Chapters View Online
Chapter 1.2: Inception (Nov. 27, 2014 Revision)
The sound of a voice slowly carried to him from afar. He found himself standing, on something firm; looking down, he saw a bed of what looked to be clouds. The sky around was various hues of a deep purple and black, and strange screen-like objects were floating in the air around him. The voice came again, sounding much closer this time. A form began to materialize out of the mist, slowly taking shape. He stared in fascination at the thing which had appeared in front of him; it stared back. It looked quite a bit like the creature he'd first encountered, albeit with some visual differences. It was far larger; it was colored a deep blue; and it had a massive horn-like structure poking out of its forehead. He slowly backed away as it approached, only to stop dead in his tracks when it spoke with a massively loud voice.
"What are you?" the strange creature asked. "We have never seen something quite like you before."
"What are you?" David replied. He continued to back away as it slowly advanced.
"Answer our question and we will answer yours."
David took a deep breath. "I'm talking to a freaking alien. Okay." he said to himself before turning to face the massive blue horse-thing. "I am a diplomat."
"You certainly are a very peculiar diplomat," said the creature as it sped up its approach.
"Well, I come from a peculiar place. Now answer my question; what on earth are you?"
"If you are a diplomat, we are a ruler."
"What of?"
"Where are you a diplomat from?" it pressured.
"Somewhere that used to be very far away from here."
"Used to be?" it inquired, stepping closer.
"It's not exactly anywhere anymore."
"What happened?"
"The end of the world."
The blue horse-thing stopped dead in its tracks. "What?" it asked. "The world has not ended! It is still young -"
"The end of my world."
"What do you mean, 'your world'?"
David smiled; after all, it was always nice to try to make a good impression on the king of the horses or whatever this was. "I come from a massive empire, one that used to span multiple thousands of worlds and stars. It was a good time; hundreds of worlds were within easy reach if you had the credits." He sighed as his fake smile began to falter. "Then Tyrus IV happened."
"Tyrus IV? I can't say I ever heard of that," the creature said.
"I'm not surprised. Most people in the empire hadn't, either. That is, until the Link."
"I do not believe your story," the creature said, eying him suspiciously. "You are making up terminology to try and entertain me to your beliefs."
"I swear to whatever religious idol you believe in that I am not lying. Why I'm telling you the truth I don't know, but I am."
"Good." the creature said. "We had a truth spell on you since we found you in this plane," it said, beginning to walk in circles. "We just needed to make absolute certain we weren't being lied to."
"Well, you aren't."
"Continue," the creature said firmly.
"Anyway, the Link is widely considered as the best and worst thing to happen to mankind. It was the best because, by connecting to it, we obtained technology far beyond what we'd developed - easy antimatter containment and production, far smaller and more powerful jump drives that made the minimum effective size of a warp-capable ship drop from three kilometers to thirty meters, and batteries powerful enough to power infantry coilguns, just to name a few examples."
"I do not know any of these things of which you speak. What is antimatter? What do you mean, 'warp-capable' ships? What's a coilgun?"
Ignoring the questions, he continued. "It was the worst thing because it pissed off a millenia-old massive empire, due to how our relatively brute-forced methods of connecting to it may have caused ripples throughout the network that may have eventually led to hundreds of inhabited planets shedding their atmospheres," he said with a sheepish grin. "Of course, nobody knew what happened, so when a fleet of Ceryllians showed up at one of our rimworlds and burnt the surface, we had no clue what was happening. Instead of just taking the punishment and acknowledging we did something wrong, which would probably have saved our bacon, we decided to declare full-on war."
The blue creature's mouth hung open. "That is... certainly an interesting tale."
"It lasted for about five years, with nearly every battle ending in a decisive defeat. The few that weren't decisive defeats were either mostly-defeats or pyrrhic victories, and those were often followed by complete defeat. They steamrolled through our empire, eventually coming to our homeworld of Earth. It only took them thirty minutes to burn it to the point where the major continents were indistinguishable from the seas of molten rock that were once the seafloor. Nearly seventeen billion people died that day alone, not to mention the nigh-trillion who lived in the rest of the Empire."
"That is... Wow." was the creature's only reaction.
"Yep. My people and I are the only ones out of all of Humanity left, and that's why we're here."
"Well, then. I suppose I owe you an explanation of who and what I am."
"Yeah, what are you?"
"I am Princess Luna," the creature said, flaring its wings. "I am a pony, an alicorn to be specific, and I am the ruler of the night, the moon, and the mind."
"Huh. And where the hell are we?"
"Your consciousness," Luna replied. "You can manipulate this with your mind if you so wish. For example, try to create something - anything - in your hoof... thing? Is that even called a hoof anymore?"
"It's called a hand," he said as he stared at his hand. Not a second later, a small object appeared in his hand. "I always wanted one of these," he said to himself. "But the fleet was like 'no, it's too expensive for something so useless.'"
"What is it?" Luna asked as she looked at the tiny black thing.
"It's a holographic laser pointer. Watch this." He pointed it in a random direction, and a solid red beam of light flew out of the tip. "Pretty neat, huh?"
"I can certainly see why this would be considered as unnecessary in a time of crisis."
"Yeah, I know. Still, though, it is pretty amazing."
"Indeed."
"I wonder what else I can do?" David said to himself. A familiar scene popped up in his head; he decided to project it into the plane.
The haze around them cleared, and the inky dark of space shone through. A deep rumbling filled the air - or lack thereof - as a massive silver vehicle passed by. It was dotted with small black dots and windows, and wide hollow tubes tipped the front. A dome sat near the back of the vessel, and behind that thick streams of blue exhaust coming out of enormous pipes. A deep boom resonated as the forward tubes lit up with yellow light before some yellow dot went sailing off into the distance.
"What is this majestic being?" Luna said.
"It's not alone."
As he said this, brilliant flashes of light erupted. More vessels appeared where the flashes of light had been, bursting their warp bubbles and popping into space. Similar things were happening off in the distance. Almost immediately, the muzzles of the massive ships lit up with yellow light, and a swarm of yellow projectiles went flying. It was answered with a barrage of green lasers coming from three massive objects. They appeared like flattened spheres, painted the same shade as the dark void. The battlefield lit up with fire from them as they began to annihilate the fleet. Suddenly, the viewing platform lurched. A tunnel in space and time opened in front of them, and the scene faded away.
"What in Tartarus was that?" Luna said, shocked.
"That was the battle, or at least the beginning of the battle, of Sensil XIV. It was probably the bloodiest battle, save for the death of Earth, in the entire war. Nearly eight hundred ships were lost on our side alone; while the losses on their side were much higher, there was still no hope we could win."
"What were those massive things?"
"Titans," David said with disgust. "Massive behemoths of warships. Nothing we had could penetrate their shields, except for the Battle of Earth when we managed to bounce a shot off their armor before it came back online."
"Will they find you here?"
"Hopefully not. If they do, we're all dead. Oh, by the way, one question for you: how in the name of all that is holy can you understand me?"
"I copied over my knowledge of Equestrian to your brain and took your knowledge of 'English.' It was incomplete, however; it provided me with the basic ideas needed, but didn't go into most other types of memory-connected words."
"That's... mildly disturbing."
"Well, goodbye, Mr..."
"David Wilhelm."
"Actually, before I leave, I have one piece of advice to give to you."
"What is that?"
"If you trust our people, and listen to them, and maybe even show them what you have shown me, or what I have seen in your mind, great things may await."
As she said this, the world around him faded away, and he drifted slowly back into reality.
David awoke on something soft. Opening his eyes, he saw himself to be in some sort of library, lying on a couch in the corner. He felt something was missing, but he couldn't pin what it was. He looked down his body and limbs; his arms and legs were all there, his clothes and weapons were still on him how, and his briefcase, dossier, and rifle were lying on the ground next to him, with a small silver-looking bracelet on them --
Wait... he thought to himself. Looking at his arm, he saw that his bracelet was indeed missing from his arm. Now, if this was a normal bracelet, it would've been inconsequential. But it was a special-order bracelet given only to the Sons of Earth; it contained highly experimental technology that supposedly allowed him to learn most or all of any language from just a few spoken samples. While it was extremely expensive, fragile, and power-hungry, it was also an integral part of his setup; in fact, it was so important that he'd never once taken it off since he was given it upon leaving Earth nine and a half years ago. He sighed as he quickly grabbed it and slipped it back on; if he lost it somehow, he'd be stuck on this planet with no way to communicate with the locals. Speaking of the locals, he thought to himself. I still have a mission to complete. Getting off the couch as silently as he could, he slowly grabbed his briefcase, dossier, and rifle, and started walking stealthily to the door. He nearly made it before he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. Doing the only logical thing he could, he dived behind a nearby chair and hoped that nothing had seen him. He sighed in relief as the creature stepped down the stairs, looked at the couch and sighed.
Then he heard the door behind him open. Twirling around and grabbing his pistol out of its holster, he tensed slightly as he saw the same yellow winged-pony-horse-creature thing that he'd met earlier. It just stared right back at him, eyes wide and mouth partly open. He beckoned for it to move with his pistol, hoping that nobody else was there to notice her having stopped. Unfortunately, his luck was rarely ever good. An orange appendage stuck in from the doorway, and another creature's face appeared. This one almost looked to be confused, and he felt like he'd seen it before --
Oh. he thought to himself. That was the one with the one who captured me. Well, not really captured, but... His thoughts were cut off when he saw the purple unicorn-thing walk around the corner of the chair to take a look at him. "Well, shit." he said as he holstered his weapon, raised his hands, and stood up. "You got me; now what are you going to do, dissect me?" While that probably wasn't a very appropriate question to ask, considering what the Ceryllians had done to civilians they captured it would almost have been merciful. The creature just stared at him incredulously.
"Why would I do that?" it asked, its voice sounding purely confused.
His sigh of relief was audible across the room. He visibly relaxed, but was still somewhat wary. "Alright. Well, can you take me to your leader?"
"What are you?" it queried, paying no heed to his question.
"I couldn't tell you legally if I wanted to. Now, please can you tell me who your leader is so I can take my message to them?" David half-pleaded.
"The Princesses are the supreme authority, but if you just need to send a message I can have spike take care of it. What's your name, anyway?" replied the purple unicorn-thing.
"I'll only tell you mine if you tell me yours." replied David, eager to understand whatever he could about these creatures to use it to his advantage.
"Well, my name is Twilight Sparkle. Now will you tell me yours?" she asked, sounding somewhat irritated.
"Well," said David, puffing up his chest, "my name is Son of Earth David Wilhelm of the Eighty-Third Colony Fleet, or just David Wilhelm for short." He then put his arms at his waist , put one foot on a chair, and turned his head up slightly. When he realized all he was doing was looking stupid, he quickly assumed a more normal posture. "Sorry," he said. "Anyway, I need to meet these 'Princesses' in person; it's critically important." he said in his most official tone.
The purple-unicorn-horse thing , or Twilight Sparkle (Very odd name , he thought to himself) just sighed. "Alright, then. If you want me to take you to the princesses, you'll have to tell me what you're going to do there."
David cursed under his breath. "I can't tell you. This is for the ears of the 'Princesses' only." he said coldly.
"Well, I won't send you unless you tell me." she replied.
"Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of forty thousand innocent people?" he replied, his voice gaining an edge.
This stunned Twilight for a second. So far, she'd assumed he'd been alone; after all, he was the only one of his kind they'd found so far. But perhaps that could explain the strange objects he had, and his odd bracelet, and the strange metal thing that flew over Ponyville. "Fine." she replied in a defeated tone. "But you'd better not be lying, or else..." She didn't need to finish that sentence; David understood entirely what she meant.
"Alright. So, when and how are we going?" he asked.
"Oh, I'm not going," she said. "I'll just drop you off in the throne room."
"But you'd need to come with me, no?" he asked, the unicorn beginning to get on his nerves.
"Nope!" she said, her horn becoming surrounded by some strange purplish aura.
"Wait, what the hell are you--"
He couldn't finish that sentence before he was surrounded by a bright flash of light, blinding him temporarily. He felt himself stumbling around and falling on something cold and hard. When his eyes opened, he was lying with his face on the floor in an ornate room filled with surprised-looking pony-horse-creature things. The only thought that he managed to coherently think was, "What the fuck?"
He quickly shut himself up, but the damage was already done. Scanning the room further, he found that many of the horse-pony-creature things were still just staring at him, eyes wide and mouths open. Meanwhile, on the end of the room, two larger horse-pony-creature-unicorn things were just looking at him, shaking their heads. "Err... sorry?" Their attention was temporarily averted from him when a scroll materialized in a flash of green fire, however.
"I am sorry, my little ponies. I must close the Day Court for the rest of the afternoon." said the larger white unicorn-thing. All the other horse-pony-things shuffled out of the room except for a slightly smaller, darker-colored one that was sat next to it. The larger one then proceeded to begin reading the scroll, while the smaller one fixed its eyes on him. He sighed and looked around on the floor. His rifle was lying next to him, and his briefcase was, surprisingly, standing on its bottom right next to him. Neatly folded on top of it, he noticed, was his dossier. He quickly pocketed the papers, grabbed the briefcase, and slung the rifle over his shoulder before turning to face the two "ponies", as he presumed they called themselves.
"Hello?" he asked. This caused the larger white 'pony' to look directly at him.
"Are you speaking to me?" it asked.
"Well, are you the so-called 'Princesses', or am I at the wrong castle?" he replied.
The two ponies looked at each other for a second before turning to face him. "We are the Princesses, yes. I am Celestia, and this is Luna." The larger white one, Celestia, gestured towards the smaller, dark-blue one.
"It is an honor to meet you, Princesses. However, I have no time for formalities; I am not here of my own choosing, but because my people depend on me." David decided to cut to the chase; he had no time to spare, at least until he could work out a deal with these 'ponies' to let the humans have some land to rebuild and recover.
