Twilight woke to the faint sound of a dragon breathing fire. What is he doing? she thought groggily. She heard the drake hop out of his bed, before he poked her on the shoulder and handed her... a scroll. "A letter? This early?" she asked Spike.
"Got me, but it looks like it's from Celestia."
"Celestia?" the princess asked, suddenly wide awake.
He shrugged. "Just basing that on the seal and the fact that she's the only one who sends you letters."
Ah. Right. No one else would send a letter through Spike. she reminded herself briefly before grabbing the scroll with her levitation spell.
Laying it out on the bed, Twilight quickly followed suit. "Do I want to read this now or wait until I'm more awake?" she thought aloud to herself. A few seconds passed before she decided. "Ah, heck with it, I'll read it now." Making her decision, she focused her gaze on the text before her.
Dear Twilight,
You know I wouldn't contact you so early unless it was an extremely important matter, but even if you're wide awake, I need to
make this quick. Both because I certainly am not completely awake and this needs to reach you before he arrives.
He? What is this about? Twilight thought in confusion. She continued to read, wondering what else the scroll could possibly contain.
A visitor from, you can choose to believe this or not, another planet landed in Canterlot early this morning. On a side note, you can see why I'm still tired at this hour. He is also someone I know. He defended my family from what he said was a radiation field, the source of which was something he called a "cruiser". A very large spaceship, I would say maybe one to two-and-a-half miles long. Anyway, he asked me where you were, and when I asked why, he merely said, "I need their help." He should be almost to you. And one more thing, don't let the fact that he originates from an alien world fool you; he is very much one of us.
"One of us? What did she mean by that?" she said, and about half a second later, Spike yelled, "TWILIGHT, SOMEONE'S HERE TO SEE YOU!"
"That was quite the coincidence." she said before stepping off her bed, and exiting her room. At least, that's what she was doing before the door opened. At this she was confused, because nothing had actually touched the door. Then, a bright white stallion -- the same coat color as Rarity, in fact -- with a bright green mane and tail , each with a single white stripe through the center, and eyes almost the same color as the mane, more ivy than grass-colored, though, stepped into the doorway.
"If you're wondering what happened to the door, I can manipulate particles in a fluid at my will. More so a gas than a liquid, though," said the unknown stallion said, smiling. Was this the visitor Celestia had spoken of?
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am." He gave a slight smirk while saying it. What?! I didn't even say that aloud!! Twilight thought, her mouth agape. He merely laughed. "Thoughts are electrical impulses, and I have -- well, not just me, but you get the idea -- a device that takes advantage of this by converting them into electromagnetic signals, so beings, organic or electronic, can communicate by simply thinking."
Now she was losing him. Like she hadn't already. As if a pony being able to control a fluid wasn't confusing enough, he had to throw quantum physics in the mix. Coming out of her trance, she remembered why he was here. "So what was it you needed help with? You seem smart enough."
"Ah, yes. That." His smile turned to a frown.
Twilight's did the same. "What's wrong?" she asked, concern vivid in her voice.
"Walk with me. Spike, you too," he said, walking to the front door. Twilight looked at Spike, seeming even more confused than before. "Did you tell him your name?" she whispered to him.
Spike seemed rather annoyed. "Yes, of course, why wouldn't I greet him if Celestia cleared him?"
"Wait, did you overhear me reading that?"
He sighed. "Yes."
Well... she thought, finally relaxing.
That didn't last long though, as she heard a voice at the door. "You coming or not?" the mysterious stallion called. They came to their senses and walked to the door.
A thought popped into Twilight's head. "You never did tell us your name."
"Well?" Spike inquired shortly after.
The stallion appeared to be pondering whether or not to answer. "My name is Gabriel, unit name in the fleet is X-1," he finally said.
Fleet? What was this about? "What are you talking about when you say 'fleet'?" Twilight asked intently.
"I was worried you were going to ask that..." he trailed off.
