position.
“Cafeteria.” Rarity commanded the turbolift.
The computer gave an error noise. “Unknown request. Please try again.”
“Mess hall.” Janeway shouted to Rarity.
“Mess hall.” Rarity said dejectedly, the computer beeped, and she was on her way.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and thought to herself, Three months on board and Rarity still doesn’t know her way around the ship very well. To be fair, neither do I. Twilight, and Pinkie Pie are the only ones who figured their way around the ship real fast, I haven’t had time to explore it all. And what’s with Harry? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he-
“Ensign Dash?” Captain Janeway said aloud, snapping Rainbow out of her thoughts.
“Yes, sir- er- ma’am- er-!” Rainbow stammered.
Janeway held up a hand to stop Rainbow’s stammering. “Either will do fine. Now, about your bridge assignment.”
Rainbow beamed. “Am I going to pilot the ship?!”
The captain chuckled. “Not today. Mister Paris is doing a fine job as it is.”
A man in a red uniform and dirty blonde hair at helm control gave a friendly shout-out to the captain. “Thank you, captain. I do my best.”
Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Pfft. I bet I'm just as good as a pilot as you are by now, Tom.”
Tom Paris had been giving Rainbow Dash piloting lessons ever since she and her friends decided to stay on board Voyager. According to Tom, if she were in the academy, Rainbow Dash would have passed several flight tests with flying colors. She just could never be able to beat Tom in a racing simulation on the holodeck.
Tom spun around in his chair and gave the multicolor haired girl a mischievous smirk. “Is that so? Care to explain why our racing score O for 20?”
“Just you wait. Next time we race, I'll beat you so bad the score will be 3 to 20!”
Tom gave a small laugh and said in a tone a wise old man would give to a younger student as he turned back around to his console, “You still have a way to go young padawan.”
Rainbow gave a jesting sneer before she returned her attention to the captain.
Captain Janeway returned her gaze to Rainbow Dash after their playful banter was over, smiling.
“While you may not be piloting the ship, you will be stationed at tactical.”
Rainbow saluted, “Yes, ma’am.”
An hour later, Rainbow was standing at the tactical console, her head hanging, eyes half-open, hands lazily hanging onto the edge of the console by the tips of her fingers.
Ugh! I’m so bored! This is the worst.
Eventually, the captain got out of her seat and went out through the turbolift, all the while Rainbow tracked her with her eyes until Janeway passed by Harry, then her eyes locked onto Harry, and she perked up, remembering something she started thinking about an hour earlier.
When she figured that the captain was now out of earshot, Rainbow spoke, “So, Harry, how do think Rarity’s dress for Captain Janeway is going to look?”
Harry snapped his head up from his console to look at Rainbow as his mouth opened and shut like a fish a couple times. “Uh-well,” he began, “If Rarity is designing it I’m sure she’ll look great.” Harry gave a nervous smile.
Rainbow’s question got Tom to start listening passively, but the beginning of Harry’s response is when he turned around in his chair and face Harry with a sideways look. “You like her, don’t you?”
“N-no! W-well, not like that-”
Rainbow was leaning against the console. She had her elbow on the console, and her chin in her hand, as she was giving a sly smile to Harry. “Uh-huh. Sure. I’ve seen plenty of guys stare at her, and I know why you’re staring at her the way you are.” This made Harry’s cheeks turn a slight shade of red.
Rainbow leaped over her console and walked up in front of Harry. “Listen, most of those other guys didn’t have a chance at getting her,” Harry’s face softened as he looked away, “and even more guys didn’t even have the guts to go up and ask her out. They probably would have been able to go on a date if only they asked.” Harry looked back at Rainbow in confusion. “I saw you an hour ago, you looked poised to ask her out, but you let her go. Don’t let that happen too often or you’ll get content, and it will never happen. I’ve learned that patience is good and all, but sometimes you just shouldn’t wait.”
Harry’s face brightened up, and he walked around the console and hugged Rainbow. “Thank you, Rainbow. I’ll go ask her now.”
“And abandon your post?” Tom interjected.
“I’ll be back quickly.” Harry retorted, and he walked into the turbolift and requested for the mess hall.
“Good luck.” Rainbow said as the turbolift doors closed.
Rainbow could feel a bit of heat build-up in her cheeks. Then she saw Tom giving her a curious look.
“What are you looking at?” she said.
“Nothing.” he said, grinning, turning around as if nothing had happened. “Nothing at all.”
Rarity stood in the turbolift utterly embarrassed that she could not get it straight in her head that where she was heading now is called the mess hall, and the computer will not take her there unless she requests it by the right name.
