"It's gone!" yelped the young Ensign at the helm. Ensign Rhodes was fresh out of the Academy, been with them only a few months, but he was a promising pilot. Still he had a habit of overacting to every unexpected thing that happened in the black. As a result Captain Jackson wasn't really expecting much cause for the yelp of surprise.

Indiana blinked as he looked at the fuzzy screen, filled with white static. Even if they had lost the hailing frequency that shouldn't have happened. It should have just cut out.

"Try hailing them again," ordered Indiana.

"No sir," said the Ensign, but before the old captain had a chance to yell at the brat for disobeying a direct order the boy corrected, "I mean I can't. We didn't lose the connection, sir. It's being held in some kind of stasis. What we lost was the ship. I think they activated a cloaking device of some kind,"

"Red Alert," Called the first officer and red lights began to flash, accompanied by an irritating noise.

"Turn that off," Indiana barked.

"Captain?" The first officer looked puzzled as the alert instantly left. The blue skinned not-quite-man was always questioning him at the least appropriate times.

"Raise shields," Indiana demanded

"Raising shields," called the Vulcan Spyssk, their tactical officer.

"Captain!" the sound of urgency in the first officer's voice was apparent. Bov really was such a pain in the ass, "We need to have the crew ready to-"

"To what you moron?" Indiana growled rubbing his forehead, "Kill all mankind? That may not matter to your lot but I happen to like living,"

"That's a bit uncalled for," glared Bov.

"These horses have a class S entity watching over them. According to Picard's memo Q is ready to wipe out all mankind if we even indirectly cause the death of one of them. What do you think that thing will do if we were stupid enough to actually fire a torpedo at their ship?"

The young Ensign nervously asked, "What are we supposed to do then?"

"Get us away from the planet, see if they follow us into open space. Hopefully they are only acting defensively,"

The Ensign plotted the course and quickly engaged as he muttered, "Pretty severe reaction to getting scolded,"

The Captain ignored him, "If they choose to follow us jump to warp 9, they aren't fast enough to catch us. We can-"

The whole ship suddenly jerked and the entire bridge crew flew out of their chairs.

"Tractor beam!" The Ensign screamed as he scrambled back to the controls. He frantically began pressing buttons, "I can't get us out! It's using some kind of bizarre energy frequency,"

The screen cleared up and the purple horse reappeared, "Federation vessel, please remain calm. We are bringing you down to the planet's surface to resolve your crime of theft,"

"What!?" Indiana roared.

"Rest assured we will take measures to insure your safety and will-"

"You can't take us down to the surface!" exclaimed Indiana.

"Relax Captain," the horse insisted, "After this is resolved you're worlds will be the best of friends,"

"Close hailing frequency," Indiana ordered.

The ensign pushed a button but the horse was still on the view screen, raising an eyebrow at them. Then the boy began frantically pressing more buttons, "I can't,"

The horse smiled, "Our magics are far more advanced then your technology,"

"So be it," The Captain growled, "Computer activate self destruct, command code 0001 Destruct, 1 second timer,"

Twilight gasped well Firebrand screamed at the Helms ponies, "Teleport them to the brig!"

The entire bridge crew turned into light before the Federation ship exploded.

Firebrand looked at the creatures at their stations, "Did you get them,"

Bon Bon, who had been standing off to the side bossy around her Helms ponies during this, closly examined all the crystal balls, "All 472 crewmembers safely in the brig... some of them are foals..."

Twilight gaped, "Why would he do that? We were just trying to get them to talk. I even said so!"

Solopax scuffed, "The Federation take their 'no interference' policy very seriously. It's their highest law,"

Twilight snapped, "And you couldn't have told us that!"

"I wasn't expecting them to kill themselves over it," Solopax defended.

Twilight shook her head, "I need to get down there," before disappearing in a flash of purple light. She reappeared in front of a small cell in the lower decks, one of a thousand in the brig. A magical force field separating them.

