Mare Cognitum

by GlidingZephyr

Rating: teen
Tags: Random, Comedy, Adventure
Length: 13932

A long-lost student of Celestia explores the universe.

About half a month before Celestia accepted Twilight as her protege, she had another personal student, a pegasus with an affinity for space. Wanting to help her fulfill her wishes to explore the universe, she sent her out on a probe to a planet that Equestria supposedly colonized. Seven years passed, and Celestia was unable to establish any connections with her. But one single transmission she stumbled upon changes that all. Selena Astral isn't dead. And she's coming back with a friend.

Rated Teen for some dirty humor, may be violent in later chapters, I'm not really sure. This story was partially inspired by Douglas Adam's "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series of books. However, I am fully trying to emulate his humor, but I haven't really put any good jokes in the first few chapters. I need to get the ball before I could joke around. Name is a quadruple entendre, will make sense in later chapters. Every name I write, or action, or whatever, if doesn't straight out mean something, its always a double entendre, or something else along the lines of that, like an extended metaphor. No names I make are random, they all mean something. I'll probably insert a bunch of references and quotes too.

This is my first fic, critique would be nice…

I DO NOT OWN MLP.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-26 03:27:07 UTC

Chapter 1

So, this is my first story. Hope you enjoy it!

I do not own My Little Pony.

This story's beginning was partially inspired by Douglas Adam's The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. His humor style is attempted to be recreated in this story. But, there practically are no jokes in the first two chapters, as I want the backstory to be more serious.

Story: Mare Cognitum

Chapter one, prologue

By GlidingZephyr

Princess Celestia calmly walked up, and sat down at the table near the podium. A large grin was plastered on her face. Today was going to be a great day. She would get to witness not just the first rocket launch in Equestrian history, but also get to spread her empire into the reaches of space. Millions of ponies had gathered to watch the event.

An MC stepped up to the podium, looking out above the large crowd of ponies. "Ponies of Equestria! Today we have gathered to witness a momentous occasion!" He paused. "The first ever pioneering of pony space technology!"

A cheer came up from the crowd as a banner with the Equestrian Space Assosiation's logo unrolled.

"Now, as you can see here we have five rockets. Each of them has their own task. The first will simply send up a satellite, dubbed Pioneer-1. It will record statistics and stuff, and broadcast the data back here, at ESA. The second rocket will set up a space station for further launches, if need arises for its use. The third rocket will send another satellite, Diana, to the moon. The fourth rocket will accompany the fifth, just a supply rocket. And the last one, the one you are all probably here for, will establish a colony on a planet we have found. Because the planet we've found is so fertile and similar to Equestria, we've named it Earth, and..."

"RACIST!" Somepony in the back yelled.

"...without further ado, let's begin the launches! All the rockets should finish their tasks but a month from now. Now, may we start warming up the rockets?"

A pony in a white lab coat hit a button with his hooves, and the five cylinders began to pulse with a blue aura around them.

"Don't get close to them as they launch, the residual teleportation magics may pull you into space."

Of course, if anypony asks for something to happen at an important announcement, the exact opposite shall always and inevitably happen. A small unicorn foal, whose parents were seen busy walking over to the beer stand, waddled up to the side of a rocket and got shipped to the moon.

"Everypony stay calm! Don't panic..."

That would have been a splendid idea, and it would have worked if the MC wasn't the one saying it, and the launch was  something less imperative, say, the re-election of a new mayor. As all hell broke loose, Celestia just sat back, bashing her face into her hooves.

"That was a complete disaster! Its a good thing that nopony got their hands on the actual rockets..."

"Uh, actually P-princess, a status report just came in from ESA. And it's bad..."

"Out with it, messanger!"

He cleared his throat. "Four of the five rockets were destroyed. The survivor, the colonization rocket, crash landed, due to communications which have been broken. All papers pertaining to the event have been destroyed in the explosion. All that we have salvaged is nothing helpful, just the blueprints for one-way escape pods."

"..."

"Princess?"

"Gggghh..."

"A-are you alright?"

"Our scientists invest BILLIONS of bits worth of technology into research to establish an intergalactic expansion, and it just explodes in my face?! This is unacceptable! You!" Celestia pointed a shaky hoof at another young colt waiting obediently aside the door."

"Yes, m'lady?"

"Take all evidence of this act, and store it in the Royal Archives. Do not let word of this leak out to the press. Erase all memories of the recent events from bystanders. And save the remaining data from the labs."

"Affirmative." On that last word, accompanied by an awkward salute, the small messanger rushed out the door.

"This failiure shall never surface again, hopefully..."

Five-hundred years later...

"...and then she just took the tree, and cut it down! Can you believe this mare?!"

"Hey, look, it was on my side of the fence, and it is therefore my orange tree."

"Yes, but I planted it before I sold that land!"

"On my property now, however!"

The argument continued on. Princess Celestia could not believe what kinds of stupid arguments ponies brought to her. Yeah, sure it was a free court, but that didn't mean that everypony in Equestria had to settle their cases there.

Wanting to end the pointless debate, she spoke up. "Look, would you two please stop arguing. Yes, it is her orange tree."

"Ha!"

"...however, you could pay for another orange tree to be planted on his side. You did cut down a tree that was his."

"Fine."

The two ponies left, still glaring at each other.

"Bring in the next party!"

A brownish stallionentered, along with a pink mare, a blue mare, and Prince Blueblood. The three of them, excluding the Prince, all shared what appeared to be an hourglass cutie mark. Seeing Blueblood, Celestia knew that this was going to be a long day.

"CELESTIA!"

"...Princess..." She muttered under her breath.

"These three ponies were found trespassing on my property!"

"Calm down, Blueblood. First we need names, and an explanation of the situation."

The brown stallion spoke up. "I am Doctor Whooves. This is Colgate," he said, pointing to the blue mare, "and this is Romana," he finished, gesturing to the pink mare.

"And what were you accused of?"

"These three absolutely foul peasants were trampling my flower garden! I can only eat the finest of roses, yet they had simply ruined them all!"

"How did they get into your garden?"

"My servant was sick for the day, and I simply cannot touch the dirty key, so I was forced to leave the door open! Either way, how would one be able to do such a menial task?"

Everypony present, including the supposedly unfazable guards, promptly facehoofed.

"So, why were you three entering his garden?"

Colgate spoke up. "Princess Celestia, you may not believe us when we say this, but will you at least try to listen?"

"Yes, sure. Everypony is entitled to speak and be heard."

"Erm, well, you see..." Romana started.

"We kind of umm..." The Doctor continued.

"Own a time-traveling interdimentional phone box that is sentient..." Colgate finished.

In all her years of being a ruler, Celestia had heard of much more ridiculous things, including a story about a rogue cuisinart that killed fifty-seven ponies, collected their blood, and held a seance for his dead relative, the carrot juicer.

