Pathfinder 5

Pathfinder 5

Chapter 13: Welcome Party

David had to admit that so far things were going well, after the handshake it seemed some of the tension was let out but a lot of the aliens did seem to be wary of him not that he could blame them. David tapped the controls on his gauntlet to lock up Sparrow I, he didn’t want anyone curious to get inside.

Although as he tapped the controls it really wasn’t much of a ‘gauntlet’ it was just called that because it kind of looked like it. It was mainly just a thin dark material ended just before his elbow as the fingers were cut away. There was a small scanner in the palm with the thin reflective material on his forearm was where the simple computer was. He also had a small utility pouch hooked to his waist on his right. It just held a small PADD with a small holoprojector, he honestly had no idea what to bring to this but he felt they might come in handy later on.

The PADD he could use to help with some translating but the holoprojector was there for some fun as well.

Suddenly music started up as a flag was raised he looked to see a string band playing. He paused looking at the musicians he really didn’t know how some of them were playing. There was a grey coated one with dark hair playing what looked like a cello of all things. Just how was it playing the strings and holding the rod with hooves?

He shook his head as he looked on, the flag was a light blue field with stars around the edges. In the center was a sun and moon with two of the aliens circling them. One was white and the other blue as they both had horns and wings. He cast another look at [Celestia] and [Luna], where they related to the images on the flag? If they were part of some royal bloodline it might make sense.

The music faded as what he guessed was their anthem stopped playing.

Twilight looked up at him. “Please, this way.”

David nodded as Twilight led the way with everyone else.

Now that he was in the town it was odd how old fashioned it was given the rest of the planet but there were places like that with humans. Either back on Earth there were the ‘Low-Techs’ the ones that liked to live a more simple life. Plus there were a couple of colony worlds that had people like that as well, some were like that just because it took time to build up some worlds, others well they had their own reasons.

Looking around he could see what looked like signs of electricity but there were no power lines or an equivalent of something like that in sight. He really needed to start making notes on all the things he needed to look into. They were leading him through the town as he tried to smile and wave hoping to make himself less threatening or scary.

David suddenly noticed that there were some of the flying types that looked to be actually sitting on the clouds. He wanted to dismiss it but given everything else he had seen so far he was just going to add that little thing to the very long list of things to get to the bottom of eventually.

He noticed a couple of curious kids in the crowd, he waved at one as it quickly hid behind what he could only assume was the parent. He sighed at that and shrugged before walking along, the aliens in his group were all talking but he could only catch bits and pieces. It was a little frustrating but he just tried to piece together was they were saying. You never know the phrase ‘let’s go dissect the alien’ might show up.

“So Twi, when were ya goin’ to tell us that them Crusaders got into trouble in tha Everfree?” AJ asked her friend giving her leveled look.

Twilight’s eyes widened as her ears fell back. “I-I’m so sorry Applejack and you too Rarity. I know it was wrong but I was just trying to keep things quiet until the Princesses were told what was going on.”

“You still should have trusted us,” Rarity told her. “What if something had happened to them?”

Twilight really hadn’t thought it through at the time but looking back, she really should have said something. She just got so caught up in things and when that happened she knew that she got blinders on and certain things just didn’t occur to her. She knew that she was learning about friendship and here she was learning a lesson about taking her friend’s feelings into account.

“You’re both right,” Twilight sighed lowing her head. “I shouldn’t have gotten caught up in things and forgot to let you know what was going on. I didn’t mean to but I did and I apologize to the both of you. I promise I won’t do anything like that again.”

Applejack could tell that Twilight was honest and it wasn’t like her little sister and friends were hurt. So as long as Twilight learned her lesson she could forgive her friend.

“Well alright Ah accept but don’t let that happen again, ya hear?”

“Yes, please don’t make a habit of that darling,” Rarity told Twilight in agreement.

Twilight looked at her friends with a grateful expression on her face. “Thank you both and I promise not to do anything like that again.”

Celestia had tried not to overhear but sometimes you couldn’t help but hear things. She smiled a little seeing Twilight’s growth, it would seem that she was going to get a new friendship report on this event later on. He took a glance at the alien walking beside her, he was looking around taking everything in. He was trying to make nice with the populace, smiling and waving although some weren’t as receptive it would seem.

