A new hope

Chapters

Landing
Contact
My name is Ben

Landing

When I was a kid my grandpa used to tell me about the past before the great unity, he told me that back in 2551 planet earth was united under a single government known as 'Earth gov', he told me it was because of overpopulation that the UN decided to make such a bold move, over the past years earth have been under a lot of chaos, a lot of countries objected to unite under a single rule but thanks to common sense, the hostilities ended and the human race began what many called 'The golden era'.

a lot have changed since the great unity, religions were such a trivial matter that no one cared who believed in what anymore, technology became so advanced that space travel to the moon cost just a bit more than a bus ticket, not to mention all the colonies we established across the milky way, everyone seemed to be happy.

How wrong we were…

The year now is 154 AU(after unity), earth is a mess, with no resources left to sustain ourselves humans sought salvation in other planets, unfortunately space travel between galaxies took at least a decade and the lack of resources from neighboring planets didn't help, so… Earth gov came up with a plan so risky and bold that it was kept secret from the press… dimensional travel!

It was called 'Project last haven', it was simple enough but so dangerous that it required the 'Flying Aces', an elite military Special Forces that specialized in militaristic space travel and combat, each solider was given a fully equipped spacecraft to fly across dimensions and find a suitable place for humanity to claim, I say spacecraft but it really was an entire space station, early tests with unmanned probes showed that solid communication between dimensions were possible but it also meant one way trip, desperation and loyalty were so much to bear that the 'Flying Aces' agreed to what was surly a suicide mission.

I was one of them, my name is Benjamin Cross, I'm 23 years old but despite my young age I was considered to be one of the best soldiers the army could spare, a handful of comrades and I were inside an elevator going down under area 51, when the doors opened we saw seventeen spacecraft in a circle, in front each spacecraft was an opened portal, I gulped hard, I may have been an elite solider but I was still the youngest, we marched as one towards an elevated stage and upon reaching it came to a halt, there on the stage stood probably the most powerful men in this planet, governor Georg Kelso and near him the general Alexander Blake, we all saluted and crossed our arms

behind our back in a military fashion.

"Men…" started George to speak to the microphone, "…We now face a threat far greater than anything we anticipated… ourselves… We were too greedy, too blind to see the truth in front of us and now we pay the price, your willingness to fight against our cruel fate will be remembered and praised, beyond those portals lies lands full of possibilities, let your eyes witness the horizon of a newer and brighter future ."

After president Kelso stepped back, General Blake steeped forward to speak as well, "Gentlemen! You've been trained for three years for this mission, failure is not an option! You may not be able to come back but we'll remain in constant contact through your spacecraft's inter-dimensional communicators, good luck boys."

"SIR YES SIR!" was our response and immediately after that each solder went to his designated spacecraft, I was escorted to spacecraft 2, the UNA(United Nations Alliance) new hope, after running a full system check and receiving the last green light I went to personally check my favorite machine, the matter manipulator, the very peak of human engineering, it held the ability to break down any material to an atomic level and even reconstruct the atoms themselves, thus, making sure we'd have almost unlimited supplies should we land on a poor world in terms of minerals.

Now, you probably ask yourselves why haven't humanity used the matter manipulators to resupply, it's because in order to power a small matter manipulator found on spacecraft it would take two fully operational reactors, thankfully each spacecraft is powered by two self-sustaining nuclear fusion reactors and even then it's strictly forbidden to use the matter manipulator while in mid-flight.

After that I took a glance at my munitions, one tungsten blade, a cryo pistol and a pulse rifle, standard military equipment with a few modifications I made.

Making sure I have everything I need I sat inside the cockpit and initiated a launch sequence, I could feel the engines coming to life as the spacecraft left the surface, I looked from my window to see that some already flew into the portals, I switched from window view to screen view the throttled forwards, inch by inch the spacecraft entered the portal until it was completely sucked by it, what I saw next was like being high on at least five different types of drugs at the same time, so much vibrant colors that I was half tempted to look away but my gut told me it was a bad idea, especially when flying into the unknown.

About twenty minutes later of psychedelic travel I decided to switch to auto-pilot and strap my RIG on(Resource Integration Gear, another marvel of human engineering), the suit was composed of two gloves tipped at the end with sensors and a small screen on the back of the glove to provide a full diagnostics to any new materials I may come across, a pair of reinforced boots with booster thrusters, completely closed (and smelly) helmet that provided normal, night and infra-red vision with a HUD on the screen and of course a full air tight body suit, it wasn't the most comfortable suits but it got the job done, for combat, survival and endurance during repair and outer diagnostic in vacuum environment, this suit was praised for its multi-functional purposes.