"...Uhh... so how does this relate to you entering the garden?"

"Well," Colgate started, putting her left forehoof behind her head and sheepishly brushing her mane, "while we were using it, it bugged out and teleported to his garden."

"How did you know it was there?"

"We also have these small screwdrivers that are multifunctional and can practically do anything," Romana stated.

"...Oh. So, lemme get this straight. You three own a telephone booth that not only can think, but can teleport all across Equestria and travel through time?"

"Mhmm. After all, it is what our cutie marks are for." Colgate filled in.

If this mare was capable of having a mane of toothpaste, she was probably just as capable of traveling through time.

"...Seems legit enough for me."

"WHAT? You believe these classless fools!?"

"Umm, well, I've heard more unlikely stories," And, you disagree with them. Therefore I, and probably all of Equestria agree. "how about they give us a test run of their phone booth?"

"Thank you, Princess!" The three all said at once.

The ponies walked (except for Blueblood, he had a servant carry him) to the rosegarden. Along with them came a few guards, and Luna. Soon enough, they spotted indeed, what was a large telephone booth.

"I presume this is it?" Celestia inquired.

"Yes. Want to take a look inside, take it for a spin, do whatever?"

"Sure."

Celestia stepped inside the booth, which was well large enough to even let the large alicorn in. The others soon followed, to find her spinning around in circles, looking up around the room.

"Sweet mother Luna! It's even bigger on the inside!"

Though it was strange to say such a thing in front of Luna, especially coming from the mouth of her sister, the situation was about to get stranger.

"W-wait! You knew about my foal?"

"What foal?" Colgate said.

"Oh, n-nothing..."

Quickly wanting a change in topic, Luna tapped her hooves on the ground. "S-so uhh... how exactly does this um, work?"

"Oh, we have a spacial relocation hole in the door. While it looks like you're just stepping inside of the phone booth, you're really stepping through a portal. The portal is just grafted to the door, so you can't see the edges. The other side of the portal is a lot bigger, as big as the side of the wall. You are actually in a big silo, somewhere on the moon, in space."

That memory hit Luna like a bucket of rogue cuisinarts. "S-s-space... space... space... SPAAAAAACEEE!!!"

The dark alicorn quickly hit the floor. The guards rushed over to help her, but then saw the bucket of spilled cuisinarts on the floor and got scared away.

"She'll be fine," Romana quickly said. "Anyways, Your Highness, where would you like to go?"

"Hmm..." she thought, tapping her chin with a hoof. "Where can we go?"

"Practically anywhere. Any city, any country, any time period, any planet, any..."

Wooah, wait! Celestia's train of thought ground to a halt. 'Any planet?' Could that even be... the one?

"W-we could go to a planet?"

"Yeah, I guess. Anywhere in time, or space."

The memory hit Celestia like a substantially larger bucket of the rogue cuisinarts' seanced relatives. She too fell.

"Ugh, how could those two make contact with the floor? It's so... dirty..."

"What do you think has gotten into those two?"

"I'm not sure..."

"What's wrong with saying spa-" *thunk*

Celestia woke up on the floor to the sound of a robotic yet seemingly masculine voice announcing their arrival.

"BZZZRT! WE HAVE ARRIVED HERE ON THE PLANET FIRUNDRA! BZZZRT!"

Doctor Whooves turned around and flashed Princess Celestia a cocky grin. "Well? What do you think? Still have doubts we can travel anywhere?"

She murmured a kind of assent, then looked around. Blueblood was rambling on to his servant about how hideous the planet outside looked. Luna was talking with Colgate and Romana about if they wanted to join her gaming group. The guards, as usual, weren't doing anything. And Doctor Whooves was still waiting for an answer.

"Um, where is here exactly?"

"...I honestly don't know. Luna woke up and got bored, so we showed her the main computer we had. She asked us what games we liked, Colgate said she thought World of Warcraft was the best, and then Luna started banging her head against the keyboard and the control panel."

Princess Celestia looked outside one of the windows. The outside planet was blood-red, and mottled with craters. The air was filled with a green mist. From the ground came purple trees, yellow shrubs, blue grass, and bluegrass.

"STOP THE MUSIC! I absolutely abhor Applelachian music. It is so unbefitting of me to hear anything to do with simple hicks!"

"Come on, Blueblood. Enjoy yourself! This is one of the few planets out there that has a changing theme song naturally!"

"Luna, what do you mean 'one of the few'," Colgate asked. "Are there more?"

"Oh, yes, many more."

"How do you know so much about space?"

Luna facehoofed and made big circular gestures to her flank.

The Doctor was still confused. "I don't get it."

"Cutie mark. Job. Raising astral bodies? Designing the layout of the stars and space?"

"Oh! Oh... oh. I get it now. So, convinced enough, Princess? Your own sister confirms we're actually here."

"I'm convinced. In fact, I think technology like this could help benefit Equestria. Can you build things in the royal laboratories? I would certainly pay you."

"Of course! Gladly! We'll let you use it as a government-like thing, but could you not share it with the general public? This stuff is very, very powerful, and regular ponies would probably abuse it."

"Sure. Its settled. I'm only using this for one thing however..."

Later, at the Royal Test Facilities...

"Just put on the final rivet and... there! Its finished." Doctor Whooves proudly stood up and showed off his contraption. It was a small metal box with screws on each side, and a small dome in the center. At first glance you'd probably pass it off as a regular container, but on closer inspection, its sides had small, thin trenches that glowed with a soft blue light.

"Well? Do you like it?"

"Are you sure this will work? I mean, for a radio signal to travel that far through space-"

"Don't worry, Princess. It will positively intercept the signal. Like the technology in my phone booth, the antenna dome will look for that specific frequency and location of sending from everywhere, yet nowhere."

"I don't understand..."

"The antenna is basically modded so that it is receiving signals from every point in space in the universe. But it will only accept a signal coming from Earth."

"Are you absolutely positive that this will guarantee-"

The Princess was quickly cut off, as right at that moment the box started to hum. The vibrations somehow resonated in a way to imitate a living voice. The voice came out feminine and very realistic, with just one enigmatic sentence.

"Please help us."

Of all ponies who Celestia wished to talk to, this mare was both first and last on her list. It was a voice Celestia had never thought of being able to hear again. The voice she both yearned to and feared to hear. The voice which brought her both great joy and sleepless nights.

It was her.

Chapter 2

"W-what? That voice, it can't be... It just can't be her..." Princess Celestia was in a state of total awe.

"Sister, who is this 'her' you speak of?" Luna asked.

