Chapters Faster Than Light: Intelligent Lifeforms
1a. Try to communicate peacefully
After the crew exited the shuttle, they were immediately surrounded by the indigenous. However, the brightly color horses kept their distance. The Engi noted his comrades that the horses seemed to be clamoring over their arrived, but could not understand precisely what was being said.
The human quickly approached the closest horse and began to communicate via charades. However, his attempts at communication were in vain as the indigenous seems to have mistook his attempts at communication with dancing. The crowd oohed and aahed at the dancing hairless monkey/minotaur. Dejected, the human crew looked to his fellow crew for help.
The Rockman stepped forward and attempted to communicate. His deep voice and lumbering movements were only met with blank and expressionless stares. The Rockman silently stepped back with his crew and let the Mantis take over. Unfortunately, his bladed appendages seemed to have frighten the brightly colored horse. The Engi noted that several in the crowd had faint or fled into a nearby settlement. The Mantis hissed at the horses, who stepped back in reaction, before returning to his comrades.
In a last ditch effort, the Engi and Zoltan made their own attempts to communicate with the horses. The Engi race were not able to express emotions, however it did not stop the Engi from seeing that his robotic movements, due to being made mostly out of nanobots, garnered amusement from the indigenous crowd. The Engi continued his act, but it did not achieve much more than entertainment for the horses. The Zoltan on the other hand had no success whatsoever. The horses paid no attention to his motions and flailing and instead were mesmerized by the soft green aura around his form.
The human spoke up, "We're accomplishing nothing here. Let's go."
The other crew muttered agreement before climbing back into the shuttle. Within a few minutes, the Kestrel sparkled brightly from the sky before jumping back into the unknown of space.
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Aliens!
That's what the citizens of Ponyville thought when they first saw the metal flying object land in a nearby field. The daily tasks were immediately forgotten and the ponies clamored and rushed to meet the extraterrestrials. Unfortunately for Twilight Sparkle, she hadn't known of the aliens' arrival until a crowd of ponies had almost trampled her on the way out of the Golden Oaks Library. Twilight had tried to beat the rush, but ultimately found herself stuck in the back of the crowd. She let out a huff of disappointment before returning to the library, content with watching the events unfold from her telescope.
Bon Bon was slightly squished near the front of the crowd and could catch fair glimpses of the aliens. However, her biggest worry was her friend, Lyra, who was almost ready to explode and charge one of the aliens in excitement. Bon Bon felt more sweat drop from her face as Lyra's quiet utterance of "humans" became quicker and louder. Lyra almost broke into outright chanting before Bon Bon shoved her hoof in Lyra's mouth before unceremoniously hauling her away from the scene. Lyra flailed about, trying to break free from Bon Bon's grip, but to no avail.
"No Lyra, they may be aliens, but I'm telling you that humans don't exist." Lyra whined dejectedly.
Fluttershy was in the market with saddlebags full of fruits, vegetables, and assorted medical appliances when the aliens had arrived. Unfortunately for her, instead of trampling her, the horde of ponies rushing to see the aliens dragged Fluttershy along and gave her front seat tickets. The monkey-minotaur and the rock didn't move much at all. One look at the giant preying mantis with the bladed arms, though, had sent Fluttershy's world spinning and into darkness.
Rainbow rolled over on her cloud. "Urgh. . . Shut up you guys. . . I'm trying to nap here. . ."
The aliens made some weird noise, but no pony minded. Wide eyes of wonder were glued onto the extraterrestrials as they danced around and made the funny noises. Eventually the aliens had left in their metal flying machine and a glint far into the sky sparkled ever so quickly. The citizens of Ponyville spent the rest of the afternoon waiting in the fields and wondering if the aliens would return.
Author's Note
Rockman:
Faster Than Light: Intelligent Lifeforms
1b. Try to communicate peacefully
The human was the last one on board the shuttle, but just before they closed the hatch, a purple horse--it had a horn on its head; a unicorn then-- had broken through the crowd and trotted up to him. It began prodding him forcefully away from the ship, and the Zoltan suggested that it wanted them to follow it. The human had been at the pointed end of the unicorn's horn for a fair duration of the trip. The human was about to draw his blaster and fry the damn thing before a husk of a ship appeared in the distance. Was this where to unicorn was taking them?
The human broke away from the unicorn prodding him and ran for the ship. The unicorn and the other crew members followed in suit. The human decided not to kill the unicorn; they had just found the crash site of an ancient engi ship! On his orders, the human and his crew began searching the ship looking for salvage. What they found was better than salvage. Inside the cockpit they found and reactivated an old Engi!