Ever since Rarity learned how to use the computer system she had been very grateful for how easy it made everything to be. Though, she was a little off-put by the replicators, doing work that would take a seamstress like her days to complete in a manner of seconds. Lucky for her, she was also a fashion designer, so now she only had to learn how to use the software to create her designs for new dresses. That was the tricky part, not only is the program she uses new to her, but she had never even used a computer before her arrival in her life, let alone touched one. However, Rarity still had her little sister, Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle was learning quickly how to use the ship's various software along with her friends Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. The three of them managed to teach Rarity how to use the holodeck for designing dresses, but Rarity still preferred to work things out on pen and paper before she attempted to translate the designs into a file the holodeck can understand.
The turbolift doors open and Rarity steps out and walks towards the cafeteria- I mean- mess hall.
When Rarity entered the mess hall, she saw that it was full of people, not necessarily crowded, but full, all of them enjoying their breakfast or lunch or whatever time it was. It is hard to tell what time it is without a sun orbiting around you. Nevertheless, Rarity walked up to Neelix at the counter and ordered herself some breakfast from the ship's chef.
As Neelix prepared her meal, Rarity noticed a bowl of cake batter that had a plethora of shiny stones mixed in with it.
“Uh, Neelix darling, I do hope you don't plan on feeding that to the rest of the crew,” she said as she pointed to the bowl of batter in question.
Neelix gave her a confused look as he looked back at the bowl of batter and realized what she was talking about.
“Not to worry miss Rarity,” he said, “That's only leftovers of a special Jimbalian fudge cake I whipped up for Spike. I'm trying some new recipes with precious jewels just for him. It’s just very tricky to know how to actually bake jewels. Anyway, I'll be sure to wash out the bakeware thoroughly once I am done with it.”
Rarity smiled widely as Neelix pulled out the finished Jimbalian fudge cake iced with a stylized image of a purple and green baby dragon’s head on top.
“My, how artistic.” Rarity complimented.
“Do you like it?” Neelix said, finishing Rarity’s order, “I had to distinguish it from the usual fudge cake. Wouldn’t want anyone breaking a tooth from biting down on a ruby or anything.”
“It looks lovely darling.” Rarity chimed, “Would you mind bringing my order over to where Spike is, I’ll carry the cake.”
“Not at all.”
Rarity gingerly picked up the jewel-mixed fudge cake as Neelix put the finishing touches on her order and followed shortly after her.
As Rarity approached Spike’s table, she saw his face buried deep in a datapad, much like Twilight with a good book, however, Rarity had her suspicions that Spike was reading a comic book instead. Dragon Ball Z she suspected. Oh, how she dreaded Goku’s choice of clothes, I mean there are more colors than orange.
“Spike~.” Rarity said, getting Spike’s attention as he snapped up from his reading position and looked at Rarity dead in the eyes, his purple leathery skin turning red around the cheeks and across the bridge of his nose at the sight of Rarity carrying a cake towards him.
“Mr. Neelix cooked you something special~.” Rarity said as she placed the cake on the table in front of him, the baby dragon head appearing right-side-up to him.
As Rarity set down the cake and took a seat in front of Spike, Neelix came up and set Rarity’s order in front of her as he explained what Rarity just brought to him.
“It’s a Jimbalian fudge cake with replicated precious gemstones sprinkled in as filling.” he took a cake knife and cut out a slice of the cake and placed it on a separate plate in front of Spike. The cut was a little bit rough from the knife catching a few gemstones on its journey through, making the inside of the cake look like it had been scarred just a little. Spike looked at the cake skeptically, glancing back and forth between the slice and Neelix.
“Well don't be rude, darling.” Rarity said as she dug into her meal. “Try it. Mr. Neelix worked hard to make that cake specially for you.”
Spike took a fork and tentatively scooped out a bite for him to take. Once he took a bite his eyes widened and saliva could be seen drooling from his mouth.
“This. Is. The BEST Jambalaya fudge cake I've ever had! Thank you, Mr. Neelix!” Spike said as he proceeded to stab the slice of cake for a bigger bite and began consuming the rest of the cake with vigor.
Satisfied with Spike’s reaction Neelix said that Spike was welcome and that he could request that he make it again at any time.
Spike nodded energetically and started on his third slice of cake.
A little over an hour later, Rarity was in her quarters wearing a bathrobe over her uniform. She was working on a new design she had in mind and was eager to put it down on paper before she would transfer it to the holodeck. Unfortunately, Opalescence, her cat, had other plans. Opal kept rubbing against Rarity’s legs as she tried to walk, nearly tripping her several times, she kept nudging herself between Rarity and her papers in hand while she was sitting down and deciding to take a nap in the replicator whenever Rarity wanted a swatch of fabric to examine as a possible material for a dress, or a cup of tea.
Rarity pulled Opalescence out of the replicator and set her on the floor for the fifth time, and requested some tea when a chime came from the door.
“Come in,” she said as she took a sip of her tea.
The doors hissed as they opened to reveal Harry Kim, looking rather nervous.
“Harry~.” Rarity beamed, “What a pleasant surprise. Would you like some tea?”
“N-no thanks,” Harry said as he entered the room and took a deep breath.
