Pathfinder 5

Chapter 16: What is this magic thing?

Luna was in the dreamscape as she usually was in the night, so far it wasn’t too busy on this plane. A few nightmares here and there which were easy to vanquish, it wasn’t too long ago that her presence in dreams used to make her subjects weary of her. The shadow of Nightmare Moon had been heavily on her when she first returned but through hard work she had started to show them that she was no longer that monster used to frighten foals at night.

It did her heart good to see them actually grateful for her work as things had changed a lot since her return.

Looking through the dream worlds with what looked like infinite doorways each one used to travel to a different dream she didn’t sense anymore nightmares. Well now that she had caught up it was now time to go into the human’s dream. She could sense his dream now as she moved towards the door to his dreams. She had told her sister of what happened and they both agreed for Luna to keep in contact when she could.

It would both be informative and also it might help in his understanding of their language. Although how exactly was beyond Luna at the moment but she decided to help out in some way. She opened the door and soon found herself standing on a field. It looked like a normal park you’d see anywhere, that is until she noticed something that shocked her.

She looked in the distance to her left and right and saw that the world was curved upwards. Looking above her she noticed the world curved like a giant circle. It was actually making her feel a sense of vertigo. Just how was this possible, were there planets like this? Wait what was that? It looked to be a large rectangular section that was open. She squinted and it looked like the giant openings were covered in some kind of glass or similar material. There seemed to be giant mirrors just outside, just what was she seeing?

“So am I dreaming you or are you in my dream?”

Luna turned to see the alien visitor to their world dressed in blue pants of some kind with a shirt with long sleeves on it. “In a way, both.”

David was quiet for a moment, “If you say there is no spoon I’m waking up.”

“I…don’t understand.” Luna was confused and for a moment thought that the dream was making him speak random words.

“Sorry, old line from an old film, well actually it was a remake of a really old film I never saw the original.” He shrugged.

“Well be that as it may,” Luna presented her hoof to him. “Now that we can speak properly we should have proper introductions. I am Princess Luna co-ruler of Equestria along with my elder sister Princess Celestia.”

David shook her hoof. “Well I’m David Miller, commander of Pathfinder 5.”

“Ah, so that’s the name of the giant ship that’s near my moon.” Luna told him now knowing its name.

David raised an eyebrow at the ‘her moon’ part but didn’t say anything. If they laid claim to the moon who was he to say anything, hell for all he knew she might just be hers.

“So is Equestria the name of the planet or something?”

“It is the name of the country you are now in,” Luna corrected him. “We call the planet Equus.”

That sounded Latin to him or something close to it, he made a note to look that up to see if it was or not. It wouldn’t be the first instance of this showing up after all, not after learning about the Pegasus link.

Luna looked around her as she took in the dream world they were both in. “If you don’t mind me asking a question now, where are we? It looks almost like a normal world but the land and sky are bent together in a ring.

“This is what’s called an O’Neill type colony or an O’Neill cylinder,” David explained to her. “It’s a giant cylinder in space that’s actually turning. The spin gives it gravity on the outer shell where we are now. The center has a zero gravity area, they actually built some places there to take advantage of it as well.”

“Zero gravity?” Luna asked him.

David grinned, “Maybe it’s best to show you, let me see if I got this down.”

Luna found the dream changed as they were in a large room with various bars, boxes and other things connected to the edges of the room. She was about to ask a question when her sudden movement caused her to start floating away.

“W-what is this!?” Luna tried to correct herself as she started tumbling. She tried using her wings but they weren’t giving her the reaction she wanted and it only seemed to make things worse.

David laughed as he pushed himself off with a grace that years or practice in this kind of environment had given him. “This is zero gravity, you basically just float around. Try to calm down and make very slow movements you don’t actually need much force.”

Luna tried and after a little experimentation she found herself only making a slow tumble, she managed to reach for one of the bars to steady herself as she watched David move around using the protruding materials to help guide him along. Looking down at her bar she realized it was covering in a foam like substance that would absorb impact.

“This is actually a play area,” David told her now ‘standing’ on the ceiling looking at her. “People usually bring kids in to play, it’s great for tourists as well as for kids who grow up in space colonies to learn how to handle a zero-g environment. Plus it’s just fun.”

“Fun you say,” Luna pushed off gently as she now tried to make small movements. Now that she was over her shock she could see the fun in this. It was like flying but without all the effort. She felt herself floating as she soon started to use the materials in the room to get around. She found herself smiling after a few minutes of this, yes she could see the fun in this.

“Looks like someone is having some fun,” David grinned at her.

“Although I can fly this is a lot easier although I keep trying to use flying techniques to get around,” Luna frowned at that. “It’s causing me some difficulty.”

“I can only imagine,” David shrugged. “Can’t fly myself like you apparently can, so anything else you want to see?”

If only he knew, Luna thought to herself there were all kinds of things she wanted to ask but dream time moved at a different pace than real time. There was no telling when he could wake up as well so she would have to think carefully.

“So you say this is a colony in space that’s just a giant tube?” Luna asked him as she really wanted to confirm that.

David thought for a moment as his eyes lit up, “Oh I think I got a memory we can share.”

The world shifted and she soon found herself and David standing with a small crowd. David looked around and was surprised to see a younger version of him there talking to some old friends of his.

“Damn I look like a kid,” He shook his head and then looked at his hair. It was in small spikes with green and blue hair dye. “What was I thinking with that hair?”

Luna said nothing but tried not to smile at his uncomfortable look at himself, personally she found the color a little nice on him. She looked out a large window to see that they were moving.