This piqued the Princesses' interest; however, they seemed somewhat less eager. "Before we get to this dreary business you must have to offer us, shall we move into the meeting room? I shall have the maids bring us some drinks. Do you prefer tea or coffee?" asked Celestia.
"And what is your name, Stranger? We have not seen anything like you before."
David decided that it was not a good idea to withhold much information from these ponies. "My name is Son of Earth David Wilhelm of the Eighty-Third Colony Fleet. I was born and raised on Earth, which was in the Sol System. I was chosen as a Son of Earth shortly before the Launching of the Fleets and the Burning of Earth."
The two Princesses looked at each other again before nodding their heads gravely. "Let us go into the meeting room, then. I am sure you have much to discuss."
The two sisters rose from their thrones, and David realized how large they actually were. While the normal 'ponies' would only reach up to about his chest, the one who called herself Celestia was, including the massive white horn protruding from her forehead, nearly half a foot taller than he was. Meanwhile, the smaller one, Luna, stood almost exactly even. Celestia beckoned with her head for David to follow, and he obliged. The hallways in the castle were massive; he reckoned that an average Human Empire fighter could easily fit in the hallway, with plenty of room off of either wingtip. The Princesses and the human walked down the hallway for about three minutes before they took a sharp turn into a set of double-doors to the right.
David was quite impressed with what was behind the doors. There was a well-set table stocked with piles of grapes, apples, bread, pastries, and.. was that hay? There were also chalices on the table that held a liquid that looked conspicuously like wine, as well as candles and a chandelier illuminating the room. There were four seats around the table; in front of each seat was a small plate with a cup on it and a larger, empty plate. David took a seat in one of the chairs and waited for the Princesses to do the same. Celestia took the seat directly across from him, while Luna sat off to his side.
"So, Human, what have you to discuss?" said Celestia bluntly.
David replied with as much formality and grace as he could muster. "Fair Princess, I am here to discuss the aversion of a potential disaster for my people. As we both know, you have never before seen one of my kind. That is because I am not one of this world; I come from far beyond the stars, from a planet you have never seen, and now never will."
The Princess just said in a low tone, "Your flattery will not work on me. What do you really have to discuss?"
David sighed. This may be harder than he expected. "Since you obviously want the cold truth, let me tell you the whole story. It began almost fifteen years ago. The Human Empire was quite large, encompassing nearly eight hundred systems; over a trillion and a half humans lived on all of these planets combined. We would send out ships to the frontier, to colonize any planets that were habitable or could be. Over the seventy years that Humanity was primarily interstellar, we colonized and terraformed almost thirteen hundred worlds. But, one day, we spread too far.
"We thought we'd found the Holy Grail, a potential new capital for the Human Empire. So, we sent a team down to try to establish a colony. Unfortunately, we found out, it had already been colonized. We found a nest of alien monstrosities, the Ceryllians. We thought it to be inconsequential, and that it was just some hostile fauna, so we attempted to ignore it while we built. We were wrong in the worst possible way.
"It started when they raided the colony. At first, it seemed like nothing was out of the ordinary; after all, they were only attacking with their, still quite formidable, natural weaponry; but then they started bringing their technology. In the early stages, they only used small aircraft and spacecraft; nothing more than a few frigates and gunships. It was really quite easy to defend against. Then they started bringing their landing forces. The colony only lasted for six hours after the first landing ship touched down on the surface of that planet, and every last colonist was slaughtered in cold blood.
"But they didn't stop there. They had seen our colonization of that planet as a declaration of war; so, they started sending their fleets. Again, it began with smaller attack groups, comprised mainly of frigates and light cruisers. They were no match for the defensive fleets we had parked in orbit around the outer colonies, and we actually made some inroads onto their territory. When their capital ships started appearing was when things started spiraling downhill. We lost a good thirty or forty systems, with all the population, before we could muster enough ships to prevent them from breaking through further. We managed to hold the line for almost two and a half years, fighting massive battles nearly monthly, before the first Titan showed up.
"The Titans were massive powerhouses of capital ships that the Ceryllians used; they were nearly sixty kilometers in length, and only three were ever seen in battle. In all instances where a Titan appeared in a battle, it utterly annihilated our fleets; in the first battle against one, it alone destroyed ninety-three capital ships and killed nearly a million crewmen. As soon as the reports of what these Titans could do came through the Admiralty pipeline, they commenced work on a new project: the Sons of Earth.
"This was a plan to, quite simply, keep Humanity from going extinct. One hundred fleets, each consisting of three capital ships and seven frigates, were constructed, with a crew of forty thousand people each. They were to be sent through the Ceryllian blockade of Earth, and from there out into the galaxy to search for hopefully friendly habitable worlds. It was anticipated that at least fifty to sixty of them would make it through Ceryllian space and out into the open; their estimates were woefully wrong. Only one made it through.
"Now, the reason it was called the Sons of Earth was because each fleet was given a leader. He would spearhead political, internal, and, if necessary, tactical decisions and committees. He was also to be the diplomat for his fleet; he would be the first to go down to a planetary surface in his ship, fly around and try to scout out any native life, and try to make contact and find a peaceful way for the fleet to start a new colony. Yes, I am the Son of Earth of my fleet.
"My fleet, the Eighty-Third Colony Fleet, was the only one that survived the blockade. We managed to not lose a single ship going through it, too, so there's that. Anyway, we traveled across the galaxy and explored countless worlds and stars, and saw thousands of natural wonders you'd have to see to believe. Eventually, though, we began to run out of fuel for our jump drives; without a solar refueling station, the ship's antimatter and negative energy reserves slowly deplete, which is why we're here now. My fleet used the last of its jump fuel coming here, and they only have three months of power left before they have to make planetfall, one way or another.
"So it is with this that I implore you, please allow us to make use of your land. We will land our ships wherever you permit, and we will set up our colony there. The only resources we will require from you is some iron, copper, and gold to repair damaged components and construct some other things we will need. In return, once we have landed our ships and set up our colony, we shall give you the schematics of our capital ships such that you may construct your own. Once this happens, we hope to be able to cement a long-lasting relationship of peace, cooperation, and harmony between our two peoples."
David finished his speech, nearly panting from the explanation. The two Princesses just nodded silently and turned to face each other.
"Well, Sister. What do you think of this creature's tale?" asked Celestia.
The younger winged-unicorn thing stared forward into space, formulating an answer. After an awkward silence of about thirty seconds, she turned to face David.
"We will consider this, if you can impress us. You say that you have vehicles that can both go up into the stars and come down onto the earth?" she asked inquisitively.
David saw his chance. "Not only can they go up into space and land on the surface; my personal ship can hold eight people. I'm sure the engineers wouldn't mind modifying it to be able to carry you on a flight, perhaps even to orbit."
The two sisters looked at each other again, deliberating without words. Finally, Celestia looked into his eyes and spoke.
"We have agreed that it would be better for you to take someone else on this flight; after all, we have important duties to pertain to. Perhaps you could take my student Twilight Sparkle? I am sure she would be glad to report her experience."
"Wait, Twilight Sparkle?" David asked incredulously. "You mean that... 'mare,' I guess, that nearly took me hostage?"
Celestia simply nodded. "Yes, her. She can become somewhat... obsessive when she sees something new and interesting. Please forgive her."
Sighing, David leaned back in his chair. "Fine. I'll do this, if it means that it'll ensure the survival of my species." He turned to look out of the window in the side of the room; he could very faintly see the little dots that were the capital ships, so far above. "I'll call the fleet, tell the engineers to modify one of the seats, and tell them to get it down here. Do you want me to also have our honour guard on board the ship?"
"No," replied Celestia. "Just you, Twilight Sparkle, and whoever is necessary to run the ship."
"Alright." David replied. "I'll begin making the necessary arrangements." He stood and turned to go, but was stopped by a voice from behind.
"Wait." said Celestia imperatively. "Let me transport you. Where were you going to go?"
"Probably to the house of that 'Twilight Sparkle', just because I'm pretty sure I left my portable computer there." replied David. "Ohhh, not again..." he said as Celestia's horn became enwrapped in a golden aura before he was blinded by another flash.
David slowly stood up. Walking over to the door of the library, he opened it, and was greeted with a gust of wind and rain, as well as the piercing brightness of the ship's spotlight. Closing the door, he turned to face the two ponies. "It looks like it's storming pretty hard outside," he said, earning nods of agreement. Suddenly, an idea crossed his head. "Ms. Twilight," he said, suddenly switching to his formal voice. "It would be my honor to shield you from this terrible weather until we can enter the vessel." He knelt down reverently as he spoke.
"Well, of course!" said the purple pony. "But with what? You don't have an umbrella or anything like that," she said.
Opening his briefcase, he took out a small orb. "Not quite an umbrella, but close. Come here," he said. Once the purple pony got close to him, he lightly tapped on the side of the orb with his thumb. Suddenly, a pale blue shield materialized around the two. "This'll keep all the rain out until we get to the ship." Turning around and waving to Rarity, who was still sitting at the table and had begun conversing with Spike, the two set off into the rain.
Soon, they reached the door of the matte black spacecraft. The wing sprouted out of the body a few meters back, tipped with a bright green light. Knocking on the bottom of the craft with his fist, David signaled for the door to open. It did just so, bending down and exposing the red velvet-covered staircase into the craft. Bowing, David motioned for Twilight to go first into the vessel. She did, and he followed directly behind. The inside was spacious; nearly ten meters long and three meters tall. Each seat had a window next to it, allowing the passenger to look out into the world beyond. The two rows of seats were spaced around a meter apart, with a vibrant red carpet running between them. White lights in two lines directly above the chairs were embedded into the ceiling. The walls were a light grey, with the black shades of the windows forming dark ovals. A lone digital clock stood on the rear wall of the craft, as well as a small drink dispenser.
"Welcome to my ship," David said as Twilight looked around. "It's not too much, but it'll get us where we're going in comfort and style. You can pick any seat you want," he continued, gesturing to the eight chairs. Twilight deliberated for a few seconds before choosing to go to the furthest-back one. David took the seat next to her and leaned back, pushing the seat back down to almost touch the wall. His eyes drifted lazily to the clock.
18:37
He sighed. This was definitely going to be a long flight. The engines hadn't even been turned on yet, and it'd take them at their fastest speed a good hour to reach orbit. Combine that with the flying tour he wanted to do, as well as all the orbital rendezvous that needed to happen, and it could very well be up to two days. He leaned back in his chair and turned to face the pony.
Twilight was busy fidgeting with the buttons on the chair, trying to see what each one was. They were marked in some language she couldn't understand, but she soon learned that the weird one with the angular characters on either side and a curved one in the middle turned on some sort of bright light over her chair. Another one, marked with a rectangle and lines going through it, opened the strange flap on the wall next to her seat. She sighed, frustrated. It would be so much easier if these 'humans' wrote Equestrian instead of just speaking it, she thought to herself. Turning to face David, she found him staring at her. "What?" she asked.
"Are you having trouble with the buttons?" he replied, his voice with not a small amount of amusement. "And don't worry that you probably can't read any of the labels; it's just a difference in language. Like this:" He proceeded to switch from what his language bracelet now identified as Equestrian to English. "Can't understand me now, right?"
The pony just stared at him blankly. What are those guttural noises he's making? she thought. Surely it can't be some sort of battle cry?
Seeing the desired reaction, David switched back to Equestrian. "See? What this little gadget here lets me do," he said, pointing to the silver bracelet around his arm, "is allows me to read, write, and fluently speak any language I happen to come across. Here, I'll take it off and let you borrow it; you won't be able to understand me if neither of us are wearing it. But, it'll probably be better if you wear it, seeing as we're going into human territory."
With that, he tapped a small button on the surface of the bracelet, and it retracted from around his arm into a little sliver. He gently grabbed Twilight's foreleg and, holding it still, lightly pressed the silver sliver to her leg. It beeped once before quickly forming around into a tight, perfectly-measured bracelet around her leg. "Try speaking to me now," he said.
Twilight's mouth struggled to form words before she finally spoke. "Does... does this work?" she said tentatively, her mouth carefully exploring the human language.
"I can hear you loud and clear," he said. "Now try reading the labels on the buttons."
Turning to her armrest, she began trying to read the labels on the buttons aloud. "Light..." she said, pointing to the one she'd figured out earlier. "Call? What does that mean?"
David gently moved her hoof away from the button. "Hit that if something goes wrong and you need crew assistance; one of the pilots will come to you and help you with whatever you need."
Twilight nodded before continuing to read. "Screen... I guess that one sounds rather harmless."
She tapped it gently. Unfortunately for her, her muzzle happened to be a few centimeters too far forward for the screen; it swung down from the ceiling, hitting her square in the muzzle and causing a thin stream of blood to trickle out as she felt her legs buckle underneath her.
"Oh, shit! Are you okay?" David asked as she slowly fell to the floor.
He just sighed as he pulled a medical kit out from underneath her chair. Taking out a simple needle, he slowly pushed it into her neck and emptied the contents. Twilight woke up, gasping. "What in Tartarus --" she began, fuming.
He just calmed her down. "Relax, relax. It was just a bit of a miscalculation. These screens were designed for flat-faced humans, not for ponies. Don't worry, all you have is a nosebleed." Pulling out another, much smaller syringe, he stuck it into her neck. "This should stop it," he continued. "It's basically a raw injection of empty cells. What they'll do is find your genetic material, copy it, and use it to rebuild your damaged nose. Even if it's broken, it should be healed within the hour." He sighed as he went back to his chair. "But be careful; some of the other buttons might also hurt you on accident. Definitely don't touch the facial massage; it'll have some seriously gruesome effects on a face of your shape."