Rarity took another sip of her tea as she took note of Harry’s behavior. He was twiddling his thumbs and constantly shifting his weight around between his feet, sometimes it looked like he was going to head for the door but something is stopping him.
“Please, have a seat,” she said quickly, trying to ease Harry into talking about something that was obviously bothering him. Harry took a seat in the royal purple comfy chair that sat next to the couch on the other side of a small side table, as Rarity took a seat on the red velvet couch, Opal jumping up into her owner’s lap.
“Is something on your mind?” Rarity said as she petted her purring cat.
“Huh? Oh, uh...” Harry sputtered. “Would- would you like to go on a date with me?”
Rarity acted a little surprised at the question, “Oh? I would love to. What do you have in mind?”
“Uuugh.” Spike groaned as he sat atop a bio-bed, his face as green as the shell of the tortouse sitting next to him. Fluttershy was dressed in the standard blue Starfleet medical uniform, standing beside him as she waved a medical tricorder around him, scanning for everything it is programed to read.
Once Fluttershy was done scanning Spike, she showed the tricorder results to the bald man standing next to her, the ship's Emergency Medical Hologram and doctor. Spike never liked the ship’s doctor.He doesn’t have a name other than “the Doctor”, which confused Spike because he has met someone else who went by “The Doctor” and he was a blast to hang out with. This guy, however, was a hologram, has a terrible bedside manner and (according to Spike) has a terrible taste in music. Opera, who the hay in their right mind likes opera? And it's the only thing he listens to!
“If you were any other species,” the EMH said as he looked at the tricorder, “I’d say you’d be suffering from heavy mineral poisoning.” In Spike’s ears, it was a condescending tone. “Since your normal diet - as I’m told by your guardian, Twilight Sparkle - does consist of precious minerals, I have come to the conclusion that you merely have,” he paused, “a stomach ache. I’d go as far as to say that Jimbalian fudge cake doesn’t agree with your system.” he then turned away and asked Fluttershy to hand him some sort of medicine from the shelf on the other side of the room.
Fluttershy tip-toed her way over to where she was directed, careful not to step on any of the animals she brought from home or had rescued since coming aboard Voyager.
Spike held down a gag. “Thanks doc,” he said wearily as he cracked a sarcastic smile at the hologram.
“You’re very welcome.” the EMH said, not picking up on Spike’s sarcasm.
Fluttershy tip-toed back with the medicine and handed it to the EMH.
“This should help with the stomach pain.” The Doctor said as he pressed a hypospray against his neck, and a hiss sounded off, signaling that its contents were injected into Spike’s bloodstream. Spike then relaxed as he felt the pain slowly begin to alleviate.
Spike jumped off the bio-bed, disturbing a family of alien mouse-like creatures, and headed for the door.
“Uh, Spike.” Spike stopped and turned to face the Doctor. “I am going to have to ask you to say a little while. I want to be sure you don’t have any adverse reactions to the hypospray.”
Spike contemplated this for a second. He really did not want to stay around the med bay for too long, especially around the Doctor. Still, he did have a point that Spike’s biology was not fully understood by the EMH so there would be no telling as to when he could have an adverse reaction to medicine developed millions of light-years away. Finally, he asked, “You’re not going to play any of that opera, are you?”
“Only if I feel like it.” he smirked, then held up an apologetic hand, “But, for your sake, I won’t.”
Spike chuckled at the Doctor’s joke and jumped right back onto the biobed.
“Um, Doctor?” Fluttershy said aloud. “I’m going to go get some of my other animals for their routine checkup. Is that OK?”
The Doctor sighed. “Yes. Go get your animals.”
Fluttershy walked out the door.
“I might not be playing opera,” the doctor said to Spike as he tapped at a datapad. “But I’ve heard classical music helps calm wild animals.”
The doctor released Spike from sickbay, convinced that he wasn’t going to have any adverse reactions to the medicine. However, not ten minutes since leaving sickbay and going to his quarters, peacefully reading his comics or manga on his sofa, Pinkie Pie was suddenly in his face. He doesn’t know how she snuck in, especially considering the doorbell that just about everyone’s quarters has, the fact that every door on the ship makes at least some sort of hissing noise as it opens and closes. There was no other possible way for her to sneak in, unless she went an extra seven miles to sneak in through the ventilation system, to which Spike’s pretty sure she would not be allowed access to under any circumstances, except a red alert.
“Gyah!” Spike exclaimed, tossing his data pad up into the air, landing between the sofa and the wall behind it. “Pinkie?! Where’d you come from?”
“Ponyville,” she answered happily. Spike glared at her. “So...” she continued, “I heard Neelix made you a jimbalian fudge cake today, with gemstones.”
He made a ‘hurk’ noise. “Yeah, so?”
“So, I thought I’d make you one too. With gemstones of my own creation.”
Spike shook his head fervently. “No, thank you! I just got out of sickbay with a stomach ache because of that, and I do NOT want to go back!”