There's still a war going on and the rebel fleet is still on their tails. The crew and the recently reactivated Engi made haste to the shuttle and back to the Kestrel. Several minutes later, the Kestrel disappeared with a shimmer and fled the system.
Fuel: +2 Scrap: +19
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Twilight Sparkle had practically rammed an entire line of ponies in one charge in order to get to the site of the aliens' arrival. When she got to the front, her eyes filled with wonder as a toothy smile crept onto her face. Then she noticed the awkward moving monkey-minotaur with the green square face. Twilight's memory flashed back to when she was exploring a foreign object that had crash landed in the surrounding hillside. It's body was cold and lifeless. Perhaps the aliens would want to take it with them. It must have had a family worrying about it.
Without a further thought, Twilight trotted up to the mostly hairless monkey-minotaur and nudged him away from the ship. She would not let him leave without that creature. The alien gave way and began to move in the direction of Twilight's prodding.
"Good," Twilight thought, "but I can't let up yet."
Twilight spotted what she realized was the deceased alien's ship after some time. Suddenly the alien she was leading broke into a sprint. There was so much to be learned about an entirely new species though! So many questions to ask! Twilight couldn't let them leave without learning a little bit from them, so she mustered has much strength as she could and chased after him.
Twilight could not believe her eyes when she saw what the aliens did when they arrived in the cockpit. The dead alien had somehow been revived! Millions of questions had filled Twilight's mind, but the aliens had left as quickly as they came. Twilight chased them back to their ship, but they all outran her. Even that darned walking rock! How did that outrun her; she was 5th place in the Running of the Leaves Race for Celestia' sake!"
Twilight could only watch as the alien ship high above the sky disappeared with a sparkle. So many unanswered questions. . .
Author's Note
In FTL some events will reward you with some amounts of resources.
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Faster Than Light: Intelligent Lifeforms
2. Bring some of the creatures on board to sell
Upon exiting the shuttle, the crew of the Kestrel was immediately crowded around by the natives. A few rough shoves from the Rockman made them keep their distance.
"Obviously these. . . horses will serve no use to us." The Mantis grabbed a smaller pony by a red bow on its head and flung it unceremoniously back into the crowd. The Mantis dusted his head with his bladed appendages, "We're wasting time and we should leave. I would rather not be torn limb from limb by the Rebels while we frolic in a field of. . . ponies."
"Perhaappssss I can provide a more profitable ssssooolution?" A slithering voice crept into the crew's ears.
The Mantis hissed back, "Shut up, you slimy backstabbing Slug!"
The Slugman slithered forward. "Take a good look at theeessseee. . . ponieeeesss. They are--how would you humans ssssay?--adorable. The human crossed his arms and huffed. The Slugman continued, "Perhaappssss we can provide theessee eexxotic creaturessss to thoosseee willing to ssssacrificcceee a. . . ssssmall fee?"
The Zoltan pushed the Slugman aside and placed himself between the Slugman and the nearest pony. "You would bring suffering and slavery to these obviously peaceful creatures!?" The Zoltan turned to the human, "Captain, I will not allow these creatures to be sold as slaves and pets!"
The simple, yet technical speech of the Engi was almost instantly recognized, "Primary directive is to deliver intelligence of Rebel fleet to final Federation fleet. Sale of equine creatures: time consuming. Chance of profit to acquire new cloaking device: present. Chance of success: uncertain."
The Slugman's voice slithered again, "You ssseeee. I am only trying to assssisssst our mission, just like our ever ssssoo helpful Engi has said."
The Zoltan gestured to the human, "The choice is yours then, captain. Shall we leave or shall we. . . sell these creatures?"
The human held his chin in thought. He first looked toward the Slugman, who was incessantly chuckling. On the other hand, the Zoltan's pleading eyes told him to leave the ponies alone.
"Alright, I can unterstand where you're coming from Cerro. Believe me, I want to leave these ponies be as much as you do. But that ride through the Rock homeworlds was a wake up call. The universe is a dangerous place and we need to get to the Federation fleet without dying. If we can come out of this with a few extra weapons and equipment, I'll do it. I hope you understand, Cerro. If its any consolation, you don't have to help us. Just hang tight in the shuttle."