It was a little disheartening but she did notice a few things, some of the children would wave back and even some of the adults. There were some faces that were looking on in wonderment and she had to admit. Deep down she too felt that wonderment, here she was walking beside someone that traveled the very stars themselves. She wanted to ask him so many things but she controlled herself, she hadn’t been ruler for all this time without learning to control her impulses, well most of them at least.

David had to admit the place seemed to have a quaint charm to it, he wasn’t sure where they were going but soon he found himself in an open area. There were tables set up and a banner, he looked at it but the only word he could make out was their word for ‘welcome’ on it. Well with the balloons, decorations and the food on the long tables it looked like they were throwing a party.

He paused at the site of the building everything was in front of.

“Good god…this place has a gingerbread house,” He looked at the building and he wanted to go up and see if it was really made out of gingerbread, given everything else he had seen so far he wouldn’t put it past this crazy world. Although he doubted it was, how in the world would they keep it from going stale for starters? Still…he planned when no one was looking to take a closer look if only to sate his own curiosity.

“Hi there!” Pinkie bounced up in front of David. “I’m Pinkie Pie and I hope you enjoy this party, I made it just for you!”

David nodded his head to the pink one he remembered from the ship, she certainly was an energetic one that was for sure. Even his niece and nephew on a sugar rush together only came close to it.

“Oh I almost forgot,” She quickly dashed to one of the tables as she came back with a tray of cupcakes on it. “I hope you liked the last ones so I made more.”

David looked at the cupcakes as he picked one up. He looked down at the pink one with a raised eye brow. “You make?”

“Yep,” Pinkie smiled up at him. “I make them at Surgarcube Corner, oh I can’t wait for you to see what else we baked there. I bet there are a lot of yummy things that you’ll find there.”

David caught a few words in that, it didn’t help that she spoke pretty quickly. He took a bite and good god was it good. It helped that he hadn’t had fresh bakery goods since he left the Earth system. Even then he was sure this was one of the best baked goods he had in a long time. Looking down at the pink alien he couldn’t help but feel he would like this one.

“Good.” He told her which brought a huge smile to her face.

David was lead to a seat at a long table, there was a large spread of food on it and some drinks. He saw tea, punch but nothing alcoholic but then he had been dry for a long time at any rate. He noticed that there were no meat based products which made sense if they were a herbivore species like the scans he had made of them so far told him.

He had the large white one next to him and the smaller darker one on the other side. He thought their names were [Celestia] and [Luna] and they seemed to be the big shots around here. [Twilight] was across from him as well as the others he remembered on that day they visited. He saw the one with the rainbow mane there. There was [Fluttershy] with her, he saw the orange one with the cowboy hat, the pink one and pure white one. There was also the little lizard guy as well sitting next to the white one.

Various others were sitting around, the ones in the armor took up positions. They were really stiff and kind of reminded him of Marines or those guards in red with the silly hats in England, the ones that guarded King Charles IV, royal guardsmen or something he thought.

Eying the soldiers up a little he got the idea that royal guards did seem to fit them.

David picked up what looked like a sandwich as he ran a quick scan over it and looked at the read out on his forearm. He furrowed his brow at something as he picked off the top to take a closer look. He picked out what looked like a flower. The scanner had found a daisy inside of the sandwich, okay that was a new one. He knew that some flowers were editable but some were toxic to humans. Looking at the readout he was thankful that daisies, while they might not taste good, were not poisonous to humans.

“Twilight can you enlighten us as to what he’s doing?” Luna asked looking at what he had done.

“Well I know that light is some kind of scanning like with the simple scan spell, although from what I can tell it’s not actually magical. At least I’m not sensing any magic at all from when he uses it.” Twilight explained.

“He’s most likely trying to figure out if the food is safe to eat,” Celestia commented. “I have to wonder if daisies are deadly for his kind given he’s picking them off.”

“Oh no I didn’t even think of that!” Twilight looked to David. “Is is safe to eat [David]?”

“Safe?” He asked using the unfamiliar word.

Twilight thought about it, “Is good to eat, not bad?” She had to use simpler terms at the moment he was learning fast but it was still a struggle for him with unfamiliar words.

David nodded his head as he tried to explain. He held up the daisy, “Good but not good.”

