Chapters Opening my eyes for the first time in such a long time of being asleep, I saw that everything that I once knew was no more.
Everything that I had seen in the past is gone, replaced with the present that shows that nothing is sacred anymore.
Has anyone ever told you something that made you think about what is real and what isn’t?
Ever told you that the world you once knew is different from it once was.
Or told you that everything that you once were, is nothing more than an illusion?
I found out the hard way when I was told by my guide to go to the Moon, to save those there from our ancient enemy, hell bent on destroying us once and for all. We thought that we were invincible against everything. But I was wrong.
We were wrong.
The enemy knew exactly where to find us at our weakest, they knew where to hit us, but they couldn’t reach us in force with the exception of one person.
One man, the one who has been hunting us all down, one by one, for supposed crimes that we have committed against him.
The Stalker.
And he found us, he found the moon, hidden away within the Void, out of reach from the Sentients, but now that he found us though, we were vulnerable.
We were not safe.
But on Lotus’s order, all Tenno went to the moon, dropping everything we were doing to mount a rescue mission. We were told that there is something so precious, so valuable, so important to Tenno everywhere and the continued survival of our order and kind on that moon.
What she didn’t tell us though, is that the thing we were saving…
Was ourselves.
The Moon
On Lotus’s word I dropped from my Orbiter, my body landing on the ground with nothing more than a thud , my hands slapping the once polished metal floor that was once a landing pad for the Tenno, now nothing more than a ruined hunk of twisted metal and rock.
The Moon, once forgotten from the minds of everyone and erased from every single record out there in existence.
Now it returns, broken, cracked, desolate, ruined, defiled and desecrated.
And here I am, one of the first Tenno to have stepped foot on this sacred rock, once an Orokin facility that housed the heart of the Tenno, now it is under attack by our ancient enemy, coming back to permanently wipe us out and make the destruction of the solar system complete and final.
Unhooking my rifle from my back I brought it out, my gaze locking onto the ornate gold and metal weapon, created with pride and skill by weapon smiths of old. The gold spurs and ribs that line the rifle gleam in the diluted sunlight that is reaching the moon at the moment, and with a quick motion a fresh magazine was placed into its rightful spot within the internal compartment with a click before being considered locked and loaded.
“We saved The Moon from a Void Collapse but Hunhow can now attack the Reservoir directly.”
Turning the safety ‘off’ of my rifle I stepped slowly into the long abandoned structure, its once gilded halls now dusty and decrepit from centuries of being left alone. A shadow of its former glory, this place rings hollow and dead but with me and several more others, life is slowly returning to this ancient place.
“He must not reach this sacred place.”
Picking up the pace with my steps I went from a brisk jog to a heated run, my heavy footsteps echoing loudly against the barren walls, a fire being lit underneath all Tenno to increase their pace as we all made our way into the heart of the Moon to retrieve what is deemed important to the Lotus.
“Shadow, bleed the Reservoir until it is desert dry.” Hunhow’s corrupted, gravely voice echoed throughout the Moon, and deep down I knew that with his voice came with him his Shadow, his servant, the Stalker.
Both of them are here, somewhere.
With his voice in my mind I started to sprint towards my objective, following Lotus’s markers that she has laid out before me, my gaze falling onto the once magnificent and glorious golden structures that was once our home, now nothing more than an empty graveyard.
“Lotus, join with me, destroy your shame.”
We are not a shame! We are the sword and shield of humanity and we will not be talked down like meer beasts!
“Become the one I love, become Natah once more.”
Turning around a corner and going up a short flight of stairs, I ran past a low disused power line before going through an opened gate, the light blue lights on it winking off as they slide open, revealing what lies beyond it. A damaged hallway, the right wall was ruined as moon rocks has fallen through the damaged structure and the far wall before the bend has a hole in it, allowing the vacuum of space inside along with allowing the sunlight to pierce through the darkness.
Before I can keep running toward the objective a tall, slim objective moved itself from the corner of the hall and made itself known by disconnecting parts of itself and floated into the air.
A Sentient Fighter.
Taking aim at center mass, a glowing golden energy sphere, I unloaded the entire magazine of sixty rounds, metal bolts flew out from the barrel at a blaring speed as they embedded themselves into the chest region of the Sentient, several rounds hit their mark while the rest was diverted away from its core but the damage was done. Quickly swapping my primary weapon onto my back I pulled free from their holsters my two pistols, the two gold-trimmed revolvers pointed down range and at the bronze-colored machine before bright flashes of light shoot forth from the two barrels.
Twelve rounds found their mark and with each impact the Sentient, the corrosive and explosive ammunition breaking against the metal plating, eating away and blasting apart the protective external covers, revealing the weaker inner layer.
As soon as it was exposed I dropped both pistols before reaching back and jumping into the air, grabbing my warhammer that was hooked to my back and coming back with full force, the momentum of it all allowing the flat faced hammer to crumple and crushed the center chest region of the Sentient, forcing its power core to implode upon itself before it falling to the ground.
Dead.
Once it was killed I placed my Palatine Jat Kittag on my back, and kneeled down to grab my two Vasto Prime’s off the floor where I dropped them and ejected the spent casing before replacing them with fresh bullets. When my twin pistols have been reloaded I slid them back into their holsters before switching back to my primary weapon of choice, the Boltor Prime, and with its glorious black and gold color scheme gleaming partially in the artificial light overhead, pulling back on the lever to swap out the internal cartridge and replace it with a fresh one.
Making sure the cursed machine was dead I stomped on its alien-esque head, crushing its eyes and face until it was nothing more than a pile of scrap metal.
With that over with I continued on with my mission, running down the halls both untouched and destroyed, the twisting, crumbled paths before me, all of them look the same now which is unfortunate. This place could have been our home once again, but now it is now doomed to fall apart and destroy itself.
This will stop the voices from taking hold.
You will have to dream my Angel.
This voice...it sounded like...no, it can’t be...can it?
The Lotus?
Was she here in the past?
Was this a void echo?
Shaking that familiar voice from my head I continued on my path, entering a desolate chasm lying before me. The deep stone depths between me and my objective was vast but I know that I could get across it with ease.
Checking the math in my head and the distance that I will need to cross I ran the numbers and came up with favorable odds, and with that in mind I took a few steps back before getting a running start. Looking at the short distance I have and the long distance I have between the edge and the ledge on the other side before sprinting at the edge and making the jump, forcing the energy within my body into my legs, forcibly launching me over the chasm and onto the other side.
With a soft thud before rolling on the metal floor until coming to a complete stop back on my feet.
“...so shame on you! You Orokin, so perfect on the outside but you’re rotted, through and through!”
What is happening to Lotus? What are the Orokin doing to her!
“Seven hands raised! For your apostasy, your judgement...is death!”
No! This is wrong, this has to be!
“Margulis, why?”
Margulis? Who is that? A friend of Lotus? Lotus before she changed her name?
Who are these people!
This place...it is cursed...something wrong happened here, something very wrong.
The stray and mysterious voices that have entered my head linger, filling me with dread and anger at what is happening. The Orokin they did something to The Lotus, they must have!
Running down through more halls I saw what was once obstacle courses of some sort, was it for the Orokin soldiers during The Old War? I ignored it all, focusing on what lied ahead of me but the more I looked around and saw the training rooms, I started to think of what the moon really was.
“...it’s about the other rejects we consigned to Lua a years ago.”
“They’re calling it...Transference.”
Transference? Rejects? Was the moon a research facility of some kind?
Was I once of these rejects?
Or am I one of the successive test subjects?
What am I? Truly, what am I?
“...I know we are desperate Executor, but these aren’t Dax soldiers. These are golems, possed by devil minds.”
What are these voices talking about? Devil mind and golems? Are they talking about us?
No, that is impossible. I have memories! I have dreams! I can think and feel for myself! I am not some machine that can be controlled! I am not a slave!
In my fit of anger I punched a broken gate, the force of the impact dislodged its already crippled form out from its housing and out onto the floor. The resulting crash let out a resounding echo of metal on metal, the noise no doubt alerted everything nearby to my presence, and quite possibly other Tenno as well.
Before I could lose myself to my anger I failed to realize that my object was straight ahead, just eighty five meters away.
Pushing my rage into the dark corners of my mind I pushed on, my anger will serve me as a focal point on my enemies, they will feel what happens when they make a Tenno angry, and they will not like it feels to have their body battered and broken to the point of being unrecognizable and ruined.
Storming and vaulting through hallways and empty chambers my vision saw a faint waterfall in the distance, a room of serenity and peace, untouched by time and war. Something so alien and mystical, and this is what The Lotus wanted?
But I see nothing here, nothing of value…
Was this all a trick?
When I stepped down the stairs leading to the waterfall my gaze caught something hanging within the falls, several tendrils, and all of them were diving into the watery depths.
Something was hidden here.
But what I wasn’t prepared for was the tendrils to slowly be pulled upwards, and with them rising out from the water I saw something astounding.
Seven pods of unknown origin and meaning.
All seven pods were connected by the tendrils and as they were fully exposed to the open air I saw the tendrils remove themselves from the pods, leaving them suspended in the air, hovering in place. As I watched the seven pods level out I noticed the one in the center of the other six stay more upright than the others, and it started to move towards me.
Was there someone inside the pod, someone of extreme importance? Is it a weapon that we can use against the Sentients? What can it be?
I watched the pod slowly move through the water towards me, the thing itself is massive in shape and size but as it came closer I saw that a small section on top has opened itself up, revealing a much smaller pod within and that too started to move outwards as soon as the large one stopped. My gaze tracked the smaller target, it creeped along the hull of the pod and what I saw made me quiver, something that has never happened to me before in my several century long life.
As it lowered itself to the ground I saw that there was something exposed, it looked like a body, I wasn’t sure what it was until it hit the ground. The body landed in a heap and before I could even move I-
Dream
Not of what you are
But of what you want to be
Pain.
That was all I could feel.
My body was in pain, unimaginable pain.
Why am I in pain? Why does my body hurt so much?
Opening my eyes...it feels strange to do so...but I did it anyways and what I saw alarmed me greatly.
My body, it is...different...it is not covered in protective armor, not shielded from the pain that is wracking my very frame.
And yet...it feels familiar, I do not know why but this is my body, something so alien and strange from what I have known for so long is what I truly am.
I tried to pull myself onto my feet but I was too weak to do so, I needed something to help me stand up. Looking around I saw my other self, it was kneeling on the floor, it's head looking down at the floor, its arm hanging by the side, palms facing the ceiling.
Once my eyes have locked onto my other body I placed my hands on the floor and slowly dragged my weakened body over to it, I had to get out of here, whatever this place is.
Continuing to crawl towards my Warframe I kept moving at a slow pace, I could have crawled faster but my body is still weak and sore, I don’t know for how long I have been in this condition, but I ignored the aches and pains. I had to get to myself to get out of here.
As soon as I reached it I crawled partially onto it, my upper body resting on its right arm before I placed my left hand on its shoulder and as soon as my hand came into contact with it I felt a brief connection between the two of us before I felt myself start to feel drained for the smallest of moments before it started to feel like I was revitalizing myself.
My body was feeling strange but then I started to feel my other self again, I saw its head twitch slightly before moving a bit more, tilting in my direction before slowly standing on its feet, helping me up along the way before lifting me off the ground and into its arms. Its body is practically lifeless.
We barely took a step towards the direction of the exit before we stopped, a lone figure with a greatsword of unknown origin and it was pointed at me.
I raised my right arm up, hoping that it would back off or at the very least deflect the oncoming attack but I know that it would do nothing to stop the blade, but instead the lone figure did not attack. I looked around, looking for a way out of this but in my condition and that my Warframe was acting like a zombie, I knew that there was no way out of this mess in one piece.
Before I could try to direct this other body to run towards the exit, the lone figure turns around and walked towards the remaining six pods.
“You hesitate Shadow, but remember your despair.”
“This is your only chance to make it end.”
This...Shadow looked at the pods and for a moment I thought I saw something within it, like it might have been like me.
I watched this Shadow look at itself, like it was thinking, contemplating, wondering the same thing that I was wondering earlier. What are we both, truly.
“Your hatred is too weak Shadow. Mine is strong, my fragments will finish this.”
This strange voice that was talking, it sounded disappointed with the Shadow’s choice but when it said its fragments will finish this, what does it mean?
Ignoring the Shadow I directed my other self to start moving, to head towards the exit of this place and to get us as far away from here as fast as possible.
“Tenno...Operator, you’re awake now, but you’re more vulnerable than ever.”
The Lotus, she is speaking to me! Her voice is clear, so perfect...why does she sound like her...like mother?
Questions for later, right now my priority is to get out of here alive and in one piece.
Walking slowly to the back of the room I heard her voice again.
“Get back to your ship, now.”
‘You don’t have to tell me twice...this place is spooky.’
Moving to the rear of the grand chamber I saw one of those...things blocking my path, and it turned its body right at me before making its move.
“You need to focus your mind to unleash your true power.”
Focus my mind? I can do that?
Closing my eyes I extended my right hand outward, pointing it at the Sentient Battalyst that was floating right at me and what I found shocked me.
Deep within my core I found something...strange...something unique...it felt, wrong yet right. Like it belonged there, and when I made contact with it with my mind I felt a reservoir of energy spike through me and out through my open hand, a beam of gold-blond energy shot forth and slammed into its head, crumpling it inward like a piece of sheet metal before it imploded on itself and exploded violently, dying immediately.
Walking further we went down a short curved stairs, finding another Sentient but this one made the first move and open fired. A short burst of white energy scattered at us but a stray bolt hit my others thigh, scarring it with burns but for the most part not doing any kind of damage.
I returned fire with my mind laser, melting the bottom half of the Sentient and I watched as it floated for a few moments before falling over, the gold core in its chest flickered for a few seconds before sputtering out dead.
‘That looked painful, but I doubt they even feel anything anyways.’
It didn’t take us long to reach the opposite end of the room and down a hallway where yet another of the Sentients was waiting for us and in the same fashion as the other two it too met an unfortunate fate of being melted by my mind laser.
We eventually made it to a slanted landing pad and with it our extraction from the surface of the moon.
Ctrl-F: End of Spoilers
Planet: Equis, Continent/Country: Equestria, Capital: Canterlot, Location: Royal Palace
“Now Twilight I understand that you are absolutely giddy with excitement about your new position as the head of the science department here in Canterlot but you have to understand that your little project of finding the origin of the unknown skull fragment is a waste of time. Countless scientists in numerous fields all tried to discover the same thing but in the end they all failed. I am sorry to say this Twilight but you must stop this before it completely absorbs your life in a vain attempt to succeed where others have failed.” Princess Celestia said before looking back down at the ever growing stack of paperwork that is constantly rolling in from all parts of mainland Equestria as her student sighed sadly and left her room, downtrodden that her request to study the ancient skull fragment was denied.
Yet again.
Closing the door behind herself, the dejected purple unicorn left her mentor’s room and slowly walked back to her room in the palace. Normally she would have been in a far better mood, especially since she helped defeat King Sombra with the help of her friends, but because her own mentor denied her the chance to discover a long lost species because so many others have wasted their lives and failed in such a pursuit before her.
On her slow walk back her mind went to her old project that she had set aside in her attempt to discover the truth about the fragment and as soon as she got shut down her mind immediately went back to the project.
The project of creating a hybrid of magic and machine, something that the illusive Flim Flam brothers have accomplished with that strange contraption of theirs. How those two scam artists can create such a thing is something the poor mare can’t even wrap around her head.
When she first talked to the two con artists they hadn’t exactly said anything on how their machine worked let alone tell her how it was even created. The mere thought of being able to combine magic and industry together and work in perfect harmony so far has been nothing more than a dream as all attempts so far have ended with failure. Even after stripping the machine down and looking at every single part Twilight couldn’t even figure out how it managed to function as it did before.
The possibilities of the creation of magic and technology merging together could help so many ponies out there but so far that is just a dream at the moment.
‘I wonder what Spike is up to?’
Her thought was answered for her when she saw Spike slowly drag himself down the hall, groaning all the while as he walked and moaned the entire time.
“Spike, are you okay?”
“No, just got my butt kicked by your brother yet again.” Spike moaned out as he rubbed his right arm, it was limp from getting whacked hard with a blunt metal sword.
“Still failing to block his sword?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Maybe you should block his attack instead of blocking it with your arm?”
“I know, it is just hard to when she is there…”
“Who?”
“Princess Luna.”
“Ah.” Twilight whispered out, obviously the princess of the moon would watch the mock fighting and have the presence to distract her brother long enough to get whooped hard.
“Yeah, she loves to watch me get beat up and down the training yard. At least Rarity is there to make the pain better.” Spike said the last part with a happy sigh, rubbing the bruise a bit more slowly this time.
“Well you better wash up, we are going to go pick up our friends before heading out.”
That got Spike’s attention immediately. Any time he had to clean himself up and that his friends were involved only means that it will be the perfect time to spend it with Rarity while everyone else was busy or distracted.
“Where are we going?” The young dragon asked, perking up immediately as he started to come up with an idea for himself and Rarity.
“Well, it has been two years since I first met with the girls, so we decided to celebrate our friendship by going to where it all began.”
“And that is...where?”
“Why the Everfree Castle of course!”
“That place?! But...it’s cursed!”
“Spike, curses don’t exist. It has already been proven that they don’t exist by several other top spellcasters and scientists.”
The young drake rolled his eyes at that comment, he knows for a fact that curses exist, it just wasn’t in spell form but in a small blue flower found commonly in the Everfree Forest. The bane of all existence for those that accidentally come into contact with said plant, the Poison Joke weed has been known to ‘curse’ those affected by it by making a mockery of the affectee by changing a key aspect. And for his friends it was an overly manly voice, upside down wings, a floppy horn, a thick tongue, shrunk to the size of a bit and lastly extra long and thick mane and coat.
It was funny for the drake, not so funny for his sister and friends.
It didn’t take both drake and pony long for them to return to their rooms to get ready for their little party, both had to look their best, especially Spike since he was expecting to get a kiss from his marefriend while Twilight wanted to look her best just for the occasion.
When both were washed, dressed and ready for their party they left their respective rooms, met back up at the train station and went down to Ponyville to return home and meet up with their friends.
Void Space
“I don’t know how much time you have.”
“Descend into the heart of your Orbiter, there you will find the Somatic Link.”
I don’t know what this link is but whatever it is, it is in this ship of mine...somewhere.
With that in mind I directed my Warframe from the navigator's console and down the hydraulic stairs to the armory section of the Orbiter. The panels that are here for some treason are turned off and are inoperable…
That is not good.
Going to the left and down the ramp passed two locked doors to the room in the back but what I was not expecting to see was the lone figure to appear from a cloud of smoke and blocked my path to the Link.
“Stalker! How?”
The Stalker stood there, blocking me from reaching the machine behind him as he stood up to his full height before floating in the air in a hover with his sword in hand.
“Get past him, get to the Link.”
My mortal enemy, standing between me and my only means of having complete control over my Warframe, I did what I was told and fought back.
My Warframe took the brunt of the energy blades that the Stalker unleashed from his greatsword but when I blasted him with my mind energy it barely even scratched him but it still managed to distract him and gave him pause between his attacks long enough for me to reach the Somatic Link.
“Focus, Tenno. Use your energy to breath life into the Somatic Link.”
Standing underneath the Link I raised my hand to the glowing blue orb at the tip of the machine and shot my energy at it, fueling its power core with my essence for a few moments before being forced back to the entrance of the chamber. The Stalker blocking our path yet again but this time I could sense that his determination to stop me is now stronger than before.
“You will not leave this place!”
‘Oh yes I am! This is my ship and I am gonna kick your ass into an airlock and launch your scary ass into hell!’
“Again. It needs more power.”
Standing back up I glared at the shadowy figure at the other side, his energy blades hitting hard than they previously were and they were forcing me to my knees with each impact but I can tell that they are taking more and more out of him with each increase in damage they were doing to me.
“The sky will be as it was meant, Shadow...The Old War finally ends.”
‘No! The Old War will end but it will end with the destruction of ALL Sentients! Once and for all!’
“I am your end!”
‘Nuh-uh, my end will be by old age and quite possibly a strained relationship!’
Slowly making progress and getting closer to the Link once more I focused my energy into the orb, more and more of my energy being shot into it as the lights around the room started to get brighter and stronger.
“One more time!”
As I started to get back up an energy blade came right for my head, and if I hadn’t ordered my Warframe to lift its arm to get in the way then I would have died right then and there. With my head cut off and on the floor, what a way to go out, so close to victory and yet not close enough.
The blades are even stronger now and they are chipping away at my shields and underlying armor, leaving dents and scratches across my entire Warframe as they slashed into me. Shuffling closer and closer to the link I made it one more time before being once again launched away from the Link but this time it was different.
We were separated from one another and I was defenseless.
Landing on my chest and lifting my head up I started to crawl towards my Warframe in an attempt to be saved by its strength only to be stopped when the Stalker floated up to it and landed before us.
“No self, no sense, no death. Just a metal puppet, dangling on Tenno strings.”
The Stalker tapped my Warframe with his sword, making it lean backwards a bit as he kept staring at me.
“Only the Tenno’s death will end your despair.”
All the while glaring at me with a silent death stare, he rammed his sword into my Warframe’s chest, the blade piercing through its chest and out the back, leaving the sword behind.
“All your dread long life, you’ve waited for this moment...but you're asking yourself...was I one of these wretched things?”
The Sentient Hunhow talked through the sword all the while the Stalker strutted toward me before kneeling down to wrap his right hand around my throat and lifting me off the floor and into the air.
“You know the answer. You still hate them...you still hate...yourself.”
Losing air and consciousness I tried to pry its much stronger hand from my throat in a vain attempt to save myself from death but I knew that I wasn’t strong enough to dislodge myself from his grip.
With my life slowly being cut short I made one last ditch effort to free myself, but not with my body, but with the one that was impaled with a sword.
Using the weak connection that I still have with my Warframe and once I was in control of the damaged suit I did what anyone would do in a situation where there was an object lodged into your chest. You break it off and yank it out.
“What...is...this?”
As soon as my hands made contact with the weakest part of the sword and started to pull in opposite directions the Stalker immediately turned his head to look at my Warframe for a moment before tossing me aside, now focused on the soulless machine that was trying to dislodge his sword.
Before he could even get close I reconnected with my Warframe as soon as I was dropped on the floor and cracked a part of the spur off from the hand and the rest of the sword, causing something strange to happen.
A jolt of red energy shot out from the sword and into the assassin, forcing him into the air and almost like the link I have with my Warframe, it is feeding it the same pain that I am in.
“Shadow...p-protect…m-m-me.”
But before he could I finished the job, ripping the sword out from my chest my pulling it straight upwards, cutting through the suit with ease while launching the blade away from both of us and onto the floor, but at the cost of my Warframe shutting down due to critical damage.
In that moment I watched the Stalker contort in the air, the pain becoming too much for him and in flash of bright light he exploded, seemingly vanishing or outright dying painlessly as the concussive wave knocked me down and knocking me out cold.
Planet: Equis, Continent/Country: Equestria, Current Location: Ancient Royal Palace/ Everfree Forest
Two hours has passed since Twilight and her friends arrived at the Castle of the Two Sisters, all seven of them were walking down the main foyer of the long since ruined and abandoned castle, enjoying the sights of the ancient history that still clings to the place.
“Can somepony tell me again why we are here? Not that I have anything against this place but are you sure this is even safe to be in? I mean a thousand years unattended and left to fall apart is a sure fire way to get crushed by a falling ceiling or wall.” Spike said as he looked at a fallen pillar that was lying partially through a wall to the outside world.
While Spike was saying that the girls walked over a crumbled column that has long since broken down to small chunks of marble, their footsteps echoing throughout the empty halls, scaring away rodents and birds alike from their mere presence.
“Because Spike, it was here that the six of us became the Elements of Harmony and became the best of friends and at the same time purified Princess Luna from the Nightmare.”
As Twilight said that Applejack opened a door that still remained intact and not broken and revealed yet another part of the castle that looks partially whole.
“I just wish that Celestia would have had this place fixed up or at the very least preserved with some sort of spell to be fixed at a later date and time. I bet there is some treasure still around here...just waiting to be discovered.” Spike said once again but this time Pinkie caught out of the corner of her eye that he was drooling a bit, thinking about all of that gold and artifacts that could be his hoard.
“She can’t be everywhere at once dude, you of all ponies should know this.” Rainbow Dash said as she flew a bit in the air, her wings beating slowly to keep her aloft while her friends walked.
“I know I know, but still though she could have gotten Luna to do this. I know for a fact that she has a lot of freetime as she is always watching me get my flank kicked up and down the yard.” Spike said before muttering to himself, having a body covered in bruises is not fun.
While everyone was busy talking no one notice Pinkie’s tail give a slight twitch before calming down, a sense of impending doom was approaching.
Void Space
I couldn’t believe this.
I had a body all along, and I look awesome!
I couldn’t believe that after four centuries of being stuck in stasis in a pod that I still looked as awesome and amazing as I did back then!
What I can’t believe is that I used to be a normal child until I was placed on board a military ship that got ‘lost’ in the Void and when it came back everyone but the children were dead and those that were left had the power of the void placed within them. To make it even better we were pretty much taken into custody by our ‘saviors’ and turned into weapons of war.
Thank god we killed those bastards, manipulating us and turning us into tools, they got what they deserved on that fateful day. We ended a war and an empire, not bad for a bunch of children with biomechanical proxies.
For the first time since being released from my stasis pod and being almost killed by the Stalker I was walking, although with some difficulty that my legs were still not up to par on leg meat strength, I was going around the room where the Somatic Link is in.
The room is nice but empty with the exception of one overly complex and powerful chair with glowing white roots lining the walls and ceiling.
‘So this is what it’s like to breath...if I don’t breath I die and if I breath too much I could die...why is everything trying to kill me now? First I can’t drink too much water or too little, I can’t eat too much or I’ll become fat then die and I can’t eat too little or it will make me weak then death. Is the universe built like this or is it just me?’
Before I could ponder further on that random train of thought my ship cephalon, Ordis, spoke up through the ship’s PA system.
“Operator it is so good to see you again! Even more so now that you got your *FLABBY SACK OF MEAT* body back!” And of course now I remember that Ordis is broken.
I wonder if I should fix that?
Nah, I am sure he is fine.
But naturally when someone says something is fine it always tends to come back and bite you in the ass. Just like it did for me.
“Ordis, get us out of here as fast as possible!”
“Operator, are you sure?”
“Yes! I wanna see if I can handle the shifts between the line-”
“Operator! Void Collapse Imminent!”
Wait what? Void Collapse? But we aren’t...even...in the...oh fucking balls...The Lotus told me to go into the void to hide from the Sentients so I hide underneath a tower...did the Stalker put a fucking tracking device on my ship and then waited for me to stop moving just to kill me?
Damn dude, talk about being dedicated to the job.
“Ordis get us out of here!” I shouted while turning around to get myself back into the Somatic Link to be secured in place.
“Too late!” Oh shit...
Before I could think of how this can get anyways worse the Void Collapse happens and with it so did me being thrown to the ceiling of the room in the resulting explosion.
This is going to suck…
And it did.
Planet: Equis, Continent/Country: Equestria, Current Location: Ancient Royal Palace/ Everfree Forest
It wasn’t long before the seven of them were in what was once the dining hall for the palace, a picnic spread was on the ruined stone table, seemingly still whole even though a thousand years has passed and ruined pretty much everything else. Spike and Pinkie were setting up the food baskets and plates, Rarity was talking to Fluttershy about their plans for tomorrow, Rainbow Dash was asleep on a cloud she pulled from the sky, Applejack was arguing with Twilight about using a machine to help with the harvest and Pinkie was being Pinkie.
“So you see Applejack this new invention could potentially revolutionize everything about farming and for farming ponies everywhere!” Twilight said all the way talking in a slightly louder than normal tone, slightly off putting Applejack.
“Ah know that but this could also hurta lot of farmers ba takin’ ther’ jobs!” The apple farmer said, countering her friend with an eventuality that will happen if such a thing were to happen.
“But this could also help those that are falling behind on their harvests and get out of any debt they may be in!”
“Or perhaps push ‘em even further in ta debt!”
While the two were going Pinkie’s tail twitched again but this time it was twitching and shaking even more, wildly flailing just enough to get the attention of Spike and quickly soon after the rest of her friends.
“Pinkie...is that-”
“Oh ponyfeathers! Something is gonna fall!” Rainbow Dash said and immediately went under the table to hide which was immediately followed by the rest of her friends.
They waited for whatever it is that is falling, wondering what it is and how big it is, but when nothing came they looked around and for the first time they thought that the Pinkie Sense was finally wrong.
Looking around for a moment longer they tried to see if anything was indeed falling but when nothing hit the ground with a thud or crashed through the wall they all breathed a sigh of relief. That is until they saw that Pinkie’s tail was still shaking like crazy.
“Uh...Pinks, are you okay or is your sense broken?”
“Nope! It works just fine! It is just taking forever for it to fall!”
“And what exactly is falling?”
“The sky!”
“...” Everyone was silent after that.
IT was only a second later did it all click in their heads.
“Oh...buck.” Was all that was said before they looked outside to see if she was telling the truth, and it turns out she was.
Flying right at them!
My Orbiter immediately got shot out of the Void, all electrical systems are on the fritz and are unresponsive, but the worst part wasn’t that my ship was not listening to me or Ordis.
The worst part was that it was spinning out of control and that I was stuck to the ceiling.
And that I was THIS close to puking all over the place.
“Ordis! Stop this thing!” I shouted while the ship was spinning out of control and from what I could tell there was gravity sifting into the ship, our artificial gravity was deactivated.
“I can’t Operator! It’s too dangerous! We got to slow down first!” Ordis said, apparently this spinning was affecting him as well, my guess is that it was throwing his telemetry all to hell.
“Bullshit! Just stop this thing! I order you! STOP!” I screamed as loud as I could, I felt the contents of my stomach making its way upward, knowing full well that whatever defenses I had set up to stop it were gone, and was now using this chance to make an escape.
Against all hope, Ordis managed to pull us out of the death spiral we were going through, but when I asked him to stop something else did it for us.
And by something I mean a building.
Ground Zero
Six ponies and one dragon were scattered on the floor, a massive section of the wall has been destroyed, a result of an unknown object ramming into it at a high rate of speed. And although it could have rammed right through it, keep on going, and crash into the ravine before exploding in a fiery hellstorm, it decided that it like where it was currently at and stayed there.
Everyone was groaning and moaning, no one was injured but all of them were confused and had no idea what just happened.
The first one to stand up was Pinkie Pie and she looked like nothing even touched her with the exception of a cobweb and some dust. Everypony else looked like they were thrown into a passing hurricane and their manes were completely ruined with the exception of Rainbow Dash since her mane is already a complete mess.
[ME]
But me on the other hand, I fell down from the ceiling, face first, and with my head off the floor my stomach decided now was the time to attack and I let loose the first barrage of bile that hasn’t seen food or the light of day in a few centuries.
“Operator, are you alright?”
“Do I look alright Ordis?”
“Well, you look like *YOU WERE THROWN THROUGH A BLENDER!* you fell from the ceiling and landed face first.”
“Thanks for your concern…” I said with a groan before wiping my mouth and flicking the residue aside before crawling towards my super chair and crawled into it.
I let the machine do its job as I closed my eyes and allowed my Warframe to activate move around.
My Palatine Rhino Prime rose from the Arsenal, fully repaired and back in working order with the exception of the scar that was left behind by Hunhow’s fragment. The black and gold armor color was a nice touch on my part but what made it better was the glowing insignia that was on its chest.
Looking through the sensors on the helmet of my Warframe it felt right to be back in the saddle but now in an even more comfortable chair and in a ship that is for the most part (hopefully) still intact and in one piece.
‘I wonder where the hell are we? I hope we landed on Earth, and if not it better not be on Ceres and lord forbid Europa.’
[THEM]
“Oh sweet Celestia...what happened?” Twilight said as she stood up, her clothes were slightly ruined from the impact but in all it was still whole, with just rips and tears.
“The end of ta world happened, thats what.” Applejack said as she grabbed her stetson hat from off the floor and placed it back on her head.
“Yeah...sure felt like it...you alright Rarity? Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash said as she whipped her head around, flicking dirt and rocks out from her mane.
“Well whatever hit us, I am sure it is just...a...huh…” Spike started but when he saw what was the cause of their temporary confusion and possible concussion they all looked up and saw what looked like a strange object.
OR more accurately, a UFO.
“Well I’ll be damned, looks like I owe Spike ten bits.”
“Buck, I think we all do.”
“Yes! I was right! I was right! Take that Twilight!” Spike shouted happily as he raised his fists in the air in victory while Twilight was busy staring at the UFO with her mouth hanging open in shock.
Twilight once thought that UFO’s and aliens are nothing more than an old mares tale, an urban legend to keep little fillies and colts in line, but now that she is seeing an actual UFO right before her very eyes no less… This is the first time she was proven wrong let alone proven wrong about something that everyone, including Celestia and Luna, thought to be non-existent.
But there is one thought that is holding strong in her mind that just won’t go away.
How is she going to tell Celestia and Luna that their old castle just got hit by a UFO?
All of the ponies were staring at the UFO that sat before them, they all had their jaws hanging in disbelief all the while Spike was having a field day and was parading around with his fists in the air congratulating himself for being right while Twilight was wrong.
"Hah! Pay up!" Spike exclaimed while celebrating one of his few victories over Twilight along with the rest of the girls.
Five mares grumbled to themselves as they pulled out their coin purses and yanked out their bits for the bet, dozens upon dozens of bits were removed and passed over to their green and purple scaled friend. Fluttershy was the only pony who didn't make the bet because she knew that aliens are real on the fact that being alone in the universe must be a sad existence.
That and she doesn't like making bets against her friends.
Once the coins were exchanged Spike immediately placed them into his own coin bag and went back to enjoying his victory while his friends went back to gawking at the space ship.
"So...Twi', how are ya gonna tell the princess about this...thing?" Applejack asks as she walks over to the UFO, placing her hand on the front prong of the space craft, feeling that it is no longer hot
"I don't know how I can even begin to explain this to them Applejack. I mean can you explain this to them?"
The ensuing silence between them said it all.
"As my brother would say, Eenope!" Applejack said before removing her hand from the metal prong, her gaze moving away from the UFO only for it to look at her friends once again.
"Well, I guess I will just speak the truth to them, 'an unidentifiable flying object crashed into your old castle', I am sure that they not be mad at us for this seeing how it was out of our hands in the first place." Twilight said as she looked at the overall design of the space craft, wondering exactly how such a thing can even fly. To her the aerodynamics of it all was completely off.
While they were busy talking about the ship, Spike was busy collecting his well earned money from his friends, laughing to himself as he hears the sweet jingling of coins being exchanged to his claws before depositing them into his coin bag.
The green drake was happy that he finally got a big boost to his spending money, now he finally had enough to take his marefriend out on a date and a date in Canterlot no less! For him he was a happy drake, and happy drake is a good drake.
But for everyone else, while they were squabbling and chatting, none of them were paying any attention to the ship until it made a noise.
As soon as that sound was made all seven of the girls quickly ran away from the alien craft and ducked behind a fallen pillar and peeked over the top and sides, to see if anything was coming out of the space ship and to their surprise they all saw something slowly made its way out from underneath it
To say that they were shocked and surprised that alien life is real is an understatement.
[ME]
The first thing I did when I settled back into my special seat and took control of my warframe, I went out of my way to see the rest of my ship and hope that nothing inside is damaged or out of place. Stepping out of the Transference Chamber I looked to my right to see the chamber holding the bio-matter for the warframes is closed and not a single speck of the bio-matter to be seen so I can guess that there is no containment breach has occurred, but I will check on that latter. Looking to my left I saw the door to my personal quarters was wide open and when I walked up the open door I saw that nothing was out of place with the exception of the one pillow on the floor next to the bed, seemed like that it was tucked in underneath the sheets.
Feeling that nothing has gone horribly wrong down here I then decided to check up on the front of my Orbiter as well, can't have the navigation console destroyed along with the Foundry and Arsenal, otherwise I would be stuck here with no means of constructing and repairing anything that gets damaged or broken.
Walking up the ramp I saw that my sentinels are fine, seeing how they don't have to land ever...they must have stayed floating in the center of the cabin while the ship was spinning out of control during its death spiral. Turning my gaze over I saw that my kubrow on the other hand...she seems to be glued to the top of her kennel dome. Moving over to the kennel I disengaged the dome and watched my furry four-legged companion land on the metal plate with a plop before standing back up on all fours and wagged her little stubby tail before barking excitedly at me.
"Aww, did my little Snarblebottom get stuck in her kennel?" I said in a childish tone, my kubrow stood there and bark happily at me before pouncing, forcing me to the floor before licking my helmet.
"Yes, yes, I get it, you love me, now can you please stop licking me, I am not even covered in blood and your licking me like I am some sort of Grineer-flavored popsicle." I said as my large killing machine of a kubrow finally relented her licking assault and got off of me before sitting down, waiting for me to talk to her again.
"No Snarble, we are not going out on a mission." My kubrow whimpered at me, pawing at my leg, trying to get me to cave in.
"That won't work on me this time young lady." Her ears folded back and her eyes grew bigger. She was really laying on the cute factor.
"I said no! I don't even know where we are let alone if there are any Grineer or Corpus here for you to snack on." I said as I patted her on the head before walking past her and walked up the lowered ramp to the navigation section of the Orbiter.
Looking at the open area I saw that my navigation console is still intact, the small golden statue that I found is still on its little mount, the big old urn behind it is still wedged between the window and the console and the window is not broken or cracked in the slightest. Shifting my gaze I saw that the console connecting me to my factions is still operational, but sadly it isn't connected to any of them so that means that I am shit out of luck on getting anything from them be it news or anything else that is important to me. Next was the market console for all of my blueprint and resource needs, sadly there is no connection at the moment and I highly doubt I can get a Darvo Deal out here... wherever here is.