A look of surprise crossed Twilight's face. She looked at Spike, and saw more of a confused look.
"It would take forever to explain, and we don't have that kind of time." he answered matter-of-factly.
He's hiding something... she thought, and quickly cut herself off. She only earned herself a small glance.
"I think it's about time I told why I'm really here."
"Why?" Twilight and Spike asked in unison.
"Walk with me." he repeated.
"So basically, you're here because you tracked an enemy back to here?"
"Yep, and a very annoying one at that."
"So, what, specifically, did you track back?" Spike asked.
Gabriel sighed. "An advanced and experimental enemy Vulture Droid and cruiser."
A cruiser... Celestia mentioned one of those in her letter... Twilight thought.
He chuckled. "Tia wrote about that in the letter?"
"You talk like you're a close friend of hers," she said calmly, starting to get used to the fact that he could "hear" her thoughts.
"You could say that..." he said, sighing. "I rescued her, Luna, and their mother and father from a pulse generator field. That one was especially dangerous because it was part of a trio of them linked together, and the other two had been destroyed, making that one particularly unstable."
"Why were they even near it, if the... 'cruiser'... was in orbit? It was inside the spaceship, right?" She was about to ask another question, but she cut herself off.
"Inside? Are you kidding?" he said, getting slightly eccentric, but quickly calming down. "No, they were attached to the top of the outer hull."
"The outer hull? Were the designers insane or something?"
"No, it was intentional. When I destroyed it, I only managed to hit two. The other one fell from orbit... no less than ten meters from where they were standing."
Twilight felt like she was going to faint. "Ten meters?!"
"That's not lethal blast radius -- from the meteor-esque strike, obviously -- or radiation radius -- it's a generator designed to kill living organisms. This one being unstable, the radiation was held in a sphere two meters in radius around the generator."
"A perfect sphere?" Twilight skeptically inquired.
"A perfect sphere," came the response. "Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent. I need you to gather up your friends; the Vul- wait- I forgot to tell you about the droid!" Gabriel realized.
"That... would be important if you're implying what I think you are," Twilight said, getting progressively more negative the further down the sentence she got.
"Yeah... um..." he said, rather nervously. "Anyway- I am saying that way too much... Ok, back on topic, the Vulture has one inch thick armor plating and a shock absorber under that to protect the electronic components from kinetic blast waves. It has highly advanced blaster cannons, almost as powerful as ours, and what appears to be a weapon... 'attached'... to the front. That and one other thing worries me about this thing. The weapon because it has the possibility of being a railgun -- researchers who have looked into it even aren't sure -- and the second thing..." He trailed off, unsure of whether or not to continue.
"What is it?" asked Twilight, managing to keep her voice calm, though she was really nervous, with the whole "pulse generator" thing earlier.
"It has a cloaking device."
"A what?" the princess and drake asked in unison, notably confused.
"A cloaking device. Do you know what that is?" The two shook their heads "In essence, it makes it invisible. Down to the wire, it makes photons go around the object so you see what's behind it instead of the object itself. It's not very difficult, actually. I was 13 when my former home country's military developed prototype cloaking technology."
"Wha?" Twilight asked, cocking her head.
"It's... not important. The United States fell apart before actually disbanding, so... yeah. Anyway-" He was cut off by Twilight and Spike snickering.
"Didn't you just say you were saying that too much?" Twilight giggled, quickly turning into a laugh.
What's so funny? I want to know the joke! "Look what you did, Twilight, you went and upset Pinkie!" Gabriel said suddenly, laughing himself.
A loud "What?!" came from the top floor of Sugarcube Corner, and the trio laughed even harder.
Pinkie came out the front door of the bakery. "How did you-? What? Why?!" Pinkie almost screamed.
"Ok, calm down, calm down." the stallion said to her.
"Calm down? Calm down?! You just read my mind, and you expect me to-" She was cut off by a lavender hoof in her muzzle.