And not a moment too soon... After checking the last visor on the helmet I was flung into deep space and to a whole new dimension, I took the sit once more and established a connection between the spacecraft and my RIG, for a good half an hour I drifted seemingly aimlessly in space, that's of course until something caught my eye, a star way out in the distance blinked, meaning there was another object orbiting it, after a small debate with myself I readjusted the current course towards the star system, hoping the object was a large moon or if I'm really lucky, a planet.

After a quick FTL jump to the designated star I watched in awe when I realized what I saw defied physics to the core, what I saw was not a planet orbiting a star but rather a star orbiting a planet! I had to write this down in my entry log.

ENTRY LOG # 1

This is a celestial marvel far greater than anything humanity ever discovered, A STAR ORBITING A PLANET! I tried to search through the archive that could explain this bizarre phenomenon but found none.

For a few minutes I just stared at this beautiful sight, speculating a few wild explanations to what I saw, than I decided to fly the spacecraft into an orbiting course around the planet while carefully avoiding the sun's gravity in the process.

After successfully entering a solid orbit around the planet I sent two probes, one was headed straight down to scan the atmosphere and the other was circling the planet in order to map out the geographical terrain as well as scanning for minerals.

…

Two earth days has passed, in that time I studied the weird sun phenomenon even further, I discovered to my surprised that the day and night cycle was identical to earth, I was half surprised to discover that a single moon orbited the planet as well, seeing how strange and well-coordinated the two celestial objects cycled around the planet.

…

The probes were back with surprising results, the probe I sent down to the surface of the planet showed that the planet's atmosphere was composed mostly out of oxygen with low levels of Co2, meaning it was probably breathable even without the helmet, the probe I sent to scan the planet from orbit showed me that the planet's terrain was stunningly similar to earth as well, one major difference though is the amount of precious materials found on the near surface of the planet, we're not talking a few kilometers deep but rather a few meters and even centimeters! But to top that I discovered something even more thrilling, the planet's surface contained flowing water and vegetation! Meaning there has to be life on the planet and maybe even intelligent life forms.

I'm smiling as I type these last few words, I always wondered what it would be like if planet earth was visited by aliens but to be on the other side was even more exciting, the shuttle I was preparing moments before is now ready for launch, to end this log on a high note I'm gonna quote the famous words of Neil Alden Armstrong as he landed on the moon for the first time: "This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind!"

ENTRY LOG # 1 END

I entered the shuttle bay feeling both nervous and excited, if this planet contains intelligent life I would represent our entire species and if it's not we could still use it to expand our control even beyond dimensions, I was half way to the shuttle when the computer booted up.

STRARTING MATTER MONIPULATOR TEST RUN

"What? I never authorized a test sequence, Computer! Cancel last command!" I ordered firmly.

UNAUTHORIZED, TEST SEQUENSE WILL CONTINUE AS PLANNED

That's not good, if the computer starts the matter manipulator test sequence protocols, the reactors will overload, there's no time to manually disconnect the matter manipulator so I was forced to return to the cockpit and preform an emergency landing.

I sat down inside the cockpit and redirected the UNA new hope to a reentry trajectory.

WARNING, POWER MALFUNCTION, REACTORS OVERHEAT AT TWENTY FIVE PRECENT

Dammit! It would take too much time for a conventional reentry, I ran out of options instead of one, I mentally prepared myself as I brought the nose of the UNA new hope's nose straight down and accelerated, in the past, reentry to an atmosphere of a planet with such a sharp angle would mean agonizing death by heat but thanks to technology, modern spacecraft could perform that kind of 'Stunts' thanks to inner-outer space divider module, with it the inner sections of spacecraft are not affected by almost any drastic change in the outer environment but it was still a risky move only to be performed under emergency.

WARNING, POWER MALFUNCTION, REACTORS OVERHEAT AT FIFTY PRECENT

"Come on, come on, just a little longer." The surface of the planet got closer and closer every second, at current speed I'll land in less than five minutes, I hoped I'll survive this landing because if I crush the UNA new hope into the planet's surface I'll cause a massive radiation leak that will ensure the total annihilation of life across the entire planet.

WARNING, POWER MALFUNCTION, REACTORS OVERHEAT AT SEVENTY FIVE PRECENT

When I was about ten kilometers from the surface I straightened the UNA new hope and used the hover thrusters to decelerate, I was sweating heavily when the first wave of heat from the engine room came down, it was nerve racking and stressful to say the least, I was about fifty meters from the surface when I pulled the emergency power shut down lever and caused the entire ship to fall.

...

the landing was… rough, it could've gone better but then again, it could've gone a lot worse, I booted up the computer and ran system check protocols, thankfully none of the essential equipment got damaged but as far as flight goes, this ship will be grounded until I'll manually repair it, I thought at what happened moments before, somehow the computer started a matter manipulator test run mid-flight, there's at least a dozen protocols that need to be overridden in order to do that, but I digress, I landed relatively safely and I'm ready to explore this vast new world.