"Ordis!" I called out to my ship's cephalon and for a moment I heard nothing but the silence didn't last long as a small transparent blue screen appeared in front of me as I looked out the window to see if I could recognize anything but all I saw was nothing.
"Yes Operator? Is there something you need? *bzzt* PLEASE SAY NO! *bzzt*"
"Ordis try to raise our sensor array and see where we are, if we crashed on Earth we would at least be getting pings from Grineer scavenger ships but so far all I am getting is static and dead air."
"At once Operator." And with that said the cephalon vanished from sight, and just in time to as I watched my kubrow swat at it with a paw.
Shaking my head at the sight of my killer dog trying to play a game with my ship's AI I returned to what I was doing and turned back down the ramp and towards my special chair.
Returning to my chair I slide myself back in before the pod sealed itself around me, ensuring that nothing gets in or me accidentally falling out.
Closing my eyes before opening them back up I was now looking out of the neuroptics from my warframe's helmet, its vision staring at my chair from where I left it.
Rotating my right hand to have the palm facing me I clenched my fingers into a fist, the sound of the semi-organic material being clenched tightly can be heard and for a moment I felt back at home being in control of a warframe once more.
Leaving the transference chamber behind I walked toward the sentinel port and unleashed all ten of them into the orbiter's compartment, letting them float and hover freely in their home.
Stepping over and into the arsenal I looked over my available weapons and picked out my loadout for my trip into the unknown landscape outside. Grabbing my Braton Prime from its housing I unfolded it until it was in its proper shape before shouldering it onto my back, taking my Lex Prime from my hip I slid back the slide and saw a magnum round was still in the chamber before slipping it into a holster as I looked around for something else to bring with me. Looking at my arsenal I saw something that could use some love and in a matter of seconds my beloved Warhammer materialized into existence, the Fragor Prime, its gilded appearance made me wonder just how effective it would be at crushing its target but when it smashed a Grineer trooper's head like a watermelon I rescinded any comments I had on it and used it as often as possible.
"Ordis, I will be doing a short reconnaissance around the crash site and see where we are and to see if there is anything we can use as salvage to repair our void engines." I said as I forced the ramp leading into the navigation console up as I climbed into the infiltration pod and motioned for my Wyrm Prime to follow me, its Orokin colors glinting off in the low light as it slithered in the air before entering the pod with me as I secure myself inside it.
Once we were in the pod I gave it the green light as it rotated around slowly before it began its rapid cycling procedure before flipping us over and disengaged the magnetic locks holding us in place.
But instead of rolling in the air and landing on the floor in a three-point landing, I instead landed on the ground stomach first as my head bonks on a stone brick.
'Okay, I was not expecting our orbiter to have crashed this close to the ground. I thought we would have at least crashed high enough that I would be able to land and move immediately if necessary. Now I have to bonk my head against the floor before crawling out from underneath my own ship!'
Scowling at the ground I crawled out from underneath my ship and once I was far enough from it I stood up and looked around, my eyes were not believing what I was seeing.
"What in the world...what is this place? It looks...ancient..." I muttered to myself as I slowly walked around before the sounds of glass crunching underneath a boot caught my attention, making me look down to see that it was indeed glass.
Looking up I saw that where my ship crashed that there was a line of windows and that I crashed into over a dozen of them, the rest of the windows that I thought were left standing were broken all over the floor, the shockwave from the impact broke everything in the hall.
'Man I sure hope nobody was home. There is no way in hell my credits will be able to cover this amount of damage! If this place was once owned by the Grineer or Corpus then fuck them, I'll just leave a note saying a Tenno did it.'
Seeing that I am standing in some sort of ancient building if I can judge it by the worn crumbling bricks, the dust filled hall, and that what looks like carpet in the middle of the hall is severely moth-eaten to the point that its design is unrecognizable.
Taking a few cautionary steps around my ship to check on the extent of the damage
Grumbling to myself I looked at my ship from the front of it to see what the damage was and I must say that there wasn't much damage to it at all, there may have been some dents and dings to it but there wasn't any actual damage to it. Climbing onto the front the ship where the navigator console is located there was no damage to the reinforced glass so I moved onto other parts of the ship, I checked the left wing then moved onto the engine attached to its underside and saw that it was for the most part burned out. And as I went to go check the other wing and to check on its engine I heard something crunch on a piece of glass behind me.
Whirling around to the source of the disturbance I pulled out my Lex Prime and aimed down the glowing iron sights, the pistol pointing at a fallen pillar as I kept my eyes on it for the slightest of movement.
Motioning my sentinel to the pillar I pointed it to where the pillar cracked before it fell over as I slowly made my way to the other side of it, to ambush whoever it is that is spying on me.
[Twilight's POV]
Ducking behind the pillar with the rest of the girls and Spike we were able to remain out of sight just in time as the strange alien turned in our direction after Fluttershy accidentally stepped on a piece of broken glass.
Covering her mouth with a hand we stayed behind the pillar as I quickly lit up my horn and cast around us an invisibility field around the seven of us as we tried to stay out of sight from the alien.
I couldn't believe that there was a real live alien here! In Equestria! All theories that have been created on their being alien life beyond our world has been proven true but now comes the hard part, initializing first contact without causing an incident between Equestria and the alien's race!
As we hid behind the pillar I quickly told Spike to write a letter to Princess Celestia about what is happening and if she could either offer any advice or if she can get over here as soon as possible.
While Spike was busy writing the letter I took a peek over the side of the pillar and saw that the alien was coming closer but I couldn't tell what it looked like until it finally stepped into the light and in that brief moment that it was visible to me I realized that this might be harder than I had thought.
This alien was tall, taller than myself and the rest of the girls, it is easily standing at seven feel tall, maybe a little bit more by a few inches, and if I am correct about its height than it easily matches Princess Celestia in height! It is wearing some type of armor or environmental suit one usually wears when entering a hazardous area like a sulfur pit or toxic swamp, it is black and brown in color with gold accented pieces on its shoulders, hips and its helmet. I also saw that on its body it had numerous glowing gold colored lights throughout its body and on the back of its neck was some sort of cloak although it didn't cover the entirety of its back as I only saw two lanes of cloth running down its back. The suit itself appeared organic looking, doesn't appear to be made out of metal as it flowed freely around the alien's body in such a way that the armor of the royal guards is no where near as flawless and perfect as the thing I am seeing.
Whatever this thing is, I am not sure what to make of it, is it friendly or is it hostile?
But my thoughts of it were soon interrupted when I saw something in its right hand, a small handheld device that looked almost as gilded and gold plated as the suit it was wearing. From what I can see it looks white with some gold accents but as it stepped closer I also noticed that between its legs was an angular piece, my guess to protect its groin from any kind of attack.
It looks like this thing came prepared from an attack of any kind if it is protecting such a spot in such a fashion.
Before I could inspect the alien further it was now standing in front of me, looking down at where me and girls and Spike were hiding, the invisibility field was still holding but as it stands if it were to take one step inside or place its hand in, it would break the field and reveal us to it.
We all sat there in silence, the alien was pointing the device at us as it scanned the area trying to find the source of whoever stepped on the glass shards but found nothing as it couldn't see any of us. As we simply sat there in fear of getting discovered we were all bumped to the side as Spike had to keep himself quiet as he saw something come slithering out from around the other side and appeared right in front of his face.
The thing that slithered out from the shadows was some sort of hovering snake beast, it had a black underbelly with white and brown colored pattern on its top half with what looks like gold plates melded into it, it also appears to have six gold fins along with what looks like golden whiskers for what appears to be its head with golden horns sprouting up top. Its tail appears to be some sort of strange gold plated circle as I spotted that throughout its body is an array of blue lights, just like the alien with its golden yellow lights on its armor.
I think this thing is the alien's pet! It is so exotic looking and strange, I see no means of it hovering in the air and yet with the smallest of flaps from its front fins it manages to stay hovering in the air.
Fearing that we might have been found out I was preparing for a teleportation spell but that is when the alien put away its device on its hip before turning around and returned to its space ship while the snake thing slithered beside it before giving one last glance towards us.
As soon as they were out of earshot I lowered the invisibility field and let out a sigh of relief before slumping against the pillar just as the rest of the girls and Spike let out sighs of relief of their own.
'Dear Celestia that was a close one! It would seem that this alien knows that something is here but is unable to see us, I hope we can initiate first contact without a conflict arising! I cannot fail Princess Celestia now!'
"Twilight! I finished the letter!" Spike whispered to me before he inhaled deeply and blew on the letter, disintegrating it into a green magical mist as it swirled in the air and out of the massive hole in the wall and headed straight for Canterlot.
Before we could once again peek over the pillar to see the alien but what we saw scared all of us.
The alien was staring right at us, and it had something else in its hands, and it was pointed right at us.
[ME]
I knew that I was being watched but when I looked behind the pillar to see if there was something hiding there but when I found nothing I had only assumed that it was just a piece of glass falling over and shattering on the floor. What I wasn't expecting however was for my sentinel to make a quiet sound alerting me to a disturbance and as soon as I turned around to see what it was I saw a wisp of green smoke rise from behind the pillar as it shot outside and towards some far off location.
Someone was hiding behind the pillar and it just sent out a distress signal.
Grabbing my Fragor Prime from my back I wheeled around and smashed the fallen column right in the middle of its mass, splitting it in half and completely crumbling the center of it into dust as the head of the hammer ground the ancient stone into dust and pebbles.
The sheer impact of the blow made several individuals who were hiding behind said pillar to fall forward to get away from the pillar that I had just crushed and what I saw made me momentarily pause any further course of action against my would be assailants.
Looking down at them with my Lex Prime pointed at one of them I saw that instead of Grineer Manic's, the Grustrag Three, a pack of Zanuka or even the Stalker and his Acolytes, but this? This is not even remotely close to being a threat to me.
Staring down at the seven indigenous beings before me I saw that they were not feral nor were they of any hostile threat to my presence being here, in fact my very presence is making them fearful and are afraid of my very being. Looking at these seven beings I saw that there was some human quality to them such as that they are wearing clothes that humans in the past before the rise of the Orokin Empire would wear, they are bipedal, they seem to be capable of some sort of vocal speech patterns if the strange purple bipedal iguana is of any indication but that is where the similarity between humanity and their current physical appearance ends.
They are horse-like in nature with their physical appearance, they have short muzzles, ears, fur covering their entire body, tails, hooves instead of feet, two of the beings have what looks like a horn coming out from their forehead just barely inside of their hairline while the other two have feathered wings coming from their back, probably from around their shoulder blades.
Another thing that sets them apart from humans is that their fur color along with their hair color are from what I can see come in a very wide myriad of color palates ranging from the brightest of pinks to the deepest shade of lavender, the seven of them almost carry the rainbow with their presence, one being in particular actually has the rainbow pattern for their hair on their head and tail.
As I stare down at the humanoid-like horses I took stock of them, two had horns, two had wings, the other two had neither horns nor wings and the seventh was an iguana had purple scales with some green scales on its neck going downward, it had frills on its head so I can only assume it is either poisonous or non-poisonous.
Seeing that they are harmless I put away my Fragor and Lex Prime before pulling out my Codex Scanner and pointed it at them. The yellow winged horse, alabaster white horned horse, and the purple iguana cowered at the sight of the codex while the cyan blue winged horse and the orange earth horse moved in front of them, being protective as they stared angrily at me all the while purple unicorn was staring at me with some curiosity.
The Codex Scanner released a holographic overlay on the horses in question, one at a time a pixelated scan moved across their bodies for a brief two seconds before winking a green light that the scan was completed before moving onto the next horse being before ending with the iguana. I don't know why but that thing almost reminds me of a dragon from the ancient mythology of Earth...must be my imagination because dragons have wings and this iguana has no wings, no horns, and I see no trails of smoke coming from the nostrils.
I feel cheated for some reason.
Once my scanning was done I placed my scanner back into my armor port before turning around and returned to scanning my ship for any hints of structural damage that might prevent me from returning back to the dojo or a relay.
"Ordis can you hear me?"
"Yes Operator, I can hear you loud and clear. *bzzt* You don't need to shout you know! *bzzt*"
"I didn't shout, but anyways I need you to take the scans I have collected and analyze them. I want to know everything you can find on this strange race I have discovered and report back to me when it is done."
"At once Operator. *bzzt* Lazy sack of cra- *bzzt*" I cut Ordis off before he could even finish that sentence.
'Man I gotta take time out of my day to fix his matrix...that thing is gonna breakdown completely one of these days and start talking to me in ways I never thought possible...I hope it doesn't suck out all the air in the Orbiter with me still in it...'
Ignoring the indigenous species that I have just scanned I returned to looking over my ship, seeing how I didn't fully look over the left right wing I returned to where I last was and felt around the engine for any dent or ding to it but found nothing.
'Thank god this thing isn't damaged...'
But before I could check on the rear of the ship for any signs of damage I heard my sentinel emit an alarm and I immediately turned around, pistol raised but I lowered my aim when I saw that it was the purple horned horse I lowered my guard and resumed my maintenance of my ship while out of the corner of my eye I watched as this horse took cautious steps toward me and my ship. The purple horned horse took several slow steps towards my ship, its hooves kept stepping on the broken glass, cracking and breaking them further it as I heard little noises coming from the horse's mouth, my guess that it was because it kept stepping on the glass and it was digging into its hooves.
I didn't have to wait long before the horse started to talk to me, or well...tried to talk to me because I don't understand whinnies, neighing, and whatever horse sounds they make when they talk to each other. Without even turning my head I saw that the horse was now standing at the edge of my ship, afraid to touch the wing it was nearest as it timidly tried to talk to me why my sentinel was hovering right in her face. Funny how the thing always does that to me when I am busy trying to hide in a corner to let a passing patrol of grineer or corpus soldiers walk by so I can stab them in the back, guess it just wants attention from its creator.
Looking at the purple horned horse I started to take notice of its appearance besides its species as a whole, besides the horn on its head that clearly looks like it is some form of bone-like protrusion and it looks like that it would break if I were to just give it a flick. After looking at its horn I heard Ordis speak up and started to tell me that the scan on the purple one standing beside my Orbiter is ready for viewing.
Telling Ordis that I will look at it later I returned my attention to my ship and only after seeing that there is no signs of damage other than that both engines have been overloaded when the Void collapsed and that they were pushed beyond their operating limits to ensure that I would survive. I am going to have to repair these engines by swapping out the void crystals within the engine's void breaching compartment in the front but I don't have the necessary tools to dismantle my engines let alone have any spare crystals to do the replacement with.
I am stuck here until I can either dismantle my engines from the opposite side which would leave me marooned here for a far longer time than if I can dismantle the engines with the proper tools and even if I had said tools I don't have any crystals to make the swap.
In essence I am...what is that saying that the colonists use now these days...oh yes 'Royally Fucked with no lube'...am I using that saying correctly? Eh whatever, I can make do with what I have, I can survive here until another Tenno finds me. I just have to hope that nothing bad happens to my ship or to myself in the mean time.
Shrugging at the implications of what has just been discovered I see that for the time being I am stuck on this planet I placed my hands on my hips to look at my ship one last time before deciding that if I am going to be stuck here I might as well have my ship propped up in such a way that will make getting to my engines easier to start on the repairs.
Looking at the split pillar where the scared horse people are located I saw the necessary props to keep my ship in place, assuming it can handle the weight of a...huh I don't even know how heavy my own ship is. This could prove to be problematic if they can't even support the weight of my ship.
Walking over to the pillar I saw the horses back away from me, the orange earth horse and the cyan blue winged horse kept their fists raised at me but I only spared them a sideways glance before grabbing the pillar by a crack and with a sharp yank I lifted it off the ground and I found that it is surprisingly light for five meter wide pillar. The blasted thing looked like it would weigh an easy ton, maybe two tons due to it being a support column for what looks like a fortress but to me it might as well weight the same as a single Bursa.
Seeing them look at me in fear is a welcome sight, everyone fears the Tenno because they know that they can't kill us with the exception of the Sentient's and the Stalker, all others see us as unstoppable killing machines that owes no allegiance to anyone but themselves or to the Lotus who might I add acts like our guide and our mother...I just wish she would stop sending me on suicide missions, Councilor Vay Hek needs to seriously give up in trying to take over the solar system, it will never work.
If we can blow up his Balor Fomorians, destroy his Terra Frame, and kick his ass across several planets what hope does he have in stopping the Tenno? The correct answer is never.
Hefting the surprisingly light pillar onto my shoulder I moved it toward my ship before placing it near the left wing before going back to grab the other half and placed it near the right wing, only when I placed it down I saw that the purple horned horse was waiting for me, a strange smile on its muzzle.
What does it want and why is it still here?
Glancing at the purple horned horse I saw that it stood near my ship, its tail shifting ever so slightly when it noticed my head slightly looking in its direction as it opened its muzzle and started to make more horse sounds. I guess it was trying to talk to me and I can understand what it is trying to do but when you are talking to a foreign being and are unable to understand what is being said, things get lost in translation. At least it is giving me samples of its language but sadly without knowing what its words are due to them just sounding like what a horse makes...what is it trying to tell me?
With me sitting there on the edge of my ship I looked at the purple horse as I started to formulate a plan of action, if I am going to be here for what might be forever I might as well try to communicate with the locals, even if I can't properly talk to them.
After all poor communication kills and I would rather not kill these aliens over not knowing what is being said.
[Twilight's POV]
'Here I am, standing right before the alien, it sat itself down on the side of its spacecraft and was staring right at me.'
'You can do this Twilight Sparkle, you can do this. Just remember to breath and remember that the future of Equestria depends on you not bucking this up! Come on now! You can do it!'
Pumping myself up for is possibly the most important moment in the history of Equestria and of my life and I will not ruin this chance! Clearing my throat and straightening out my blouse and skirt I walked closer to the ship with the confidence needed to not buck this up and ruin a budding friendship with an alien!
"Hello! My name is Twilight Sparkle and I welcome you to Equestria!" I said in a happy tone as I smiled as wide as I can, trying to appear as friendly as possible to the scary and powerful alien.
'This would be so much easier if I could see its eyes or its face! If I can figure out its body language than this would make this a hundred times easier than it currently is!'
'I wonder how the alien sees us? Does it see us as helpless prey? Food? Friends? Trading Partners? Mere objects?'
Shaking that thought away I looked at the alien for a moment, wondering if there is any way to communicate with it but all I am coming up with is giving it some paper, ink and quill and let it write something down before attempting a translation spell on it. Or if I am feeling really bold...I could come into contact with its head with my horn and let our minds connect so we could learn the others language so much faster! I just hope it doesn't see that as a major invasion of privacy.
"Uhh...I am not sure if you can understand me but I am wondering if...if we can try some things?" I said as I looked at the alien, I don't know why but I can only hope that it nods at me or at the very least acknowledge me in some way.
I didn't have to wait long when it presented me with an empty hand, from what I can tell that it was a handshake.
Was it trying to greet me?
[ME]
I have no fucking idea what this girl is saying but if I know smiles like I used to know them, then that means that she means me no harm and that she is nice. If she was a dog or some other predatory than that it would be more along the lines of a threat or displaying aggression and dominance against me. So glad that this one is a horse, herbivores are peaceful and not dangerous, except for the hippopotamus, those things are killers when it comes to human life.
Listening to what the horse girl was saying I started to record everything that was being said all the while waiting for a break in the conversation and as soon as one was created I made my move.
Thrusting out my right hand I presented the horned horse my hand for a simple greeting handshake, if this notion was present among their kind than it will help with the process along with it help me find any possible similarities our cultures might have. If we can find ways to communicate and possible establish a means of talking than this process will be smooth, only problem is that if this handshake gets wasted because she doesn't know what it is.
'I wonder what this girl is thinking of right now...probably losing her mind that she is meeting a real life alien.'
With my hand open and waiting for her to grasp it I can see the tiny gears in her head turning, I saw that if she were to shake my hands it would kick off a diplomatic mission of epic proportions, she would be in the middle of this because she was the one who initiated First Contact and that she would have the most experience in dealing with extraterrestrials and that they will see her as the one that I trust the most. They wouldn't be far from the truth but no one can do a better job at dealing with an alien due to the language barrier, the difference in physiology along with psychological matters that will without a doubt hamper the path.
Seeing how she spoke and tried verbal communication with me I guess I shall do the same for her, even though my voice will sound like it has been altered due to speak through a bio-organic machine and that I am inside a complex machine it will alter it further. I might as well try to talk to the horned horse woman, just to progress this further just enough until we reach an impasse.
Baited breath and patience born of being asleep for over three hundred years I watched as the purple horse slowly stepped closer to me and for a moment all was still and silent.
Until she reached out and grabbed my hand.
Author's Note
Just had some free time for this one, college is coming up soon as seeing if I get that job at the organic food store along with college not being a twat and fixes its website I might be releasing more.
Oh and the coming chapters might be limited to four thousand words or less.
Resting in my room aboard my Orbiter I was laying on my bed, staring up at the ceiling with the fluorescent lighting softly glowing as my eyes traced the lines in the metal. The bed was soft and cushiony but it felt off to me for some reason, like something is missing in it and I just don't know what it could possibly be. As I laid there staring at the ceiling out of boredom I started to recount the events that has just occurred and started to it all over again in my head.
'First I crash landed on an foreign planet and to my shock and awe I have discovered an alien species of a humanoid form of horse with multiple variants as it all ranged from ones with a horn, ones with wings, those with both and lastly those with neither. I do not know what each of the four types are capable of doing but from what I saw the ones with horns have some form of mental levitation if the evidence of the floating quill, ink and paper roll are of any indication, the one with wings are capable of flight, the ones without must have something to them unless they are the runt of the litter and lastly the ones with both horn and wing must be capable of flight and mental levitation.'
'These aliens appear humanoid in nature, they have mannerisms like humans, they are capable of speech, they have reached a moment in their technological advancement to have metal armor and chariots, advanced engineering to construct a castle and city on the side of a mountain and for it to not fall off and collapse from the sheer weight of it all. I wonder what else they are capable of doing.'
With my thoughts racing and my mind not settling down I knew that I would not be able to rest this night nor be allowed to have a restful sleep while I had so many questions running wild in my head.
Sitting up I looked at the closed doors leading into the main compartment of the Orbiter I decided that I wouldn't be able to get much done if I just sat around in here all the time and just waited till it was time for my warframe to 'Wake up' so it can continue to communicate and negotiate with the natives of this world.
Getting off of my bed I went down to the transference chamber and placed myself back in the pod, I knew what I was going to do may seem reckless but I must know what is around my ship and that these aliens might have already placed guards of their own to watch for any sign of a threat. If I am to be leaving my ship without getting caught, I am going to have to be stealthy on this one, and I know just the tool for the job.
Once I have situated myself in the pod I allowed myself to make the connection to my warframe sitting in storage and for a moment I saw nothing but darkness until the hatch leading from storage opened up to reveal the light of the arsenal.
Standing on my two feet once more I let out a sigh of relief as I looked myself over, faint wisps of translucent cloth float beside me as I stood up, arrows strategically placed on my left bicep, small nodules built into my hips, knees, shoulders and the side of my head, a smooth and slim figure, the huntress of the wilds, Ivara.
Grabbing the Paris Prime from the arsenal I slid it on my back as the quiver for it was placed along side it before grabbing the Spira Prime with its holster of knives and attached them to my hips and lastly grabbed the Orthos Prime and gave it a few experimental swings with it before sliding that too onto my back for storage.
"Operator, going for a lunar stroll?"
"Yes Ordis, I am just going to see what is around here now that I think that we are alone and that we don't have to worry about any prying eyes and sticky fingers."
"Do bring me a bouquet of flowers when you get back."
"I'll see what I can do about that, can't make any promises that they won't try to kill me though."
With that said and done I entered the infiltration pod and waited for it to cycle through the air and once it did I was immediately dumped on my head like last time.
'I swear I am going to destroy this floor one of these days.'
Rolling out from underneath my ship I found myself to be entirely alone save for my sentinel scanning the area for any signs of trouble. When it spotted it me it made a chirping sound before resuming its sentry duties, leaving me to go on an expedition into the area around the ship without anything or anyone alerting the local wildlife.
Walking through the empty halls of the fortress I found that this place was once occupied by the alien horse people if the portraits, suits of ancient armor and statues are of any clear indication that they once occupied this structure in the past.
'How long has this place been abandoned? The structure is crumbling and falling apart in varying places and yet the portraits, suits of armor and even a few select statues are in perfect condition, untouched by the ravages of time and decay. How is this not ruined or even outright destroyed? What kind of preservation techniques and methods are they using to do so?'
Stopping in front of a portrait of what must be the two horned winged horse people when they were younger and I must say that they look pretty good, finely made dresses they are wearing but sadly the Orokin elite wore things far more superior in style and material.
Seeing how there is no one around I decided that I may has well confiscate this priceless portrait, wouldn't want some sneaky bandit or thief to come on by and discover this treasure trove of ancient paintings and expensive relics of the past. Waving my hand at the portrait the internal mechanism within the palm activated and although this was meant for hostile capture targets I decided that this would be far easier to transport than to carry it by hand back to the ship each time I want to return with something.
Dematerializing the large portrait took a matter of seconds as it turned orange before breaking down into data particles before finally embedding itself into the inner working of my warframe for storage. I did this several more times as I explored the fortress, so many suits of armor with the emblem of the sun or the moon printed onto their chest, shoulders and back, I don't know if they simply worship the sun or the moon but from what I can tell that it is pretty much their ruling party or their form of government.
The sun clearly rules the day and the moon has no say in any matters that happen during the day while it is vice versa when it is night and the sun has no say when it the moon is up.
I am not sure if this is true or not but I must say that this is a bad idea, if many things happen during the day than the night is left out of several affairs and matters that may be important to the nation. If a side of the government is feeling left out than I can only speculate that it would either try to get the other side to give it some more duties to perform so it would feel like it is pulling its own weight, or it might try to make something happen so it would have work to do. Seeing if that is the case than I hope that nothing has happened to upset the balance, having to scrap a system because it was slowly becoming obsolete must be a tough call to make.
While I was travelling down the hall I soon came upon a door that was locked from the other side, and like any good explorer would do in uncharted territory I must see what is behind these locked doors. Although I do know that locked doors means something of great importance is on the other side, I also know that locked doors also hide...other matters that should not be discussed when there are children nearby.
Jamming the blade from my Orthos Prime into the small open space between the doors I cut downward, cutting through the lock with ease I sheathed my polearm before pushing the doors open and what was on the other side would make an archivist lose his mind.
There was an entire library sitting in here, there was books upon books in all directions that I could turn my head in, books on shelves, isles and tables, nothing but priceless information just waiting at the edges of my fingertips! Just waiting to be explored and exploited!
Grabbing the nearest book so I can scan it to add to my codex collection on foreign reading material I discovered that I couldn't scan it due to being incomplete. And what did it mean by it being incomplete? Well it is simple really, the book fell apart when I grabbed it off the table as its spine and pages fell apart as the cover was reduced to chunks of rotten wood.
'If there was an archivist here they would be extremely displeased with the preservation of knowledge and history here. A book that oh so easily disintegrates into nothing but rotting wood and spoiled paper all over the floor. This is going to be problematic if I can't even grab a book to study its contents when it is so old and aged that it will fall apart so easily just from being touched and moved! There has to be a way to study the native's culture and language on my own without having to rely on them.'
Dropping what was left of the book onto the floor I moved onto the onto the bookshelves and thought up an idea, an ingenious idea, one that would make Cephalon Suda proud if she was here with her strange robotically calm voice. Like hell I would make a good cephalon, I will not be digitalized and have my mind and memories be transformed into an artificial intelligence.
With how fragile the books are and that I would not be able to translate what was written inside, I needed a way to collect the books without damaging or outright destroying them in the process and that was when I came up with the brilliant idea to digitalized them the same way I did with the portraits and suits of alien horse armor I have been collecting.
As it turns out collecting books through this method was a lot smarter and safer than trying to copy it by hand but sadly this took me a lot more time than it should have as I saw daylight slowly breaking through the cracks and holes in the walls and ceiling and that the light was more orange than yellow so it would seem that it was late afternoon and that it would get dark soon. Finishing up my work in dematerializing and encoding the books into data for storage and renewal I left the library behind to continue exploring the fortress before I would be forced to return to the Orbiter to rest for a little while only to resume control of my main warframe.
Walking down a hall I soon came upon a set of double doors that reached the ceiling, the only time I saw doors like these was at the Hall of the Executors, the highest ranking among the Orokin...the ruling party...dictating your life to how they see fit...
'No, the Orokin are no more. I don't need to worry about sliding back into chains and being their slave. The War is over, they are all dead by our blades. We are free from their torment...free forever...'
Shaking my head from the cloud of anger I go back to looking at the massive double doors with the sun and the moon carved into the rotting wood before pushing them open to reveal a crumbling room, and on the other end was two stone chairs with rotting sun and moon banners on the sides of the walls.
I don't know who these horses worship but it apparently is enough for them to bow down to the sun and moon as if they were gods, so many beings thinking that they are gods until they are brought low by their own creations and put to the sword.
Moving over to the twin thrones I saw that they were both made of stone and that neither of them looked comfortable to sit on nor were they a proper fit for a person like myself nor was it a proper fit for my warframes.
Looking them both over I thought that it was just a pair of normal stone thrones and that there was nothing out of the ordinary so I left them alone to continue to crumble as I went back to searching this fortress for anything of use or value that can be traded to the horse people for whatever their currency is. Ancient portraits, rusting suits of armor and even slightly crumbling statues, all of this can probably be sold to the highest bidder and if I can gather enough credits or whatever these natives call their money I can see if they have something akin to a void crystal or at the very least a close second.
As soon as I was done with salvaging the fortress of anything of value I decided to do one last sweep of the place just to make sure that there was nothing that I may have missed. Once I made my sweep of the fortress I returned to my ship only to find that there was a second platoon of guards here and this time they have somehow managed to set up a base camp of sorts around my ship.
I am not pleased with this, not pleased not one bit.
Why are there horse guards here.
Why are they around my ship.
And why the hell is my sentinel not trying to scare them off?
Seeing how my only means of going to my ship was to go through the horse people camp I decided that now was the time to be stealthy and to infiltrate their ranks and slip on by.
Kneeling down behind the door leading into the hallway I allowed the energy within my warframe as I watched my body fade away into a distortion of air before outright fading away from sight. To the untrained eye I am completely invisible and that they are being hunted by a ghost, for those with the perception to notice anything out of the ordinary they might notice a waver in the air but only that and for those that truly have keen eyes they will only notice an outline and that's it.
Stalking through the empty space in the hall I met no resistance until I came up to a palisade wall but that was easily defeated when I jumped over it. If it was the grineer they would have simply sent in an Scorch to burn it down while the corpus would have just sent in their Moa's and Osprey's to wipe them out, me? I only had to climb over it and if I wanted them all dead I would have simply used my Orthos Prime and cut through them all, I fear that if I used my arrows that they would go through them and the walls and never be seen again.
Sneaking through the camp was like liquid mercury on velvet. It was smooth, quiet, and it never left a trace to be found or detected.
The alien horse people here were talking amongst themselves too loudly, it would easily alert their enemies to their position let alone tell them a rough approximate to how many was there in the first place. With every word they said I slinked and weaved my way through their patrol routes with relative ease, not a single one of them was even aware of my presence nor were they aware of me picking their pockets as I passed several of them by. I took from them coins of varying colors and obviously differing values if the colors are of any indication, some shiny looking rocks and even a small photograph of two alien horses hugging each other.
I left that last one behind for I had no need for it and I doubt the one I took this photograph from would be happy that it was gone.
Leaving the photo behind I maneuvered my way to my ship before hooking myself up to the pod, rotated back inside before dropping myself off at the Codex for scanning, cleaning, cataloging all artifacts and finally attempting to decipher and translate everything. While the Codex is busy trying to do its duty I left the Ivara warframe at the arsenal on standby as I would need it on a short notice if the ship was to ever be moved or touched in certain ways by the natives and I would need to put them in line.
I spent nine hours searching this fortress, harvesting ancient relics and books, and the only thing I have to show for is things I can't read or can't touch due to rot or rust. What a waste but soon with enough time the damages can be undone and reversed.
For now I must return to my Rhino Prime, who knows that those alien horses might be doing with my warframe right now.
[Twilight's POV]
I can't believe we have a real live alien staying at the castle! And it is right next door from all of us! Oh I am so excited I can hardly wait to talk to him!
Oh how wonderful this is to finally be able to communicate with a new intelligent species and to top it off it is an alien from space! I know that Spike was right when he told us that aliens are real and that we are not alone out here after all but I thought it was just stuff from a comic book, but for it to be proven true.
I wonder what the professors at Canterlot University will say when I show them definitive proof that we have an alien now living amongst us, and better yet an alien that isn't here to invade us or as Spike's comic says to 'anally probe us for information'. Honestly how is shoving a strange scanning device up our plothole's going to reveal anything about us?
Spike's response was childish and yet it was humorous at best, 'maybe that they are trying to harvest farts' to which I said that is just silly and a waste of resources to do such a thing.
Anyways today was the big day!
We let the alien rest up for a few hours and now that the moon is about to rise in three hours and soon we will try to wake it and see if it is in a willing mood to try and talk to us. I just hope it isn't like Princess Luna in the early nights when somepony tries to wake her up.
Walking up to the door leading into the alien's room I found that the guards that was posted here were still alive and awake, well one is awake the other is asleep and had a pair of eyes drawn on his eyelids. Shaking my head at the sight of the sleeping guard I proceeded to knock on the door to check and see if our mysterious guest is awake yet, but when I waited for a few moments and heard nothing I decided to just take a peek on our guest with the help of my magic.
Taking a step back from the door I concentrated a bit and used my magic to focus on the door, making it temporarily see-through on our end and what I saw, along with the two guards who were now alert and attentive, gasped at the sight before us.
Standing in the middle room was a strange slim being wearing an even stranger gold and grey jumpsuit of some kind, the way the jumpsuit is made is almost like it is some kind of harness that attaches itself to the suit of armor that it is standing next to. From where the three of us are standing it looks male as it is obviously missing breasts, its shape is lacking the feminine curves that we are known for, now that I think about it I am not entirely sure if this is a male alien, I don't know what it looks like underneath the strange hood it is wearing along with the jumpsuit as well. I would really hate to find out that I was wrong and assumed the alien's gender wrong and accidentally offend it in front of everypony!
Oh the horror of what might happen if I did that!
As I mentally berated myself for thinking so foolishly I watched as the alien moved around the room, taking in its surroundings and for a moment I thought I saw it looking in our direction but it just shook its head before resuming its readout of the room. I don't know what it could possibly be thinking of but I can only hope it is accepting its room.
The alien wasn't walking around the room, it was floating, levitating even! And it did this as it explored its new surroundings, lifting things up, looking them over before placing them back down where they once were, it even went as far as going over to the balcony window and pressed its hand against it but when it placed a hand against the glass it flinched. Was it because it saw its own reflection or was it for some other reason that we don't understand?
Preparing myself to enter its room and bring it over to the dining hall for what would be dinner for us but breakfast for Luna, and as I raised my hand to knock on the door the three of us watched as its head snapped to our direction, as if it knew what I was about to do.
Taking a breath I knocked on the door and that moment the alien reacted faster than I had anticipated, it had jumped back towards the suit of armor on the floor before fading away from view, almost like it phased through the armor to put it on. I have to know how it did that, it would make putting on clothes and going through rooms so much easier than they currently are.
Turning the doorknob and entering the room I saw that the alien was slowly standing up from off the floor from its kneeling position, I almost forgot that this alien easily towers over me by roughly two feet.
Putting on a brave face and a smile I showed my intentions to the alien.
"Good morning! Or as I should say in your case a good evening, today is a big day for you my friend! Can you please follow me and these fine gentlecolts to the dinning hall?" I said as I gave the best convincing smile that I could muster and to my credit it worked.
Nodding its head at me I continued to smile before turning around and left its room, it soon followed after me and the guards as we walked through the halls to our destination. Passing maids and royal guard patrols we four walked to the dining hall and it would have been a fine moment for us if it wasn't for a particular stallion walking down the same hall we were in and bumped into me.
"Oh...its you. I take it friend of yours is here as well." Prince Blueblood said as he looked from me to the two guards standing behind me then lastly at our guest behind them.
"Yes, Rarity is here in the castle, she is waiting for me and our guest here along with the rest of my friends and both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna."
"Wait...is this the-"
"Yes, this is the alien we found last night. We are going to try and find a means of communicating with it before teaching it our language while at the same time trying to find a way to translate what it has written down for us into a spell matrix that will help out with the learning process."
"I see...well then I wish you the best of luck." Blueblood said as he walked around us but he stopped when he was standing past the guards and was between us and the aliens.
"Oh and one thing before I depart Miss Sparkle."
"And that would be what exactly Blueblood?"
"That you should lay off the hay burger and fries, you are starting to get pudgy again."
In that moment we all turned our heads to look at Blueblood, even the alien was staring down at him. I am not sure if the alien understood what was said or is just parroting the rest of us, but if it did understand what the prince said than it too knows that one should never call a mare fat, especially to her face.
I was stunned when Blueblood said that to me but it wasn't lost on our mysterious guest as it stared down at Blueblood and if I could guess its eyes must be glaring down at him.
Without any warning or even a twitch of movement the alien lashed out and grabbed Blueblood by the arms, pinning them to his sides as he is lifted off the ground and was taken away from us as the alien quite literally 'Did not give a flying buck' about who Prince Blueblood is as he was removed from our sight by being moved to the end of the hallway and dropped on the floor next to the door before returning back to us. Our mouths were hanging open in shock, nopony has ever done that to Prince Blueblood before and yet this alien did just that and did it without a care in the world.
Before I could say anything the alien tapped his left wrist with a finger and with that same finger it made a circular motion in the air.
Although I didn't know what that meant the guards did as they quickly told me that we were wasting time and that we should get a move on.
I guess somethings are the same when it comes to military matters across species, and apparently across the known galaxy.