"Pinkie." Twilight said sternly.
"Sorry," she replied sheepishly. "May I ask who our new friend is?"
Twilight was surprised. "That's a first, Pinkie."
"Oh, you left your door open when you left, so I looked to see if you were ok, and I found the letter from the princess on your bed." Pinkie replied, her characteristic smile on her face.
Twilight gave her a look. "Right. Anyway-" She was interrupted by a claw on her shoulder. Spike just shook his head. "Yeah... um... sorry about that, Spike."
"What was that about?" Pinkie asked, evidently confused.
"That was the reason we started laughing. Gabriel, this, uh... stallion here -- I sound like AJ -- had, not even a minute before, said he was saying the word 'anyway' too much, and then he said it again. Alright, back on topic- " she smiled at Gabriel when she said it "-as I said before our 'new friend' is Gabriel."
"Nice to meet you, Pinkie," he said, smiling and holding out his hoof.
"Hold on..." Pinkie said, sprouting a mischievous grin.
"No, Pinkie," Twilight said, cutting her off. "I don't even know if he's staying past today." Pinkie frowned and shook his hoof.
"Maybe after we get back from the hunt," he reassured the pink mare.
"The hunt?" she asked.
"I need you two to gather your friends, and meet me at the northwest outskirts of town."
"Why northwest?" Twilight asked, wondering why he had been so specific.
"I tracked the cruiser back to an enemy base near the northwest sea."
Pinkie was confused, disoriented, and wanted answers. "What is this?"
The only response she got was: "I'm not explaining this more than I have to. Get Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity, and then I'll explain it."
Gabriel sighed loudly. Where ARE they?! he thought irritably. Suddenly, he saw a rainbow streaking across the sky... straight towards him. "Simple," he said, making a wall out of a patch of air directly in Rainbow Dash's path.
"OW!" was all he heard before seeing her drop, catching herself just before she hit. "What was that about, huh?!" she yelled.
"I could ask you the same question, Rainbow!" he replied, annoyed.
Rainbow was surprised. Twilight hadn't been kidding her; this stallion could manipulate particles in the atmosphere, and did know her name (though, of course, if Pinkie Pie tells you something, it usually isn't false).
She whipped around at a loud yell. Her friends were running towards her.
"Tail was a-twitchin'," Pinkie said quickly.
Rainbow looked at Twilight. "I warned you," was all she got.
They heard someone clear their throat in the background. But it wasn't a familiar voice, even to Twilight or Spike. It sounded... mechanical. Electronic. They turned to where Gabriel had been standing, and saw instead an all-brown robot with rather menacing machine-yellow eyes... in the same body shape the aforementioned stallion was in.
"What the-" was all they managed to utter before the robot reorganized its parts into the shape of... a vehicle?!
"It's called a car!" the robot replied, clearly irritated. Moments later, the robot had reformed into a version of the... "car" that could fit all seven of them. And then some, but that's beside the point.
"What in tarnation?" was all Applejack could say.
Most of the others could only say "What?" or "How?", but Rarity, trying to keep herself unique in this situation, said that this revelation was "most interesting". The others, even Twilight, could only gawk at just how calm Rarity was when she said it.
"Just get in," came the mechanical voice of the robot. "Why are you still calling me a robot? I'm the same pony you met earlier!"
"Wait... What?!" was all Twilight managed to say. No one else could speak a word, or even make a noise.
He sighed. "Get. In." he said, getting extremely irritated. They all complied. Twilight and Spike got in the center seat in the back, Applejack on the left, Rainbow on the right. Fluttershy took up the front-center position, Rarity on her right, and Pinkie got in the "driver's seat".
"Is it really a good idea to let her control it?" Rainbow asked, evidently afraid. Suddenly, a belt flew over them and anchored them to the back of the seat.
"She isn't," the former stallion, now advanced transport vehicle uttered. "I am."
