Gift From The Stars

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Chapter 1

“Dear Princess Celestia…” a voice spoke through speakers. They had been playing the audio of a particular cartoon show for the last twenty minutes, all while a glowing monitor displayed the visuals of the show. It played on a tiny window in the middle of the screen, surrounded by other shows playing at the same time. An action film here, an animation there, and even a suspenseful horror. However as their visuals played in their respective windows, only the show in the middle’s audio was unmuted. It held the attention of the one watching it in full. So captivated he was by it, he sat leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his head resting on his hands. His eyes were wide as they could be while he stared at the screen, listening intently as the audio continued to play from the speakers.

“I am happy to report that I now realize there are wonderful things in this world you just can't explain, but that doesn't necessarily make them any less true. It just means-

“You have to choose to believe in them,” he said, repeating the words at the same time with the purple character speaking on screen.

“And sometimes it takes a friend to show you the way,” she finished.

“A friend… to show you the way…” he repeated forlornly..

“Honk!” a new voice shouted.

He chuckled lightly at the antics the pink character performed, always finding humor in her behaviors. She was just so spontaneous and carefree; she looked like she appreciated the many things in life others were completely unaware of. Lately, he had often felt the same when near others.

“Always, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

His blissful grin remained his face, even growing wider in anticipation of the upcoming scene. He watched the two characters that had spoke depart from the flora dwelling the purple one lived in. The camera panned up to the top of the Genus Quercus, stopping as a scaly creature opened a window and prepared to let out a flame. Before he could however, the sound of a falling object so often used in animation was heard, follow the crash of the projectile who was none other than Princess Celestia. Watching her fall out of the sky in front of Spike the first time had him replaying the scene many times over. It was just too comical for him to resist letting out a laugh.

“…Twitchy tail…” the little dragon spoke.

Moments later after she had grabbed the letter and flown off, the end credits began to play with the theme song blaring. The watcher on the other hand, still sat with a happy grin on his face as he watched the text roll by, thinking over the lesson Twilight Sparkle had said at the end of the episode. His pale grey eyelids blinked once over his large pitch black eyes as he stared thoughtfully into the screen, as if he was seeing something far away and behind the vibrant display.

“There are wonderful things in this world… and even if we can explain them, that doesn’t make them any less true or meaningful,” he said to himself. Taking a deep breath, he let out a sigh and continued to stare absently into the monitor, the other shows still playing in their own tiny windows with muted audio.

“If only we had good friends to show all of us the way…”

He sat in thought for a minute before a new window popped up onto his display in flashing colors. Lifting his head instantly he reached out his hand out and pushed it through the display, his hand passing through it like air. Flicking his fingers in a specific way, the screen flashed once as its holographic surface shimmered from his command and revealed the notification that had popped up in a new window.

“Xob, we are already at the Nourishment Center, where are you?”

“FLEEBARB!” Xob shouted. Swishing his hand over the floating display, it powered down and disappeared from sight. But by the time it had finished vanishing he was halfway across his work space in a full sprint, his thin grey feet smacking against the smooth metallic floor. Before he reached the end of the large room he slowed down and took a moment to calm himself. After steadying his pulse somewhat, he walked forward towards the wall. Faint lines that had decorated it shimmered for a moment before a large section began to shift, and slide upwards to allow him to pass through.

As the door slide open, a sudden bright light filled his vision. He had not realized how dark it was in his quarters, his eyes squinting slightly at the sight of the blazing sun shining out in the distance through the window corridor his room was adjacent to. The windows did plenty of work of reducing the brightness and radiation it emitted, but seeing the bright little speck directly still made him want to cover his eyes with a hand. As pretty as the spherical hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields was, he always held a slight irritation whenever the station had his room facing towards it during rotation.

With the door to his room returning into a wall again, he set off down the window panned corridor as a quick pace. The walkway curved along with the shape of the deck he lived on, eventually leading him away from the sun and revealing more distant plasma spheres that were more commonly called stars into view. Their multiple specks of light shining throughout space with a pleasant ambiance to the corridor.

Along the way he passed by beings like him on their own agendas and destinations, each sharing the same features his species had. As impossible and ironic as it was —and one of the supporting reasons to study them— Humans somehow had already imagined what his species looked like, something that was held in great debate even to this day on how such a thing happened. To a Human, he looked to be the iconic alien creature Humans called, “Little Grey Men from Space.” It was true they wore no clothes, being one of the few dozen recorded species to do so. Their bodies were thin, their heads were large, they had three fingers and a thumb, and their eyes were large and pure black. Really it was a statistical improbability that was still being calculated on the odds of how Humans had guessed their forms; specialists were still crunching the numbers on the likelihood of it while others like him, have spent time trying to understand how they imagine his species. Despite what some Humans had thought of regarding a location called Roswell, no Eridin had ever been revealed to the Human race. The only thing they had gotten wrong however, was their height; they were actually as tall as the average Human.

As he walked by others of his kind by, he subtly practice what he had been doing over the planet Earth for the last few Human decades. Observe.

He silently took notice each of his ship coworkers on that lived on the large station as they walked by him, attempting to discern their thoughts and moods. Each of them was either busy reading a portable holopad, or staring straight ahead without regard to the ones around them. They of course could be observing just as he was, the pure blackness of his eyes his species had made it impossible to tell where exactly one might be looking. But he doubted any of them paid attention to him as he did to them, the rest of his coworkers just didn’t seem bothered with the things he found fascinating. Except for the few Eridin he was on his way to meet to share nutritional supplement cubes with.