"...About half a year before I accepted Twilight as my student, I had another filly tutored by me. She was a pegasus, with a burning passion for space. She was enraptured by the stars. She wanted to join them, to be with them. When I told her about this planet that we'd colonized five hundred years ago, she said she wanted to see it. She wanted to live there, with them. Naturally, I refused, as they may not be even alive anymore; we haven't heard from them in ages. But when I discovered her special talent was exploring and learning about space, I caved in. The royal archives had blueprints for a small pod. It had only the power to teleport barely outside of Earth's atmosphere, in which point it would fall down to the ground, and burn up in the process."

Doctor Whooves was baffled. "Wait, we colonized a planet? How come I've never heard of this?"

"There was a great accident on the initial launch. It was a great failure. I ensured no word reached the press, and everypony who watched the launch was forced to keep quiet. Anyways, I only supplied her with a small saddlebag, which had nothing but a permit showing her credentials, and a device she could clop with."

"WHAT?" Doctor Whooves and Luna said at once.

Celestia panicked. "I mean, a C.L.O.P.! Communicational Long-range Orbital Pen-shaped tool! It let her send me reports. Like that one. I thought it must have been broken, as all radios I had built to receive the signals didn't pick up. I always hated myself for that. I'd left her on an alien planet, alone. For all I know, the colonization probably failed. Its been quite a while since she left, she's probably a full-grown mare now."

"This sounds a suspicious lot like my sonic screwdriver..." grumbled a mad Doctor. "I bet mine's better... If you need me, I'll be thinking of a better way to clop. I mean, a better clop."

"So, sister, what is the name of this fabled mare?"

"Selena Astral. She has a blue coat, dark as the night, a lighter mane, and two eyes bright as stars. A total whiz when it came to astronomy. But she was pretty... how do the young colts currently say it? 'Chill'. Not as studious as Twilight. She was a lot more open to friends, and was quite social. Oh how I've missed her."

"Why don't you rescue her? From that transmission she sent, it sounds like she wants to go home."

"Well, I can't, really. Almost all of the research done for the rockets burned in the explosion. All that was left was blueprints for a one-way probe, like the one we used for her transport. And this sounds urgent, but it took years for Equestria's finest scientists to develop this technology, so we won't be able to replicate it nearly as fast enough. Teleportation magic would be too hard to replicate, as research into took a hundred years. But I did hear of an old earth pony philosophy on how they could fly." Celestia tapped a hoof to her chin in thought. "They discovered this rule, that 'every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction', blah blah blah. Anyways, they theorized that you could use this. If you concentrated enough energy in one direction, it would thrust you in the polar opposite of it. They never actually used it, however, as they couldn't get enough energy."

Doctor Whooves, welding a new clop on the other side of the room, spoke up, but didn't tear his eyes from his work. "Oh yeah. I've heard of that. My family built a thruster like that once."

"Wait, what? You actually can build that?!" The royal sisters said together.

"Yeah."

"Wait a sec," Luna said. "Hold up. Why don't we take the phonebooth thing? That's already built."

"Well, when I said we can go anywhere, that's only partially the truth... we have to have visited the planet at least once before. And even so, do you know the coordinates for the planet? It'd take forever to figure out which planet it is exactly."

"Hmm... well that's too bad..." Celestia thought. "But, about the thruster. Can we use it?"

"...Not really. It takes an insane lot of power to boot it up to start with. Nopony has actually ever used the thruster. It would take 1.21 gigawatts of power."

Luna was incredulous. "The only thing that could generate that much power would be an electric strike! And we can't tell when that will happen."

Celestia facehoofed. "Yes we can..."

"Oh... right."

The Doctor stopped welding, went to his phone booth, and came out with a piece of paper. "Wait, I got that wrong. 1.21 trillion gigawatts."

"It would take the greatest force in the universe to supply that!"

Celestia thought. "I'll go ask Twilight. Surely she would know about a solution to that. In the meantime, Doctor, could you build a spaceship with a few of these thrusters?"

"How fast do you want me to build it?"

"Oh, say, maybe about five days."

His eyes widened at the prospect. "F-five days? That's impossible!"

"It'll be easier with six other mares helping you. One of them is the fastest flyer in Equestria. Another is the most skilled magic-user. She could probably cast some speed spells."

"Still, five days? Impossible."

"Again, earth pony solution to that aswell."

"What?"

"Just start building. I'll go get my student and her friends."

"...okay then..."

"Sister, are you sure this can be finished in a mere workweek?"

"Don't worry. Be ha- be Luna. Also, could you help Doctor Whooves with his work? I'll return with more ponies to help soon."

And, like that, Celestia left the room, leaving the expert technology user and builder to work. She went up to her tower, sat down, and brought out her quill and parchment.

My faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,

Currently, I am in need of assistance. Another student of mine, one who I have not heard from in a long time, has informed me she needs help. I wish to personally rescue her, but alas, I have duties to attend to in Canterlot. However, you and your friends are free. The last letter you sent informed me that life around Ponyville was rather dull for the past week, so this trip should be quite a change in schedule, scenery, and much more.

PS did I mention you and your friends are going to space?

Signed,

Princess Trol- Celestia.

Celestia chuckled softly to herself when she thought of how flustered her student would be. Twilight always wanted to pioneer a field, and now she could physically be a pioneer in space. Setting the letter aside, Celestia drew a new piece of paper.

My faithful student, Selena Astral,

I am dreadfully sorry for the lack in communication. I grieved when my radios did not receive your transmissions. I hope this letter finds you well. I can only imagine what a fine mare you have made now. Anyways, I am sending another of my students, Twilight Sparkle, and her friends, to rescue you. She should come to you by at most the end of this week. I was unable to send you this letter before, as to send letters like these, the sender must be absolutely sure where the recipient is located. Again, my sincerest apologies for losing touch. I hope I can see you again soon!

Signed,

Princess Celestia.

She then rolled up the two scrolls with her magic, added seals, and picked them up with her hooves. She stood in front of her fireplace, and spoke an ancient Earth pony incantation.

"Perigna-mitare."

On the spoken word, all light seemed to drain from the room. All fires, not just the fireplace but also the candles, turned an etheral shade of green. Celestia imagined her two students, concentrating on them. Eventually, she was able to see their exact locations. Twilight was reading a very... interesting book. But Selena, she couldn't see.

Whenever she tried pinpointing her location, she instead saw a mare with black hair and a brown coat. Despite the age, this mare had no cutie mark. This was impossible, the spell would always show the exact location of the requested pony. Unless... this was Selena? She looked so different. As these thoughts crossed Celestia's mind, another mare stepped into her view.

Her appearance was about the same as 'Selena's.' She had the same color scheme, but with a streak of electric yellow running through her mane. The other mare woke Selena up, and there she saw them- her eyes. This mare really was Selena. There was no doubt. She would have to worry abou that later. Celestia threw the two scrolls into the fire, and the flames in the room soon returned to normal.

Knowing her student okay, Celestia went to her bed, and enjoyed a good night's sleep.

Chapter 3

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?"

