One Visitorby EclipseMFChaptersPrologueChapter One: LandingChapter Three: First ImpressionsChapter Two: CracklingProloguePrologue He slowly floated through the compressed air. Of the few noises, seemingly only out of science fiction movies, he heard none, lost in thought as he was. There seemed to be too many things on his mind, yet not enough, for he thought of everything he had ever known, which was now all gone. He had let his body drift, float through the air, for a while now, his breathing being the only sign he was even still alive, and even that was subdued. One of the windows was still damp and smeared from where he had pounded on it, tears coming from his eyes, what seemed like years ago… He pulled into the driveway, late into the afternoon. He smiled, seeing his wife and daughters waiting on the porch for him. He was barely able to get out before his daughters were already to him, pure joy written on their faces as they eagerly told him about their first day at school. He did his best to pass out responses to them when he could until his wife finally called them all in for dinner. Life was great, the bills were paid, and he was a lucky man. A slight bump against one of the walls was what brought him out of his memory. He looked around, and once again was he drowned in despair, loss, grief. As much as they had already, more tears came to his eyes once again, threatening to leave them. He tried to clench his eyes shut, but as many tears were let out as were kept in. They seemed like the only thing he had left to lose, now. He clinked his glass against the others’, saying, “Cheers!” with them, and taking a sip afterwards. They had made much progress on the escape pod, and were getting very close to finally finishing it, granting themselves the large pay the government had offered for it. It would be the last resort of the world, should a large crisis ever happen, a last hope for humanity. Over the little noises there were, another emerged, slightly yet noticeably louder than the others. A little light streamed through the window, some of it distorted by the tears that had remained on it. He just tried to block the noise out just like all the others, balling up into a fetal position, trying to stay inside his own greater memories… He could still hear the siren blaring. Someone had a TV they usually had out in the visitors’ room, and they turned it on as it started to display a message: “We interrupt our programming; This is a national emergency. The following message is transmitted at the request of the United States government. This is not a test. A nuclear attack is occurring against the United States. One hundred eighty nine nuclear missiles have been launched from unknown locations, and are expected to strike the United States within the next two hours. Due to the uncertain tracks of these missiles, all residents of the United States should seek out, and prepare to take shelter immediately-” “Stand by for a message from the president of the United States…” The president started giving a speech after that, but only once he had stopped listening. He was too busy thinking, wondering about his family, what he was going to do, and he knew he had to think fast. His co-workers had been talking about how chaos had taken over, there had been widespread looting, and that the United States wasn’t the only one that had to worry. A seemingly invisible barrier or line between all the countries had finally broken, after years and years of pressure slowly being pushed on it. He started to panic, more and more, nearly hyperventilating. His life had been going so well, him being the leader of such an expensive project, he would have been a multi-millionaire afterwards… until this happened… He found himself unable to grasp the fact that it was all over, that he was going to die, yet the sentence kept repeating itself in his mind. He finally couldn’t take it anymore, it being shouted throughout himself. He got up and headed for the project chamber. The beeping had stopped, being replaced with a louder, lower pitched hum, knocking his concentration off. He put his hands over his ears, as if it was the very voice that shouted throughout his mind that he was going to die… He strapped himself into the seat in the pod, looking over the layout of levers and buttons he had mostly designed. He knew exactly what to do, and started pressing and pulling them. A robotic voice finally said, “Lifting off in 5… 4…” He thought over what he was doing , feeling suddenly somewhat.. empty… “3… 2…” But it was only then that he was able to remember. “1…” His family. He looked out the window beside him, screaming the word, “NO!” but he couldn’t even hear himself saying it once the engines were activated. The chamber above quickly opened, as he was thrust straight through the air and sky. He frantically pounded on the window beside him, tears streaming from his eyes. It was too late, though. Once he was finally up in space, the tears on his face old by then, he slowly unbuckled, his face up to the window. He looked back down at Earth, at where he came from. There was a small, slight movement he saw, then what looked like a miniscule cloud… He realized it was an explosion. “Life forms detected,” said a robotic voice. He jerked his head up, still for a moment. He pushed off of a wall over to the seat. “Recalculating trajectory…” said the voice. He could feel subtle changes in the movement of the pod. Then was when he got his first look out the window since earlier. He saw a sun, seeming much more beautiful, younger, than the one he had once been used to. It felt as if he could even just