Still, he took mental note that none of them showed any sign of interest or emotions. It was as if they were single focused machines dedicated on completed whatever task was next. Xob of course knew that most of the time Eridin did not express themselves visually on their inner thoughts and beliefs on things, instead relying a skillful verbal approach for anything. It was normal for an Eridin to act like that, and after his studies on other species he still found it the preferred way to interact with each other. But even so, lately he had developed a small nagging feeling that something was missing in his species…

In a few minutes he he found the closet transmittal pod and quickly stepped onto it, standing in the middle of the tube like transportation. Moments later a shimmering energy sparked across its front, creating an invisible wall that even if Xob tried to pass through, would be unable to. Once it was finished, it pulled away and sank into a gel like substance, then quickly sped off into the bowels of the ship.

Waiting potentially as it moved him throughout the vast ship, he watched the various scenes that passed in front of him. At times he would see only the innards of the vessel, only to at times suddenly give way to vast open spaces that were inside the ship. The scenery was too short lived for him however, as he arrived at his destination within minutes. Stepping off the platform, he looked about open space he now found himself in. Around him were small tables holding some Eridin here and there, and the ones above him seemed to have just as little. Looking up to the far away clear ceiling that revealed the vastness of outer space multiple stories above him, he tried to spot the ones he was looking for from beneath the clear floor tiles that hung motionless in the air; each of them at the end of a row of floating steps that also remained motionless.

Taking some moments to look at each one, the movement of an arm wave caught his attention. To the far right and far above him, one of the Eridin was looking for was staring down towards him through the floor tile, applying the greeting of a small wave as Humans do. Flashing a smile and a half raised hand to acknowledge the gesture, he began to make his way up to the table space from the nearest set of stairs, moving without worry as floating steps changed from their positions to the nearest row in his direction.

After a minute of shifting staircases and steady climbing, Xob reached the floating table space and sat to join his four close co workers; they were stationed on this ship to study varying aspects of Mankind just like Xob. He had grown close to them during their time spent in their studies, often leaving him thankful he managed to form a close relationship with them. It wasn’t often an Eridin could personally feel so close to this many at a time. “Hello everyone.”

“Hello Xob,” they replied in kind one after another, each in a different language from Earth. They were a part of the few Eridin that had adopted the traditional ‘Hello’ that was so accustomed with most Human cultures. Each one had chosen the one they liked the most from each culture, often speaking primarily in that cultures language during their discussions of Humans. Sometimes they even made it a game during their talks, by switching every other word with one from another language while trying to remaining as grammatically correct as possible. For some languages it was impossible due to their sentence structures and phrasing that was unique to that language, but they would still share soft laughs at each other’s expense when they would attempt anyways. The really dedicated ones would even try a hand at speaking some of the dead languages recorded on Earth, their pronunciation often left to personal interpretation.

“We have waited twenty-five and eighty-two telirian for you, what took you so long?” Glxur asked.

“I apologize; I was re-watching one of the early episodes from MLP,” Xob replied.

They nodded their heads at the abbreviated mention of the show, already aware of his personal interest in it. “You are quite fascinated by that program,” Ixena commented, her slight feminine voice over emphasizing the word fascinated as she spoke in Spanish, her favorite Human language by far.

“I, as Humans say, cannot help myself,” Xob replied with a shrug of his shoulders, one of his new favorite actions lately. “I believe it holds something that Eridin do not have or think highly of, like in the episode I just watched. Just because we don’t understand something, does not make it any less true. You just have to choose to believe in them,” he said, tempted to quote the entire passage entirely. “It is clear that we do understand things, but I think we reduce their value once we know all there is to know about it. I am thankful Humans are so interesting that we have not yet understood everything about them or we may have already moved on, missing the important things we could learn from them.”

They all mumbled in agreement to his last statement. Jixhiag swiped a hand across the table afterward, ordering the nutritional supplements to be delivered to their table. A few seconds later, a small android hovered to their position and sat down a plate of multi colored cubes an inch in size. After a few of them quietly gave thanks for the meal as accustomed to their favorite culture, they began to pick the cubes up one by one and pop them into their mouths.

“Even so, I still find it hard to believe the difficulty we have had in comprehending such species with even their level of imagination,” Ixena said.

“I know,” Xob replied quickly. “They have not even left their solar system, and already they have imagined so many worlds. Many of them improbable of course, but they still create them in their minds! They do not wait for new evidence to present itself to consider something apart of reality. Even the notion of thinking of something before ever discovering it in itself is fascinating!”

Naxf, the remaining one in the group decided to jump in the conversation. “I agree. Even during my studies on the Heeglor, a species that are also known to have quite the imagination, do not compare to Humans at all.”

“Exactly,” Xob continued excitingly. “There is so much to learn and understand from them. How their cerebrum even developed the ability is a very interesting topic that is proving vast!”

Glxur chimed in with his voice, starting softly in Japanese and in impressive display of verbal acrobats, ending in Danish. “I do not think we realized just how much we were getting ourselves into when we began our observation of Humans. Every Grandirlag, more experts come to our outpost in further attempts to discern Humans, and yet we seem to dig ourselves deeper in their mysteries. Even they don’t understand themselves clearly!”

Ixena jumped in before anyone else could comment. “It’s amazing isn’t it? It reminds me of one of my favorite Earth stories. I often find myself pondering; how far down the rabbit hole will we go?”

Naxf laughed lightly, “Careful with your fascinations, you know there have been talks of concerns of Eridin becoming too obsessed with Humans. I dare say our group might even already be, how did they say again? Under the microscope? Haha microscope... such a primitive tool.” Naxf often laughed aloud when he found a phrase that was appropriate but somehow held humorous applications to him. The rest of them did not always understand what would draw out a laugh from him.

Xob narrowed his brow ridges at the comment. “To obsessed? Can no one see how much potential Humans have? And the potential they can give us? They already sit at a scale of eight point nine on the rate of species advancement charts. Their planet is apart of the few dozen planets who inhabitants produce adrenaline naturally! That alone is reason enough for long term study. And as I keep reminding everyone, they haven’t even left their solar system!”