Chapter 5

When Streak woke up, she was not on her typical straw bed, but instead one of cloth and wool, like the humans had. And it was oh so incredibly soft and fluffy. She spent about five whole minutes just bouncing on it. When that whole ordeal was over, and she had fully accepted the fact there was nothing in the world softer than that, she got up, and looked around.

It seemed as if she was in the spaceship. All the walls were the same white sheen. To the left of her, there seemed to be a bathroom. She went in, and looked around. It looked just like the humans' restroom. There was a toilet, a shower, and a sink. Above the sink, positioned in the middle between the two faucets, was a large mirror. She went through the old routine, taking some water in her hooves, and running it through her mane, especially taking care of her red streak... wait, red?

She did a double take, and looked again. Still red. She tried washing it with water. The colors refused to yield. In a panic, she galloped straight out of the room, looking for Astral. Maybe she knew something about this.

She walked out the door, and went down a hallway. This ship was quite larger on the inside. It emptied out into a large, circular room with a few other hallways intersecting it. In the middle of the room was a couch, where five mares, two of which she knew were Twilight and Selena, were sitting down. They all seemed to be staring at the black slab from yesterday, which was flipped with the white side up. The circle in the center seemed to be projecting light out into a flat rectangular screen, which Selena tapped sporadically.

"Oh, hey Streak! You're up! Check this out!" Selena tapped the screen again and cleared her throat. "Guide, tell us about... uhh..."

"Affirmative," The disk seemed to say in a robotic voice. From the bottom of the disk, it shot out a ray of light that then widened to depict a black sword. "The Great Sword Uhh, Blessed by a Thousand Souls, was forged eight-hundred years ago, today. It was wielded by none other than The Great Volvonski, granter of the mighty Stick, later. Volvonski had used the sword to attempt to defeat The Persistant Yorrie, who had been terrorizing the local townside. However, the sword was shattered, and failed to even faze Yorrie. The shards of the sword were later picked up by a travelling hermit, who had them reforged. Today, the sword is located at the Canterlot Royal Museum.

"The sword's structure is standard double-edged style. It mainly consists of a solid meteorite iron core, tempered by master blacksmiths to be able to bend, but not snap. Both edges of the blade have been inlaid with sharpened diamonds, but do not protrude so the sword can be used for light piercing. Gold is plated along the length of the sword's fuller, and down to the crossguard. The whole of it was mined from the depths of Tartarus, brought up and forged in the raw power of Celestia's sun, and tempered in Luna's cool night.

"Volvonski, on his travels to Yorrie, had asked every living creature he met, to bless the sword, which gave it its title, 'Blessed by a Thousand Souls'. Due to how powerful this sword is, the only speculation as to why it did not faze Yorrie is that it lacked holy powers, and that since Luna was absent for the temperance, due to her detaining on the moon, it lacked her full power. See 'Epic of the Mighty Stick'."

After this long lecture, Selena drew back. "Dayum. That was... erm..."

"Why, that sword sounds simply marvelous! I mean, look at this craftsmanship. Simply fabulous!" One of the mares Streak did not know stood up from the couch and pointed at the picture. "I wish I could get my hands on some Tartarean Diamonds. They sparkle oh so brightly! And they have quite the history too. 'Created from darkness, raised in darkness, and shining in darkness.' Have you ever heard of gems with such history?"

"Well actually sugarcube," another mare started. "Mah family has had this 'ere ruby that's been passed from mother to daughter, every generation, when they get their cutie mark. Well, as you can see," she swallowed painfully. "Ah didn't quite get to receive it from mah mother... but, I still got it from Granny Smith... anyways, it used to be just a regular ol' gem in a necklace, nothin' really special 'bout it 'sides the fact it was an heirloom, but one day, the great war had started.

"Granny Smith's great-great-grandmother, who was in Mareanda at the time, and had jus' become a mare, got attacked. Pegasus paratroopers were patrollin' the skyline, and she had to hide, because if anypony found her, 'iffin if she begged, or asked for them to take 'er in, she'd get killed." She smacked her hooves together for emphasis. "Jus' like that. She was doin' pretty good for the firs' few weeks, but one day a pegasus had found her. He was raisin' his sword, ready to lay 'er down an all, but she, in a panic, threw her necklace. The ruby, which was apparently very sharp, had cut 'im in the neck, and happen'd ta hurt 'im so bad, he dun passed out. She picked up the necklace again, took the ruby out, and made a makeshift spear outta it.

"Over the years, as more wars came and went, our family's been upgradin' the spear. Each mare of the family does their own improvements to it. And that is why I have a high-grade weapon in my bedroom."

Two other mares entered the room from the hallway. One seemed to be hiding behind the other. "Oh, I thought it was because you were hardcore and a masochist..."

"Dahell Rainbow Dash? You really thought that?"

The mare behind Rainbow Dash muttered something. "Actually, I wouldn't mind having something like that..." But nopony heard, probably for the better of her.

The third unknown mare on the couch spoke up. "What's with long stories today? Is it storytime? Ooooh! I know!" She seemed to be practically bouncing. "I have a good story for you guys! Wanna hear it? I know I do! Have I ever told you how Equestria was made?"

"...no Pinkie, maybe later?" Twilight saved. "Anyways, enough with the epics today. Streak." She gestured the mare in question over. "Can you go stand with your back to that wall?"

"Erm... okay?" Streak walked over to the spot where Twi was pointing. "Yeah, now what?"

Twilight, with a flash of her horn, quickly levitated something from Selena's saddlebags and pointed it at Streak. With a chill, she realized that what Twilight was levitating, pointed right at her, was a gun. Just like the rancher's.

"Don't move."

Chapter 6

Author note: Sorry bout the late upload! I was working on another story... *wink wink*

That one is longer, and also, I made my own cover art this time, art that was original. XD

Somewhere in this story, I've hidden hints onto what its kinda about...

Also, if you didn't notice Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash enter the room, that's because I edited the chapter afterwards.

Streak froze in sight of the weapon. "What the hell are you doing Twilight..."

She chuckled softly as if she were explaining something to a mere foal. "Hold still! I'm helping you!"

With her already near-death encounter with a gun so recently, she thought about how she escaped. Maybe if she tried doing that... thing again. What was the word? Playdough... Polyester... Persona...

"Pulso!"

The word came out, and a blue glow began to form... but fizzled out twice as fast.

"Wh- what?"

Twilight took this tiny hiccup as her opportunity. She pulled the trigger, and a yellow bolt flew out of the barrel and crashed into Streak. She crumpled to the floor.

"Erm, pardon me fer askin' Twi'," Applejack inquired, "But honestly, what the hell didja do?"

Selena stood up. "Don't worry, she'll be fine. Now, who wants to buck around with The Foal's Guide some more?"