I grabbed my tungsten blade and the cryo pistol and opened the spaceship's door hatch, what I saw completely caught me by surprise, bright blue sky, white clouds and grass! Lush green grass as far as the eye can see, it seemed that I landed in an open field, looking at the scenery I couldn't help but wonder if I left earth at all but reality struck as ton of bricks, "there's no way this is earth, we killed mother nature long ago." I took a handful of grass blades with my glove, needless to say, the sensor beams were quick to act, running across the grass and scanning every bit of it, after the scan was completed I turned my hand and looked at the screen, "indeed grass it is, to think that there's a planet so similar yet so different than ours."

My excitement reached its peak when I saw movement nearby a small river, a bird! An actual bird! I ran back to the ship and grabbed a few sunflower seeds from my food supply, I approached the bird slowly, when he turned around to face me I stopped, I lowered my hand and offered him the seeds, a few moments passed but he eventually hopped on my hand and ate the seeds with renewed vigor, he didn't seem to bother when the sensor beams scanned him, if fact, he looked as if enjoying this kind of attention, I allowed him to rest on my shoulder when I looked at the monitor at the back of my hand, he was a carbon based life form.

At this point I sat near the river, trying to grasp the magnitude of my findings, a planet with similar features as earth, occupied by carbon based life forms, for a moment I thought if there are intelligent life forms that resemble humans, I shoved the thought to the back of my mind when I heard something out in the distance, I turned on my RIG's camouflage system, rendering me invisible and followed to the source of the sound, I climbed a little hill that revealed something I wished to witness ever since arriving to this world, a settlement!

I saw movement in there but I was too far away to see clearly, I used my integrated binoculars, then I saw them… the aliens, they stood on four legs or should I say hooves, they had 'Manes' and 'Tails' and looked a lot like ponies except for the fact that these 'Ponies' had much more vibrant color schemes, their facial expressions were considerably more vivid then ponies on earth and they all looked at my direction with mixed expressions of confusion and horror(If expressions in this land held the same meaning as on earth), I looked behind and immediately mentally kicking myself, my abrupt arrival to this planet was not unnoticed, a pillar of smoke came all the way from the sky to the UNA new hope, I turned around to see a few dots in the sky closing in on my location so I ran back to the UNA new hope, closed the hatch and blocked all windows.

"Dammit, I should have been more careful!" I yelled at myself, I turned on screen mode in order to better assess the situation I'm in, these ponies were different than the ones I saw back in the small settlement, they possessed wings and looked awfully similar to pegasi in Greek mythology, I looked closer at the screen, they talked to each other in an unknown language, the one in the middle had a cyan colored fur and rainbow colored mane and tail, I watched in awe as I saw the aliens circling the ship, they were soon accompanied by the rest of the townsfolk, it was fascinating to see how they herd around my ship, I had to write this down…

ENTRY LOG # 2

First contact was not as I expected, my sudden arrival forced me to retreat to the UNA new hope and stay there, just until the initial shock I caused to the locals fade, I waited patiently in the ship for a few days and studied the locals each time they came to the spaceship, occasionally coming out in the early mornings to study the locals from a distance discreetly, the aliens looked shockingly like ponies from earth but with distinctive differences;

One – Their color schemes were a plenty and varied from pony to pony, I've yet to understand the leverage of it though, how can an entire species that sticks out like a sore thumb could rise and become dominant, surely they would be considered easy prey but I digress.

Two – The difference between males and females are again, much more vivid, males are bulkier and slightly larger whilst females have more distinct curves and… eyelashes? Not sure if the letter a valid indication.

Three – their social structure consists of stable economy, their currency is this golden coins I've been calling 'bits' from a lack of better name, they also seem to have building that serves them for education, meaning they are intelligent, the structures are made mainly out of wood and straw with gravel roads, I've been trying to find the equivalent era on earth that best suits this world, the middle age was my best guess.

Four and probably the most interesting – I divided these ponies to three sub species, there are the winged ponies or pegasi, their abilities consist flying (of course) and weather control (?), I've seen them sometimes simply 'grab' clouds and move them around, my guess is that clouds on this world have different qualities than ours, the second and probably the least interesting are the regular ponies or 'earth ponies' since they resemble ponies from earth the best, earth ponies are more adapt to manual labor and have much stronger muscles, but the third sub species is what interested me the most, horned ponies or 'Unicorns', it seems that they have abilities I could only describe as 'magic', I saw them use telekinesis and teleport, it still confuses me as to how they have such advances technology, it took mankind decades to create the standard military telekinesis modules and local teleportation is still only a dream.