The sound of the engines slowly grew in intensity as Twilight perused the buttons. Eventually, the craft took off with a jolt, startling her. David suppressed a chuckle before turning to face his own personal screen. Tapping through the menus, he eventually came to his personal flight planner. He drew a line over the map of the surface showing his desired flight path before marking the point where he wanted to start the climb to orbit before sending it to the pilots. A clunk reverberated through the ship as the VTOL engines retracted into their pods and the forward propulsion engines lit up. As the spacecraft began to fly, David, looking out of his window, noticed some flying 'ponies' wearing blue uniforms with yellow stripes.
"Who are they?" he asked, pointing out at the uniformed 'ponies'. "Are they some sort of air patrol or something? They seem to be quite interested in following us. I wonder if they know we can see them."
Twilight looked at them for a few seconds before speaking. "They're the Wonderbolts; Equestria's military airshow flying team. They tend to escort any sort of important pegasus or chariot, or watch any form of unusual flier."
"So, basically, they're escorting us to make sure we don't try anything funny, and they'll probably try to shoot us down if we make any hostile motions."
"Well, yes. But they're likely to check if there's any ponies on board, and force us down without actually hurting us if they find me."
David sighed. He didn't mind being escorted by Fleet fighters - it actually made him feel safer, knowing that good men were watching his back in case anything happened. But these pony escorts just unnerved him, especially how they were flying in squads of three on either wing. He sent an order to the pilots to speed up past mach; hopefully they could outrun them without too much fuel consumption.
The whining of the engines grew in intensity until a boom pierced the skies. David watched as the 'ponies' slowly stopped, their faces in expressions of awe. He turned to Twilight, who had a similar expression on her face.
"What?" he asked. After all, going supersonic was a regular feat by all Fleet aircraft, going so far as to be standard practice after takeoff.
"In the past century, nopony's been able to do any sort of sonic boom other than Rainbow Dash, and even that can tire her out significantly. You just did it like it was nothing!" Twilight seemed somewhat distraught by the massive power of the craft.
"Oh, you think supersonic is a big achievement? Before the War, almost all airliners that could carry more than eighty people were hyper sonic. Six hundred seventy knots is not fast for any sort of modern vessel."
Twilight just stared blankly. "If you can pull of sonic booms like it's nothing..."
David's grin grew exponentially. "You're going to love what we have to show you once we get to the Arcadia."
Fields, clouds, hills, and forests all sped by as the spaceplane continued to climb. Slowly going up, it followed the course set by David earlier that night. The sun burned red on the horizon as the craft continued to climb above the clouds and into the upper atmosphere. Twilight was glued to her window, watching the world below and the sunset beyond, as David ordered dinner for both of them. She'd strongly refused to eat any of the meat products, even after being reassured that they were synthetic and that no living thing was harmed to make them. So, instead, he got her a plate of sauteed mushrooms with a side of potato fries. For himself, he got himself a double-layered cheeseburger, complete with fries and a soda. While he usually didn't eat such flat-out dangerous food, he couldn't stop his cravings. Twilight was sipping her tea as she stared out the window, almost with a longing in her eyes. Putting down his half-eaten burger and cleaning himself up, David knelt beside her.
"Hey. Are you alright?" he asked gently. She turned to him, still holding her tea in her telekinetic grasp.
"Hmm? Oh, yes. Everything is fine; it's just, I've never seen the sun set from this high. In fact, I'm pretty sure nopony has. It's... beautiful," she said, gesturing to the painting of reds, oranges, whites, and blues smeared across the darkening sky.
David just smiled. "No matter how many planets I visit, no matter how many sunsets I see, they're never the same. There's always something... special, something different about each one. This one, I think, looks a lot like the ones back on Earth, except... better. I can't put my finger on it; it just looks objectively better."
Twilight smiled slightly. "Yeah, the sunsets here are really beautiful. But what were you talking about, 'how many planets you visit'?"
David sighed as he prepared to begin an explanation. "You see," he said, "my fleet and I have been jumping around the galaxy for ten years. Every so often, I'd go down to the surface of a planet. Usually, I'd stay overnight. I'd take the time to watch the sunset before retreating into my compartment, though," he began. He continued talking about his experiences with various planets and sunsets, from the massive-looking red dwarfs that warmed dead planets with their dying light to the glorious sunsets of gas giants, as the light of their star slowly pierced their atmospheres and clouds, to the last dying throes of a star and its planet as it goes nova or is eaten by a black hole. David recounted all of these experiences, and by the time he'd finished, the unicorn had fallen fast asleep on the floor of the ship, and the sky was dark. David took a look at the clock on the back of the vessel.
22:17
He sighed. Carefully lifting up the sleeping unicorn, he took it to its seat and reclined it into bed mode. Once he had lain her down on the flat padded seat, he took a blanket from one of the survival kits and laid it over her before placing a pillow underneath her head. He sat next to her, staring out the window at the stars that began appearing, for sometime before his body also decided it was time for sleep.
He woke up with his head on something soft. Carefully lifting it, he found he'd fallen asleep onto the purple unicorn. He stole another glance at the clock.
7:43
He decided to let the pony sleep for some more time, so he carefully and quietly got out of his chair. He silently thanked whoever had invented rotation-less artificial gravity as he silently went to his seat and ordered a bagel. The meal he'd half-finished had been removed from the table, replaced with a hot coffee. He lifted it to his lips and took a sip of the beverage as he looked out of his window.
The planet's surface slowly curves outward. Clouds, continents, and the occasional massive spire can be spotted out of the side of the ship. Far off in the distance, the green and red lights of a Fleet fighter can be seen, followed by three more sets. They take formation on either side of the ship, looking into the windows before smiling and waving as they see David. He just smiles back, relaxing in his chair. Eventually they fly off, probably to return to their ships.
David sighed as he took another sip of the coffee. Looking behind him, the pony was still sound asleep. He decided to view the front camera of the vessel. After all, it helped to know where you were going. The screen snapped down when he hit the button, and the camera view appeared. Ten shapes were visible in the distance, clearly outlined with their gleaming hulls against the darkness of space. He went over to the pony and gently shook her.
She awoke with a start before turning to look at David. "Oh. Hi." she said, straightening out her mane. "Sorry for falling asleep during your talk..." she said sheepishly.
"Don't worry. We're almost here, anyway. Remember; once we're inside, do NOT remove that translation bracelet, or else nobody will be able to talk to you." He emphasized this last point greatly, for it was very important. Twilight nodded in understanding, before turning to ask a question.
"What do you mean we're almost here? We're almost where?" she asked in rapid succession.
"See for yourself," said David, gesturing to his screen.
Twilight was peering over David's shoulder as they watched from the nose camera. The hulls of each ship slowly grew in size as they grew nearer, until individual details could be discerned. The flagship of the fleet, Arcadia , stood out from the rest of the fleet with its sheer size. Two massive hollow cylinders, the barrels for the deadly anti-ship railguns, stuck out of a hexagonal bulge in the side of the massively long spacecraft, pointing straight forward. The massive thrusters were situated in the rear, glowing a neon blue with the massive amounts of energy flowing through them even in their idle state. The small spaceplane slowly approached the ship, before turning suddenly and flying along its side. The radio chatter was quite clear as the traffic controller guided them to their docking bay.
"Control, this is SOE-1, requesting permission to land in Bay 216."
"Roger, SOE-1. This is Control, granting permission to land in Bay 216. Follow the ILS indicators once they appear."
"Roger, Control. Moving into position. ILS activated, moving in to dock."
With small puffs from the maneuvering thrusters situated all over the shuttle, the spacecraft slowly floated into the bay. Once it had secured a firm magnetic lock against the floor of the docking bay, the bay's internal antigravity kicked in, as well as the pressurization. A hiss of escaping air accompanied the opening of the ship's door as the inside equalized pressure with the outside. Gesturing to Twilight and grabbing her hoof, David led her outside onto the bay floor.
"SOE on deck!"
The various engineers, soldiers, and technicians in the docking bay snapped to attention, their heels resounding on the smooth metal floor.
David stepped out of the door, holding Twilight's hoof. He gestured with his other hand and said, "At ease, men. Has anything changed since I was gone?"
"No, sir, other than that rumors have spread that you've found a new species?" asked one of the soldiers, staring straight at Twilight.
David suppressed a chuckle at this. "Indeed I have. Anyway, I presume my quarters have been made ready?"
"Yes sir!" stated another. "They have been cleaned, all your books have been reshelved, and your minibar has been restocked."
"Good. We will stop there once the lady --" he gestured to Twilight with this "-- and I address the populace."
"Uh... Yes sir!" said the soldier. He turned and began to lead them through the steel bulkhead that led to the ship's hallways. It was engraved with a symbol depicting a sword with a pair of wings coming out of it, with the words Hominem in Perpetuum underneath. The soldier stopped for a few seconds and tapped on a keypad, clicks emanating from the keys. The door opened with a hiss, and the corridor beyond came into view. It was relatively large, about three meters across and five tall.
The trio stepped into the hallway, the door sealing behind them. The hallway was a dull grey, punctuated every so often with doors, pipes, and vents. Various civilians, soldiers, and technicians alike stopped and stared as they passed, some having the sense to snap to attention. They weaved through corners and went through various hallways until they cameaad to open the door, then stood at attention as David and Twilight passed through.
"SOE on the bridge!" shouted one of the technicians. They all rose to attention, clicking their heels on the metal floor. David gestured with his hand.
"At ease, ladies and gentlemen. This here is Ms. Twilight Sparkle," he said, gesturing to the purple pony who was standing next to him. "She is a delegate sent by the denizens of the planet. You will treat her with the utmost respect, and make sure that no harm comes to her and that all her non-classified demands are satisfied, understood?"
The crewmen of the bridge all snapped to attention. "Yes sir!" they said in unison.
Turning to Twilight, he said, "I will be back within the hour. If you need anything, just ask these nice people; within reason, of course, they'll get you what you need." He walked out of the bridge, and instantly the tension in the air eased.
The crewmen were gathered in a circle around the purple unicorn. They all looked rather hesitant; as if they were expecting her to eat them at any time. She felt rather uncomfortable with all these humans staring at her, eying her almost viciously. She was grateful when one of them finally spoke.
"Hey, Jones. You think this horse-thing talks?" said the human to its friend.
"Well, ain't no better time to find out. 'Ey you! Horse-unicorn-thing! Can you hear me?"
"Uhm...." was her only reply.
"You stupid or something?"
"N.. No." she said.
"Well, at least it talks," said the first.
"I wonder," said a third crewman. "whether it'll eat us alive or just wear us."
Twilight was mortified that anyone would ever think that she would do that. "I... Why would I do that? I don't even eat meat..."
"Why risk finding it out?" said a fourth. "I'm not risking my life so that that guy can keep thinking he's better than us."
"Let's us make sure that these aliens aren't just Ceryllians in disguise. I wonder if they can feel pain?" said the third, drawing a small knife.
"Yeah, maybe we'll even make the Boss proud."
Twilight couldn't take any more of this. Eyes watering, she screamed and started banging on the door, pleading to be let out. She thought she was going to be safe, because she heard the sound of footsteps running, but before she felt the door open she felt something being stabbed into her back. She was out cold on the floor within seconds.
"...me your motives, I'll just have to shoot you myself. Now, I'll ask again: Who put you up to this?"
Twilight heard a voice talking. Her vision was still cloudy, but it sounded like David.
"The Purity will prevail, scum, and Humanity will reign supreme!" she heard another voice say, almost angrily. Suddenly, a dull ringing filled the room, followed by a thud.
"Fucking worthless. Alright, lock the rest of 'em in the brig. I might let 'em see the light of day sometime again soon, if they don't get a magbullet first. Anyway, I'm going to go check on the victim, see how she's holding up. Thanks again for helping, Vice Admiral."
"No problem, David. Just wanted to make sure that nothing potentially world-destroying happens."
"Yeah," Twilight heard David suppress a chuckle at this. "Just another day in the job, I guess." She heard footsteps walking, then something hissing. The footsteps sounded much nearer now. "Hey, you awake?" she heard him say.
"Y... yeah," she said, weakly. "What... what happened?" she said. She just noticed the dull pain in her back; she began faintly remembering what had come before.
"Well, the soldiers' reports stated that after they started rushing once they heard your scream and pounding against the bridge, they attempted to storm it but found it'd been locked down. It took them nearly five minutes to saw through the door, and they found you being held up by some of the bridge crewmen with a knife to your throat. They managed to either wound or force them into surrendering, but it was then that they found the injury on your back. Thankfully, it didn't hit anything vital, but still. One of the ringleaders said to our faces he was going to plant a bomb on the bridge if we didn't bow to his demands, so he was... executed. At least he provided us with some very valuable information about a new terrorist group that's appeared. I won't discuss the details, since they're currently highly classified, but suffice it to say they're surprisingly nasty people. Anyway, you'll be moved to the medbay shortly once this is all sorted out. I'm sorry that this happened, but that's how it goes." With this, he turned and began to walk out; but he stopped, and, coming back to where she was laying, he nuzzled her head. "You'll be fine."
David hung his head in his hands and sighed. Not only was he probably going to be denied permission to land the Colony, but an unknown amount of his subjects were literally willing to die to prevent a peaceful relationship. He groaned as he enviously eyed the pistol on his desk before looking back at his paperwork. He had to sign the forms about the "execution" of that terrorist, as well as providing compensation for the family, launching an investigation, and figuring out who was behind it all. In addition, he had to ready the colony dropships. Sighing again, he thought back on how much easier simple diplomat life was. He even had time to chat; here, it was pile of paperwork on top of pile of paperwork on top of pile of paperwork. He was so busy he barely even noticed when his secretary opened the door.
"Sir," she began. "The Vice Admiral wants to see you."
"Send him in," said David. Perhaps talking with someone else would help ease the stress of the workload. The Vice Admiral came in, dropping another stack of paperwork.
"Here's the latest field report," he said with his thick accent. "We've managed to narrow down the search to about one hundred victims; we'll need your input on this by tomorrow. After all, your next surface expedition isn't scheduled until three days from now, right?"