Rushing towards the dining hall as we were delayed with Bluebloods little stunt we soon made it to the doors leading to our destination and with a thank you to the two guards who accompanied us before they opened the doors and ushered us in.
Waiting for us inside was indeed all of my friends, both princesses and surprisingly my brother Shining Armor and Professor Short Fuse from Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.
"Hello girls, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Shiny and Professor Fuse, I am proud to present to you our guest of honor!" I shouted with glee as I waved my arms toward the alien and for a moment all it did was just stare at me for a few seconds before turning his attention to each and every single individual in the grand room before shrugging.
I guess that was a response it could make seeing how it can't talk to us yet.
"Anyways..." I started to speak as I led the alien to a seat on the other side of the table, right beside my brother Shining Armor and a royal guard that won the lucky lottery to be the alien's guardian.
"...I think everypony should introduce themselves properly before we can move onto trying to talk and translate what the alien is saying and then have his words and language translated into Equis so we can understand what was written onto the piece of paper back at the castle of the two sisters in the Everfree Forest."
Sitting down besides Princess Celestia I waited patiently as my friends whispered amongst themselves, trying to decide on who would go first but my mentor took the lead by standing up.
"Hello, I am Princess Celestia Co-Ruler of Equestria and the Ruler of the Day. It is a pleasure to finally speak to you on such good terms." My mentor said as she stood up and gave the alien her usual motherly smile as said alien gave her a nod before returning his attention to the rest of us.
Next up was Celestia's sister.
"SALUTATIONS ALIEN! I AM PRINCESS LUNA CO-RULER OF EQUESTRIA AND THE RULER OF THE NIGHT! IT IS AN HONOR TO FINALLY MEET YOU AND I WISH TO SPEAK WITH YOU AS SOON AS YOU ARE ABLE TO SPEAK OUR LANGUAGE!" Everypony in the room but Celestia and the alien were not covering their ears or trying to not fall over. Luna really does have a great set of lungs on her, maybe she should try to play a role in an opera sometime.
After that was the rest of us, starting with my brother.
"Greetings, I am Shining Armor and I am the Captain of the Solar Guard, it is an honor to meet you and to meet a warrior of your stature." I can tell that he is just saying that, when you live with him for several years you tend to pick out the truths and lies. And from what he just said is just for formality's sake, he doesn't trust the alien at all.
Then to my friends.
My friends all introduced themselves and I watched the alien's reaction for each one. Starting with Rainbow Dash she started with her usual bravado and boasting and the alien let out a huff of what must be annoyance, seems like he doesn't like those that boast or try to make themselves larger than life. Next was Pinkie Pie and it was fairly tame to what she usually does, that is until she started to talk about parties and I had to promptly cover her mouth with a cupcake to silence her, the alien laughed at this if the chuckle-like sounds was of any indication. After that was Applejack and for a moment the two stared at each other before AJ backed down and proceeded to hide behind her hat, I wonder why? And as for the alien it just nodded at her before turning its gaze to Rarity who decided to lay on the noble feminine charm and tried some flirting notions but they went largely ignored, does the alien have a special somepony waiting for them back home? When that was done next was Fluttershy and that ended as quickly as it started as she hid behind her mane before ducking under the table, and as for the alien it just looked at me and shrugged, I was expecting this to happen but come on Fluttershy! This is important!
For science!
Then lastly we got to Spike who introduced himself and the alien looked at my little brother with what I think is keen interest. Has he seen dragons before? Does he have dragons back home or is this the first time he has ever seen a dragon? I wonder how the two would interact with each other if we left them alone?
And finally Professor Slow Fuse himself.
"My oh my, just look at it! The complexity of the armor and how smooth flowing it is to the rest of the body! Such organic design and how it connects to the body itself! The metal composition is beyond anything found in Equestria or even found beyond its borders! This is truly alien in nature and design and I must know more about you!" Short Fuse said as he looked at the alien with hunger in his eyes, his thirst for knowledge is well known throughout the scientific community and he has been known to skirt and bend the laws when it comes to uncovering and learning things that are either freshly discovered from the dig site or things that are under lock and key for good reason.
The alien on the other hand, when it heard Professor Short Fuse talk it reacted in a negative manner.
And by negative I mean it changed its posture into something a little more hostile, it was leaning towards the professor, its arms went from being folded across its chest to being by its sides and were clenched and that it let out a low menacing, rumbling growl.
Does it have something against scientists or does it have something against those that see it as a thing and not as a living being?
Fortunately the alien stood down from its aggressive stance and proceeded to sit down at a chair on the far side of the table but as soon as it tried to sit down the chair almost gave out from the alien's weight. Pinkie and Rainbow were snickering under their hands to which I bop them upside the head with a quick burst of my magic.
"Now I do believe it is your time, Mr. Alien."
We waited for a moment for the alien to do as I have said, seeing how that it seems to trust me a lot more than it does trust the others and at the moment it does nothing before standing up and spoke in its strange echo-y hiss-y voice, its words sliding together before fading off, I don't understand how it is able to speak like this but than again when ponies first encountered dragons and all we heard from them was snarls, hisses, growls and roars.
I wonder what the alien is thinking about right now...
[ME]
The new day has been strange for me, I have returned to my Rhino Prime to find that it was exactly where I left it and I had decided to temporary visit my warframe that is so far away from home to check on it. With how much void energy my body is putting out I was hovering in the air, weightless and frictionless I floated around the room and I must say I loved it. The bed was massive compared to the one on my Orbiter and that the room smelled like pleasant flowers, this room looks nice, almost like a priceless luxury that I would never be able to afford on my own even though I have millions of credits.
It was during my little exploration of the room did I feel a disturbance nearby, a foreign energy source rose from no where and I felt it was nearby. I looked around in suspicion that it was from one of the alien horses with a horn, and my suspicion was proven correct when I heard someone knocking on the door just seconds after I felt the disturbance.
I locked up for a moment when I heard the knocking, I couldn't let anyone find me here, they think that this is just a suit of armor and not a bio-mechanical puppet being controlled by my hands and mind.
As soon as the door started to open up I quickly retreated back to the somatic link and resumed direct control over my warframe that I left behind and acted like nothing was wrong.
When the door opened up it revealed to me the purple horse girl from before and two horse guards standing by my door, the purple one started to talk before waving at me to follow her, seems like stuff like this doesn't change.
I left my Fragor and Braton Prime in the room knowing that these alien horses won't take them from this room and try to study them, I am sure that a powerful electrical void shock will dissuade any would-be thieves from taking what is mine. Leaving my room with nothing but my Lex Prime I followed the three out and down the halls, our destination is unknown to me but to those that I am following I am more than sure that they know where we are heading.
It was when we were going down a particularly familiar hall that I started to see portraits and suits of armor lining the walls, the very same ones from the fortress I just came from. Maybe this castle is a duplicate of the original down the mountain?
But while we were walking down the hall we bumped into a familiar looking blond haired, finely dressed horned horse man, well he bumped into the purple horned horse girl and the two started to talk while the two guards stood where they were and didn't move an inch. I was too busy trying to pay attention to their conversation and decipher what was being said by watching and studying their body language and the tone of their voice.
Standing there like a rock pillar I watched the two talk and for a few minutes they were debating back and forth before finally the finely dressed male left but he stopped when he was half way between the guards and myself when he turned his head and said something that made my purple guide red in the face as she shook from what must be anger or embarrassment.
I decided that this was taking too long and the sooner we can find a translation or a translator of some kind the faster I can return home so I picked up the blond horse man and removed him from our path. Picking the guy up I went to the end of the hall behind me and put him down on the opposite side of the door before returning back to the group.
When they stared at me I thought that I did something bad but for the moment I could care less, we were going somewhere and I hate to be late when we are needed somewhere so I tapped my wrist before making a twirling motion with my finger, the purple one didn't know what I was doing but the two guards that was flanking her did. They whispered to the purple one what it meant and clarity dawned on her face as she understood before saying what must be a thank you to the guards before we resumed our walk.
Eventually the four of us made it to a set of large doors and the two guards opened it up for the purple one and myself and once it was open they ushered us in before closing the doors behind us, the two staying on the other side.
I stared at all of the occupants in the room, the two royal horse women, the officer guard horse man, the five horse girls from the ruins, the dragon, a horse man in a lab coat and lastly twenty horse guards lining the walls.
Seeing the purple one motion me to the table I can guess that they are going to introduce themselves and try to question me, but seeing how neither of us have a means of translating or deciphering the others language, both spoken and written, I had decided to prepare myself a means of being able to speak their language, I just hope that they don't overreact to it.
Soon after entering the room the horse people started to introduce themselves, the recording optical lens in my helmet is doing its job in capturing their appearances along with the voice samples they are giving me, but as soon as the horse man in the lab coat started to talk I felt my blood start to boil. I hate lab coat wearers so much, the things they have done to me and the other children and teenagers that was on the Zariman 10-0, I will never forget what they did to us, so many of us wanted their blood for the things they put us through, I know I got my chance when they gave me the Rhino Prime.
Sadly only two bastards got away from my rampage when they entered a safe room.
I proceeded to get into a hostile stance against the obvious scientist and made a threatening growl towards him, I knew that it would scare him and seeing how horses are herbivores aka prey, that it will work without a doubt. And it did, the scientist retreated back a bit and made every singe guard in the room react by going for their weapons and taking a step forward.
They know that they can't do anything to me because their weapons and armor are beyond inferior to what I have available to me, but before I could put my foot up that man's ass, the purple one calmed me down and I resumed my neutral stance for the time being.
As the ponies talked to me and I in turn listened and for the most part this was nice, but seeing how I can't understand a word they were saying I decided that if I can capture at least one of them and scan their body and mind, learn their knowledge by ripping it out from one of their heads before duplicating it for myself and returning the captured alien back to its people.
But what the dark blue horned winged royal did to me changed my plan dramatically.
[Twilight's POV]
Sitting down beside my teacher and my friends we watched as the alien calmed down and sat down, Professor Short Fuse trying to calm himself down after getting scared by the alien after it displayed a clear sign of aggression toward him. I guess the alien doesn't like him very much as it kept its head looking in the professor's direction and that it kept its hands on the table, unmoving and unflinching.
We decided to keep talking to the alien, trying to get it to speak to us but it kept ignoring and kept on staring at Short Fuse, trying to a burn a hole through his head.
As the alien kept its attention on the professor a thought sudden struck me and I knew that this was risky because I don't know what the alien might do if I reveal its secret out to everyone in the room but seeing how this is starting to not go well I decided that the reward greatly outweighs the risks.
Standing up from my seat at the table I walked around and slowly made my way to the alien, my eyes staying on it and as soon as I was next to it I made my move and hoped my gamble paid off.
Grabbing the alien by the hand I tugged on it and tried to tell it to stand up but it stopped looking at the professor to turn its head to look at me and for a moment I thought that I had earned its ire but instead it made a grunting sound and its body relaxed immediately. Still tugging on its arm I tried to motion it to stand up and after a few attempts it picked up on what I was trying to do and it stood up, towering over me again but this time it seemed like it was starting to lose its patience.
"Come on! Just show them what you look like under the helmet! Show them that you aren't a threat to us ponies! I know you can do this" And with that said I started to do hand motions and other means of trying to convey my message to it and for a good long while I wasn't getting anywhere until finally I heard it let out a long sigh as it stood up from the table and took a step back.
It looked at me for a good long while before it stood up straight and in a bright flash of light everypony in the room watched as the alien in the armor suddenly appeared the alien wearing the strange jumpsuit and hoof from earlier. We watched as it floated above the floor and the table, a strange gold aura surrounded its very form and all of us were in awe as it effortlessly levitated in the air as it looked at all of us and I couldn't believe that it had worked!
There it was! Among us and outside of its armor and to the amazement of my friends, brother and mentor they were all staring at the alien with their mouths open and in shock, hay even the guards are staring in shock and surprise that the alien is almost as big as the armor it was wearing!
And what else that caught everyone's attention was the obvious bulge in its trousers, every single mare in the room was staring intently at it and more than a few of us were now confirming that this alien was indeed a he , something that made quite a few fantasies to start forming in our heads. I myself have...well...I may have already started to think about such things but I threw those thoughts aside when I realized that I don't even know anything about this guy! Would he even be interested in a mare like me?
But before we could stare at it any further the alien suddenly lost his ability to levitate as it fell to ground, his upper body landed on the table with a thud as his arms lay outstretched, catching himself as he let out a muffled grunt just as everypony got up from their seats and rushed to the alien. Fortunately for me I was right next to him as I helped it to a seat and let him rest as I watched its head loll around a bit before he regained his senses and helped himself to sit upright before casting his gaze towards the princesses.
Before I could ask the alien anything I watched as Princess Luna teleported over right to the alien's left and before I could stop her from doing whatever it is she is going to do, I was too late as her horn lit up as she pressed it against the alien's head and in a bright flash of deep blue light we were caught off guard as the alien and Luna were connected by a mental spell.
Whatever Princess Luna is doing cannot be good as the alien is flinching and twitching but what really made this bad was the glare that Princess Celestia was giving her. Luna was breaking several laws just by doing whatever spell she is using, one of them is that she is assaulting somepony with magic, invasion of the mind, and what is the most important one of all.
Assaulting a foreign dignitary.
As this went on Princess Celestia teleported between her sister and the alien but when she tried to force the spell to end it, it ended prematurely as Luna's horn began to glow the same gold hue that the alien was emitting as she was thrown back as the two let out a scream of pain. The pair were holding their heads in agony as they continued to scream in pain, their minds must have been connected when the separation occurred, I just hope that none of them have suffered from any kind of mental trauma.
The alien was the first to recover as the hood on his head opened itself up like a flower in bloom, the petal-like hood lowered themselves down before sticking to parts of the suit as we all saw the matted down black hair on the alien's muted-brown head as a pair of molten-gold eyes stared right at me.
He slowly opened his mouth, coughing raggedly as he tried to regain his voice and from the first time since he spoke, he said something that we could all understand.
"That...shit...hurts..."
And that was all it could say before it slumped back into its seat just as its suit of armor stood back up and took a defensive stance behind him, in the armor's right hand was the same strange weapon that was pointed at me and my friends back in the Everfree Forest.
I can already see this not ending well for us as Princess Luna has just assaulted a foreign dignitary who is also an alien with possibly world ending weapons of doom!
On the bright side though we can now understand its demands!
No wait, that's bad.
Author's Note
College is starting tomorrow so when I post this will be the last day of my freedom from the institution of higher learning and will then become a slave to education and knowledge.
ENJOY!
Shaking and heaving from the pain of having my mind brutally forced into by an alien and I was glaring right at her.
My head was throbbing in pain and it was agony to even try and focus on the one who did this to me as I can still hear lingering voices from her intrusion and that I can still see what looks like her memories from her past and it is all jumbled and confusing to try and decipher what is going on. The dark blue royal alien on the other hand is busy dealing with the memories of the Old War I gave her for her little stunt and I must say watching her writhe in pain is justice for the breach of privacy.
Shaking and trembling in my spot next to my warframe as my void energy is scrambled from whatever it is that the royalty has done to me, I couldn't stand on my own power as my body was still adjusting to no longer being in a stasis pod and that it had to be able to move on its own power. Trying to shake the strange disorientation from my body but all that did was make my headache even worse as I had to sit still and hold my head as the voices in my head slowly started to fade in and out from my subconscious all the while the alien horses were busy tending to their own.
"Oh Celestia are you okay?" A voice said to my right, the purple horned girl that was serving as the initiator for the peace talks was standing beside me, kneeling close to me as she tries to look me over but my warframe was keeping her at bay by pointing the Lex Prime at her forehead right below where her horn is located.
"Other than...the throbbing pain in my head...and the voices screaming at me...just snug as a bug on a drug...but my bloody head hurts like all hell..." I said as I groaned, my left hand twitching on my head as I held onto the table with my right.
On the other side of the table where Luna was taken by her sister, they were busy trying to assess the situation with her current state but she won't be done with the Old War going on insider her head until she saw everything or until I reconnect with her and cancel it myself.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" The same voice said to me, the purple horned girl from earlier was close enough for me to pinpoint that it was hers and not someone else's.
"Yeah, point to me...the one who did this..." I said as the voices faded away but they were still at the edges of my subconscious, taking up space and making it harder for me to focus.
"Princess Luna? She is over there, why?" The purple girl said, confusion was clearly written on her face but it was about to change when she saw what I did next.
"So I can do this." And like magic my warframe's right arm moved in the direction of the dark blue horned and winged alien horse royal, the Lex Prime pointing right at her head.
"What are you doing! That is the princess you are pointing that thing at!" And that thing that I am pointing with is strong enough to make your head explode into a fine pink mist. And also that your princess just tried to mind rape me without my consent!
"I am doing what I am supposed to be doing, dispensing the law onto the law breaker in question." I wanted to kill her but for some reason there was this unseen force that was preventing me from doing so.
"And just what law did she break huh!" The flying rainbow said as she took up a defensive stance in front of my attacker, trying to protect her but if she knew what this pistol is capable of doing than she would know that it would do nothing to stop the corrosive exploding bullet from reaching its intended target.
"For starters, the law of common sense. If someone were to break into another's mind without discrimination or a care for the one being assaulted than that person is willing to do so again. Then we have the forceful intrusion into the mind of a Tenno Operator, the secrets and knowledge of my order cannot be divulged and spread to those that seek to do us harm, and seeing how your princess did this without care or worry for her own action she must pay the price. And lastly assaulting a Tenno Operator with the side-effect of mental trauma." That and being a fucking idiot, even the Grineer and Corpus know to never purposely antagonize us!
"Oh...uh...well...your a jerk!" Name calling? Are you serious?
"And I am a jerk...how? For upholding galactic law against a criminal who knowingly broke the law?" Just be glad I didn't enact the Law of Retribution, the lot of you would be dead alongside her just by being an associate.
"But she didn't know what she was doing!" Bull fucking shit.
"I would buy that excuse, if it was only so. She walked up to me with a purpose and knew what she was about to do, this wasn't a flight of fancy nor was it an accident. She knew what she was about to do and did it anyways, there is no act of delusion or any kind of mental slipup, she did this fully knowing that she might suffer a backlash of any kind." This one isn't Alad V or even Tyl Regor, they didn't truly know what they were doing until it was far too late. Hell at least Alad V is now on our side after we cured him of the Infestation that was eating half of his face.
"Please forgive her! She was only trying to help you!" I would forgive her if she actually asked me for before mindraping me.
"I have heard that excuse an innumerable number of times, and every single time it was said, it was never in the interests of those it was meant to help."
"Please! I'll do anything just spare her!"
"Twilight no!" "Don't do it! Its a trick!" "No!" All of her friends shouted at the same time, even the white winged horned alien princess. Why does royalty care so much about this particular person?
"Young Twilight, be warned that by pledging yourself to me you can not refuse my request nor demand to be released from your service until I deem it so." This is for life but I won't tell her that, then she wouldn't do it and just let this one take her punishment.
"No!" The white alien in guard armor shouted as I glanced over at him for a moment before returning my gaze to my soon-to-be-new assistant.
"I'll do it, just spare Princess Luna." And the deal was made,
For a moment all was silent in the room as I leaned against the table, catching my breath as I feel my body starting to balance itself out, filtering away the foreign memories before finally restoring full functionality to my person.
"Just know this young one, that upon this pledge that if you dare to back out from it or even try to betray that which was promised to me, you will carry the penalty of death along with the offender of the original crime of which you are trying to abolish."
"I understand."
"Good..."
And with that said and done I told my warframe to help me up and to carry me over to the mentally wounded princess, every single guard and alien in the room was on alert as they pointed their weapons at me and was moving closer to try and make sure that I wasn't going to do anything to their princesses.
Once I was close to the lunar princess I can tell that she is starting to crack under the mental pressure that has been placed upon her for her transgression against me.
"We must remake the connection that this one has created if I am to undo the mental trauma." I said as I watched Luna writhe and wince from the pain of it all.
The purple unicorn nodded at me and with a bit of hesitation on her part along with the fear and worry on the faces of everyone else present, Twilight's horn started to glow its lavender hue as she placed a hand on Luna's right shoulder before placing a hand on my left shoulder and in an instant we were pulled into darkness.
Floating alone in the darkness that is Luna's mind I drifted alone for a while, I saw nothing but the blackest void and it wasn't very comforting as it reminded me of the time I spent in the Void. Looking around I saw nothing but darkness but eventually I saw a lavender light off in the distance and after a moment of calling out to it I saw the light vanish before reappearing right in front of me.
"Where are we?" I asked the purple mare as I took a glance around the emptiness.
"If I did this spell right than we are in Princess Luna's mindscape and that all we have to do is either call out to her or if she is having a problem to find and focus in on the source of the mental problem." Twilight said as she floated beside me, having mastered this particular motion before I did I watched her motions to try and mimic them as I bobbled around like a buoy in the ocean during a raging storm.
"That will be easy then, I know what is troubling her. Hold onto me tightly." I said and as soon as I closed my eyes to focus on the target I felt a pair of arms wrap around my neck before I felt the young mare press her body against me just as we vanished into thin air.
We soon reappeared in the middle of a warzone.
There was dead bodies everywhere, bent in every which way the human body can be bent, some of them were melted to the ground and walls, destroyed machines scattered on the floor riddled with bullet holes and scorch marks, even the wreckage of a Dax transport ship was on the battlefield, billowing flames escaping from its ruined frame.
I recognized this place.
This was the surface of Phobos during our incursion against the Sentients, they had a repair facility there and that it was their main maintenance facility within the solar system. We were sent in to destroy and to destroy every single Sentient we could get our hands on and to make sure that they wouldn't be able to fix the damage to it so it could never be used ever again.
It was a slaughter for the Dax soldiers, they were woefully unprepared and had no hope against the enemy.
They had to send us Tenno in to clean up the mess and to find any survivors from the initial assault to help us with our mission.
I was too focused on destroying every single Sentient unit on the battlefield to even bother to rescue those soldiers.
While I was busy remembering this clusterfuck of a mission Twilight was too busy heaving all over the half-melted helmet of a Dax to even pay attention to anything else.
"You done yet?" I asked as Twilight looked up at me with a glare before she once again spewed all over the helmet, not even knowing that it was a helmet in the first place.
"What is this horrible place! Why would you make Princess Luna think of such horrible things!" She chastises me as I simply laugh at her, apparently she has never seen a dead body before, I bet she hasn't even seen herself bleed before either!
"Firstly this place isn't horrible, this is Mars's moon Phobos and secondly, this is not something that I made up, this actually happened from where I am from." I was actually shocked that she would have the audacity to call my favorite place to kick back and relax after a hard day of work and killing things.
"You have skirmishes like this! I thought this was just a nightmare you had!"
"Nope! This actually happened, and this was no skirmishes, this was a vital mission in a chain of several other raids in a long war that ended in our victory. IT also had the bonus as it helped kick start the downfall of an empire." I said as I walked over to a dead Dax Officer before kicking his helmet off, his body has been reduced to ashes while his armor just kept it from falling out and vanishing in the breeze.
The look on her face for disrespecting the dead is priceless.
I know for a fact that these Dax soldiers would have killed me without a second thought if I was outside of my pod, their loyalty to the Seven Executioners was unbreakable but they lacked the skill or even the will to refuse orders that they know is a suicide mission because they are so honor-bound to do as they are told.
Fools, the lot of them.
Executioners, they killed those that went against their principles and their will, it was also because of their greed that they have created the very thing they hated.
Twice.
First was the Sentients, they were created to colonize and ready for our arrival into another system, but they turned against us. I don't know how or why they turned against their creators but when they did they have turned into our greatest enemies and the biggest threat to our lives.
The second was us, the Tenno. They created a monster that they couldn't stop so they went and created several thousand monsters that they thought they could control with their thinly veiled threats. They took us away from our families, destroyed what we once were and turned us into something that is beyond human, and they wondered why we turned against them.
"Do you even honor your dead!?"
"Oh we do honor our fallen, but these guys...these...mindless drones...they are nothing more than cannon fodder. They are worthless compared to those that are like me, a single Tenno can kill several hundred enemy combatants by themselves, but when paired together with one, two or even three more operatives and we can end the lives of thousands of hostile soldiers."
"But what truly takes the cake for my kind, we destroyed an empire from within on our day of victory over the Sentients." I said as I led Twilight through the wreckage of the battle, this place was clearly the aftermath of the incursion, we exterminated everything in sight that wasn't a Tenno or a Dax soldier, but I took that liberty to spare only those that were mostly uninjured. Those plenty that were injured and dying I executed to spare them a slow death, I just stabbed them in the head to end their suffering immediately.
"You destroyed an entire kingdom? Why!"
"The Orokin Empire knew what they did, they damned themselves to their demise."
"But what did they do?"
"They created a plague that destroys the body and mind of those infected and transforms them into mindless beasts of a hive mind nature, they created a machine that adapted to everything that was hostile towards them and that it brought the empire to its knees, the creation of a clone race of slaves that immediately betrayed them as soon as they saw an opening and lastly they created me and those like me." I explained it all to the young mare, her ears folding back and her eyes growing wider with each thing that I list.
In all I think I painted a rather vivid picture as to why it was in everybody's best interest that the Orokin were wiped out. They just kept on creating the means to their own destruction.
Twilight was silent, probably from shock of being told that a mighty system spanning empire was wiped out from its own creations,
"So where do you think this princess of yours is located?"
"In all of this madness? I honestly don't know."
"Well if I can take a wild guess...it is probably at mother's grave."
"Her grave? Your mother is dead!?"
"She is not m-never mind, it is to long of a story and I rather not go into it...I am not willing to reawaken those memories and reveal unto them to anyone just yet. Let us just go find your princess and get out of here." I said with a solemn tone before regaining my usual composure and walked through the cleanly bisected remains of a Battalyst, its tuning fork arms still crackling with energy as it softly hums in the sand.
We walked in silence past burning wrecks, skeletons and disintegrated hulls, it took us several minutes of me and Twilight going through the battlefield to reach the grave sight, the one who took us Tenno in when the rest of the Orokin Empire wanted us either to be vivisected and studied as to why we can harness the Void or to outright kill us as we would be perceived as a threat to their society.
Before long we arrived at the grave and there she was, Princess Luna, a bleeding, scorched, beaten wreck of a princess, and she was leaning against mother's grave.
"Your actions have consequences Princess Luna of Equestria." I said in a menacing tone as I shifted from my normal self and turned into my Rhino Prime, my hands were now holding the shaft of the Fragor Prime as I walked slowly to the dark blue horned winged horse alien.
"Luna, this is just a taste of what the Tenno Order is capable of doing to its enemies. They sent in sixteen Tenno Operatives to take down an entire facility of these monsters when over twelve thousand Dax soldiers have failed. I was nothing more than an Initiate back then but as you can see now, I am far more powerful than I was on this fateful day." I said as I walked over to the princess before sweeping her off her feet and knocked her to the ground before placing the hammer head onto her chest, pinning her to the ground.
"Outside of this realm you attacked me mentally when your horn made contact with my head, whatever you have done in there may have given me the foreign knowledge to translate and understand your language, but the way you have done so has caused me mental trauma. Doing such a thing to a Tenno operative would normally grant you death by summary execution but instead something else has taken your place." Pressing the hammer harder on her chest I watched the princess wheeze and cough harshly as she tried to pry the hammer off her chest.
"This young one has accepted the terms of your punishment and for the time being she will act as my liaison and will be my guide during my stay here until my ship is repaired and is fully functional." And that she will be leaving with me when it is my time to leave, I will need a frame of reference when I return back to the Tenno Council so we can discuss a proper communication line and a possible colonization for refugees on empty zones.
"Please, let me take the punishment, do not involve her-" I cut the princess short as I placed my foot on the hammer head, forcing the air from her lungs and also the life from her body before relenting.
"A deal has been made and the bargain struck, there is nothing you nor your sister can say to negate what has been declared. If it had been denied by the either of you two, we would not be having this conversation right now." I said before I knelt down and picked her up by the waist before turning my head to look at the purple horned one and nodded to her.
Twilight understood what was being silently said as she walked up to us and lit her horn and in a moment the three of us were gone from this hellish landscape of death and ruin.
My vision returned to me and in a few moments I was back in the chamber with the rest of the aliens standing around me, the young purple one was groaning from having her mind thrust into a foreign dreamscape but soon she was all better as she stood back onto her own two feet...hooves...and was back to normal. The lunar princess on the other hand as I turned my head to look at her, she was no longer whining or groaning in pain but instead she was being cradled like a little baby by her big sister. I was left to myself with my warframe holding me steady as I was forced back onto my feet so I could return back to my seat on the other side of the table.
"The deed is done, the bargain made, I expect that you will not try to shirk or pass off your new duties until I deem your debt is paid." I said to the purple alien girl as I walked back to my seat, the other aliens in the room momentarily stopped paying attention to the mentally distressed lunar princess as they all looked at me when I spoke.
Glancing back at the purple horned girl I watched as she remembers to what was said earlier and for a moment I was hoping that she would try to back out of the deal so I can show them what happens to those that break an agreed upon deal.
"I know, just tell me when you are ready to get this started." Twilight said with a solemn tone, knowing that whatever she had planned for the evening might never happen now that she has been essentially made into a slave to spare the life of her princess.
"Good...good...there are things that I need to know and you will be the one to tell me, you will not leave anything out and if there are those that try to tell you otherwise to not say it, kindly remind them of what will happen to you and your fallen princess of the consequence of her transgression." I said as I sat back down in my seat, my Rhino Prime standing beside me, its right hand firmly holding the Lex Prime and it was pointed at the ground for the moment.
And when the other aliens questioned her what I meant she told them exactly what was going to happen to her and the princess and they all immediately gasped and before I can think on what they might try to do to me to end the deal and not execute their princess, the guard in purple and gold armor stormed right up to me and drew his sword and pointed it right at me but my Rhino Prime was faster then him.
It grabbed his sword and ripped it from his grasp before it snapped the sword in half like a twig with just a single hand before his other hand dropped the Lex Prime right into my lap and grabbed the alien officer by the throat and lifted him off the ground three five feet into the air.
"If I was you young officer I would not make such hasty actions without knowing the consequences of your actions because after all your actions have consequences and it would be a real shame if I would have to kill you in front of your friends and family." In an eerily calm tone I spoke to the guard captain as he flailed in the air, his legs kicking uselessly about as he tried to pry the lone hand that was securely wrapped around his throat.
"Please don't hurt him!" The purple girl shouted, with the translation forced upon me I recalled back the words that was said and filtered everything out until I came upon to the words she said and picked out her name.
Twilight Sparkle.
I weep for the future if all names are like this on this world.
"Oh don't worry, I won't harm a single strand of hair on his head. I am just going to instill him the fear of knowing that he almost got you and your dark princess killed for his brash actions." I said and for a moment I caught the officer cease his resistance and realize that he nearly did get his own sister and lunar princess killed.
As soon as he was well aware of his actions I released him from the warframe's grip and went back to my calm neutral stance as I gave back the heavy pistol to my Rhino Prime.
"Now, shall we begin with the questioning young one, there is much I need to know and there is not enough time to learn it all."
And so began the questioning...
"Where are we currently?"
"Canterlot, the royal castle of the two sisters to be exact."
"What is the name of this planet?"
"Equis."
"What are you."
"I am a unicorn."
"What are the other races that inhabit this world?"
"Well besides us unicorns there are pegasi, earth ponies, diamond dogs, gryphons, minotaurs, dragons, zebras, donkeys, deerfolk, and lastly alicorns."
"Interesting...I will need to know more about these races, I require any and all information regarding these people to be sent to my room by today's end. I wish to learn more about these races if I am to remain here for what might be the foreseeable future."
"I will gladly tell you everything that you wish to know, but can you please be a little nicer to us? I don't mean to imply that you are being rude to us but it is just that so far you have been a little bit...well-" Twilight said as she made circles on the table with a finger, clearly a nervous tick of hers or just a motion she is going through.
"You have been acting like a real flankhole ever since you got here." The rainbow haired pegasus said as she crossed her arms and was wearing a thinly veiled smirk. This one was called Rainbow Dash...I hate this place more and more if the names are like this. A noun and an adjective...why?
"Oh? So I am acting like this 'flankhole' as you call it? Well have you ever crash landed your only home into the ground on a foreign planet before?" If the 'flankhole' means asshole then well, she is spot-on, I am an asshole but that is only when it is necessary.
"Well...once, but that was because I was a little drunk at the time and it was my first time moving my home all by myself." That actually made me do a double take because not once did I see anything resembling a crater or a burnt out mess earlier.
That actually stumped me, I saw nothing in this world that looked like a moveable building as it was all built into the ground or the side of a mountain. I guess this person either lives far from here or I just didn't see it at the moment when I was in the air.
"Hmm, well then how about learning that you have been sleeping your entire life and have only just been released from that coma-like state after the enemy has learned where you have been hiding for the past few centuries and you only just barely escape death by the skin of your teeth only to have that same enemy appear in your home and nearly get killed there?"
"Uhh..."
"Or how about being torn from your family and placed on a ship to an unscheduled trip to a realm where logic and science fail and that when you return home you are immediately placed into a secure facility and studied like lab rats because you and those that went with you are the only ones to have returned from that accursed place alive and changed? To be poked and prodded to learn what makes you tick?"
"No..."
"What about being turned into a weapon and are forced to fight for an empire that treated you like shit your entire life because you are different? Have you been forced to fight in a war that they created because they were shortsighted and didn't bother to study their new creations to a certain degree and ensure that it wouldn't ever betray them in the foreseeable future?"
"No." It made Rainbow Dash back off for the moment as her ears folded back in defeat but I pressed on even further.
"What about having the only person in your life treat you better than anyone else ever did and you then find out that she was actually the very enemy that was trying to kill you at every moment? Have you ever had a crisis of faith and just wanted to end it all only to know that you can't because you would just come back to life?"
"Okay we get it! You had a hard life!"
"Do you? Because no one ever has a hard life until it is forced upon them, I had to watch in silence as the only person that cared about me and the others like me as she was executed for going against the Seven Principles. She was a mother to us all and they killed her because she knew that what she was doing was wrong and that it has left her scarred."
That made everyone silent as I rubbed at my temples, a headache was starting to form and it was starting to annoy me to no end.
It was when the silence grew too great that one of them spoke out, the yellow one to be precise.
"I'm sorry..."
I looked up at the source of the voice, the yellow winged girl looked at me for a moment before quickly hiding behind her hair and for a moment there was silence before I exhaled explosively in annoyance until I broke the silence as I sat up straight.
"Don't be, you did nothing wrong yellow one. The only ones in the wrong here is your lunar princess, your unicorn officer and your rainbow friend along with myself are to blame. The stress of several revelations all crashing down at once along with getting marooned on a alien planet isn't doing any favors as well." I admitted as I let out another sigh, its hard to even explain everything that I went through to someone because I doubt that any of them went through seven centuries of war with hardly any breaks during it all along with that lovely crisis of faith with the Lotus being a damn Sentient in disguise.
Before the conversation can die and everything be lulled back into silence, the pink one stood up with a gasp before she started to talk in rapid succession and it took one of her friends to convince her to slow down so everyone else can understand what was being said.
"We should totally start over and be friends! No more grudges between us all and we can finally be friends with someone from space! A space friend! Oh that would be so cool because I can then tell my sister that space rocks are real and that there is somepony here that can prove it and-" Did...did she just suggest such a thing? A restart? You don't just restart after an incident like that!
How does one even just forget a clusterfuck that just happened not even an hour ago!
But then again, this can have some benefits to it. I can possibly get on their good side and get some things out of this all the while holding onto this grudge and not enact upon it until I absolutely need to.
Letting out a sigh I dropped my head before looking up at the white princess in question.
"Alright, I can agree to this...restart as you call it. But just know this Princess." I said as I leaned forward slightly, trying to make myself look bigger but with me being next to my warframe I am pretty much dwarfed by its size and made weaker because of it.
"Know what?" The white one, Celestia if I am remembering the translation properly, said as she looked at me with a hopeful glimmer in her magenta eyes.
"That if you ever dare to enter my mind without my permission ever again, I will enact the Law of Retribution upon you and those that dare to intrude upon anything that I hold sacred. Other then that just don't anything to piss me off." I don't think I can even enact that law without the council or the Lotus's permission all the way out here, but I can sure as fuck make that threat with ease!
"What is this 'Law of Retribution' that you speak of...besides of what it sounds like that is." The white unicorn said, Rarity I believe...I hate my life so much.
"It is exactly as it sounds like, a law where we enact our retribution upon those that have brought it upon themselves. We have only used it once and it was carried out by myself and seven other Tenno operatives on Grineer Councilor Vay Hek." And may this monster rot in hell for all eternity.
"What did he do to warrant such a thing?" Oh you wouldn't believe why he didn't get such a bounty on himself any sooner!
"He attacked and destroyed our relays, are new homes that we built in orbit over the planets of our system. He thought that by launching a devastating attack on our homes he thought it would break us, it instead made us mad. We followed him in hot pursuit back to Earth and we chased him through hell and high water to bring justice down upon him, from Earth to Ceres we forced him out of hiding by hijacking a power core for his Fomorian flagships. Eventually we chased him down to Mars and cornered him, we broke his mechanical chassis and body and when he begged for his life, I made sure he would never bother the solar system ever again by cleaving his head in half before burning his body." I said as I let out a closed snarl as I said that Grineer bastard's name.
The looks of grimace, fear and several hints of disgust were clearly evident in all of their faces but I could care less if they didn't like what I had to do. He killed both innocent people alone and fellow Tenno agents, he executed those that were in his way as he climbed the ranks of the Grineer military along with those that might ever be a threat to his power.
"Doesn't that seem a little...harsh, don't you think?" The white horned girl said as she covered her mouth with a dainty hand, seems like she is weak when it comes to death and reality.
"Trust me, he has done far worse to those he deems unworthy or in his way." I watched a recording of a Fomorian glassing a colony on Mars of renegade Grineer clones and human colonists.
"Why would such a hateful, evil being be allowed to roam unchecked or stopped for so long?" I have no idea, I was hoping that Sargas Ruk would have smoked his ass or even his damn Queens, but nope, neither did him in.