look at it without hurting his eyes. As he looked more, he noticed one planet, off a distance away from the sun, in the way the pod was headed. Life forms…. He thought, wondering what was in store. He watched the planet, which looked strictly made out of the brightest of colors, as the pod slowly approached it... Chapter One: LandingChapter One: Landing Twilight jerked up out of her bed, her covers flying off of her. She looked around as her breathing, first frantic, started to slow. “Just a dream.. Juuust a dream…” she muttered to herself reassuringly. It had seemed so real, the fear and panic she had felt, though she had never even known what exactly was going on. She had heard a final explosion which had finally shaken her from the nightmare.. She decided to get up to get some fresh air. Spike was still sleeping, and the moonlight still shone through the windows. She slowly walked towards her personal balcony, outside, to take a look over the kingdom of Equestria from high up in Canterlot. The night was beautiful, the clouds finally letting all the land bask in moonlight after some days of rain. Even the usual gusts of wind that usually swept by at such a high altitude had calmed to a gentle breeze. Off in the distance, she could see Ponyville, and the gloomy Everfree forest looming beyond it. Through her newer alicorn powers, she could even see Appleloosa much further off. Other places such as Cloudsdale and the Crystal Mountains far north weren’t visible from the balcony she viewed from. She relaxed, taking deep breaths. The cool air seemed to always provide a haven she could go to whenever she needed some time to herself. After some time, she finally decided to go back in and get some rest. As she turned around beginning to walk back, she thought she heard a whistling, one she never would have noticed were she still only a unicorn. She slowly turned around, seeing something in the sky. It at first only looked like a shooting star, or meteor, but something seemed to tell her it was more than that. She focused on it, enhancing her vision, until she could finally make out more features of it through the cone of flame that surrounded it, though it was so distant. She had never seen anything like it. It didn’t look natural, mostly having a shiny, smooth surface. She watched it all the way to it’s impact, a little northeast of Appleloosa. What was that thing…? she thought, still trying to make it out. I had better go check it out… There’s no telling what it could be, coming from the sky… Her horn glowed as she teleported, starting to make her way to where she saw it land. Chapter Three: First ImpressionsChapter Three: First Impressions “There’s the smoke, coming from just over there. Just one last teleport,” Twilight said to herself, and she teleported once again, finally beside the thing that had fallen from the sky. Looking at it, there were many more flames around it than she had ever seen around any regular meteor. It was as if there had even been an explosion around it, although she didn’t know how that could have happened. Her alicorn eyes picked up a small movement coming from it. The difference was that this movement was no flame, but something else… inside it. What…? It’s hollow?? What was… Her eyes opened wide as she realized that the movement had come from a window. She let her jaw drop open, realizing that this was much more than a meteor. Then, that movement may have been… She galloped towards the window of the object, as close as she could without running into the flames. Once she got as close as she could, she teleported into it. She started coughing after her very first breath, being overwhelmed by the sudden smoke and heat. Beside her she saw the shape of whatever she had just seen move, while the flames crawled towards her from her front. Her horn glowed, and the fire was forced to retreat from a gust of wind. She knew it wouldn’t be long until the flames were back where they were again. Looking at the shape again, she took hold of it and herself, and teleported them both outside, to safety. He opened his eyes. What.. where am I…? he thought, slowly starting to look around. He saw that it was early dawn, and there weren’t many trees or plants to break the landscape. He was lying back down on a hard ground covered in grass which was struggling to survive. Pushing himself up a little, he saw that the pod was off a few meters to his left, where it still had a few flames around it from the crash. His last memory of finally losing hope came back to him from seeing it. How did I… How am I alive…? he wondered. Taking a look to his right, he saw something stranger than he had ever seen. Twilight paced back and forth frantically, still wondering what she could or should do. She had looked at the.. thing.. she had saved from the object, and found out that it was, in fact, alive. Now she still wondered, after a few hours, what it was, what it would do when it woke, where it came from, what to do- “H.. Hello…?” it said to her. She jerked her head to look at it, stopping dead still. She could see fear, confusion, in it, more than anything. Slowly, she let go of her stiff standstill to walk towards it. She deliberately made every step she took take time so as to not frighten this thing even more, if she could help it. As soon as it started to look more scared, she stopped. “What are you…?” she asked it. It’s face changed to show surprise as soon as she spoke to it. “You can talk?” it asked her incredulously. “Well, yeah..” she responded with a dull tone. It didn’t seem very bright. “Wh.. what are you? What is this place?” it asked, glancing at it’s