David sighed. "Yep. Three days of paperwork, constant bickering, and manhunting. What could possibly be more fun?"
The sound of footsteps echoed throughout the capital ship's many hallways. Hushed voices spoke in the shadows, quieting as platoons of guards would march past before starting up again. The cold emptiness of space, separated from the warmth of the ship's interior by a few measly meters of armor and hull plating, was pierced by the thunderous booming of rail cannons. Thousands of kilograms of metal were hurled out of the cylinders in the front of the spaceships, clearing the dark with the gleam of superheated metal traveling tens of kilometers per second. Molten rock and iron rained as the shells found their target, an asteroid drifting in the deep dark. On the bridge of the Arcania , a man and pony watched as these events unfolded.
The man stood firmly on the sheet metal that made up the flooring of the ship's cupola, tracking the points of light as they flew through the empty sky. The pony watched in sheer awe at the stars that were visible, and the raw destructive power of the molten chunks of metal. Turning to the man who stood beside her, she asked why any creature would need this power. The man just nodded and said one word, and the pony understood. They sat for some time, watching the stars and the massive flying metal slugs that blazed past. Occasionally, a wing of fighters, graceful as birds on a summer breeze, would fly past, doing aerobatics and having practice dogfights. Eventually, the show ended, and the sky was once again coated with only a peaceful blanket of stars. They then turned their attention to the world below. Clouds slowly drifted by, over the blues, greens, yellows, and browns that made up the wildly varied landscape. Through the telescope perched in the cupola, one could faintly make out the brown and white shapes of ships sailing on the seas, or looking even closer, one could see the various towns, cities, and villages perched all over the planet.
Eventually, though, one could no longer look at the beauty of the universe and had to return to his work. Bidding the pony adieu and taking the silver band off her leg, he took his leave to return to the busy work of managing a fleet, leaving her alone in the viewing deck. The pony decided to take the time of peace and solace to rest and observe the stars from a new vantage point. While her rest was not made any more comfortable by the thick bandages that were placed around her midsection after her injury, she was all the same able to peer at the magnificent display before her. Stars, nebulae, galactic bands, all were vibrantly visible. The various colors of stars, some a dim red, others a fiery blue, all were visible before her. As she slowly drifted off to sleep in the warm enclosure of the glass dome, she was entirely unaware of the events taking place only two decks below.
"This meeting of the High Council is now in session. All who have grievances, come forward."
A young man stepped forward, a briefcase in one hand and a stack of papers in the other. Clearing his throat, he began to speak. "With all due respect, sir, I do not believe that forming any sort of diplomatic relation with these aliens -" the way he said that word held massive amounts of disgust "- and instead should show them our military prowess through honorable combat. After all, not only would it cement our place at the top of the hierarchy on this planet, --"
He was cut off by a wave of the hand from the Vice Admiral. "Your opinion has been noted," he said commandingly. "You are dismissed." With another wave of his hand, the next civilian came up.
"Sir, we civilians on board the Nelson feel that we aren't getting enough of the monthly food production. We request an increase in our food supplies from six percent to eight point five percent."
The High Admiral sighed. "Vice Admiral, I think I'll take this one. Look, tell Captain Williams that he has enough of the fleet's food supplies. You already have six percent of the food even though you only have four percent of the population, for Christ's sake! What are you even going to do with the rest?"
"We would use it to help bolster our population in the event that we are the only ship left."
"We know that your captain just wants it to have a bartering chip against the rest of the fleet. We also know that he must have paid you handsomely to do this for him. Take your cheap shilling and false excuses and leave this Council at once. Dismissed."
The civilian sighed as he turned around and exited through the massive doors on either side of the hall. When nobody else stepped up to voice a concern, the admiral sighed with relief. "Good. Let us commence the policy council." All the people in the room who were not a part of the High Council respectfully bowed and filed out through the doors. Once the room was clear, the admiral was just about to speak when he was interrupted by panting and hurried footsteps.
"Ah! Mr. Windhelm! So nice of you to join us," the admiral said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "We were just about to begin. Please, pull up a chair and get comfortable. After all, it's not as if humanity is on the line," he continued.
"Yeah, yeah, at the end of the day I'm the one who's getting us places," David retorted as he took his seat. "Anyway, what's on today's agenda?"
"I believe we should first discuss the impending issue of our guest," the vice admiral said. "It... She should be returned to her people as soon as possible. We don't want the populace to think that we're suddenly accepting aliens into our society."
"I was thinking similarly. However, in order to gain and retain the good graces of her people, we should do it as showily as possible, while at the same time showing off how powerful but peaceful we are." said one of the lower-ranking council members.
David mused over it in his head for some time before answering. "We will park our fleet right outside of their capital. Sir Lennox, make sure your fighters are ready to fly. Tohno, send out a message to the fleet to prepare to go atmospheric. Captain Wessex, close the gun ports and make sure that our point-defense is offline. We don't want to accidentally shred them when they come to enter our ships."
"Agreed." the council said quietly but in unison.
"Now, about that problem with the Nelson..."
The Council meeting continued for quite some time. The admirals, captains, and other high-ranking officials continued debating over various issues, from resource management to rationing to formations to battle drills to combatting the black market. Eventually, though, the council meeting was winding down. One by one, the Council members wandred out of the room, until it was only the Son of Earth, finishing his coffee as he prepared to leave the room.
"Dreadnought Arcania Bridge Actual, this is Frigate Hawthorne Bridge Actual, reporting in. Aerodynamic shields are at max power."
"Roger, Frigate Hawthorne Bridge Actual. We see your energy signature and can confirm. Fleet, maneuver into entry position B. All fighters, return to hangar bays; we're going in."
The massive metal thruster tubes on the back of the capital ship began to glow as the neon blue exhaust from the ship's drives started rushing out. It lurched forward, beginning to descend towards the planet below. The two other capital ships of the fleet, the Gloria and the Ryuuhou , took their positions next to the massive dreadnought. The fighters, little dots of dark blue being trailed by long strings of light blue, swarmed around the massive hangar bay doors, slipping in as they opened. The frigates trailed behind, prepared to use the capital ships' massive profiles to shield themselves during reentry.
In the viewing cupola of the Arcadia, an entranced unicorn watched as the fleet performed its delicate ballet. A fighter slowly drifted above the massive glass dome, clearly displaying its polished underbelly and intricate markings. The roundel was clearly displayed on the underside of the wing; a winged sword on a red circular background. It sped off into the hangar bay just as Twilight began to mentally note its features. She sighed as she looked out towards the massive ships that were to her side. She counted no less than three vessels, one massive ship and two far smaller ones. The large one had what she could clearly recognize as English letters, even if she could no longer read them, as well as markings in a strange language that looked almost similar to Neighpony script on its side, and had two slimmer, shorter vessels behind it. They all had a faintly orange glow around them, making Twilight wonder what that was. That dilemma was quickly solved, however, as she recognized the familiar magical signature of a shield spell. Soon, all the night sky was colored faintly with orange.
She was so engrossed with the fleet that she barely noticed the seven finely dressed men that had walked up behind her. One of them walked up next to her and sat down. "Mrs... 'Twilight Sparkle?'" he said hesitantly in an obviously artificial voice, a light on the silver ring on his wrist strobing every time he talked. "I am Admiral John C. Nilhem, second in command of this fleet. I am here to inform you that Mr. Wilelm is waiting for you in his office. Please, follow me." The man stood up, and, signalling to the other men, they began to walk out, with Twilight cautiously following. She shied back slightly at the sight of the soldiers with their weapons in their hands, but thankfully the men she was following sped up as they passed.
A few minutes passed as they traversed the kilometers of steel corridor in the ship that led to David's office. Once they arrived, the man in the front of the group showed a small card to the two guards who stood on either side. They nodded and eyed her cautiously as she passed, making her shrink back a bit. Once they were inside, the doors slammed closed. One of them began to speak, although she had no clue what he was saying.
"We have brought her here. What were you planning to do with her, again?"
"Once we enter atmosphere, we shall return her to her people with an honor guard. That should convince her ruler. Also, I'd strongly recommend that you go to your offices; we shall enter atmosphere in about ten minutes." David replied.
"Yes sir. Any other things we must do down there?"
David smiled. "Let's give them a bit of a show; prepare all your troops and their dropships for parade formation, as well as their escorts."
The ship shook as it began to dive into the atmosphere. As the sea of blue surrounded it, its shields began to glow brighter. Suddenly, the front of the shield erupted in flame as the intense heat of atmospheric entry hit. However, this was no concern to the ship; its shields were designed to take far more of a beating. Ten gleaming white contrails followed the fleet as each ship dove deeper into the atmosphere. Eventually, the ships had slowed enough that the fire of atmospheric entry faded away, leaving only the ten starships floating over the surface of the planet, headed straight for Equestria.
The morning was cold. A thick fog had rolled in from the peaks above, encompassing the mountainside city in a gray mist, as the cold thin air bit at the soldiers' faces. The courtyard of Canterlot Castle was covered in many standing grey humanoid figures, their arms by their sides and their rifles slung over their backs. All that was visible of their faces was their noses and mouths; the orange helmet visors covered the eyes, making the army of humans look more like eyeless sentinels standing watch for eternity. A lone set of footsteps echoed out as a man, clad in a black suit and tie, slowly waltzed between the aisles of soldiers, standing solemnly, waiting for their orders. He held a small object in his hand; every few rows, he'd stop, tap it, and say something in some guttural alien language into it before continuing on. Brass flagpoles topped with navy blue pennants rose like spires from the grass lawn, completing the image of a proper military.
Behind the aisles of soldiers, standing motionless in the castle's lawn, were four hulking metal beasts of birds. Their pudgy, angular bodies belied the massive speed that the two small objects situated near the back, and their short curved wings only helped to imply the massive speed. Its body was painted a deep blackish-blue, like the night sky, while two white emblems depicting a winged sword were on either side of its massive body. A ramp, consisting of a wide plate of metal with two rows of embedded lights on either edge, led into the hulking beasts' stomachs, where more metal contraptions were waiting. These were different from the ones that housed them, however. They made no attempt at looking like they should fly, instead choosing to look somewhat like small fortresses. They had four wheels under each corner of their vehicle, and highly sloped sides. Atop the center of the vehicle was a small dome, with a small metal tube extending from it.
But these were not the only metal creatures to grace the scene. Humanoid beasts, made of gears and steel instead of blood and flesh, stood tall next to their human brethren, the pilots enjoying the warmth and protection of their iron skins. They, too, had the metal tubes, but instead of being a single one extending from a dome atop them, it was eight small ones arranged in a circle, protruding from the hand. The other arm had a pudgy, wide hole instead of the sleek curves and dominating angles of the rest of the vehicle. A single pole extended from a pack on the rear of the beast, with a navy blue pennant hanging limply from the top. At the bottom of its pack, two nozzles made themselves obvious by the burn marks on the armor behind them.
"Check complete, all of our soldiers are up to par. I'm fetching our guest now."
Princess Celestia sighed. She looked at the guard before her. He was trembling; his white coat shook furiously underneath his heavy golden armor. "P... Princess..." he stammered. "There's... there's something outside waiting for you."
The princess just nodded gravely. "Tell whatever it may be that I will be out in about half an hour."
"I... I don't think that would work," he said slowly. "There's an army, too."
This instantly garnered the Princess' attention. "Someone dares to invade our nation? Tell them I will see them at once, and give them their retribution."
"That's the problem, Princess. They're not invading. They're just... standing there."
The Princess nodded gravely. "I will meet whoever is at the head of this army, and see what they want."
Twilight slowly walked out of the rows of humans. She stopped next to David, who was at the door. His pistol was in its holster around his belt, and he held his suitcase in his left hand. A pair of sunglasses was on his face, and his suit was as neatly pressed as possible. He tapped his foot lightly as he waited, humming the tune to some little-known melody. When he heard footsteps approaching from the other side of the door, he quickly straightened out.
"What?" was Celestia's only reaction. In front of her was a creature that looked suspiciously similar to the "David" she'd met two weeks ago. Next to him was her student, Twilight Sparkle. She looked surprisingly clean and happy, and had some sort of strange pin on her coat. Behind the two, however, was a much grimmer scene. An entire army stood amassed, silent, as if waiting for some unknown signal to strike. They had what looked like Gryphon steam-rifles on their backs, save that they were much sleeker and seemed to be made entirely of metal. Behind them were amassed behemoths, enormous metal birds that sat on the lush green lawn.
"Good morning, Princess Celestia," David said as formally as he could. "I believe we have much to discuss. Please, come with me." He beckoned for both the Princess and Twilight to follow. When Celestia stood firm in the doorway, he lowered his glasses slightly. "Please, Your Highness, follow me."
"You're going to try to kill me, aren't you?" Celestia asked, suspicious of the massed soldiers and the black vessel he was leading her to.
"Not at all!" David replied. "Indeed, we're actually trying to give you the best experience possible!"
"I still do not trust you fully; let me bring my sister, so that should anything happen we have our combined power."
"Feel free to!" David replied enthusiastically. Once the princess had receded into the darkness he let out a heavy sigh. "This is going to be harder than I thought," he said to himself.
"These airships of yours are quite impressive."
Celestia and Luna strode side-by-side down the massive halls of the Ryuuhou. It was the only ship that had a meeting room large enough to comfortably fit the entire upper level of the fleet command, as well as the two alicorns and the half-dozen attendants, secretaries, and journalists that had followed. As they walked down the central shaft that led to the meeting room, its walls covered in various paintings, banners, and decorations, David explained the entire history of Humanity; from the ancient empires of Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, to the feudal kingdoms of Europe, to the dawn of the Age of Technology and the Industrial Revolution, to the World Wars (which caused no small amount of fear in many of the reporters), to the Interlude between the end of the second world war and the beginning of the third, to the nuclear holocaust that forced humanity underground for four decades, all the way to their ventures back into the stars and their eventual downfall. He also explained how they were the last humans left, and their only hope for survival. By the time he finished his tale, the group of ponies and men reached the massive double doors of the meeting room and were ushered in by two heavily armed guards. The doors shut loudly behind them, and the bright glow of fluorescent lights flooded the room. Screens around the room displayed videos of Old Earth and the various planets of the Human Empire, some of them including the utter devastation the Ceryllians caused as they flowed through.
