Mare Cognitum

The spaceship was white all over, a kind of a glossy sheen of it. The main hull was a big, flat disk with two tips coming out of the top of it, as if it was being sucked up. Like when wax has a stick dipped in it, and you slowly pull it out. Coming out of the main disk, on two sides, were two thrusters shaped like a bolt of water flying through the air, attached by flat, angled rectangles leaning forward in an aerodynamic shape.

It was the stereotypical spaceship.

The only things that set it apart from other ships was that there was a single band of clear glass embedded in its hull, all around, the fact that it had no windows, and that it was no bigger than about half of a truck. A full-grown pony could barely fit in it.

"Sta- I mean, Selena, who is this?"

She ignored Streak's question and stepped forward. "Hello. I believe that you are Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yes, that would be me!" She said with a grin. "So, wait... I thought you were supposed to be a pegasus..."

"I am. And I thought you were supposed to be a unicorn..."

"Woah woah wait." Streak held her hooves out, as if she was trying to stop a train from running her over. "Pegasus? Unicorn? Aren't those both creatures from myths?"

"Myths?" Twilight said, bewildered.

"Creatures!? We aren't creatures."

"Well, even if those aren't myths, why would you two care? Both of you look pretty normal to me..."

"Well, I'm a normal unicorn, I guess, if you count out the fact I'm the Bearer of the Element of Magic."

Streak looked at her sidways. "Aren't unicorns supposed to have horns?"

"Ipso facto unicorn..."

"Gesundheit. So, where is your horn?"

"Can't you see it? Its very clearly on top of my head. You might not be able to see it however, purple horn on purple hair..."

"Whaddaya mean? Your hair is black, and your coat is brown. I think it'd be pretty easy to see a horn." Selena said.

"Well, I think it'd be pretty easy to see your 'wings' if you had any," Twilight quipped back.

"I do have some! Two! On my back."

"You two, break it up. Neither of you have wings, nor horns. Now stop playing pretend, you're both grown mares."

"I'm pretty sure you don't have wings..." grumbled the purple 'unicorn'.

"I'm pretty sure your coat's brown..."

"Wait, so, all of us appear to each other as Earth Ponies with brown fur and black manes?"

"Seems like it," Astral said back to Twi. "If you have a purple coat, I can't see it at all."

"What's an Earth pony?"

Both of them looked back at Streak, almost forgetting that she was there. "Its a long story," she said, gesturing to the spaceship's also stereotypical drop-down hatch. "Why don't you come in, and sit down?"

"Sure."

Selena and Streak were about to enter the spaceship, when a gleam in the sky appeared. The three mares stopped, and looked up. The small spark in the sky was getting brighter, and bigger with every passing second. It only took about half a minute for the rapidly approaching shard to pierce the atmosphere.

"Dabuq?" Was the only thought that crossed their minds as the giant flaming sphere came down, and smashed the ground a few meters away from where they were.

The head rancher, due to the past seven years of his life being filled with automatic nerf guns, streetlamps, and seanced kitchen appliances falling from the sky, had been prepared for this. He simply went up to the attic, got out his meteorite kit, and set out into the field.

"What do you think it is, Twi?"

"I- I don't know..."

"I think its some kind of a capsule," Streak observed, pointing at the smoldering container, which had several latches.

Selena cautiously reached a hoof out, and found that while it was flaming, the odd material was cool to the touch. She flipped off the lid, to reveal a thin black tablet cushioned in it.

The tablet was thin but concave. At the corners of it on one side, the tablet peaked up a bit, to make it look like some kind of an odd square bowl. The other side of the tablet, however, was quite different. It was white as the spaceship, and had a hole in it. From the side of the white tablet, the hole looked as if it went all the way through, and you could see through it. But on the other side of the tablet, there were no signs of rupture when you ran your hooves over it. Above the one hole in the tablet, was one phrase, big and bold in red letters:

USE THIS NOOB!!11!

"Erm, uhh... what the hell is this?" Selena said.

Streak scratched a hoof on her head. "I think its some kind of information storage device?"

"I've seen nothing like this in my library," Twilight mused aloud. "But it looks like its been written by a pony."

"Could it have been sent from the princess?"

"What princess?"

They again shrugged off Streak's question. "Nah, if she was developing this, she'd tell me. And she'd probably give it to me when I left."

"Hmm... do you think there are other ponies out there? I mean, the colonization launch wasn't a failure, apparently."

Twilight shook her head. "The rocket was supposed to land here, and it clearly did, as we can see with Streak."

Streak piped up. "But, all the other horses here say nothing. They don't seem very sentient. I'm the only exception."

Behind them, they heard a rustling noise. "Gah! Almost forgot, head rancher always checks on random space junk falling from the sky. He sells it to random humans on the street."

"Twilight, do you have an illusion spell?"

"Erm, yeah, I think so, why?"

"Cast it on the spaceship, if the head rancher finds that he'll sell it."

Twilight blasted a giant field around the ship with her horn while Selena hastily shoved the strange tablet in her bag.

"Wait, you can cast magic? Sta- Astral, why didn't you ever teach me?!"

"Because, I can't cast magic. And neither can you... only unicorns can do it, a- quick! He's coming, everypony act as if nothing happened!"

The tall rancher walked up to the crash. He looked around, but could see nothing. "Hmm... that's odd, I coulda swo- oh, hello there!" He went over to Twilight and pat her on the back. She winced at the contact. "Another new mare! Her over there is Fallen Star... I know! You can be Silent Star! Now, c'mon with me, back to the barn. Looks like you three will all sleep together.

Twilight again winced at the thought of sleeping with two other mares, and was about to gallop away when she saw Selena behind her, cutting her neck with her hand.

Streak however, wasn't as inclined to play it cool. She ran and jumped up to the head rancher, ramming him. "Woah! Easy, Streak!" She had no inclination of stopping though, and shoved him onto the dirt. "Nngh. I guess I'll have to do this the hard way." The rancher reached into his meteorite kit next to him, and pulled out two things: a baked potato and a handgun. He fired two shots into the air, and then pointed it at Streak. "Don't move," he said through grit teeth. "I tried to be nice, but you're really asking for it."

Streak was terrified. She had seen what this magical piece of metal had done before. It was a metal wand of death, that nothing could stop. The human could just squeeze it too tightly, and she would be dead. Somewhere, amidst all her fear, something snapped in her mind. Streak could practically hear the sound of a glass bottle breaking on the floor. From the clouded abyss of her mind, a word surfaced and manifested in her mind.

"Pulsat." She said, clear and strong.

The next few seconds were a blur, nopony could remember what happened. All they saw was a bright blue flash, and the rancher flying across the field before smacking into a tree. Electric Streak stepped forward, the green band in her hair glowing. And with one swift stomp, she broke the metal gun into pieces, before falling down unconscious. The band in her hair pulsed a bit, but when the lights faded, it was now red.

Both mares watching looked at Streak with eyes wide in amazement. Twilight broke the awkward silence. "What the buck just happened?"