Mare Cognitum

The day Selena was sent to Earth...

The hard pearls of rain pounded against the barn. It was a dark, gloomy, overcast day in Imperial County, California. Usually the sky would be sunny, but the dark rain blocked out the sky. Through its thick rhythm, nothing was heard in the barn, through the rain, but its steady beat. Well, and the chickens getting slaughtered in the lot over.

Electric Streak groggily woke up. With a longing sigh, she went over to the old trough, and ran some water from it through her messy, two-tone mane. If it weren't for her mane, she'd be like all the other ponies. It was what made her a bolt of color in a sea of white. The head rancher always found that odd about her; in fact, that was how they named her. Both of her parents had black manes, but she somehow got a streak of electric green going through hers. Other than that, her coat was the same chocolatey brown as theirs.

The same full-body wash of chocolate ALL the ponies on the ranch had.

Streak had always found this weird.

How could everypony be the same? It made no sense. It was impossible to tell anypony apart from each other.

Not like there was anything different about the others.

Different than all the other ponies on the ranch, Streak could sentiently think. She would sit down, every day, look up to the sky, and ponder. It was painful to be the only one who could think in a crowd. She was unable to voice her opinions to anypony. You felt alone in an alien world. She'd tried to communicate with the other horses, but they would always sit there, eyes unblinking. Though she may have been a horse like them, her eyes were much more.

Another favorite characteristic of her by the head rancher, her eyes seemed to have light of their own. Like the highlight in her mane, her eyes were another unusual trait. They were glowing red, like the embers of a starting fire. But just like the fire, they misted over with smoke. Any normal person would at first assume she had a cataract, or trouble seeing, and they would be right about there being a problem with her sight. But it was not what she wouldn't see that was the problem for her.

It was rather what she would.

The steady rhythm of the raindrops was cut off by a large explosion. The other horses in the barn, unsurprisingly, did nothing. Electric, however, was shocked. What was that? She quickly pushed open the barn door, and ran out.

She could hear the head rancher getting out of bed. Climbing up the hill that overlooked the ranch, she hastily scanned the countryside. Following a cliche movie effect, she skipped the extremely conspicuous, glowing-orange meteorite crash and kept looking, then snapped back.

Approaching the crash, she looked down. In the middle of a perfectly circular indention in the ground was a filly, about her age. She glanced up at the sky, trying to see where the filly could have come from, and looked back down. For a brief second, she swore that she saw that the mare had wings, but a quick double take denied the thought. For a second, she thought this pony would be different. But she was same as the others. The same overused color scheme, and probably the same overused intelligence level.

She heard some shuffling, and looked back. The head rancher had ran up to the crash, and was panting heavily.

"Oh, look! Free mares falling from the sky! It does rain cats and dogs! Wait, it doesn't. It rains horses. I wonder if I can get a free car falling from the sky too. But that would probably make a bigger hole, reduce my property value..."

The stereotypical filly muttered in her sleep. "Finally... I'll be there..."

Woah, wait. Did that filly just talk? Maybe she isn't like the others...

"Well, time to get you back to the barn. And you too, Streak. I think she can share the stall with you tonight."

Seven years later...

"Star."

"Mmmph."

"Star!"

"Five more minutes.."

"Star!!! Wake up!"

The black and brown mare slowly arose. "Oh, hey Streak. Aaah..." She looked up at her with half-lidded, sleepy eyes before snapping open again. "Oh. Oh! I just remembered..."

"What was that Star?"

"Oh, uhh, nothing..."

Sufficient enough of an answer for Electric, the highlighted mare just shrugged it off. "Well, I'm going to go out for a morning walk. Want to join me?"

"Naw, I'll pass. I uh, don't feel so good. Yep. That's it."

She raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't say anything. "Okay then... Whelp, bye!"

Streak opened the old double-doors to the barn, and trotted out. When the mare was finally out of earshot and sight, Star dug under the piles of hay, to bring out a small leather satchel and proceeded to produce a small metal cylinder. She slowly crept up to the barn window, set it down so it angled out to the sky, and carefully hit a button on it.

"This is Selena Astral coming in. Hello? Is anypony there?" Almost as if on cue, a small tuft of smoke and green fire came slithering through the window, like an airborne snake, to rest on the ground next to her.

