The DisQord Continuum

Where Nopony Has Gone Before

“I’m very sorry...,” he began, which made everypony’s face instantly drop to a look of horror and tears. “Flutteryshy’s skull has a hairline fracture and she’s bleeding internally. We need to operate to repair the tissue damage and relieve the pressure building up, but this is a very difficult surgery, with a very low success rate.”

Everypony started crying for their friend. They couldn’t believe it. They all started looking from face to face for answers and finding none. Finally Geordi reached a decision. “I can help her,” he spoke. Everypony’s face snapped to Geordi with the sharpest look of simultaneous hope and doubt.

“How?” Twilight demanded while cocking one eyebrow. She was even more doubtful, but desperate to save her friend.

“I…I…I have a magic of sorts,” he said, realizing that, with the unusual circumstances of this world, he might be able to explain it in a way that wouldn’t damage their culture further.

This was most unusual behavior for Geordi. By now, he normally would have already beamed back, and the mission would have been scrubbed. Instead, he found himself wanting to help their friend. In the back of his mind he was arguing with himself over what he should do. But a voice deep inside him kept telling him, "You can't just leave them. They're too cute and innocent to leave them with their friend in this state that you caused."

“Give me one hour," he said. "You’ll need to leave us alone for that time. But I promise, I can fix this!” He spoke very sincerely and pleadingly.

“How can we trust you alone with her?” Twilight screamed, with tears still dripping from her eyes. “You’re the one who caused this!”

“I know, but I didn’t mean to and I want to fix this. Give me the chance, please,” said Geordi. “Lock us in if you don’t trust me. Then give me one hour.”

Twilight looked from Applejack, to Rarity, to Pinkie, to Rainbow, looking for some sort of sign. They all seemed to want to give the stranger a chance. Even the doctor was looking to the stranger knowing the odds as he did.

“Do it!” she said with a tone of almost disgust.

“Geordi,” he said.

“What?”

“Geordi. That’s my name: Geordi LaForge.”

“Tw-Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight replied wiping the tears from her eyes. “Please help her.”

The doctor showed Geordi to the operating room. Closing the door, Geordi turned around to see the unconscious pony. He knew he needed to act quickly and any request to bring her aboard the Enterprise would almost certainly be denied. Tapping his comm. badge he said, “LaForge to Transporter Room 2! Two for emergency transport to Sick Bay!” The glow of the transport beam wrapped around both Geordi and the pony. When it completely engulfed them, their bodies disappeared into the matter stream, reconstituting onboard the ship.

*     *     *

Dr. Crusher rushed over, and before Geordi could begin to explain his actions for bringing the pony onboard, she had her medical tri-corder at the ready, examining the patient. “Her skull is fractured…slight hemorrhaging near the frontal lobe. Cranial fluid pressure is building rapidly. Let’s get her on the bed.”

Dr. Crusher worked on the winged pony repairing the tissue damage, followed by the cranial damage. While this was in progress, Captain Picard arrived to discover the situation. Geordi debriefed, explaining the circumstances to the captain, including his attempts to minimize the damage caused by this violation of the Prime Directive.

The captain was furious at his bringing the pony onboard. He not only violated the Prime Directive by this incident, but by refusing to follow protocol and beaming out at the moment he was discovered. This was a serious lapse in judgement that was unexpected from his dutiful Chief Engineer. However, he decided that any punitive measures would be discussed at a later date.

“We will keep the creature under sedation,” said Captain Picard. “She is not to be revived at anytime while onboard the Enterprise. Mr. LaForge, you will transport down with the creature alone and revive her once back on the surface of the planet.”

“Yes sir,” he said accepting his orders.

After fifty minutes, Dr. Crusher had completed the repair of the injuries. Wrapping the pony’s head in bandages as a guise to prevent overexposure to their technology, she and Geordi readied the patient for transport back to the hospital room.

*     *     *

“Something’s wrong,” Rainbow Dash said pacing in the air outside the room. “I haven’t heard any noise coming from that room and it’s been almost an hour already!”

“We agreed to let him try,” Twilight said also pacing with a rate that was causing grooves to form in the floor where she was. “Let’s give him the full hour.” Twilight tried to keep herself calm as well as everypony else, but even her patience was razor thin.

Nearby, a clock ticked away on the wall. Each tick echoed in their ears like somepony banging on a large drum. Rarity, normally less concerned with affairs that didn’t concern fashion or beauty, was so distraught that her silken hair started fraying and curling. Her mascara ran from her tears down her cheeks. She didn’t even notice.