“Aw, come on, Spike.” Pinkie whined, “My gemstones are made out of sugar~.”
“Pinkie, sugar crystals aren't going to be the same as real gemstones. Besides, I’m pretty sure it was the fudge that made me sick, not the gems.”
“Well, we haven't tried making some sugar crystals through the replicator. I grew up on a rock farm, so I know that the crystal alignment of diamonds and rubies and sapphires; a sugar copy wouldn’t be able to form the same way if you made them conventionally, but if we use the replicator I can have the molecules be perfectly aligned like that of a diamond or a ruby or a sapphire.”
“Pinkie, I’m pretty sure that adding more sugar to it would my stomach worse than last time.”
“Nonsense! You can’t ever have too much sugar. Unless you don’t brush your teeth frequently. How often do you brush your teeth?”
Spike glared at her. “Pinkie, I’m not doing this. I’m not risking another stomachache.”
Pinkie grabbed him by the wrist. “You’ll never know until you try.” and she pulled him off the couch, out the door and on to the mess hall.
Spike groaned as he was being whisked away to the mess hall to be force fed something that he knew was going to make him sick.
“There we go.” the EMH said as he began to put away the tricorder. “I give Angel Bunny a clean bill of health.”
Said bunny looked much happier during these checkups than any he’s had on Equestria, especially because these checkups were less intrusive and involved waving what amounts to a magic wand around to determine his health. The ironically named rabbit jumped down from the bio-bed into a pack of small alien creatures, beginning to establish his dominance as the alpha pet.
The Doctor stared at the strange behavior of the bunny and shook his head. “I’ll never understand Equestrian animal behaviors.”
Fluttershy looked at him with a cocked head. “Why not? You said you had bunnies like Angel back on your homeworld.”
“Technically, since I’m a hologram, I don’t have a homeworld, but my programmer was human, and his homeworld of Earth does have rabbits,” he looked at Angel being carried on the back of a turtle-like creature as if he were royalty. “but they act nothing like Angel here.”
“Angel, is that really necessary? Having Timothy carry you around like that?”
The rabbit squeaked a brief guffaw as he waved a paw dismissively.
The sound of breaking glass captured both Fluttershy’s and the Doctor’s attention. They turned to see the cat-like alien creature Fluttershy found on her last away mission with Neelix to find supplies, in one of the medicine cabinets.
“Jake!” Fluttershy yelled, as loud as she does (which is to say, not very loud) at the creature in the cabinet. “How many times have I told you not to rummage around the medicine cabinet?”
Jake meowed back.
“Don’t you talk back to me, mister. You should know better than to go looking for food in places that have things that can make you sick.”
The cat-like alien’s ears pinned against its head as it shrunk back into the cabinet, trying to look small. Fluttershy took pity on the poor creature and gingerly tiptoed around the broken glass to pick up the ‘cat,’ being careful with its bandaged forepaw, and tiptoed back out.
“Five.” the EMH said flatly.
Fluttershy looked up from petting Jake. “What?”
The hologram walked over to clean the pile of glass. “Five times. You have told Jake five times to stay out of those cabinets in the past three days.”
“Jake’s a growing boy, he’s hungry, and he’s used to having to scrounge for food where he’s from.” she faces Jake, “but you don’t have to scrounge for food now, you just have to ask me.”
“I do hope you’re keeping him on a strict diet, otherwise, if you give him food whenever he asks, he’ll get overweight.” he paused, “Though, I suppose if he’s overweight, he may not have the capability to jump up into the cabinets and break stuff. So, in that case, feed him to his heart’s content.”
Jake gave an elongated meow.
“Hush you, I know you want to compete with the others in your little climbing races in the hydroponics bay. And you,” she turns to the Doctor, “how could you say something so mean?”
The EMH dumped the bits of broken glass into the disposal, he stood there frozen for a couple of seconds. “I’m sorry,” he said, “It’s just that you’ve brought so many wild animals on board when you came, and then you bring more on every time you come back from an away mission- Despite what you’re used to, this isn’t a very big ship for that.”
“For what?”
“For keeping a zoo! It’s hardly fit for keeping pets. We don’t have the resources to spare. We are thousands of lightyears from home. We don’t know the next time we’ll run into civilization or be willing to trade with us for the resources we need. It’s distressing to have to treat... animals so frequently when there could be a medical emergency for the crew at any time.” Despite being a computer program, it was difficult for Fluttershy not to feel sorry for the Doctor, even if she tried.
Fluttershy put a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was causing you so much stress. I promise I’ll try to not have any of my animals come in as frequently.”
“And no more animals from away missions?”
Fluttershy pursed her lips and let out a slow whine.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow.
“Ok, fine!”
“Promise?”
Fluttershy whimpered and held up a hand. “I promise.”
“Pinkie-Promise?”
Fluttershy paled. “Y-you mean- like P-pinkie Pie’s Pinkie p-promise or-?” she held up a pinkie finger.
The Doctor gave her a knowing look.