surroundings. “This is Equestria. I’m an alicorn,” she said to it, although her answers didn’t seem to satisfy it. She figured she could save her own various questions until this thing was in a better state of mind. “Equestria…? Alicorn…? What… is this a dream or something? Am I dead?” it asked her. She rolled her eyes, responding, “No, I don’t think so… Here, uh.. We should probably go and talk in a better place than this,” she said to it. “What places are there?” it asked her. “I’ll show you,” she said to it, starting to smile. “Just don’t start panicking as soon as we start to go…” Her horn glowed as it asked, “Why wou-” He was interrupted by her teleporting them both across the landscape, on the way to Canterlot. She made sure to only teleport to places where no one would be, because he had in fact started screaming as soon as they started. Chapter Two: CracklingChapter Two: Crackling He took a sip from his coffee, enjoying the warmth that bathed him in the log cabin. The vacation had been going well, none of the skiing resorts had closed from some unexpected blizzard or crisis, and he and his family had been having fun over the week. Now, he rested in his chair, watching and feeling the fire’s warmth embrace him in his robe, after mostly being in below freezing temperatures. The fire seemed to be growing larger, crackling even louder as he watched it. He blinked. The walls around the fire had suddenly lit, it spreading rapidly. His mouth dropped open and surprise, and he hurried to get up from his chair, but couldn’t. As hard as he tried, it was if something was holding him in. Over half the inside of the cabin had caught on fire now, and it seemed that some of it had reached the floor, now crawling towards him. He screamed for help, but it was hard to even hear himself now from how loudly the fire crackled. He let out a final chilling scream as the fire reached the chair to climb it, and he clenched his eyes shut to wait for the end. He jerked against the strap of the seat, opening his eyes. He looked around, wiping his eyes as sweat ran into them. He wasn’t sure if it was from the terrible dream he had just had, or the immense heat he felt…. immense heat. He looked behind him and saw the source of crackling in his dream, crawling towards him in reality as well. He hurried to unbuckle the strap of his seat, starting to cough. It finally unlatched, but as he took another breath, he had to cough again, only now realizing it was because of the smoke. He went to his side to try and get out the window, seeing it was dark outside it. As he pounded on it, he slowly started to realize that his effort was futile, for the window was made to be even stronger than bulletproof, to fly through space. He stopped pounding on the window, coughing again. “No… Help…” he tried to yell in a strained voice, looking out the window with his fist on it. The heat of the fire let him know it was getting much closer, his back starting to burn. He saw a small, purple looking flash out the window as he began to give up. He finally let himself slide down the wall, balling up with his eyes closed to await the inevitable...
ProloguePrologue He slowly floated through the compressed air. Of the few noises, seemingly only out of science fiction movies, he heard none, lost in thought as he was. There seemed to be too many things on his mind, yet not enough, for he thought of everything he had ever known, which was now all gone. He had let his body drift, float through the air, for a while now, his breathing being the only sign he was even still alive, and even that was subdued. One of the windows was still damp and smeared from where he had pounded on it, tears coming from his eyes, what seemed like years ago… He pulled into the driveway, late into the afternoon. He smiled, seeing his wife and daughters waiting on the porch for him. He was barely able to get out before his daughters were already to him, pure joy written on their faces as they eagerly told him about their first day at school. He did his best to pass out responses to them when he could until his wife finally called them all in for dinner. Life was great, the bills were paid, and he was a lucky man. A slight bump against one of the walls was what brought him out of his memory. He looked around, and once again was he drowned in despair, loss, grief. As much as they had already, more tears came to his eyes once again, threatening to leave them. He tried to clench his eyes shut, but as many tears were let out as were kept in. They seemed like the only thing he had left to lose, now. He clinked his glass against the others’, saying, “Cheers!” with them, and taking a sip afterwards. They had made much progress on the escape pod, and were getting very close to finally finishing it, granting themselves the large pay the government had offered for it. It would be the last resort of the world, should a large crisis ever happen, a last hope for humanity. Over the little noises there were, another emerged, slightly yet noticeably louder than the others. A little light streamed through the window, some of it distorted by the tears that had remained on it. He just tried to block the noise out just like all the others, balling up into a fetal position, trying to stay inside his own greater memories… He could still hear the siren blaring. Someone had a TV they usually had out in the visitors’ room, and they turned it on as it started to display a message: “We interrupt our programming; This is a national emergency. The following message is transmitted at the request of the United States government. This is not a test. A nuclear attack