"Why?" Twilight asked the occupant, "you didn't even give your crew time to evacuate,"

The Hoo'man dismissed, as if it was a trivial matter, "We wouldn't have been able to get out of your tractor beam anyway,"

Twilight gaped, "If Bon Bon hadn't locked onto your life signs before we decloaked you would all be..." she couldn't even say it.

"I won't volatile the prime directive," was all Indiana said.

"CHILDREN!" Twilight exclaimed, "your ship was full of foals and you were willing to kill them all,"

"Including my own son," was Captain Jackson's answer.

"Why!?" Twilight demanded, "You didn't even hesitate!"

"And you transported us through our shields," Answered the Captain, "We have greatly underestimated the extent of your 'magic',"

Twilight shook her head, "Just tell me why. I thought I made it clear we weren't going to hurt you,"

"But you would have done plenty of hurt to them!" The captain snapped, "The prime directive isn't meant to protect us from other civilians. It's meant to protect them FROM us! Every citizen of the Federation swears an oath to uphold the Prime Directive. That starts with school children to the flag. You can't even imagine the type of damage your ignorance could do to a developing civilization,"

"I'm not as ignorant as you think," Twilight glared, "I personally help integrate dozens of civilizations into one united global government,"

"Then your more monstrous then we thought as well," The Captain glared, "Who would have thought such cute little horses would be such great conquerors,"

"We aren't conquerors!" Twilight insisted, "We don't go into lands and declare war. We join through diplomacy, through building strong friendships. All the races are grateful for our help,"

"I'm sorry, benevolent conquerors then," The Captain snorted.

Twilight looked down at her hooves, "We aren't conquerors... we take steps to insure the cultures we meet endure. We... I,"

She looked up at the captain. The very air started to vibrate to a melody, as if a hidden Orchestra began to play. Then she began to sing,

"I'm not a conqueror.

I do everything I can to preserve the cultures we meet.

It's not easy. I realize it's not, but it's worth the struggle.

Culture Death is always possible. It doesn't matter if you sail the stars or just mastered the flame.

I'm not blind to that, but I do my best to adapt to their culture well preserving our own.

Each time you make a new friend you lose something, but gain so much more.

You have to adapt yourself, by understanding your new friend.

I stop, I listen, I learn of their ways well introducing my own, then go on to teach ponies about them.

I do this with every civilization I meet. Our differences make us special. It would be a crime to extinguish that.

But by coming together we can be raise above ourselves to greatness.

I'm not a conqueror... I believe peace is a blessing to all,"

The captain just stared at her during this, feeling oddly more relaxed... but still, "You can't force me to talk to them," The Captain insisted once the song ended.

Twilight sighed, "I know... We'll return on our journey to the Trek Sector in a few weeks, after our shore leave. I'll make sure you get back to your people," Twilight's horn glowed and she touched it to a panel on the wall. All the fields turned off, "You can join us on the surface if you want, but I doubt you will. You and your crew are free to wander the ship. Maybe we can learn a bit about each other so something like this doesn't happen again... one deck above us is the guest quarters, make yourselves comfortable,"

###

"You're lyrics sucked," Firebrand smiled when Twilight returned to the bridge.

"You were listening?" Twilight raised an eyebrow.

Firebrand tapped a small crystal ball, with a clear image of the brig. The humans were currently gathering together but hadn't left it yet. Many of the parents were looking over the children and hugging them tightly. It looked like they truly treasured them, even the Captain with his own son, yet they treasured this prime directive even more... it was foalish to thing an impromptu song could change their minds but maybe it was enough for them to understand pony values.

"Wasn't about to leave you unguarded with hostile aliens," Firebrand recaptured her attention, "Although I wished you would have talked to me before releasing them. If they are willing to off themselves over this prime directive it isn't unreasonable to assume they attack us for it,"

Twilight took her head, "All friendships run the risk of hurting each other. That doesn't mean they aren't worth the risk," he rested her hoof on Firebrand, "You are a great soldier. The best strategist Equestria has ever seen. That is why I chose you as captain. I know you can keep every pony alive during our journey,"

"Only if you listen to me," Firebrand insisted.