Fluttershy wilted, then adjusted Jake and took a deep breath, steeling herself before performing the Pinkie Promise ritual. She drew an invisible ‘X’ over her heart with her finger, “Cross my heart.” She then imitated flapping wings with her one free hand, “Hope to fly...” She paused, she looked as though on the verge of crying but quickly steeled her gaze as she held up a hand as if holding something in her palm, and she moved that hand to cover one eye, “Stick a cupcake... in my eye.” She then released a breath that she must not have realized she was holding and held Jake tighter and scratched deeply at the scruff of his neck.
“There, was that so hard?” the Doctor asked.
Fluttershy stared at him with tired, incredulous eyes. Even with his marginal social ineptitude, he could see that her expression said, “Please don’t ever make me do that again.”
Applejack gave a firm thump with the side of her fist to the trunk of a tree and apples fell into an aluminum bucket on the ship’s floor. The bucket only filled up halfway as the tree was much smaller than what Applejack was used to back on Sweet Apple Acres. She’s still perfecting her technique for knocking all the apples out of these genetically modified trees.
As she could no longer ‘buck’ the trees like she used to, she and Big Macintosh had to develop a new method for collecting apples efficiently. Given the nature of how the plants were set in the hydroponics bay and the fact that these trees were so small that it would be more like “bucking a bush instead of a tree” it shouldn't have surprised any of her friends when Applejack developed acute claustrophobia shortly after they started farming apples from recovered grafts of Bloomberg II.
“The trees look fully grown, but ain’t nearly as tall,” she had said after having partially recovered from one of her episodes. “The sky is too close and dark grey with bright white stripes instead of blue and open, occasionally dotted with soft white clouds in the distance.”
Applejack had said that the worst of all was the smell, the fact that she could smell steel and titanium while she was farming was enough to make her feel queasy every time she would catch the scent of a crewmember after they had a hard day’s work in engineering.
She and Rainbow got along with B’elanna Torres very well. But, Applejack was unable to even speak to B’elanna when her claustrophobia was at its worst.
Applejack breathed deeply, sighed, and gave the tree another thump, filling up the basket to about three-quarters. She glanced up at the tree and gauged that was all she was going to get out of this one and moved on.
She was just about to go harvest from her seventh tree of the day when she realized she only had six trees now to call an orchard and brought her meager haul to Big Mac for inventory.
Big Mac stood over some steel crates filled with various, alien fruits and vegetables as he looked over a datapad he had in his hands. He wore a black tank top underneath a yellow Starfleet engineering uniform that had its upper half tied around his waist by the sleeves.
Applejack dumped her bucket into a bushel, filling it to the brim, and wiped the sweat from her brow, “Doesn’t look like we got a big haul today, does it?” taking pause at how little sweat there was on her forehead.
Big Mac looked up from his datapad and glanced at the full bushel of apples with two empty ones behind it. “Eenope,” he said simply.
Applejack clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Granny Smith was really looking forward to our first haul of apples aboard this ship.”
“Eeyup.”
“She’s not gonna have much to teach Neelix how ta’ cook a proper pie, ah suppose.”
“Eenope.”
Apples were just about the only things grown on this ship that was remotely familiar to Applejack, and her friends. The promise of apples also had much of the crew very eager, in particular, the ones from Earth as Equestria had an uncanny amount of similarities to Earth in just about everything. Everypony quickly found out why everyone was so eager for apples once they had a look at Neelix’s cooking. Then they tasted it. It wasn’t bad, it was just- pardon the phrase- alien.
Surprising and not surprising- in that order- was that Rarity and Pinkie Pie were the quickest ones to not treat Neelix’s cooking like how a child would treat broccoli or spinach. Neelix is very proud of his “homestyle” cooking, but Granny Smith seemed to have taken offense to that the first time she tried his cooking and wanted to take over as head chef of Voyager. Pinkie proposed a cook-off to settle the matter. Neelix did not hesitate to accept the challenge and neither did Granny, claiming that she could out cook Neelix even without apples.
She could not. Limited to completely alien ingredients that she had no time to become familiar with, and her equally limited knowledge of cooking with anything that wasn’t apples, Granny got shellacked in that competition. Neither Applejack nor Pinkie Pie could stomach what Granny attempted to prepare.
Applejack cringed at the memory of Granny’s first time cooking with alien ingredients. She was just about to close the lid when she heard the door hiss and saw Fluttershy, a cat with a bandaged forepaw in her arms, and B’elanna enter the room. “Hey, Applejack, are those apples ready yet?” She was almost running up to Applejack, eagerly glancing at the trees.
“Just finished harvesting them.” Applejack reached into the barrel and pulled one of the apples out. “I take it you want one?”
B’elanna didn’t have time to respond as the apple was already lobbed into the air. The warrior instincts of her half-Klingon heritage had her snatch the incoming projectile in an instant, while her human half still had her flinch somewhat. “Yes.” she hissed as she stared at the red fruit in her hands with a predatory grin and hungry eyes. She looked back up to Applejack, held up her prey for a moment, and said, “Thank you.” before she immediately took a large bite out of the delicious red fruit.
