The Tau quickly learnt that there was a pony much like Valar, and much. Much worse. A few were fine but the main group of friends Twilight had were, different. Upon arriving back into Ponyville, the Tau agreed to drop off the body outside of the forest where they had appeared and bury him at a later date, more appropriately, right after this party they were supposedly having. The lights in the library were off when they walked in, but the sun was still out, setting as it was, and it was easy to see the ponies all standing around preparing to start the party, nor did it help the fact these ponies appeared to have glowing eyes, on top of the fact many gasped when the Tau walked in before Twilight. The lights flickered on and all anyone saw was a pink blur and a very hyper and pink pony appeared in front of Aloh, who stared at the pony who spoke incredibly fast, no one got what she said, Aloh did pick up words like 'welcome' and 'gray', presumably about his dull armour he wore. But for all he knew that was the only thing she had said, the rest being some long forgotten language, and it was quite possibly so. Aloh attempted to block up the pink creature as the other Tau walked around the library, swapping out their books or wondering around the inside of the tree, there were quite a few other ponies here but none made any attempt to speak to the aliens, nor did the Tau speak to them, the ponies just talking in hushed groups or listening to the music that seemed to be coming from, well, everywhere. Even though there was nothing obvious it would come from.
Var was talking with Twilight as was Sven, Tyrion was among the crowd of fire warriors although not reading he stodd with gun ready and the safety clicking on and off. Usually whenever a pony would walk by would he turn the safety off. Aloh grunted to himself when he noticed he was alone, surrounded by pastel ponies and being bombarded with phrases and questions by the pink thing in front of him. He noticed it had stopped talking and Aloh looked down at the pony. It was bright pink, too bright for it to be natural, with bright blue tinted eyes and a slightly deeper shade of pink hair, it was bundled up in a large mess of pink, as was its tail.

"Sooooo?" The pink thing asked, it sounded female, which Aloh really wasn't surprised about.

"So?" The sergeant asked, voice muffled through his helmet. The pink thing tilted her head a little, keeping the creepy smile she had. Then looked to the warriors legs.

"Why do you guys have hooves? Any why are their no females in your race?" It asked, Aloh was going to guess her name was something to do with her sept mark all the ponies seem to have but a few small ones. None of the royal guards seemed to have any which seemed odd, being such high rank Aloh would have thought they'd belong to some sept or another. I shall call her.. Ah screw it, her name is now Terrace, that's a human name right?

"We do have females, just not many in the fire caste. And none with us now." Aloh paused, looking around to spot the water cast member sitting on some chair in the corner ignoring anything that went to talk to him. Aloh smiled. "Except her over there." Aloh said and pointed.

"She doesn't look very female Mr alien man. She looks just like you." Terrace pointed out.

"Well that's incredibly xenophobic of you to say, but trust me. She may not look very feminine, but she is. Just needs someone. Or some-pony." Terrace's face lit up when Aloh said that and looked at Valar with a face of nightmare. "To help her show her true colours." Doing something like this isn't usually a Tau thing, but still. It is Valar though, the little shab deserves it. Terrace quickly disappeared and appeared next to some marshmellow looking pony with purple hair, they spoke a little, Terrace pointing hooves at Aloh and then Valar. Marshmellow nodded and the two disappeared. Aloh laughed to himself, stopping only when he heard a voice behind him.

"That wasn't very nice." Aloh heard. The sergeant turned to see a flying cyan coloured pony with medium cut rainbow hair. She had two hooves crossed but didn't look very angry. "Even I can tell that alien isn't a girl. And he seemed awfully unhappy." The pony said, looking to Valar.

"That's because he isn't liked by anyone because he's an asshole who only likes royals, anything below is just scum to him." Aloh replied, folding his arms. He smiled slightly.

"Woah woah woah, what are you sayin' about royals?" Rainbow pony replied. Aloh raised an eyebrow.

"I take it you like royalty. I mean, yes I can see why, you're planets Aun is a very nice person, well. Horse. Pony. Thing. Just, the thing with Valar, his job as a diplomat is to make peace with the planets commander or governor and bring them peacefully into the Tau Empire, he has minor jobs as well, but that is the water castes main goal. Valar here, he would rather turn the planet against everything, make them loyal to just him. He is corrupt, manipulative and should never have been given the rank he has. How he managed to get here with us I will never know." Aloh replied.