Twilight ignored this, "But you need to stop thinking like a soldier. I'll admit, I've given my fair share of friendship beatings, as you foals have come to call it," Firebrands ears pinned at being called a foal, "but I always try to resolve things peacefully as my first course... I shouldn't have indulged your plan of forced Diplomacy without trying to talk first. That was my fault,"

"I'm the captain," Firebrand childishly muttered.

Twilight sighed, "You sound like me when I first got my castle. I assumed just because I was a princess that meant I had to be perfect for everypony who saw me, otherwise I felt I was letting them down. I thought that I couldn't afford to be wrong... but I learned we are all wrong sometimes. A job in authority isn't about being perfect or doing everything yourself. It's about fixing your own mistakes and trusting those under you.

"I know your young Firebrand but I have every last ounce of faith you will grow into your new position. There is no pony I trust more to protect us," she tapped his shoulder and walked back to the large orb in the center of the room, looking out at the remains of the human ship, "Inform the crew of our guest. Tell them to make them feel welcome as we will be together for a while. And Solopax arrange a mandatory meeting for the crew, so you can explain these humanoids to us all in greater detail. I don't want a fiasco like this happening during shore leave. When the crew is ready, and our guest have made themselves comfortable, return to the planet,"

###

"We aren't horses," insisted the small green horse, "That would be like me calling you an ape,"

Rhodes blushed, "S-sorry... Sandbar... Wow that's a weird name," diplomacy wasn't really his strong suit.

He was just a pilot and engineer. He didn't usually, well ever actually, deal with aliens unaffiliated with the Federation. The idea of him talking to a hostile alien and representing the entire Federation was flat out laughable. He was way to excitable and blunt to deal with this but now every member of his crew were unwilling diplomats. They all represented the Federation in a delicate moment that every well could lead to another war with a superior force if handled improperly... why did it have to be his ship that ran into them?

Sandbar shrugged as he snacked on his sandwich of assorted flowers. He didn't really look the part of a hospital alien. He kinda looked like a children's toy with how bright and colorful he was. The young Stallion just spotted the Ensign eating some weird fish dish and sat himself down. They just started talking, trying to learn about each other and their civilizations... it was hard to think they were second away from blasting each other out of the Sky just a few hours ago.

"Like Jamie is any better," Sandbar smiled, "At least my name actually means something,"

"Yeah..." The boy shrugged, "How does that work? We have reports on how cutie marks work but I still don't understand how so many of you have marks matching your name. Are you named after you get your Cutie Mark?"

"Nope," Sandbar shrug as he swallowed his bite, "It's kinda a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ponies will often try to live up to their names through hobbies and that eventually evolves into a special talent related to the field. Not always but it's pretty common,"

"Just to live up to their name?"

"Well it's more then that," Sandbar explained, "Ponies don't have a family name like you guys," Solopax had explained what that was, "We have a family theme, which usually relates to a family trade. Foals feel pressured to follow in their family's hoof prints, to effectively live up to their name. There is no shame in breaking away from that but most don't.

"There is a big Naming VS. Nurture debate scholars are always going on about. Honestly living up to my name is probably why I became a Marine biologist. My family's theme in studying and caring for critters, but I love the sea so I specialized in that. And what is space but the largest ocean. My apprenticeship with Twilight shaped me further and I became a diplomat to ocean based civilizations,"

"Apprenticing?" the human tilted his head in confusion. It was amazing how many gestures like that were universal. It might have something to do with what Solopax said about most creatures being genetically linked.

"It's how our education system works. We enter preschool at 3 where we learn to read, write, basic math, and our colors of course.

"Then we go to regular school at 6 where we do a bunch of class participants stuff like labs and story time in between working in an enchanted text books. The books contain the entire collection of knowledge known to our planet, separated by field of study. They have a bunch of assignments and test in them, which are self grading. You work at your own pace with the teacher acting more as guide. Theoretically you could graduate with a Doctorate in every field in existence thanks to this system. The first mate on board actually created the books as well as the system a couple hundred years ago.