“Thought you would want first crack at our haul before Neelix started cooking with it. I heard Klingons prefer their meals raw.”
B’elanna half-smirked, half-scowled at Applejack. “You must be thinking of gagh,” she said with half a bite of apple still in her mouth. She swallowed. “No, in that case, it’s mostly preferred live.”
Applejack went wide-eyed. “Live?” Big Mac turned around and raised an eyebrow. Fluttershy paled, then slowly and robotically walked over to a tree and set the cat down before setting herself down at the base of the tree. Fluttershy stared off into space in the direction of the dirt at her feet, looking like she was in deep contemplation on matters of death. The cat just looked at Fluttershy before attempting to climb the tree behind her without a care in the world.
B’elanna glanced between the two siblings before looking at Fluttershy with concern. “I get the feeling if I go any further into detail, I just might disturb... all of you.”
Applejack said nothing as her face gave a tense, nervous smile.
Fluttershy continued to stare at the ground.
The cat mewed angrily after it fell on its back and into the dirt after only climbing two feet up the tree before jumping back up to attempt climbing it with gusto.
“Eeyup.” Big Mac said plainly.
B’elanna chuckled. “Well, um, you guys don’t have to worry, you won’t find any of that on board, and I would not trust Neelix to cook such a thing even if he lived among Klingons for twenty years.” she bit into her apple and started to walk away. “Thanks for the apple, by the way.”
Applejack closed the lid on the barrel of apples, then remembered something. “Oh! B’elanna, are you coming to Pinkie Pie’s party?”
B’elanna turned around and continued walking backward. “The party to celebrate your first haul of apples? Of course I am. Wouldn’t miss a Pinkie Pie party for anything. Gotta love those party cannons.” and B’elanna exited the room.
“Welp.” Applejack said to Big Mac as she picked up the barrel of apples. “I’ll be taking this to Neelix now. Let Granny get a head start on teaching Neelix how to cook an apple pie.”
“Eeyup.”
Applejack stopped as she passed by Fluttershy. “You ok there, sugarcube?”
“They eat it live.” she murmured.
“I’m... sure it’s not as bad as you think, Fluttershy.”
“It sounds like they swallow the poor things whole, or-or bite their heads off as the first thing they do!”
“Now, Fluttershy, let’s not go jumpin’ to conclusions or anythin’.” Applejack offered to calm down her animal-loving friend. “We’ve met with other kinds of people who eat animals, remember the griffons? Heck, some of the animals you cared for are carnivorous too.”
Fluttershy seemed to visibly relax. “Yeah, but, humans seem so similar to us, it’s hard for me to imagine that they are capable of eating animals.”
“Well, to be fair, B’elanna is half-Klingon, and we don’t know how different Klingons are to humans or even us ponies, so I think it’s a little hasty to judge right now, right?”
Fluttershy leaned her head against the tree and sighed, “I suppose you’re right. I’m still... adjusting to the idea of aliens on other planets. I’ll get over it, just like I did with the griffons.”
“Attagirl.” and Applejack left the room, making her way to the mess hall.
“You can’t just add more sugar to everything and expect the problem to be solved!” Neelix said, shielding a cowering purple scaly boy with green hair from being force-fed a Pinkie Pie modified slice of jeweled Jimbalian fudge cake.
“Why not?” Pinkie asked innocently, “It worked every time back home on Equestria.”
Neelix puffed up his chest. “People here have more refined tastes than a hyperactive child with five sweet tooths!”
“Sweet teeth?”
Neelix ignored the crazy pink sugar obsessed monster. “If anything, there may have been too much sugar! I believe we may be able to counteract that with a little bit of salt.”
“Salt?! Are you crazy? This is a cake, not a pretzel!”
“In all honesty,” Spike cut in from behind Neelix, “I don’t think I want to eat a normal Jumbo Lion fudge cake anyways. Sorry, Neelix.”
Neelix turned to face Spike partially. “None taken.”
It was at this moment that Pinkie and Neelix noticed Applejack had entered the room with a large barrel hefted over her shoulder.
“Applejack, thank goodness,” Neelix said as he broke his shielding stance. “You can talk some sense into your pink, fluffy, sugar-crazed monster friend, can’t ya?”
Applejack chuckled. “Pinkie, do you remember the time when you found out that Rainbow didn’t like pies.”
Pinkie deflated a little at the recent memory. “Yeah.”
“It’s nothing against you.” Applejack continued. She leaned towards Spike, “Right, Spike?”
Spike nodded. “Yeah! I’m sure I would love to eat your Jam Bail-out Fudge cake, but my stomach would probably be not too happy afterward.”
Pinkie gave a solemn smile as her hair reinflated. “Ok. Thanks for telling me, Spike.”