"Of course I like the royals, Celestia and Luna are great ponies. Cadence is good too, but not as good. We're ponies by the way, try not to forget, although I'm a Pegasus. See, wings." Rainbow Pony twisted at an awkward angle to show Aloh her wings. They were flapping at what seemed to be a very random speed, sometimes fast, sometimes slower. As much as you don't like him, you shouldn't say that about one of your friends." She added after staring at her wings. Wait, there were two, no three Auns on this world? Interesting Aloh could feel himself try to make notes, only without the paper, or pen to use.

"I'll tell you one thing Rainbow Pony, he is about as far from a friend as he can get. i won't class him as an enemy since he is still Tau, much to my knowledge anyway." Aloh muttered, pointing a gloved hand at the pony.

"It's Rainbow Dash, not 'Rainbow Pony' that was my aunt. why wouldn't he be what you call Tau?"Aloh smiled at that, so far he really had be right about his first glances at this world. Most of them were female and most had names to do with their sept markings. Convenient, too convenient. Aloh just nodded and turned to Valar, he was currently fighting off Marshmellow and Terrace. He still deserved it.

"Of course, sorry about that Rainbow Dash. I don't have any evidence that he isn't one of us, but there is always hope yes?" Aloh asked. Sven walked out from the crowd. He had some weird painting on his chest plate over the Tau sign. It looked like four green hearts all on a different angle to the next, making swirl pattern.

"What in all names Tau is that Sven." Aloh asked, pointing at the already dried paintwork, it looked pretty good, all things considered.

"Me and a few others were talking to some pony by the name of Art Work and he offered to give us a, 'cutie mark'. Some of use agreed and after having a quick conversation with us, he agreed what they would be. I got this clover thing, he didn't say what it meant, just that it fits me." Sven replied.

"You got a, cutie mark? Like those weird marks the ponies have?" Aloh asked, Sven looked around and smiled.

"Of course, we gotta fit in haven't we?" Sven said, Aloh face palmed.

"Var will kill you when he sees that you know." Aloh muttered, Sven just laughed and looked around, not picking out Var straight off.

"Oh he knows. He was about to get one to, just because he could. But Twilight wanted to talk to him, probably about the dragon." Sven replied. Aloh's mouth dropped.

"Shas'O Var Brightsword, of the T'ros sept." Aloh paused. "HE. Got a painted cutie mark?!" Aloh asked, almost shouting, a few ponies looked Aloh's way, but his outburst didn't disrupt the party too much. Sven just smiled again.

"Find, fuck it." Aloh shouted, Sven flinched, as the same with Var, it wasn't like Aloh to swear. But a few did drop, more than Var. "I'll get myself a fucking cutie mark." Aloh said, storming off in a random direction. Sven laughed as another fire warrior with a grenade cutie mark appeared.

"What's got him all angry?" The warrior asked, he had a piece of food the ponies seemed to be eating. Biting into it, the fire warrior spat multicoloured crumbs everywhere. Staring at the sergeant walk toward a red coated pony with a paint brush in his mouth.

"He is pissed at the cutie marks. He's going to get one. What on T'au is that?" Sven replied, then staring at the food.

"Ah. What this thing? It's what the ponies are calling a 'cupcake' pretty good. Better than the meat rations we get in space anyway. Very sweet though." The warrior replied, taking another bite. Sven shrugged and walked off to get one. Then paused and turned to the warrior again.

"That's not the right pony is it, the one Aloh is with?" Sven asked, the other fire warrior just barked a laugh.

"Of course not, she's over there." He said, pointing toward three other fire warriors lined up with a pink pony painting on their chest plates. Sven just smiled and walked off, to try to talk to some of these equines.

Author's Note

So Sven got a 4chan cutie mark.. Not much else to report. If you guys think of a good idea for this, or find a good cover art, do share
Gonna split this in two parts because there will be a big bit with Var/twilight next chapter, will be the same time this one was based around