“Exactly,” Jixhiag said. “It is because of that and their current world politics that propositions of termination have been proposed.” Xob's eyes widen at the statement, and Ixena gasped softly bringing a hand up to her mouth, a habit she unconsciously adopted.

Termination!?” Xob said a little louder than he intended. Glancing around, there was thankfully no one else near adjacent tables, above or below. Leaning forward he hissed under his breath, “Where did you hear this?”

Jixhiag tilted his head slightly, the manner in which Eridin either expressed concern or curiosity. “It was during one of our genetic analyzes, one of the Prime Supervisors were talking about it.”

Xob was becoming more visually agitated, “How can they even consider it? Yes, Humans are still settling their differences, but it’s not like they have the warlike obsession of other species. Yet, we still do not even consider Termination with them!”

“But there are no species like Humans,” Glxur said. Xob turned to him, unsure if he should verbally attack him for even giving some reason for such a notion. “The potential for Humans is so great in either direction, that they are the very first species we have encountered that even warrant a serious discussion of Termination. Should concerns show true, they will be the first species we will have wiped out…” Glxur lowered his head at the thought, showing the idea bothered him just as much as well.

Xob tightened a fist as he started angrily in Russian, “How dare they think that Humans deserve Termination! Why, they have also been one of the kindest species we have met as well. We have documented evidence of endless acts of selflessness and care towards others. And they hold a love for understanding the universe! In fact, their cultural diversity alone is reason enough to let them-“

“Xob!” Ixena whispered in interruption.

He snapped his head to her as to why she interrupted, and then soften his features as he realized he had gone on a rant that had grown in volume. His behavior was considerably emotional and worrying for an Eridin. Ixena continued as she placed her hand on his, a gesture he was very fond of since she begun it. “You mustn’t forget to think logically. This problem will not be solved by spouting only the positive traits of a species. We cannot ignore potential threats.”

Xob opened his mouth to respond, but slumped back in his seat as he thought over his next words, almost blurting out the first thoughts that came to mind without given them the usual third or fifth once over. “You… are right. I am sorry.” The rest of the group leaned in closer to hear him. “These Humans… their ideals have struck very close to me. So much that I find myself wondering what it would be like to live as they do, to experience the range of emotions they frequently display. I know we have moved past it long ago, after all, why would one want to deny themselves the truth of the universe by succumbing to the chemical responses in their cerebrums built over eons of evolution and survival. When a species has moved passed the natural cycle and chain of nature, there is little use for them anymore.” They all watched him as he spouted the information each Eridin has practically memorized since birth, an ideal that permeated their entire race.

“But even so…” he said lifting his head to look at each of them. ”When I look at these humans, I cannot help but think we are missing something important. Even with all our vast growing knowledge, I find myself now believing we are lacking something…”

The rest of them slowly began to nod their heads in agreement. Though they have not verbally announced similar words, they had all began to feel the same effect the Humans had on Xob. It was something they noticed beginning to appear in each other’s behaviors the longer they observed the Humans. They had not shared their actions or beliefs with others, unsure of how other Eridin would react. For all they knew, they were the only ones on the whole station that felt this way.

Unable to decide what to say next to cheer up the depressing mood that had set, they spent the rest of the time eating the Nutritional supplements in silence, each lost in their own thoughts on the matter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xob had slowly made his way back to his room, passing through the appearing doorway that returned to once again a wall. Standing at the entrance of his room, he idly passed his gaze over everything inside. Around him was all his equipment he had used frequently during his studies. Signal receivers, biogenetic processors, holographic simulators, and a hollow floating oval filled with gel that had been his bed since his arrival on the station. Sighing, he moved across the room and back to the main terminal he had sat at before leaving.

Standing in front of it, he flicked his hand in a few complicated movements and brought the screen back to life in addition with a few more holographic modules floating nearby. On the screen, the various shows he had left during his studying still played silently, even My Little Pony was still on, already a few episodes past the one he had watched earlier. Looking onto the scene, he watched the Mane 6 going about an adventure, all of them smiling happily as they shared laughs and pains with each other. The sight of them sparked further thoughts in his mind.

He mulled over that even if Eridin were supposed to be mostly logical thinkers instead of feelers —a trait that only a surprisingly few species did not share with the rest of the universe such as Humans— he could not help but feel a longing for the type of things they shared with each other. The very concept humans portrayed into stories, wonders of dreams and imaginations instead of simple facts or pure history, seemed so appealing to Xob. He wished he could somehow experience them himself, the drive of wonder and imagination many stories expressed. He was Eridin after all, uncovering secrets and learning about things had been one of the driving forces for his species ever since they had first made their way into space. He needed to figure it out to increase his and the rest of his species understanding of the universe. But he also felt the need to experience it. To even if for a short time, truly live with the ideals he had grown to be attached to both in mind and ‘heart’ as Humans say.

“If only you were real, then I to could study the ideals of the ‘Magic of Friendship” first hand. Maybe I could even figure out its structure and spread it to the rest of my kind, bringing the joy I see within it to everyone else.” Xob stretched out a hand to the screen, pausing just short of touching it. The screen flashed a bit of one of the ponies before turning into credits signifying the end of the episode.

Sighing as he sat down into his terminal chair, Xob idly reached out towards a nearby holographic control module and began to play with it. He stared into its glowing form as he reconstructed it into the shape of a stick figure. Abducting Humans was strictly forbidden, and could be severely punishable. Communication alone required a long list of approvals, and one could never reveal the fact they were Eridin. Xob thankfully was able to reserve some rights to connect to the World Wide Web, sometimes chatting on forums or talking to other Humans online to learn from them. The anonymity of the Internet made it possible. But it wasn’t enough for him to feel like he was truly understanding them. He believed he needed face to face interaction with one to really have a chance at understanding their emotions. He need to experience it first hand in the moment, not read about it on text or video communication.