"I knew you would ssssseeee it my way, heh heh heh. . ." The Slugman slithered to the Zoltan. "And yeeeessss, you sssshould go hide in the ssshuttle. Lessst we-"
"Shutup Klyp and get to work. It's your idea, you work it."
"As you wissshhh, captain."
The Slugman slithered forward toward the crowd of ponies, who began showing fright and agitation. "Don't worry my little ponieeeessss. I won't hurt you, eheh heh heh heh."
He randomly plucked out a smaller pony from the crowd and began dragging it back to the shuttle. He got halfway before he was slammed into the ground. A cyan pony with wings and rainbow mane and tail was holding him down surprisingly tightly. It made some sort of cry before the entire crowd of ponies turned hostile and came bearing down on the Kestrel's crew.
The stampede forced the crew to draw their weapons and make a hasty retreat. The Mantis barely made it into the shuttle: an orange pony that apparently had a cowboy hat close on his heels the entire way. After arriving back to the Kestrel, the human took a head count. Someone didn't make it back. . .
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Rainbow Dash almost fell off her cloud when a mob of ponies ran for the field like Apple Cider Season had arrived early. She paid no mind to it until she heard the crowd oohing and aahing at something. Ponies oohing and aahing at something that isn't Rainbow Dash? Unthinkable. Problem. Must fix.
Rainbow lept off the cloud and headed toward the center of the commotion. On the way, she spotted Applejack, who was somewhere in the middle of the crowd. "Hey AJ, what's going on up there?"
"Oh hey RD, this big metal carriage just came in flyin' down from the sky and the townsfolk are all excited about it. Heard that a buncha aliens came out of it."
"Wasn't Applebloom supposed to be helping you with the farm stuff?" Rainbow glanced around. "Where is she?"
"Cutie Mark Crusaders Alien Ambassadors. . ." Applejack said it like it was obvious. "Well, most if not all the folk are here if somethin' happens."
"I dunno AJ, that giant slug thing creeps me out. I mean, what the heck is he chuckling at?"
On cue, Applebloom's voice screeched, "Heeeeeelllllppppp!!!!"
One look was all it took for Applejack to figure out what was going on. "Hey! They're tryin' to take mah sister!"
"On it, Applejack!" Rainbow Dash launched herself at Applebloom's kidnapper and rammed the slug into the ground. She turned her head toward the crowd. "They're trying to kidnap the foals! GET 'EM!"
The crowd didn't need to hear another word. They shouted angry slurs at the aliens before charging them. The aliens made a shambolic retreat to their carriage and flew away. Fortunately, there were no major injures except for a shaken Applebloom and a bruised giant banana slug in Rainbow Dash's hooves.
"I'm going to beat you into next Tuesday!" Rainbow Dash couldn't understand the slug's plea to stop, nor did she care. She drew a hoof back and launched it forward.
Author's Note
I mashed two outcomes into one chapter. Not a big deal me thinks.
Faster Than Light: Intelligent Lifeforms
As soon as he stepped out of the shuttle, the human's vision was flooded with bright colors. His crew had similar reactions. once his eyes adjusted, the human's mind double-backed again. These intelligent lifeforms. . . They were multicolored horses? No, they were ponies. It was like he accidentally FTL'ed into a holovision. The human's palm flew into his face. Once again, his crew had similar reactions.
"Similarity to human children's entertainment: 89.7%"
"We are waaasssting our time with thiiisss?"
"These creatures sure are. . . fascinating?"
The human spoke up quickly, "Show of hands, who wants to leave?"
Five hands and a bladed appendage shot up into the air. The human nodded and motioned the others to the shuttle. "Then let's get out of here!"
With disappointment in tow, the crew quickly returned to the shuttle and then the Kestrel. Maybe there will be something more exciting and useful at the next jump beacon.
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Confetti? Check. Cake? Check. Oven? Check. Confetti launcher? Check. And everything was set for the "Welcome to Equestria!" party for the aliens. Several ponies had already beaten her to the aliens, but that's okay. It's still going to be a great party.
Nearing the front, Pinkie Pie saw five paws and a bug leg up in the air. "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Are you guys dancing? I love dancing!" Pinkie bolted towards the aliens, but they were already going back to their flying metal carriage. Oh no! That's not the right way to the party!
"Waaaiiiitttt!!! The paaarrrttttyyyyy is ooovvvveeeerrr heeeeeeerrreeee!" It was for naught. The ship had already left. Pinkie's mane deflated a little.
Author's Note
There is literally no risk for the first option, I don't know why anyone would skip it.