Chapter I: An Unexpected Guest
Chapter I: An Unexpected Guest
Don't be silly, silly! Don't cry! You have no reason to sniff and sob like a little foal. Me neither. My life was great! Adventures! Parties! Friendship...
Equestria is a nice place. Don't cry. I'm old, so I'm dying. Even the Sun will go out someday...
What? I'm being silly, you say? Heehee! You're funny, you know? My hoof is itching, my ears are twitching, my appendix tickles. It means the Sun will go out one day. How do I know? I just do. Sometimes, you have to take my word for it. Ask Twilight. She knows.
Yes... don't cry for me, dearies. Equestria is awesome. Enjoy it. Enjoy the Sun. While you still can...
– Last words of Pinkie Pie, the Bearer of the Element of Laughter, 434 years before The Day The Sun Went Out.
***
I was woken up by rays of sunshine spilling into the room through slits between blinds. Slowly, I opened an eye and looked at my digital alarm clock standing of the floor among scattered books. I should be in the office in fourty two minutes. Not bad.
I sat up and stretched, shaking my head a bit to get rid of the last wisps of sleep swirling in my head. The local day was more or less the same as Earth's standard twenty four hours, but I still hadn't gotten used to it, even after the fifty days I'd been here.
The planet on I was currently on was oh-so-poetically called “E-1729Y”. It was a small, rocky equestrian-type globe, almost completely covered with windswept steppes, orbiting a pale blue main-sequence star. The star system was located at the edge of Earth Systems Alliance's space and was completely uninhabited. There was nothing out of ordinary here... unless you knew where to look.
I got out of bed and went to the bathroom, almost tripping over my old, timeworn copy of the first part of the Daring Do series. The bathroom was cramped and simple – a shower, a sink, and a toilet. It didn't bother me though. After all, you don't get to live the dream everyday. I'd been living mine for almost two months now.
I stood in front of a mirror, looing at my reflection. My light green mane, a bit contrasting with my gray coat, was, as always, a comleplete mess, impervious to a comb or hair spray. My yellowish-gold eyes were red and puffy from the lack of sleep. Simply put, I looked like crap. When go back home, I must treat myself to a visit in one of those fancy spas in New Vanhoover.
Thirty minutes later, showered and ready to rumble (thanks to a mug of blackest coffee I could make), I left the prefabricated housing module which for the last eight weeks had been my home and headed for the office building (which, just as everything here, was also made from prefabricated modules) on the other side of our camp. About two hundred meters to the left, I could see the excavation site, in which a team of archeologists, led by me, for almost two moths had been trying to find anything of value... Until yesterday morning.
I smiled, getting positively giddy. A discovery like this, on my first excavation! The girls from the university will simply die when they hear about it. And Lavender will most probably explode from envy. Twice!
I stepped into the office, walking past one of the guards, a bored maroon earth pony wearing a standard-issue gray armor with an assault rifle on his battle saddle. I'd been here for all those weeks and I still could barely tell one guard apart from another. The unified equipment covering their cutie marks made them all look the same to me. Not counting Looking Glass, of course, but it would be very difficult to mistake her for somepony else.
“Scribble, you miserable paper pusher, why isn't the crew working yet? You waiting for a special invitation or something?” I shouted to a lanky blue pony sitting behind a desk. He started, surprised by my arrival.
“Geez, Applecore, you don't have to yell. I'm not your secretary, you know.” He said, looking offended.
“Really? Sure, if you say so.” I deadpanned. It was my first expedition after graduation, and as the lead archeologist on top of that. For the first time in my life I could give orders to other ponies and, I'm ashamed to admit, I wanted to make most of it. After all, I had no idea when I'd get another chance.
“Yes.” Replied Scribble, adjusting his glasses and looking back at the computer screen on his desk. “The crew isn't working because they can't. We received special orders from our employer.”
“Special orders?” I raised an eyebrow. Our employer gave me a free hoof with the project. She never interfered. Aparently our discovery yeasterday made quite an impression on her.
“That's right. We are to put all work on hold and wait for her arrival. I think she wants to make an inspection.”
My smile vanished.