The Foals Guide to the Universe on "Injected Medicine":

It is unknown why such a method is so profuse, but many cultures throughout the galaxies have their own method of medicines delivered through some form of injection system. Humans, from the planet Earth, use needles to deliver vaccinations and antibiotics. The system is effective and very quick. However, the needle must be sharp for it to work, so comically, and culturally, most human foals fear doctors for this very reason.

On the planet Ahrka, the Ahrkadians use blowguns, and doctors would go around and vaccinate from afar, both for their own amusement at watching others flail around, but also to walk around the fear factor that needles create.

Though puncture medicine is very effective, some cultures have demised historically because of it.

For example, on the planet Natgiru, the Natgirians are born very weak. Because of this, they had to unite under one flag. Drugs were delivered through the form of cannonball like things for them, which were really just powdered medicines compacted. Now, the cannons used would only fire quarter pound "cannonballs", and at a very slow speed, about as fast as a pony can walk slowly, so really it was not exactly lethal. But one day, a doctor had a brilliant idea. Instead of diagnosing ponies for their conditions one cannonball at a time, why not make one super cannonball that had all known remedies bundled?

Now, clearly the doctor was already quite insane, but he, nevertheless, continued his research. When he managed to get all his work done, he had designed a cannonball that indeed, would be able to cure every known disease theoretically. The only little "problem" he said it had was that the actual ball fired was enormous. The Natgirian king, whose daughter was dying, requested she be the first to receive the super drug. The doctor went up to the hill overlooking the kingdom of Natgiru, where a gigantic loaded cannon was stationed. He aimed it at the castle, and fired. The ball was so big, it cleared the whole city, then rolled around the planet three more times, killing the doctor, before it reached escape velocity and became a satellite.

"So, Selena, you said you'd give a report on Earth to Celestia, right?"

"Erm, yeah..."

"Why don't you tell it to us first? I'd like to hear all about Earth, I mean, I only saw it for about three seconds."

Selena shakily stood up, papers in hoof. "Five-hundred years after NNM's banishment, Celestia had plans to colonize a planet named Earth. However, the launch malfunctioned, and communications were lost. However, we believe that it did indeed succeed. Now, about half a month before you were accepted as Celestia's student, I was her student, except in Astronomy, not magic. Wanting to see Earth, she sent me there on a spaceship. She said I could go there for a week, and then I should return. But what she didn't know was that apparently that was a one-way probe... I crashed onto the surface.

"Now, I was taken in by a creature named a "Human". It seems as if these Humans have domesticated Ponies in some way, for all the ones I have seen are ridden by Humans, or kept by them in stables. I'm not sure why, but none of the horses seemed sentient... except for Streak here.

"Anyways, back to Earth. Ever since I got down to Earth, I just thought all the ponies had a black mane and a brown coat because... something, and they were all Earth ponies because... they just were. But, upon seeing Twilight, whom you all claim is a unicorn, as this also, I am lead to believe that the humans are drugging every pony they capture to make them think that we're all the same. Why?

"I think its to establish a sense of order, or so we don't feel unique, and thus uprise against them bastards. Anyways, ponies on Earth, for the exact reason they're domesticated, don't have cutie marks too, probably part of the order things. Now, to solve this, we searched The Foal's Guide for a cure, and apparently there is one, we just need to administer it in a gun... I got mine first, we're giving Streak hers right now. And she should be waking up already..."

They all turned to look at Streak, who was stirring and eventually got up. She looked around. "WHAT THE BU-"

Chapter 7

"Who turned on the lights?!" Streak yelled, waving her hooves around frantically.

"She'll experience heightened visual perception for a while," Twilight explained. "Everything will appear about six thousand times brighter."

Everything around Streak seemed to radiate pure light. When it all burned out, and she looked around, all the ponies had changed colors. "Gah! And since when did you guys dye your manes?"

"Hey! I'll let you know my mane is perfectly natural. It may be this fabulous, but I assure you it is bona fide."

"And the horn! Where did you- and why does she have wings?"

"So I can stroke them... hehe..."

"And why does she have three oranges emblazoned on her flanks?"

"They're apples dammit!"

"Well Streak, there's quite a lot that you'll have to learn," Twilight started. "But, we don't have time for that. Here is a substandard manual on Equine physiology." Twilight levitated a book over to Streak.

"Uhm, Twi," Fluttershy said quietly. "Not to interrupt, but, uhm, isn't that a foals' book?"

"Just go with it."

Streak managed to pick up the book with some difficulty, and set it on the table.

HORSES AND WHAT THEY DO

"We ponies are very different! You may have noticed every pony you meet has a different mane, coat, and body! There are four types of known ponies: Earth Ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, and Alicorns."

Under the large, all capital letter text was a shoddy, simple drawing of the four listed ponies. Twilight turned the thick, cardboard page for Streak.

"Earth ponies are the outcasts of the group! They have no talents whatsoever, cannot fly, or cast magic. They do all the slave, domestic work for the Pegasi and the Unicorns."

Somewhere, up in Pony Heaven, a stallion had the sudden unbearable urge to shout "Racist!" and ruined the game of etheral croquet he was playing.

"Pegasi are the flying ponies of the group! They are able to fly using their wings. They also do domestic labor for the Unicorns. They control weather, and are able to sit on clouds. But they aren't special, as unicorns can do that too!"

Whump! He missed another swing.

"Unicorns are the highest ranking ponies of all of them. They have horns, which allow them to cast magic. They do no domestic labour whatsoever and are not benevolent in any way. They have the money, the land, and the government."

This time, the stallion felt no need to interject, and saw no problems whatsoever.

"Alicorns are the most powerful ponies of all. They have a Pegasuseses wings, a Unicorn's horn, and nothing from Earth ponies cause they suck. The only known Alicorn in existence is Princess Celestia, who rules all of us and is definitely not a nymphomanic troll tyrant. Nope. Nosiree."

And there, the book ended abruptly.

"Erm... that was very... interesting..."

Author note: Sorry guys! Have to cut this short, as I'm leaving to do research. Starting Sunday, July 22nd, I'll be gone for three weeks. I'll come back on the 10th of August. Don't worry guys, I'll have PLENTY of time to think up ideas there, and I'm bringing a massive notebook to write them down in. Also, I'll have a new story to submit when I get back... *cough cough*. Almost done with that one.

Here's a little hint, may help you figure out what its about... But again, I only have five ponies reading this, so yeah, very unlikely any of you will get it XD. Even if you DO know what it is, its very unlikely you'll figure out what it means.

Anyways, the two pictures.

Second one is cut off, as full one would be too easy to get. Anyways, try to find the connection...

If you think you have the answer, post it in the comments.

Chapter 8

"Well, we should definitely get going," Twilight said, levitating the book back into a shelf. "Celestia will be thrilled to hear that you're safe." She turned down a hallway marked with the letter 'N' above it, probably for North Wing, then up a flight of stairs at the end of it, and gestured for Streak to follow.