“Huh?” Twilight tilted her head.

“Good for you but not good to eat?” Celestia asked trying her hoof at translating.

David nodded his head, “Yes, [humans] no eat…this.”

“What was that word, [humans]?” Luna asked Twilight hoping she would know.

“Oh I believe that’s the name of his species,” Twilight explained to them. “I learned it from when we were trying to learn each others languages in his ship.”

“So big guy,” Rainbow said to him. “We’re cool right?” She saw the look on his face. “You know from before, when I kind of chased you when we first met? When I flew at you.” She motioned with her front hooves trying to mime what happened that day.

“Cool?” David asked.

“You know cool, like good.” Rainbow told him.

“Oh,” David nodded his head. “Yes, we cool.”

“Awesome,” Rainbow smiled happy that everything turned out fine. She had been kind of worried about this for a few days but thankfully he didn’t seem to hold a grudge. “So how fast can your ship go?”

“Really, y’all have an alien and tha first thing you ask is how fast his ship can go?” AJ smirked at her.

“Hey it goes from star to star, that’s got to mean it goes fast.” Rainbow defended herself.

“How fast ship?” David asked as he saw Rainbow nod her head. He looked up trying to think of how to explain as he took a bite out of his sandwich. “What word for…” He snapped his fingers and pointed at his ear.

“Uh…ear?” Rainbow pointed at her ear.

David shook his head, “No not..ear…what ear does.”

“Listens?” Pinkie asked. “This is a fun game.”

David snapped his fingers, then he tapped the table, then clapped his hands. He hoped that would help get the idea.

“Oh I believe he’s trying for the word sound,” Luna perked up. “Sound.” She repeated to David and mimicked a few sounds of herself.

“Ah sound, thanks.” David smiled at her. “It can break sound.”

Twilight perked up now getting it, “Oh you mean break the sound barrier?”

David nodded and then held up five fingers.

“It can go five times the speed of sound, wait that can’t be right.” Twilight blinked. “Although that’s fast it can’t possibly travel to others stars. [David] how can your ship go from star to star?”

“Star to star? Can’t,” He shook his head. "[Sparrow] is small ship, can’t go far.”

“But then how did you get here?” Twilight asked him.

Celestia and Luna shared a look as they had a feeling they knew what that large ship in orbit was now. It was obviously the ‘mother ship’ that allowed him to travel but would he give out that kind of information. Both sisters waited to see how this would turn out to see how much information he would freely give.

David pulled out the PADD and placed it on the table so everyone could see it. He pulled up an image of the Sparrow I as he pointed at it. “Sparrow I.”

“Wait you said the word ‘one’ in that, are there more and what does [sparrow] mean?” Twilight asked him.

He pulled up an image of an actually sparrow and pointed at it.

“Oh it’s a sparrow,” Fluttershy said seeing the bird.

“Wait, its named Sparrow One?” Luna asked him as he nodded.

They all watched as he showed them images of other vessels, a larger and thicker looking one he called [Sparrow II] and then two more as he named them as well. Then he finally showed them an image that both she and her sister knew full well. This was the one that was currently in the skies.

[Pathfinder Five] he called it. "That how, this takes me to other stars."

“That looks pretty big,” AJ said seeing it.

“It is,” Celestia said getting everyone’s attention. “We noticed this in the skies not long ago.” She tapped the image and then pointed to roughly where it should be in the sky and looked right at David. It took a moment but he seemed to get the idea.

He nodded at her and pulled up an image of the ship’s location. There was the planet and moon with a small circle showing the location of Pathfinder Five.

“How many others are there?” Luna asked him hoping he understood.

“Me,” He told her. “No others, I…not know word…I look for safe way from star to star for others.”

“Safe way from star to star?” Rarity asked wondering what he meant. “It must be dangerous traveling from world to world.”

“So he’s like a scout,” Applejack thought out loud. “Lookin’ ta find the safe ways to travel for his kin.”

“I believe there were ponies like that in the distant past,” Celestia said thinking back, she had to think back to some of her earliest memories. “When we were young, some parts of Equestria were still unmapped. Some explorers had to go out to map the land and find safe routes for travel.”

“So he must be the equivalent,” Luna vaguely remembered those stories.