"Because it was partially the fault of us Tenno. When we destroyed the Orokin Empire we also inadvertently created a power vacuum that was quickly filled with the crude and ruthless Grineer and the greedy Corpus, these two factions hated each other almost as much as they hated us. Hell, they would sometimes stop in the middle of a firefight just to try and kill us." I said as I recalled back to the time when I was on board a Corpus Hammerhead flagship trying to retrieve a hostage and it was halfway through the vessel when it was besieged by Grineer Galleons. I was a few inches away from stealthily breaking the hostage out when a Grineer pod punched through a window that just so happened to be overhead right behind me and blew out the rest of the glass from explosive decompression.
I bet the cleanup crew for the Corpus were infuriated that they had to clean up what was probably a river of blood and a mountain of corpses that ran from one end of the ship to the other.
"At the very least we ended one threat and several others that rose up from the ashes of an empire." I said while picking my ear, it has been a while since I did that and well, it felt like it was a proper time to do it.
"Does this make us friends?" The pink one asked me and for a moment I was going to straight up tell her 'no' but I instead decided a different course of action.
"No, we are more like...acquaintances then friends." I said as I relaxed in my chair, my Rhino Prime relaxed as well by dropping into a much more calmer stance.
"Then how do we become friends?" The pink one asked as she seemed to be bouncing in her seat, and just now I am noticing that she has two strange lumps on her chest and that they were bouncing up and down. I do not know if that is healthy or not, cancerous or are just a part of her biology.
In fact almost all of them have those strange two chest lumps...some of them are bigger than others. Is this a female-only thing or is it something else? If only I paid attention to those biology classes while I was back on that outpost over Ceres!
"Unless the way to become friends is different from my system to here then I think we just have to get to know each other, but I would rather refrain from doing such things for the time being." Back home to be friends you just have to be a good teammate while in a squad of Tenno's, I got my friends by making sure that they don't eat that machinegun sandwich with a side of explosive rockets.
"And why is that?"
"Because he is still here." I said before turning to look at the lone alien in a lab coat.
All eyes in the room immediately shifted over to the lone scientist as he looked at everyone before turning back to me.
"What? What do you have against me?" The professor said with a bit of a hurt tone but I can tell that he is pissed that I am singling him out in front of royalty and also possibly his fellow colleagues.
"Because it is people like you who made people like me without first wondering if they even should tamper with things that was beyond their understanding." Just look at Jurassic Park! Why would the idiots of the past resurrect ancient monsters of the deeper past to be a part of an amusement park for the enjoyment of defenseless civilians! That is just stupid on so many levels!
That shut him up as I leaned in my seat, slightly making it off balance but it was stopped when my warframe adjusted his right leg so the back of the chair would rest against it.
Soon enough it was the cyan winged girl that spoke up after thinking on what to say.
"So do you have any sports where you are from?" Rainbow Dash said and for a moment I paused to think this one through.
That brought a smirk to my face as I recalled everything that we had back home.
"Yup, we have the Conclave and Lunaro, along with Rathuum and the Index." I said as I recalled back to the fun times I had with those sports, for that matter the blood sports that I had fun with.
"Those sound like fun! Do you think you can teach us those games?" The pink one said, apparently learning about games is a thing that she enjoys...I doubt she would even like these games.
"Well the Conclave is an arena where fellow Tenno fight and compete against one another. Lunaro is something similar to the Conclave but it is a much more ancient sport where two teams toss a ball through a hoop all the while thrashing the opponents that are holding the ball to drop it. Rathuum is a much more...bloodier sport, it involves the Grineer Executioners who fight against traitors and prisoners to entertain their soldiers but recently we Tenno joined in on the sport to free the prisoners. And as for the Index...I don't know much about it other than it is the Corpus version of the Rathuum but I think it might be something else entirely." I actually miss Rathuum, I love making Kela De Thaym scream in anger as I wipe the floor with her favorite band of killers.
Good times.
Well good times for me, but for the rest of these aliens they all seem to be a bit green around the gills, so to speak. I guess they don't like violence or blood sports all that much.
"Is there anything that you do that isn't filled with violence or pain?" The purple one said as she grimaces, seems like I was right after all.
"Not really, other than that the only thing we have that doesn't revolve around such things are our mediations, practicing in the obstacle course, playing with our Kubrows and Kavats, and for the most part just enjoying a relaxing time in the relays." Truth be told playing with my pets is truly relaxing, even when I thought I was just a being a pure energy inhabiting the warframes that I have created I had always thought that those two would keep me company till the end of time or until their genetic structure falls apart.
The words 'Kubrow' and 'Kavat' perked up the ears of a buttercream yellow winged girl as she looked up with what looks like a hopeful smile on her face.
"What are they? Are they nice? Do they play well with others?" This one, Fluttershy...huh a name that matches her shy nature if she continues to hide behind that long hair of hers.
"They are genetically-created pets that belonged to the upper echelons of Orokin society, a few of them were created to assist us Tenno's out in the field while others were made to help clean up an Infestation Outbreak. They are nice to those they are imprinted to and they only play with their masters, with others...well does losing a limb or getting mauled count as playing?" I said with a bit of humor, my kubrow just loves to maul on those tasty Grineer roller balls.
"You ask me what I do for fun but I have to ask what do you do for fun?" I said while looking at the purple unicorn girl and for a moment I thought I saw a flash of mischief but that couldn't be, she wouldn't dare to do anything that might cause her to lose her life so soon.
I soon learned why she was smiling like that.
We ended up in what these alien ponies call a royal archive and I was sitting in a chair surrounded by the purple one's friends as she brought several stacks of books onto the table we were at. I feared that if she put anymore books down that the table might not be able to support the weight and cave in.
I later learned that my purple liaison is in fact a tremendous bookworm that probably has more knowledge than Cephalon Samaras and that might actually be a scary thought and a sight to ever behold if that was true.
Eventually though a pony guard entered the archive with a scroll in his hands and gave it to the white princess before standing to the side out of the way, my guess is that he is a messenger and is just waiting for either a reply to be made or to be dismissed.
So primitive.
The white princess hummed thoughtfully to herself as I watched her pace back and forth, I can only speculate what was written on that piece of paper but for the time being I can only hope it is good news because I will not let myself get involved in these pony's affairs.
I have my own bloody affairs to contend with and all of them are out to either kill me or mutate and mutilate me into an unimaginable horror born from a test tube and needle.
"What is wrong sister, is there something wrong?" The lunar princess said as she finally said something after having her mind bruised during our little scuffle earlier. I am moderately happy to see that she is well enough to speak under her own power and now through life support or through a machine apparatus.
"It would seem all of the old records, priceless relics, old portraits and antiques from our old palace have mysterious vanished last night while both of our guards were present and in the area." The white princess said as I swallowed dryly. It would seem the alien relics that I was collecting earlier belonged to them, but seeing how it was left behind to rot for Lotus knows how long...
"Oops."
Author's Note
I should have no excuse for being late other than my laptop being a piece of shit but I was a bit busy playing Endless Space 2, grinding Warframe for ayatan sculptures and lastly playing Gears of War 4.
View Online
Interesting Academic Lessons, Artifacts, and an Asskicking
All of us sat there at the table, most of the alien ponies here were busy wondering who could have stolen those ancient artifacts while I was busy wondering if I could sneak those things back where they belong without getting caught.
'Wait a second, they left those things there for an untold amount of time. Those things are fair game for anyone who had the balls to claim them from that decrepit ruin of a fortified structure. If anything they should be thanking me that I even recovered them and not just used them as chew toys and scratching posts for my pets.'
"How did they all just disappear in the middle of the night! The guards didn't find any feathers, scale flakes, fur strands or even any hoof and claw prints on the ground! It is almost like a ghost came through that castle and stole everything that wasn't nailed down or hidden in a vault! I didn't even think that there was somepony that was bold enough to rob from us!"
'Well I am not an alien pony so surely I don't count as to what they are talking about. And besides of that junk I picked up was either rotting away on the shelves, or was rusting on the walls and halls. Those things are practically worthless unless you can restore them and even then I know that Ordis is having a hard time trying to put those things back together from their ruined state.'
"This is a complete and utter mystery! They even picked clean the treasury and didn't even leave a trace behind to be followed!"
'To be fair you just left it all just lying around on the ground, if Maroo was here she would be able to live the rest of her life in splendor and peace.'
But as I kept on thinking to myself I soon saw that all eyes were once again back on me. I looked at them and they looked at me, and for a moment I thought they were figuring it out and were finally putting the pieces together but then one of them said something.
"Hey, we never even got to know your name since you Princess Luna transferred the translation spell onto you. We can't keep calling you alien and we never really got to translate your language into equestrian so it can be added to the translation spell list."
As we looked at each other I decided that if I am going to be stranded on this planet for what might be the foreseeable future till the end of time and space.
Straightening out my jumpsuit and placing my hands on the table I cleared my throat and said my name to them, and for a moment none of them said anything until the guy I almost strangled to death spoke up.
"Victor? Your parents named you because you are always supposed to win?" The white unicorn in purple and white armor said as he rubbed his throat, it was still a bit sore from having it nearly crushed earlier.
"No, my name is Viktor, it is spelled V-I-K-T-O-R. And I don't always win, there is no point in wining all the time if you are never allowed to learn from your mistakes. I have my fair shares of losses and defeats but for the most part I win." I said and although I didn't want to be tooting my own horn it is the truth, I do mostly win and the only time I lose is if I am just not feeling into it at the moment or I am facing against skilled opponents.
"Are you so confident in your fighting skills that you think that you can win against the captain of the royal guard?"
"I know I can beat you...Shining Armor, without any weapons and with just my feet." I said with confidence and for a few moments the captain was silent but from some prodding and pushing from Rainbow Dash he turned to me and accepted the challenge.
The challenge was set to take place in the guards training area in the left side of the outer castle, apparently he wanted to beat me in front of us men so he can prove himself to them. Oh how the tables are already turned for the poor bastard.
"Good luck captain, you are going to be needing it." I said before returning back to what we were doing earlier and that was getting my questions answered.
First we talked about what was so different about the supposed four types of ponies that inhabit this world, other than their different appearances that is.
"Okay, as you have seen about us unicorns, you can tell us apart from the other sub-species of pony by seeing that we have a horn upon our forehead and that we can directly harness the magic that is in the air. The most basic of spells that us unicorns learn at an early age is a glowing light spell and levitation. At an early age a unicorn will go through something called a magical surge which happens when the young filly or colt in question is either scared or under a lot of stress at the moment when the surge takes place. When the magical surge happens it gives the young unicorn the same amount of magic an adult unicorn would have and most of the time the surge makes the affected filly or colt to lash out at everything around them until they either tire themselves out or are rendered unconscious from an outside force."
"Then of course the way we cast our magic is through our horns, they are made of the same material our bones are made out of but they are slightly more brittle than bones and that when a spell is being cast through them, they become sensitive to touch and it can actually be painful if something were to hit them. And to make it more of a scare factor for us unicorns, if somepony were to hit our horn hard enough when we are casting a spell or when we are not, our horn can break and it will leave us magically inept and render us powerless against any threat out there in the world."
"Compared to the other types of ponies us unicorns are in the middle when it comes to terms of weight, height and muscle mass as we are capable of lifting most heavy objects with our magic and that we tend to be doing most of the least strenuous work available such as administration, business running or other light labor tasks."
After that we moved onto the alien ponies with wings.
"Now there are the pegasus like my friends Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, their key feature is that they have a pair of feathered wings attached behind their shoulder plates. Pegasi are capable of controlling the weather by being able to move the very clouds that create the numerous weather conditions that we have seen and studied so far that aren't magical in nature. Pegasi are also capable of walking on clouds and being able to mold them to whatever shape, form and density to fit their needs, it is because of that ability is how the pegasus capital of Cloudsdale was created and is also the central headquarters for the weather factory."
"Because of their closeness to the very weather they work with, pegasi have a high tolerance to cold weather because of the altitude they work in and the snow clouds they handle during the winter. They are more resistant to getting struck by lightning and thunder, the biting frost of snow and are more stable when they are flying in harsh winds when a storm is brewing."
As Twilight Sparkle was saying that, the rainbow headed friend of hers was busy soaking up all the praises her kind was receiving but I had to cut in and say my two bits on the matter.
"Does this also include an inflated ego and a thirst for confrontation?" I said with snark as the cyan pegasus went from flexing her arms as if she was getting ready for a competition to glaring at me and grinding her teeth.
"No, no, that is just how she is." A voice said from behind me and when I turned around to see just who it was, I saw a familiar face wearing an expensive-looking suit with the combed-over golden-blond hair.
"Blueblood what are you doing here?!"
"Why Miss Sparkle, I am simply here to greet our esteemed guest. Why would you think that I have some ulterior motive for doing so?"
"Because you always have some sort of hidden agenda whenever you are involved Blueblood."
"Miss Sparkle, the reason why I have hidden agendas and such frivolous things is that when you are a noble in Canterlot and also a prince to the equestrian throne, you must always be watching out for yourself all the while making sure you are not being used by somepony else who might be trying to sneak their way into an easier life among royalty and nobility. Do you not remember how many so called 'love letters' I used to get when you have previously lived her as Auntie Celestia's precious little anklebiter?"
"I..uhh....no not really, at least ten letters a week?"
"Try ten letters a day at its lowest, much more on most days. So many ponies trying to get me to date their daughters so they can show it to their friends that they are close and favored by the throne of Equestria, and even as I grew up they even tried to get me to marry their daughters so they can have more power than they previously had and also have a say in what happens in foreign affairs."
"Oh...sorry."
"And don't get me started on all the gold-digging mares that always swoon and say that I am the 'love of their life' when they just met me let alone have known me for a while. Always trying to find ways to get into my pants so they can either force me to marry them on the terms of that they are carrying my foal or that I have 'raped' them, such disgusting ponies are ignored whenever I meet them."
"But what about what you did to Rarity at the Gala last year? You pretty much ignored her and used her as a shield when the cake exploded everywhere."
"Twilight, you have to understand that at the time I knew exactly what she was trying to do, we have files on all of your friends, you included, and I had read them over and over several times so I know what to for most part expect from them. Rarity may be the Element of Generiosity but she also had the same mentality so many young mares have these days, that they will marry a prince and live a life of luxury in a castle while all of their needs are tended to, and I knew she was the same way because that was all she ever talked about when she was with you, some of the nobles in Canterlot when she made up those lies to make herself look important, and also on her way up to Canterlot the night of the Gala."
"H-how did you hear about that?"
"Please Rarity, nothing happens within this city without me hearing about it. Auntie Celestia and Luna may rule Equestria, but Canterlot is mine to rule over. Everything that happens within these walls I will know about it, everything that the nobles do, I will hear about it, I maintain this city by acting as its secondary mayor alongside with the elected mayor to ensure that everything runs smoothly here but..."
"The nobles are selfish, greedy, self-serving and are corrupted to the root." Princess Celestia said as she sat down beside Twilight and her sister.
"Exactly, with the exception of a scant few along with Sir Fancy Pants and his wife Fleur de Lis. Other than those few all the others are about as rotten as a spoiled gym sock that hasn't seen the cleansing touch of water and soap."
"But that still doesn't explain why you are here Blueblood."
"I did explain myself Twilight, it is to meet our new guest because our first encounter was subdued and that you were appeared to be running late with your early morning meeting with Celestia."
"Uh huh, and it wasn't for something else like, get in his good graces and not look like such a self-loving jerk that you are?" Rarity said and for a moment it was quiet but that soon ended when the prince started to chuckle to himself.
"So says the mare who was following me around like a lost puppy, trying to flaunt herself at me all the while trying to worm her way into my pants and my heart. You are no different from all the would-be suitors that keep trying to vie for my hand in marriage, I knew what you were trying to do so I decided that if she is going to not even try to act like the rest of those spoiled mares that want nothing more than an easy life in the lap of luxury, then she is going to earn the same dismissal silence that I give them."
"I am not some harlot showing her flank to passing stallions Blueblood!"
"Really? Then if you were really trying to be my mare you would have declared your intentions clearly to me the moment you walked up to me instead of trying subterfuge and seduction to get what you wanted. Flashing your pretty little eyes at me, a seducing smile, even going so far as brushing yourself up against me all the while only talking about yourself and your accomplishments with your fashion store in Ponyville and the clients that come from far and wide. You did everything those same mares do and not once did you not declare your intention nor did you even ask if I would like to be followed by you, you just latched yourself onto me hoping that I notice you and declare for all to hear that you are going to be my marefriend."
"Next time you should take your head out from those clouds you were in and take a step into reality for a moment. Those fantasy stories you have been reading are just that, fantasy and it will never happen with the way you have been approaching them."
Before this could go any further I butted in and said what was on my mind.
"Are you two done yet or would you like it if we left so you two can have your little quarrel in peace?" I said as I rotated my left hand, trying to get a kink out of it as I felt it stiffen up a bit.
The two looked at me and for a moment their faces lit up like a burning Butcher on Earth, red as molten metal and they stayed that way for a while before backing off and turning away from each other with their faces pointed in the air.
"Yes, I do believe we are done here and I do hope that you can stop by my office so I can get to know you better. If you are going to be staying within the city limits for however long it is going to be then I will want to know as much about you as you are willing to dispense. I can't let an unknown exist within my home and as long you are here I hope you remain out of trouble and not cause any kinds of problems while here." Blueblood said and for a moment he reminded me of those obnoxious Corpus officials that I sometimes have to help whenever an Infestation Outbreak occurs in their controlled space.
I hate Corpus dock officers, charged me to board their ship to clear out their problem. Fucking assholes.
Soon after Blueblood left we went back to what we were last doing, and that was me getting information on the pony races.
"Where were we...oh! Right! Pegasi are naturally taller than the average ponies due to them almost always being in constant flight and also being lighter than the average pony. And just because almost all pegasi are light doesn't mean that they are weak, some of them are even as strong as an earth pony but those are the ones who have grounded themselves and have almost given up their flight skills."
"And lastly we got the Earth Ponies who have neither wings nor a horn, but instead share a connection to nature and have an affinity to growing vegetation and other forms of floral plants. It is because of this connection to nature that Earth Ponies are naturally stronger than unicorns and pegasi in terms of raw strength due to a higher muscle mass and also their attunement to nature. Not much is truly known about earth pony magic other than that they are capable of growing anything almost everywhere with ease, and I know this is true because a part of Applejack's family has an apple orchard growing in a desert with nothing more than a thin river keeping both the town and the orchard alive."
"It is because of this gift of nature that several earth pony clans have taken up farming as their main trade as they are the best at it, being able to create a farm in almost any terrain be it a hot desert to a frigid tundra. And from historical records there even has been a farm on the side of the mountain when there was no viable land that could properly raise a field of crops so they had to improvise and have it grown on the side in wooden boxes."
"Out of all three pony races, the earth ponies are supposed to be the shortest but there has been at times that they are taller than the average unicorn or pegasus, and sometimes almost as tall as a minotaur in rare cases."
After that we were about to get started on what was supposed to be the 'alicorn' race but we were interrupted by the solar princess when she cleared her throat and drew our attention.
"I am sorry for interrupting your lesson Twilight but I have a question for our guest, if you would kindly answer it."
"And just what is this question?" I can't really say no to these alien ponies now, can I?
"Just what do you do for a living, a profession you would call it."
"Ah...that...for the most part a galactic peacekeeper to keep the balance of power in check, but for the most part I am a mercenary." Or pirate, that seems to be what a lot of people call us these days.
"I see..."
"You said when we were in Princess Luna's mindscape that you were a soldier when you were with the Orokin Empire, what were you before that?"
"Hmm...I, can't seem to truly remember...the last thing I can ever recall was that I worked at a shipyard, I think as a task-manager...I can't truly recall exactly what that shipyard was for but all I do know was that there was vessels that were departing and docking."
"How odd...from a dock worker to a soldier and lastly into a peacekeeping mercenary...a colorful series of jobs I must say."
"Eh, whatever you have to do to make a living, and truth be told I am rich beyond anything I would ever dream of when I was just a task-manager. I don't even think I would have ever made as much credits as I would have back then as I would have made now."
"Just how much do you have?" Rainbow Dash said, I bet she thinks I am only saying that to make myself look better.
Little does these aliens know that I am swimming in credits, weapons, and useless sculptures and other priceless relics that I can't get rid of at the moment.
"I have a little over twelve million credits." And with that said it was deathly silent, you can hear a pin drop that it was so quiet.
"Wow." "Dayum he's rich." "With that many bits, I could open up more of my boutiques throughout the world!" "I could pay off all of the farm's bills for several centuries and never have to worry about going into debt!" "So many parties!" "Just think of how many animals I can help with that many bits." "Hey man wanna share that love you got?"
"Not to burst your bubble everyone but I am not an economic master but I think my credits are useless here because I don't know what currency you use nor do I know the rate of transfer between the two currencies. For all I know this thing is worthless and has no value at all."
That burst everybody's bubble and I was happy that it did, if they wanted to be my 'friends' then they wouldn't do it for the money, hell only time a friend should ask for money is when they are in tough times and promise to pay it back in time.
"But that does raise a question though."
"And that is what Viktor?" Twilight said as she looked up from her scroll, where it came from I don't know but I can tell that she was writing something with that quill in her hands.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" I said as my warframe raised its left hand, palm facing downwards onto the table as it started to glow an orange color and in a matter of seconds a single gold coin fell from my hand that was soon followed by a small river of coins until after about thirty seconds of gold clinking on more gold it eventually stopped.
The look on everybody's face, the look of shock and surprise, clearly they were not expecting me to show this to them.
"Viktor...where in Equestria did you get this!" Twilight exclaimed as she grabbed a gold coin and looked it over.
"In the abandoned fortress where I crash landed in. While you have left me to my own devices during the night, I had relinquished control of my Rhino Prime for the time being as no one was disturbing me in the middle of the night all the while using Ivara to explore and examine the ruined area and see what was available for study. Seeing how I found countless tomes, portraits, suits of rusted armor and even a vault that held enough gold that it could possibly work as golden inlays for several Prime warframes." I said all the while picking up a single coin before pumping a fragment of my void energy into the coin to make it levitate into the air before making it drop back into my hand.
"You ransacked our old home!" That and it was so easy to do, I bet a crippled Loki can do the job in half the time.
"Well from what the preliminary scans indicated it hasn't been occupied by a living being for a thousand years so pretty much it has been left to rot and it was all up for grabs. You should be thanking me because having it deconstructed and put back together pretty much removed the rust and rot from it all." That and its not like I am going to keep it all, maybe keep it for a while until I can find someone who will take it off my hands all the while making a pretty credit for my troubles.
Probably earn myself this world's currency and be able to learn more about it, hopefully be able to earn myself a reputation as a treasure hunter. Maroo would be so proud of me if I earned the same amount of rep she has, or get jealous that I earned more money from breaking into rotting husks for the sweet loot that sometimes remains inside.
"How were you able to be within the Everfree Forest while you were here in your room? The flight from there to here was well within a few hours and I had already placed a small regiment of our royal guards to protect the crash sight and to secure anything that was left behind. So how did you do it?"
"I have my ways princess, that is all you need to know." Transference is such a useful means to an end.
That was when Shining Armor, my opponent for later in the day's duel, cut in with his own question.
"You said something about a Rhino Prime and Ivara, who are they?" Pinkie asked me as she played with a locke of hair that was between her eyes at the moment.
"Empty golems that are possessed by devil minds."
Immediately after I said that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stood up and were flaring their wings as their horns started to glow with a bright intensity, apparently they don't like the words 'golems' and 'devils'.
"What did you say!" The pair said at the same time, I guess they share a hatred for devils.
"A phrase that an Executioner said that described what we were. Our warframes are the empty golems and we operators are the devil minds, we are them and they are us."
As soon as I explained it the two slowly sat back down, and I didn't even notice it but the guards that came with us were pointing their weapons at me. Like those little toys will be able to stop me, even if they injure me it will just sent my warframe into a feral frenzy and kill everything that is in this room while leaving me unharmed.
"So that thing beside you...it is an empty suit of armor that is being controlled through magical puppet strings?"
"No, our warframes are not empty nor are they hollow, they are like us, full of life but at the same time it is lifeless."
"I do not understand what you mean, so these things are nothing more than meat puppets?" Sadly yes, but these meat puppets will not turn on us...sans Mesa and Chroma.
"You are not far off but still wrong. Warframes are biomechanical constructs that was created to handle our powers all the while being able to let us fight in the field while keeping us safe from any harm." Unless the Stalker shows up on your ship, that is another matter entirely and you have a chance of meeting your death.
And by chance I mean almost getting killed only to be saved by blind luck.
"How do they work?" Twilight said as she looked at my warframe, her eyes not once leaving the golden pieces that dot my warframe's structure.
"Sorry, its classified." That and even I don't truly know how they operate, I only got glimpses of the original blueprints when they were first given to us.
"What do you mean classified?" Seems like she doesn't like mysteries being left unsolved.
"Exactly as it sounds like, classified. I cannot tell you how they work nor can I tell you how to make them. All I can tell you that killing one of them is damn near impossible with the weapons you have available, but with the weapons I have at my disposal, I can incapacitate and capture them with ease."
"So there is nothing we can do to stop you if you oh so desire to attack us?"
"Pretty much, but I have a moral code and besides I rather not fight here. I have been fighting pretty much all my life and I am so tired of it all, never having a moment of peace, never being able to rest, hell I haven't even been able to even be able to enjoy myself because of the damn wars I have been fighting in."
"So you have been hiding away somewhere while this thing fought in your stead while you were also controlling it?" The white captain said, a bit of distain was in his voice as he said it. Guess he doesn't like people who are not directly in the frontlines.
"Yup, pretty much."
"When was the last time you took a bath?" Twilight asked me as she scribbled down her question and looked up at me, expecting a good answer from me.
"Uh...roughly seven hundred years ago."
"That is disgusting." "Oh damn, rank!" "Fillies and gentlecolts, the grossest being alive!" "Oh please, I was on the moon for a thousand years and I never had to take a bath upon my return." "At least he doesn't smell bad..." "How are you not covered in filth and dead skin cells if you haven't taken a bath in that long?"
"Hey! Let's see you take a shower when your entire life was nothing more than being asleep in a cramped pod while controlling a death machine that is capable of wiping out entire battalions of enemy soldiers all by itself all the while caring about hygiene when you have thought of yourself being nothing more than a being of pure energy instead of a being of flesh and blood?"
"Oh, right...sorry."
"No worries, although I wish to enjoy what it must be like to be normal again...or as normal as I can possibly ever get with what I am right now." Being a civilian again, every soldier's worst nightmare and most challenging task to date.
All became silent as we stopped questioning each other but soon we were either staring silently at each other or were just talking to one another about me and what was said so far.
Eventually though we returned to our questionings but this time it was focused on the gold I had acquired along with the other relics and tomes I had 'acquired' from the ruined fort I crashed into.
"So Viktor...would there be any chance of you returning what you have taken from our old home?" Princess Luna said after a while, seems like she is still recovering from her little misadventure.
"No, you left them there for however long in that place all alone and unattended so that left them up for grabs. After all finders keepers, and besides unless you are willing to trade to something for them, you are out of luck."
"What do you have in mind?" Princess Celestia said as she crossed her arms at me, making her already large chest much more pronounced for some reason. Is she trying to divert my attention for some reason? It serves no purpose whatsoever and nor will it distract me any further than they already have.
"What do you have to trade?" I fired back, just like I always did with other Tenno who wanted to trade precious resources with me back home.
I thought that I would be the one to have an upper hand in this trade negotiations but as it turns out this Celestia...she is real cutthroat when it comes to making deals and getting exactly what she wants. I think the Corpus might be able to learn a thing or two from her if they ever find a way to here.
Where ever here is exactly.
But back to this trading deal of ours, I would be giving back most of the portraits, refurbished suits of armor, weapons and other metal objects, non-moldy tomes and scrolls, and lastly any strange artifacts that I may have found. And in return they would help me by bringing my ship all the way up here without damaging it any further than it already has been, that and I get some better niceties for my room, that is a plus. They will not be getting any of the gold that I have pilfered from their abandoned coffers, and even though I could probably use them to purchase anything these lesser, groundside beings might be welling to sell to me, I wouldn't need them as I have no need for them or that my ship is capable of providing the same services they would bestow to me.
That and I highly doubt these aliens will know what to do with all this extra wealth that they would get if I did give it all back to them. Do you know what people are capable of doing when they find out that they are going to become several million gold coins richer than they previously were? I wouldn't know, I don't know the value of these ancient coins other than that they are probably worth several times more than the new coins that have been printed and produced.
"So I take it that will be everything then?" Celestia asked as Twilight finished writing on the scroll, the quill looked like it was about to burst into flames as the tip of it was smoking from how fast it was being rubbed against the paper.
"Yes, that will be all, you bring my ship up here so I can conduct a thorough scan on its damaged systems so I can repair anything that might have sustained any damage and I will be handing back to you most of what I have acquired from your ruined empty home."
"Then we are in agreement then." The white princess said and I merely nodded and all was well.
Until I spoke up that is.
"I am still keeping the portraits of you and your sister." I said quickly which earned a bit of a red face on the two princesses along with several of the other alien ponies that are present.
"May I ask why?"
"I need more art in my ship, it gets boring having to stare at the same set of digitalized environments every single day. And besides having my ship's walls lined with ayatan sculptures and landscape pictures of planets within the solar system does get old and boring." Looking at waterfalls of methane and landscapes of eroded land gets dull after a while.
"Ayatan sculptures? What are those?" Oh you poor fool, you are so lucky to not know this curse of mine, these damn things are everywhere and I can't get rid of them.
"Well they are sculptures that are made of gold and metal and are also powered by a mysterious energy source that allows them to move in place to make them more appealing." And they are worth a lot of money to the right people.
"Can I please see one? I wonder how they move if they are sculptures, seeing how ours are made of stone and even magic can't make them move without either wearing away at the stone or they can barely move in any direction without accidentally destroying itself."
"Maybe." I said after a few moments, I am just afraid that she might find a way to accidentally blow herself up if she were to tamper with the endo power source that fuels the ayatan sculptures.
"Aww." Twilight made a sad face as her ears went backwards as she started to give me a strange look, her bottom lip was quivering and her eyes started to water. Just what is she trying to do here? Is she hungry or something?
"Remember Liaison Twilight that all of my Ayatan sculptures are back in my ship which means that I don't have them currently available to me at the time." That and the few sculptures that I keep with me are for my room, not other people.
"Oh, right...duh." The purple girl sheepishly moved back to her princess and made herself scarce to avoid me giving her the stink eye.
Talking about the artifacts that my people have I kindly told her that for our people they are just sculptures that minimal use of either being a neat interior decoration for our ship or a means of energy when they are broken down to its base power component. Twilight immediately went on a tangent, talking about how priceless relics shouldn't be destroyed just to be used as a fuel source but I tuned her out, it isn't like these things are so limited, the damn Orokin made so many of these things that even their spoiled children were trying to find ways to get rid of the damn things.
I gladly obliged them of that endeavor and now I too find myself trying to get rid of them, but for the time being I am just placing them all over the ship's walls, ceiling and floor.
At least if my ship ever gets captured I can probably buy my way out by offering a wall or two.
Eventually however we have been talking for the greater part of the day, skipping a meat time along with several other things that I am not accustomed to, but for the time being I was allowed to ignore it due to a cultural difference and not knowing what it was. It was well into the afternoon when we stopped talking to pack it in for the day and before we could depart for what they call 'dinner' we were stopped when the captain of the guard spoke up in a rather loud and commanding tone as it was directed at me.
"We are not done yet Viktor!"
"Aren't we? It is time for as you people call it 'dinner' and if I am to acclimate back to a normal civilian life then I must attend and see what your species offer in terms of rations...food."
"Oh no! You are not postponing this sparring contest because you are afraid to fight me!"
'Did this motherfucker really just call me a coward?'
'Oh hell no! Someone is going to die tonight!'
"Well then captain, lead the way then. Lead me to our ring so I can make you wish you hadn't challenged me."
And off we went, down some stairs, through more halls and past several armed guards. All of them asked what was happening and what was said to them made each and every single one of them run off to spread the word.
"The captain of the royal guard is going to fight the alien in a sparing contest!"
If only it was true that it was going to be a contest, it was actually going to be more akin to a beat down brawl.
Arriving in the guard training yard I saw that it was pretty much an open area with several wooden racks holding their antique wood-and-metal weapons, several sparring circles made of stone and lastly what looks like an arena in the far off corner. I can easily guess what that is used for and where we are going.
"So I take it that we will be fighting in there?" I asked as I eyed the arena suspiciously.
I rather not destroy it on accident and have to pay them back to repair it.
"Yes, what? Is there something the matter, getting cold hooves already?" Shining Armor said in a condescending manner at me.
"No, I am just wondering if the ones who will be watching us will be safe from any collateral damage." If I know anything about fighting in a friendly duel or in this case a spar, there will always be something being broken be it the floor, ceiling or very rarely the walls, but something will break. Also a medic on standby wouldn't be such a bad idea, broken bones and dying are very likely things to occur.
"Don't worry, there is a shield enchantment build into the arena to prevent any accidental discharges from going into the crowds and injuring them. Just don't do anything that might end up in the crowd." the guard captain warned me as we stepped through the portcullis leading inside before going our separate ways on either side of the arena, everyone else was going through a different door way leading into the surrounding stands.
While the others were going into the stands to watch the spectacle that is going to be an ass-whooping of a lifetime, I was moving to the right side of the arena with my Rhino Prime beside me, the guard captain had two of his own guards beside him.
"So, do you want to fight me with my warframe or without it."
"Put it on, you are for the most part a thin frail pony without it so it is best to put it on if you even have a chance of winning." Strike one.
"You are going to come to regret saying that. These warframes are not what make us so powerful, these things actually contain our power so it doesn't wreck havoc on those that don't deserve it." And with that said I returned to my transference chamber and reconnected with my Rhino Prime.
"So your armor acts as nullifier ring...I bet you are only saying that to make yourself feel better." Strike two.
"You are going to come to regret those words." I said as I put my arms behind my back, locking them in place so they don't accidentally swing around and whack the prick in the face.
"Bold words, lets see if you can back them up." And that is strike three.
"Make your peace with your gods, you are about to learn a lesson on why you never antagonize the Tenno." I said, separating my feet and getting into a battle stance.
Shining Armor grabbed his sword and shield as one of his guards placed a frilled helmet on top of his head, his horn poking through a hole above his forehead. That is a structural weakness along with a biological weakness as well. I can use this to my advantage.
The two of us were standing at the ready, waiting for the referee to give us the green light to fight, and as our referee ran between the two of us, the tall and thin pegasus guard wearing what looks like an off-duty uniform comes to a stop with a black and white checkered flag before thrusting it upwards before flying off, starting the fight.
The royal captain made the first move by blasting a bolt of lavender energy at me from his horn, the bolt impacted against my right shoulder, almost spinning me on my feet as I was unprepared for such a sudden attack let alone one that was that powerful and that fast.
Looking down at where he hit me to where he was standing I noted that it wasn't taxing nor was it in any way very powerful. All it did was catch me off-guard and that it didn't even put a dent in my shields.
Staring up at the guard captain I decided that now was the time to strike and move I did, sprinting right at the enemy combatant and before I could ram right into the captain I watched as his horn began to glow again but this time instead of firing a bolt of energy at me he instead created a lavender barrier around himself. I collided straight into the energy barrier, my body bouncing off of it but I saw the captain wince as I hit the barrier, seeing that it is like an extension of him I decided to hit the barrier again but with a firm, strong kick to the center.
The barrier cracked under the weight of the impact and for a moment I thought it was going to break as soon as I lifted my foot off of it but to my surprise it held its form nor did it shrink down in size like a Corpus Nullifier shield does, it held together, for the time being.
Spinning in place I bring up my left leg and kicked the barrier in the same spot, this time more cracks formed on the shield and I watched the captain let out a grunt of what I think is pain of the mental kind but before I could bring it all together to a quick end he forced his barrier outward and it threw me off balance for a second time.
'So his mental attacks from his horn is all raw power and his barrier can handle a few of my unarmed hits...I bet it would shatter under a single Fragor blow.'
Staggering backwards I catch myself in time to see the captain running right at me, his round shield raised and his sword beside him as he goes in for a thrusting stab that I easily dodge by stepping closer to him, my body colliding into the shield in his left hand as his sword rushed behind me and for the moment we stood their landlocked. The two of us push against the other and for a being that is smaller than me by at least a good foot and a half he is able to hold his own against me but seeing how I am not using my arms at the moment he wouldn't be standing as I would have grabbed his shield and tossed it aside before steamrolling and plowing him into the ground.
With the two of us so close to one another I waited for Shining to make the first move and he did by taking a single step back before slamming his shield into my chest, the metal shield actually denting inward from the impact, metal objects dent to do that when they hit proto-shields. I watched him look down at his shield when it dented against my body and in that moment I saw weakness and I exploited that brief moment by raising my knee and kicked the shield out of his hand before spinning in place and kicked him in the torso, sending him back several feet before crashing into the arena wall behind him.
Cracking my neck to remove any kinks that may be building up I slowly made my way towards the downed captain, keeping a fair distance away from him in case he tries to blast me with another mind bolt or if he tries to feint in a free stab but he does nothing as I get closer and closer.
As soon as I stood over him however, he quickly got to his knees and pointed his horn right at my center mass and in an instant I watched as a sphere of energy built up before discharging right into my torso as it once again sends me flying backwards but this time I actually felt my shields weaken from the sheer raw power from the explosive blast.
Peeling myself off the ground I dusted myself off before staring down the kneeling captain.
"You're not bad captain, I have to admit." I said while shifting myself on my feet, switching the weight I am placing on each foot as I shuffle side to side.