"This is certainly a most intriguing room, Mr. Windhelm," said the younger of the two alicorn princesses.
"Indeed it is, Princess. Indeed it is." As he said that, the domed roof of the room peeled back, revealing a layer of glass, and beyond that, the cerulean sky. Thin metal beams ran up and down the dome, providing it support, as the shapes of fighters flying around the ship darted past. The civilian ponies in the room were stunned by the bubbled viewpoint into the world above, but the Princesses knew better.
"Mr. Windhelm," Celestia said as she cleared her throat. "We are most honored to be in your presence today, but we have one question. Why did you bring us here?"
David chuckled as he leaned back in his massive chair. "Well, Princesses, surely you heard my tale."
"It was utterly heart-wrenching," Luna replied flatly, "but why are we here?"
"Well, Princesses. As you already know, we are the last of our kind."
"And?"
"We're here to ask for permission to make this land our home."
Celestia grunted at this. The other people and ponies in the room watched as the two stared each other down from across the table, David's translator bracelet barely visible poking out of the cuff of his suit. "Why should we give it to you?" she asked threateningly.
David sighed at this. "It depends, Princess. Do you want us to come because we can offer you technology the likes of which you've never seen? Do you want us to come because we can bring an easy path tho the stars? Do you want us to come so we can crush whatever enemies you may have? Or do you want us to come to stop the needless deaths of forty thousand men, women, and children?"
Celestia sighed. "But why should we hand over some of our hard-earned land to those who quite possibly serve the evil forces of chaos and threaten the harmony of our land, as well as risk revolution."
David's tone suddenly fell as he leaned onto the table. "I helped the survivors of the forces of Humanity flee from Chaos in the Great War. Billions of innocent humans died because we couldn't stop Chaos. Chaos destroyed our homes, our families, and our way of life. All who are part of my fleet are sworn to fight the evil servants of Chaos. And you, you DARE to even think that we fight for the forces of chaos? Perhaps I misjudged you, Celestia. Perhaps you really are not as great as your student made you out to be." he said angrily.
This time, it was Celestia's turn to lower her voice. "Do not speak like this of Chaos to me, human. I may not have your technology, or suffered as deeply as your people directly from Chaos' evil, but I have spent every waking moment of my life keeping the Chaos from consuming our planet. So do not insinuate that your knowledge of Chaos and its effects are greater than mine, or I will personally take your insolent head."
"Two things I have to say to you. First, please stop with the death threats. Secondly, if we were, in fact, forces of chaos, why didn't our army on the lawn of your castle simply storm it and take both you and your sister hostage, or have you executed, as well as not returning Twilight?"
Celestia pondered over this for a bit. "Your argument makes sense," she began, "but I still do not trust you completely. Just because you have not killed my sister and I yet does not mean that you will not cause trouble for our people."
David sighed. "Fine. I have one final offer to make you."
Celestia raised an eyebrow at this. "Continue."
David gulped as he formed the words, Getting out of his seat, he knelt down on one knee and lowered his head. "I, David Wilhelm, in the name of all Humanity, swear undying loyalty, fealty, and subservience from myself, all those under me, and all of their descendants until the end of time, to Her High Royal Majesty Princess Celestia of Equestria on planet Equis."
Celestia solemnly nodded her head before answering. "I accept."
"Thank you, Princess. You've saved us all."
News of the sudden agreement spread throughout the fleet quickly. At first, it was seen as a conspiracy; another attempt by Purity leaders to force them to give in to a false hope. But then, the confirmation came from none other than Celestia herself.
"Are you sure that this device is functional?" Celestia said as the silver bracelet wrapped around her foreleg. "It would be a terrible happening for it to not work just before your speech."
"I can hear you perfectly fine, Your Majesty," said one of the human outfitters who was working on securing it. "You should be all set to go; wait for the applause to finish before you go onstage.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the Eighty-Third colony fleet," David began. "You have suffered long and hard. Since ten years ago, we have been sailing through the black, with no end in sight. We have seen wonders no man has seen before; set foot on planets no man ever will again; we survived the Ceryllian blockade of earth, unlike so many of our brothers; we have maintained peace and harmony within ourselves for these ten long years, and will continue to do so.
"Through all our trials and hardships, however, we have always had the goal of survival. All we have done since we left Earth has been in the name of finding Humanity a new home, and keeping it alive. We have forged our way through the endless sea of stars for a decade; in our homes of iron, glass, and electricity, we have watched as the universe around us changed. We watched as the Ceryllians blotted out the stars that we once owned, converting them into massive energy powerhouses.
"And we persevered, and our finally getting our pay. For today, Humanity cemented its place in the universe. Today, the descendants of Mother Earth have finally found their new home. Today, we survived. Today, we will begin the slow journey of reclaiming our former glory. Today, we have formed an alliance with the ponies of Equestria, one that already runs too deeply to be broken!
"And now, the leader of Equestria and the one who allowed us to survive herself, Her High Royal Majesty Princess Celestia of Canterlot!"
Thunderous applause rose from the audience of nearly thirty thousand that had gathered. Shouts of joy, cheering, and various other approvals echoed from the crowd as David walked off and the white Princess walked on, followed closely by her sister.
"People of Humanity!" she began, talking so loudly in the Royal Canterlot Voice that she needed no microphone. The room quieted instantly. "It is with great honor and pride that I address you; for let it be known that, on this day, Human and Pony became inseparable friends!"
Her voice was magically transmitted all throughout Equestria. In Manehatten, the various announcement systems rang, "Today, let it be known that an alliance transcending all previous barriers was formed!"
In the slums of Detrot, the ponies listened hopefully to the voice of their Princess. "Let it be known that today, Equestria has entered into a new age of peace and prosperity!"
Through the frontier of Appleoosa, her voice was coming out of every radio, telegraph, and theater. "Let it be known that today, we have entered a new golden age of technology!"
Finally, in the crowded streets of Canterlot, the various businessponies stopped their daily lives and listened respectfully. "Let it be known that today, the ponies of Equestria are one with the descendants of Earth."
"Hell of a time to live, isn't it?" David asked the Vice Admiral, who was leaning on the railing of the bridge next to him, watching as the next dropship full of colonists flew off to land next to the Everfree.
"Sure is," was the Admiral's only response.
Chapter 1.Final: Aggressive
The gently winding dirt road cut a path through the lush green forest. Trees lined either side, with bushes, shrubs, and grasses in between. Everything was painted with the darkness of night as above, the stars shone brightly. Twin points of light illuminated the path as the black vehicle rushed by. It drove through the foggy dark, its tinted windows hiding its contents. It drove down the path for some time, kicking up dust behind it, until it came to a metal gate in a wooden wall. The human sentry on top of the gate saw the car and, saluting, hit a button to open the gate. It slid back behind the wall, and the car drove in, stopping in a dirt clearing near the entrance to the fort.
The door opened, and a white hoof in a golden shoe stepped out. The Sun Princess took a step into the dirt and looked around. Many of the humans had stopped their activities to look at her; some whispered hushedly to their friends while others either knelt or just stood in silence, watching her. The minority that had continued working did so silently, hauling logs, stones, and pieces of metal to the scaffolds of buildings that lined the freshly paved streets. The sound of hammers and axes could be heard far off in the distance.
Luna exited the vehicle soon after, coming abreast of her sister. Scanning the crowd, she searched for any signs of rebellion or dissent. Satisfied with the placid expressions on the humans' faces, she began to speak. "Most loyal subjects of Equestria," she pontificated, "we have come to observe your progress with this city of yours. Please give us a tour."
One of the men, dressed in an orange safety vest and with a hammer slung over his shoulder, replied bitterly. "Oh, glorious leader," he began, speaking with his fists clenched and his face towards the ground. "I understand that you need results. But it has only been three weeks; we have barely even gotten twenty houses up, and while your people muse about their daily lives, disease, injury, and the cold have already claimed nearly ten of our own." Looking up, he spat. "If you truly cared about our well-being, you'd offer us some sort of shelter from the elements, and this blasted freezing cold night."
The blue alicorn looked slightly offended. "Dost thou not appreciate our generosity, allowing you to even live here? Would thou prefer we send you back from whence you came?"
"Luna," Celestia said, trying to get her sister's attention and stop the fight.
"It'd be better than dying in this hellhole!" shouted the man, spitting on the ground.
"Enough!" shouted one of the soldiers on the gate. He, too, was ignored.
"Then your wish shall be granted!" Luna said angrily as her horn began to glow a dark blue. She focused her mind on lifting the man into the air by his vest, and began squeezing until she felt a hoof on her back.
"Luna." Celestia said firmly. "Stop this petty argument. This man may not like us, but we must still show him our respect. He is, after all, a subject, just as much as any pony."
Luna sighed as she grudgingly lowered the man, who fell, wheezing, in a heap. "Fine. He was not worth our time anyway."
She picked out someone else from the crowd. "You!" she said, highlighting a downtrodden woman with her magic. "Show us around this petty camp of yours."
"Y... Yes, your highness," she said weakly. "Right this way."
She slowly stood up, and the plight of the humans became suddenly more obvious to the ruler. The emaciated, downtrodden, pitiful girl slowly hobbled over to the Princesses and kissed their hooves. "Please, follow me."
She led them down the main street of the city, which was lined with all sorts of industrial and construction equipment. "This--" she paused to cough, a thin trail of blood leaking out of her mouth as she did so. "This is Main Street. The capitol building is just over there," she said, weakly pointing to the frame of a massive structure. Cranes towered up, holding blocks of material by thin steel wires, slowly moving as they deposited them in place. Even in the early morning light, their gargantuan shapes were clearly visible, illuminated by red and white lights up their entire length.
The girl continued to show the two princesses down the various streets of the city, in various states of completion. Every time she coughed or tripped, Celestia would begin to ask if she was okay but was always interrupted by Luna, who had resorted to prodding the human with her horn to keep her moving.
Eventually, the sound of a vehicle coming up from behind filled the air. The two princesses and the girl stopped and looked at the dull greyish-blue shape that slowly drove by them. The driver's window of the vehicle rolled down, revealing a stout man with a thick beard behind the wheel.
"Good morning, Princesses!" he said cheerfully. Good day today, isn't it?"
"Yes it is, subject. Now move along," said Luna as she stared daggers into the man's eyes.
"Are you okay, Princess?" he said, a worried expression on his face.
"I am perfectly fine," she said calmly as her horn began to glow. "Now move along, citizen."
"Now wait just a goshdarn minute!" he said. "What's going on?"
"Move. Along." the Princess said as her horn began to glow brighter. The car rocked on its suspension slightly, but otherwise nothing happened.
"Luna. Stop this right now." Celestia was facing Luna directly, her horn also charged. "I do not know what is the matter with you today, sister, but you must stop it immediately."
"This worthless, inferior human believes himself above me! I will not tolerate dissent from such useless creatures."
The entire street went silent. The only sound that could be heard was the gentle hum of the car's motor. Celestia looked utterly shocked by the statement from her sister, while the man just stared solemnly at the dashboard. He sighed.
"If that's what you see us as, Princess, then I guess that is what we are. Goodbye." He spat out those words then sped off down the street.
"Sister, we must..."
"Luna. No. We are leaving."
"I will not --"
"Luna. Look at me."
Celestia stared at Luna, glaring daggers into the younger alicorn's soul.
"Y.. Yes, sister," Luna said defeatedly. "We shall be taking our leave." she muttered.
Celestia just nodded silently. The two alicorns flew off into the morning sky, back to their transport, just as the sun rose.
Angry shouts of protest filled the air outside of the small wooden structure that served as the city hall while the actual one was being built. Various chants filled the air, calling for some form of retaliation against the Night Princess. While most simply called for a public statement about her treatment of the humans, some called for more violent means. A small group of people were even demanding a violent revolution against the Princesses, replacing the eons-old diarchy with a human republic. David sighed as he prepared to meet the protesters.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Please!" he said as he walked out. "Keep your voices down."
"That fucking horse called us maggots!" one man shouted from somewhere off the stage. "We should show it who's boss!"
Various shouts of approval echoed throughout the mob. David sighed as he waited for them to die down before continuing. "And what of your brothers and sisters, who still remain upon the ships, waiting for their turn to come down?"
"The world will be a better place!"
"Do you truly wish to challenge our benefactors, who have provided us with a path to survival?"
"We deserve better!"
"We will get better!"
"We want it now!"
"If we try for it now, we'll all surely die!"
"It'd be better than living like this!"
"Would it?"
David's query was met with silence. When nobody pressed the issue, he assumed his most authoritative tone. "Good. Now, get back to work. We will get our next shipment of food in about three hours, and we need the landing site clear."
David sighed again. "I hate my job."
Chapter Interlude.1: Powder Keg
"I hope you understand, Princess Celestia, that we cannot help but to feel threatened by this new development."
The Gryphon ambassador leaned on the table, staring directly into Celestia's eyes. Various races from various nations were sat around the massive wooden table, marking the eighty-ninth annual meeting of the International Council of Peace. Behind each representative was the flag of their nation; from the sun and moon flag of Equestria, to the crossed rifles of the Gryphons, to the hammer and sickle of the Minotaur Commune. A new flag graced the table this time, however; underneath the royal banner of Equestria was the winged sword of Humanity.
"Indeed, Ambassador Vasily. I am certain, however, that with enough time this, too, shall pass."