is occurring against the United States. One hundred eighty nine nuclear missiles have been launched from unknown locations, and are expected to strike the United States within the next two hours. Due to the uncertain tracks of these missiles, all residents of the United States should seek out, and prepare to take shelter immediately-” “Stand by for a message from the president of the United States…” The president started giving a speech after that, but only once he had stopped listening. He was too busy thinking, wondering about his family, what he was going to do, and he knew he had to think fast. His co-workers had been talking about how chaos had taken over, there had been widespread looting, and that the United States wasn’t the only one that had to worry. A seemingly invisible barrier or line between all the countries had finally broken, after years and years of pressure slowly being pushed on it. He started to panic, more and more, nearly hyperventilating. His life had been going so well, him being the leader of such an expensive project, he would have been a multi-millionaire afterwards… until this happened… He found himself unable to grasp the fact that it was all over, that he was going to die, yet the sentence kept repeating itself in his mind. He finally couldn’t take it anymore, it being shouted throughout himself. He got up and headed for the project chamber. The beeping had stopped, being replaced with a louder, lower pitched hum, knocking his concentration off. He put his hands over his ears, as if it was the very voice that shouted throughout his mind that he was going to die… He strapped himself into the seat in the pod, looking over the layout of levers and buttons he had mostly designed. He knew exactly what to do, and started pressing and pulling them. A robotic voice finally said, “Lifting off in 5… 4…” He thought over what he was doing , feeling suddenly somewhat.. empty… “3… 2…” But it was only then that he was able to remember. “1…” His family. He looked out the window beside him, screaming the word, “NO!” but he couldn’t even hear himself saying it once the engines were activated. The chamber above quickly opened, as he was thrust straight through the air and sky. He frantically pounded on the window beside him, tears streaming from his eyes. It was too late, though. Once he was finally up in space, the tears on his face old by then, he slowly unbuckled, his face up to the window. He looked back down at Earth, at where he came from. There was a small, slight movement he saw, then what looked like a miniscule cloud… He realized it was an explosion. “Life forms detected,” said a robotic voice. He jerked his head up, still for a moment. He pushed off of a wall over to the seat. “Recalculating trajectory…” said the voice. He could feel subtle changes in the movement of the pod. Then was when he got his first look out the window since earlier. He saw a sun, seeming much more beautiful, younger, than the one he had once been used to. It felt as if he could even just look at it without hurting his eyes. As he looked more, he noticed one planet, off a distance away from the sun, in the way the pod was headed. Life forms…. He thought, wondering what was in store. He watched the planet, which looked strictly made out of the brightest of colors, as the pod slowly approached it...
Chapter One: LandingChapter One: Landing Twilight jerked up out of her bed, her covers flying off of her. She looked around as her breathing, first frantic, started to slow. “Just a dream.. Juuust a dream…” she muttered to herself reassuringly. It had seemed so real, the fear and panic she had felt, though she had never even known what exactly was going on. She had heard a final explosion which had finally shaken her from the nightmare.. She decided to get up to get some fresh air. Spike was still sleeping, and the moonlight still shone through the windows. She slowly walked towards her personal balcony, outside, to take a look over the kingdom of Equestria from high up in Canterlot. The night was beautiful, the clouds finally letting all the land bask in moonlight after some days of rain. Even the usual gusts of wind that usually swept by at such a high altitude had calmed to a gentle breeze. Off in the distance, she could see Ponyville, and the gloomy Everfree forest looming beyond it. Through her newer alicorn powers, she could even see Appleloosa much further off. Other places such as Cloudsdale and the Crystal Mountains far north weren’t visible from the balcony she viewed from. She relaxed, taking deep breaths. The cool air seemed to always provide a haven she could go to whenever she needed some time to herself. After some time, she finally decided to go back in and get some rest. As she turned around beginning to walk back, she thought she heard a whistling, one she never would have noticed were she still only a unicorn. She slowly turned around, seeing something in the sky. It at first only looked like a shooting star, or meteor, but something seemed to tell her it was more than that. She focused on it, enhancing her vision, until she could finally make out more features of it through the cone of flame that surrounded it, though it was so distant. She had never seen anything like it. It didn’t look natural, mostly having a shiny, smooth surface. She watched it all the way to it’s impact, a little northeast of Appleloosa. What was that thing…? she thought, still trying to make it out. I had better go check it out… There’s no telling what it could be, coming from the sky… Her horn glowed as she teleported, starting to make her way to where she saw it land.