I spent the next four days inside my spaceship but it wasn't boring at all, each day, six ponies, females by the looks of it came at noon and waited in front of the ship, I wasn't sure for what purpose, did they know I was in there? The answer to this question was a big fat yes, each day the left me a basket of baked goods, of course I scanned the food thoroughly before consumption and later I would scan myself for any short or long term side effect, luckily nothing happened, just amazingly good food.

Today is the fifth day and I decided to finally greet the mares face to face, let's hope they really are kind and not just luring me out for some kind of trap.

ENTRY LOG # 2 END

Contact

I waited outside my ship just before dawn, my RIG was still on me and I constantly ran diagnostics around me out of boredom. The first thing I scanned was the small river near the landing zone, it showed no peculiar or unfamiliar bacteria or any kind of viruses that could prove fatal to me. Then I scanned the air once more, oxygen. Pure, untainted oxygen with minor pollution, meaning no serious industry, I toyed with the idea of removing my helmet but I preferred to take my findings to the lab and investigate this planet's air components more closely.

I walked back to my ship and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw them… these ponies. These were the six female ponies that brought me food every day, and boy were they a sight to be seen…

Two of each species, and each as unique, two pegasi, two earth and two unicorns; the first winged pony was yellow and had a pink mane and tail, the second winged pony was blue and – to my amazement – rainbow colored mane and tail!

The second pair were the regular ones; the first one had a nice orange coat (I confirmed via referring animals from Earth and cross matched them to horses that they indeed possess thin layers of fur that envelops their bodies) and a blond mane and tail that were tied with small ribbons and hidden under a cowboy hat, or is it a cowpony hat? Never mind! The second earth pony was just as weird, pink coat and darker shade of pink for the mane and tail.

Last but not least were the unicorns; the first one was lavender color with dark purple mane and tail (she had stripes of color running down her mane, I wondered if it was some kind of fashion statement or she simply born that way.) the other unicorn had white coat and purple mane and tails arranged as curls (I bet my money that this was a fashion statement!)

They stopped when they saw my form near the ship, neither of us moved, all held their mouths open and the yellow one let a basket of yet more baked goods to fall from her mouth. I don't know for how long we stood there, deep down I was both excited and terrified. Even more so when the lavender one approached me slowly, the rest started to come closer as well but stopped when the lavender one told them something in a language unknown to me.

The 'mare' approached me once more and I found myself doing the same, we met somewhere in the middle, between the ship and the other mares, she looked up at me (they were really small) and started talking, I couldn't understand a word she said, once she finished talking nonsense I tilted my head to the side, a gesture I hoped she understood, she mimicked my actions before mumbling more incoherent stuff.

She 'levitated' a clipboard (carpentry and basic industrialism) with her natural telekinetic abilities and scribbled something with a pencil. Then I thought of an idea to try and break the miscommunication between us. I tapped once at her clipboard, she flinched from my act but relaxed quickly. I pointed at my wrist or more precisely, at my kinetic module and then pointed towards a large boulder that idly stood undisturbed, during my five days I relayed on calling it Tom.

She tilted her head to the side and I took a few steps towards Tom, I lifted my arm and activated kinetic procedures using my synthesized brain cells…

Oh you don't know what synthesized cells are, are you? They are basically Nano-cells injected straight to the blood stream, they travel the body that way and replace appropriate dead cells and copy their role in the body, humanity even managed to make Nano-cells compatible with brain cells, and since each and every cell is synched to the RIG, it means I can control more than humans ever could over their body, I could even activate, deactivate and even hack other machines and Nano-cells using my own, not to mention the extended life span I have thanks to a very potent immune system and renewable brain cells.

Where I was? Ohh Tom, right…

I activated my kinetic module and pointed it at the boulder, a second later and the boulder floated weightlessly in front of me, I flung him upwards and caught it just before flattening me like the wicked witch of the east (man I loved that old movie).

I placed Tom gently where it stood before and turned to look at the mares, all of which had their mouths open again, they hadn't moved for the last couple of minutes so I tried snapping them back reality.

First I tried the obvious hand wave in front of their faces, nothing… then I tried to stack them on each other (they were surprisingly light) in a pyramid shape, stylish, but not helpful.

I stepped back in defeat, their eyes were fixed and their mouths agape, nothing seemed to work, a warm feeling on my shoulder snapped me back to my senses, it was some sort of liquid, I used my scanners on the foreign substance and waited for results… that's weird, it's… saliva…

But surely that's not one of those movie clichés were there's. A monster. Behind. *gulp* me?

Don't look up! Don't look up! For the love of fucking god do NOT look up!... I looked up…

Jaws open that revealed nasty looking teeth, mane as red as blood and paws! Did I mention the paws?!