The Solar Princess returned the stare, her magenta eyes piercing into the pale blue eyes of the Gryphon. "After all, it's not like the aircraft fired on yours, which is more than we can say about you."
"And what did you expect, Princess? That an unknown object traveling straight for one of our military vehicles at unbelievable speeds was going to simply buzz our fighter and not engage?"
"That is no excuse for potentially destroying one of our units and killing one of our subjects."
"Celestia, Lifva, please calm down," said the Neighponese representative, the water drop of his flag hanging above his head. "This is the most peaceful the world has been in centuries; let us not ruin this potential end to all war with simple bickering!"
"I must say, old chap, that I agree," said the mule who was sat next to the Princess. "You know that, if we don't calm down, this could easily lead to war."
"Yes. It would." said the one human, seated on Celestia's right in a minor throne. He had no flag above his head, but was known throughout the group to belong to the Princess. "And I don't intend to let that happen. We didn't flee from one war to head straight into another," said David firmly. "And the Princess here has been kind enough to grant us peace from all external conflicts for a year; although, I sincerely doubt that we will need it when it expires in seven months."
A murmur rose from the various Council members. Finally, they agreed on a solution.
"Mr. Wilhelm," began the Gryphon, "If you give us a tribute of twenty tons of your so-called 'Lynium' alloy monthly, we will forget this incident ever happened."
"You ask too much," David said cooly. "How about we ship you a few crates of mag-weapons and we call it even?"
"The Gryphonic Reich will not live this down until you accept our demands, human," the Gryphon's voice said, gaining an edge.
"Let them talk about it all they want; we need that alloy to maintain our ships."
"Listen to how foolish this creature is!" said the Gryphon. "He claims to have technology far beyond what we ourselves have achieved, but when asked to show it he refuses."
"Perhaps we can settle this at a later date. After all, the revolutionary protests in the Badlands are certainly far more pressing," said the Buffalo ambassador. "And, with the Changelings suddenly dropping their support of the council, it can only mean war."
"You speak too quickly, fool. Put your weapons where your voice is and perhaps you may be able to defend yourself!"
"They march on our border as we speak, and all you can do is witty retorts?"
"I declare Equestria's support for the Buffalo should the Changelings move in to attack them."
"I, then, declare that the Gryphonic Reich shall support the changelings in whatever endeavour they may undertake."
"We of the Minotaur Commune also declare our support for the changelings in their efforts."
"The Neighponese Republic shall follow the path of the wise Princess and support the Buffalo."
"As will we, the mules."
"I propose we adjourn the meeting." said the Gryphon ambassador.
"Aye." came the near-unanimous response.
"Let us pray that the next time we meet is not on the battlefield."
Chapter Interlude.2: Darkness
Luna slowly snuck down the castle halls towards her massive balcony. She needed to be stealthy, otherwise every guard she passed would bother her from the task at hand. Eventually, she came to the balcony under the open sky, and prepared her wings for takeoff.
She soared through the upper cloud layer before finding a suitable cloud to begin her monthly interaction. She landed, folded her legs, and charged her horn, sending her signals out into the æther, waiting for a response. The familiar connection from the other side roughly met with hers, and instantly began speaking.
"I have been observing you. You have done well. Everything is proceeding exactly as I have foreseen. "
"Thank you, Master. What else do you require of me?"
"You have not done as I have asked with the humans. You must make them face the fires of revolution, or the Nightmare may come back and consume you and all you love."
"Understood, my lord. Thank you."
"Your gratitude does not go unnoticed, but I have still more to ask of you. In the coming war, you must personally lead the charge of the humans. Lead them to victory over the changelings; when they destroy them all, turn on them. Make yourself the hero, and them the villains."
"I. . . Yes, master."
"Do not hesitate, lest the Nightmare also be watching."
"Understood, Master."
"How goes your sister?" the voice suddenly asked.
"Celestia? Why would you want to know? You said she was useless to our glorious task."
"Times have changed, pony. Things are not as they once were."
"Yes, master. She is as always, paying far more attention to her subjects' needs than to the crown's. She is, as you said, actively limiting her greatness."
"Good, good. Remember the training I have given you," it droned on.
"Yes, master."
"Let the chaos boost your power. Do not fight it; embrace it, for only then will you truly be able to defeat the Nightmare."
"Yes, master."
"And do not forget; who was it that freed you from your unjust lunar banishment?"
"You, master."
"Who freed you from the Nightmare's grasp?"
"You, master."
"Who protects you, your family, and your subjects?"
"You, master."
"Do not fail me, or betray me; elsewise, you will not live to see the 'morrow."
"Yes, master. I will do what you ask, and I will not fail you."
"Good. Now, I must leave."
"Goodbye, Mas--"
The connection forcibly closed, Luna stumbled backwards, nearly falling off the clouds. She blinked as she looked down upon the world below. Small points of light slowly moved down the few decently paved roads in Equestria, marking the few Human vehicles that had been sold to the wealthiest of ponies. In the distance, on the border of the Everfree, the orange glow of Human electric lighting shone brightly, illuminating the half-finished city.
They are just pawns, tools to be used in our fight against the Nightmare, she tried to remind herself. And yet, they seem so much smarter than simple tools, or animals. It seems as if they are the ones who could take control, not us. She instantly scolded herself; thinking like that was treason against her Master, who had done her nothing but good. Still, she couldn't help herself but to look out over the forests, plains, and hills of her nation. Would it really be that much worse if the Humans were allowed to prosper? She suddenly felt a wave of tiredness; it was normal after the intense magic that had to be performed in order to communicate over such long distances, but that didn't make it any less powerful. She felt sleep overcome her like a wave.
"They're coming through the gate!" a panicked voice shouted.
"All ships, fire on my mark!" said a much calmer persona.
The massive metal ring of the jump gate began to glow blue with energy as the enormous mass began to be pulled through.
"Three." said the voice.
A white orb began to coalesce in the center. The stars around the gate faded into nothingness against the massive brightness.
"Two."
The ring's shine increased in intensity, as white tendrils of lightning began to spew out of it. One of them touched an unlucky frigate, shattering it to pieces before any of the fleet could react.
"One."
The front of a massive vehicle appeared out of the jump gate, various markings on its front and sides. The fifty-kilometer-wide gate stressed with the huge object travelling through it, bending as the light grew brighter.
"Mark."
A wave of molten yellow projectiles spewed out from the assembled fleet. They raced across the vast blackness, impacting the massive vessel and the jump gate, rending the gate to pieces but simply being absorbed by the vessel's shield.
"Shit! It's a Titan!" said another voice.
"Cover the Colony Fleets! Don't let it hit them!" a fourth ordered.
"Launch the fighters at it, give it something else to target!"
A massive metal-looking tentacle emerged from the front of the titan, grabbing a capital ship and tearing it in two as more Ceryllian vessels jumped in, their energy cannons already charged and firing.
"Keep them from hitting the civilian-"
The radio chatter from the command ship was cut off as a massive green laser bolt sliced through it. It exploded in a brilliant light, nearly saturating the shields of the surrounding ships.
"One of the High Admirals is down! Target the gate; don't let any more reinforcements through!" He spoke into the microphone, knowing the futility of his actions. At least it'd buy them some time, however; it would take longer for reinforcements to arrive without a gate.
"Roger, Vice Admiral. We frigates will take care of this; we're going to die anyway, so might as well be useful." A gruff voice came through the other end of the line, followed by a multitude of voices stating their agreement. The sleek shapes of the frigates began to pull forward, many of them vaporizing in a wall of green lasers as they advanced. The sun shone off their hulls as they valiantly charged, sacrificing themselves in the hope a small portion of humanity may survive.
"All command ships, pull out! Follow your respective fleet, and flee the battle!" His voice thundered again through the radio channel, as clear as if he had been sitting in the bridge of each and every ship.
This was met with a chorus of affirmatives from the commanders, and confused murmurs from the rest of the fleet.
"They're leaving us here to die?" said one voice over the radio.
"I'm sorry." said the remaining High Admiral.
"Godspeed," another voice said. "And may you go down in history as the greatest heroes ever to live and die."
The jump drives of the civilian and command ships began to spin up.
"God help us," said one of the men on the civilian fleets' radio channel.
"God abandoned us a long time ago," another responded. "Well, I guess this is goodby-"
The voice was cut off as the ship jumped away in a flash of light, followed by nine other ships. Soon, the rest of the ships began to jump away.
"Ryuuhou? Ryuuhou, what the hell are you doing?" sneered one of the forsaken captains over the radio. "Shouldn't you be fleeing from the battle like the rest of your worthless commanders?"
"Not without a final goodbye," he responded. A single railgun shell flew from the barrel of the ship as it jumped away in a flash of light, piercing through the Titan's weakened shields and hitting it directly in one of the less-armored seeming parts of the ship.
Chapter 2.2: Empire at War
A soft breeze blew through the towers and skyscrapers, picking up smoke, newspapers, and feathers as it went. Large airships, their wooden and metal hulls standing fast in the breeze, hovered docked to mooring stations that rose far above the rest of the city. But the breeze paid these no heed; it passed through the ropes, through the decks, around the behemoths, towards its final destination.
A lone gryphon looked out of a window in the highest floor of the tallest building. He stared out at the city below - his city - before taking his royal scepter and crown, and donning his gold-trimmed purple robe. The cold marble floor of the hall, with the stone, brass, steel, and gold walls adorned with muskets, rifles, swords, crossbows, and various other weaponry, did little to cool the steadily warming rage in his breast. He walked down the thick red carpet, garnering salutes from the heavily armed guards on either side, before taking a seat on the lone throne that sat under a massive banner, adorned with the ornate royal coat of arms.
Two brass doors stood, steadily, on the other end of the hallway. They slowly began to open, quickly stealing the royal gryphon's attention from his cigar. He grunted as a familiar face walked through the massive doorway, flanked on both sides by heavily armed guards. The leader of the group bowed low, her navy-blue overcoat's brass buttons touching the ground as she began to speak.
"Good morning, Kaiser Vyman. It is an honour to be in your presence," the gryphon at the front said. "I come bearing news from the industrial sectors."
"Good morning, Fleet Commander Skylar. Your presence is welcome here," the Kaiser replied, his deep voice reverberating through the halls as he crushed his cigar in a talon before throwing its mangled remains on the ground in front of him. It smouldered for a few seconds before dying. "Tell me, have they finally made themselves useful and achieved the necessary production levels?"
"Yes, my lord," came the reply. "However, there has been a complication."
The Kaiser growled in reply, his gaze becoming harder. "What have they done, lost their blueprints again?"
"It is nothing that we have done. Indeed, it is our enemy."
The Kaiser growled again. "Have you grown too soft to stand up to the Equestrian defense? You know as well as I that their dirigibles could not even dent one of our dreadnoughts or carriers."
"It is not that," Skylar said as she sighed. "Our intelligence services have reported on the power of the Equestrian's new allies, the Humans."
"What about it? Have we finally debunked the myths of their power?" the Kaiser said, a small smile forming on his beak. "If so, let us strike immediately."
"No." Skylar said. "We have not debunked the myths; we have confirmed them, and more."
All colour drained instantly from the Kaiser's face. "What do you mean?" he said in a hushed tone, gesturing the guards away with a flick of his talons. The guards grunted in reply, filing out into corridors on either side of the throne room.
"Their ships... are indeed, vastly superior to even the Sesal-class, especially in terms of firepower," the Skylar said, sighing. "It would be a good course of action to potentially try to broker a peace -"
The sound of the Kaiser hitting the side of his chair could be heard even several stories down. A sizable chunk of marble flew off of the side, shattering against a strip of steel. "No." he said firmly. "We cannot afford to back out of this war. If we do not follow through with this war - and win - our people will lose what tenuous faith in their government they still have. We cannot allow that happen, lest we be overthrown. I think we can both agree that in these desperate times, that is exactly what we do not need."
"But-"
"We cannot risk the sanctity of this Reich. Our forefathers did not fight tooth and nail against the Torins fourteen hundred years ago so that we would allow all that they built, all that they set in motion, to crumble to ashes and dust."
"But we -"
"Silence!" the Kaiser said. "Have you even seen the news lately? Rylus Province is running out of iron in its mines. The Leonar duchy has stated that if we don't get a new source of coal soon, they won't be able to keep up production. And here, in our very own capital Varmot, there have been reported revolutionary groups popping up. Unless we can win this war, we'll run out of materials for production, our economy will go down the drain, and a nationwide revolution would not be far off. We must win this war."
"Understood, sir," said Skylar. "Shall I ready the fleet to fly?" she inquired.
"Not yet." the Kaiser replied firmly. "We must wait for an opportunity. Do our spies have any information on when the human ships will next leave?"
"On the seventeenth of Woodfall, they will depart for the Crystal Empire for a military festival," the fleet commander replied, her magenta eyes locked on the Kaiser. "We should have nearly two weeks on the southern front before they appear."
"Good. Our fleet will depart on the twenty-third of Sunsky; we will arrive off the Changeling coast of the Badlands on the twelfth of Woodfall and declare war on the eighteenth."
"Yes, sir," Skylar replied, bowing again. "Shall I distribute the orders to the fleet?"
"Yes." the Kaiser replied, a smile forming on his face.
"Ladies and gentlemen," the herald began, his voice carrying over the tangled mess of walkways, wires, pipes, and ships that formed the military dock. "Today we have a set of orders direct from the Kaiser himself!" Various cheers and applause rose from the crowd; it was exceedingly rare that the Kaiser would directly order his fleet.
"We are to begin moving southeast in two days, to park off the coast of the Changeling Badlands and wait for the declaration of war to be issued. Once it is issued, on the eighteenth of Woodfall, we will crush the meager Buffalo and Equestrian resistance, then move north through the Buffalo lands into Equestria. Once we enter Equestria, we will have to destroy the Human ships; we will do so by staying at range, and moving so that their cannons can not hit us. Once we have destroyed the human vessels, we will shell Canterlot into surrender; and from then on, Equestria and all its resources will be part of our glorious Gryphon empire!"