After going up to the upper level, and walking a bit more, they eventually came to what appeared to be a control room. It had an elevated panel in the middle of the room, forming a near-complete circle with a break in it for access. It was made of a metal, a little darker than gray, and was filled with many switches and buttons. At its center was a forked stick, probably for control. Hanging down from the roof, were three large screens angled toward the chair behind the stick. All around the room were many large windows.

"Hang on a bit Streak, this'll be a little rough. Take a seat." Twilight hit a button, and a chair slid out of the ground to the right of her. Streak sat, and a few straps came out and fastened her. "Get ready." She hit another button, and a control panel with even more buttons slid out. Typing in a few things, the spaceship suddenly swerved around, and flew forward.

Streak felt as if her hide was trying to rip itself from her bones. All of her weight was thrown backwards, and outside the window stars were flying as if they were in a cosmic blender. After but about twenty-five seconds of flying, the spaceship was already hovering outside of Equestria's atmosphere.

"We're here," Twilight said cooly as she got up.

Streak was still busy trying to figure out how many hooves she had. She waved at the air and drooled. Twilight went over, unfastened the buckles, and levitated her out of the chair, which then slid back down. Hitting a button on the panel, the spaceship slowly began to descend. Walking into the South Wing, Applejack lowered the walkway, and let Selena through.

"Again Sel, welcome 'ere to the great land of Equestri- ah?"

In front of them was Canterlot Palace, but something was amiss. The entire area was abandoned, and looked very dilapidated. Looking down to Ponyville, nopony was there either.

"D-did something happen while I was gone?" Selena asked shakily.

"Not that I know of... maybe we should look for the princesses."

They entered the palace, Twilight leading the way. Eventually, they got to a large, circular area- Princess Celestia's bedroom. Well, what was left of it. The whole place looked as if it had been through a fire, then an army stormed through it. Amidst all the wreckage, in the center of the sun emblazoned on the floor, was a small silver capsule, about the size of a peanut. Selena, as if she had done this a million times before, casually walked up to it and smashed it under her hoof. A green mist floated out.

"What did you just do!" Rainbow Dash screamed. "That's probably all that's left of Equestria, and-"

"Simmer down Rainbow," Applejack said, putting a hoof on the prismatic pony's shoulder.

"Yes darling, you simply must calm yourself. I'm fairly certain that she knows what she's doing... right?"

Selena didn't answer. Almost as if possessed, she walked away, a glazed look in her eyes, and gestured for Streak to come forth. Streak also seemed to be affected by it. Standing amidst the green mist, she closed her eyes.

"Tiid sah daal," she whispered softly. The mist began to bend, materializing like the coils of a snake, forming three bodies that snaked around the room, before swirling in a circle on the perimeter, as if sucked in by a snowclone. Streak backed up, and the others followed as the circle began to shrink, until it perfectly fit the sun's inner like a ring. In the middle of it, all light beige, was Princess Celestia.

"Princess!" Fluttershy shouted, which was practically a whisper.

"She cannot hear you. This is but an illusion, a recording." Streak said, as if this were here field of study. But it was monotonous, as if she was reading from a book.

Celestia raised her hooves, and she became engulfed in a tornado that matched her now-tan coat. It slowly became bigger and bigger, seeming to rip the colors off the walls, sucking everything in. It kept expanding until Canterlot palace now was surrounded with a large radius of a light beige.

In a world of one color, the eight were the only splashes out of place. The palace now looked normal: all the walls were fine, the furniture back in place, and outside, on her balcony, stood the princess. She seemed to be looking out to the horizon. A messanger knocked on her door.

"Come in."

The colt stepped in and bowed quickly. "Your Majesty! Our Kingdom is in dire trouble!"

"Oh?" She said, now worried.

"A letter came in from Fillydelphia. They have been invaded."

"We've stopped an invasion from Changelings before. Surely we can take on another army, one that has not breeched defenses."

"No, this is different. They are much, much worse than any amount of Changelings. I daresay, worse than all the monsters in Equestria! They are these beings, of pure light. They came from the sky, riding small gray disks, with rims of orange.

"Formed of a light blueish hue, they stand on only two legs. The other two, they use to grapple things, and are very long, reaching the ground. All wear masks, of brightest pink, with three feathers on top, wide, horizontal slit eyes, and a thin, long protruding muzzle."

"What is so bad about them?" Celestia said inquiringly.

The colt stopped to catch his breath, and cool his panic. "First thing you shall notice is, they have no want for peace whatsoever. First thing they did after descending, their leader, who had a larger mask than the others, with more feathers and a stouter nose, came and killed one of the Royal Guard. BAM! Just like that."

"I'm pretty sure it wouldn't happen that fast."

"It did, however. Their only goals were to invade. They do not try to even communicate, they only speak to each other in a strange humming language. They turn, looking at each other, as if sharing an unsaid joke, and one shall start to hum strangely. As they do this, black pulses emanate from their mask, which is sent in a vibrating flurry. The sounds they make are like knives banging, and hurt just as much. Many soldiers are sent to the ground, clutching their ears."

"How will this kill a colt however?"

"Their long, trailing arms, they drag behind them, and for good reason. When they wish to fight, they emit a loud, quick peck of a yell, and their arms square up at right angles, shrinking to match their legs. From the sides of their arms, two blades of glowing red sprout out of their arms, and their hooves sprout three spikes of equal color. The blades are like the rest of their body, but slightly more opaque. The inside is continually moving, filled with bubbles of air. They swing their arms, and they extend again, slashing. If one is lucky enough to dodge them, those creatures have other powers. They can harness the elements at will, with magic being at more ease to them than most archmage unicorns."

Celestia was very worried now. "Like?"

"With just sets of controlled hums, their bodies glow green, and they can do a variety of offensive spells- summoning blazes, lifting entire lakes of water from nothing, practically anything involving air, water, earth, or fire. They seem to be attuned to the earth."

The solar princess thought about this. "Aha! Simple!" she exclaimed. "All we do, is send out orders for all ponies to come to Canterlot. We can group everypony there and build barriers. Eventually, they'll just leave."

"Erm... I'm afraid that won't work. You see, they move faster than the wind. As they run, cones of wind surround them, and they, with a quick dash, can slice themselves through solid mountains, at ridiculously clean cuts. There is nothing we have built that can stop them. There is nowhere on Equestria we can hide."

That sent the gears in Celestia's head turning. "Nowhere on Equestria... hmm..."

It was the end of the recording. The beige slowly creeped back, all the way to the center of the room, where Celestia now stood. "Selena Astral," she said, her voice booming.

"Yes?"

"Now, this is just a recording, so I cannot really talk to you. Anyways, only you would be able to open the capsule. The message, you would only be able to activate with a ridiculous amount of magic prowess, so that doubly protected it- only Twilight would be able to open it, and probably only when she lost control. You'd have to put her in a trance, and let the pure energy flow. But enough about that."