Even if one somehow manage to sneak a Human on board, the internal sensors would detect them immediately and report directly to the control center aboard. But how else am I going to study such ideals first hand such as the ones from the show? If I can’t figure out how it all works, how will I be able to share it with everyone else? How will I show that we are indeed missing something...

Xob’s hand moved around the stick figure and set about dismantling it in silent frustration. As its pieces spun slowly in the air, he moved his hand across it again, and began rearranging it into something that resembled a pony. Staring at the glowing figure he formed as his mind racked different possibilities on what to do, he paused to regard the completion of its form. It was a simple stick figure pony similar to the ones the show used in their mosaic glass pieces. It’s eyes were blank orbs staring lifelessly ahead. With a sigh he flicked a finger and spun the pony in circles, its form a dizzy blur as it twirled around in its unmoving position in space. Eventually it began to slow down, its features now definable from its previous blur like appearance. Slowly it turned before coming to a standstill, facing directly at him. The small circles for eyes stared him emptily as if searching for something, and Xob returned it with a questioning glance.

Then, an idea struck him. Fluttering his eyelids at the dawning realization, he leaned forward and looked closely at the stick pony, taking a much deeper consideration of its shape. A grin slowly began to spread across his face as he cupped his hands beneath the pony as if to hold it. “If I can’t obtain something that holds the ideals I want to study…” Lifting his hands, he brought the tiny hologram away from its floating position and up to his eye level while sitting back in his chair, admiring its form with a twinkle in his eye.

“I’ll make one.”

Chapter 2

“You can’t be serious,” Naxf exclaimed in disbelief.

“Xob, do you know how many violations you would cause?” Glxur added. Indeed, each Eridin around the supplement table was staring at Xob, unable to comprehend what their friend had just suggested to them.

When he had called them together for an emergency meeting, they thought he perhaps had come up with a plan to counteract the forming proposals for the termination of Humans. Each of them had their own reasons for their recently formed attachments to the species, and they unanimously agreed that extinction would be an enormously counterproductive act to the Eridin agenda, and destroy countless things they could learn from Humans. However, when they had gathered at his request, his actually plan proved to be far more illogical than going against the Council.

“You do realize what you’re a suggesting, correct?” Ixena said, still coming to grasps with the proposed project.

“Of course,” Xob replied, flashing each of them a smile in reassurance. “All of us here have learned so many things from Humans. And we have all agreed that there is so much more to learn. Humans have this… way about them that has captivated us to some level.” Xob’s smile only grew at the nodding heads in agreeance with his statement from his friends. “The problem however, is that not every Eridin has seen their potential like we have.”

“And you believe this would help them see?” Naxf asked in skepticism.

“After my studies, yes,” Xob answered with a raised finger, his smile having yet to falter. “We are Eridin correct?” A collective murmur answered his question. “So if I were to bring quantitative data, the rest would be required to consider the possibilities and reevaluate the potential humans have!”

“You mean qualitative data, correct?” Glxur corrected.

“No, I was correct in my first statement. Quantitative data is what I need,” Xob replied.

“And how will you do that on such a complex concept?” Jixhiag finally spoke, having remained the most calm in his reactions to their eccentric friend’s request.

“We were able to quantify the Nimofa’s levels of anger, why should this be any different?” Xob countered.

“Nimofa are practically primitive in comparison to the hormone responses of any species above class 4 on the cognitive development scale,” Ixena said. “I wonder if your excitement for this project is making you lose sight of your basic knowledge?”

“If I had proposed a similar project except I interchanged the goal towards a particular Doctor from one of your favorite media entertainment, I find it hard to believe you would object against that,” Xob replied.

“That’s different!” Ixena said as her forehead grew a faint shade of purple. “Creating a four legged creature of mythological origin is far from the most charming and possibly intelligent alien in the universe! If his species were real, than the amount of knowledge we would gain would be nearly incalculable!”

“You just want to go on adventures with him,” Glxur said, never missing a moment to poke on the female Eridin’s obsession.

Before she could counter however, Jixhiag spoke again. “For all we know he is real. And ponies could be real as well.” His statement drew the attention of each of them for further explanation. He rose his arms slightly with palms facing up, a popular gesture in his preferred media entertainment, often performed by a two dimension character that simply did not care or know what to do. “Humans have guessed our forms, although their depiction of our technology was completely off. Who’s to say that they did not imagine other already existing species?”

The five of them sat in silence for a moment, each in their own thoughts at the implications such a notion held. After a minute, Xob was the first to break the silence. “Regardless of the implications, I intend to go with my decision.”

“Xob…” Naxf began. “I don’t think the risks are worth what you are seeking. You don’t even know if it will be successful. It has never been done on anything that holds a cognitive function above four meriscuuls ”

“No, I don’t if it will be successful,” Xob agreed. But his brows narrowed atop his large black and reflective eyes in determination. “But if there is one thing I have learned, is that regardless of how unlikely something is or how little sense it may make, nothing is beyond pursuit. I would never be able to live with myself if I never gave it a chance.”

The rest were quiet at the statement, for it was something a Eridin had never before even remotely uttered. To hold regret in not pursuing something that proved more risky or improbable, was a completely foreign concept to any sane Eridin. They did not know how much Humans were affecting them ever since their studies began. But challenging one of their core beliefs that had helped them stay alive from numerous threats throughout their advances in space, it brought some measurable judgment on how Xob had been influenced. And as they began to silently agree with his statement, they too wondered just how much they themselves had been affected.

“I’m in,” Jixhiag said suddenly, meeting Xob’s smile with one of his own.

“Jixhiag, you can’t be serious,” Naxf said.

“Why not? It sounds interesting,” Jixhiag merely replied. Turning to Xob, he thrusted his thumb to his chest and attempted a half smile. “Xob, I will get you the genetic data you need.”