“Oh so he’s like a super space explorer.” Pinkie jumped up in her chair. “Hey how many worlds have you gone to?”

This was actually a question they were all curious about. David finished his punch and looked at her. “Forty-two and many moons.”

“Forty-two worlds!?” Everyone said at once.

David nodded and then he tapped the controls on the PADD as he pulled up the images from his travels that he had taken. He noticed that everyone was crowding around as some were hard to see. He paused in what he was doing and pulled out the portable holographic projector. Everyone watched him as he set it up and he linked it to the PADD.

David smiled as he watched them all and then pushed one last button. Suddenly several flat screens came to life floating in a circle. There were many reactions even from around others there were curious and looking at their able. It seemed that he was drawing a crowd, well time to show off some of the cool places he’d been to.

Up on the screens the same image showed up, the first was himself standing in front of a mountain range it could have been any place with the exception of a few things. The grass was purple in color and the sky was various shades of orange. It wasn’t even sunrise or sunset, the sky was just orange instead of blue.

“Wow look at that, it’s like when Discord was running around.” Pinkie laughed and pointed.

“An actual alien world,” Twilight’s eyes widened at the sight.

The image changed to pictures of more strange landscapes, a canyon with curved jagged walls full of crystals. Rarity marveled at the sight of them wondering what kind of accessories she could make of such things. Spike just licked his lips wondering if alien gems tasted any different than the ones on his world. Then came a lake of purple water with large strange creatures drinking from it.

“Oh my look at those, I’ve never seen anything like them,” Fluttershy gushed at the sight of new creatures.

“Well they most likely are from another planet there,” Applejack smirked at her. “Ah reckon that he’s seen more animals on other worlds than you can shake a stick at.”

“Oh I wonder if he’ll tell me all about them, you know, when we can talk better that is.” She said hopefully.

“This is so cool,” Rainbow marveled at the sight, there were some funky stuff this alien had seen. Looking at him again she felt like he was like the Daring Do of space, but you know, just not as cool as her fictional hero. It was still pretty close though as she looked back thinking of all the places you could explore, entire worlds that no pony had ever been too were out there. To fly in skies that no Pegasus had ever flown in before made her dream about going to such a world to explore it herself.

Applejack saw some strange looking plants and it took her a moment to realize that they were trees. They were just really skinny and the branches covered the trunk like how an umbrella looked. It was only the fruit growing on them that made her realize that it was some kind of fruit bearing tree. It made her wonder if there were any kind of alien fruit that were similar to apples?

There was an image of what had to be David again only this time he was wearing a thick suit of some kind, the face could barely be seen through the visor. The background didn’t look too hospitable either, black and grey smoke was all around the place, there was no growth of any kind. It looked like a wasteland of some kind.

“Why is he wearing such a garish thing?” Rarity said looking at the suit.

Twilight looked to David and pointed out the suit.

David nodded his head, “Needed that, there can’t…what is word, not wind but…” He breathed in a few times deeply to show them.

“Oh is the air bad there?” Twilight asked him.

“Ah so air is word, yes, air very bad.” He explained as best he could since he didn’t know their world for sulfur, that planet was lousy with the stuff.

Then he pulled up an image of a skyline but this got Celestia’s attention the most as she looked at it with wide eyes.

“Oh my,” She simply said as there were two suns in the sky.

“So there are worlds with more than one sun!” Twilight grinned at the image. “There was always a theory that it could be possible but it was only a theory until now, oh I wish I had something to note all this down with.”

“I must admit that is a sight, oh don’t pout Luna,” Celestia noticed her younger sister’s reaction to the sight of it.

“I do not pout,” Luna muttered looking away.

David noticed the exchange as well, the blue one had her cheeks puffed out and looked slightly annoyed at the image. He did noticed that she and the larger one did have a sun and moon motif going on. Maybe it was something special to each of their cultures or beliefs? At any rate it seemed Luna didn’t like how that world had two suns. Well he knew what would cheer her up as he pulled up a new image. This was a night shot of the sky and it showed three moons of various sizes and slightly different colors.

“Huzah!” Luna shouted in triumph, “Behold, a world with three moons dear sister!”

“It’s not a competition,” Celestia muttered to herself.