I turned my body slowly and took a few steps backwards, it was a fucking lion! And not just any lion, a fucking alien lion with wings and scorpion tail! I had Ailurophobia ever since I fell into the tiger's cage in a zoo when I was a kid during feeding hours!

I quivered like a leaf in the wind when the alien lion monstrosity took his first steps towards me; he was by far a lot bigger than a lion.

He was right in front of me and sniffed my RIG, I was so petrified that I ignored all warning signs that dotted my HUD of an unknown anomaly, the lion then backed off and passed me towards the mares, they were still petrified! Good, eating them meaning I could probably slip back to the ship without being noticed, I mustered all my courage to move my legs and silently making my way to the ship.

I wanted to get the fuck out of there but something stopped me, I can't let innocent life die, can I? I mean, it's simply nature taking its course, right? Then why I feel like such a selfish bastard, I dared to glace back to see that the lion was half way toward the mares, I silently cursed myself and pulled my gun.

"Hey fuck face!" I shouted, the lion turned his head at me and I could swear I heard my teeth clattering.

I pulled out my gun and shot once upwards to try and intimidate it, it failed miserably. Instead of frightening the lion it startled him for a millisecond before roaring in anger and charging in my direction.

I already pointed my gun at him but couldn't pull the trigger, am I tempering with nature? Who gave me the right to take life of another species? Earth was a striking proof that men should not play God. In quick decision I switched to Cryo bullets and shot four times, each shot found its target at the paws of the lion, ice formed around his legs, effectively pinning him in place.

It roared at me a few times while flapping his wings and flailing his tail, an idea struck me and I activated my recorder. After a few seconds of furious roaring I stopped the recording, pumped the speakers to the max and played the latest recorded file. What followed was the mother of all roars, ten times than the one the lion was making.

The lion was quick to cower under my helmet covered gaze. I used my boots to crush the ice beneath him and replayed the roar, the lion ran away so fast he left a cloud of dust in his shape where he was just seconds ago, I laughed, partially because I was genuine relived and partially because I couldn't believe I stood up against my worst fear to save a bunch of aliens I knew nothing about, I was truly a madman.

As sweet relief greeted me I discovered myself dazed and unable to move, I looked down and saw that my legs were visibly shaking, I fell backwards with a thud and laid there, I closed my eyes for a moment and when I opened them I saw the six mares formed a half circle around me.

In my stupid mind I thought it was fine to stand up… apparently not. The lavender unicorn in the middle got startled and fired something out of her horn straight towards my face, my entire suit got haywire and I collapsed, the suit is largely one piece with the exceptions of my helmet, my gloves and my boots so when the suit collapsed I was trapped inside.

Then the screen flicked and I saw the command prompt starting a reboot sequence, a few moments later and the HUD became visible once again, I rose to a sitting position while rubbing my aching head, that shortcut messed with my Nano-cells as well.

"Is it alive?"

"I don't know, I think it's- *gasp* it's standing…"

I heard voices I didn't recognized. I stood up, this time slowly and scanned my surroundings, not another soul for miles except for the six mares I encountered before, they all looked at me with wide eyes and I decided it was best to slowly make my way to the ship, it was obvious I wasn't welcomed in this planet.

"I think you scared him Twilight…"

"I-I didn't mean to-" more voices, but these ones came from the very mares who spoke their own language moments before.

"Ahhhhh… hello?" I said quietly, the mares turned their attention to me, ears perked up and eyes wider than before.

"It spoke…" said the lavender unicorn, something wasn't right here. How could they speak English all of a sudden? And why now? I was probably delirious, or becoming mad, or both.

My head started pounding again, this time more viciously, I grabbed my head and tried to suppress a yell of pain, the Nano-cells were going crazy. Something was interfering with their functions. I had to deactivate them all so none of the Nano-cells in my brain would harm me.

The pain subsided almost immediately and I found myself surrounded by the aliens once more.

"Are you okay?" the lavender one asked me worryingly.

I gave her a soft nod "Yeah I think so- wait a second! How I can understand you?!"

The mare blinked for a second and then her overly pupils became small "Holy Celestia! I can understand you too! Did is so exciting!" she clapped her front hooves together.

One of the other mare – the white unicorn to be exact – trotted straight in front of my face, I jumped back but she trotted closer in response "Your face is weird" she finally said.

I facepalmed before I spoke "It's not my face, it's a helmet, and I'm inside a full body armor." I said as I spread my arms to the sides, she got uncomfortably close once more and sniffed me, first my helmet, then my hands and finally… my groin "Whoa! Back off!" I took a few good steps backwards, gaining a good distance between us.

"Rarity! You should be more careful, we can't know if it's friendly or not!" the lavender mare scolded her white friend.