“Well if he’s in, I might as well be too,” Glxur sighed in defeat. “I’ll get you the necessary Sequencer Pods to cultivate them in.”

Xob’s smile only grew at he then turned to Ixena and Naxf expectantly. Ixena blinked over her reflective eyes before closing them and crossing her arms, one of the many habits she picked up from Humans. “Fine, I’ll help too. I’ll provide the Neuro-Developers.”

Then all four of them turned to Naxf, eliciting a small quiver from him in reply. “Stop staring at me like that! Of course I will help!” he exclaimed. “Honestly, is it wrong that I am the only one worried about getting caught doing this?”

“Not at all,” Glxur replied happily. “You’re often times the one who keeps our heads level, something that will be even more important if we keep adopting traits from Humans!” Glxur wanted to pat him on the back like he had seen in his shows, but the presence of other Eridin in the Nourishment Center prevented him from doing so. If any of them spotted the odd behavior, he wouldn’t be able to avoid strange glances for over twenty Huga.

“Tsk, I won’t always be there,” Naxf said as he reached for the cubes in the middle of the table, the first one to eat since they had arrived. “I will acquire you the necessary embryonic fluids and equipment. We have some spares over our last project.”

“Thank you all,” Xob said, turning to look at each one slowly to show his appreciation. It makes me so happy that I managed to have friends like them. For one of the few times in my life, I am unable to express in words how important they are to me, and how that continues to grow. Maybe the magic of friendship is possible after all.

“Alright then,” Xob announced, already focusing his mind on the first steps to begin the project. “Let’s get started!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xob sat before his computer, and gazed at the multiple floating screens before him that flickered through various data and algorithms. A smile broke onto his face at gathering all of the necessary computations to begin the project, feeling a quivering sensation deep in his chest that he could not fully understand. But he had a pretty good idea what it was.

It was eager anticipation, excitement, and apprehension.

He had similar sensations whenever a new episode would come out for his favorite shows, particularly My Little Pony. But the feelings at those times were incomparable to the ones he felt now. He never knew he could feel this strongly about something. Feelings were not common for emotionally mute Eridin, a species who from birth, raise their young to suppress irrational and sudden hormonal changes in the brain that caused such feelings. They were explainable, predictable, and in the end, deemed unnecessary. Xob however, felt that conclusion was wrong.

There were more things to it than the Eridin realized, deeper levels that had not been encountered before. Feelings so complex, he wondered if any machine within their empire would even be able to calculate the outcomes. Thanks to humans, Xob and his friends learned that there are even more mysteries in the universe. All they needed to do, was look inside themselves.

And so he sat before his station, ready to begin the first piece of code for the project while his friends gathered their promise parts. He estimated that it would take two weeks for the initial stage to be finished, another for the embryonic growth, and a month for them to develop. While such an amount of time is considered to be miniscule for an Eridin, Xob felt that the on coming weeks would be the most tense and nerve wracking moments of time in his life. And he couldn’t be more excited about it.

“Alright Xob,” he said to himself, cracking his fingers and flexing them for the assault his four keyboard panels were about to experience. “Let’s start this party.”

And with gentle click on an awaiting holo-button, his music started.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With a flurry of strokes across the glowing panels, Xob’s moved his hands about with such vigor and precision, that he appeared as if he was constructing an orchestra of life itself. Moving with grace and speed, hundreds of lines of codes and computations flashed a crossed the monitors, casting dim reflections of their outputs onto his wide black eyes.

For three days Xob inputted data into his station for the basic design of their bodies. From the littlest detail such as how their cells divided, to the texture of their coat. DNA strands, cells, blood vessels, nervous system, skeletal structure, muscle fibers, cerebral structuring, everything needed to create a pony flashed from his fingers to the glowing consoles. He felt as if his brain already knew exactly what to type, the blueprints held firmly in his mind and simply waited for his rapid moving hands to type them out into existence. All of it was exhilarating as more and more code poured out from him and into the computer. And when the initial data was inputted, he began to work on the placement of all his work.

Holographic bones flickered into appearence at a press of a button, before being whisked away by his fingers into their appropriate places. After creating the skeleton resembling a pony, veins spontaneously formed between flesh and muscle that layered themselves over the bones until finally the skin appeared, and their coats grew showcasing the basic design. With that complete, he split the single model into six separate copies, and began to work on them as separate projects from thereon.

He worked long into the nights, and rose again in the morning with little fatigue, his mind so enthralled by the process that he found it hard for him to spare any free time away from the project. There was so much to do, and so little time to wait for.

Throughout the week, his friends came by and brought their promised equipment. Handing over small trinkets, or delivering on floating pads larger items that were almost too large for the room. Shortly any open space within Xob’s room quickly became a maze of electronics and tubing; inter connecting all of the machines to each other and his station. Large see-through incubation pods that even a human could stand in comfortably whirred to life as gallons upon gallons of greenish liquid filled the empty container. This is where they would be born, from a small maturation sac to the fully developed bodies they would become. Xob could only wait with excitement at the ongoing progress they would incur each day.

Then came the second stage. With six mechanical arms that ended into fine points, thin strips of flesh was materialized onto large white trays, building layer by layer the hand held size sacs that would hold all the genetic data the ponies held. The sacs would serve as a layer of protection, and a source of nourishment for the hungry cells as they began to divide and grow, becoming more complex and eventually into the final shape he had developed on his station.

And after the first two weeks were over, Xob carefully picked up the first maturation sac, staring at it in wonder as hegently held the flesh like egg, and placed it into the a pod. Upon contact with the green liquid, it began to beat like a heart would, a sure sign that everything had gone according to design, and the process of creating a pony began within.

He repeated the process with the remaining five sacs, and after carefully placing them into their own respective pods, he took a few steps back and admired his work. The pods had internal lights inside, and they casted odd shadows across his dark room, highlighting the beating sacs as they began to work their genetic process.