"Anyway then you graduate school at 13 with whatever degrees you earned and start your apprenticeship. Some choose to go to schools of higher learning for further study as well as a more specialized education. Others apprentice at a company and learn a trade. Then there are the ones lucky enough to apprentice under a master of a trade.

"I went to Princess Twilight's school of friendship,"

Jamie blinked, "A school of... friendship?"

"Basically it taught us how to be diplomats," at least one of them was a trained diplomat, "You know, how to embrace our differences and respect other cultures well safely exchanging ideas. Even cultures just starting out have something valuable to teach us,"

Jamie shook his head, "And how long do you do that,"

"Until we are 30, usually,"

Jamie groaned, "Over a hundred years in school... and I thought my 4 at the Academy was boring,"

"A hundred?" Sandbar blinked, "How you figure?"

Jamie smiled, "You ponies measure a year based on how long it last on the Halo Rings. Where Terrains measure years based on solar systems around our homeworld. You're 'year' effectively last for 3.6 of our own."

Sandbar gaped, "But solar cycles are inconsistent. All planets have a different number of days it takes to orbit their star. Where as the Rings keep a universal consistancy!"

Jamie shrugged, "We didn't discover that until our civilization had begun space travel. Your telescopes are a lot more advanced then ours were back then. Hell your Telescopes were a lot more advanced then our early satellites,"

"What's a satellite?" Sandbar blinked.

"Something that is likely completely worthless to your civilization but most rely on heavily for making observations of other planets and Communications,"

"Communications?" Sander blinked.

"I'm not sure if it is compatible with your energy manipulation but it's how we communicate to ships on the other side of the quadrant. There are buoys all over the galaxy which relay the signal. They are strictly for Federation use. I'm sure the Ferengi will let you use their's though,"

"I wonder why Solopax didn't tell us about them..." Sandbar looked troubled.

"They are for exclusive Ferengi use. You have to get permission from the planet to use them and then they will tax you each time you use it. I doubt the Federation will let you use their's given you sided with the Ferengi,"

"Sided?" Sandbar tilted his head.

"The Federation and Ferengi have been in a cold war for decades now," Jamie shrugged.

Sandbar nodded as he thought to himself how the ponies should help them settle the feud once they handled whatever crisis was going on Ferengiar. Better to leave that alone for now as it was too early in their relationship to offer advice, especially given the start. So Sandbar backtracked the conversation a little, "You said you were 20, but with your calendar that would actually put you closer to 5 or 6... you're pretty articulate for a toddler,"

"Humans age much faster then ponies, MUCH much faster then... well, everything. If we went by the standard galactic calendar we would only live to be 40 at most... and that's wishful thinking,"

"Wow... sorry," Sandbar didn't know what to say. Most Equestrian species lived to be a few decades past 500 (the ones that didn't had straight up eternal youth) but this guy wouldn't even be considered an adult before he kicked it.

"It's not so bad," Jamie waved off, "Our short lifespans is the source of our greatest strength, our ambition. Humans can do more in a single lifetime then most races do in a thousand years, our years that is. We are compelled to. Most aliens live so long they don't feel any urgency to leave their marks. Like you said, your whole species spends a hundred years just for school and I bet most don't even get doctorates in that time,"

"Most don't," Sandbar admitted. He had a few though, but then he spent his apprenticeship at a school for higher learning.

Jamie looked all proud, "I have 5 doctorates, and they are all just as good as the galactic standard. That actually works a lot like your own education system,"

Sandbar gaped. A FIVE YEAR OLD had 5 doctorate!? What did they get a doctorate for each year of life! "In what?"

"Mathematics, Engineering, Computer Science, Spacial Aviation (that's piloting starships), and Xeno linguistics (alien languages)," Jamie listed off, "And I graduated at the bottom of the top 10% of Starfleet Academy," He shrugged, "Humans short lifespans make us compelled to cram as much into life as possible. Hell even when we are lazy we don't tend to linger as long as most aliens. Even our days our shorter then yours,"

Sandbar just awed at the concept, "Wow... is that normal for the Federation?"