"One would think that with the amount of determination to keep on fighting along with the sheer willpower to persist when others would have either crumbled and lost or outright admit defeat, you hold onto it like a rock in a river. But sadly that too will not save you from defeat." Rolling my shoulders to loosen them up I took a few steps forward before outright sprinting right at Shining Armor, my intent is to bulldoze him into the wall before using my foot to scrap him out from the wall and fling him to the floor.
But for him he saw this coming and formed a barrier around himself again but this time I watched as the barrier started to grow in size as it began to push me backwards and towards the wall behind me.
With the wall behind me getting closer and the one in front of me is moving slowly, he is planning to crush me into submission.
Being unable to retreat nor being able to advance on the lone enemy combatant, I decided that I would have to elevate myself to a new position to break through this barrier without getting crushed. Running to the wall I started to run up it as the grip on my feet held firmly as I ascended up the stone surface only to reverse myself and leap towards the lavender barrier. My body smacked into it but the way the barrier was angled at the time I was able to keep myself from sliding down and immediately scaled its flawless surface before stopping right above the captain only to receive a pain-filled glare as he looks right back at me.
Raising my left foot I dropped it down with enough force to create a crack on Shining Armor's barrier, with a second foot stomp it created even more fractures across its surface as I kept my eye on the captain below. Stopping for a third time I saw the barrier flicker for a brief moment but it held firm and stayed solid and with each stomp I made the barrier kept on cracking but it still held firmly until I realized that he was changing his shield barrier from its original dome shape to a much more directional arc to keep up the energy demand that is starting to strain his body and mind.
With one more stomp the barrier finally gave way as I watched the lavender energy fizzle out and fade away, resulting me in falling right on top of him as I kept myself from outright crushing him with over three hundred pounds of biomechanical muscle and metal. Pressing my armored foot onto his throat I glare down at his prone form as he tries in a vain attempt to pry my boot away but because he is so weak all he did was annoy me further so I decided to stomp out any and all resistance he has in his body.
Sweeping my right foot under his back I lifted him off the ground before quickly spinning around and planting my left foot into his neck and pinning him to the wall that he had previously blasted me into.
"You lose Captain Shining Armor, you have the heart of a warrior even in the face of adversity and an inevitable defeat. But here you lose today, let it be known that if I had used my arms this would have ended far earlier." I said in a calm tone as I kept my foot on his throat as I transported myself beside my warframe, leaving it in its current position as it kept him pinned to the wall.
"The thing about us Tenno, captain, is that when we are operating our warframes, we never rest, we never tire, we don't need food nor water, we are the greatest threat to anything that dares to earn our ire. You should count your blessings that you didn't earn mine when your princess raided my mind for my private and hidden thoughts and did not enact the Law of Retribution on her, and once it has been declared it can never be removed." And with that said I patted my warframe on the arm and it immediately removed its foot from his throat before taking a step back and returned to a much more calmer state of mind as I made my way back to the crowd of ponies that were coming down the stairs into the arena.
Almost all of them were wearing varying degrees of emotions but most of it was fear, they were all afraid of me because I singlehandedly bested the captain of the guard with my arms behind my back and no weapons. The lavender unicorn girl was not wearing the mask of fear but it was a mixture of wonder for what I managed to do and also worry for the captain that I just wiped the floor with.
"Well, that was fun while it lasted." I muttered mostly to myself but apparently these girls heard it as their ears flickered in my direction.
"You call that fun?" Rarity said as she sidestepped Twilight, the lavender girl quickly moving over to the downed captain, my guess to do some sort of medic-related duties.
"Uh...yeah? It gets the blood pumping and it keeps you on your toes when there is danger afoot." And it also means you are still alive and not a pile of meat and bone on the floor.
"Well we don't think that was fun, it was entertaining to watch you show us what you are capable of doing, but it wasn't really fun for us." Rainbow Dash said as she cracked her back and let out a sigh of relief as her white unicorn friend Rarity shivered at the sound of bones popping back into place.
"Fine then, what do you girls for fun then?" I said as I rolled my shoulders and rolled my eyes back in the transference pod.
As soon as I asked that I got the feeling that I should immediately regret it because I watched from the corner of my eye the pink pony girl with the unruly wild hair gasped loudly before bouncing over to me and started to talk in a rapid-fire fashion.
I think I just sealed my own fate.
Author's Note
On an unrelated note, Blueblood is not the spoiled rich brat that so many people depict him to be, I am going in a different route for this character.
My internet has been on and off for a while so its iffy for now. That and I finally got civilization 6, Go Tsar Peter Go!
Making due with the Element of Fun
'I wonder if there is some method or means at my disposal that I can escape the death grip that this pink girl has on me at this very moment.'
Looking down at my left hand as I am being dragged down the halls of the castle, the pink girl right in front of me as she skips along the marble floor. I don't know who lit the fire underneath her tail but she seems to be dragging me through the castle with all possible speed one can normally muster when are trying to drag someone with them.
Coming up behind us are the rest of her friends and behind them are a group of guards who are actually having a hard time trying to catch up with the rest of us.
'How are they supposed to be the nation's protectors if they can't even catch up or even overrun a bunch of civilians? They should be faster than that!'
As I was thinking that I was pulled out of my thoughts when my face collided with a bundle of pink curly hair that strangely smells of sugar and sweets, does this girl even clean her hair? I mean I have no reason to tell her if she bathes or anything seeing how I haven't even had a proper shower in over seven hundred years but still, hair shouldn't smell like that. Glancing at Pinkie and before I could question her as to why we stopped so abruptly, I looked around her and saw the reason standing before the two of us, and this reason seems to be unamused with the pink one's course of action.
"Miss Pie, where do you think you are going with our guest?" Princess Celestia said with her arms crossed in front of her chest, my gaze falling for that particular area immediately and I don't know why. It must be something that all Orokin males go through at my age or something...probably just my mind starting to adjust to a more civilian attitude.
Yeah lets go with that one, turning into more of a civilian instead of a battle-hardened soldier.
"I was just going to take him out to see the city of course! Why, is that a bad thing?" Pinkie Pie asked the princess, a look of confusion evident on her face as she tilts her head to the side.
"Sadly yes Pinkie Pie, it is a bad thing. Because, you see..." Princess Celestia started but she trailed off as she tried to think of something to say but I beat her to the punch.
"Because I am considered an unknown to your species and that I haven't been introduced to the general population along with being the all-clear by her medical staff to ensure that I am not carrying any pathogens or other biological diseases that might be proven harmful to you or anyone else here. Am I not correct?" I said as I manage to pry my hand away from Pinkie's and for a moment she tried to snatch it back into her grip but I deftly moved away from her before she can reacquire her hold on me.
Nodding her head at me I watched as the solar princess affirm my suspicions and for a moment I thought it would get through the pink one's head but sadly that wasn't the case.
"So if he can't go out there then at least we can have fun in here!" And like that she grabbed me by the hand again but this time pulling me in the opposite direction we were going in.
I have no idea where we are heading off to but I can only hope it doesn't lead to something bad, like me getting killed.
With us heading towards another destination we run past the rest of Pinkie's friends, the rainbow headed one was able to catch up with us by flying. She was right beside us and for the most part she was clearly able to keep up by flapping slowly, I do not know how one can stay aloft by flapping their wings that slowly but I guess this world has either a different set of rules on physics or maybe they too have some form of Void energy coursing through their bodies.
"I have a question little fella, if you would indulge me." The cyan pegasus said as she flew lazy circles around me and Pinkie Pie.
"It depends on the question but you may ask me." I said as I tried to pry my hand away from the pink demon but she kept a death grip on my hand and has no intentions of letting me go this time.
"Well, you are an alien right?" The cyan pegasus asked me as she flew on my left, keeping up with ease.
"I am not from this planet so yes." A stupid question but for her I bet it was an academic one at least.
"Alright, and you came here on a space ship from another planet, right?" Was she not there when I crashed?
"Yup, but it was more like I crashed here after entering a warp field but it is still the same thing." I blame Ordis for crashing my ship.
"Okay, so can you fly? Not with the space ship thingy but actually fly-fly, like with wings." No, we don't have wings.
"Yes, we Tenno do have a means of flying without the assistance of our Orbiters, be it a select few of our warframes or our specialized equipment." Archwings but they aren't really wings, more like thruster-packs attached to our waist.
"Specialized equipment? Such as?" Not telling you!
"Wouldn't you like to know." I said and I ended the conversation by ignoring her further prodding, like I am ever going to be spilling Tenno secrets to these aliens. Doesn't matter if they are peaceful, there is someone always out there that may claim their intensions are for the greater good but they are actually doing it for themselves.
Flying around me and trying to get my attention, the rainbow one kept on bothering me, trying to pry more information out of me but I wasn't having anything out of it so I did something I wanted to do for a while now to an annoying person.
With my Void energy drawing to my left hand I waited for her to get on my left side and immediately upon getting close enough I pushed her back just enough to keep a fair distance between us.
"Hey!"
"You're bothering me, try to be more civilized like your friends are currently." I said as I returned my attention to the hall as we once again turned to our left to go down another hallway.
Soon we eventually stopped moving but this time it was outside in the back of the castle and out there was a massive garden complex.
I saw various statues depicting several of these alien horses in their numerous types, a few statues depicting beasts or other creatures of the world, there was even one statue of an amalgamation of animal parts that looked like it was crudely stitched together by some sort of mad scientist. That or someone has a very strange and vivid imagination.
And surrounding these statues are numerous hedges, potted flowers, trees, rose bushes and other sorts of flora. Along with the assorted decorative flora I also spotted several birds flying to and fro, what I think are squirrels or an alien version of them, even a few rabbits were hopping from place to place.
This garden feels very peaceful, tranquil even...if it weren't for that damn abomination of a statue it would be utter bliss to meditate here.
Looking at my supposed handler, the pink girl kept a firm grip on my hand before pulling me towards what is a water fountain before setting me down on the rim of it and sits down beside me as she smiles down at me with that grin of hers.
"So what are we doing out here Pinkie Pie? I don't see anything to do out here other than relax and do nothing." I said as I looked around again just to make sure that there was nothing for us to do and sure enough there really was nothing for me to do but look at plants and the sky and think of nothing or something.
"Well we could go exercising." Rainbow Dash said as she flew lazily over to the nearest try before laying down on a branch, my guess is that she is either perpetually tired or just likes to sleep all day like a sloth.
"Is there a place we could exercise? I doubt a garden would have anything for us to work with other than potted plants, benches and statues. Unless you can lift the statues up without there being any negative repercussions." I asked as I let out a yawn, it has been nearly six centuries since I ever did that, now I feel tired for some reason.
"I know that the training grounds for the royal guards has some workout equipment, probably have something for you to use seeing how you are pretty weak looking." Did...did this girl really just call me weak?
Looking at myself I saw that she was right on that matter, because after all I have been sleeping in a pod for more than half of a millennia and the first thing I did as soon as the pod opened up was crawl to my warframe. Hell I didn't even walk to it, I crawled. Muscular atrophy is a bitch...
I guess I could go for a work out, get some muscle meat on these bones of mine.
"Yeah, maybe a workout will do me some good. Losing muscle mass from several centuries of sleep isn't that good of a thing...this sucks."
"Don't worry big guy, Applejack and I will beat you into shape in no time! And if this doesn't put some muscle on you then we can just let Applejack put you to work on her farm, all of that heavy lifting and cart pulling is sure to get you into shape!" Rainbow Dash shouted with glee, shooting a fist into the air but as she did so she lost her balance and fell out of the tree and into a bush that was sitting directly below it.
All of us laughed at her for her foolishness.
Mostly me though, I just thought that was funny as hell.
Spitting out leaves and twigs we watched the cyan girl crawl out of the bush before dusting herself off and for the moment we were still laughing before we departed the gardens and headed toward the supposed training grounds.
And strangely enough they weren't that far away, it was just to the right of the gardens near the front of the castle and already there was guards there doing their daily exercise regiment.
When we got there I spotted Shining Armor standing before a batch of new recruits, many of them look like they are about to fall over and drop dead from exhaustion, he must have been working them down to the bone earlier.
Almost sensing us Shining Armor turned his head and winced in pain before setting his eyes on me, or more importantly my warframe.
"Be at ease captain, I am not here to finish what you started. We are just here to get a workout seeing that I am to remain here until your princesses either decide to let the world know about me and also that I get checked out by your medics." I said flatly, although I could just force my way out of here I am going to abide by their rules and wait it out, immortality is a bitch but at least it gives me the power to wait things out, and this moment is pretty much it.
The captain of the guard visibly let out a sigh of relief before being hugged by his sister, I didn't know the two were even related because they don't even look the same. One has lavender fur, the other alabaster, their appearances don't match at all let alone their life styles. Twilight is a librarian and a nerd while Shining Armor is a captain of the solar guard, complete opposites.
I think they are just dating each other and are acting like they are a family.
It would be a shocker if they were telling the truth and I make an ass out of myself.
Sighing to himself I watched the captain hobble over to me, his body still bandaged up in areas that I hurt him and under his right arm is a crutch to hold himself up, that's what happens when you pick a fight with a warframe.
"Just stay out of our way and you can exercise here." And with that said he started to hobble off but I interrupted him by tapping my warframe on the arm and gave it a nod before it pulled out a small disc from its waist and flung it near the captain.
Before he could react the disc opened up and pulsing out of it was a green wave of energy. For the most part watching the captain trip over himself in fear is something that I will always remember, but for the time being I looked down at him before sighing sadly at him. Poor bastard doesn't even know what a healing plate is, I hope he isn't afraid of needles or any trip to a hospital for him will be a god damn nightmare.
"What did you do to me!" The downed captain shouted, pointing his crutch at me and although it is adorable to see someone knocked on their ass and pointing at the one who did the deed, I better correct him on this matter before something bad happens, or gets worse.
"Relax captain, you are acting like you never encountered a regenerative healing disc before." And like a light bulb going off above his head it dawns upon him that it wasn't hurting him but undoing the damage that was done to him.
"Not everything in my arsenal is just for killing my enemies, some of them are meant to either slow down or paralyze our targets for capturing and interrogation. That and it would be hard to question someone if their body has been reduced to either a pile of ashes or a pool of corrosive sludge." That got a lot of faces from both the girls and the guards turning green, with the exception of one guard who was already green in the first place but he just turned a lighter shade of green.
"That is disgusting." Rarity said, barely holding herself together on that one.
"Oh please, you guards are acting like you never had to kill a wild animal or a hardened criminal before." And then all was silent.
A few of the guards coughed loudly, their eyes averting themselves and looking in every single direction with the exception of mine, a few were even shuffling on their hooved feet as I stared at them silently before explosively sighing.
"How did you guys even survive this long? I know for a fact that there are wild beasts in this world as it would have fallen apart with there being no ecosystem to sustain everything but really now? There is no way in hell that there is no crime in this world! That is just impossible!"
"Actually Viktor, there is crime but here in Equestria it is almost non-existent but for the other nations that dot Equis they do bare the stigma of crime and murder." Twilight said matter-of-factly, standing straight and with her eyes closed, acting as if she knows everything.
And she probably does know everything, everything except for the things I know of that is.
"Good for you, but what of the wild beasts that roam the uninhabited areas of your nation?" I asked as my thoughts went to other places, mainly
"They can't enter any of the settlements nor anywhere near civilized lands because of the magic barriers we have set up within the town halls and other major areas of traffic."
"Huh...that is...actually well thought out...color me impressed." I said with a bit of a dumbfounded look which earned a bright smile from Twilight who was bouncing a bit from the apparent praise that I have given her.
Receiving some praise from an alien must be the highest point of her life right now.
Once that was done and said I waited for the disc to finish healing the good captain and before long we were allowed to exercise with the guards, a few were watching me. Not because they were making sure I wasn't going to cause any trouble, no they were taking bets and seeing how strong I am without my warframe.
Lets just say that I made a lot of guards very unhappy with me, and Rainbow Dash slightly richer than she last was if the indication of a heavier coin purse was of any indication.
My warframe was standing beside me, its hands were hovering just barely over the five pound weights I was lifting and lowering, making sure that if I started to struggle it would be able to intervene at a moments notice.
And as for the others...Rainbow Dash and Applejack were actually fighting each other in a sparring ring, Rarity was sitting on a bench eyeballing the recruits as they jog by, Fluttershy was busy watching me work out for some reason and Pinkie...well she is wearing some strange exercise clothes while stretching. Questionably strange clothes but the suit I am wearing is probably just as strange to them as theirs is to me so no love there.
That concluded that day of entertainment for me, taking Applejack and Rainbow Dash's route for fun although it is more of a workout session than a fun inducing enjoyment ride, it still is better then doing nothing.
Next morning however...
"OH you silly billy we are out here to play a game of I Spy!" Pinkie shouted as she dragged me back to the garden but this time it was all of us with the exception of Shining Armor and the princesses. Well one princess was due to meet us to discuss an available day for me to get looked at by their doctors.
I don't feel very happy for that day, it is because of the lab coats that I am the way that I currently am.
"Uh...I Spy? What is that?" I know what spy is, its what I am and what I do whenever I infiltrate a Grineer asteroid facility or a Corpus outpost for its delicate information vaults. Sometimes the information I pull from those vaults are either absolutely useless and out of date or it is mildly useful although the targets or places of interest are known or are altered to distract us.
"Yup! Its a game where I say 'I spy with my little eye' and I pick something in the area and say the color of it and you have to guess what it is! Its a fun game! Try it!" Pinkie Pie said all the while bouncing in place on the lip of the fountain beside me.
Looking around the garden I peeled my eyes and looked for something that she would never be able to guess right away or for that matter at all.
Spotting the very target of the game I mulled it over before voicing its color to the girl.
"I spy with my little eye something green." And with that the game begins.
"Is it the grass?"
"Is it the flowers?"
"Is it the graffiti on the statue over there?" "No." I started to smirk to myself as I watched the rest of Pinkie's friends show up from the entrance to the garden, they looked winded from all the running, Princess Celestia on the other hand along with her handful of guards are still in peak condition and show no sign of tiredness or fatigue.
"Umm....uhh...is it that tree?"
"I give up! Tell me!"
"But its impossible, I already said everything that is green here! And there is no way it can't be something plant-related! That's all that is green out here!" Pinkie shouted before pouting, she was flailing around a bit before falling backwards, her head landing on my lap as she looks up at me as I stare down at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Are you sure you guessed everything that is green out here?" I said all the while a slow-forming grin was spreading across my features.
"Yes! It wasn't the grass, tree leaves, the rose bushes, even that green spray-paint of 'Discord sucks' wasn't the answer! This is impossible!"
"Maybe because you didn't notice the green strands of hair in your princess's hair?" I said with a mischievous grin and that was when it hit her.
"Oh you cheater!" and so began the pink girl calling me a cheater. I mean honestly it isn't my fault that I saw Princess Celestia's hair and picked the green strands that was floating within its well-brushed form.
As soon as the rest of her friends walked up to the fountain they saw the pink one's head still on my lap but she was flailing her arms and legs and calling me a 'cheater' for outsmarting the poor lass.
"What is going on here?" Twilight said as she looked at her friend, I was too busy chuckling to myself while her friend was acting like a spoiled child.
"Nothing my liaison, nothing at all. Pinkie Pie is simply reacting poorly to me winning our little game of I Spy because I used your princess's mane for the color green and she failed to pick it." And as I stated that Pinkie Pie restarted her little tantrum of calling me a cheater.
"How did you beat her at her own game? I mean I tried to but she always picked something that is so blatantly obvious that I never would have guessed it in the first place. Sometimes I even go for the obvious and I am still wrong." Twilight said as she pulled out a pocket quill, ink vial and a small scroll and was prepared to write down what I was about to say.
"I simply picked the one green object that she would have missed because she only saw it earlier and never looked at it again. It being your princess's hair and that no one else pays any attention to it while socializing with those around her." And just like that all was silent before they immediately turned their attention to the princess and sure enough, there was a long strand of green hair intermixed with the rest of her oddly-assorted colors.
Before we could talk any further the princess of the sun herself raised her voice and spoke directly to me.
"Well then, Mr. Viktor, I want to play this game as well, if you would allow me." The matriarch of the sun said, that smile of hers not once faltering or fading away as she addresses me.
"Go ahead, I will let you start it off." And let the games begin.
"Thank you, now lets see." Celestia said as she looked around the garden, searching for the perfect object to select as I stared intently at her, my own mind buzzing with wonder as to what she will pick for me to pursue and locate.
I didn't have to wait long as she selects something in the garden before addressing me again.
"I spy with my little eye something that is blue." And with that said I watched the princess slowly smile, thinking that she got the advantage over me.
And so the game begins.
"Is it the water?"
"Is it the blue flower petals?"
"The sky?"
"Rainbow Dash?"
"The diamond shaped markings on Rarity's thighs?" And as soon as I said that the mare in question looked down at herself and immediately covered them up by pulling down on her sweater a bit more which also at the time revealed her chest just a tad and all I saw was a crevice of white between an oval-shaped hole in the sweater in question.
"Not even close, and do try to refrain from staring at a mare's cutie-mark, they just might think you are being a perverted stallion." Celestia said while chuckling to herself while it left me confused for the moment before I shrugged it off and went back to the game.
"Is it the blue bird perched on the branch twelve meters to our left." And with that said the bird took flight and left the garden and was never seen again.
"Nope." And with that said I started to ponder on what exactly it could possibly be, narrowing down my search would probably help me win against this aging monarch.
Thinking on this game, we are supposed to pick an object that most people would either not notice or it would be so blaringly obvious that people would ignore it because it would never be picked. But seeing how the color of said object is blue and there are not that many objects that are blue, how the hell am I going to beat this game.
...wait a second...
Of course, it just had to be the one thing I would never have picked.
Looking at the castle I scanned the structure for any openings that may reveal the hidden object and up fifty feet above the ground floor, there was a dark blue princess standing on the balcony looking down at us all.
Dark blue is a type of blue, aka the object that Princess Celestia picked.
Clever girl.
Turning back to face the princess I saw that her smile shifted ever so slightly to one that she has been found out but still maintaining the guise of victory, a mask to hide her real emotions. A shame really, we Tenno don't wear masks, we let out what we are feeling and express ourselves openly, we have no need for masks because we know that it will only hinder ourselves because the subterfuge and backstabbing will revert us all to what the Orokin Empire has become in its dying days. We have no secrets to hide from our fellow Tenno but to the rest of the system, we can't afford to let them know that our warframes are nothing more than puppets, not our real forms.
"Princess Celestia, is the object in question Princess Luna who is up on the spire twenty feet to our left and fifty feet above ground floor."
And with that said I watched as the princess of the sun give me a warming smile before giving me a dainty clap, the friends that she surrounds herself with are shocked at who what or for that matter who was the object of the game was. Soon afterwards though they too started to clap although a bit slower and I think also forced.
"Very good, it has been a while since somepony beat me at this game. It has been what...a thousand years? Maybe a little more I think. But excellent work on figuring out who I have picked, now I do believe it is your turn if I am not mistaken?" And Pinkie Pie confirmed it by saying a quick banter of words that for all intents and purposes was melted down to a simple 'yes'.
"Alright then, I spy something with my little eye...something magenta."
"Is it my eyes?"
"The roses from Saddle Arabia?"
"The rare Spadetail Finch?"
"The salmon swimming in the pond?"
"Is it Miss Rainbow Dash's eyes?"
"Hmm, good game Viktor, now onto another matter that deserves your attention." Princess Celestia says as she straightens herself out, her dress losing its wrinkles and other faults.
"And that is?" I asked, my voice a bit hesitant because I have an inkling of an idea on what she is going to say.
"Your appointment with the doctors." And like that all color from my face is drained, leaving behind nothing more than a pale shade of tan.
'Oh shit...'
Before I could object to this sudden turn of events, I watched in fear as her horn started to glow a golden aura and before I could blink let alone defend myself, I felt my everything getting compressed and squeezed as everything around me faded away.
From the outside royal gardens to the medical wing of the castle, in the blink of an eye we teleported there along with Twilight and all of her friends as well as Celestia's accompanying guards.
Wobbling in place I gathered my balance and shook of the disorientating aspects from the sudden teleportation only to look around and see that we are standing in what appears to be the lobby for the infirmary.
"I don't like where this is going..." I muttered to myself and just as I did so the door leading into what looks like an office opens up and out steps a nurse holding an old-fashioned clipboard.
The nurse in question was looking down at it for a few moments before looking up and looked to my general direction for a mere moment before looking back down and called something out.
"Full Physical Examination for one...Viktor the Alien?"
As soon as the nurse said that I immediately remembered what that is and what is going to happen to me, and the alien ponies that are with me as they all have varying reactions to what was said.
Twilight is ecstatic and already has her ink, quill and scroll out ready to record everything that happens.
Both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are laughing at my unfortunate turn of events.
Fluttershy, Rarity and even Applejack look away, either from embarrassment that this is happening to me or acknowledging whatever cruel fate awaits me and fearing that they might end up getting one as well.
Princess Celestia is quietly chuckling to herself while Princess Luna's ears fold to the back of her head, apparently whatever examination they did with her she did not like it one bit.
Turning my head to the princesses I utter out a few words that sadly go unheeded.
"I don't want to do this."
But before they could smugly say anything I felt something grab me by the hand and quickly yanked me inside the room just as the door is slammed shut behind me.
Slowly turning my head to face my violator I saw that the doctor in question snapping a pair of latex gloves onto her hands and with a creepy smile etched on her face.
"Don't worry sir, this won't hurt one bit!"
Author's Note
Sorry for the long ass wait, mathematics for college sucks and I am really bad at it, only good thing is that this is the last week for me so just a few more days of bullshit left and then I am free!
I stared at the doctor and nurses in the room. There was three of them and they were all just standing there staring at me, all of them were giving me a creepy smile and I can easily think of a reason as to why they are doing so.
They need me to be naked for this physical examination.
"That isn't happening." I crossed my arms as I stared at the doctor, the tall chestnut colored mare in a doctor's coat standing across from me stood between her employees while holding a clipboard in her left hand and a quill in her right.
"But sir we can't do our job if you are fully dressed so please, take off your clothes and put them within the basket. We will get it washed and cleaned while we make sure you are not carrying any deadly diseases and are in perfect condition." The nurse on the doctor's left said, this one was a earth pony who was teal in color and had a light green and yellow mane.
"I don't care, the only way you are going to see me without my operations suit is if I am dead." I said while crossing my arms, giving the doctor a withering glare that made her back down for a moment before standing straight and returning said glare.
There is no way in hell I am stripping down, this room is positively cold!
"Sir, please listen to me and take off your clothing, we cannot proceed with the examination as you currently are. If you refuse to listen to me then you will leave me little choice on the matter and I will be forced to give you a sedative so we can continue." The doctor said as she motioned for the nurse on her right, a unicorn that was white in color and had a blonde mane and tail, and in her hand was a syringe that was filled with a pale blue liquid within its vial.
I barely had any time to register what was said until a small needle filled a mysterious green liquid floated by my head, almost a warning of what will happen if I refuse to comply with her demands.
"I am sorry but that won't happen." And just like that I entered the void by phasing into it, leaving behind black wisps of smoke.
To them they saw me vanish like an illusion but in reality I am still there, just non-existent as I walk out of the room and stood next to my warframe before phasing back into the world.
As soon as I made my reappearance the doctor and her nurses stormed out of their room to see me standing beside my warframe, the doctor was pissed while the nurses were angry, but not as mad as their boss.
"Mr. Viktor! You will have this full body physical examination or by Celestia's sun I will give you that sedative and make your examination way worse than it should be!" And when she shouted that I watched as she went from murderous rage to complete and utter stillness.
The princess whose name she just used in vain was standing right in front of her and she was looking nonplussed.
"Uhh...I mean...he-he-he...I am sorry your majesty." Doctor Sawbones said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head while her subordinates were snickering behind her.
"It's alright Doctor Sawbones-" I paled immediately as soon as I learned that her name is Sawbones, note to self do not get injured, I might lose a limb or two to this girl, "-but do please be patient with our guest, he is not used to our ways let alone our medical practices, so please let him go at his own pace along with taking it slow and easy." Thank you!
Looking at me I watched the doctor go from embarrassed for pretty much screwing up in front of her princess to annoyed that I pretty much put her on the hot seat and the spot light at the exact same time.
That's what you get for trying to get me to strip down to nothing and threatening me with a sedative that I don't know what it will do to my body seeing how the species gap between is an unknown length. Hell the sedative might just kill me or render me an inert vegetable.
"I am sorry for my earlier actions Mr. Viktor, but we must simply give you an examination, we have to be sure you are biologically sound and safe to be around. If you have any pathogens or diseases on you then they might prove dangerous or worse fatal to us if left unchecked." Well she got me there, I don't want to accidentally get all of these people killed because I coughed or sneezed on them.
What a way to die, death by getting coughed on by an alien. That tombstone would probably be defiled in an instant.
Sighing to myself I started to walk towards the doctor but first I had to lay down a few ground rules.
"Alright, I'll do this, but this won't be a full body examination. I will not take off my suit, at best I will have it rolled up to where my arms and legs are exposed but that's it. You can check my reflexes, check my pulse and blood pressure, hell you can even take a blood-sample but there is no way in hell am I taking this suit off." Both of the nurses let out saddened sighs and tried to give me a sad dog stare but I just stared them down and they relented, retreating back into their office before being followed in by their boss with me in tow.
The girls tried to follow us in but the door was slammed shut in their faces.
With the nosey little aliens blocked from spying on me, the nurses started to prepare the limited examination as the good doctor pulled out some sort of medical instrument from a cabinet and turned around to face me.
"Just relax Mr. Viktor, we will be starting with checking your vitals, just hold still while I check your heart rate." Dr. Sawbones said and for a moment the room was silent as she pressed the tool to my heart, the small metal disk was connected to what looks like a rubber tube that splits in half as they rise up and are what I assume to be connected to her ears. I think my heartbeat is being listened to by its vibrations or thumping is being echoed up the tubes to the doctor's ears, that or she is just making sure my heart is beating.
For a moment I just sat there on the table, patiently waiting for this to be over with but as time went on it only quieter and quieter until finally the doctor pulled back and looked at me with a questionable stare before writing something down on her clipboard where there was a written order or something on a piece of paper before turning her attention back to me as we continued on with the next step.
If only it were that easy.
"Okay now I need you to open your suit just a bit, I didn't get a proper reading on your heart due to your suit making the readings unclear and hollow." And for a moment I heard the two nurses giggle between themselves but they stopped when Sawbones glared at them and they resumed their silence.
Scratching my head I let out a weak laugh as I looked at my operator's suit and realized that I had no idea on how I got in this thing let alone how to pull this off of me.
"Uh...how?" I asked as I looked at myself, trying to figure out how to get this thing open.
"What do you mean how? You are wearing that suit right? You should be able to take it off or at the very least open a part of it up!" Fair point.
"Actually hehe...I don't exactly remember how this got on me let alone know how to open it..." I said sheepishly, in all honesty I don't know who put it on me but I think that Ordis might have a figment of an idea or maybe even a manual on how to get this thing off of me.
"But how do you not know on how to take off your own clothes?" Applejack said from the door as pondered on those words because this would be one of my embarrassing moments, let alone an embarrassing moment in front of aliens.
Female aliens no less and I don't know why but it just feels worse whenever females are involved.
"Look, I have been sleeping for the past seven hundred years, it is a miracle unto itself that I am even able to walk let alone talk without there being any permanent damage to my vocal cords and muscles. I can barely even remember my life before I was put into that deep sleep so lay off." I spoke defensively as I raised my hands, my warframe shuffled itself to the door and was pressing against it lightly, causing the door to creak and moan from pressure being pressed against it.
Glancing toward the window my warframe backed away from the door at the very least stopped putting pressure on it to stop it from breaking it off the hinges.
"How did you do that?" the doctor asked me as she and her assistants stared at the shadow at the door.
"Do what?" I responded back, not quite knowing what she is asking.
"With that thing out there. You just stared in its direction and it stopped trying to break the door down! How did you do that?" Oh okay, now we have a question instead of something incredibly vague.
"We are connected, I am its operator and it is my body. We share a link and I can tell it what to do without saying a word and it is fully capable of moving on its own. In essence it is another me." I said as I started to talk to Ordis, questioning him if there is a way of taking off my suit or at the very least get it to open up.
His response was that at the base of my neck is a button that disengages the sealing properties of the suit and allows it to be taken off if necessary.
With that knowledge now in my possession I did just that but there was a problem, if it allowed me to take off my suit then how do I exactly take it off? Last time I looked at myself I didn't see any seams or zippers or even buttons to take this form-fitting off of me, I guess I just have to pray that it doesn't blow itself off of me in an instant.
Steadily moving my left hand to the base of my neck I felt around for this so called 'button' and after a few presses I finally found what I was looking for and gave it a firm press.
A loud hissing sound can be heard as my suit decompresses and loosens up and after three seconds I felt it go saggy against my body and that was the only sign I am getting as I am finally able to peel this thing off of me.
Sadly by peeling this thing off of me I had to unzip myself out of it by pulling down the zipper that is at the back of my head at the neck.
"Okay, let us try this again." Sawbones said and this time was able to put that strange metal disk thing on my heart and by the gods was it ice cold, it was like a Frost Prime stepped into the room and just unleashed an Avalanche on top of me.
I let out a loud yelp of surprise from the cold and due to it my warframe broke down the door by smashing its head through before obliterating the door with its body. This shocked everyone, both those outside trying to take a peek and those inside who are trying to scramble and get away from the hulking beast of metal and flesh.
"Jumping Celestia on a pogo stick! Get that bucking thing out of here!" One of the nurses said and for a moment my warframe stared right at her before backing away slowly but she sadly bumped into the wall behind her.
"Sheesh girls, its not going to hurt any of you, just keep doing your job." I said with a bit of a snide tone, that earned me the cold disk to my chest once again but this time I did not react to it like last time but I did hiss through my teeth as I felt its extreme coldness press up against my flesh.
Listening to my heartrate for two minutes she nodded to herself before writing it down on the clipboard before moving onto the next part of my medical examination.
Pulling out a small hammer with a rubber-looking head on it, she directed herself to a kneeling posture before striking me right on the knee and my reaction was immediate.
My leg kicked up and nearly broke the doctor's jaw if she hadn't have moved backwards at the last possible moment.
"Okay, that was a little too close for comfort. Great reflexes though." Sawbones said nonchalantly before coming to a table and grabbed some more medical objects to use on me.
Next she checked my ears, I don't know what for but it was slightly irritating and annoying at the exact same time but I let her do it as it is her job. I just wish her job wasn't so invasive or for the matter grinding my gears.
"Hmm...your vitals appear to be normal, heart rate is within acceptable parameters if you were a pony, reflexes are good, hearing seems normal. Now for lung capacity and also blood pressure so please, breath in as deeply as you can and hold it there for as long as possible."
I did as I was instructed to do and to their amazement I held my breath for several minutes before exhaling, my meditative breathing exercises finally paid off and for a moment I caught from the corners of my eyes several ponies giving me strange looks. The white unicorn and her purple friend were biting their lower lips for some reason, the cyan pegasus and her orange earth pony friend were just staring at me intently while the pink one bouncing in place while her tail was whipping around like crazy. Hell even the princess of the sun was staring at me strangely, maybe it is because my suit is slightly open and that they are wondering what I look like underneath it.
If I can remember correctly I still look normal but what with the strange sign of Infestation that has been halted and killed staining my torso with its ugly as sin splotch of grey flesh with what looks like mini tendrils crawling all over it.
"And now your blood pressure, can you please peel back either one of your arms so we can wrap this around your bicep." A strange request but I merely shrugged at it, pulling my arm out from my suit I exposed myself partially to the gazing of several ponies but I ignored it as best as I can as I felt the doctor strap to my arm a weird looking bandage.
"Don't freak out now, this will tighten around your arm and it will gauge what your current blood pressure is and we will compare it to the standard results of the three pony races." Sawbones said and for the moment I nodded back, this test didn't appear so bad.
This test actually didn't take long, a minute or two at most and as the doctor compared my results with those of her previous patients I was busy putting my suit back on, well for the most part zipping it back up. Turning my attention to the girls they were still looking at me, I don't know why they are staring at me as if I am the single most important person in the world but their stairs are starting to unnerve me.
Trying to ignore their staring I went back to looking at the doctor all the while thinking on returning back to my ship and getting back in working order. Or for the most part getting it so it can fly again, just not being able to enter subspace for fast travel.
Glancing to the door I saw how many splinters was on the floor, the broken glass and even the intact doorknob was within grabbing distance if I were to jump off the table I was sitting on, but I wasn't going to kill anyone here, none of them deserve it. But if they dare to revoke their end on our deal than I may have to take certain measures into account.
"Okay I got your results, and I must say that they are most peculiar."
"Peculiar in what way doctor."
"Mr. Viktor, these results are peculiar in the way that they are no where even close to the safe regions for us ponies. Your blood pressure is by all means either too high or too low and I can't even fathom a reason as to why it is doing so!"
"I know the reason for this oddity, but I am not at liberty to share this information with any of you."
"And why are you not at liberty to share this important piece of medical information with us?"
"Because if I did then I would be forced to kill you."
"Wh-what? Why?"
"Because we all have secrets, us Tenno just hold our secrets a little more closer to home and we can't let anyone know anything about us. It is because of our secrecy that we are even still alive let alone still retaining our power over our enemies."
"Okay...I guess for blood pressure I will put 'Non-Pony' and for reasons of anomaly it will be 'Unknown' for the time being." Sawbones coughed into her hand as she wrote this down before putting aside the clipboard and quill as she reached out and grabbed an empty syringe from the medical table and turned around to face me.
I stared flatly at the doctor and nurses, I knew what was coming next and I started to think of a quick response to get out of it but I decided that if they want a sample of my blood then they can have it. It is not like they can simply find a way into the Void to gain access to the power that it has granted me and those like me.
Pulling my arm out from my suit and sticking it out, I waited for the nurse to snap out from her stupor that I was going to willingly donate a sample of my blood to them to study. That and I know for a fact that one of these ponies will be stupid with my blood and try and figure out how I got my power and find a way to replicate it for themselves.