“An inspection? And you're telling me this now?!” I looked around in panic. “Great, just freaking great. How long until she gets here? Maybe we'll manage to clean up the camp a bit...”
“Umm, I think she'll be arriving...” he paused, lifting his ears.
I tilted my head to a side, listening. From the outside, we could hear the unmistakeable sound of a landing shuttle.
“... now?” Scribble finished, smiling apologetically.
***
The shuttle was circling above the landing pad, it's landing gear locking in position. I adjusted my mane for the last time, event though I knew the gesture was completely pointless in the dust storm caused by the descending ship's engines.
“So, the big boss finally decided to grace our Luna-forgotten hellhole with the presence of her oh-so-important flank, huh?” I heard a cheery voice speak behing my back. I turned around, looking at a guard mare with white coat and a straw-colored mane, standing there casually in her meticulously polished (seriously, you could see your reflection in it) gray armor.
“You shouldn't be here, Looking Glass.” I said, rather sourly. I had no time for her shenanigans.
“Whatever, they'll be fine without me. It'll be great to finally see who's paying us. Plus, it always looks good when there's an armed escort waiting for a guest.” The white mare said, giving me a stiff, exaggerated mock-salute.
I rolled my eyes and nodded, hoping she wouldn't do anything too stupid. The blonde mercenary – the camp's security detail was a part of a mercenary company belonging to the ERC corporation – had made sure to keep things interesting in the camp since day one. She disregarded officers' authority, challenged diggers and technicians to contest in eating the goopy boiled peas-and-carrot mix served in the canteen, and even secretly put together a fully functional still in one of the storerooms, which almost caused her to be shipped straight back to Earth. But somehow, she'd managed to avoid degradation, the still continues to work, and her direct superior had gotten much happier, especially when he wasn't on duty.
The clang of the landing gear and a slowly fading whine of engines brought me back to reality. Seeing a hatch opening on the side of the shuttle, I put on the most professional expression I could, again adjusting my wind-tousled mane.
I had never seen my employer before. I suspected she was some sort of a fat aristocrat, or somepony looking like a mad scientist. For me it would be the only logical explanation why somepony would spend one and a half million credits on an archeological dig on a planet like E-1729Y, with basicaly zero chance of finding anything, not to mention with a lead archeologist who had only just received her diploma. Of course, whe'd eventually found something – even more than a mere “something” - so I guess that in the end it didn't turn out so bad. Still, it was a very risky move, considering possible losses.
However, the pony who emerged from the shuttle looked nothing like anything I'd imagined. First of all, a light blue mare standing in front of me was a pegasus. I'd only seen pegasi in person a few times before – once when I was a little filly, and then a couple of times at the university; since the Battle of the Emerald Eye almost a hundred years ago, other pony kinds rarely visited Earth, the capital planet of earth ponies. Secondly, she didn't look like an aristocrat, or a mad scientist. She was wearing a light but – as faras I could tell – high quality snow-white armor, and one of her wings was replaced by a cybernetic prosthesis, with several glowing, intricately cut gemstones embedded in it.
“W-welcome to E-1729Y, um...” I paused, realizing how stupid that sounded, and that I had no idea what her name was.
“Serene” replied the pegasus calmly. The armor-clad mare simple emanated that one feeling: calmness. I only need a moment to be almost absolutely sure it would be immensely difficult to really make her angry, if it was possible at all. For some reason, I found myself fidgeting.
“Yes, of course.” I said lamely. “I'm Applecore, the lead archelogist. I understand you are here to conduct an inspection, Ma'am?”
“I simply would like to take a look at the artifact that was found yesterday. I hope it won't disrupt the work schedule too much?”
Serene replied. She was speaking in a polite, friendly tone, but there was something else in her voice, something I could't quite find a word for, even though I had it at the tip of my tongue.
“Not at all, of course not.” I grinned toothily, hoping my smile looked at least somewhat genuine. “Please, follow me, the dig site is not far from here.”
We started making our way towards the excavation site, right through the middle of the camp. Apparently, Glass figured she should cover our backs, because she was walking a few steps behind us, glaring suspiciously at every pony who looked in our direction.
“Are all members of the expedition earth ponies?” Serene asked suddenly. Seems like Looikng Glass wasn't the only one glancing about.