"Wait, what?"

"Remember, I can't hear you!" Celestia said, with a smug grin on her face, as if her kingdom wasn't completely bucked up. "Anyways, we've all fleed in spaceships, as you've probably figured out by now. Also, those monsters didn't follow. They're still there. You're screwed!"

The transmission ended there. The image of Celestia crumbled to dust, and behind it, slowly revealed, was one of the monsters.

Rainbow Dash facehoofed. "Motherbu-"

Sorry for late upload! Also, sorry for that fake update. Published, realized it was really short, so took next chapter and tagged it on. Almost done with new fic.

Chapter 9

AN: Sorry for late update, but I released another fic! http://www.fimfiction.net/story/32728/Done-by-a-Single-Night I optionally think I wrote this one better, but whatever. Its just my opinion. But the chapters in that are WAY longer... Also, sorry for false update. Jeez, I seem to be doing that a lot. I'm all like "this is good! Post!" and then I look at word count and its hilariously low... I'll try to get my word count to start imitating the first few chapters, more like 2ks or at least 1.5. Like Done by a Single Night.

"What do we do Twi'?" Applejack screamed, slowly backing away.

"Uhh... run?"

"Aw, great plan you have there! So amazing!" Rainbow Dash said sarcastically.

The eight ponies backed slowly out of the room. Behind them was a window, which dropped down several stories. "We'll have to jump," Pinkie said in an overly-happy tone.

"You do realize not all of us here can teleport and bounce fifty bodylengths," Rarity said in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Ha! I can't bounce fifty bodylengths, silly. Highest I've been able to go is fourty-seven."

"We've only got three pegasi here... That's not enough." Selena pointed out.

"Err, two," Fluttershy mumbled. "I don't think I could carry anypony..."

"C'mon 'Shy, you did awesome with that wagon when we were chasing down Applejack! I was with you!"

"Yeah but, that was just once."

"Umm guys, we should probably quit the talking," Streak said. "That thing's getting closer..."

The ethereal being inched closer. It let out a loud whirring noise, like a chainsaw cutting through a tree. Its mask flashed pink for a second, and its red blades and claws spiked out. It slowly began to reel in its arms.

"Are you all ready for this?" Twi said.

"Ready for what?" Applejack asked.

"Jump... on one... two... three!"

The eight jumped off the balcony, and the three pegasi flew ahead, trying to catch everypony.

"They're falling too fast," Selena observed. "We'll never be able to catch them all in time."

"Eep!"

"Aah! This is Cloudsdale all over again!" Rarity shrieked.

Streak was panicking. All her life, she'd been on the ground. On a plain. The highest she'd ever been from ground level was about eight inches. All she'd seen of the sky was from below it. And all she'd seen of the ground was on it. The only things she'd ever seen were birds... birds... hmm...

She closed her eyes, picturing a bird in flight. its grace, its swiftness. To put its simple beauty into words...

"Hea 'uhane manu!"

A large, green etheral outline of a bird surrounded the falling five. Streak was at the center of it, steering it. Her hair glowed, and changed to a shade of light blue. She made a turn, and crashed into the ground next to the spaceship. The image sunk through the ground, but left the five ponies standing on the ground, unharmed.

"Whee! That was fun! Let's do it again!" Pinkie yelled giddily.

"Hehe..." Applejack started. "How about... NO!"

They looked back up at the tower, where the creature was howling in defeat.

"That was awesome Streak!" Rainbow Dash said, gliding, gentle as a zephyr's gale to a stop. "What the hell did you do back there? I mean, that was amazing, with the big glowy bird and- since when was your mane light blue?"

"Her mane's been changing quite a lot," Selena pointed out. "When I first met her, it was electric yellow. She beat up the head rancher, and it turned red. And now, light blue."

"Huh..."

"Hey everypony! I just realized something!"

"What is it, Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked.

"Streak isn't normal!"

"...and neither are you..." more than one pony thought.

"I mean, look at her! She has amazing powers that cannot be explained in any rational means of thought!"

"Deja vu..." Rarity mumbled.

Streak didn't feel powerful or anything of the sort. She felt very, very nauseous. She fell, and crumpled on the ground.

"Where did Streak go?" Rainbow Dash demanded.

"Don't worry. She's in her room, sleeping." Fluttershy responded. "I uh, made sure she was alright."

RD gave her a hearty pat on the back. "No sweat! Thanks 'Shy!"

"Eep!"

"So, where's Twi?"

"She's currently researching Streak's powers on the Foal's Guide, with Selena," Rarity said, looking up from her book. "But be quiet about it, they are doing very important work, you know."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Rainbow said, flying up the stairs. "Yo! Twi! 'Stral!"

They were busy staring at the holographic screen of the Foal's Guide.

"Just a minute Rainbow. We need to scan this list..." Selena answered.

"List of what?"

"Unusual pony talents." Twilight answered.

"Erm... how will that help? Won't you get things like 'Beer bottle playing' and 'Irrational sudden mass singing?'"

"What are you talking about? This isn't a TV show," Selena retorted.

"Err, what's that?"

"Oh, nothing..."

"Anyways, what strange abilities could Streak possibly have?"

"Well," Twi drew out as she pulled up some files. "We have about three different ideas on her powers."

Selena tapped something and pulled up an article, along with a snippet of text. "About during the time of the Magical Renaissance, there was a colt named Giuliano Felix Lux. Now, throughout his life he'd been extremely lucky. With his brother, Lorenzo Vive Lux, they together managed to make their family the riches entrepreneurs that side of Canterlot. In fact, they had more money than the Royal Treasury. Anyways, many other businessmen that were very jealous of them, like Bloody Rich, tried to assassinate them all. Giuliano was killed, struck down by a fire spell."

"Anyways," Twilight continued. "after he died, he was buried on what is now Lux hill, for their family had a mansion and many other things there. Fifty years later, a street magician there, Ferris Prestigae, became extremely popular. He was a unicorn from Fillydelphia, I think. Nopony could figure out how he managed to be so good with conjuring acts. Once, he even managed to make Lux Mansion disappear, reconjure it all the way over in Haywaii, then return it back. Now, after ponies' saw his shows, they managed to somehow get some magical runoff. Many spectators claimed to have their magical prowess doubled, sometimes even tripled for the next three days after seeing a performance. Even Earth Ponies and Pegasi were able to perform simple levitation acts."

Selena continued again. "A group of scientists investigated him, and found that Ferris had a very unique magic composition in his horn. They interrogated him about when he first observed his powers, and it was apprently when he moved to Lux hill. It turned out, Giuliano Felix had a similar magical makeup. But Felix was an Earth Pony."

"So, what you're saying is, maybe Streak somehow inherited magic from somepony else?"