It was then during that first day as they developed, that Xob felt a strange sensation of joy and fear. Everything seemed to be according to plan, and his calculations showed no faults were predicted to occur. He was also confident that after they developed, he would have no problems inserting the needed memories and personalities into their blank brains to truly create the ponies from the show. With all that considered, it made sense that he was excited.

So why did he have this looming feeling that something was not going to turn out the way it was supposed to? Was it what humans called intuition? A sense of dread despite how well everything seemed to be going?

The concept of intuition seemed absurd for Xob. He was Eridin. He believed in hard facts and numbers. Everything could be explained, everything could be calculated. It was what allowed him to achieve what he had done over these past two weeks.

But he could still not shake the feeling.

With a sigh he placed his hand on the pod, watching with mixed emotions at the floating sac inside. He had etched onto his pod the symbol of the respective ponies cutie marks, and he currently was looking to Twilight’s incubation pod.

“I hope that all of you turn out alright. I know it’s silly to think otherwise but…” Xob blinked rapidly in expression of the nervousness growing inside of him. Despite whatever his Eridin mindset and teachings taught him, he could not deny the fact they did not know everything. Humans had a great deal to offer them in knowledge, and perhaps his personal bond towards the species had allowed him to develop the ability of sensing danger. He had feelings that have been suppressed his entire life, and the very goal of this project was to feel and understand them, to prove to all Eridin that they were denying a very important part of themselves.

And so he looked on with worry, wondering what it was that may possibly go wrong in the project. A thousand variations, a million paths, a billion outcomes. Just what were these ponies that he had given life to would do? He intended to only keep them alive for a few months; just the amount of time he estimated would be needed to discover what he had set out for.

If they were discovered however, the reprimands for doing what he had done would be career ending. He would never be allowed on a interspecies observation station again. But that was not what he worried for the most. There was something else that he just couldn’t quite pin down; some unexpected outcome that he had not considered or calculated. But what?

“I hope you turn out alright, my little ponies, and that you truly can show me the data that we Eridin desperately need, “ Xob said. He couldn’t allow himself to focus on concern that may or may not happen. Right now, his attention would be needed on maintaining their growth and correcting any of the predicted errors throughout incubation. He needed to focus on his goal. He couldn’t become distracted by what ifs. It just wasn’t how a Eridin dealt with a situation.

“Please let everything go according to plan…”

Author's Note

Tried to create a scene with fast paced music to showcase a time montage and the excitement Xob has during the project. Hope it turned out well for you all and didn't seem overly rushed. Timing music in a story is hard...

Chapter 3

“Xob, are you in here?” Ixena feminine voice called out across Xob’s quarters.

“Over here!”

Here large black eyes looked over the various equipment, unable to see exactly where he had spoken from. Over the last few weeks, a great deal of technology had been installed into the room, making it into a maze of pipes, wires, and humming machines that one had to navigate to go anywhere.

With a series of blinks of annoyance, Ixena began to make her way through, being careful as to not disturb any of the machines. “How are they developing?” she asked while ducking beneath a fluid processing pipe that illuminated the metal around it.

“Everything appears to be on schedule and developing as expected. There skeletal structures have begun to spread out to their final positions, and all organs are showing healthy development,” Xob’s voice called out.

“Who’s that?” a cheerful voice said aloud that was unfamiliar to Ixena.

“That is my colleague,” Xob answered.

“Oh! Can we meet her? Pretty pretty please!?” the voice said eagerly.

Ixena blinked slowly in curiosity, then quickly navigated the rest of the way, being drawn to a collection of voices that were growing louder.

“Xob? Who is that?” she asked as she finally rounded a corner and found him.

Before her was Xob standing near his main computer, a series of holographic displays surrounding him as he looked towards her with a smile. “Ixena, I would like you to meet my guests. Girls, this is Ixena.”

Xob flicked his wrist, and the displays rotated towards Ixena, revealing that the six of them each held a face.

“Hello!” the voice from before shouted, now to be revealed as a pink pony bouncing up and down in her screen.

“Xob,” Ixena gasped. “You were able to create their programs?”

“Yes, I was,” he replied pridefully.

“Well howdy,” the orange one greeted while tipping her cowboy hat.

“Hello, darling, it is a pleasure to meet you,” the white one said.

“Sup,” the blue one merely said.

“....H-hello,” the yellow one said, with only half of her face revealed on the screen.

“Greetings, it’s a pleasure to meet Xob’s colleague,” the purple one said.

“Hey! Hey! How are you!” the pink one said again.

Ixena stared wordlessly at their smiling facing save the yellow one, admiring the details of each of them. I don’t believe it. He really did it. She exchanged glances with each of them, until she noticed Xob staring smugly at her from behind. With a purple blush on her forehead, she cleared her throat and made her way to him. “It is nice to meet you all. If you don’t mind, I am going to speak with Xob now.”

The ponies didn’t object, and instead, turned towards each other and began to converse amongst themselves.

“Here, let me lower their volume,” Xob said as he flicked a nearby screen. Immediately their conversation turned into a low hush of which they were still able to perfectly understand each other.

“These aren’t pre-simulated?” Ixena asked immediately as she stood next to him and turned to watch them with him.

“No, they are fully developed,” Xob said eagerly. “I’m running the final tests on them now. Their bodies are nearly formed with special adaptations I selected to help them be as real as possible. Felar cortexes stretch into the horns of the unicorns, allowing levitation of objects; the best I could manage for similar to magic. I haven't figured out how I will break it to them that they can't cast any spells though. Increased fiber density for the earth ponies, as well as the developed senses from the Xueler to be more aware of plant life. And philo-magnetized cells from the Verum for the pegasus feathers and coat, allowing some weather manipulation. I figured it would also be the best chance for them to have the ability of sitting on clouds as well. Don't know how I am going to test it however.”