Electric walked down the old, worn gravel path. Another day, another adventure. Even though she'd been raised on the farm since she was a filly, the ranges were so large that there was still much she hadn't explored. She just trotted for a bit, not really thinking, until a small glint in the smoke caught her eye.

"What the-" She walked over and bent down to observe it. "What's this?"

Scraping the dirt away with her hooves, she eventually uncovered a bright silver chain. Yanking it out of the ground with her teeth, it revealed itself to be attached to a small gold trinket. It seemed to be made out of one solid piece of metal. It seemed to depict a portion of space, curvy and abstract to suggest how it might continue indefinately. Inlaid in it were crystal"stars" of all colors, from light blues to dark reds. Turning it over to its much plainer backside, it only read two words.

SELENA ASTRAL

"Star! Star? Are you here?" Not met with a response, she walked in to see what was up. "Star? Is there a problem? Speak to me!" She walked further inside, and saw the mare in question, with her neck down as if she was reading something. "There you are! Star, guess what, look what I found!"

Streak walked forward, and set the chain down on the floor. Star was still there, not saying anything. She walked up by her. "What's the matter, St- What's this?" She pointed a hoof at an unraveled scroll of parchment on the ground. "Hello? Star! Talk to me!" She grabbed her on the shoulders, and shook her.

"Havablugh..."

"Star! What happened?"

"Th- this letter... I can't believe it..."

Streak went over to the paper in question, and read it over. "What the hay does all this mean?"

"I-I'm finally going home..."

"Okay then... anyways, look at what I found!" Streak dragged the necklace over and laid it in front of her. Star glanced at it, and her eyes widened. As she reached out for the necklace, right when she touched the metal, Streak again thought she saw a different, winged mare take Star's place.

"Ohmigosh! Where did you find this?!"

"Umm, out in the fields, but that's not important, what I"m asking is wha-"

"This necklace is from home. It is practically one of the only things I have left from there..."

"Ah. Wait, then why does it say 'Selena Astral' on it?"

"Fallen Star is a name that the rancher chose for me, I don't have control over that. My real name is Selena Astral. Plus, we both know perfectly fine we can't communicate with him. Its not like he'd care anyways."

"Good point. So, where exactly is your home?"

Selena turned and looked out the window. "Far, far away..."

"Hmm. So, who sent the letter? Why didn't they take you home earlier?"

"I'm not so sure..." A look of shock crossed her face. "Shoot! Almost forgot! I'll have to leave soon..."

"What? How?"

"There's too much to explain. Anyways, I made a promise, I'll have to take you with me."

"Guh... wha? I'm going back with you to your home?"

"Yep. Now, you better come quick, I don't want to miss this ride... that would be bad."

"...Okay then..."

"You're taking this surprisingly calmly for somepony who's about to just get ripped of the face of their homeplanet."

"Well, this place isn't that great, and- wait, homePLANET?"

She put on a sly grin. "Did I fail to mention that when I say I'm not from here, I literally mean here, as in all this?"

"Well, err, uhh..."

"C'mon, I need to get home. Follow me..."

Selena dragged a very dazed-looking Streak out the barn, into an open field far away from it.

"Now, stand there while I clop."

"Wait, what?"

"I mean, establish connections."

"Wait, WHAT?!" Streak said quite louder this time.

"Uhh, communicate."

"That's how you 'communicate' with others? I've known you for seven years, and I've never se-"

"Just shut up while I work."

Astral pulled a metal rod out of a satchel that Streak didn't even know she was wearing, and happened to notice that she was wearing the necklace as well.

"Are you sure you're gonna use that? That looks pretty hardcore. And, also, I'm not sure I'll be exactly able to keep quiet while you work, as-"

"For the love of Celestia, be quiet! I'm trying to concentrate!"

"Wow, I guess you are hardcore, you used the word 'concentrate'."

"UUUGH!"

"You haven't even started, why would yo-"

"Just shut up already! Please!" Her voice rang with desperation.

"Fine, I'll let you think I'm not here..."

Selena facehoofed. "Look, I'm not going to clop, What I said was-"

A third voice interrupted both of them. "Ahem."

They both turned to see a purple unicorn standing next to a very conspicuous looking white spaceship. "I believe that you are Selena?"