Chapter Three: First ImpressionsChapter Three: First Impressions “There’s the smoke, coming from just over there. Just one last teleport,” Twilight said to herself, and she teleported once again, finally beside the thing that had fallen from the sky. Looking at it, there were many more flames around it than she had ever seen around any regular meteor. It was as if there had even been an explosion around it, although she didn’t know how that could have happened. Her alicorn eyes picked up a small movement coming from it. The difference was that this movement was no flame, but something else… inside it. What…? It’s hollow?? What was… Her eyes opened wide as she realized that the movement had come from a window. She let her jaw drop open, realizing that this was much more than a meteor. Then, that movement may have been… She galloped towards the window of the object, as close as she could without running into the flames. Once she got as close as she could, she teleported into it. She started coughing after her very first breath, being overwhelmed by the sudden smoke and heat. Beside her she saw the shape of whatever she had just seen move, while the flames crawled towards her from her front. Her horn glowed, and the fire was forced to retreat from a gust of wind. She knew it wouldn’t be long until the flames were back where they were again. Looking at the shape again, she took hold of it and herself, and teleported them both outside, to safety. He opened his eyes. What.. where am I…? he thought, slowly starting to look around. He saw that it was early dawn, and there weren’t many trees or plants to break the landscape. He was lying back down on a hard ground covered in grass which was struggling to survive. Pushing himself up a little, he saw that the pod was off a few meters to his left, where it still had a few flames around it from the crash. His last memory of finally losing hope came back to him from seeing it. How did I… How am I alive…? he wondered. Taking a look to his right, he saw something stranger than he had ever seen. Twilight paced back and forth frantically, still wondering what she could or should do. She had looked at the.. thing.. she had saved from the object, and found out that it was, in fact, alive. Now she still wondered, after a few hours, what it was, what it would do when it woke, where it came from, what to do- “H.. Hello…?” it said to her. She jerked her head to look at it, stopping dead still. She could see fear, confusion, in it, more than anything. Slowly, she let go of her stiff standstill to walk towards it. She deliberately made every step she took take time so as to not frighten this thing even more, if she could help it. As soon as it started to look more scared, she stopped. “What are you…?” she asked it. It’s face changed to show surprise as soon as she spoke to it. “You can talk?” it asked her incredulously. “Well, yeah..” she responded with a dull tone. It didn’t seem very bright. “Wh.. what are you? What is this place?” it asked, glancing at it’s surroundings. “This is Equestria. I’m an alicorn,” she said to it, although her answers didn’t seem to satisfy it. She figured she could save her own various questions until this thing was in a better state of mind. “Equestria…? Alicorn…? What… is this a dream or something? Am I dead?” it asked her. She rolled her eyes, responding, “No, I don’t think so… Here, uh.. We should probably go and talk in a better place than this,” she said to it. “What places are there?” it asked her. “I’ll show you,” she said to it, starting to smile. “Just don’t start panicking as soon as we start to go…” Her horn glowed as it asked, “Why wou-” He was interrupted by her teleporting them both across the landscape, on the way to Canterlot. She made sure to only teleport to places where no one would be, because he had in fact started screaming as soon as they started.
Chapter Two: CracklingChapter Two: Crackling He took a sip from his coffee, enjoying the warmth that bathed him in the log cabin. The vacation had been going well, none of the skiing resorts had closed from some unexpected blizzard or crisis, and he and his family had been having fun over the week. Now, he rested in his chair, watching and feeling the fire’s warmth embrace him in his robe, after mostly being in below freezing temperatures. The fire seemed to be growing larger, crackling even louder as he watched it. He blinked. The walls around the fire had suddenly lit, it spreading rapidly. His mouth dropped open and surprise, and he hurried to get up from his chair, but couldn’t. As hard as he tried, it was if something was holding him in. Over half the inside of the cabin had caught on fire now, and it seemed that some of it had reached the floor, now crawling towards him. He screamed for help, but it was hard to even hear himself now from how loudly the fire crackled. He let out a final chilling scream as the fire reached the chair to climb it, and he clenched his eyes shut to wait for the end. He jerked against the strap of the seat, opening his eyes. He looked around, wiping his eyes as sweat ran into them. He wasn’t sure if it was from the terrible dream he had just had, or the immense heat he felt…. immense heat. He looked behind him and saw the source of crackling in his dream, crawling towards him in reality as well. He hurried to unbuckle the strap of his seat, starting to cough. It finally unlatched, but as he took another breath, he had to cough again, only now realizing it was because of the smoke. He went to his side to try and get out the window, seeing it was dark outside it. As he pounded on it, he slowly started to realize that his effort was futile, for the window was made to be even stronger than bulletproof, to fly through space. He stopped pounding on the window, coughing again. “No… Help…” he tried to yell in a strained voice, looking out the window with his fist on it. The heat of the fire let him know it was getting much closer, his back starting to burn. He saw a small, purple looking flash out the window as he began to give up. He finally let himself slide down the wall, balling up with his eyes closed to await the inevitable...