But I know that can't happen, these ponies don't have access to spaceflight nor do they have access to the Void so the secrets of the Tenno is safe for another day.
The girls were looking at me as I sat their silently, staring inquisitively at the doctor as she brought the need to my arm, one of the nurses swabbing it with a cotton ball that must of had some disinfectant on it because the moment it touched my skin the affected area got all tingly for a few seconds before dying down. As soon as it died down that was when I felt the needle prick my arm before going right into my arm, the needle found a vein and I watched as the plunger was slowly pulled back as I watched my blood slowly fill up the red vial until it stopped at the very end and I felt a bit woozy from it all but I kept on staring at the doctor during the entire ordeal.
"Hmm, usually most ponies who have their blood drawn from them are either freaking out or are trying not to hyperventilate. But you on the other hand, you...you are unusually calm about this. May I ask you why you are so calm at the sight of your own blood?"
"You may ask and I can answer." As I said that all eyes were on me and all ears were open, waiting to hear what my infinite amount of wisdom that I am about to spew out.
"Alright, why are you so calm at the sight of your own blood?" Twilight asked me as she wrote something down on her notes, it better not be a crude drawing of my head. Only Clem is allowed to do so, with bullets, and grenades.
"Because it is just blood, we have enough of it to keep ourselves running. The amount you just extracted from me is not even close enough to leave me impaired to continue my duties. We all have blood inside of us and sometimes a little bit of it comes out from time to time for various reasons. And after all, I have spilled my fair share of blood over the past six hundred years that is surely more than enough to drown this entire castle several times over along with the city connected to it." That and there would be oil and electricity from the proxies that belong to the Corpus as well being spilled here.
That made everyone, even the guards outside waiting for their princess to leave the infirmary paled immediately and to such a point that I thought they all had their blood drained from their body and have seen a ghost at the exact same time.
"Uh Viktor, just how many ponies have you killed?"
"Ponies? None." That made everyone let out a sigh of relief, but it was only temporary as I continued where I started, "But Grineer, Corpus and Infested? About roughly half a million, maybe more I don't know, I lost count after I spent like a month in an infested corpus super-carrier...my Excalibur still smells of rotting meat and stale blood..." And I would have the smell removed but how else will I instill terror into the hearts of the grineer elite when my warframe smells sterile and clean?
"Wow...and here I thought that you just use the threat of death to make ponies stop fighting...you actually kill them." Rainbow Dash says as she slowly backs out of the door before turning the corner to hide behind it to stay out of my line of sight.
"Girl, the solar system is not a safe place to be in, it used to be several hundred years ago but when a bunch of fools thought that they can colonize a neighboring system with machines that are able to constantly adapt to its environment and also weapons used against it. My creators set themselves up for their own downfall and we Tenno helped their defeat along until the empire collapsed all around them due to their arrogance, their stupidity and above all else trying to play god."
"The solar system isn't safe and we Tenno try our best just to bring a hint of normality to it. Even with our aid along with the syndicates that try to assist our efforts we are still vastly outnumbered by the other enemy factions and with the constant outbreak of war between the Corpus and Grineer along with the usual technocyte infestations...pretty much everywhere you go is either a warzone or an isolated paradise, but the two are always switching around so no where is ever safe unless you are at a relay or a dojo."
"Not to sound rude Mr. Viktor but it sounds like your home sucks." Sawbones said as she scribbles something down on her notepad.
"It does doctor, it really does." I said nonchalantly, because come on, everyone back home knows that the system sucks ass and that it won't end until both factions are dead and the Infested are burned out of existence.
During the lull in the conversation the doctor took my vial of blood and gave it to a nurse who then left the room after gently pushing her way out, the girls were curious what was next after that but what was said next made me give off a confused look.
"Okay Mr. Viktor, we already gave you the basic physical, checked your blood pressure and got a blood sample, all that is left now is that we will need you to give us a semen sample." The good doctor said with a hint of redness on her cheeks.
"...what?"
Author's Note
College is done, I'm on break until January 30, so until then I am going to be between cranking out chapters with time permitting and playing final fantasy 14 heavenward. I lost all of my shit in that game with the exception of my login rewards so the only good thing is that I have a miniature Odin following me around for looks and shits n giggles. Peace!
Another round of Education with the Liaison
"...what?" I repeated myself as I stared at the empty container than at the doctor as she stared at me with a shit-eating grin.
I don't know why but I just want to beat that grin off her face.
"You know, the thing that creates all biological life, the basic building blocks of life." One of the nurses says as I simply tilt my head in confusion, not fully understanding what is being said.
"Uhh...."
"Oh come on now, there is no way you are that clueless." Rainbow Dash said, getting a bit impatient and irritated with me.
"Actually..." This is one of the few things I never learned as a Tenno let alone even learn when I was a normal human being.
Maybe Ordis would have something on this? Probably my best bet and most likely a safe bet that he has something within the Codex for me to update myself with.
"How in Celestia's name did you not get sex education at your age?" Applejack said as Rainbow Dash agreed with her along with Rarity and Twilight.
"Well I was trapped on a ship for three years where each and every single day was a fight for survival and immediately upon rescue we were trained and conditioned to be a weapon to be used against our enemies. That didn't really leave any time for a class such as...what was it called again?" That and I doubted they wanted to teach us something that wasn't a way to kill or capture someone.
"Sex Education, Viktor, is instructions on issues relating to pony sexuality or in your case...whatever your race is...and this education will include emotional relations and responsibilities between the two ponies and the possibility of a herd being established and formed, sexual anatomy, sexual activity and how reproduction is done, along with the proper age of consent for the act of sex to be done in, discuss safe sex along with proper application of birth control and sexual abstinence." Twilight said with a sort of scholarly application, I don't know anything she just said but seeing this is something new I must learn it so it can be archived within the codex to be shared with my fellow Tenno.
That and if I am going to be the first Tenno to ever learn this than I must pay close attention and not leave anything out to be recorded!
"Wait, wait, wait! So let me get this straight." Rainbow Dash shouted as she pushed her friends aside and was standing right in front of me, her eyes full of mirth and excitement for some reason.
"So you are telling me that you, a several hundred year old being, is still a virgin?"
"I don't know what a virgin is." and the resulted in the cyan mare to laugh loudly at my probable expense.
"Oh sweet Faust this is rich! A virgin alien! Now I have heard and seen everything!"
"Now Rainbow Dash, you shouldn't be laughing at him because he choose to restrain his libido and wait for his special...person? Am I saying this right?" Rarity said as she gave me a gentle smile before giving her friend a reprimanding glare which went unnoticed.
"Don't know, maybe."
"Anyways you shouldn't be laughing at him, last I heard a certain rainbow mare who had a little too much fun with the Wonderbolts when she went to one of their shows." Rarity said and with those words it made her cyan friend shut up and go red in the face, possibly in embarrassment that her supposed secret got out.
"But are you serious though, are you really a virgin?"
"Liaison Twilight, Tenno do not deal with partial information, only a hundred percent certainty and I have no knowledge of what you were spilling out earlier so if it pertains to that information than yes." That and I don't even know what it pertains to so...
All eyes were on me again but this time almost all of them seem to be smiles and squinty eyes, I don't know what that means but it must not be good for me.
The girls were watching me for a while and when the doctor placed on my lap an empty container I simply looked at it for a few moments before speaking out loud with a quiver of fear.
"Why does it feel like I am in for a bad time from all of the female population on this planet?"
And that was when one of the male guards outside threw in his two cents.
"Because if you only knew how skewered the gender ratio is you would have kept your mouth shut about such things." And with that said I immediately allowed myself to sink back into my warframe, afraid for what my future on this planet may hold.
I pray that my engines get fixed soon, I have an inkling of an idea that my body is going to be in a lot of pain.
"Now then, before anypony gets any bright ideas or are thinking of doing anything to our guest, let me remind you that he is fully capable of fighting you off by himself if you were to do something that you will come to regret. I do not need to hear a report of how somepony was rendered hospitalized for the rest of their life or were outright killed for their actions so please, refrain from doing anything foolish." the princess of the sun said in a motherly tone and in that instant everyone present stopped giving that strange stare and smile and sheepishly backed off, kicking their hooves on the tile floor oddly.
Looking back at my civilian assistant, I motioned for her to come closer so I can ask her something.
"Liaison Twilight, this education that of which you speak of, how long will it take to learn let alone to completely comprehend everything that it pertains to?" I wanted to know because if it can clear this up with the rainbow one then she might stop being such an annoyance.
"From what I know of, it only took me two weeks at most to learn everything from within the pages of the books I was given from Celestia when I was still her student when I was little, but for the average pony give or take a month."
Staring at the purple girl I thought it over for a few seconds before acknowledging the information with a stoic nod.
With that tidbit relayed I told the girl how long will it take for her to assemble everything she will need to teach me everything about this particular subject and she said for me to give her a few hours and so I did. I then told her if there are other subject matters I should know of if I am to adjust to a much more normal life and the amount of literate material I am to study and read, it almost feels like my education I undertook when I was learning how to fight the enemies of the empire.
Twilight says that we are to meet in her old study hall that is on the other side of the castle and when I replied that I had no idea on where that is she then said that she will send a guard to fetch me and bring me to her for our lesson.
Although I loath to be fetched like some mongrel pup I conceded to the young girl because for the amount of information I am about to receive about these aliens along with an entirely new subject that has been previously denied to us Tenno, I could possibly be sitting on top of a gold mine.
I might possibly get promoted to the rank of Grandmaster for this!
With my...physical examination over with for the time being I asked to be led back to my room and as I was heading back the guard I was with and I walked past Prince Blueblood and he appeared to be upset at the moment but when he walked by us both he immediately stopped moving and turned around to join the two of us.
"Ah! Viktor is it?" The blond unicorn prince said as we crossed paths, something seems to be on his mind at the moment.
"Yes it is, Prince Blueblood, you seemed troubled while you were walking towards your destination. Is there something bothering you or is it a state-matter that I am not allowed to know of?" Wouldn't be the first time that I got myself involved in political matters.
"Well you are right that something is bothering me but as it being a state-matter? It is not as it is more of a personal problem but I will have it sorted out and dealt with by tomorrow morning. But what I am here for now is to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind that is." The prince said while straightening out his tie, I wonder why people always had to straighten out their clothes when they know it will just get messy later.
"I don't mind, just as long the questions are within reason and do not push into certain boundaries that I deem either irrelevant or personal." That and I would rather not add another case of regicide against me.
"Acceptable, now then, do tell me about yourself for starters if that is within reason." Blueblood asked me as I let his words tumble around for a second before giving him my response.
"It is, and although there is not much I can tell you do to them being personal reasons, all I can truly tell you is that I was a soldier and now I am nothing more than a mercenary always on the look out for his next paycheck."
"A soldier you say? In whose army did you belong to?" Not really a soldier, more like sending one monster onto another and hope they kill each other.
"The Orokin Empire's, me and along with the others were the best of the best, the cream of the croup, but we didn't want to be soldiers well not most of us anyways." Too bad they never realized that we were beyond their control the moment we came home and given our warframes to fight with.
"What do you mean?"
"We were forced into this role when our ship was marooned in the gap between dimensions." And to think that it was all for a means to create a weapon that can be manipulated and not turn against their masters.
"How did that come to be?"
"Sabotage, lots and lots of sabotage." And thanks to the Grineer Queen, she showed me how it happened and what it would eventually lead up to.
Our uplifting beyond the mortal realm to a place between dimensions. The Void and the Universe, the opposites of each other we have become its masters...for the most part anyways.
"I am sorry for the troubles that have befallen onto you and your kin." This is the first time someone has actually felt sorry for us, everyone else always said it was a necessity or that we should be happy that we are even still alive.
I didn't ask to be turned into a weapon of near limitless potential. I didn't ask for this, but it happened and now I have to deal with it, only wished that they asked for volunteers instead of forcing an entire colony to be used as test subjects.
"Don't be, we may have lost everything we hold dear but at the end of it all we have gained the power to protect what little we have left and to save those that are unable to save themselves. We are the guardians that keep watch over the innocent, and when their voices cry out in the darkness we are the shadows that are listening. Our enemies think that they can get away with their heinous atrocities but always fail to realize that we are watching their every single move, cataloging their crimes before finally dispensing our brand of justice upon their heads."
"And just why kind of justice are we talking about here?" The look on his face was the only thing that I needed to know that he hasn't had to see anyone die or deal with its aftermath.
"An execution, the only kind of judgement that we are capable of passing down onto those that dare commit a crime of such reckless disregard for life." That and I kind of got used to executing people that it got to the point that I only that of it as the only means of bringing justice down upon criminals.
"That seems a bit harsh, why not just imprison them instead?" I think it would be pretty hard to imprison some of our enemies when they have literal armies to come to their rescue, better to just cut their heads off and be done with it.
"Because Prince Blueblood, they are too evil to be left alive. They will just get their soldiers and associates to break them out of prison and continue with their plans of galactic domination and damnation to the point where life as so few know it will cease to exist." I said with a bit of finality to it, I knew that he couldn't understand the point of executing the most dangerous of criminals, its like he thinks that they can be reformed and be used for good instead of evil.
Fat chance, if that was possible then the Stalker would have been the first one turned to reformation so he would stop attacking fellow Tenno's on their routine operations. And also to stop helping Hunhow and the rest of the Sentients.
"I see...well, at least that is one way to solve a problem, probably not what we Equestrians would do but that is for your people to decide, bit ours but I do hope that someday you can show some mercy to your enemies, be it imprisonment or being reformed through mental conditioning or a spiritual cleansing." Blueblood said before we turned down a hall until we stopped at my room.
"This is my stop."
"And so it is, well good luck with your day Viktor, if you are going to be spending it with Twilight Sparkle then you best be prepared for numerous lectures that may not end until she deems it time to end them." Blueblood said before walking off, shaking my hand one last time before withdrawing back to his guards and resumed his walk, my guess to either his own chambers or to a room to do his job, whatever that job may be.
Entering my room I give it once more a cursory glance before laying back down onto my bed before I decided to retreat back to my ship, my body reappearing in the Transference Chamber, sitting back in the grand seat and I let out a deep exhale as the air from the palace was starting to become a bit too suffocating to my liking. The clean sterility that my ship produces is more to my liking as it was all I was breathing during my time on the moon within that pod, and now that I am in my ship the environmental differences are almost nonexistent with the only difference being me being allowed to move around instead of being stuck in one position and never being allowed to move.
Getting up from the seat and exiting the chamber I was met with not only my kubrow pouncing on top of me, but my kavat, Petals, as well.
The two of them was waiting for the door to open and as soon as it did my kubrow knocked me down onto the floor while my kavat leapt over them and landed on my chest, staring down at me with the eyes of boredom and contempt, just like how all kavat's treat their owners back before the Old War, and it would seem that even after all those centuries they still carried that trait. I guess they just think all of us humans are only here to serve them by feeding them, petting them and scratching their ears.
Rolling my eyes at the way my kavat is behaving I reached up and decided that if I want to get up and learn more from this world from the tomes I had Ordis scan, then I will have to get this over with.
Scratching behind his ears, my precious Petals let out low rumbling purr of delight, stooping low enough for me to continue with my scratching but after he has obtained my attention my kubrow got up and looked down at me before sitting down and was giving me the same stare my kavat was giving me earlier.
Groaning that my own dog is jealous of my cat I was now scratching both of them behind the ears, the two were now laying down, Petals was on top of me while Snarblebottom was laying near my hand, enjoying having her ears scratched.
I remained like this for a few minutes before finally deciding to get up, Petals did not like this but didn't object to me moving while Snarblebottom only swung a lazy paw at me for moving.
Getting up off the floor I maneuvered around my pets and went towards the Codex that is located on the bridge, and upon arriving there I was greeted with Ordis who seemed to abuzz with activity.
"Greetings Operator! *bzt* New information on the beasts *bzt* Equine Sapiens Information is ready for you to scan through!" My cephalon said through the ship's interior speakers, notifying me that my scans on the natives is complete.
"Thank you Ordis, if the ponies tried to do anything to my ship or my warframe back up in their capital, send me a warning immediately."
"Understood, enjoy your scanning of new information Operator."
And with that said and done I opened up the Codex and began to look through the treasure trove of information that has been recovered from the ancient library that this castle has been holding within its crumbling walls.
Starting with the basics I picked one of their books on history, and as soon as it appeared and the scanning has translated it into a language I can understand I immediately dove into the book and began to read it.
'Equine Biology: Knowing the Differences between the Three Tribes...hmm if there are only three tribes then how come there is the fourth variation? Is that a recent evolutionary change or are they just that rare or ancient that no one had the proper time to study them?'
Thinking that to myself I began with the first page which just so happened to be an acknowledgement to those that helped the creator of this book with the assistance of gathering, cataloging and even being test subjects to be studied. For the moment I skipped this page and a few others because it did not pertain to what I needed but I would go back to it later when I have finished with my information mining.
Flipping through the pages slowly within the Codex I soon found the first entry and it happened to be the one about the basic of the equines, the Earth Ponies. They are of basic appearances with no additional appendages such as wings or horns, and they are generally the strongest of the three tribes due to their affinity to working the land and being attuned to it. They are also generally the heaviest of the three tribes due to their higher muscle mass and also being between the height of both the unicorns and pegasi. Another thing about the Earth Ponies is that they are often known for having multiple children and sometimes throughout their lives to have many children, sometimes well over four foals due to in the early formation of the Equestrian Kingdom along with the arrival of the three tribes to Equestria, many earth ponies would lose their lives due to the feral beasts that roam the land along with the occasional skirmish with the opposing pony tribes and other sentient races that dot the world.
Several pages of studying the Earth Pony biology by looking and understanding their body structure which included muscle structure, bone density and strength, how strong the average Earth Pony is. I even found a page detailing that in rare cases that they are even capable of creating an earthquake of varying magnitudes, but for the most part they can only accelerate the growth of plants and have an easier time maintaining them.
Then after a few more pages on information on some useless matter it then moved onto the Unicorns. They are another variation of pony as they have a spiral horn that rests on their head within the hairline, sometimes lying within it or underneath the hairline, depending on their age or their current state of hair lose. Their horns are just like any other bone in their body with the noticeable exception that they are capable of healing over time if they are damaged, including being able to recover from being snapped off and growing back. They are one of the few species on the planet that is capable of using and bending the very essence of magic that hangs in the air to their will as they are the most proficient in doing so, the other species that happen to be capable of using magic with either the use of an apparatus or some other means.
Unicorns are the shortest of the three pony tribes as they hardly had to rely on using their strength and hands to get the task done and because of this their bodies are smaller than the average earth pony, including muscle mass and height, but what they don't have in strength and size they make it up with their higher intelligence and ability to use magic. There have been a few occurrences where depending on the unicorn and the strength of their magic-casting ability, they have to take the earth pony route and bulk up on their muscle mass to get by with their weaker magical aptitude.
Turning the pages I saw that another thing that separates the unicorns from the pegasi and earth ponies is that due to their affinity to magic they are far more sensitive to its alterations if something were to suddenly change its density and composition in the surrounding areas, the changes to the surroundings would actually make the unicorn feel woozy and disorientated, make their magic stronger or weaker, and even make them hear voices and see things that aren't there. This occurrences would leave the unicorn at a disadvantage most of the time but when they have either been properly trained to deal with the disturbance or have attuned themselves to the changes then it sometimes acts as a boon as it would make their magic stronger during their stay within the disturbed area.
After that it then turned to their biological structures, their muscle mass was thinner and more frail in appearance, their horns also had a set of nerves somehow seemingly placed within them, and if what the recorded book says is true then the horn on their head would actually stimulate them in a way that can either hurt them, tickle them or...excite them...this book is strange for it seems to be delving into the topic that my liaison will be going over with me soon.
'Hmm, I wonder if they are still capable of using their magic if their horn has been removed. A weakness for this species if it doesn't grow back, an annoyance if it does.'
I continue on through the book, flipping through the electronic pages before finally reaching the last of the pony tribes, the Pegasi. The pegasi are one of the few races in the world that is capable of flight along side the mythical dragons of legends and the gryphons of Old Earth's history, but it seems here on this planet those two exist and are real, anyways, pegasi are the flying variant of the pony race as their wings grant them the gift of flight. They are also one of the few races that has a sub-species known as the Thestrals, or commonly called 'Bat Ponies', they are a nocturnal variation of the pegasi with a few alterations to their body structure and appearance. The Thestrals have bat wings instead of the feathery kind, their ears are much more fluffier and are slightly larger, they have fangs that are used for either eating meat or cracking hard nuts, their eyes are slits and apparently allows them to see in the dark although I am unsure how that capable of happening, and lastly are nocturnal and prefers the night over the day.
The two differing types of flying ponies are the tallest of the three pony tribes, both have their homes in the high reaches throughout Equestria such as Cloudsdale for Pegasi and Mount Silvertear for the Thestrals, the two are also considered the lightest of the three tribes even though their muscle mass is slightly more compact and stronger than the unicorns but the reason for their lightness is that the magic coursing through them allows them to take flight with a few flap of their wings and even maintain their airborne movement instead of having to flap their wings in a rapid rate. Another fact about the pegasi and thestrals is that they are capable of manipulating the weather and are able to walk on clouds due to their affinity to the air.
As I went back to re-read the information in the book I eventually had to stop reading when my warframe back in the pony palace signaled me that someone was knocking at my door and was trying to get my attention.
Sighing at the interruption I push myself away from the Codex Console and left it open for me to read at a later time, I went back down the ramp and gave my two pets an affectionate pat to the head before entering the Transference Chamber and sat myself back down into the chair as I reconnected with my Warframe to only ping its location to my ship before void warping myself back to it to resume my education and understanding with my alien liaison.
By the time I have returned to my chambers at the equestrian palace, the door was opened to reveal my liaison has just walked in and was not expecting me to appear right before her let alone to make such an entrance.
I was expecting a guard to retrieve me for my lesson, not my liaison.
"Wow, I wasn't expecting you to answer the door in such a fashion. Is that how your species teleports?" My liaison says as she almost closes the door behind her as I slowly levitate down to the ground.
"No, just those that are like me." And by like me I mean the other Tenno who have woken up from their dream.
"What do you mean?" Twilight said as she tilted her head to the side, not entirely understanding what I mean.
"Nothing. I assume that it is time for the biology lesson Liaison Sparkle?"
"Uh...yes, it is...and you know you don't have to call me that, Twilight is fine." My liaison said as she stutters a bit, I do not know why she wants me to call her by her first name, isn't that normally reserved close friends?
"But you are my liaison are you not? There would be a conflict of interest if we were to get to familiar with each other let alone cause trouble for yourself in the future if we are too well acquainted." I said as I straightened myself out and resumed control over my warframe before stepping out of my room and waited for my guide to follow suit.
"What is wrong with just getting to know you? There wouldn't be any kind of conflict of interest if we are just friends!"
"Liaison Sparkle, 'just friends' is what you want? How will I know that you will not betray me in the future and use what I tell you against me? How will I know that everything that I tell you in utter confidence that it will remain between the two of us will not go flowing to your princesses and no longer remain a private bonding of words between us?" I thought back to some of the scientists that tried to gain my trust when I was first being studied, when I found out that they were just trying to manipulate me, I had my warframe tear them apart.
The walls are still stained red...I think, I will have to check later.
"I...well...as a friend I can keep a secret between us, and as your friend I would never betray you. But if you tell me something that the princesses need to know such as a threat that has been made against us, or that it pertains to something from your people that could cause us harm I would have no choice but to tell them so."
There was a silence between us as I stared down at the purple pony, she started to shift from hoof to hoof, unsure with how to proceed.
"I know it is a lot to ask but the thing about trust is that not only do you want it but you also have to give it to others to give them a chance. Trust goes both ways and to know if you truly trust somepony, you have to take a blind leap and hope for the best."
Staring down at the pony I thought on her words, honestly what she said made some sense.
Only downside of trusting people is that they always have a habit of betraying that trust in the end.
And how do I know this?
Because the Orokin was planning to betray us when the war was over. They created us to be a weapon against the Sentients, and as soon as we finished the job they couldn't hope to complete, they were going to disconnect us from our warframes then have us executed because we are too dangerous to be properly controlled.
"Your words have merit Liaison Sparkle...Twilight...but how do I know that I can actually trust you?" I said as I spoke in a hesitant tone.
Hard to trust people when most of the time they try to kill you.
"Well you just have to wait and see if you can, but trust me when I say this, I never betray my friends. And that includes you."
And with that said I watched as my liaison walked by and motioned for me to follow her, my guess is that it is finally time to learn more about the biology of these ponies, hopefully this will include body language and anything else that the book I was looking over earlier might have overlooked or didn't have at the time.
'Is friendship a means of trial and error to these ponies? If so then some of the history involving them is several events of trial and errors.'
Following the young unicorn through the castle I kept my eyes peeled for anything that might try to pose itself as a threat, but seeing how technologically behind they are, let alone that they are unable to penetrate proto-shields and ferrite armor with their weapons along with their mental attacks. I can say that I am the safest person on the planet, unless they decide to push me into a volcano or shot into the sun.
Traveling through the halls we passed by several equines that was taking care of the castle, my guess they are servants to the princesses, my other guess is that they are indentured slaves or mindless drones but they didn't look depressed and sad or look like drooling fools.
'These workers all look the same, they remind me of the Grineer but...they are not ugly like them nor are they vat grown, or even incompetent at doing their jobs. If I can easily sneak through a densely populated, and heavily defended fortress in space against the elite of the Grineer military has to offer, than these ponies...I wonder if I could requisition the princesses if I can use their soldiers for a training run to see how much better they are to the Grineer when it comes to paying attention to their surroundings.'
Side-stepping past a trio of guards as they march past me I gave them a once over and took notice that they all had a uniformity to them.
'What is with all of these clones?'
But if they are not clones and are instead just the normal ponies that I have seen but they instead dyed their fur color along with their hair, then it makes for one hell of a strange security policy to be in place.
'You must dye your body to match the criteria palette to better protect the realm from any outside harm.'
While I was in thought I soon bumped into a wall and stopped walking forward to see that I have indeed walked into a wall.
"Operator, I gave you ample warning that you were about to walk into a wall."
"Thanks Ordis for the heads up..." I grumbled to myself as I took a step back and looked around to see if anyone saw that and to my dismay there was nine people who saw that.
Taking a step away from the wall I realigned my position before heading towards the door leading to my liaison's study and entered it with the nine ponies following in after me. I heard the others talking about me behind my back, and quite a few of them were snickering as quietly as they could but I heard it all.
As soon as everyone sat down, myself included in one of the seats as my warframe stood in a corner watching everyone, both hands resting just above their respective holsters, just waiting for something to go wrong. I was sitting in the middle of the table, my eyes glued to the old-fashioned chalkboard and for a moment I thought that there was something written on it, and as it turns out there was.
The chalkboard happened to have some sort of distortion field placed on it to prevent anyone from seeing what was written on it and as soon as Twilight stepped into the room and closed the door behind her I watched as her horn turned on and with it the field over the board dispersed revealing what was written on it.
On the chalkboard was several dozen diagrams of ponies in varies positions, all of them in varying states of form of a skeletal structure, a layer of muscles and lastly the naked form, and next to each body was several lines and words detailing what they are. For a moment I thought that she had just took this information from the book that I had scanned but the diagrams she is using are much more detailed, almost to the point of them being lifelike.
Clearing her throat I watched as my liaison straightened herself out and stood straight beside the chalkboard, her friends were sitting around the table, and for a moment I thought that they too were here to learn something but instead they were just here to watch me squirm in my seat. That and the scientist from earlier was here as well, probably to gauge my reactions.
I fucking hate scientists so much...
"Now that we are all here we can get started." Twilight said as she straightened herself out as she looks at all of us at the table.
"The reason why we are having this lesson in the first place is that our new friend here is interested in the biological nature of us equines and is also interested in finding if there are any similarities between our two species." If I had a sample of the native's genetic material I can easily get an analysis and either prove it true or prove it false.
"Something I rather doubt due to us being from two entirely different planets and quite possibly a dimension of existence. The odds of our two species is astronomically low or even downright impossible, let alone that our species are don't even look close to being related." The head scientist said as he straightened his coat out and sat down behind me.
I wanted to pull out my gun and shoot him in the back of the head but sadly that will either strain the diplomatic trust between me and the equestrians or outright destroy it so for the time being I can only tell myself that all will be clear in due time.
"Well Professor we do not simply know that, for all you know there is a slim chance that there could be a similarity between us."
"Liaison Twilight, I doubt that and for good reason. Based on the preliminary scans that I took of you and your friends back in the ruined fortress that we have exited from and I must say that our only similar bridges is that we are both carbon-based lifeforms, we both breath in an oxygen/carbon-dioxide atmosphere, and that we both come from a world that has several different types of biomes. Other than that I cannot tell of any other differences and similarities we may have without any blood or genetic samples." I said as I slowly moved my hands over the smooth surface of the table.
"Nerd." A certain rainbow-haired cyan pegasus said as she snickered along with her pink friend as I rolled my eyes at their childish antics.
Turning to look at Rainbow Dash I saw her snickering expression immediately die off as I give her an emotionless stare before speaking up.
"Miss Rainbow Dash, although you may call me a 'nerd' but with my knowledge I know every weak point on your body along with the weak points on the rest of your friends bodies as well. This weakness also spreads onto the rest of your species and other types of ponies as well." And to prove my point I flickered the rainbow one on the nose, making her let out a startled yelp and back away from me.
I could only smirk as I watched Rainbow Dash retreat from me by moving her chair a couple of inches away from me but we were interrupted when someone cleared their throat and we turned to see that it was none other than Twilight.
"As I was saying before I was interrupted, we may or may not have any similarities but that is not why we are here. We are here because our new friend here does not know anything about the reproductive system of us equines and also quite possibly show us diagrams or sketches of his species reproductive system."
"He better, this might even get me another award within the scientific community." The professor said mostly to himself, writing something down on his notepad as he casts his gaze to the back of my head while I try very hard not to blow his brains out all over the back of mine.
Giving the professor a sideways glance I snort in his general direction before muttering some dark words at him in the Orokin language to keep it a secret from him.
"Anyways, let us start with the basics-" Twilight began her lecture but was rudely interrupted before she can even truly begin.
"You see, when a stallion and a mare love each other very much they-" Pinkie started to say something but her mouth was covered by a purple aura and I only had to look at my liaison to find out who it was from.
"Really Pinkie?" Twilight said, she was giving Pinkie Pie a flat stare, just like the ones that Ki'Teer would give me whenever I tried to haggle his prices down from his expensive as hell void prizes that he would occasionally sell to us Tenno.
"What, Twilight? Pinkie can't give our new friend the rundown of what sex is all about? It is pretty much-" Rainbow started to say what sex was about but that was when my ears were covered by a pair of hands and somehow it managed to completely cut off all sound from reach my ears and I must say I am disappointed.
While I couldn't hear anything from the strange energy aura around my ears I watched as Rainbow Dash stood up and kept on explaining what sex was while at the same time doing hand motions and well...she was being very descriptive.
And how exactly did I know what Rainbow Dash was saying even though I couldn't hear what was being said? Well the recording devices within my warframe was recording it all and Ordis was transmitting what was being said to me and I must say I never knew someone could do some of the things that was being said.
I continued to watch the spectacle unfold and for a moment I thought this was going to end soon but instead it went on for the next seventeen minutes and I must say, this is fairly entertaining to say the least.
Once it was over and the purple aura around my ears was gone I turned to look at Twilight whose face turned a shade of red-tinted purple while the rest of the girls also has a fair red-tint as well with the exception of Rainbow Dash who is crossing her arms and is wearing a smug smile on her face.
"Rainbow Dash I have to ask you something." I asked the rainbow one as I thought to what she was saying and doing earlier and to my credit it felt like my face was about to burst into flames from how hot it felt.
Maybe I shouldn't be asking this question just yet...maybe wait until after I am no longer burning up.
"And what would that be?"
I thought it over one last time before finally giving into the temptation that is wanting to know what she said earlier means.
"What do you mean by 'the Wonderbolts team ran a train on that mare', wouldn't that be lethal to the person because being ran over by a heavy mechanical construct result in said person's demise?" I said as I thought back to what Rainbow Dash was saying and honestly I must say that having an entire team get on a train to run someone over does not sound fun at all.
Sounds more like something us tenno would do to a lone grineer that is wounded and is stuck on the rail tracks on Eris.
Not that I have done that before mind you...we just ran it over with a trolley and there was a couple dozen of them on the tracks at the time.
The room was silent and for a moment I thought I said something wrong and as it stayed quiet I was about to both question what was it I said that was wrong and also retreat back to my transference pod to wait out whatever fallout that I have unleashed to burn itself out.
Instead all I got was the rainbow and pink mares to break out into a longwinded hysterical laugh as everyone else either shook their heads in shame for their actions or to simply fan themselves to try and cool themselves off.
"Oh great...this is going to be a long day." Twilight said before slapping her forehead against the chalkboard in exasperation.
As soon as everyone got the giggles out of them, stupid questions and even an embarrassing comment or two, we managed to get back to my lesson on pony anatomy and other biology-related topics.
Looking at the chalkboard I saw the diagrams of both genders of Equines, male and female are drawn side-by-side and each one was drawn to represent the average of both genders for all three types of ponies.
First it was them fully naked, nothing was put in place to cover anything up. There was lines pointing to pretty much every corner of their bodies with words detailing what that part of the body is. I read each word and followed the connected line to it, and when it came to the male pony in question I had to look at myself to check if there were any similarities to between us at a later time when I am alone.
First off of the differences is that I was lacking their ears and tail, then I moved onto the lack of a short muzzle like theirs, then onto the lack of nipples that the male equine in the picture is lacking, the different feet...they actually do have hooves for feet. Then I looked at the waist of the male equine and then I...I couldn't help but feel my cheeks heat up at the sight.
Clearly the males of the equine species are different from the males of humanity, the apparent sheath to hide the genitalia is present and the actual shape of it is also different from a humans. I don't know why but just from the shape of it I can only imagine that the bluntness of it is probably not that pleasant for the female if they were to do their reproduction ritual.
And there is the females of the equines, the differences for them when compared to humans is that their...breasts...as the book calls it, is larger than a normal humans along with their hips and thighs, my guess is that it had to be an evolutionary response as to making the birth of their offspring easier seeing how they are a prey species and in their early days they had to produce large numbers of young to offset any that would die from natural feral predators, natural disasters and disease.
Than it came to the shape of the female genitalia that left me...both conflicted and dare I say 'aroused', something that never happened to me before and yet just by looking at it from the diagram that Twilight made, it is leaving me feeling flustered and heated at the exact same time.
IT is clearly unlike the human female's sex organ as the mere shape of it is different. While the human female's is a slit of skin with its lips to be slightly puffy to give it shape, the equines is... it's like a tear drop but upside down, and that the lips are much more pronounced and thicker, probably to reduce the impact when they are mating with their own kind.
Just looking at the two equine genitalia side-by-side and then at the human's, I can tell that the stark differences are there and I am unsure on how to proceed or process this information.
Would it even be possible for cross-species breeding? Is that even a thing here? Is that a possibility to happen between human beings and the native species of this world? What would it look like? Would it be even safe to perform such a deed on this world? Is it even a good idea?
I bet Cephalon Suda and Cephalon Simaris would love this place.
Once it was over my liaison turned around to look at me, a yardstick in her hands and at the moment I was inputting the new information into my Codex.
Right behind me the professor was scribbling down in his notepad, writing down everything that he was seeing and while I would love to not show him how I operate in writing a Codex Entry, I have no choice because I need this for my own research.
For science of course.
"Any other questions before we stop for today?"
"Nope." "No." "Nu uh." "I'm good, if that's okay with you..." "No thanks darling." "Shut up your hurting my head!" "That is all of the questions I have for you for now."
"Good, because I think I need to take a break...between you asking me questions every few minutes and my friends crude remarks. I wonder how Princess Celestia put up with me when I was just a filly..." Twilight said before rubbing her temple with her free hand before placing the yardstick on the chalkboard before finally relaxing by sitting down in a chair she had set aside for herself.
With the session over for the day I retreated back to my room by backtracking and as soon as I did return to my room I looked at my warframe who stood vigil by the door and was looking down at me. With a sigh of relief that I am finally alone in my room I took out my codex scanner and started to transmit everything that I have learned alone with the fresh scans that I took while I was learning from my liaison, hopefully something good comes from these scans and these lessons.
I would be severely disappointed if I find out that everything I just learned today was absolutely worthless to me.
'But if these lessons aren't worthless to me...would anything good come from it? As soon as my ship is repair I would be gone from this world to return to my own, maybe to never return here ever again. And yet why does it hurt when I think that I will never return to this world? I have no attachments with these beings nor do I have any kind of obligations to them, but I still though...'
'Why is this so perplexing! I need to know why this is happening to me now of all times!'
With my mind trying to figure out what is causing me such distress I decided that I might as well lay down and to let it run its course and hopefully by the next morning everything will be made clear and that my path home will be laid out before me.
Laying down on the bed that was given to me I find it to be most comfortable and that it was already making me incredibly lazy and while I would love nothing more than to contemplate my thoughts and to also try and organize everything that has happened so far, I found myself not wanting to do so. Closing my eyes I decided that it might probably be for the best that I get some rest and wait for either them to call me for something or until the sun rises once again the following day.
Hopefully the next day will also be the same day that these ponies brings my ship to this castle for repairs.
And I hope that Ordis doesn't do anything stupid with my absence.
Author's Note
Sorry for the long wait, I had so much trouble trying to come up with this chapter, I had to revise it, erase it and revise it some more, imma just give up on this chapter's revising plan and ship it out as it is and move onto the next one.
Setting up for a night out of town
The morning sun rises and with it so do I.
I was laying in my bed when I felt the sun's rays shine on my face and for the moment it was a welcome feeling as its warmth graced me with its natural, gentle caress.
But after several minutes of it beating down on me, it turned from a welcome blessing to a harsh curse as it started to get very hot under the covers as the sun's rays started to heat up the sheets and blankets that I was underneath at the moment.