A song started playing in the background. "I find it easier to work to a beat," the vehicle said simply. The others complied, actually enjoying the song. "All right, charging plasma turbines, thruster online..." The robotic car talked as it prepared for taking off. Others outside came to see what the commotion was.
The song picked up its pace, actually replaying what it had just played with a deeper, louder instrument. "Turbines fully charged, thruster at maximum power..."
"Are you sure about this?" the ponies and drake asked.
"Yes, I've done this before." He switched to the thought device. Also, Twilight, you might want to put away your wings. The exo-suit i had designed for you was made before you got them.
She sighed. All right... I'll do it. Her wings disappeared from her body. Everyone saw but no one questioned.
"Hold on tight!" the car said suddenly, going from zero to 100 in less than a second. The song's lyrical portion began: We are repressed now, being set free. Death of a dream gives us life. Watching the stars and we are blinded. Division unites us for a while. All the while the vehicle was preparing weapon systems. A plasma lance on the roof. Photon lasers, missile launchers, and a turbolaser battery on each side.
"What are those for?" Twilight questioned the motives he could have for using so many weapons.
"That" he said. Looking ahead, a massive wall of enemy space, air, and ground units formed. "Going full afterburner, hold on!" He opened fire.
Kill the lights, no more lies, no more running in the night. Mystery, what we see, revelation to my eyes. Renewing life.
"Come on, come on..."
"What is THAT?!" Spike yelled, pointing at a large, isosceles triangle-shaped object above the defensive wall.
"That? Is a cruiser," the robot replied quickly, evidently trying to focus on clearing their way through the swarm.
"That's what it looks like?!" Twilight practically screamed, trying to make her voice heard over the roaring of the heavy weaponry.
"At least can't fire at us!" Rarity said, noticing that they were almost directly under it.
In a distress now, over our peace. Living in fear of the past. We'll overcome the history. Rewrite fate pain never lasts
"Are we underneath it?" Twilight asked her.
The droid answered the question. "Yes. No weapons are on the underside of these. There's a hangar bay, but the eight turbolaser batteries those are equipped with are on top, actually meant for combat with other capital ships."
"Capital ships?" Rainbow and Applejack asked in unison.
"The largest you can get for a standard battleship. Anything larger, and you have a planetary battleship or space station on your hands. Our fleet is the only one to have a planetary battleship."
"Does planetary battleship mean it's the size of a planet?" Twilight asked, kind of worried.
"Yes, actually ours is as big as this entire planet."
"WHAT?!" they all screamed.
Kill the lights, no more lies, no more running in the night. Mystery, what we see, revelation to my eyes. Renewing life.
"GAH! Not so loud! You static'd my audio receptors!"
Pinkie, who could usually make everything simple for everyone else, merely said, "Huh?"
The droid sighed. "Now's not the time! I've had just about enough of this blockade. I'm ending this now!" He charged a high-power weapon.
"What is that?" Fluttershy asked, being the only one who could see it.
"Energy cannon," he replied simply. "This thing has some serious recoil, so hold on!"
The truth is a lie, told to disguise. Life is a means unto an end. War and peace are not what they seem. Truth be told, I'll try to mend. Can it be done, when the war is won? Will there be hope, a little light? Is this the end? We'll never bend, the end's in sight!
Finishing charging the weapon, he aimed at the cruiser... and fired.
Kill the lights, no more lies, no more running in the night. Mystery, what we see, revelation to my eyes.
Finally shutting down the weapons, nothing remained of the enemy force but debris. No one was surprised. The weapons used had a lot of power behind them.
Kill the lights, no more lies, no more running in the night. Mystery, what we see, revelation to my eyes. Renewing life.
The song came to a close as they reached their destination. The car hopped up in the air, transformed into a boat, and landed in the water. "All hands on deck!" he joked. "We made it to the sea." Engaging a low-power plasma engine, the boat moved steadily forward. Their journey had finally begun.
Renewing life.