"Are they speaking in spanish now?" Ixena asked.

"Yes, they are," Xob said, his grin growing wider with feature he revealed. "I've programmed all of Earth's major languages into them, as well as large amounts of information relevant to their cutie marks." Ixena gave him a curious glance. "Their areas of expertise, as per the show."

Xob flicked his wrist, and brought a series of charts that flucuated as the ponies talked. “Their social skills are nearly fully developed, and their personalities have begun established the planned synapse maps I've created for them. I was successful in uploading each episode as direct memories for them, and I just finished the storage unit in their cerebrum to hold all the data that will be collected from my daily interactions with them.”

“Incredible,” Ixena breathed.

They watched them for some minutes, watching them in close detail, only faintly being able to hear their voices but being able to see clearly what they said as text was generated on the panels. Xob made slight adjustments now and then on the screens, inserting or modifying the running code that buzzed in front of him. But his eyes never left the six windows that contained each ponies head for long, causing him to smile each time he looked back at them.

He was just onto stabilizing Fluttershy’s vocal range when Ixena spoke again. “Xob, do you realize the implications this has?”

“I do, but why don’t you tell me anyways,” he said pridefully, a trait Ixena had noticed to begin to develop lately. But she decided to humor him anyways, if only to speak aloud her thoughts.

“While it has been theoretically possible to do this, no Eridin has attempted it on this level. There has been no need to. The fact that you did this… it really is beginning to cognate to me how important this project is and how profound the effects could be. This really could change the way Eridin see the universe. It could change us.”

Reluctantly she took her eyes of the ponies and turned towards him. “The fact alone that you have done this, and that we have helped you, shows already how much the humans affected us. This never would have been done otherwise.”

“I know,” Xob said. “The implications of this go even further when you contemplate it, but so too the dangers. No one must know about this. Not until I gather what I need.”

Ixena searched Xob’s eyes, and saw something she had not seen before. Perhaps something she had never seen in any Eridin, and she didn’t know exactly what it was. But it was something she told herself she would follow. She had already been set on his course since he first proposed it.

“I promise.”

Xob flashed her a smile and turned back to the ponies. “I could use your help for the transfer. Their cerebrums are nearly ready to receive their programs, and I would like another pair of eyes to ensure a smooth download.”

“Are you inserting them as blanks, or partial-formed?” Ixena said, grabbing one of the nearby holo-panels and beginning to sort through the information to catch up.

“As nice as it would be for them to remember these conversations, I believe it is better safe than sorry to insert them as blanks. I’ve already wiped their memory eight times, and they develop as scheduled with only a point-zero-eight percent fault.”

Ixena watched as the blue one gave a laugh that was loud enough for them to hear clearly, causing the yellow one to recede further into her screen. She blinked curiously at them before asking, “Xob… did you do as we asked?”

The beeping noise of Xob inputting information on his display ceased, and the room suddenly became much quieter. She waited patiently for Xob to answer, deciding to keep her eyes on the ponies.

“I’ve inserted the time limit into their telomeres,” Xob finally said, and much more sullen than Ixena had expected. “I know all of you worry about me and my fascination in this project. But I assure you, I know very well it is not possible to keep them around indefinitely. Something would go wrong, and they would be discovered.” His hands resumed their quick pace of manipulating data, and his voice returning to a steady tone. “I am estimating three months is necessary for a baseline of what I need. Upon that time, I can either prolong their lives a little further, or allow their bodies to shut down. But not before uploading their minds back into my main frame of course.”

Xob paused briefly to create six mini screens on his display, watching with pride the animated faces talking amongst each other. “I can’t allow them to die, not after giving them life. I know its fabricated life, but I still can't change the way I feel, nor will I supress it. And until it is possible to bring them back into organic form, I’ll sustain them, deep within my files.”

Ixena smirked as a layer of doubt lifted from her. She and the others had made him promise to insert the time limit, counter measure should any unexpected feelings develop inside him that would cause him to go awry. And while she did initially object to keeping their existence after the research, she too found it hard to let such intricately created beings be put down to rest. I am glad that he was willing to go through with it. “Alright,” Ixena said. “I’ll begin working on the purple one.”

“That’s Twilight Sparkle,” Xob corrected with a smile.

“If you distract me during the process, she very well may not be once I’m done,” Ixena teased back, a behavioral trait Xob had noticed developing more and more lately.

He watched her for some moments, before turning back to his screens, contemplating what she had said. Neither of them were performing normal Eridin behavior, and it was growing more frequent as time passed. It both excited and scared Xob. And he realized then, that he had never experienced such levels of fear or excitement before in his life. His hands nearly stopped moving at the stark realization of just how much they were allowing themselves to change.

I don’t know where this path will lead… Glancing briefly at Ixena, and back to the ponies who were in the middle of laughing at some joke one of them had made, he blinked his eyelids in determination. But I will follow it. There is something at the end, something worth more than everything I have been learning. There has to be…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xob ran his hand across the transparent surface, marveling at the floating form of the body of Twilight Sparkle on the other side, her eyes shut tightly. He had been watching them for sometime now as the computer finished last minute details, moving between the six large pods that housed each pony. Now and then their eyelids would flutter from movement beneath them, a positive sign the programming had taken effect and was securing itself correctly within the synapses.

Worried that something may have still gone wrong, Xob summoned forth a series of holo-panels again, and began double checking their systems.

As he was however, the whooshing sound of his door being opened then closed, caused him to pause in fear.

“Xob!” he heard Ixena call out.

He let out a sigh of relief, but his concerns returned as he heard her cross through his room quickly and hazardously.

“Xob! Something unexpected has developed!”

“What is it?” he asked as she rounded the corner.