Before I could roll over and try to get away from the heat of the sun my warframe moved in front of the window and stopped the scorching heat of the sun from beating down on me.
"Thank you," I grumbled out mostly to myself as I went back to sleep, the heat was already waking me up now that it was no longer the case I was slowly slipping back into the welcoming fold of sleeps embrace but that too was cut short when someone started to knock on my door.
At first, I was content to just to ignore whoever it was that was on the other side of the door and to go back to sleep, but when the person on the other side started to knock again but this time louder it has been firmly decided that this person wasn't going anywhere.
'Woe that is madness...may whoever disturb my slumber know eternal damnation.'
Grabbing one of the numerous pillows that are on my bed so I can rest on the doorframe to address whoever dares to bother my sweet sleep, I grudgingly shuffle towards the door and opened it to reveal a white equine wearing an equally white dress standing before me with a hand raised in a knocking gesture. And standing behind her were two guards, standing stoic and still as I slowly blink at the princess who was keeping me from my slumber.
"Yes?" I said while slowly leaning against the door, my hands have moved the pillow to form a buffer zone between me and the piece of wood as I relaxed into the door.
Realizing that the door was now open and that I was there waiting for her to speak up, the princess of the sun lowered her hand and cleared her throat before speaking to me.
"Uh yes...Good morning Viktor, I was just walking to the dining hall for my early morning tea before breakfast is served and I was wondering if you would kindly join me for some tea?" The solar princess said as I blinked one eye at a time very slowly before grabbing my pillow and flung it at the bed.
"Do you know how early in the morning it is?" I said as I let out a yawn, my body reacting on its own as my arms stretch outward as I feel my bones start popping along with my back.
"The sun is just rising so it is clearly early...I take it you are not a morning pony?" Celestia said and for a moment I just stare blankly at her.
"My body is still adjusting to not being inside a cryogenic stasis pod so just bear with me for a moment," I replied back, a second yawn escaping from me as I start to blink in sync once more.
"I see, I apologize for waking you so early, you may go back to sleep if you wish."
"No, no, it is alright. I might as well try to get used to this world's time schedule if I am to be staying here until my ship is repaired." I said as my eyes blinked away the sleepiness that resided within them, my body slowly booting up to greet the day although my brain is trying to tell me to return to bed to gain an extra two hours of sleep.
"Just don't push yourself too hard now." The princess of the sun said as she gave me a worried look, something that looked a bit odd to me since most people besides The Lotus didn't usually care about our welfare.
"Don't worry about it that much princess, we Tenno always have to push ourselves harder to make sure that we are always ready to face what tomorrow will throw at us." That and so we can show off to the other operatives how prestigious we are.
"Please take things slow, I would hate to see my guest run themselves ragged." At least this one royal person cares for my health, the Orokin High-Born didn't give two shits about us.
So glad that they are dead now.
"I appreciate your concern for my welfare princess but it is not needed. If I can endure for several hundred years of warfare then I can handle anything that life has to throw at me." I said as I gave one final stretch as I heard and felt my spine let out one last crack and a pop before finally settling back down and following the celestial princess to the dining hall for morning tea.
As we walked down through the hallway leading towards the main dining room, I witnessed as Celestia stopped and greeted every single servant and guard that passed us by. I am sure she is either doing this because she is a kind leader to these ponies, or that she has been doing this for so long that it has become routine for her and that it is expected of her to do such a thing because she has done this countless times already.
Just like how I have been fighting the Grineer, Corpus and the Infested for a few centuries, it too has become routine and to the point that it is almost boring whenever they decided to cause trouble in the system.
Unless the last remaining queen starts unleashing her Kuva guards out to siphon more Kuva, Forhd Bek with his Ambulas proxies, or the Stalker and his Acolytes go out on a killing spree again.
But when someone decides to stir the pot and do something they shouldn't be doing, like say...a certain Grineer Scientist, experimenting on the Infested to try and make them into a bioweapon when they already were one. One of these days I will have his head mounted on my ship, preferably next to the Stalker's head when I can cut it off but it will be resting next to Vay Hek's cyborg head.
While I was lost in my thoughts about the routinely lives that both Celestia and I seem to share, I soon found myself standing at the dining hall door with my hostess and her guard escort waiting for me to come inside and have a seat.
"Viktor, are you alright? You have been standing there for a while now."
"Oh...sorry. I was just lost in thought." This is starting to happen more often, I guess being alive again is giving me more time to contemplate what matters to me.
"Thinking about home?" Oh, you have no idea princess...Cetus and my dojo are my homes, my landing craft counts if I think about it.
"A bit, it is just so different here than it is back home. From what I am have seen here so far it is quiet and peaceful, something that is a rare commodity back home due to the different warring factions constantly vying to wrest control from the others for themselves." I said as I walked into the dining hall and proceeded to find myself a seat.
"My short stay here is pleasant, something I am not used to and although I loathe the fact that I have nothing to do other than study with my liaison about your people and my own private time studying your history but I am also enjoying it. I am just used to always being on the move helping the people survive and fight against the oppressors that roam the system, not sitting down and reading a book." Finding a chair to sit in I set myself in it as I continued to talk to the solar monarch about my thoughts.
The white princess stared at me with a gaze that held firm for a few seconds before breaking off, my guess is that she was not expecting me to be straightforward with what I was thinking of, or that she is not used to hearing hardships from anyone.
"This land...from what I have read so far and from my small glimpses from the windows here is that you all live in what is tantamount to a veritable paradise with nothing to worry about. I envy you and your ponies but I know that this wasn't always the case as you had to fight those that threaten your home and your ponies. You fought for a hard-won peace and were successful to make it last so long."
I stopped talking after that as I stared back at the wall opposite of me, my mind wandering to how the Origins System is doing, how it is handling everything without me.
Soon afterward, however, I was drawn from my thoughts as the sounds of the doors opening up as I heard the sounds of wheels quietly rolling over the white marble tiles and came to a stop at the long table where Celestia and I sat at.
Turning my head and my gaze to the source of the nose I saw that it was one of the chefs that work here and he was setting what looks like a piping hot tea kettle on a thin metal stand and placed several small plates and cups beside it before placing opposite the kettle a plate filled with a small variety of light snacks.
The solar princess sitting on my left sat there for a moment before lighting her hold with its golden glow and with it I watched as a teacup and tiny plate levitated together along with the tea kettle lifting up as it tilted over as a brown cascade of boiling hot tea is poured before being put back into its place. With the princess getting herself some tea I proceeded to do the same, but as I did so I saw that the princess placed two cubes of sugar into her cup before stirring it three times with a small silver teaspoon before taking a sip while I let it simmer for a few seconds before taking a sip of my own.
"Hmm...this tea...it reminds me home...a time before I became what I am...a peaceful time in an otherwise backwater planet away from the trials and tribulations of the empire." I mused quietly to myself as I thought back to what I was just a child living in one of the colonies that dot the surface of Mars. I was sick with a rather bad case of the common cold and my mother made me tea to help me get over the sickness. The tea I am holding in my hands right now reminds of those times, when I was blissfully unaware of what was going on around me and that I was ignorant of suffering and sadness.
And all it took to shatter my childlike perspective of everything was for me to be locked in a ship with rapidly deteriorating conditions in the cold vacuum of the Void.
"What hardships did you have to endure to become what you are? My heart aches to even think about what it must be like to go through that all alone with nopony to help you through it." Princess Celestia said as took a dainty sip from her tea cup, seems like her kind isn't used to hearing about such things.
That or she is just giving me a shoulder to lean on to get it off my chest.
"Do not worry about it your highness, because of the turn of events that led to my training in the way of gun and blade I would not be here otherwise. I may have suffered from that tragedy but I have only grown stronger from it along with the other children aboard the vessel at the time, I can only hope that I was not the only one to have woken up from our slumber." I said as I took another sip from my cup before placing it on the plate and set it down on the table.
The two of us soon began to talk about small tidbits about ourselves to one another, slowly learning about the other but for the most part, we just kept it simple and not too invasive or intrusive into the other's past. At one point it even got us to where I just had to ask the royal pony a question that I have been pondering for a while.
But before I could even utter out a word of my question regarding her sister's mental stability, the door leading to the main hall that we have entered from opens up to reveal my liaison walking in with what looks like the orange earth pony from the day before along with the cyan flyer and her yellow friend.
Applejack if I am recalling her name correctly, and she looks like she is already prepared for the day as she is wide awake and alert.
Must either be an early-riser or is very quick to transition from asleep to awake.
Her friends, on the other hand, they look like they just woke up and that they don't like it one bit. I believe the two flyers are Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy if the meeting was anything to remember.
"Good morning Princess Celestia, Viktor, nice to see that you are awake. I have wanted to talk to you about something for a while now but..."
"Hey big guy, you got any ray guns?" Rainbow Dash said just as another group of people entered the dining hall, the young purple scale-covered being that was accompanying the equines in the ruined castle, the white-furred unicorn Rarity walked in with practiced grace while the pink earth pony Pinkie Pie skipped in without a care in the world.
At first I didn't register what she said but after a few seconds I understood what she asked me and for a moment I wanted to deny her the knowledge that I do have a few of these 'ray guns' that she wants to know if I have any, but then again if she knows that I do have some then maybe she would either leave me be with her random questions or better yet be in awe by them and leave me alone.
"Yes Rainbow Dash, I do have ray guns," I said and with a fist pump from both her and the purple scaly one I watched as they both started to ask me more about them.
"How big are they?"
"Can they turn somepony into a pile of ashes?"
"Do you have one that can hypnotize them into being your slave?"
"Can they make me bigger than I already am?"
"Can we see one?"
"Yeah! Come on bro show us!"
And with their questions and requests, I did what any Tenno would do in this situation.
I denied their requests.
"No."
This immediately made the scale-covered one...you know what, I think I recall his name...Spoke...Splike...Spike? Yes! That's it, Spike! Anyways this made Spike a bit upset but for the time being, I may as well humor these aliens by showing them some cools things I have at my disposal at the moment.
"Wanna see something cool?" I asked as I looked at a barren patch of wall that lay to the right of the dining hall table.
"Like what?"
"This," I said and motioning my warframe I watched as it walked up to the wall before pointing his left hand at the wall, palm flat to its surface before dispensing a holographic spray onto its flat surface.
Illuminated on the wall was a baby kubrow chasing a butterfly, the kubrow in question had an off-white underbelly fur with a light brown fur coat with grey stripes all over it. It looked adorable because that was my kubrow when it was just a pup and I took it to Earth one day because it looked bored being on my ship all the time.
My little buddy ate a Grineer soldier's head that day and I was never prouder of the little ankle biter than I am when I take em on a mission to stop a grineer or corpus operation ending in success.
The equines were in awe at the sight of the holographic display that was hovering just above the wall, even the white monarch was in awe at the spectacle that was wavering in place.
This, of course, got the attention of my liaison as she started to ask me questions as more chefs started to enter the room and put more food down onto the table.
"What did you just put on the wall Viktor?"
"That my friend is what we Tenno's call a 'Spray', we put those down during our missions to either alert our squadmates where we have been, to confuse our enemies, or to just put them down as an 'Operator was here' flags for us to visit later if we ever come back to that particular location in the future," I said as I remember the last time I used my spray, it was in the middle of space and I was waiting for the rest of my squad to show up so I put that on a passing asteroid to pass the time.
Floating in space while your friends play catch up because I sped through the Corpus Hammerhead chopping their employees and drones in half with my ax.
"So its a sort of flag then?"
"You can say that yes, we do have our own flags but these are temporary and they are easy to dispense and use at any given moment. That and our flags are fairly tall and long so we usually need an open space to roll them out and set them to stand." That and they are usually set on fire by the Grineer and Corpus whenever they are found cause they are a bunch of assholes.
That was when Spike and Rainbow Dash asked me if I had anything else on me.
"Well, I got my codex scanner...my spray...my spare ammunition, health, shields, and energy dispensers, kinetic siphon, I even got a specter on hand." The last one got everybody's attention as Twilight asked me how I got a ghost with me.
Time to show them what it does if they want to know what it does.
"Do you want to see what it is?" They all nodded yes, even one of the chefs who stayed behind to watch what was going on.
Giving my warframe the 'go-ahead' nod it casually removed one of the small orbs that lined its hip and threw it beside me and near-instantaneously a warframe appeared before their very eyes.
It was a standard Excalibur warframe wielding a Soma assault rifle, at its hips was two Vasto revolvers, and hugging its back was a Skana long sword. Its coloration was its stock coloration of grey and white, bland and ordinary as I didn't want the enemy to think that they were being attacked by the elite of the Lotus.
Everyone did their 'Ooo's' and 'Awe's', they were easily impressed at the sight of yet another warframe standing amongst them but before they could try to pest me further, Princess Celestia called us all back to the table as she told us that the food was getting cold.
The food that was set out before us all looked good from an equestrian standpoint, but for me, a human being and also a Tenno Operative, I had to be cautious what exactly I put into my mouth as I did not scan anything that they had placed before me since I did not know what was safe to consume and what was poisonous to the body.
Whipping out my codex scanner my warframe began to scan everything on the table and Ordis in short order relayed to me what was edible and what was a one-way ticket to death's doorstep.
Of course, this disturbed the others at the table as they gave me weird looks, and of course, they didn't say anything because they were trying to be polite, naturally, my liaison had other things on her mind.
"Umm...Viktor...what exactly are you doing?" She asked me as she cast her gaze to the strange device my Rhino Prime was holding as its orange scan lines moved from each plate and bowl on the table.
"I am scanning the food on the table to see if I am capable of digesting it properly without suffering from any complications. Although the air here is just like that of my home and that some of the life here looks familiar as well, I am not taking any chances that anything here might cause me some sort of discomfort." I said as I looked at Twilight, I can tell from her gaze that what I am doing might be seen as offensive but I am doing this just to make sure I stay alive if I am to eat their food.
"Okay, just... don't do that if there are guests coming to the castle, it may be seen as rude from any foreign dignitary that might visit." An understandable request, one that I am willing to oblige once I am done with my scans.
Voicing my confirmation to her request and with Ordis confirming that most things on the table were safe to eat with the exception of the flowers and any food that had flowers in them, or hay, or petals...mostly stuff that any insect might eat when hungry.
With that out of the way, I grabbed myself a few pieces of wheat toast that have been turned to a nice golden brown color, a small pile of scrambled eggs and lastly a glass of what I believe to be is milk. My scanner wasn't entirely thorough when it came to the milk, it just said that it was safe to drink, not of what type of milk it was or from what animal it was from.
Why was I eating so little? Because my body is getting used to not being in a cryo-stasis state and so it requires actual food to continue operating at peak capacity. Food paste that was offered to me by the Tenno-Relays is meant to be the same as eating normal food but it severely lacks in taste and also that it's green and smells foul, who in their right mind would eat this all the time? Another reason why I am eating only a small amount is that I am making sure that my body can adjust to eating real food and also help my stomach slowly get used to eating food that wasn't turned to paste and put in a tube.
Soon after I was done eating I allowed myself the time to look at all the others as they ate, talked to one another as they engaged in revelry that I too once shared with my fellows.
I missed them already, but I know that I will see them again soon, it is only a matter of time to get my ship repaired and in working order. And with the new amount of knowledge that I have acquired from these equines I am sure that I will be well on my way to being a Grandmaster, maybe even a Gold Tier Grandmaster!
Thinking back on the knowledge I had acquired so far, I thought back to the biology and anatomy of the equestrians and it only took me a few moments for a rose hue to color my cheeks as those images now line my mind. I had almost forgotten about such a topic because I was asleep for so long and I thought that it wouldn't matter to me anymore.
How I could have forgotten this I do not know, I mean I was taught this in middle school on Mars long before I became a Tenno Operative, and yet I have nearly forgotten about it...but why am I having these particular thoughts now? I mean if what my teacher said is true, then I am supposed to be having these thoughts whenever I see someone that catches my eye...but did it also include if my eye is being caught on the opposite gender of an alien species?
I doubt it, but then again maybe love has no bounds here...or did he call it lust? I can't remember it clearly but it is the 'L' word.
After everyone was done eating we all were going to go our separate ways but of course my liaison had other plans.
"Viktor, me and the girls are about to head out and enjoy ourselves in Canterlot and I am thinking that you should come with us," Twilight said as she stood up from her seat and dusted herself off from any crumbs from her skirt as the rest of her friends cleaned themselves up as well.
I thought on accepting her request but a few things came up that I had to clarify with her and her princess.
"Twilight, if I go out there as I am, what will the public response to my appearance and my presence be?"
"Well um...the nobles of Canterlot are a bit stuck up and stuffy, so they will for the most part either ignore you for being a foreigner, or they will try to see where you are from before going back to what they were doing."
"Nothing I am not used to, there are plenty of enclaves back home that are the same, mostly they do it out of self-preservation because they are afraid that any outsider that is let into their homes will invite unwanted attention such as the Grineer or the Corpus."
But before Twilight could offer any more of her sound advice, Celestia decided to intervene on her behalf.
"My dear student, although I am happy to see that you are trying to help our friend here adapt and acclimate to his surroundings I am afraid that he cannot leave the castle grounds just yet." The alabaster monarch said while taking a sip from her teacup as the ponies in the room looked at their princess.
"Why is that, Princess Celestia?"
"You see Twilight, although you have helped Viktor begin to understand Equestrian society through your teachings, he is still considered an outsider to the equestrians because they not only do not know that he exists but they also don't know that he is not of this world. If word were to spread that there is an unknown being roaming the streets it will incite unnecessary panic and begin to ask questions that I am not ready to answer just yet. I already had to lie to the press about what happened at the Castle of the Two Sisters within the Everfree Forest that it was an accident from a royal guard exercise." Celestia said as she let out a quiet sigh that clearly wasn't missed by everyone in the room.
"So what you are saying that I am to remain inside until you bring forth my existence to the world?"
"I am sorry to say it but yes, you are to remain indoors until such a time that I am able to best prepare and show the world that we are not alone in this universe," Celestia said and for a moment the others looked at me and I thought I saw what looked like pity, but I was not having any of it.
Shaking my head at them I told them what I thought of it all.
"While I understand that you are taking all of the precautions that you think are necessary to maintain the peace, it is not needed for you see I am capable of moving around unseen," I said as I looked out the one window that just so happens to be looking out over the cliff and the forest below it.
This, however, catches Twilight's attention as she then asked me what I meant by moving unseen.
"Are you planning to turn invisible? How? You don't have a horn since your not a unicorn so this is perplexing me greatly." Twilight said as she gave me a once over, once again trying to see if I am not hiding something but alas she found nothing.
Smirking to myself I grabbed my warframe by returning to my command chair and resuming direct control which in turn incidentally deactivated and dispersed my specter in the process.
With me back in control, I went back to my room before locking the door and planting my warframe right in front of the door to prevent anyone from entering without my permission so I could begin my plan on exploring this new world unhindered.
Upon my return to the transference chamber, I immediately went back into the connection but this time giving Ordis the orders to begin rudimentary repairs to the Scimitar immediately. These repairs won't be able to take me back home to the Origin System but it will be able to get my ship out from this dilapidated castle and back into the skies where it belongs.
Activating and taking control of my Loki Prime, the warframe twitched to life and was placed in front of the Arsenal as it was dropped off from storage before moving to the right as several more warframes were removed from cold storage to carry out the duty I have bestowed upon them. My warframe waited patiently for the other autonomous units to move away from the Arsenal locker as I gave Ordis orders on what needs to be done while I am off in Canterlot 'seeing the sights' as I would like to call it, orders that need to get done in a timely fashion if I am to be able to operate at peak efficiency in case of a disaster or worse...something manages to find me here.
"Ordis, take several of my non-prime warframes and have them begin making repairs, the Void Core can wait until we are able to take flight and have a suitable Dry-dock or hanger to make the repairs in. I don't want any kind of foreign material to fall into the core and risk causing a catastrophic meltdown and imploding."
"Operator, what are the odds of *Bzzzt* that hunk of chunk to *Bzzt* the Void Core to erupt in such a fashion?"
"I don't know but I don't care, I am not going to be taking any chances with it. If it was able to spit us out here in the middle of uncharted space, than who knows what it can do. For all I know, it might spit us out into some other dimension or worse right in the middle of a black hole." And Lotus save us if that happens. I do NOT want my final moments to be being crushed slowly within my own ship as I watch myself meet an agonizingly slow death.
"As you command, Operator, it will be done." And with that, he went about to carry out my command.
Stepping out from the Arsenal was my Rhino, Atlas, Chroma, Mag, and Vauban to carry out the repairs, and as for why I am sending out Mag for the heavy lifting? Her magnetic powers will be helpful in lifting and maintaining an even height as the rest will be uninstalling the engines from their housing to begin their tinkering.
The whirling of machinery was heard from the outside and the guards that were stationed here to watch over my ship immediately sprang into action, several of them grabbing their spears and shields from their tents while a few were even being pushed off their cots to wake up and get ready for what they think is a surprise attack.
What none of the equestrian guards realized what was happening was that they were being ignored by the warframes as they went about doing their assigned tasks.
While the guards were busy watching my warframes go about their jobs in taking apart and reassembling pieces of the fuselage, my Loki Prime activated his stealth field and slipped out of view and away from the camp. Dancing through the throngs of equine guards all the while picking up pieces of salvaged ship pieces and tagging them for pickup by a Carrier Sentinel, I even went as far as marking a few pieces of equestrian guard equipment for pickup to see what they are made of and if there is any room for improvement.
Although I could tell them the means of forging far superior alloys with the knowledge I have access to, I wasn't willing to give them that much of an advantage over the other races that inhabit this world, and if the books I have scanned and skimmed over are anything to go by, quite a few races might take this as a step towards war with them.
Sometimes I wonder why the princesses of the sun and moon don't just threaten the world with either a colony drop with the moon or scorching their lands with the sun? I mean if they can actually control those two massive celestial bodies with their magic then why not just conquer the world with it, not like there isn't anything in this world that can stop them.
Right?
Once I was out and away from my ship and the equestrian camp I left the ruined castle by way of the front doors that were barely hanging on their hinges, the courtyard was a mess with overgrowth of vegetation that hasn't seen a gardener or a goat in ages.
Stepping through the overgrowth that has seeped onto the cobblestone road leading out and away from the castle I followed it all the way out and into the surrounding forest. Staying on the road I continued to follow it until I came up a rope bridge, while the road itself is old and in serious need of a patch-up, the bridge itself seems to be brand-new, fresh even and I have a guess as to why that is. Seeing how rope isn't anything like stone or rock, it decays and degrades until it eventually rots away into nothing, or an unfortunate person step out it and the rotten wood snaps in half and they plummet to their death.
Not a good way to go, screaming all the way down before coming to an abrupt stop in a sickening crunch and a splat.
At least the local wildlife gets to eat well for the day.
The walk through the forest was an easy one with me sprinting through the foliage and bushes, avoiding the local wildlife as my radar pinged their locations that allowed me to stay well away from them. Eventually my run through the dark forest yielded fruit as I came upon the mountain base.
The climb up to the city will be a long one but I am sure that by the time I get up there that the girls would have left the castle and be enjoying themselves.
Lets see if I can surprise them.
With a grin on my face and a plan to enact, I began my ascension up the mountainside to meet up with my new friends.
Twilight Sparkle's POV
Me and the girls were sitting at a café waiting for our new friend to return to us but so far there hasn't been any sighting of him and now I was getting a bit worried for him. Spike was with us but he was busy ordering our food so he wasn't around to be a part of our conversation.
'What could have happened to him? Is okay? Did he get attacked in the Everfree Forest by a Manticore? A Hydra? Oh I hope he is okay, I have so many questions to ask him!' I thought to myself as I fidgeted in my seat, the girls noticed this as Rainbow Dash did her signature wake up call for me.
And her signature wake up call was for her to grab me by the shoulders and shake me until I snapped out of it.
"Huh, wha?" I said as I shook my head to get rid of the shaking that RD gave me as she gave me a grin, knowing that her plan worked to get me back into the conversation that the six of us were having.
"Twilight, I was saying what do you think of our new friend?"
"Oh, sorry, I was just lost in thought there for a moment..."
"Don't be sorry Twilight, you just had us a bit worried there for a second because you were staring out into space for a moment."
"Sorry RD, I was just thinking of Viktor, the way he just disappeared at the castle...it reminds me of the way that us Unicorns teleport but in a much more advanced fashion."
"What do you mean Twilight?" Pinkie said as she took a bite out of a cupcake that she brought with her. I don't know where she was hiding it but I don't think I want to really find out where she had it hidden at the time.
"Well you see Pinkie, normally when a unicorn uses the teleport spell they have to go by the criteria's for it to work properly. Firstly they have to see where they teleporting to or at the very least be able to visualize and picture where they are trying to go. Secondly they would have to have enough magic within them to pull it off, and lastly they must also have been properly trained to use it."
"What's the worst that can happen if your not trained to use it Twi? Do you blow up or something?" Rainbow Dash said as she rolled her eyes at my explanation of the basic form of Teleportation magic for unicorns.
"No Rainbow Dash, if you aren't properly trained then it will either not work at all, leaving you with a massive headache or if you do manage to pull it off, there is a chance that you might get stuck in an object at the site of teleportation." I said with a hint of a smirk as RD's expression says it all.
The rainbow-manned pegasus was staring at me in horror, the sheer thought of screwing up a spell that lets one teleport across short or great distances and end up with a piece of the environment stuck inside you, or worse another pony...
She is going to be having a nightmare about this for a while.
"Don't worry Rainbow Dash, not many ponies know how to teleport and those that do only use it to travel short distances like to another room or to teleport back home. And besides the spell works that it will always try to put you into an open space large enough for you to be in." I said and immediately the look of relief crosses her face as she lets out a held breath.
Looks like she wont be asking for a quick teleport to the pub in Ponyville anytime soon.
"But as I was saying, the way Viktor teleported is that he didn't concentrate on where to go nor did he have to use any magic to return back to his ship. What he did is something that only Princess Celestia and Princess Luna can do and even then they usually have to think on where they want to go before teleporting!"
Rainbow Dash just shrugs at this and before I could begin to tell her how fascinating this new form of teleportation is, Spike returned to our table with two trays full of food ranging from muffins and cupcakes to grilled-cheese sandwiches and mixed salads.
I wonder where he got the bits to pay for it because I know I didn't give him any before he went to order our food...
"Okay girls, I got our food!" My number one assistant and also little brother said as he placed the trays down as the rest of the girls perked up and stared at what he has brought over.
I myself was eye-balling the blueberry and chocolate chip muffin that was just sitting there and with a quick burst of magic I levitated the muffin over to me, moving it away from Dashie's grabby hands I soon found myself staring down at my prize.
'I wonder where Viktor is...its been two hours now...hope he gets here in time.'
While I was thinking about my new alien friend, I noticed that Rainbow Dash was trying to swipe my muffin away from me and for her efforts I used my magic to do what Rarity once told me to do in case she ever gets grabby with my food.
With a bit of precision and some effort I grabbed a hold of something belonging to Rainbow Dash, pulled it back a good inch and with a sly grin I let it go, the resulting snap sound and my friend yelping in shock was enough for her to stop trying to grab my food and gave me enough time to grab it and take a bite.
"Yeouch! What the buck Twilight!" My rainbow-manned friend shouted quietly at me while rubbing her backside with a hand, the pain of having your underwear used as an elastic whip against you is not something to laugh at.
"I don't know what you are talking about Rainbow, I was just enjoying my muffin. Maybe you put them on backwards again?" I said before snickering to myself as Rarity hid her own chuckle while Applejack and Pinkie Pie where openly laughing at Rainbow Dash's expense. Fluttershy was keeping it to herself for the moment but I can tell that she doesn't approve of what I did.
Grumbling to herself and rubbing her backside I went back to talking about how our new guest is showing use of advanced magical teleportation without even knowing it.
"There is one thing I don't understand though."
"And whats that Twi?" Pinkie Pie said as she took a bite from her over-grilled cheese sandwich, a trail of melted gooey cheese making me turn a slight shade of green as I shuddered at the sight before forcing it down and pushing forward.
"Just how is he managing to even use magic? He doesn't have a horn."
"Maybe his hands perhaps?"
Shaking my head I started to speak up on how that isn't it but I stopped in mid word when I saw a passing patrol of royal guards, one of them in particular was extremely familiar.
The guard in question was wearing gold and purple armor, on the guard's chest was the emblem of a shield with a six pointed star at its center, his helmet also had a crest on it, a plume of blue mane poking out from the top of it.
I didn't have to guess who it was that was coming down the street as I stood up from my seat and teleported over to the guard, leaving my friends behind to wonder what I was doing until they realized where I have teleported off to.
Reappearing in front of the royal guards the group brandished their spears but they all immediately recognized me and stood at ease as I tackled the captain who was standing in the center of the group.
"Shiny!" I shouted as I jumped at my brother, hugging him tightly as the guards around him snickered at the behavior that I was showing to their captain.
My brother returned the favor by bringing me into a crushing bear hug, I honestly thought I heard my spine snapping in half from how much strength he was putting into it.
It took my brother a moment to realize what was going on and when he did finally come out of the stupor he realized just exactly who it was that was tackled him in front of a batch of fresh recruits.
"Twily! What are you doing here?" My brother asked me as he tried to regain what little respect he had gained from the recruits, they once saw him as a stoic, stone-faced guard who was unmovable. Now they see him as a flustered, easy-to-tackle captain who is embarrassed by his own sister.
Smiling at my brother before getting back onto my hooves after being let go from the bear hug, I had to dust myself off a bit before addressing his question.
"I am here with my friends-" I said as I pointed over at the café across the street, as I did so Shiny looked over to see the girls and Spike sitting there, eating their food and when they noticed that Shining was waving at them they waved back. "-and we here waiting for Viktor to return."
"Just where is our guest anyways?" Shiny asked as he shifted his stance, leaning on his left hoof as he moved a hand onto his sword hilt, a bit overprotective for my safety but I am a grown mare! I can handle myself just fine!
"He said he was going back home to get something so he can spend time with us without having to worry about something...I don't know what it is though." I hope it doesn't do anything to harm anypony...no...I know he wont do anything to cause any harm to the ponies of Canterlot, myself, my friends, Shiny or the princesses!
I hope...
"I see, well I hope he doesn't take too long."
Meanwhile
I was climbing up the mountainside, from where I was hanging I can safely say that I am about half way to the city hanging off the side.
One thing I was wondering is that if I should have brought my AkBoltos with me and shoot the rivets into the mountainside to use as climbing spikes to get up the wall faster.
Now that I think about it...that is actually a good idea.
"God damn it!"
My shout was loud enough that it disturbed a nearby nest of birds, resulting in them flying off and nearly making me lose my hold as they startled me.
'I wish I brought Titania instead...I bet nobody here would notice a tiny warframe flying around the size of my fist.'
Realizing that I made another beginners mistake I smacked my head against the cliff in anger only to receive in retribution a rock the size of Clem's head to strike me square center to my helmet.
'Fu-'
Twilight Sparkle's POV
"Eh, I am sure he is just making sure that nopony saw him or even knew that he left his home to begin with." I said as I scratched the back of my head, even I don't know how long it is going to take him to get back here, let alone know where to go...
Oh buck me...we didn't even tell him where we would be meeting up.
"Hmmm, well just keep an eye out for him, I would hate to tell Princess Celestia that our guest got himself injured or lost on the way here." Shining Armor said as some of the guards with him tilted their heads, wondering exactly who my brother was talking about.
"Will do Shiny, oh and also be back at the castle later tonight!"
"Anything interesting going to be happening tonight?"
"Yup! Me, the girls, Spike and the princesses will finally get to talk about Viktor's people and his homeland!" Well I think that is going to happen unless Princess Luna gets impatient and unintentionally makes me his slave...
'I wonder how much longer will it take for Viktor to get back here? I mean he is an alien part of an advanced civilizations that is possibly several thousand years ahead of us in a technological sense so he should have something with him that would have made traveling any kind of distances a breeze!'
And as I was in deep thought as to why my new friend was taking so long I heard my brother cough into his hand and I realized that I was holding him up and gave him one last hug before saying goodbye to him and that he has to show up for tonight's little talk with our friend.
"Don't worry Twilight, I'll be there." My brother said before patting me on the head and resumed his scheduled patrol with the rest of the group.
With my brother gone and my worry for my friend slightly abated, I returned back to my friends and my little brother and we picked up where we left off, little did we or I know that we were being watched.
Unknown POV
Sitting several tables away from the Elements of Harmony and their pet dragon, I watched as they talk to one another, their voices hushed and low as I strained my own heightened hearing to even catch fragments of their conversations. Whatever they were talking about in such a tone made it into such juicy gossip with the possibility of it being blackmail material, I waved my friend over, the waiter who is working at the café my targets and I are currently sitting in to whisper to him what needs to be done.
"Tallow Pitcher, have they said anything important?"
"I am so sorry sir, they have been keeping to themselves whenever I or another waiter comes by their table. Whatever it is they are talking about must either be of national security, or that they are planning for a sleepover." The waiter said as he bent down and slipped the stallion an envelope before standing back up and refilled the cup with more water.
With the envelope in hand the mysterious pony slid it into his coat pocket before looking back at the six mares, muttering to himself that they weren't making it easier for him to get the information he needs for his job.
"Will there be anything else sir?"
"No, you may go now Tallow, if you hear anything from them remember where to send it to."
"Of course, have a good afternoon now sir." With the waiter gone the stallion went back to watching the group of ponies sitting far from him, reaching underneath the table he pulled out a notepad and with a quick dip of a portable inkwell before writing down what he has heard and seen so far.
'Elements of Harmony left the castle early in the day, went to a café within the Gold District and are waiting for a friend that is a foreign diplomat.'
With the thoughts being quickly written down the stallion tapped his table two times, the signal to a nearby street sweeper to come discreetly near the table and as the sweeper was about to pass he was given a fresh envelope along with a bag of bits before continuing with his cleaning duties.
"What are you planning Celestia...a political move like this is not something you have done since before your sister's banishment...whoever this foreign dignitary is...we will beat you to them."
Viktor's POV
Standing on the wall surrounding the city I saw that it was just as beautiful as it was when I flew over it in the chariot. White marble streets, opulent manors and expensive stores, it reminds me of an old city back on Earth, back before the Old War...
The streets was abuzz with activity, there was equestrians moving about minding their own business, almost all of them are wearing some form of expensive-looking clothing, the men were wearing fancy looking hates, monocles while the women wore stylish yet uncomfortable summer dresses.
I do not know what those dresses are made out of but when the sun is beating down on you, and if what my atmospheric gauge was telling me that right now it was approximately 31° Celsius or roughly 86° Fahrenheit, either the ponies are more tolerant to the weather here or if there is some sort of atmospheric regulator in effect because being in fur and also an overly dressed person doesn't usually end well.
I know this because on a few occasions when I was on patrol within the Orokin capital, I have seen on a few occasions when the wealthy and elite wore such outlandish clothing that the heat of a normal day was enough to make them faint.
They were not even outside of the weather conditioned dome when it happened!
Anyways, these ponies, almost all of them are wealthy if their mannerisms, clothing styles and behavior are of any indications, excluding the city we are currently in, and for those that are not part of the social and wealthy elite, their attire seems more well-maintained if their occupations here are of any indication. So far I do not see anything resembling the slums, the poor and downtrodden, but then again those always seem to slip between the cracks and are hidden in either plain sight or in a more out-of-the-way location in the city, probably the part that is closest to the mountain or in the least pleasant part of the capital...but where to look?
Perhaps for another time when I am not preoccupied at the moment, I have my new acquaintances to locate and meet with.
'If I am going to find them then I am going to have to search every single square foot of this city until I bump into them or I find them, whichever comes first.'
Leaping from the walls of city and activating my invisibility field, I hit the ground in a hushed thud none of the ponies that were walking near me were none the wiser nor were they even aware that I was standing among them. Dancing and weaving my way through the crowd of ponies that went about their business I kept my eyes peeled for my liaison wherever she may be.
Coming upon an intersection I eventually had enough of dodging the closeness that these ponies are so fond of, I immediately went to the nearest alleyway before scaling up the side of the wall just in time for my invisibility field to fade away, leaving me exposed to any possible prying eyes.
Once I am on the roof of a single-story building I reactivated my invisibility field and blended back into the world, unnoticed and unseen I went back to my recon of the city.
'Do these equestrians not have any means of detecting an invisible being? They must have some kind of sensors to detect those that are unseen by the naked eye...right? There is no way that nobody here has not developed some means of stealth technology or in their case, a magical means of disappearing from sight.'
Scanning the streets for Twilight and her group of friends I saw neither hide nor hair of the purple unicorn liaison among the local population.
Jumping from building to building, making sure not to break concealment and always sticking to the shadows in the event my invisibility field deactivates at the worst possible moment. Shifting in and out of sight every minute I kept my search going as I started from the outer section of the capital and worked my way in a circle since I do not have a map of the area and nor do I have any kind of aerial reconnaissance going on at the moment.
It was when I was searching the streets for my friends that I spotted a building that peeked my interests. The building was a small eatery if what Ordis says is correct, it looked like it sells pastries and other small confectionary snacks as its main selling points and as I peered through the windows I saw ponies sitting inside eating these strange circular snacks while sipping from their mugs an equally strange black liquid.
I don't know what those are but I want them.
Eventually my search led me to what I believe to be the residential district for the upper-middle class civilians, their houses looked good but they were not as large or as showy as the mansions that I saw when I first arrived here. These houses are a bit more compacted in together but they still offered enough room for the families residing inside of them to enjoy themselves without having to bump elbows.
Climb onto the roof of one of these homes I saw that there was an equestrian sitting in their room behind a table using what looks like an ancient typewriter, a writer of some sort or maybe someone writing a letter to someone? I do not know what this pony in question is doing but what I do know is that they are completely unaware of my presence, allowing me to getter look at them with them being none the wiser.
