Kor'doi: Air city*

The train journey was boring and uncomfortable, even with the Tau sitting or even lying down, there was much room for them to move, a few had actually opened a window and climbed onto the roof as previously planned but as soon as a tunnel was spotted, that idea was quickly dropped, Twilight Sparkle was sitting between Var and Aloh, who had been fairly silent the entire trip, most of the others had as well, besides the occasional question to Var about their books, he would quickly point at Twilight and she would answer as best she could. Most of the train was silent and Twilight was still the only pony on board the carriage. Possibly the entire train, no one had made a move to check. The driver hadn't seemed to care and nothing had come into the carriage. Sven made his annoyance about that very clear without minutes.

"Aren't there usually drones, or in your case Twilight, horses, who walk around and give out food and liquid?" He asked, the purple horse looked up at the human, holding his helmet in one hand and a grenade in the other. Throwing the grenade up into the air slightly and catching it.

"Sometimes, but Canterlot isn't that far from Ponyville, so I doubt they would." Twilight replied, Sven nodded and looked out of the window for a moment.

"I don't suppose you brought any food with you commander?" Sven asked without looking at the older Tau. Var grunted and felt around his body for anything.

"Do I look like I have any food, I'm sure the Aun will give us some if you ask, I doubt food will be a problem here, just not what we are used to." Var replied. Twilight peaked up with interest.

"What is it you are used to?" She asked.

"Well the planet we are from, T'ros, is a mining colony, the small amounts of food they have is processed, crap meat. But I doubt a world full of ponies and horses will have much on them. During our space flights we are used to rations of condensed proteins and the like, so no real food as it were." Sven explained. Twilight went a bit pale at the mention of meat but said nothing.

"Well you are right about us not eating meat, but I'm sure you could survive on the various fruits and vegetables we grow here. I doubt you would eat flowers or grass like we do. And please, we are all ponies here, the only horses are miles north." Twilight eventually said, then looked to Var with a light bulb above her head, figuratively speaking of course.

"You said you didn't have any magic and that those you knew were considered your enemies, why is that?" She asked, obviously trying to avoid any talk toward meat or the reasoning behind the Tau eating it, not that she didn't know of races eating meat, dragons mostly did, as well as the griffins. Aloh spoke up first.

"Well Twilight, us Tau never did find the magics of the warp worthy of being used for The Greater Good, so we ignored it, to some extent, yes we used some jump points to get our fleets around quickly, but nothing more than that, we have no warriors capable of casting such spells as we don't have the means the other races do. With no way to officially make a standing alliance with the humans, and most other races with that capability out of the picture, we survive without it. The only race we could gain some knowledge from without an unnecessary firefight would be the elder, but their numbers dwindle everyday and I highly doubt without a trained diplomat of the water caste, we would be missing out ofpn any knowledgeable gains." Aloh explained, looking at the skinny Po'el sitting on his own at the back of the carriage.

"You could try to learn some here, if you are allowed to stay, which from your actions so far, is very likely." Twilight replied. Aloh was shaking his head with a half smile.

"From what I have seen it is you horned ponies that cast magic, noticing it from you and a few of the townsfolk with horns. As you can see.-" Aloh stopped and pointed to his forehead. "-No horns." He added. Leaning back on the seat that clearly wasn't made for a Tau.

"Also, you keep mentioning these different races like they were nothing, and these 'castes' of yours, and the Greater Good. What do they all mean, I wish you could explain." Twilight replied quickly, hopefully. Var and Aloh shared a glance and Sven just smiled and grunted.

"I fear we may have to sit you down and talk about this in the near future, unless I am guessing wrong, that is our destination." Var said quickly, pointing out the window at the glowing white mountain city. Twilight almost pressed her face against it and stared, after a few minutes of this, she came back and looked at the Tau.

"Now, you may expect some, hostilities from the ponies here, they are a lot more, uptight than those of Ponyville and we have recently discovered a threat to our land so ponies may be on the alert for the enemy. Don't expect to see ponies tackle you in the street however, that being said. Same rules apply, no matter how much a pony threatens you or what not, let me deal with it. I can take the fall for any crimes. I feel like you all being new here, and about to see the princess no less, will just mean a warning bell to go off for Celestia about your stay here." Twilight said. Var nodded.

"We understand Twilight, lead the way to your Celestial. We shall follow, Tau, fall in." Shas'O Var replied and made a fist gesture, the Tau folded the pages of their books and stood, either holding the pony books or putting them in their packs they wore. One fire warrior opened a protein bar and began to crunch on it. Svn glared at the warrior.

"I thought no one had any food." The human grunted. The Tau gulped down and turned to him.

"Si, but you only asked commando Var for food. Not me." The warrior replied, clearly not from T'ros from the accent, one of the secondary expansion planets most likely.

"Fine, who has any food?" Sven asked the warriors, he was silenced as eight fire warriors simultaneously opened up their packs and threw various food items at the bewildered human. Who swore in response with: "Fuck you guys." The Tau began to pick up their food, someone had thrown a gun for some reason.

As the train haltered the doors opened and Twilight stepped out into the autumn air of Canterlot, much colder and much thinner this high up than the lowlands where Ponyville resides, she trotted towards the large white castle with the thirteen Tau slowly following behind, the ponies awaiting to board the train began to trot backwards away from the train, staring, mouths agap at the gray warriors before them. The group made their way through the city fairly easily, gaining some glances from ponies but not too much, getting onto the castle grounds was a little harder as Twilight had to explain why such menacing figures were walking into the castle. They passed security with no worries and Aloh began to wonder why the guards hadn't asked for them to hand their weapons in. Var guess it was because the only recognizably one would be the sheathed bonding knives each fire warrior had, the pulse guns didn't look at all scary unless one knew what they were and the side arms were hidden or holstered as well, based on the technology levels he had seen thus far They reached some wooden double doors with a white pony standing guard, horn glowing.

"Twily, how are you, they didn't harm you did they?" The pony ran to Twilight and they hugged for a moment.

"No no, they are rather friendly actually, Shining Armour, met Var, Var this is my brother." Twilight replied smiling. Var lent down and put a hand out.

"Pleasure to meet you." Var said, the pony nodded and stepped back, Var stood back how he had been and the white pony opened the doors.

A few comments followed that.

"Is that.. A..?"
"Yes, I believe it is."
"They have a Hammerhead?"
"With a railgun?!"
"And drones."
"Its green guys."

Var face palmed.

Author's Note

So timing was discovered today, Season four is when this is based, just before the finale. Why Twilight doesn't have wings is solely because of me not deciding on timing. I may put her alicorn-ing in for plot or may keep it out, yet to decide.