Spike and Neelix visibly relaxed.
“You should have said something earlier!” Pinkie said playfully as she skipped her way out of the mess hall.
Spike sharply inhaled and let out a slow, defeated groan.
Pinkie Pie was skipping down the corridor of deck eight when four children turned a corner running at high speed and nearly ran into Pinkie Pie. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and their newest member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Naomi Wildman, all panicked and toppled over each other in their attempts to abruptly stop and not run into Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie Pie was left standing as she asked, “Hi, girls. Whatcha dooin’?”
Naomi was the first one to stand up. “We’re on our way to the holodeck to play an episode of Flotter.”
“Flotter?” Pinkie asked. “Who’s that?”
Sweetie Belle stood up. “He’s a water elemental we go on adventures with in the Forest of Forever.”
Apple Bloom stood up this time. “It’s just like the Everfree Forest back home. Except... not filled with terrifying creatures that want to eat us.”
“Or turn us to stone,” Scootaloo grunted as she strained a little to stand up, having been at the bottom of the pile and experiencing the others’ collective weight.
“Wow. That sounds like fun. Can I join you?” Pinkie Pie said.
The original members of the CMC looked at Naomi, and Naomi looked back at them with the same intent of gauging their feelings on letting Pinkie Pie join them.
“Sure.” Naomi said, “Mom and Neelix sometimes join us every once in a while, so I don’t see why you can’t.”
“Great!” Pinkie said, “Lead the way.”
Pinkie followed the Crusaders to the holodeck and Naomi pulled up the chapter titled “Flotter and the Rubber Trevis theory”. The computer gave an affirmative beep, opened the doors, and gave a brief narration.
“Once upon a time, in the Forest of Forever,” the computer began, “Flotter began to wonder about what kind of tree Trevis was.”
Pinkie and the girls walked through the holographic forest and they came upon a blue fish-like man, with a bulbous head and blue fish-scales that occasionally reflected rainbow colors covering most of his body. The blue man was kneeling, tying a thin vine around the trunk of a tree.
“Hey Flotter.” Naomi said, “We’ve brought someone we’d like you to meet.”
The man stopped what he was doing. “Well hello there, Naomi, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo.” he looks at Pinkie, “And this is?” he asked pleasantly as he stood up.
“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie.” she held out a hand, “Nice to meet you, Flotter.”
Flotter held out his hand and shakes it with Pinkie. “It’s nice to meet you too, Pinkie Pie. -May I just call you Pinkie?”
Pinkie nodded her head and gave a cheery “Mm-hm!”
They let go of their handshake and, keeping civil poker faces, Pinkie whipped her hand dry on her skirt while Flotter rubbed his hands together to wipe off some sticky sugar. Naomi and the others didn’t seem to notice.
“So, Flotter,” Sweetie Belle started, “Whatta you doing?”
“Ah! I am setting up a tripping vine for Treevis.” he said conspiratorially.
“Ooh!” Pinkie shouted. “We’re pulling a prank on someone? Count me in! What’s he going to fall into? A pie? A cake? Some pudding?”
Flotter glanced aside nervously. “The ground?”
Pinkie frowned in confusion. “But wouldn’t that be uncomfortable?”
“Well, I mean, the point is to see if he’ll bounce.”
“Wait.” Apple Bloom spoke up. “We’re pulling a prank on Treevis, right? And Treevis is a tree, right? Last I remember, trees don’t bounce. Ah should know, I’ve bucked quite a few apple trees.”
Flotter did a double take as he looked to Apple Bloom. “What did the trees ever do to you?”
Apple Bloom opened her mouth to speak but Sweetie Belle held up a hand to stop her. “I don’t think we have time to explain your family’s farming techniques to him.”
Naomi cocked her head quizzically as she stared at Sweetie Belle for a moment. “I’m going to ask you about that later. But first, why do you want to know if Treevis will bounce?”
“Well,” Flotter said as he knelt down to the Crusaders’ eye level, “it will confirm my theory that Treevis is, in fact, a rubber tree.”
“A rubber tree?!” Pinkie shouted. “Oooh~.”
Flotter chuckled a little. “Yeah.”
“But,” Naomi started, “wouldn’t Treevis be upset if we trip him like this?”
Flotter p’shawed and waved a hand dismissively. “I’ve been at this for a little while already, he hasn’t been bothered by this at all.”
Naomi thought about this for a second. “Alright,” she said, “If he’s not being bothered by it, I’m fine.”
They then heard the rustling of tree branches in the distance.
“Oh! He’s coming! Hide!” Flotter whispered, and everyone jumped behind a mound of dirt.
Sure enough, Treevis came walking around a cluster of trees, brushing away the low-hanging branches. He looked like he didn’t have a care in the world, just enjoying a walk in the woods. Of course, when he got close enough, Flotter pulled the vine taught and Treevis’ foot got caught in the vine. Treevis fell with the sound of a whistle and a honk when he hit the ground.