"Possibly," Twilight concluded. "However, its highly unlikely, for if that happened, Selena would also be magical, as the magical radiation takes up a field."

"Err, what else you got?"

"Well, our second theory is that she has been given prowess over electricity. For example, a mare from Cloudsdale, Nimba Fury, who had been struck by lightning as a foal, was able to control electricity. She could generate it, and send out powerful shocks. Some of the powers Streak has demonstrated, like knockback, and magnetic levitation, were performed by her on multiple occasions. She went mad with power eventually, and killed her own older brother. She, too, however died very young, before she even got her cutie mark. An autopsy concluded it to be due to her magical prowess."

"However," Selena interjected. "It is impossible for Streak to do this, as she is still alive, and this doesn't explain that capsule thing that Celestia gave us."

"So you guys have no idea on why Streak is so amazing?"

"Hmm... well, there is one thing we haven't covered..." Twilight said thoughtfully.

"But the guide has near nothing on it," Selena finished.

"What is it?"

"There is a small possibility that Streak may be an Invocare."

"A what?"

No, that is not a spelling error. E is silent. Pronounced invoker.

Chapter 10

"An invoker? Of what?" Rainbow Dash's voice echoed through the unnaturally large spaceship.

"No, an Invocare. I-N-V-O-C-A-R-E." Selena explained.

"And I thought I had bad linguistics..."

"Actually, Selena's right here. It is indeed spelled that way."

"What?"

"Anyways, the guide doesn't say much about it, but it does reference something else. There are coordinates to a teacher, who can apparently help hone Streak's skills."

"Could you punch them into the spaceship?" Astral asked.

"I'll try..."

Twilight got up, and the two Pegasi followed her to the control room. She hit a few buttons, and the others sat down.

"Hey uh, Twi, not that I've ever been scared of anything, but how fast does this go again?"

"Rainbow, you've already rode in this like, three times now."

"Yeah but, that was back down there, when we couldn't see how fast we were actually going!" Selena protested.

Twilight hit a button. "Meh, too late."

The ship jerked forward, and the windows glazed over with the passing of millions of stars. Just as soon as they had appeared however, the lines of white quickly faded. Twi laughed. "Jeez, it never gets old looking at your guys' faces after the flights. This ship is awesome!"

Selena shook her head. "Ow... okay, now I know that it actually is possible to kill somepony with visuals alone."

"And I thought I was colorful," Rainbow Dash muttered.

"So, we're going to go in for the descent, and- what's that?" Twilight pointed at a graph on the dashboard.

"Yeah, what is that, Twi'? I'm not an egghead like you... and I'm pretty surprised you don't know, I figured you'd stay up all night studying the controls and-"

"No, not that, this is a radar. I mean, what are those things approaching us?"

Selena peered over. "They look like... missiles?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Twilight asked.

"Human invention. Ridiculously big and volatile pieces of metal."

"Uhh, in what way?"

"They kind of explode, and fly at high speeds, and are really heavy..."

Rainbow Dash flared her wings. "Heh, I could probably stop one." She ran out to the airlock that led to the balcony, and began putting a suit on.

"No Dash! Wait, they would probably-" Selena's cries were unheard. She was already out the door, and flying to the missile.

Twilight hung her head and covered her eyes with her hooves. "I... can't look..."

But, right as Dash hit the missile, she passed through as if it wasn't there. Her head whipped around. "What?"

The missile kept cruising, aimed at the spaceship. "Wha- oh, this is bad..."

"Do you have anything we can use to stop it?"

"Not that I know of, but we- Idea!" Selena could practically picture a lightbulb over Twilight's head.

"Yeah, sure, whatever we can do! Anything helps!"

"We could take a big speaker, get a cassete of Justin Bridle's song "Foal", and we blast it to eleven and-"

"What does a song by a filly on drugs have to do with this?"

"Ah, you haven't listened to it. Damn lucky..."

"Well, enough chatter; the missile is approaching!"

"New plan! We try not to get ourselves killed."

"...great thinking..."

The two of them braced for impact. However, the missile came through the spaceship and kept traveling.

"Wha- so, its not damaging the ship?"

"No, it doesn't appear to-" Twilight was cut off as the missile suddenly swerved around, and went for the control panel. It hit, and exploded, but seemed only to destroy the circuits.

"Well that was... strange."

"And we're all about to die. No controls, ship crashes."

"...We're all screwed!"

The Foal's Guide on the MX- Electroll

The MX- Electroll was conceived thirteen years ago in the Altair solar system by a young Shuvuuian scientist. The Shuvuus are known across the galaxy for creating brilliant, yet usually impractical inventions, such as 'instant drink', a food product that was supposed to be like instant noodles, but failed massively for obvious to semi- unobvious reasons. The MX- Electroll was built during the second Avian war of Altair to help the Shuvuuians conquer their irate, and somewhat retarded neighbors, the Desians. Although the Desians were very stupid, they knew how to trade and haggle surprisingly well, which led to them having the best technology money could buy.

To get around this, the MX- Electroll was built. The Electroll consists of a standard, but small missile body, about the size of two watermelons. Its internal components make it so that it cannot harm any matter, and will pass through it unless it is top-notch or new technology. The idea was to launch tons of these and crash the entire Desian fleet, thus grounding them and leaving their city susceptible to attack. And not only that, the missiles were extremely cheap, each costing about the price of a pack of gum. The only drawback was that there were many parts, and thus had to be hoofmade.

When done with his plans, the scientist who built it became renown throughout the galaxy, and the government began building the missiles at once. Eventually, they had created two-hundred of them, and were going to fire all to the fleet when they saw exactly how many spaceships the Desians had. They would need thirteen-thousand more missiles to take them all down. To speed up production, the government commissioned machines for the work to be automated. However, this clearly was a bad idea, as the machines were not only top-notch, but also the newest technology.

Once the first missile rolled off the line, it turned around, and destroyed the entire factory. Nopony was hurt however, and the building still stood, as the missile was built to destroy only said targets. The Desian fleet survived and conqured the Shuvuuians, but they managed to convince the president of Des to not only not invade Shuva, but to also call off their troops, hand over the entirety of the Des tresury, give the Shuvuuians their planet, and to kill all surviving Desians in exchange for a stick with a piece of string wrapped around it.

The plans for the MX- Electroll were never scrapped, and are still used profusely today. They are all, obviously, now completely hoofmade.

AN: When I was in like, second grade, what my friends and I would do was we'd build a fort out of leaves, and we'd kind of make it a "home base". Other kids from our school did it to, and guess what. I actually DID buy all the land from our enemy group, the Winged Angels, in exchange for guess what. Yep, a stick with string wrapped around it. No joke XD. String was a limited supply at school. I still have no bucking clue how I managed to pull that off.

Chapter 4

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?"