I still couldn't grasp around the fact that I could understand them all of a sudden but I couldn't let an opportunity like this to slip away. I took a few hesitant steps forward until I was within arm's reach of these horse-like creatures.

"I don't know what's going on but I'm friendly, trust me. All I want is to ask a few questions if I may?"

Without a moment to spare I activated my scanners and the blue rays darted from pony to pony, a quick blue blur tackled me and I found myself pinned to the ground by the blue pegasus "What was this!" she demanded.

"N-Nothing, it was a scanning ray, I simply scanned your body structure I swear!" I said frantically.

"I don't believe you!" roared the pegasus.

"Please believe me" I begged "I was just as curious about you as you were about me. I just wanted to know more, is it a crime?"

My words held nothing but truth and she knew it. With a huff, she got off me and back to the group of mares, I dusted myself from any dirt I had on my suit and turned my attention to the lavender mare. Seeing how she was the least scared and mostly intrigued by me, I decided it would be best to speak to her first rather than her less than hospitable friends.

"Would you be so kind as to let me scan you? I'm sorry I spooked you before and I promise you it won't be painful."

The lavender pony nodded hesitantly so when the blue rays danced across her form, I wasn't surprised when she jumped a little. Now you might ask me why the first thing I do when I meet new sapient beings is to scan them instead of talking or any kind of that bullshit. The answer is quite simple… because fuck you, that's why!

After the initial scanning I approached the lavender mare as slowly as I can and knelt to her eye level "Can I measure your…" I pointed at her horn.

"Sure, I guess."

I clicked my index finger and my thumb together and a small holographic ruler appeared between them. I measured the length of the horn (about three and a half inches = 8.89 centimeters) and added my findings to the overall scan. Once I was finished I moved to the yellow pegasus, she yelped and cowered behind her blue companion "Don't worry, I just want to measure your wings if that's okay."

The yellow mare still cowered behind the blue one. Thankfully, her friend sprawled her wings to the side, I raised my eyebrow at the gesture. One moment she tackles me to the ground and in the next, she willingly helps me. I could only guess it was because she didn't want me anywhere near her timid friend.

Needless to say, I took the opportunity. I took one wing gently with my hands and started the scanning once again. The wings were nothing as I expected, extremely light with a dense amount of feathers that didn't match any kind of wings on birds from earth, the superb structure gave those pegasi exquisite performance, and that's only from the feathers themselves. A small scan on the blue pegasus revealed to me that instead of having hollow bones to minimize weight to support flying, her bones instead were slightly less denser than her fellow unicorns and probably the earth ponies as well, different bones had different density in different parts of the skeleton, the skull and pelvis were the densest bones whilst the wings were the lightest. Now I may not be a scientist, but this is freaking awesome.

I let the pegasus have her wing back and turned to the final specimen I wanted to scan, the pink mare "Can I?" I asked. She nodded feverishly and grinned widely, I liked her. She wasn't scared of me and had this happy if slightly childish behavior. The scan revealed something interesting; the muscle structure was similar to animals except for one particular muscle type; the fast twitch muscle. The fast twitch muscle was what we use for short bursts of energy, because of that, the muscles fatigue very rapidly. But earth ponies possess very powerful fast twitch muscles.

Once I was finished I organized my findings in my built-in archive and faced the lavender unicorn "Thank you so much for this, if there's anything you want, please just ask."

"Not a problem. Say… would you mind coming to my place and answer some of my questions?"

I nodded "Sure, just wait here for a few moments while I organize my stuff back in my ship." I started running back to the 'UNA new hope' and straight towards the computer, not minding one bit about the decontamination process.

I turned on the computer and started writing…

ENTRY LOG # 3

I finally managed to properly scan the ponies and my findings are beyond amazing! The three subspecies of ponies on this planet possess distinctive qualities then what one might expect, for instance;

The earth ponies have extremely high muscle tolerance that, in turn, helps them to run away from predators or even matching their brutality with extreme force, thus making sense them being dominant species.

The pegasi have clear advantage over predators as well. Having wings that can endure any scenario, the pegasi can reach amazing speeds, and I'm only guessing from my findings.

The unicorns though, are a bit of a mystery. At first, my physical scan showed nothing of interest in their horns. They were just useless body parts made out of an extremely dense form of keratin, or are they…

Although the physical scan showed nothing of value about the unicorns' horns, other scans depicted a whole different picture. All the other scans were off the charts near the horn, even seismic charts! It seems that every indicator no matter what is it, is able to pick a reading around the horn. This discovery led me to believe that there's something else about the horn, a new type of energy that humanity never discovered before. This could well explain their use of 'magic', maybe I could find out exactly how they use their horns and develop my own technology.