The equestrian in question is of the unicorn variety and is female in gender, their appearance looks to be in their middle age if the bags under the eyes and the faintest hints of wrinkles are of any indication. Their fur color appears to be of the silver-grey palette, a two-toned mane style of a light purple and a very light silver almost bordering on white, her eyes are a shade of blue, like the color of clear water. This female unicorn was wearing nothing more than a pair of underwear and a T-shirt, my guess is that she is either not working today if she has a job or is busy enjoying herself as she might be a stay-at-home mother...or is just having a lazy day to herself.
Another thing I noticed about this matronly unicorn is that her...'Cutie-Mark' is of three purple five-pointed stars and they are located on her hips, something that I have read in the books that within the decaying castle in the middle of the forest.
A warning sound went off within my transference pod and it told me that my invisibility was about to fade so I quickly climbed onto the matron's roof and reactivated the field before going about my way, this matron seems to be well-off if she and her family can afford living in this region of the city, probably owns a business or has a large inheritance.
Moving to another house I saw that nobody was home so I decided to move onto the next one all the while looking at the streets, taking notice of the guards on patrol and the citizens walking down the sidewalks.
Something I noticed about these equestrians is that the carriages and chariots that they use is that they are pulled by the equestrians themselves. These select earth ponies go about with their lives pulling carts, chariots and carriages around as if it is their jobs, and although I am not one to question what they do with their time but I do hope that this isn't some form of slavery that they are employing. I will get very irate if I were to find out that they were using slaves to pull everything around for them.
Tearing my eyes away from the equine-drawn equine-led carriages I went back to searching the city for my friends.
Leaping onto more buildings and homes I saw that there was a wide variety of professions and jobs here that it made me reassess the classification of the capital as a city for the rich and elite only, now I marked it down as a normal city that also served as the nation's capital. This portion of the capital looked a bit more...rundown if that is the correct word to use.
This must be considered the lower section the capital as most of the buildings here are not as clean-looking and stylish as the rest of the capital. The streets here is filled with debris from wooden objects, trash and other garbage that hasn't been properly disposed of. The equines here are also a bit more on the shifty side as their clothing are a bit grungy and torn, some of the female equines appear to be wearing...what the hell is this?
"Operator I do believe that is what we call a Street Walker."
"What the hell is a Street Walker?"
"Umm...you don't know?"
"No, if I did know Ordis I wouldn't be asking you now would I?"
"Good point..."
"Well if you must really know, a Street Walker is a peddler of the flesh, they sell their bodies to those that have the money to pay for their price." Ordis says as I tear my gaze away from the equines in scandalous attire as I returned to my recon of the city, searching for my friend while at the same time mapping out the area.
Staring at those ponies I could feel a mixed feeling of sadness that they have to be doing such a job and confusion because if what I read on their cutie-marks is true, than shouldn't they be following their marks instead of this? Unless their marks says that they are destined to be these 'Street Walkers' than well...
With a bit of reluctance to leave these ponies to their own devices I went back to searching the capital, I knew it was a big city but to be forced to search high and low for them...it feels like I am on a snipe hunt all over again.
Anyways I kept moving around the quarter of the capital, moving in a search pattern to find my liaison and her friends and it was only four hours of moving around the rooftops and alleyways of the capital did I eventually find my party of six...seven, they were all sitting at what looks like a café of sorts. And they were all talking to each other, laughing and giggling about some topic they were involved in and as I began to advance towards them I spotted something that caught my eye.
Mysterious Stranger POV
'The Elements of Harmony, Princess Celestia's bearer's of her most powerful weapon in the world. Powerful enough to petrify the God of Chaos, Discord, strong enough to send the Magic Stealer, Tirek, to Tartarus for eternity, and they are wielded by six mares who know nothing of the outside world. Pathetic, they should be in the hands of those that know the world better, those who actually know what is happening out of sight from these sheltered fools.'
I snorted as I felt the air around me alter ever so slightly, the jubilance of the ponies sitting across from me was so thick that one can taste it in the air, tartarus one can practically feel it with how happy those six mares how!
Keeping my eyes on the six mares and the lonely dragon youngling I watched, waited and listened to everything that they were saying, almost all of it was useless to me but the few things they have said so far, it will earn me praise and a reward once I return to my mistress!
Smirking at what I will earn upon my return home I went back to watching the element holders and their slave of a drake but soon enough something caught my eyes.
A ever so slightly waver in the air, something was standing beside me, its presence would have gone unnoticed if I wasn't already making sure that nobody was paying me any attention.
This...invisible being is unsettling.
I could not tell what its intentions are nor could I get a feel of what it is doing.
It was just...standing there, unmoving, unflinching, it was like the royal guards up in the royal castle here but this thing , it unnerves me.
And as I stared at it, I could feel it cast its gaze upon me, it was staring not just at me, it was staring at my very being.
My body was trying to tell me to flee from this creature, to get as far away from it as physically possible, but my mind was telling me that no matter where I go or how hard I will try to hide, it will find me.
Swallowing the lump that was building in my throat dryly I kept my gaze on the distortion in the air and as I was about to say something to hopefully to get it to leave me alone, but I was stopped when a passing waiter came by my table and started to talk to me.
"Will that be everything ma'am, or is there something else that you would like?" The waiter said as he held onto his notepad, looking at me as if I had something to say to him.
Shaking my head I looked back at the distortion only to find that it was gone now, not even a trace of it was left behind.
'Was it really there? Or was my mind playing tricks on me?'
Looking back at the waiter I told him that I was good for the moment.
Casting my gaze back at the spot where the strange thing was located and shuddered, fear was coursing through my veins as I began to report to my handler about what just happened to me.
Viktor's POV
Standing on the roof of the café I was staring down at Twilight Sparkle and her crew of friends and family, the seven of them sitting at their table, eating their breakfast and snacks without a care in the world. Their country must truly be a utopia if they can do something like this without having to worry about anything hostile coming at them.
Returning my attention to the two ponies who were spying on them I saw that both of them were now both looking around, now looking for me.
I find it amusing that only these two were the only ones that were able to detect me out of all of the equines here. Out of the seventeen equines who were sitting outside, only two knew of my presence but those same two equines were unnerved by me and it made me wonder if they knew exactly what I was or if they worked undercover as a spy for Princess Celestia.
Whatever the case I must now be even more careful with my mission of meeting with my friends.
Slipping over the café roof's edge I landed beside Twilight and with as much grace that I can muster I gently tapped her on the shoulder to see what her response is.
The lavender liaison turned her head to see who or what tapped her shoulder and when she saw nothing she just shrugged and went back to talking to her friends, but when I tapped her shoulder a second time she quickly reached over to grab my hand and when she did I let her.
When her magical field grasped my hand I watched as the purple field surrounded my left hand and with it I watched her stunned expression turned into shock when she realized just exactly who it was that she was grabbing.
"Viktor? Is that you?" My liaison uttered out, too shocked to even speak up.
"Aye, it is." I said as the voice modulator in my warframe put a metallic hollow ring to my words as I stood beside her.
Everyone at the table jumped at the sound of me talking to them and when they all turned to look for the source of my voice I deactivated the front part of my helmet and when they saw the angular point of it, it made me smile.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack were staring at me slack-jawed and in awe, Rarity had a hand covering her mouth, Fluttershy passed out, Pinkie Pie was smiling and was bouncing in her seat and finally Spike was busy trying to comprehend what he just saw. In all I can say that is exactly what most people do when they see a warframe appear out of no where.
"Woah! How'd you do that!" Rainbow Dash shouted but before she could ask a second question she was silenced by Twilight by covering her mouth with a small field of lavender.
"I take it that you are capable of doing this feat of invisibility with the suit of armor you are wearing right now?" My liaison said as she looked at me, noticing the wavering air distortion she reached out to me and tapped at where my chest is located before pulling back, deep in thought.
"You are correct, but before we continue this conversation let us leave the premises and make to a much more isolated area...there are too many prying eyes and ears listening in on our conversation." I said as I made the front part of my helmet fade back into nothing, the ponies at the table were confused by what I said until I grabbed Twilight by the hand and whispered into her ear.
"There are two ponies here who have been watching you for an indefinite amount of time, they are keeping their eyes on you even as we speak. I do not know whose allegiance they have pledged themselves to but they are clearly keeping a tab on you and your friends. Let us away from this place and go somewhere else, I cannot guarantee that they already know that they will follow us but I do know that whatever you and your friends have been saying during my absence will have been recorded." I said as I moved back to the roof real fast to refresh my invisibility cloak before coming back down just in time for the lavender mare to think on what I said.
With my friend thinking on the fact that she and her friends and her little brother were being spied on by possibly foreign agents didn't really sit well with her. She was already looking around to try and locate the spies but I put a stop to it by grabbing her by the chin and forced her head to be looking forward.
"Don't try looking for them, they will know that they have been found out, let them continue to spy on you, I will intercept as soon as we get away from them. Go somewhere that has not so many ponies milling about and if they follow you there as well I will come between you and them." And possibly figure out what they have learned and hold it over their head.
After all if I can figure out who they are working for I can then go after their employer and bring them down to earn favor with the equestrian princesses. But if I can't find out who they are working for then I can still bring these two spies in for espionage against this kingdom.
Although I had some thought on whether or not I should interfere with this world's development and growth, I have made my decision to at least give these ponies a helping hand to better themselves, now if only I can find the opportune moment to do it.
Looking at where I was standing I watched the lavender mare give pause to what she was about to say before looking back to her friends and nodded at them before standing up, she opened up her shoulder bag and pulled out a small burlap sack and pulled out some coins and placed them on the table before leaving. Her friends copied her motions and left some as well, Rarity left a larger amount of coins on the table before leaving, my guess is that this is how they pay for their meals here in this world.
I just hope some bastard doesn't steal the coins, it would be a shame if my friends were arrested for not paying for their meal cause some jackass took their money before the owner of the establishment received proper payment.
Watching the girls and Spike leave the café they slowly make their way onto the sidewalk and down the street I kept my eyes on the two equines that were spying on them and with a hint of a smile on my face, watched the two stand up and follow them.
'Spies, so easily noticed when they think that nobody is watching them. I have been spying on my enemies for hundreds of years, I know how this game is done.'
Keeping my eyes on the two equines I noticed that the first one is a earth pony stallion wearing what looks like an expensive suit and tie, the colors of his clothes are irrelevant but what catches my eye from this one pony is that he is carrying a suitcase and that from my high angle that I got on him is that he is also carrying a concealed weapon, a dagger if the small sheath and handle are of any indication.
Turning my attention to the second spy I saw that it was a unicorn mare wearing what looks like a sleeveless dress, this one had no weapons on them, just a purse with a bag of coins and whatever else she can fit in there. This mare had a bright blue fur color with a head of long flowing three-colored blue mane, almost like her mane is moving water.
This unicorn in question was the one who spotted me, I am not sure if it is because of her ability to wield magic or if she was just lucky and spotted the distortion in the air when I arrived.
Whatever the case, this particular pony is the one I am keeping an eye on, the other one I am taking the occasional glance to make sure they are not doing anything stupid or threatening to my friends.
And so I began my own spying on the two spies who were spying on my friends.
'Now my little pony spies, let the spy games begin!'
Author's Note
Playing Monster Hunter World, C++ Programming from college and bits of blockage of writing
The purple horned horse woman grabbed my hand and proceeded with the handshake by lightly clenching down on my hand before moving our hands up and down.
I can tell that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
"Greetings young one, I am Viktor Rhino of the Tenno Order, it is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance and those of your friends." But to the horses all they heard was strange hisses and echoes.
Everyone that was in the hall way was quiet, none of them knew what to expect or what was going to happen next but in that moment of time, everything was clear for the future of both Tenno and alien horses.
Seeing how we both just said something I decided that now would be the time to start talking and what better way to discuss the future between Tenno and alien horses is with a nice chat...but how would one go about doing that when I don't have my dojo to return to and I doubt that these alien horses would want me to follow them somewhere.
As I was busy trying to think of ways for us to communicate the horned horse was thinking as well because she was tapping her muzzle with her left hand, making humming sounds all the while doing so.
I didn't have to wait long for her to look up at me all the while smiling before turning to her friends and shouted something and for a moment nothing happened until the five other alien horses started to walk closer to us before stopping short a few feet away from their friend, the purple iguana quickly jogged over to the purple horse before me and handed to her a bunch of what I presume to be blank paper along with an entire canister of ink and a quill.
It is a sad day when the species I am communicating with are still using feather and ink to write things down, how have they not invented the more advanced writing utensils like a pencil or a pen or even a data-pad?
When the iguana passed the blank paper and other accessories to the purple horse and when she turned to face me and I could only assume that she wanted to try communicating with me through writing.
'Huh...this might work if she can write in Orokin...highly doubt that but if it is close I might be able to work with it.'
Waiting for her to write something first I watched as her horn glowed an iridescent purple hue and strangely enough the quill that was in the iguana's hand floated into the air along with the container holding a black liquid as the quill's tip dipped into the jar and was soon replaced by the blank paper. The horned horse started to write something down and with great patience I watched as the quill wobbled back and forth before she set it aside in that strange purple aura as she passed the paper to me to read.
I really wish I could understand their written language but due to being a different species that could possibly be in either an alternative dimension or across the galaxy, I am just surprised that the planet is oxygen-rich and that if I were to leave my transference chamber I can leave the ship and breath the air without any need for a filtration system.
'So this is their written language...its a bit thick and bold, almost like the Grineer but it is more flowing and rounded out with some symmetric lines...it is almost like a mixture of the Orokin, Corpus and Grineer although I can't read any of this.'
Shrugging my shoulders at the sight of their written language I took the written on scroll, scroll and jar of what I assume is ink before attempting to write something down.
Now I know that writing something down is a key step for this procedure but sadly I have never written anything down before and I know for a fact that my handwriting will be terrible. In fact I know that all Tenno are lacking in varying parts in the education department due to us being trained to kill our enemies with our warframes...those that knew how to read or write were rare seeing how most of us were children with me and a few hundred others being an exception because we were older.
Thinking back to a time when I could write down a coherent sentence and using that as a source material to help me write in the language of my abusive adoptive family, I started to write down the flowing silhouettes, the elegant curves in the lines, the way how the consonants are the lines while the vowels are hovering slightly above said lines.
Only problem with my writing is that even I am having a bit of a hard time understand what I am writing. The ink keeps bleeding out and away from the letters I am writing and it is mixing the words I am forming into slightly bloated blotches.
Writing in ink sucks...wish I had something better to write with, or maybe a means of mental communication, see if that would make this any easier on the both of us.
While I was busy trying to write a simple sentence I turned my attention away from the paper for a second to cast my gaze at the seven aliens before me, or more importantly the iguana as I watched its cheeks puff out before he belched out a cloud of green fire just as the fire swirled around before imploding on itself and transformed itself into a tightly wrapped up scroll. Seems like the distress signal went off without a hitch and now it is a race against the clock as they have called for reinforcements and that they have received the message and are now on their way here.
I swear if those reinforcements are hostile towards me and that these alien horses are just baiting me into a trap to lower my guard and be captured...now that I think about it that isn't a bad idea at all. Just walk up to the stranded alien, offer it peace and when it doesn't notice anything, lure it to a secure location than spring the trap.
That actually sounds like a flawless idea, if it was with anything from this planet but if my warframe was ever captured I could make it go critical before exploding or operate another warframe to rescue the one that was captured, or just keep operating the captured suit and escape from wherever I have been captured and come back here.
Keeping my eyes on the iguana I saw it read the obvious letter and for a moment it looked happy to read the report but than its face morphed into what I can only think is worry or fear before passing on the letter to the purple horned alien horse in front of me. The female horned horse takes the letter from the iguana and says something, my guess it works as either its employee or as its slave, and seeing how it is clothed with what looks like proper attire I am leaning towards employee, the horse girl quickly reads the letter before she too wears a worried frown on her muzzle and I put it together.
She doesn't want the reinforcements of horse soldiers to scare me away or worse I react badly enough to attack them.
I am not some barbaric Grineer or backstabbing Corpus, I am an honorable Tenno god damn it!
Returning to what I was doing I resumed writing, giving the purple horse girl more samples to work with to study and examine, hopefully she will be the one to translate the words into her kinds written format as I do not have the tools nor the time to analyze their handwriting in order to translate their words to my own.
Writing down more and more curved and elegant words onto the piece of parchment I listened intently to what was being said, recorded everything so I could listen in what was said at the time as soon as I learn how to translate, speak and write their language.
As it turns out when two people who speak completely different languages when one sounds like nothing but horse whinnies, neighing and nickering while the other sounds like hissing and echoes.
We went at it like this for several minutes, the purple horned horse girl had her horn glowing its iridescent purple color as it held what looks like a gemstone of some kind in the air and when she grabbed it with both hands she held it out to me, expecting me to grab it with my hands as if it wasn't going to harm me in any possible way. Seeing how that this gemstone was not harming her in any physical way I decided that I might as well play nice and extending out my arm and opening my left hand and when she placed it in my hand it lost its glow and went dull. I don't know what this gemstone is for or why she gave it to me but sure enough it looks nice and I could only think that thing is a gift or a peace offering, whichever of the two will work for this particular situation.
Looking at the gemstone that now sits in my hand I rolled it over a bit, eyeing its shape and color for anything that might be out of place but as soon as I found nothing out of the ordinary I placed it within my gauntlet before dematerializing it, its atomic structure being broken down into until it vanished completely from view which left the seven aliens to stare at my hand in awe. It is almost like they never saw anything get de-atomized to the point of it disappearing from existence.
With the gemstone now in my storage pack I returned my attention to the aliens, their mouths all hanging open as they stared in awe, the iguana the most because its tongue was hanging out of its mouth, and was halfway down its chest. I wonder what use that kind of tongue would have seeing how it is so long and thin...if it could grab something while the owner is held down and act like a frog tongue than it just might have some actual use.
Seeing how the purple one gave me a gift I thought that I might as well return the favor seeing how she gave me a shiny rock.
Showing my hands to the aliens I tried to motion them to stay put as I went back to my ship I overheard the seven behind me start to talk, I guess they are discussing something about me, nothing bad I hope!
[Twilight's POV]
As soon as the mysterious alien was out of sight the girls and I immediately began to talk about our strange guest.
"I can't believe it! A real live alien! And I shook its hand too!" I shouted in glee as the girls came up to me just as the alien disappeared underneath its ship.
"Did you see how tall it is! I can't believe it is as tall as Princess Celestia!"
"And did you see how strong that fella is? He broke that column with nothin but a single swing of that hammer of his!"
"I can't believe that thing is actually an alien!
"I wonder if it likes parties?"
"Anypony wanna bet that it has a ray-gun that can freeze things? Or maybe it has death-ray like in those comic books that Time Turner gave me a few years ago!"
"Spike, those only appear in comic books, and besides I highly doubt that thing actually exists."
"That is what you said about there being alien life and look what just crash landed right in front of us?" Spike said back with a smirk, crossing his arms as he knew that he was right.
"Okay Spike you were right about that but not everything in those types of books are true! For all you know that death-ray could actually be a hypno-beam or some other malarkey."
"Wanna bet?"
"No thanks, I already lost a bet to you this week, I don't need to add another loss already." I said as I grumbled, I still couldn't believe that he was right about something as silly as there being alien life beyond our planet.
"I wonder what it looks like with its helmet off?"
But before we could speculate any further about the alien we heard something hit the floor with a thud before it let out a sound that we could all tell was that of annoyance before seeing the alien crawl out from underneath its ship.
[ME]
Hitting my head on the stone brick for a second time this day I let out an exasperated groan of annoyance all the while muttering on ways to blow up the floor just so I could stop bonking my head against it. Rolling out from underneath the ship I grumbled to myself while dusting myself off, the decontamination sequence wasn't bad to deal with but when Ordis told me that the scans I have made on the seven aliens were finished and are ready to be viewed but I decided that it could wait as soon as I have some alone time.
Once I was off the floor I walked back to the seven aliens, a gift for them in tow and for me only I had placed a scanner inside the gift so that wherever it goes it would be able to scan the surrounding area and relay it back to me so it could be processed and reviewed at my leisure and pace. And as for the gift I am giving them? A Kuria, a small gold toy that held a small inscription of a poem in Orokin, hopefully they don't immediately understand what is written on it because if they do then they will be able to enter my ship with ease through the emergency hatch.
Walking over to the seven aliens I stopped in front of the purple horned one before handing to her the Kuria.
The seven aliens looked at what was in my hands and when they saw it I watched their initial reactions, the purple horned one seemed intrigued with it and looked absolutely giddy, the white horned one seemed impressed but was busy looking at me, the yellow winged one was busy looking at my sentinel and trying to get close to it but the sentinel keeps moving a few feet away from her every time she gets close, the cyan winged one seemed to be contemplating something but was scowling at the moment, the pink one was making faces at the Kuria trying to match its stoic-as-fuck expression but failing epically and the orange one was staring at my body or I think the thick rippling cords of muscles on my warframe.
It will be a funny moment when they realize that this warframe is not like them and that they have been talking to a surrogate body the entire time.
The purple horned one slowly reached out with her hand and took the toy from me, her eyes was inspecting every single inch of the Kuria, trying to make heads or tails of what it is all the while I let out a chuckle that was barely concealed from the connection but I saw several ears flicker towards my direction. Seems like they have heightened hearing, I wonder what other senses of theirs is heightened or weakened due to being alien horses?
Going back to what I was doing I tried to keep writing but I was stopped when the orange alien horse walked up to me and grabbed my bicep, her hands tried to squeeze down on, trying to see how strong I am. Thinking that this orange girl wants to see how strong I am I decided that my as well show her.
Grabbing the orange one by the wrist in a delicate manner, I easily raised her off the floor several feet and for a moment the other six were looking at me, some were afraid that I might hurt their friend while one of them was glaring at me, trying to say that if I hurt her friend than I would have to deal with her.
Rolling my eyes internally at the cyan one's invisible threat I placed the orange one down and saw that her face was slightly tinted red and I have no idea why. Did I accidentally hurt her? Was it from being raised in the air too fast?
Before I could ponder any further I saw the purple iguana thing's cheeks bulge out before letting out a massive belch as green fire shot right out of its mouth along with what looks like a scroll made of some sort of material appeared mysteriously out from the flames. The iguana looked at the scroll and for a moment there was a smile on its face before it immediately broke down into what I can only think is mind-numbing fear.
How did an iguana breath fire, which was colored green which should be impossible to due fire either being red or blue unless altered by a chemical compound being thrown into the mix but this...this should be downright improbable. An iguana breathing fire and belching parchment, horses that are humanoid in shape, massive pillars weighing the same as a Bursa! What's next, a bloody army appearing out of no where?
But knowing my luck and seeing where I am at the moment a brilliant flash of light appeared out of nowhere, blinding me and the seven aliens in the fortress hall before fading as quickly as it came and when the neuroptics cleared up I stunned to see two fairly tall alien horses standing behind the purple horse along with a contingent of guards if the uniform armor and weapons was of any significance.
That is until a blinding white flash of light disorientated us all and when I my vision has returned to me I saw the source of the blinding light that has momentarily disabled my sight.
It was a platoon of horses, all of them wearing identical armor, standing tall and proud with their spears and shields in hand and leading the front of this platoon was two alien horses, one as white as snow and the other dark as the night itself and the pair has both a horn and a set of wings and both of them were staring at me with wide eyes. The platoon on the other hand looked stoic, stone-faced, as if they have seen this a thousand times before.
The three of us stared at one another, the two horned winged aliens staring at me with what looks like mixed emotions while I stared at the two in amazement that there are more variations of the aliens than the three I have encountered so far.
Focusing on the two large alien horses I saw that both of them were easily similar to my height as I could easily look them in the eye if we were up close and personal but seeing how we are several meters away from me and that if the scowls that were directed me are of any indication, I have done something to anger them. One of the horned winged was a vibrant white color, obviously female, her hair was rainbow in color along with her tail while the other horned winged horse was a dark blue with what looks like a strange deep purple hair that seemed like it was sparkling in the moonlight.
Was it because I crashed into this abandoned fortress?
Or was it because I scared a group of their horses when they were spying on me?
Either of the two doesn't matter, what matters right now is that I have what looks like two high ranking alien horses standing before me, six civilian alien horses, an alien fire breathing iguana, and a contingent of alien horse guards.
There is no possible way I can fuck this up.
I stood there staring at the pair of horned and winged alien horses, the armor the taller pair was wearing sort of reminds of the old stories I can now only barely call upon, stories of knights in shining armor, but instead of them being human they these...creatures and instead of slaying dragons they are staring at me as if I am the dragon. I could be if I were to swap out to my Chroma warframe but I doubt that even counts as a dragon.
As we all stared at one another the first one to make the first move was the purple horned one, she grabbed me by the right hand and tried to drag me over to the pair of horned winged alien horses. Now normally I would object to being dragged around in a rough physical manner that ends with a ton of people dying in horrible, agonizing ways but today is not one of those days and that I am dealing with aliens that I still don't know what they are fully capable of doing.
I just have to hope that they are nothing like the Sentients, and if they are than I am up shit creek without a paddle.
Accepting the purple one's constant tugging I took a few steps toward the dynamic duo before stopping right before them and now that I am standing directly in front of them I can start to pick out more details based on their physical appearance.
Starting off with the white one I can see that looking at her (made obvious by the two large protrusions on her chest) that she is my equal in height if it wasn't for that spiral horn attached to her head, the horn itself gave her an extra foot and a half of extra height, her wings on her back can easily give her an intimidation factor if they were to spread open all the way but I am not so easily scared. Her body is muscled as I can see from here that she must have been either working out for a good long while or that it is just natural for her species.
Moving my gaze onto the darker colored one I saw that she was almost like the other one but shorter, her horn was roughly a foot long in length, her muscle tone wasn't as pronounced as the other one, wings were smaller. I can almost think that these two are sisters seeing how they look like mirror opposites of each other.
While the white one is staring at me with a bit of a softer stare that doesn't scream 'I hate Tenno's!' it is the dark blue one that is glaring at me the hardest, almost like she feels threatened by my mere presence and doesn't like me being here. Girl if I had a choice in the matter I would be on Sedna right now bitch slapping Kela De Thaym with her own arm before shoving my axe into her face before removing her head and throwing it at her crowd of Grineer supporters.
Without any further delay between us all I extended my hand out towards the two horned winged aliens and for a moment all was silent before I spoke up.
"Greetings, my name is Viktor Rhino of the Tenno Order and it is a pleasure to meet the two of you." I said all the while with my right hand extended outward.
Here is hoping they don't try to attack me, I know that from their weapons that it wouldn't affect me much but my sentinel might take this the wrong way and attack one of them.
[Twilight's POV]
'This is it! The pivotal moment is here! The alien meeting both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna! The first alien encounter for this world and it is a peaceful meeting! Oh I can't wait to tell my parents about this!'
Staring at the alien as he stood there with its arm extended outward I turned to look at both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the two were thinking on how to approach this but when the alien put out its hand to be shaken by them they realized that this alien came in peace and is willing to meet with them.
Hearing the alien speak again sends chills down my spine, I don't know why but just hearing its voice makes me feel afraid for my life, like its otherworldly presence is a harbinger of things to come from beyond our world.
When it finished speaking I watched as Princess Celestia cleared her throat before straightening herself out and grabbed its hand and spoke as well.
"Greetings, I am Princess Celestia, Co-Ruler of Equestria and the Ruler of the Day." Princess Celestia said as she gave a heart-warming smile as she shook the alien's hand.
Watching the princess shake its hand made both myself and several of the royal guards that teleported in here with the princess hold their breath, none of them probably believed in aliens and seeing one here right before them shaking their princess's hand, this is something that will be told and spread around for years to come. And to top it off Equestria will be the talk around the world for being the first nation to encounter alien life!
As soon as Princess Celestia let go of its hand and took a step back for her sister to take her turn, the alien nodded at her before uttering something, my guess something nice.
The alien shifted in place as it extended its hand to Princess Luna and for a moment she scowled at the alien, for some reason she seems mad at it and the only reason why for it is maybe that the alien damaged her old home when it crashed. I am absolutely positive that it is sorry for destroying a part of the castle!
When Princess Luna refused to shake the aliens hand I watched Celestia nudge her sister in the ribs before mouthing to her to shake its hand, it is rude to ignore the alien's request and also might upset or even anger it. I rather not see it vaporize anypony because Luna was in a foul mood.
Letting out a sigh Luna slowly went forward and grabbed the alien's hand and shook it before releasing it, she must be in one of her foul moods again. Ever since she was purified by the elements of harmony she has been grumpy and grouchy in one moment and in the next moment she is sad and depressed, her time as Nightmare Moon is still effecting her and even though Celestia has sent her to some counseling to help her through this rough patch in her life it for the most part isn't working.
Once that was done I watched as Celestia waved the alien over as she walked towards the contingent of guards and for a moment I thought that she wanted to introduce it to the leader of the platoon but she called on one of them and told the guard to go tell the chariot drivers that are outside to get ready for we are about to leave and return to Canterlot as soon as they arrive.
"Twilight."
"Yes Princess Celestia?"
"When we get to Canterlot can you please guide our friend here to one of the guest rooms. I am sure after everything it went through I am more than positive that it needs to rest."
"Of course princess!"
"Sister, are you sure it is wise to leave this thing unattended? For all we know it might just be playing the peaceful card and might attack us when all of us let our guard down!"
"Do not worry Luna, I will be posting a few guards at its door and to follow it wherever it goes until we can figure out a way to communicate with it and also find out what its intentions are."
"I still think that we shouldn't leave it unattended for too long...maybe have the elements watch over it? Even during the time it takes for it to speak our language?"
"Of course, now we must be off. I just hope the alien doesn't get air sick."
"Oh please sister, if it can fly inside that strange ship than I am more than positive that it won't get sick from a little bit of air time."
"And if it does get sick than you are cleaning up the mess."
"Ha! Like that will ever happen."
[ME]
Turns out that these alien horses are technologically inferior, when I saw their clothes I just thought that they were just civilians and when the alien horse soldiers came with their metal armor, swords and spears I thought they were going a little far back with the zero-tech suits but when I left the fortress with them around me I saw that they had chariots, those things are ancient compared to me.
I am dealing with aliens that are so behind in terms of technology and sophistication that I am now genuinely afraid to reveal anything to them or else it might disrupt their own advancements and cause a ripple in their society.
When they motioned for me to step on the chariot I momentarily had the fear that I couldn't stand on it with my current weight. I would just snap through the bottom before we would even move an inch forward.
I don't want to be rude so I did as they instructed and for a moment the fear I was thinking of would come true but for some reason it managed to support my heavy load, it only showed by the chariot chassis when it sunk close to the ground as soon as I stepped onto it before it went back up. Seems like they have mastered the means to support a heavy weight with simple constructive methods.
With me now on board I watched the other alien horses get on chariots of their own and as soon as they all got on I expected us to go down the broken cobblestone road to wherever we are supposed to go but what they did next made me start to question what is and isn't possible in the world.
Apparently these alien horses have discovered the means of mechanical flight, but is a hybrid system of sorts.
Somehow the alien horses with wings hooked themselves up to the chariot and with some flaps of their wings and some grunts of exertions I watched as they slowly started to move forward before finally taking off into the air. I don't know why or how this is possible because the sheer amount of weight that needs to be displaced along with the strength required to pull a heavy chariot of wood and metal along with it carrying three to four alien horses or just myself is simply astounding.
With us in the air now I can see that I have crashed in the middle of an unruly forest and that the fortress I crashed into is in an even more state of disrepair as I watched a tower that was on the verge of falling over finally give in and collapsed in on itself.
I don't know but as we all flew through the air I couldn't but wonder what happen if I were to just take a step back and fall off this chariot, would the guards try to catch me or would they just let me drop...I rather not find out. If I take that leap of faith and they try to catch me but fail to get a firm grip on me than I fear that their arms might dislocate or get ripped off but if they just let me drop they might get their ass chewed out by their boss.
What is the lesser of two evils here?
Eh screw it, I am going to stay in this chariot, I rather not jump...if I jump I might accidentally screw this pilot over with both the sudden weight lost in the back and also he might go tumbling from the broken equilibrium. Might as well just stand back, relax and let these aliens do their job as a chauffer and carry me to wherever the hell we are going.
2 Hours Later
Oh my god, that was the longest flight to a destination I have ever been on and my god usually it just takes ten to twenty minutes at the Orbiter's slowest! But this! Jesus this was slow as all hell!
But anyways while we were flying I saw many strange sights. First was a small archaic village that sat on the outskirt of the forest we were coming from and what looks like a city sitting on the clouds as it rested itself above the idyllic village. A city made of clouds seems like something that only those that are on mushroom juice would think of, but what really got my eye was how someone thought it was a good idea to construct, bolt and place a city and a castle to the side of a fucking mountain.
You are not Corpus or Grineer! Stop this! Stop trying to copy their style! That is a horrible because if someone was an asshole they would just blow up the area where the metal meets the rock and it would send the entire city tumbling down the mountain side. All lives in that city will be lost if it were to take a little tumble off the mountain.
Why would they even construct such a thing on the side of the mountain? That just sounds like a very bad idea to begin with.
Shrugging at the thought I just stood back and watched the landscape around us slowly move, I may have the patience of a mountain but to just stand here, doing nothing, and to only be able to look at everything around myself is boring, I would rather be reading a codex entry than to be standing and waiting.
Tenno are beings of action and movement, not to be stationary and inaction.
It was during this insufferable waiting that I got a companion on this ride to wherever we are going, it was the cyan winged alien horse and I saw that she was flying beside the chariot. Why should fly next to me I do not know, but I watched as her wings flapped every once in a while which was different from how often a bird flaps its wings, I guess larger the wings means less amount of flaps needed to take flight and maintain altitude.
The cyan horse gave me a smirking smile as she flew beside me before going around the chariot, guess she is trying to show off how good of a flyer she is, she will never be good as me. Archwing is much more fun than a pair of wings, I can take it on and off at any time while a pair of wing is stuck to you for life.
When the cyan girl flew around me I paid her no mind, she was just flying near me to make sure I don't do anything stupid, I know a sentry when I see one, this girl is just not even trying to hide it. Why not just slap a piece of paper that says 'I am spying on you!' while they are at it.
During the flight I thought I saw something on the horizon but I just passed it off as nothing, but when that nothing became something when I saw what looked like a strange aura that was around the moon, a faint bluish purple aura surrounded the moon and I watched it lower itself beyond the horizon and just as it went down I saw sunlight rise from the opposite direction and that was when I saw a golden aura surrounding the sun.
What kind of person has the power to move the sun and moon? Not even the Orokin can move the sun in the solar system, I know that the Lotus had the power to move the moon into the void but that was with the assistance of ancient Orokin technology.
While I was staring at the phenomena that is the sun and moon being moved I heard someone giggling and when I turned my head to see who it was I saw that it was the purple horned girl along with her pink friend. It would seem that they knew that this would happen and they were expecting my reaction.
Well I am in awe, in awe that someone is powerful enough to move the sun itself.
Not long after the sun was thrown into the sky we eventually arrived at the city on the mountainside or more importantly, the castle that is built next to the city. We landed on a landing strip where there was several more chariots parked beside it, a few were peeking out of what looks like a garage of sorts, the guards got off first before going to what I can only assume is their assigned VIP and when I took my step off the chariot it actually buckled from the weight.
That chariot went through hell to support me and to that it I watched it get dragged off the strip and into the garage, probably for repairs or a refit.
I didn't wait long as six guards surrounded me as one in a strange purple and white armor walked up to me before saying something, my guess is he is the one in charge of the horse guards here as he turned around and started to walk into the castle, the guards around me took a step towards it before stopping, seems like I have to follow them.
If they are trying to lead me into a prison cell than they better be prepared for disappointment because I won't let myself get captured that easily.
Turns out the castle they were escorting me through was decorated and designed in such a way as to awe anyone who would arrive to meet the ones who owns this castle. I saw portraits of more alien horses, several of them were in a sitting pose and looking straight at the painter, but the most numerous of the paintings was of the alabaster white and dark blue winged horned women. Those two seemed to be prevalent here, must be very important people if they are in every single hallway, must be the daughters of a king or something.
This only got better when we walked by a white horned horse man with blonde hair, he was wearing what looks like a well-crafted suit and as we walked by each other he nodded at me with a smile on his face and kept on walking but as we turned the corner I heard his footsteps stop abruptly, my guess is he thought I was someone important and acknowledged me only to realize I wasn't an alien horse.
We kept on walking until we stopped in front of a door and for a moment I thought we were waiting for another horse person but that was when the lead guard turned around and opened the door for me before motioning for me to step inside. If this is a dungeon cell than it looks like it is one that has the benefits of comfortable living all the while being in a cage.
A gilded cage, just like the ones the Orokin have placed us all in...
No. This is different. They are not the Orokin...they will not experiment on me and the others...they will not force us to fight for them...they will not kill our mother...
I broke out from my cloud of anger and when I turned my head to look around me I saw that I was standing inside the room and that I was alone in the center of the room.
'I let my anger get the better of me...I can't let that happen again. Who knows how many innocent people might get hurt if I let myself get mad so easily.'
With there being no one but myself in the room I decided that now was the time to let these aliens think that I am asleep and to not bother me so I can retire for the early morning and rest. Setting my warframe to standby I went to the bed and gave it a once over before laying down on it and disconnected from the transference line before waking up in my pod.
'This is going to be a long stay on this planet...I hope this doesn't take too long to repair the engines.'
[Shining Armor's POV]
I was standing outside of the alien's room when it stopped in the center and was looking at the bed for a good long while, I don't know if it likes it or not but as far as I am concerned I have to keep an eye on this thing. If what Spike wrote is true about this thing than it is easily stronger than an earth pony by several leagues, maybe even it is as stronger or even stronger than Princess Celestia herself.
When it stood in the center of the room for ten minutes I decided that it should have some privacy I closed the door behind it before placing a ward on it to alert any nearby guards that the alien has left the room.
I must report back to Princess Celestia on my thoughts about our guest.
I can only hope that this alien comes in peace, I would hate to have to put it down if it becomes a threat.
Author's Note
ENJOY!