Pinkie-Pie’s hair had also changed, falling from its usually bubbly and curly mane, into its straight smooth hair that only ever occurred in times of deep sadness. Applejack held her hat in her hooves with her head looking down to the floor in deep thought. Rainbow Dash was flying in a circle overhead so fast she was starting to create a wind tunnel in the waiting room.

“Rainbow, quit it!” Applejack yelled.

Rainbow stopped circling, but her face had twisted. It contorted with rage at the situation: trusting a complete stranger with one of her best friends and not hearing any news or even sound coming from the operating room. She lost her will, and her patience had completely run out. Screaming, she charged straight into the doors of the operating room, bursting them open so fast they nearly popped right off their hinges.

At that moment, a bright light seemed to be emanating from the center of the room. Rainbow looked around, but saw no pony in the room. But in the next second, both Fluttershy and Geordi LaForge spontaneously appeared inside the light. All anger was shocked away from her face as her jaw fell to the floor from what she had just witnessed.

The other ponies quickly followed Rainbow Dash into the room to see what was happening. They saw the look of shock from Rainbow, but not what would cause her such a look of surprise. Fluttershy was lying on the table with her head covered in bandages. Geordi stood beside her.

“Where were you just now?” Rainbow demanded. “And since when can you teleport?”

That statement hit Geordi in two ways. Firstly, that he was caught transporting in, and secondly… “How do you know about teleporting?” He asked.

Rainbow didn’t seem nearly as concerned with how he teleported so much as where he teleported from. “Twilight’s teleported us tons of times,” she said, “but where did you just come from and why did you go there?”

Geordi felt trapped. These ponies seem to be more insightful about concepts they shouldn’t have even conceived of yet.

“I…I took her to get the help she needed,” he thought quickly. “I teleported her back to my people for help. She’s fine now! All she needs is a few days of rest.” Hoping they would focus on their friend more than his background, he used a hypo spray cusped in his hand, so they would not see, to revive the pony. “See?”

Fluttershy shyly fluttered her eyes as she awoke as though from a pleasant dream. “Good morning,” she said softly. “Where am I?”

That was the last phrase anypony could hear her say as five ponies suddenly drowned out her quiet voice with cheers and hugs.

“Thank goodness you’re doing better!” said Rarity.

“It’s good to see yer O.K.!” Applejack cheered.

Pinkie-Pie’s hair had popped back into its usual shape, and her smile was so big, one could wonder how she wasn’t splitting her jaw open. “Ooh thank goodness, thank goodness you’re okay Fluttershy! We were so worried about you, but now you’re ok! Yippie! Yippie!” she said bouncing up and down all around her.

Twilight simply smiled warmly, and patted Fluttershy on her shoulder. “It’s good to have you back with us,” she said.

Rainbow Dash had taken an extra minute or so to soak in the situation.  Still confused about what she had just witnessed, she shook it off at seeing Fluttershy’s eyes awake and alert. She dashed to her bedside with tears in her eyes. She didn’t say anything. She just rested her head on Fluttershy’s waist and cried. Fluttershy smiled warmly and stroked Rainbow's mane reassuringly, letting her know everything was okay.

In fact, she felt better than okay. She felt happy and pain-free. She recalled something hitting her in the head, but felt no residual pain whatsoever. Happy to know she was well and her friends were also okay, she relaxed on the bed while she spoke with her friends.

Twilight wanted to thank Geordi, but as she turned to find him, she saw him apparently trying to escape the scene. She had just caught a glimpse of him as he turned into the hallway.

Knowing her friend was now okay, this suspicious behavior allowed Twilight to return to her usual inquisitive nature, and she followed him. There were a great many questions that needed answering. One of which was, and she wasn’t sure why, but his shoes seemed to flash into her mind for some reason.

She followed him discreetly, not alerting him to her presence as he headed for a more secluded area of the hospital. This was difficult for him as every pony he passed in the hall stared at him, since they had never seen anything like him before. Eventually after walking down several wings of the hospital he found a small hallway, off to the side, that was unoccupied and the lights off.

Once he believed he was alone, his tapped a strange pin on his chest. “LaForge to Enterprise; one to beam up,” he said aloud to nopony. Twilight watched as a light started to appear, like the one that had emanated from the operating room when Rainbow had burst in. A sudden realization dawned on her that he was about to teleport again. Running straight at him, she tackled him just as the light enveloped them both.