“That's right, even the guards.” I replied simply. Normally, such a question would be very impolite, but in her voice I heard no trace of the usual, condescending tone typical for pegasi (not to mention the unicorns). “The excavation team in comprised almost entirely of New Vanhoover University graduates.”
“I see.” Said the pegasus in the same, calm yet strange voice. “Could you tell me a bit about the artifact your team found yesterday, miss Applecore?”
I stumbled a little, her politeness taking me by surprise. Clearing my throat, I answered.
“Certainly. Without a doubt it was made by the Ancients. It is, most probably, some kind of a communication device or data cache, similar to the one that over three hundred years ago was found in Equestria's solar system's asteroid belt. It is remarkably well preserved, however, it doesn't seem to be functional. We haven't tried to activate it yet, but I doubt it's even possible. In either case, I'm sure my university will pay double the amount of your expenses without as much as a blink of an eye.” And with luck, they'll let me take part in further reaserch, I thougth, squealing giddily in my head.
“Oh, money is of no importance here.” Said Serene, just as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe, leaving me completely nonplussed. Even Glass stopped whistling, surprised as well.
After a few moments we stopped, having reached the edge of the exavation site, a massive, ten meter deep pit in the ground. Noticing my stare, Looking Glass rolled her eyes and left, heading back to the camp. Then I lead my employer into the trench down an earth ramp made for the heavy machinery we used to remove layers of soil.
The artifact wasan over four meter tall obelisk with a flat top, cut from seawater-colored crystal, set into a metal, trapezoid-like base. The surface of the crystal was dead, you could barely see the runes that had been cut into it with unbelievable precision. The whole thing stood on a wide, round platform made of white marble, surrounded with a half-circle of tall, prefectly rectangular slabs of stone, smooth and polished like mirrors.
Without hesitation, Serene approached the base of the obelisk, gazing at the surface of the crystal with unreadable expression on her face.
“Nopony has tried to activate it?
“As I said, no.” I replied. “I'm not even sure we would be able to do it with the equipment we have at our disposal here.
“Good.” Said the pegasus, so quietly I could barely hear her.
Suddenly, the air was filled with rumble of engines coming from the direction of our camp. It was way too loud to be caused by a shuttle, or even one of the transports we used to bring in supplies from off world.
“I was hoping that this could be avoided.” Spoke the blue mare without turning back. “However, things turned out differently.”
I froze as I heard gunfire joining the sound of engines. Before I could recover, the noise grew louder, and from above the edge of the trech emerged an insect-like spaceship, not bigger than a frigate, which immidiately launched several small, compact object into the pit we were standing in. They hit the ground hard, sending up clouds of dust, forcing me to turn my face back in the direction of the artifact and my employer.
Slowly, Serene raised a leg and touched the crystal surface with her hoof. At once, the obelisk started glowing with gentle green light. My eyes widened as I watched, not believing what I was seeing.
I heard movement behind me, a sound of servomechanisms working, almost impossible to register in the roar of engines. The dust clouds dissipated partially, revealing the objects dropped from the ship hovering above our heads. I saw machines shaped like ponies, black and white, with single, flashlight-like lamps in place of their faces, walking towards me with mechanical precision. Their weapons, installed on their sides analogically to battle saddles, were aimed at me.
I took an unsteady step back; my legs shook uncontrollably, refusing to work. Fear mixed inside me with immense surprise. I'd seen those machines before, a long time ago, in a history book about zebras.
“It could not be avoided.” Serene spoke once more, turning around so that we stood face to face. Her eyes were glistenig with tears. “There is no other way. In the face of what is coming, everypony will have to make a choice.”
In a moment of adrenaline-enhanced panic I finally realised what was that strange tone in the armor-clad pony's voice.
Sorrow.
“Forgive me, Applecore.”
Her eyes started to glow, turning into pools of white light. Serene's magic lifted me into the air and threw me with immense force against one of the stone slabs. Blood splattered the white marble. I fell to the ground, unable to move, paralyzed with pain and cold and dark that began to descend on me.
The last thing I saw was Serene, suspended in the air in front of the obelisk, surrounded by its green, magical light.
