Dal'ra: Wake up*

Commander Shas'O Var, leader of the fire warriors of the sept of the world T'ros, was sleeping. His head hurt from the battle previous, but after some much needed rest, he would be fine.
At least, that's what he had been hoping on.
Var felt something poke him. It wasn't a hard poke, but enough to disrupt his sleep, not enough to wake the commander. He muttered some unintelligent something and rolled over.
After a second, the poke came again, harder. The commander silently woke from his sleep, not opening his eyes.

"Do y'all think it’s dead?" A very squeaky, small voice asked. The commander raised an eyebrow and decided to listen to the very human sounding voice.

"Don't be silly, it can't be dead Applebloom. Otherwise it wouldn't be moving." Another, more annoying voice replied. Wait, did they say Applebloom? Var was no expert but that didn't sound like an average human name. A couple of questions came into his mind, one being. Why were there humans in his quarters? The only human aboard the Tau ship were the two twin Gue'vesa in his personal squad. And they didn't know anyone called 'Applebloom'. Var ignored it and tried to sleep again, before feeling a poke in his ribs.

"Scootaloo stop poking it! We won't get our Cutie Marks in Alien discovery if you keep poking it to death!" The first voice, Applebloom shouted. There was a strange noise, it sounded like a stick hitting dirt, but. Var was on a ship, there was no dirt here. He opened his eyes.
Another question followed that, why was he wearing his armour. He began to get up, what on Ta'u was happening? Through the helmet visor he saw he wasn't on his ship anymore, sitting now, on what looked to be a field, something similar to that of the plains of Tau'n, there were a few. Houses? In the distance and rather a lot of life signs were being picked up from the helmet. Three were alarmingly close.

"Hey mister, you shouldn't get up so quickly. Are you okay?" A new voice asked, Var turned toward the very annoying voices and paused. In front of him, were three, very colourful, and very small, ponies. As in, horses. But not horses.

"What are you?" Var asked, master of speech as always. The ponies looked confused.

"We were gonna ask you the same mister? How come you know Equestrian?" One asked. There was an orange one, with. With wings? A normal pony in the middle, then a white one with a horn on its head.

"My name is Shas'O Var. Commander of the T'ros and personal captain of a squad of twelve Shas and Gue'vesa. Do you know where my team are?" Var replied, standing up completely, he noticed his grenade belt was still attached, the weight of a pulse carbine was on his back and the bonding knife was at his belt. Why was he armoured, and armed? He had certainly gone to sleep without armour.

"That's a pretty funny name mister. I'm Scootaloo, this is Applebloom-" The normal pony bowed. "-And Sweetie Belle." The horned creature bowed.

"I see, where is my team? Where am I, and why am I in my armour?" Var asked, getting more confused by the second.

"You're team? Oh I think they're at Twilights. She told nopony to go in til she had spoken to the princess. But we came out and found you. Guess that means there are more still out there somewhere. And what's armour?" The middle filly replied. Var smiled under his helmet and reached a gloved hand up to his helmet, the ponies flinched and stepped back. Clicking onto the release Var began to twist the helmet off. After a stream of steam, it came off in his hand, instantly he felt the warmth of the planets sun and the fresh air he was so unused to after so long in space. He closed his grey eyes and smiled at the warmth. One of the ponies gasped.

"One of my cousins is that shade of blue." Applebloom commented. Var looked down at the time ponies.

"Tell me, what are you?" Var asked.

"What kinda question is that? We're ponies, from Equestria!" The horned one, Sweetie Belle replied, slightly offended. Var nodded.

"Ponies? Like, horses?" A few nods. "I see, there aren't many left where I'm from, let alone ones that talk."

"Where are you from mister?" Var nodded again, they obviously aren't from my galaxy, they would know about the war if so. But even if they don't know about the Greater Good, lesser beings can be taught. Var thought. He put a four fingered glove to his chin and looked to the ponies again.

"I am taking this surprising well, waking up in a land far from the war. With talking horses and in full armour. Can you show me to my team?" Var asked. This was so weird, but the sooner he regrouped with his team, the sooner they could leave, or at least spread the word of the Greater Good. Var had heard mention of a princess. So they had Aun's here? Celestials? Perhaps they could help the Tau warriors. They had done before.

"I don't think Twi will be happy, she seems scared about the last batch, I dunno what her reaction to a 'co-man-duh' would be like." Applebloom replied. Wait.

"Who is this Twi?" Var asked.

"Oh, Twilight Sparkle, most people call her Twilight, or Twi for short. She is the town librarian and the one looking after your friends." Sweetie Belle replied. Ah, so they had nicknames following Tau lore. This would be fairly easy. If Twi is the common one, or at least a high ranking one, it would probably be respectful to call these ponies the same. Var thought and nodded again. He thought to himself like that a lot.

"Come then Twi'Sweetie Belle, Twi'Applebloom, Twi'Scootaoo. Lead the way." Var ordered, the ponies looked confused for a moment, Var thought about asking if they were higher ranking than Twi level, but thought nothing of it when the trio lead on. Something hit him again. Twi'Light is the librarian? Librarians Var had fought before and their unnatural powers were not something he wanted his team around, especially if they're were being held captive. Var grabbed the gun on his back and charged it.

"If this Twi'Light is the Librarian you say she is. My team may need me quickly. Librarians are twisted, evil creatures of the Gue'la race, and not to be underestimated." Var said and picked up the pace, the ponies did to.

As they neared what now seemed to be a small, temporary colony, more and more, larger horses began to appear, giving Var some strange glances at first, but nothing more. Var looked to the three ponies in front of him, who were constantly looking behind them to see if the commander still followed. I guess it is either these three ponies that the other members of this sept deem me nonthreatening, or they have already seem my race, which means they aren't lying. Var thought.

Rather quickly, Var noticed a rather large tree in front of him, which seemed to be where the ponies were leading him. It looked so fresh and clean, completely unalike to the horrific sights he was so used to. Var hadn't seen a tree since the holograms back on T'ros. Never a real one. The commander paused and put his helmet on quickly, after a few pictures he took the helmet off, with some confused looks from the three Twi's, they continued.
They finally reached the front door of the tree, it wasn't Tau made, nor did it resemble any kind of human design. The door seemed wooden and wouldn't open automatically, Var couldn't see inside the tree but could hear the muffled voices of Tau and others alike. He put out a hand to open the door, noticing the small crowd of horses nearby. Staring. Still holding his pulse carbine in one hand, he pushed open the door.
Upon seeing the contents of the tree, Var fainted. The last thing he heard was a Tau order and the screams of the three Twi's.

They are all here. This better be a dream. He thought before passing out completely.

Author's Note

So here we meet the first Tau of the group, Commander Shas'O Var (Bright sword). He believes himself to be fairly intelligent, and rightly so, but sometimes misses out the obvious points. I don't really know how well I've put the Tau in Equestria right now, but next chapter will have some real reactions. When Var figures this isn't a dream.