Everyone else giggled at the antics of the royal sisters, it was a rare sight to see them acting like actual sisters. Next came something none of them expected, underwater shots of below a strange alien sea or ocean. Sea life that none of them had ever seen before floating about.

“Now ah wonder how in tarnation he got those images underwater?” AJ commented.

“Must be some kind of underwater camera?” Rarity offered.

“It could be possible,” Twilight nodded although she wasn’t sure how, the camera would have to be water tight at the least.

The alien slide show continued on, they asked him questions and he answered as best he could. He continued to try some of the foods, Twilight made a mental note on the ones he didn’t eat. So far it was pretty much the same things they ate only no flower and no hay for some reason. Either it wasn’t good for him or maybe he couldn’t digest those foods. It made sense, after all there were most likely things she couldn’t eat that he did. She would have to get him to the town doctor if possible, if only so they had a basic understanding of what was normal for him. That is if he allowed it, she didn’t see why not, he had done pretty much the same with several of them so far with that scanning technology he had.

“You know maybe we should get some music going,” Pinkie thought out loud. “This is a party after all and we’re nearly done with the food.”

“Oh how about I go get that music box he gave me?” Twilight perked up at the thought. “We can ask him about some of the music as well. I’ll go and get it.”

Twilight disappeared in a flash of magic although everyone knew about the spell and had seen Twilight done it many times now. There was one person that hadn’t seen that happen yet.

“What the fuck!? What the hell happened to her!?” David jumped out of his chair pointing at the spot Twilight had been.

Everyone tensed up, a few jumped in their seats, some of those gathered around drew back scared that the alien either was agitated about something or was angry about something. Celestia and Luna had to look at the guards to let them know to stand down when they heard the armor of the guards locked up as they went immediately into a defensive posture.

Twilight popped back with the device smiling to herself. “Here we go I have it right-what is going on?”

“He kind of freaked out when you teleported Twi,” Rainbow told her.

“What?” Twilight blinked at her and looked at David to see his shocked expression.

David pointed at her trying to make sense of what he had just seem. One moment she had been there saying something about music and going someplace, then there had been a flash, she had been gone, then another flash and she was back. With the music device he had made for her as well.

“W-what?” He asked her.

“I don’t think he has seen teleportation before,” Celestia said seeing his expression. She hoped she could calm him down as she gently spoke to him. “It’s alright, Twilight is fine, we call it a teleportation spell.”

She spoke the last few words carefully to him as he looked at her. Celestia used her magic to take an orange and placed it on the table. “Twilight.” She pointed at it and then it disappeared and reappeared a foot away. David jumped but soon his shock turned to a look Twilight often got when she saw something that got her interests. David held up his scanner as he started to scan the orange and kept it going.

He looked at Celestia. “Again?”

Celestia smiled and nodded and teleported the orange again. David looked at the data he was seeing but the computer was having a hard time trying to figure out what had just happened. It wasn’t something in the parameters that it was programmed for. David was going to have to go through the data himself later but then he looked at Celestia.

“How?” He asked her.

Celestia tried to think of something, even if he knew their language it would be hard to explain. It was a very advanced spell that few unicorns were able to master. She noticed a paper napkin and floated it towards them. She took a small baby carrot and made two marks on the napkin with her magic.

“We are here,” She placed the little carrot on one dot then she folded the napkin so both dots were lined up and she pushed the carrot through so that when she reopened it, the carrot was on the other site. “Now we are here.”

“Mother of god they can fold space naturally,” David muttered as he knew the theory of space folding. If humanity hadn’t cracked the warp drive then space folding was the only other option they had, well there were wormholes but they had no idea how to make something like that, even in theory. But these little alien horses had the ability, or at least the unicorns did, of folding space to basically teleport themselves without having to break themselves down at the atomic level.

If they could learn how they did it and replicate it, hell what would be faster warp drive or space folding? He wasn’t sure at the moment but there were a wide range of possibilities. Things like maybe even faster than light communication, something humanity had been struggling with how to create.

Twilight looked at him as he was deep in thought. [David?]

He snapped out of his thoughts, “Sorry, talk later about that?”

“Sure thing,” Twilight nodded as she got the music player ready. “Now how about we change the topic? I have some questions about some of the music.”

Next up Chapter 14: Getting to know Ponyville