Pinkie Pie flinched when she heard the whistle and the honk. She frantically looked for the source of the noises momentarily. “Those sound effects were a bit more real than I expected.” she mumbled to herself.
Flotter sniggered. “Did you hear the noise he made when he fell?” he whispered to the Crusaders, “‘Honk!’ Hilarious.”
“Did he bounce?” Scootaloo asked.
Flotter smacked his lips. “I’m not sure, actually. We’ll have to repeat this experiment a few more times to get conclusive evidence.”
“First,” Naomi interrupted. “Let’s go make sure he’s okay.”
“Wait until he gets up.” Flotter said. “We don’t need him to be suspicious of us tripping him up all the time.”
Naomi rolled her eyes, and waited until Treevis picked himself up and dusted himself off before being the first to approach with Flotter, the other Crusaders, and Pinkie shortly behind her.
“Hey, Treevis.” Naomi asked innocently. “How are you doing today?”
Treevis turned to face Naomi, and glanced at Flotter. “Pretty good.” he said, “Although, I seem to be tripping on things very often as of late, I’m starting to think that I’m getting old and losing my balance.”
“How old are you, Treevis?” Sweetie Belle inquired.
Treevis looked to Sweetie Belle. “That is a very touchy matter that I’d rather not answer.” he looks up to see Pinkie Pie. “Who’s this?”
“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie.” she said enthusiastically as she waved.
Treevis waved back. “Treevis.”
“She’s a friend of ours.” said Apple Bloom. “She wanted to join us on one of our adventures.”
“You seem the adventuring type.” Treevis said eyeing Pinkie. “What kind of adventures have you been on?”
“Oh, lots! I’ve even saved the world with my friends on a few occasions.”
Flotter and Naomi turned to look at Pinkie incredulously.
“It’s true.” Apple Bloom stated plainly. “My sister’s one of ‘em.”
“Occasion where they saved the world or friends?” Flotter asked.
“Friends.”
“Same with my sister.” Sweetie Belle said.
“Well, aren’t we surrounded by celebrities?” Flotter said. “Hey, I know this mud wallow close by that’s about to dry up. Let’s put your handprints and write your names in the mud while it dries that way it’ll be there forever.”
“That sounds cool.” Scootaloo said. “Let’s go.”
Everyone turned to follow Flotter, but Treevis hung back with Pinkie.
“Hey, Pinkie. You also look like a prankster type.”
“Maybe.” she said with a sly grin. “Who’s asking?”
Flotter and the Crusaders later run into Pinkie on the top of a hill, tying a rope to the top of a tree and is being bent in an arch. It was clear that she was making a very large snare trap.
“Pinkie,” Sweetie Belle asked, “What are you doing?”
“Making a snare trap.” she said cheerfully.
“We can see that.” said Naomi, “So... why?”
“For a prank, of course. Why else would it be this big?”
“If you were trying to capture a big monster?” Scootaloo chanced.
Pinkie thought over it for a second. “True, however, I’d use a much stronger netting for that, to tangle it up so it couldn’t move as much.”
Flotter leaned over to Naomi. “This is starting to look just like the first time we met Treevis.”
“Yes,” Naomi replied. “But this time it’s a prank gone too far rather than a search for an unknown creature.”
“Ah, come on Naomi. He’s been through worse, he’ll be fine dangling a few feet in the air.” Flotter responded as he approached the trap to have a closer look. “Ok, several feet in the air... upside down- alright this has gone too far.”
“Good, now let’s take this down before-” Naomi didn’t finish her sentence before Pinkie abruptly pushed Flotter into the trap and springing it. Flotter was thrown into the air with such force that he was actually catapulted.
“Pinkie!” the Crusaders screamed. “What did you do?”
“Relax girls, I know what his trajectory is and the pool of sap he’ll land in is quite large.”
Naomi had to take a moment to process what she had been told. “A pool... of sap?”
Flotter flew through the sky, tumbling head over heels, as he yelped like a certain goofy cartoon dog, then he landed flat on his back in a very large pool filled with sap breaking his fall without injury. “Well,” Flotter said to no one in particular. “That was fun. Don’t ever want to do that again.”
“Looks like the pink one and I are going to have to step up our game if that’s the case.” came the gruff voice of Treevis, just out of Flotter’s sight.
When Pinkie and the Crusaders got to Flotter’s landing site, they found Flotter already being helped out by Treevis and both working to scrape off residual sap.
“So,” Pinkie said expectantly, “What did we learn~?”
Flotter threw down a glob of sap. “That Treevis is, in fact, not a rubber tree.”
“And~?”
“If I wanted to know, I should have just asked.” Flotter said, embarrassed.
“Good,” Treevis said as he shook off some residual sap. “Now that that’s over with I want to introduce you to my new friend. I wanted to introduce you to him before you started tripping me up all day.”
Another tree-man came out from behind the bushes and stood incredibly tall. “I am Groot.”