More cheers, applause, and shouts of approval rose from the crowd, and already the banners of some of the ships began to fly. Skylar watched all of this from the small observation deck on her ship, the Meadowlark. It hovered above the city, just underneath the cloud layer. Its five-hundred meter long steel hull hung in the sky above the twisted mess, with thick black smoke pouring out of the four massive smokestacks and searchlights scanning through the ground below. She sighed as she turned around and went through the door into the womb of the ship.
A finely decorated room, walls lined with paintings of various sights such as the Pilgrim Isles or the Dark Sea, was in the center of the ship. A desk with a red velvet chair stood in the center of the room; a variety of books and papers, as well as a quill and inkwell, stood on its smooth wooden surface. Skylar slowly walked over to the desk and sighed as she took a seat in the chair. Opening one of the drawers, she took in her talons a bottle of whiskey and a glass cup. She slowly poured a glass and took a long drink, before setting it down harshly on the table.
"I swear," she said to herself. "One of these times, his crazy ideas aren't going to work, and we're going to end up angering something that kills us all." She took another ship. "Well, I just hope I'm not around for that."
Chapter 2.3: Before the Storm
Broken clouds drifted over Canterlot as the sun slowly began to rise. Small dots streaming white contrails slowly circled overhead, piercing the blues, oranges, and greys of the early morning sky. The gleaming hulls of the Ryuuhou , Arcadia , and Gloria hung in the sky, sleeping giants waiting to be awoken. The various wooden dirigibles of the Equestrian Airfleet flew between the massive human vessels, the silver of their engines shining against the brown of their hulls. In the middle of this, the massive spires of the city and castle stood, white poles reaching into the aether.
It was here, on the Eighteenth of Woodfall C.E. 1003, that it began. It could not have come in more unfortunately fortunate circumstances; the entirety of the fleet was docked in Canterlot, only seven hundred kilometers from the front, due to a problem with the power system on the Ryuuhou . While the problem had quickly been fixed, minor issues had kept cropping up, preventing the fleet from moving to its northward destination. So when the declaration of war finally came, they were quite prepared.
The Katyusha
Captain Steel Wind sighed. The young greyish-blue pegasus looked from the stern over the rest of her ship, watching as the various crew walked to and from their stations, tying everything loose down and loading their weapons. The engines purred as they came online, belching black smoke and shaking in their fastenings. The helmsman raised his hoof to signal that everything was going well, and Steel Wind nodded in acknowledgement. She watched the raising of the Equestrian Standard; the flag, dominated by a picture of a circle made up of half sun and half moon, fluttered in the breeze as it rose up the pole on the aft end of the stern. Once it had reached the top of the pole, she went into her cabin below the helm, along with her first mate and radio operator.
"Equestrian Battlegroup 1-1, this is Arcadia command, do you read?" a deep voice came through the radio console as Steel Wind opened a bottle of wine. She poured a glass for herself and for her first mate, a unicorn named Iron Cross. The two of them sat in relative silence while the radio operator conversed with the fleet's new command.
"So, let me get this straight. You want battlegroups 1-1 and 2-1 to fly recon, while battlegroups 1-2 and 1-4 stay back to guard Canterlot and the rest form up on you?" the radio operator said, a hint of concern in his voice.
"Yes." came the quick, harsh answer.
"That's suicide!"
"Our fighters have performed overflights of their fleet. You can outmaneuver and outrun them, if you push your engines. If worst comes to worst, we can send out some flights of gunships to take care of them."
The radio operator swallowed. "I'll... relay your message to the captain."
"No need," Steel Wind said. "I heard it all." She carefully put her wineglass on the small table before giving a wink to her first mate, who responded with a smile. "So, essentially you want us to charge straight into their lines?"
"Well... if you put it that way, yes."
"Sounds fun." was all she said before she climbed out onto the deck.
The wind of seventy knots pushed against her face, blowing through her golden locks and causing them to wave in the wind behind her. She stood next to the helmsman, and brought up a voice-enhancement crystal. Putting it in a socket on a small gold band on her wrist, she cleared her throat and began to speak.
"Fillies and gentlecolts," she began, commanding the attention of the various crew who were working on the deck. "We have our orders. We are to form up with the rest of our battlegroup, and perform recon and harassment on the enemy fleet. We may not make it home after this. But know that, if we die on this mission, we will die heroes' deaths. We will die true warriors, loyal to Equestria to the last. But we will not die. No, we will win; we will drive back the Gryphons. We will keep them from slaughtering our Buffalo allies and raping their land in the name of honour. We will defend from the onslaught against Equestria they surely will launch, and we will prevail!"
Cheers and applause rose from the deck as the Katyusha , followed by nearly two dozen other ships, peeled off from the main formation and headed southwest. Soon, however, the ship quieted down again, the loud talking replaced by quiet chatter. Satisfied with her work, Steel Wind returned to her cabin, drink, and mate once more.
"Ah! Mr. Wilhelm!" Luna said, feigning excitement at the human's entrance into her quarters on board the ship. The room, which had originally been one of many auxiliary observation bays, had been finely decorated over the past months. The once-dull steel walls had been given a coat of midnight blue paint, that matched the pony inside. Heavy blue curtains shielded the inside against the blinding fury of the sun, and the only light in the room came from two dim arcane lamps. A finely decorated bed took up most of the center of the room, surrounded with various tables, desks, chairs, and equipment. A suit of immaculate armor, coloured black like the night sky, stood on a rack against a wall. Next to it was a human equivalent, designed to fit the Night Princess' massive equine form.
"Good morning, Princess," David said, bowing quickly before standing upright. "I hope you are enjoying your accommodations," he said, gesturing to the lavish room around him.
"Indeed; they are of the highest quality," she said as she levitated a banana from off the table. "I must say, these are some very interesting fruit. Are you sure they're safe to eat?" she said as she took a small bite.
"Besides being very slightly radioactive, yes, they are safe." he said as he took a seat on a large chair that was covered in black velvet.
Luna's expression went from amusement to horror. "You mean you are feeding your people radioactive material?"
"Relax," David said calmly. "These bananas carry less radiation than you're going to get from space during this flight."
"Is that supposed to be comforting?"
"If you want it to be."
Luna faked a cough. "Anyway, I suppose I should tell you why I summoned you here."
"Do tell." David said, leaning inwards towards the princess. His elbow instinctively went down to the top of his knee, and his fist went up under his chin as a support.
"Strange things are happening."
"Oh? They haven't already?" David said, his expression motionless. He stared into the blue eyes of the Princess, awaiting a response.
She looked away and sighed as she began to speak. "What's happened so far is only the beginning. My ma - someone who I trust very much has foretold dire consequences of this war," she said, still looking away from the human. "Particularly for your people."
"Alright, Princess. Spill the beans. What's going to blow up?"
"I... I can't tell you. If I did, then things would not be the way they are meant to be. All I can say is; be watchful in the south, and do not disregard anything your men tell you. Now go; I must return to solitude, lest this someone I trust believe that I have betrayed them."
David nodded his head in contemplation. "Alright. Just be careful; I don't want a dead princess added to the list of stuff I have to deal with."
"Duly noted."
As soon as David left the room, he heard its automatic metal door close near-instantly. Turning to look at the door's control panel, he saw that it had been locked. Shrugging his shoulders at the behavior, he walked off into the depths of the ship, mostly oblivious to what the future held.
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Chapter 1.1: Planetfall (Nov. 17, 2014 Revision)
The man solemnly stood on the red carpet. On either side of him, various flags and insignias of Humanity were posted. His deep brown hair hung limply on his head as he held his position on the soft cotton. A small silver band, its surface pulsing with lights, poked out from his wrist's cuff. He stared out the window, observing the planet below, watching the blue tinge of the atmosphere's glow slowly fading into the blackness of space. Occasional blue trails flew past as shuttles carrying people to and from their daily business traversed the inky black void between the vessels.
A door behind him opened. A young man, no older than twenty, stood in the door. "Sir," he began. "Your ship is ready for the planetary excursion."
He slowly turned. "Are my guards also prepared?"
The young man saluted. "Mr. Wilhelm, your entire guard division is at one hundred percent readiness."
"Good, good," Wilhelm said as he began to walk. "Tell them to be at my ship within thirty minutes." His black shoes made little sound on the soft material.
"Yes, sir. Thank you for your time, sir."
Wilhelm walked past, not uttering a single word more.
The young boy just sighed and walked away.
The sound of engines filled the hangar bay as Wilhelm walked towards the small black shuttle. He was intercepted, however, by a man in a blue, white-trimmed uniform. "David!" shouted the man, trying to catch Wilhelm's attention.
"Hmm?" David Wilhelm turned to the source of the noise. "Ah. Captain Shepard. Fancy seeing you here."
"Indeed," the captain replied. "I couldn't help but notice you and your guards going to the shuttle. Are you so sure this is a good idea?"
"What do you mean?"
"What if they 're down there?"
"Don't be daft," David waved off his concerns. "We're thousands of lightyears out from their outer rim; it'd take them decades to send enough ships here, especially considering they'd have to find it."
"But couldn't they scan it from their own long-distance telescopes?"
"If we couldn't find it from one system out, what makes you think they'd be able to find it from one thousand?"
The captain sighed. "Fine," he said with a hint of resignation. "But if they're down there and they come to kill us all, don't say I didn't warn you.
"I'll try to remember that," David said as he entered the door on the side of the vessel, followed by a small posse of guards. The shuttle's door closed with a hissing sound, the engines spooled up with a deep whining, and blue flames of thrust began to spew out of its bottom as it lifted against the artificial gravity. As soon as it entered the ship's massive vehicle airlocks, its sound cut out. Moments later, it could be seen flying away at breakneck speed through the various tracking screens littered around the walls of the hangar.
Reddish-orange flames bounced off the bottom of the vessel as it dove through the atmosphere, moving thousands of meters every second. After only a few minutes of its hellish plunge into the blue-tinted air, the flames faded away, taking their heat with them. A jolt shook through the craft as its atmospheric engines came online, pushing it towards its designated landing site.
Mountains, plains, rivers, valleys, lakes, and oceans passed by as the vehicle continued to fly a surprisingly short distance to the landing site. Within half an hour, it had arrived, and was slowly levitating down on its vertical thrusters. It landed in a large forest clearing, surrounded on all sides by dark trees. Its landing legs creaked as it touched down, the sudden weight pushing them into the ground slightly.
"Shuttle 1-1 to Fleet Command," the radio message burst out of the surface. "We have completed the landing maneuver and are disembarking passengers. Be prepared to receive us in about four hours."
"Roger, Shuttle 1-1," a gruff voice replied on the other end of the line. "We acknowledge."
David's shoe planted firmly on the ground, muffled by the layer of fallen leaves. "Welcome to what'll probably be our new home," he said to the soldiers as they followed him out. Soon, five guards and one Son of Earth were spread out around the shuttle, the door of which was slowly closing. "Spread out to the west; I'm pretty sure I saw some sort of a settlement," David said. "Perhaps we can meet the local colour."
The group of six silently tread through the forest, occasionally doing status checks. Four traveled alone, while one of the guards stayed with the Son of Earth. While David had a pistol, it was still better to have a man trained to use a rifle with him. Soon, a contact report came through the radio.
"I was just attacked by fucking wooden wolves, guys," said one of the soldiers on the radio. "I think this forest isn't such a nice place as it looks."
Sounds of mag-rifle shots echoed through the forest nearby. "I just killed a manticore," a tired voice came through the radio. "Let's group together again. I think it'd be safer --"
He was interrupted by a status alarm. "Warning: Connection to unit 1-3 lost."
"Who was 1-3?" a worried voice said through the radio.
"It was Jenkins." said another one solemnly. "Let's get the hell out of this forest before we're all dead."
Grunts of agreement came from the soldiers as they slowly formed on David and his guard before continuing to the west.
Eventually, they came to what looked like the edge of the forest. "Stevens, Michaels, you go scout ahead," one of the guards said, his russian accent thin but noticable. "Richards and I will stick with Wilhelm; we'll follow once you either give the all-clear or call for support."
"Roger," said Stevens, his high-pitched voice a welcome break from the deceptive beauty of the forest. Green oaks, birch, ash, and pine trees covered the pair of humans as they advanced on the small hamlet.
One of them tapped a button on the side of his helmet. Two lenses flipped down behind his visor, allowing him to essentially zoom in.
"I see about four houses here, and nothing moving. Let's move up; use the shrubs and buildings for cover."
"There's a cottage over there," Michaels said in his usual deadpan tone. "Let's go check it out first."
"Your call," Stevens replied.
The two slowly approached the house. "There's some animals here," Michaels said quietly through his earpiece. "Some squirrels, a dog, some birds, a rabbit and -- a bear?"
Michaels did a double-take at what he saw. "Yep, there's a bear. On this side, there's a--"
He stopped in the middle of his sentence.
"What?" Stevens asked.
"I know this is an alien terran planet and all, but what the fuck is that?" he said, gesturing to a creature that was in the corner of the fenced-off garden.
"Jesus," said Stevens. "It's like a horse, but... weird. And yellow."
"Huh." Michaels said the only thing he could at that point. "Guys, come here," he said through the radio to the other squad.
"Michaels just called for support, I think," Richards said. "Move on their location."
"Yep," said Vasili in his signature tone. "Let's save him before he becomes ribbon."
David nodded his agreement. "Let's."
The posse of three stealthily snuck across the forest floor before coming to the bush that the other two guards were hiding behind.
"See that?" Stevens said. "It's a horse-thing."
"Let me handle this," David said, drawing his pistol. "Stay behind and provide covering fire if I need it," he said over his back as he walked away. "And don't do anything stupid or sudden."