Today I also learned that although their adventages over feral animals, ponies can still be afraid as I saw today. A feral beast came today and tried to attack me. Luckily I drove it away, it seems that fear is a universal feeling.

Please excuse me for the shortness of this log but I must go now, I promised I'll answer some of the ponies' questions as well…

ENTRY LOG # 3 END

Ten minutes later

I sat on a wooden chair gazing towards the purple 'pony' that sat across me, she led me to her house that was located inconveniently in the middle of the settlement, countless pairs of eyes turned to see me as I walked by, she checked her pencil and cleared her throat before speaking.

"So what is your name?"

Basic concept of the RIG (taken from 'Dead Space'):

EDIT - Another inspiration for the RIG in the story, forgot to mention that before...

Youtube Video

My name is Ben

"So what is your name?"

"Benjamin, Benjamin Cross, and you are?"

"Twilight Sparkle, can I ask you a few more questions Benjamin?"

"Please, call me Ben, and yes – only if you let me ask a few questions of my own."

"Fair enough – My first question is quite obvious; what are you?"

"I'm a Homo sapiens or – in much simpler meaning – a human."

"Interesting… you don't mind me writing as we speak, are you Ben?"

"Not at all, I record this entire conversation myself on my RIG"

"That's my second question actually, what is this… RIG, do you mean the suit?"

"Well… it is a suit but it's actually a resource integration gear."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Of course, just a second…" I pushed a small button located in the back of my neck, a few noises later and my helmet folded itself into a compartment positioned inside the chest plate I wore.

Seeing her overly vivid eyes go wide was almost funny… almost, I let a snicker escape my lips as I saw the mare scribbling something in her notebook, from the wide brushes against the paper I guessed she tried to sketch my face, considering it's the first body part I revealed to her… don't even think about it you perverts!

"Ahh, much better, this RIG is nice an' all, but the helmet is like a furnace" ,Suddenly her scribbling stopped just as I stopped speaking, she looked at me and opened her mouth to say something but all I could hear were incomprehensible mumbles, like she suddenly switched language.

"Uhh Twilight? Is everything okay?" I asked the lavender mare, turns out my question only made things worse, her mumbles got even more frantic and she used her 'magic' to levitate a few books and started flipping through the pages intently.

My eyes went wide as realization hit me, I quickly pressed the button on the back of my neck and my helmet reconstructed itself around my face swiftly.

"…Anything, I don’t understand what happened."

"Twilight?"

"Ben! What a relief, when you started speaking in that weird language I thought something happened."

"Wait, I started mumbling in different language? It was you who talked nonsense."

Twilight blinked a few times before opening her mouth, but just as she did it she stopped, mouth agape, her open mouth turned into a smile and I could've swore I saw light bulb lighting above her.

"That's it! Your helmet."

Realizing where she's going with her theory I went through the archive in my suit, "Well ahead of you Twilight…" I started zipping through files when something caught my attention, there was an unidentified folder in the language translation section, I scrolled down between the different languages, "Let's see here; Mandarin, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, UNNAMED… wait what?"

I took a second glance at the folder before opening it, inside there were infinite amounts of scribbles I simply did not understand.

"What is it ben?"

"Take a look for yourself." I said as I projected a small section from the folder's contents on the floor between us, she examined the weird symbols with growing interest until she finally spoke.

"I don't know how or why but that's Equestrian writing."

"H-How – never mind, what it says?"

Twilight shrugged, "Nothing really, it's just a bunch of random words."

"Are those words happen to appear from a simple structure to an advanced one? With a definition of each word near it?" I asked, now with a sudden sense of revelation.

Twilight silently gasped, "How did you know?"

"That's how every other language is codded into my suit, it's built in a way so when someone speaks to me, the suit automatically translates it, how your native language found itself in my suit is beyond me." I crossed my arms in deep thinking; this whole first encounter was not as I expected to be.

"Maybe it was from the time…"

"That you blasted my head?" I interrupted her; she lowered her head as her ears flattened.

"I said I'm sorry." She drew circles with her left hoof, MUST. FIGHT. CUTENESS. CAN'T. HOLD, ANYMORE.

Twilight gasped when I lifted her up from the floor and embraced her in a hug, "You're so fluffy and cute, I can't control myself, it's like holding a marshmallow!"

"Can't… breathe…"

My eyes shot open when my mind caught up with my actions, I quickly let go of Twilight, who immediately gasped for air, "Sorry, heh, heh, I got a little carried away."

"A little?!" she shot her head at me.

"Okay I'm sorry, can we please resume the questioning?"

"Yes, of course – my third question is about the thing you used to get here, what is it?" Twilight asked the question with such fascination, I thought deeply for a few moments before answering.

"It's called the UNA new hope, a spacecraft designed to travel in – well, space."