"Honestly... no, it's not common but it's not exactly rare in this day and age either. I graduated university when I was 16 like most, only I had a bunch of doctorates instead of the usual masters degrees. We do the whole, learn at your own pace, thing to. Then I went straight to Starfleet Academy, which is a pretty common career choice at that age. I guess the Academy is our equivalent of apprenticing. I was there for 4 years, crammed to the brim with studying and weepy nights from the occasional work overload. Then I got my choice of station since I did so well and chose to come out here. The Federation has never been here before and I wanted to come out with the small bang of ships to explore the unknown,"

"Wow," Sandbar awed, "Twilight just asked me if I wanted to come and I said 'sure'. There was no real training or anything beyond basic survival and operations stuff. I think the apprentices were the only ones who actually had to prove themselves. The rest were just hoof picked by the Mane 6,"

"Main 6?" Jamie blinked.

"No, Mane, like hair," Sandbar patted his mane, "They are the champions of our world. They are largely responsible for uniting everycreature into a global government. They are warriors and diplomats, the ultimate peace keepers of our planet. These guys have such raw magical power they can take on armies all on there own. The rest of the crew is kinda just here to keep them company and run the ship. We don't actually have that big a role in things.

"I just graduated my apprenticeship a few years ago, been working in the oceans with Seaponies, sea dragon, basically a whole lot of creatures that start with 'sea'. Been acting as the ambassador to their city sates out there for Ponyville, where I'm from. But I was all too thrilled when Twilight told me she wanted me to be a science officer onboard this ship... unfortunately I haven't gotten to really do anything. We've been nonstop sailing, but Twilight promised I could take a team down the the planet's oceans and observe the wild life. It should be awesome to see what Alien fish are like,"

"Well they are-"

"HEY," Sandbar loudly shushed him, "No spoilers,"

"You think, as a scientist, you would want as much data as possible," Jamie insisted.

"We can compare notes afterwards. Part of what makes this so thrilling is exploring an unknown region. Equestria mapped out every inch of our oceans centuries ago,"

###

A few more hours later, after Sandbar reported his findings to Twilight and Jamie reported to his Captain, The Princess stood in the observation lounge with the Mane 6 and senor staff as well as the heads of each department branch (Like the chief pilot Gilda).

"You can't go down there," Indiana glared as he stood in the horse's main control center with them, a little shocked he was literally allowed anywhere on board the vessel but not letting that detract him.

Twilight sighed, "I am willing to respect your beliefs but you need to respect mine. It's not like I want to go down their and hoof over space travel. Solopax explained they need to be eased into that,"

The human Captain actually face palmed, "You could destroy their entire culture or make them completely dependent on you,"

"As I explained I have experience-" Twilight tried but was interrupted.

"Not with this. You are proposing first contact with a pre-warp civilian! You may have experienced indoctrinating primitive cultures but this is on a whole other level! We picked up some chatter over their barely functional internet system (it's how we knew you were there). They think your ship is a vessel for the gods! You go down there with your magic and 2000 year lifespans it will only confirm it for them regardless what you say. You're new Ferengi pals might be okay with that but you claim to have higher morals,"

Twilight looked to Solopax, who shrugged, "We Ferengi have found that impersonating deities is the safest way to interact with younger citizens. However, as you had such a problem with trading gold, I thought it best to prepare you through other trading tactics. After all, just because it is the safest way doesn't mean it's the only way. Just go down them, offer them a gift of technology (or in your case techno magic), and explain your wish to form diplomatic relations with their world. They will be untrusting and maybe even hostile but if the gift is extravagant enough their greed my compel them to open trade. If not threaten to take your gift to the country's rival. Of course they might try to kill you for threatening to do that but just wear a personal deflector and it will peacefully scare them enough not to try that again. I believe your armor is automatically enchanted with that,"

Twilight nodded, "There is enough charge for a dozen burst of personnel ward spells," then looked at the captain, "That sound reasonable to you,"

"No... it doesn't," glared the human, as Solopax was apparently mispronouncing their species name.