David slowly snuck up to the creature. It definitely looked like a horse-thing, but smaller, and with wings. It also had a strange mark on its rear - he dismissed it as some sort of branding from its owner. He stopped next to it to observe it further before moving on. He was stopped by a quiet voice behind him, speaking in near-perfect English.
"Hey, big guy. What are you?"
He slowly turned around, pistol in hand. Seeing that nothing appeared to have said that, he dismissed it as a voice in his head and continued walking to the door, only to be stopped again.
"Can you hear me?" the voice said again, this time louder. He turned around, and saw nothing again. Just as he was about to continue moving, the voice piped up again.
"Down here," it said quietly again. He turned and saw the yellow horse-thing had moved closer to him. He just stared at it.
Then it spoke. In the same voice he'd just heard.
"What are you?" it repeated.
"What the actual fuck." was his only response. The creature seemed a bit taken aback by this; he quickly cleared his throat and began to speak.
"I am a human. How the hell did you understand me?" he inquired, somewhat forcefully.
"Uhm..." she replied, her voice going even quieter. "I can... kinda talk to animals."
"What?"
"I can talk to animals." she stated loud enough for him to hear. His jaw dropped slightly, but he regained his composure again.
"Do you see me as an animal?" he said, a hint of venom in his voice.
"N- No, mister. I just meant -"
"Good." he replied. "Now that that's out of the way, where in the cosmos am I?" he said, looking around. "And what's the dominant species on this planet?"
"You're in Ponyville, in Equestria," the creature replied. "And there is no one dominant creature. I mean, some have tried, but..." her face paled slightly. David simply nodded at this, understanding what she was getting at.
"Well, what are you?"
"I'm a pegasus," she said quietly.
"So this must be a pegasus town or nation, then," he said to himself. "Can you fly?" he said again, turning to the pastel yellow pegasus in front of him.
"I guess I can," she said. "But what did you say to yourself?"
"This is a pegasus town, is it not?" he said, looking out to the town a few miles to the west.
"Oh, heavens, no!" the pegasus replied, seemingly mortified at the thought. "There's earth ponies, unicorns, even some zebras and mules!"
David's jaw dropped so far he nearly had to stoop down to pick it up. He quickly regained his composure, and cleared his throat. "Well, this was a pleasant chat, Ms...?"
"Fluttershy," said the pegasus.
"Well, Ms. Fluttershy. May we meet again someday," he said as he walked away from the cottage. Talking into his radio earpiece, he issued a rather strange order.
"Guards, return to the shuttle. I think it'd be better if I did this alone."
"Whatever you say, boss," the russian accent of Vasili came through the radio. "We'll be back in a few hours to pick you up."
"Good," David said as he began to walk down the cobblestone path. He didn't get more than fifteen meters before he heard some voices speaking relatively nearby. He quickly dove into a bush on the side of the path, peering out.
The two voices were getting closer, and were accompanied by the sound of hard shoes hitting hard stone. He couldn't see out of the bush well, however, so he decided to poke his head up.
A purple creature and an orange creature were walking next to each other, apparently talking. He cleared his throat as if to address them, but all he managed to get was a pause in the rhythm of their movement. They quickly started up again, and he noticed that one of them had a horn on its head.
"Hey!" he shouted. "Ms. Unicorn!"
This succeeded in getting both of the creatures to look at him; a scream erupted from the purple creature's mouth, and before he could do anything, a purple beam of energy hit him square in the chest, and everything faded to black. The last thing to come out of his mouth was a very quiet, very drawn-out "Oh crap."
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Chapter 1.3: Pre-Flight (Mid-Revision, will be finished after 1-2 revision)
The pair appeared in a flash of light, popping up in the middle of the library. Five 'ponies' surrounded him, staring intently at the man. "Uh..." he said. "Hello?"
He was cut off from saying anything more by a flood of purple light going straight into his eyes, mouth, and very soul. When it was over, he felt surprisingly dizzy, but he felt something was different. "What just happened?"
"He talks?" he heard an unfamiliar voice say.
"Yes, I talk. I've always - Wait. Say something again," he said, turning to the source of the noise. A white unicorn, its purple hair organized in curls, was looking at him incredulously.
"What do you mean, Darling?"
"You. I can understand you. Why can I understand you?" he said to himself.
"You speak Equestrian, no?"
"No, I don't. I only know English, Chinese, and German." David said. He quickly saw that the unfamiliar words flew straight over the heads of all present. "Uh. I mean, I only speak languages from my native land."
"You're talking just fine to me." a blue 'pegasus' said, hovering above the group.
"Oh Christ. I think I know what happened." He turned to the purple pony. "What the hell did you do to me?"
"I may have written Equestrian into your language center, making you as fluent as a native speaker."
David sighed. "Might as well get this over with," he said. "I'm here to take Twilight Sparkle away from you for some time. Do not worry; she'll not be harmed in any way, and she will be given the utmost comfort."
"And how can we know that you're not lying, you sack of meat?"
"Firstly, please do not call me that. Second, I swear on my honour as a Son of Earth that I-"
"What's a 'son of Earth'? Are you the son of an Earth Pony or something?" the blue one piped up again
"Shut up," said the orange one. "He's obviously not from around here."
David sighed. "Anyway, I will be taking Twilight up to orbit with me for about two weeks, where we will tour the fleet and --"
"I can't let you do that." said the blue one. "I won't let my friend go away with a creep like you."
He cleared his throat. "Do not interrupt me. I am on official business, and I will take her with me, with or without your permission. Who are you, anyway? Some plebeian trying to interfere with -"
He was interrupted by the pink 'pony', who'd been jumping almost the entire time. It spoke as if it had just been connected to the direct output of an antimatter reactor.
"We're her friends, silly!" She began gesturing gratuitously to each of the 'ponies' assembled. "This here is Fluttershy; she's pretty quiet," she said, pointing to the pale yellow 'pony'. "This is Rainbow Dash! She's really fast." she said as she turned to point both of her... arms? Legs? Hooves? at the cyan 'pony'. "And this here is Rarity! She makes really fancy clothes!" Turning to the orange 'pony', she continued her rant. "This is Applejack; she works on a farm and makes really good apples!" Turning around to face his object of interest, she kept talking. "This is Twilight Sparkle; she's always in a book, except when she's not!" David felt his brain slowly melting away as the 'pony' wrapped up its tirade. "And I'm Pinkie Pie, maker of candy and parties everywhere!"
Oh, joy. thought David to himself as he tensed his body to run out of the door, call an evacuation, and try to get off the planet away from that creature as fast as possible.
"But who are you?" it asked. "And what are you? I don't think I've seen one of you before."
Damn. David reluctantly answered the question in the flattest tone he could. "I'm David Wilhelm, from the Eighty-Third colony fleet. I am on important business here, so if you would kindly just allow me to call my shuttle and escort Twilight Sparkle -"
"What's a colony fleet?" it asked.
David sighed, groaning in irritation. "It's a fleet of ships that colonizes planets. As I was saying, if you'd just let me finish, I --"
"What kind of ships?" it continued to pester him with questions.
"Capital ships and frigates. Now please, just let me --"
"Oooh! What's a capital ship?"
"You wouldn't understand without seeing one. So please, --"
"Can you show me one?"
"No. Now, PLEASE, just let me finish what I was saying!"
"Okie dokie loki!" said the pink fluffball.
"Thank you. Anyway, with her permission," he said, turning to the purple pony, "I will take her on a flight onboard my personal spacecraft. We shall tour the airspace of this land before going up to orbit and docking with the Arcadia, where we will remain for approximately two days before coming back down and landing here, if that is satisfactory with her."
Twilight seemed lost in thought. "Hmm? Oh, yes, of course."
"Thank you. I will call down the spacecraft immediately. As for the rest of you 'ponies', you can go back to whatever you were doing." David promptly walked into a side room and switched on his earpiece. The sound of static filled his ears before the connection was linked, and he began to speak."
"Is the connection stable? Good. Can you hear me clearly? Good. I need my shuttle prepped and ready to go, with no extra passengers, within two hours. I need it landed here in four. You can do it? Good. No, no guards. No, I don't need fighter escorts. Actually, yes, have fighters ready to escort on my signal. No, we're not going to be doing bombing runs. No, I'm not trying to escape. Seriously, shut up and get my shuttle ready." His conversation with the fleet over, he heard the sound of voices. He decided it might be wise to eavesdrop before entering back into the main room.
"...might not be worth it. After all, who knows what he could be planning to do to you?"
"Don't worry, Spike. I'm sure that he has no intent to harm me. And plus, he probably thinks this is going to be an interesting adventure, so why shouldn't I try it?"
"Don't you think anything bad could happen? At all? After all, he insulted my flying! Who knows what he could have done if you guys weren't here?"
"I'm sorry, dear, but I must agree with Rainbow Dash here. I do not think it is a good idea for you to go with him on this; in fact, I think you should get rid of him as soon as possible."
"Are you suggesting I just tell him to up and leave? He needs me to come on this."
"Well, yes, I am. It is simply not prudent for you to risk your life simply so he can get whatever satisfaction he needs."
"How about if I talk to him about it?"
"I suppose that could work, although he'd probably just try to lie to you to keep you from finding his motives."
"Fine. I'll talk to him, and if I find anything off, I'll do my best to not go."
"Okay, dear. I just want what's best for you, after all."
David chose this moment to burst through the door. As expected, there was the pony Twilight Sparkle conversing with 'Rarity', along with some sort of dragon-creature next to him. A rainbow "Well, I called my fleet. My ship will be here in about an hour; do you two want to ask about anything while we wait?" he said as he took a seat in one of the various chairs scattered along the lower level. Play it cool; don't make them think you have anything to hide.
Before Twilight could even open her mouth, Rarity spoke. "What are you hiding from us?" she asked in a demanding tone.
"Nothing! Nothing at all..." he said, only half-convincingly.
"Mhmm. Of course. I won't ask again," she said, her voice growing darker by the second. "What. Are you. Hiding?"
David felt genuinely threatened by this; as such, he began to blurt out things that should probably have remained secret. "I'm sorry, alright? It's just that with this being the only chance I have to save Humanity, and with the Ceryllians probably searching for us, I had to take the first chance I got, okay? It's not my fault I was put in charge as the diplomat, commander, and governor of the last forty thousand humans!"
Both Rarity and Twilight's jaws were just on the floor. "Now do you understand why I needed to take her? Without following your princess' orders and taking her with me, I'll basically be damning all that remains of my species. So, no, I won't hurt her, try to take advantage of her, or do anything else. Fuck, I just wanted one thing, ONE THING, to go smoothly in all of this, but I can't have even that, can I? For fuck's sake..."
"I- I'm sorry for --" began Rarity.
"Don't start that shit. It's not your fault. I'm the one who withheld information I shouldn't have; you just made a logical conclusion from what you had."
"Are you alright?" Twilight piped up. She almost had a look of concern on her face.
"Yes, I'm fine, don't worry. Anyway, do either of you have any other topics you want to talk about?" David asked, trying to steer the conversation away from the topic it'd quickly reached.
"What did you mean, 'all that remains of your species'? Surely there's more... humans, I think?" Twilight asked again.
"Indeed, darling. The way you said it made it sound almost as if something terrible happened."
Sighing, David shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Are you sure? It'll help ease your mind."
He sighed again, before beginning. "The first time I met Eric was back in university. We had the same aerodynamics and diplomacy classes; he was always the better student. At first, we didn't talk much. He was the quiet, reserved guy while I was the one who was going to all the parties, getting drunk off my ass, all the usual shit. Eventually, though, we started to drift close together. By the end of our second year, we were fast friends. Then, one day, about a month after we graduated, news of the war came."
"What war?" Rarity asked, her voice tinged with concern.
"The one that almost resulted in the extinction of the human race," David stated bluntly. "At first, everyone was hopeful; technology and plain luck had bred some of Humanity's smartest commanders as if specifically to fight in this conflict. And we were winning for a good few years, even pushing back into Ceryllian territory, before the Titans came. They were massive ships that no commander could ever hope to survive combating, let alone survive. Eric was... he was on the front line in the first Titan attack, while I was sat on a couch at home with my name out of the command roster. He was out there, being a hero, while I was living off my government stipend. It was my fault, of course; they'd set me to go as first choice, but I declined, so they sent him instead. He should be alive instead of me; I stole his life to continue my own..."
At this point David's stoic voice started cracking. "And after that battle, I had to be the one to bring the news to their family. The look on his kids' faces when they learned Daddy wasn't ever coming home... And then to make matters worse, I was selected for the Son of Earth program soon after. They kept me away from friends and family for three years, trying to make me as good as possible. They did things to my body... to my mind that no man should ever have to go through, in the name of science. Of course, now I thank them; without it, I probably wouldn't be here at all. But that doesn't change the fact that I was selected to live while trillions were left to die.
"After the conditioning, they gave me ten ships to command and forty thousand people and sent me off. I wasn't the only one; there were a hundred like me. I got to knew them well; Taiko, Steve, John, and Daniil, we were all assigned to the same group. We set off about ten years ago and... well, I really don't want to go into the details right now. Suffice it to say that I'm the only one left; me and my forty thousand.
"So that's why I needed you to come, Twilight. If you didn't agree, I'd be stuck, alone, with nowhere to go and no way to keep my people alive. I'd not only have failed all forty thousand of those people, but I'd have failed the memory of all my friends, family, and acquaintances that died for me to get to where I am."
David's eyes were red, and his hair had become disheveled. "Well, that's what you wanted to know," he said in a weak voice. "I guess it does feel a little better, talking to someone else about it."
The clouds slowly began to roll in as the two ponies conversed with the human, talking about various topics from personal experiences to old friendships to even the sciences. They were only interrupted by the sound of the ship's VTOL engines as it landed, cutting off their conversation.