"Why would you need such a vessel, isn't your home world big enough?" she interrupted.

"Well, no…" the question was innocent at heart but still rather painful "…The human race expanded far beyond control, the estimated number of humans living on my home world grows beyond eleven billion, not to mention all the colonies."

I heard the faint sound of a pencil heating the floor and I lifted my gaze to meet Twilight's, her eyes were wide open and her mouth agape,

"What"

"E-Eleven billion, that's insane!" she exclaimed.

I raised my eyebrow before continuing "Why? How many of your kind there are on this planet?"

"Barely above the ten million and that's including the other races." She answered.

I thought back to one of my grandpa's stories, he usually told me about the past and how people in ancient times lived, he himself wasn't alive back in the days but his great grandpa was.

"Twilight… the reason why I'm here is because the over population. Our planet can barely support the amount of humans in terms of food and resource, and while we did succeed in converting entire planets into huge farm fields, we found next to nothing in terms of resources."

Twilight was quite, very quiet, she no longer wrote everything I said and instead listened carefully, I took it as a sigh to continue my story.

"In recent years we discovered how to create one-way rifts between dimensions, I was one of the few who ventured trough them and here I am." I said while spreading my arms to the sides, "This world, this… Perfect world, almost too good to be true."

"Ben… what is exactly the reason for your arrival?" Twilight asked, I could hear the worry in her tone and couldn't help but sigh.

"Find, locate, populate." Three words, was all that could've left my mouth, three words, words that were told countless times by my superiors, words that carved themselves into my mind, words that held the future of my species.

"You- You mean here, in Equestria, b-but the amount of humans, and what about us?" Twilight stuttered, visibly frightened by the idea of humans coming to Equestria in much larger numbers.

"The military told us exactly what to do in a case of first contact." I began to say as my words felt bitterer by the second, "Only two options, enslavement, or elimination…"

Twilight shot upright from her sitting position and slowly backed away while a small glow came from her horn, I tried to say something only to be interrupted buy Twilight.

"WHY, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT, WHY WOULD ANYPONY DO THAT?" she yelled, I tried to find the words and when I did, I felt even more ashamed.

"I have no choice, right as we speak, countless families are starving, do you know what it's like to see your loved ones dies in your hands, to know that their bodies will become ashes because there's no place to bury them, do you!"

Twilight stopped backing away from me but her gaze was still a cold one "You're right, I don't know what it's like, but I won't stand and do nothing if I can help it!"

Her words left me speechless, it was true… enslaving or killing another species just so we can ruin yet another planet, nobody deserved that kind of fate.

But still… I lost my family because of starvation, my mother, my father and my sister, I was born into a withering world with no future and now… I found a new planet, a new hope, and yet, I couldn’t do it, I clutched my hands as tears began to pour from my eyes.

I felt a soothing sensation envelope my armor and when I looked up, I realized I was crying into twilight's shoulder "I'm afraid I never experienced the pain of losing somepony, but know that you're not alone anymore, I can't help you find a home for your species here but I can help you." she said softly and gently, it reminded me of my mother and I smiled and the thought.

Funny… a twenty three year old man sobbing into a shoulder of an alien race almost half my size, my helmet concealed my face but I did not care, I simply sat there with Twilight.

After the small confrontation things went much smoothly, I told Twilight all I know about space travel in general and spaceships in particular and she in return, she told me about her home world or 'Equestria' as she calls it.

The ruling body was some sort of Semi-democratic diarchy, two sisters, two princesses that rule together over the land, it was all rather similar to earth… until Twilight told me about their reach of control, according to her, Celestia, the elder sister, can raise and lower the sun and Luna, the younger sister, does the same with the moon.

It was a rather… 'Original' theory about the orbit of the star around the planet but I wasn't convinced, this whole 'Magic' Twilight explained seemed a bit made up but who am I to judge.

The recent yawns and setting sun confirmed the need for sleep to the both of us and after bidding farewell to Twilight, I made my way back towards the UNA new hope, as I reached the top of the hill that separated the town from the huge field that now housed my huge ship, I couldn't help but feel even more confused.

I stepped into the ship and strait to the decontamination chamber, after deemed 'clean' I walked all the way to the cockpit and set my eyes on the screen monitor; I pressed a few codes and was presented by an activation code.

It was the beacon signal, if I press this it will notify back to earth along with my findings, I was about to press enter when something stopped me, something in the back of my mind prevented me from doing that, I cursed myself in silent and closed the window.

I retreated to my chambers and let the armor fall off me, as I lay on the soft bed, I couldn't help but grunt at the uncomfortable feeling, being a soldier, it took me time to get used for the soft bed and warm meals.

I lay on my back and try to assess my position, my conflicted mind took me to the begging of this day, just when I was about to make my first contact…