"Alright," Twilight nodded, "Now where are getting somewhere. See open dialogue is a good thing for everypony. Now how can we compromise to a nice middle ground so everypony's happy,"

"We can't," Indiana huffed, "Don't go down there and I will be happy,"

"Now that's not productive," Twilight frown, "You need to work with us. My crew has been stuck on this ship for over a month. We aren't used to space travel. We need social interaction with new faces and blue skys. A Ponies desire to socialize is as strong as a human's ambition or a Ferengi's hoarding instinct. We need to come to a reasonable middle for all our people,"

"Maybe..." Firebrand started but stopped.

"Yes?" Twilight looked to him.

Firebrand sighed, "Maybe we could try landing on an isolated tropical island. Set up some tents and party gear?"

Gilda frowned, "What about socializing with aliens. That's the whole reason we came here out here,"

"We have aliens," Firebrand insisted pointing at the human, "If you would be willing to relax with us on the beach for a week or so we would get our new friends fix before sailing to the Trek Sector. It'd also help ease tension between our crews. We don't have the resources or the understanding to fully deal with First contact with a species that mistakes us for gods. We need to study up. Learn both the Ferengi way and the Federation way, then create our own based on both view points,"

Firebrand looked intently at the fellow Captain, "It is in a pony's nature to try and befriend everyone. We WILL contact races without space travel. You can't stop us. It would be like trying to get the Ferengi to stop being greedy. What you can do is teach us why you value the Prime directive over the lives of your very children and prepare us to minimize the damage we could do,"

Then he looked at Solopax, "And you have experience trading with younger citizens that we will need to teach our merchants to avoid a disaster. You two have 30 months. That is how long it will be before our fleet is complete. Once that is finished we will be sailing the stars far and wide and trying to befriend every intelligent lifeform we meet. That's 30 months to teach us all we need to know to protect both ourselves and them. In that time, Twilight can use your teaching to write our own code of laws regarding space exploration,"

Twilight smiled proudly at the young stallion before looking at the aliens, "Is that acceptable to all parties,"

The human captain rubbed his temple, "I suppose I have no choice. It's better then leaving you to destroy countless cultures as you blunder about the universe. I'll get you in contact with Starfleet High Command once we are back in the Trek Sector and they can teach you everything you need to know,"

Solopax shook his head, "The Ferengi Merchants Guild will be a harder sell, especially if the Federation is involved, but I believe your new citizens will be happy to teach you what we know,"

Twilight nodded, "It's a step in the right direction,"

###

"See," Discord looked at the other Q as they watched without form, "I told you they would recover. Everything is fine,"

"They still attacked without provocation," Insisted the Q, "Doesn't seem very friendly to me, Q,"

"But they corrected themselves. Is clearly worth a C- then," Discover insisted, "Ponies stumble, they are still discovering themselves. Usually we allow those we test to have a concrete system before we start in on them,"

"These ponies are progressing too quickly," insisted Q, "If they had made that progression on their own we could have afforded to be more lenient, but the Doctor decided to stick his muzzle into their affairs as he did with humanity before them. If he wishes to give the ponies the tools they need instead of gaining them on their own then we must insure they use them correctly,"

"He's done everything according to our rules, only giving them what they would have discovered themselves. He's just... egging them on a bit to help,"

The entity gave an exacerbated sigh, "He has to fight us every inch of the way. Does he really think we enjoy this? If we don't do our job the entire universe will die. What is one dimension in the grand scheme of that?"

Discord shrugged, "If I disagreed I'd be helping him instead of you, but I think this one is worth sparing though. They will prove it to you,"

"We shall see. Is the next phase set?"

"The pieces are moving," Discord assured, "The ponies think they can stay on a war torn planet with the Federation and Ferengi without incident, they really are so naive," Discord sighed. It was the one think he didn't like about them. They were so... innocent, which was just a shade of ignorance. Still he had faith in them, "Let's see if they can keep all three parties happy without compromising their own values,"

Author's Notes:

Edited:
Aug 31, 2019

I altered the calendar and time comparisons