Her face was flustered with a tint of green, a clear sign of agitation, if not already clear from her eyes blinking rapidly. “A summons has been initiated for everyone on the station. They are pulling us all back to be apart of hearing for Termination for the humans!”

“WHAT!?”

“The station is departing in only four glendors.”

“No…” Xob breathed. “No no no no NO NO NO!”

He began to dash madly about the lab, shutting off sections of unneeded machines and rerouting power back to their original routes. “This can’t be happening! I needed time!”

“Xob…” Ixena said, her composure returning to normal as she looked onward towards his frantic behaviors. When it was clear he wasn’t stopping, she marched over to him. “Xob! Stop it!”

“I need to create a dampening shield and cargo holder! I can’t let them be detected at the checkpoint!”

“XOB! STOP! IT’S TOO LATE!”

The volume of her voice caused him to pause, and look at her unexpectedly. She had never raised her voice before, and it gave him enough of a shock to realize that what he was planning wouldn’t work.

“I didn’t have enough time…” he said as he turned his head downwards. It didn’t matter he made during the trip back. They would be detected, and his project would be shut down. They would commit him as evidence of the humans influence, and he would have no evidence to support that it would be for the positive.

“I didn’t have enough time…” he repeated forlornly.

“It was a good attempt, Xob,” Ixena said softly. To further Xob’s disbelief of her actions, she actually reached out a hand, and placed it on his shoulder. “It was fun while it lasted, it really was.” She gave out a weak laugh. “I wanted to see it through as well. But we can’t change the facts. You need to shutdown them down.”

He turned his gaze back up to her, and saw just how hard it was affecting her as well. She had helped more than all of their friends in creating the ponies. They were almost as much of hers as they were his.

“I’ll help you do it,” she said softly, then turned towards one of the incubators control consoles.

Xob watched helplessly as she moved across the floor, and began accessing the shutdown sequence. As her fingers moved across the controls, Xob felt a tight sensation in his chest, nearly painful, and his mouth opened partially to suck in air that had seemingly vanished from his lungs. No… I can’t let them die.

As Ixena brought her hand down on the final input, Xob had reached the console and grasped her arm, holding it firmly in the air. Ixena blinked at the sudden physical contact Xob had initiated, and slowly turned her head to him.

“Were not shutting them down,” he said firmly.

“Xob, you know-”

“I do know, but I can’t go along with it,” he interrupted. “I am not following the Eridin way, not this time.” Letting go of her arm, he moved his hand over the console and began a series of commands.

“What are you doing?”

"I’m prepping them for transport.”

“Xob, they can’t come with us. They will be found.”

“I know, which is why they aren’t.”

Ixena stepped back, opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. “What are you planning?”

Xob took full control of the console, and the distant sound of machinery humming began to rise. “The research I need from them is important. It could decide to fate of the entire human species. And while I may not have in time for the hearing, should it go ‘south’ as humans say, I can at least acquire the data I need before Termination has begun.”

“You are not suggesting what I think you are…”

“I am.” Looking up to the six tubes, Xob’s determined expression softened, if only for a moment. “I’m sending them to Earth, where they will live and gather the data I need.”

Ixena opened her mouth again, but Xob quickly turned around and spoke before she could. “I know this is crazy, I know it’s insane, and it will probably won’t end well for me. The percentage of this working isn’t even worth attempting. The fact alone that I am risking exposure to the humans willingly is borderline treason. But I am going to do it, whether you help me or not.”

Seconds of silence passed between them, before Ixena smiled and moved towards him. “I was going to ask if you have the latest flight plans of our sensors. You’re going to need them if you want to get them to Earth undetected.”

Xob blinked with surprise, then laughed loudly for the fifth time in his life, his pitch still a work in progress he noted.

“Careful. If any Eridin heard that sound, they would think you were a human in disguise.”

“Heh, maybe I am. And, maybe you are too.”

Ixena flashed him a smile, and pulled up several holo-panels to begin preparations. They worked together in silence for minutes, focusing all their efforts to quickly finishing everything required before the station began its departure.

“Xob.”

“Yes, Ixena?”

“...What have these humans done to us?”

“... I don’t know…”

“... Will the ponies be alright on Earth?”

“Trust me, I am confident that whoever receives them, they will do everything in their power to take care of them. The community surrounding this television series is very committed, and have planned out several scenarios of meeting them in real life.”

“That is reassuring. Who will be receiving them?”

“I am letting the computer pick the best possible candidate from a pool of individuals I have selected. It will look for someone with plenty of land to house them on, regular activity online with the community, but not too much or too… extreme, affilation. And preferably living alone.”

“Alright, coordinates are being generated. Let’s get them into some modified transport chambers.”

“On it.”

As Xob and Ixena began the final preparations for the send off, Xob could not help but look at the ponies every few moments, memorizing each detail of them while he could. It pained him that he would not be there for when they woke up, and his chest was still tight with worry. Perhaps this is what I sensed was wrong. Maybe I’ve finally developed what humans called ‘intuition.’ Yet, despite his conclusion, his chest only tightened further. But if this isn’t the problem, then what is?

He watched closely as one of them twitched in their stasis, their facial muscles flicking now and then between expressions.

Why do I feel as if I miscalculated something?

Author's Note

Got a suggestion for who the ponies should be sent to? Let me know! I have an idea in mind, but I am always open to new and better ones. If I like it, I'll see about incorporating it.

For those that follow me, I am back to updating. And I bet you didn't expect this story to receive the first update either. I promise the other stories are coming. 2POTN is nearly halfway polished for grammar mistakes I am catching, as well as some new scenes here and there. And Lyra's Secret will come soon as I flesh out the next few chapters, of which will probably be the ending. Thanks for waiting, and for those that don't follow my other stories, I hope you are enjoying this one. Let me know what you think, and what I can improve on be it scene, dialogue, pacing, or adding/removing cheesy stuff.