Colorful Ponies

Takes place between Star Trek: TOS and The Motion Picture

For the first time in 5 years, I am back on Earth. It's very strange, despite not being native here, I feel some nostalgia and even a little emotional.

The bulk of the Enterprise crew is going to be heading to their homes and families, with the exception of a few, including Scotty. Scotty was going to oversee the refit of the Enterprise.

Where was I going? I had no family or a house here (I used to stay at the Academy) but Chekov, Sulu and I agreed we'd go to New York City for a while. It was the closest to looking like my home, Triplecetta. Tall skyscrapers, heavily dense in population, and 24 hour delis everywhere.

The three of us met at what Humans call Grand Central Station. I assure you, there was nothing grand about this place, despite the attempt at being golden and glitzy.

"Well, what did you think of the train ride here?" Sulu asked me. We had traveled by a slow train that went from San Francisco to New York. At home, we traveled by use of teleporters or the Triple Tube.

"Next time, let's just teleport here." I grumble.

Sulu laughs. "There aren't any teleporters on Earth. We only have transporters for space travel. It's too expensive for anything like that for local use."

I rolled my eyes, causing Chekov to now laugh. "She doesn't care about the cost, she just vants to go shopping!"

"Shopping? There are malls near here?" I ask excitedly. "In that case, you're right."

Sulu took a map of the city from a vendor who was handing them out. "According to the map, Time Square is not far from here."

We head out, in the direction of the neon lights and swarms of people. "Have either of you been here before?" I ask.

"Nope, this is our first time too." Chekov said, falling back to keep up with me. I was going slowly, trying to soak in all the sights.

"This place is so… close but not quite home." I say, as a throng of people push past us, coming in and out of buildings, and stopping at food vendors and other peddlers. "It's not very beautiful." Considering how many crystals and jewels we used to decorate our streets, flowers and silver trees, this was barren and plain.

Then I see it. We walked into Time Square, the giant neon lights and signs everywhere. My brown eyes go wide with excitement. I wanted to try out everything. There were shops by the dozen, restaurants, movie theaters and theaters for plays. Oh, it was almost just like home!

Sulu decided that he wanted to go see a movie at the theater, something neither me nor Chekov were interested in. So we decided to keep on looking around, window shopping.

That's when I see it.

The giant toy store, the one with the large Ferris Wheel inside.

Oh, you know I wanted to go there first. And of course, Chekov agreed with me, and we decided to ride the Ferris Wheel.

We sat inside the basket, my eyes wide with wonder as I looked around the store. Chekov, was staring at me, which caused me to pause and blush. "What?" I ask.

"N-nothing!" He said and looked away quickly. He was blushing now too.

We say nothing more, and our basket reaches the top, and then stops. People presumably had to get off. I decide to break the silence. "Chekov, thank you for taking me here."

He blushes more and looks at me again. "It is no problem, I would have taken you here sooner or later."

We just gaze into each other's eyes, smiling. Just then, the ride jerks alive and I end up being jostled forward, because I was already leaning over too much. My hands and his latch together, and then I manage to wiggle back into my seat better. Our hands never let go until it was our turn to get off, which was almost five minutes later.

We then explore the store, and that's when I discovered them.

Oh, where were these on my planet? How did these Humans have them but not us Triplecettans?!

"Chekov! Chekov!" I cry out, grabbing his arm as he goes to move past this particular section.

"Vhat?"

I can't talk, just from being speechless. I just point.

"Those?" he gets uncomfortable as I drag him towards the My Little Pony section. "But these are My Little Ponies. Girl toys. Little girl toys."

"We don't have these on my planet!" I say as I stop at the first row of toys. I pick one up. She had rainbow hair and a picture of a rainbow on her butt. "Oh! I want this!"

I then see a different one. An orange one with a pineapple mark. "This one too! Oh, what's that over there?" I then give Chekov the two figures and hurry over to a play set of a castle, that came with a limited edition unicorn. "OH! I must have this too!"

Chekov looked around nervously, and he had every right to be nervous, in hindsight. He was getting stares from all sorts of people as I flung pony toys in his direction and he did his best to catch them. "Primerose… Can we go now? You got a lot here…"

Needless to say, by the time I was done and we left, he was carrying a supply of ponies and play sets that would have made a Tribble mother proud.