“This is a starliner,” David told her as he moved next to her by the window. “It’s a civilian craft people use to move around in system. This was the day I left home to study in Geneva, you’ll see the colony coming up soon I think.”

Luna continued to watch at the colony came into view, it looked so massive from the outside. It was as he said a giant metal cylinder in space with sections split off to reflect light into the colony. To think that they could build such things, it was amazing to see.

“Well I hope you don’t mind but I got a few questions myself,” David spoke up after letting her get a good look.

“Yes that is only fair,” Luna admitted as her horn glowed and suddenly everything changed. They were now sitting in a room with a bed in the shape of a crescent moon, in fact there were a lot of moon themed images around the room. There was an open balcony where the moonlight came in, giving the place a soft light.

“Okay I know this isn’t one of mine,” David told her looking around.

“Correct this is my room in the castle,” Luna said as she let the way to a table she sat at. David joined with her, the chair was a little on the small side but not too bad thankfully.

“Okay I have a ton of questions, what’s with the whole moon and sun thing you and the other one have going, what’s with the marks I keep seeing mostly everyone have on them and lastly what’s with the glowing horns?”

Luna had to chuckle at that, “Well you certainly don’t like to waste time, something I can agree with. Well let’s see, my sister and myself are the two rulers of Equestria and our marks are linked to our roles. The cutie marks you see are the special talents a pony has, they show up when they have found their talent.”

“Wait they just show up?” David asked her not sure how the hell that worked.

“Yes, my sister and I have the ability to raise and lower the sun and the moon.”

“What!?” David nearly stood up at that. “You mean to say that you literally are moving celestial bodies?”

“Yes, how else would it work?” Luna asked him cocking her head. “Before my sister and I were born it took seven of the most powerful unicorns alive working together to do that.”

David’s mouth opened and closed a few times, he had seen the reports from Pathfinder about the strong energy every time the sun and moon switched places but he didn’t think someone was physically responsible for it. She had to be pulling his leg or outright lying right? Then again he saw them moving clouds and sitting on them like they were solid, they seemed to control the weather and could teleport as well. Just what else could they do, well he would play along at least for now but he was going to have to see this in person before he made any kind of report on it.

So with his mind made up he decided on asking her how this was possible in the most calm and respectable manner.

“Hoooooowwww!?” Okay not his best moment.

“Magic of course,” Luna explained to him. “All ponies have unique magic to each tribe, you see the Pegasi have-“

David held up a hand suddenly cutting her off. “Wait when you say magic what do you actually mean?”

“Well magic of course,” Luna told him confused. “The manipulation of mana, either inside of your body or the manipulation of the mana field of the world itself. Alicorns and unicorns can control it in ways like you’ve seen with Twilight Sparkle’s teleportation and her other magic, whiles Pegasi and Earth Ponies have their own unique ways of using magic.”

“So you’re saying that all this is because of magic?” David asked her as she nodded.

He was starting to rethink just how advanced this race was if they still believed in something like magic. He rubbed his head feeling a headache coming on, maybe it was he thought before and they just never updated the word from some ancient word or something. Still he refused to just accept ‘magic’ as an answer there had to be a scientific explanation for it. They could manipulate some kind of energy that much was obvious.

“Are you alright?” Luna asked him. “You seem to have a lot of trouble with the concept of magic for some reason, surely you’re people must have your own magic to create everything I’ve seen so far.”

“Well Princess,” He sighed not sure how to tell her exactly without offending. “We don’t believe in magic.”

“What!?” Luna reeled back almost like she had been slapped.

“Well it’s just that we don’t believe in it because we’ve never actually seen magic at least not real magic,” he started to explain to her. “We go stage magicians and stuff but that’s all just tricks or it’s only found in stories. Everything we have is from just science.”

“Oh…that is…I’m at a loss,” Luna had never heard of this. There was magic everywhere on their world and yet these people had none of it? She wasn’t sure what that said about her own people as well. A world without magic was unthinkable to her and yet their people not only thrived but were traveling the stars.

Were all the miracles of magic actually holding back progress? It was a horrid thought to Luna and one she wouldn’t have thought twice on the matter but here and now, seeing what she had seen in his dreams. The seed of doubt had been planted in her mind and once it took root she was afraid of what might grow from it.

Thankfully David decided to speak up so she had something else to focus on.

“Okay I’m not sure exactly what it is but I’m pretty sure there has to be a reasonable scientific explanation for it,” he said.

“Well of course, it’s magic,” Luna said with confidence. “It is after all one of the major fields of science.”

David had to chew his inner lip in order to stop himself from saying something along the line of ‘magic is not science’ into her face. Although he thought for a moment that if he listened very closely, he could hear the sum total of Earth’s scientists throughout history rolling in their graves at her statement.

“Yeah I’m going to have to research that.” David said slowly.

“Well then it’s good you are friends with Twilight Sparkle,” Luna smiled. “She not only is a very powerful unicorn in the field of magic and is very gifted in magic as well, but apparently she also has a very scientific mind if my sister’s accounts of her are accurate. Which they should be, she was Celestia’s student.”

“Wait Twilight was the student to your sister, one of the co-rulers?” David asked for clarification.

“Correct,” Luna nodded. “I…wasn’t around for it, but I heard how she studied under my sister for years. My sister only takes those she feels show special talents or could grow to have amazing talents. She likes to nurture and watch ponies grow to their full potential.”

“Okay,” David blinked and then thought of something. “Hold on why is she in that little town in the middle of nowhere then?”

“Oh that, she’s there to learn the magic of friendship,” She said as though it was the most natural thing in the world to say.

“Riiiiiight.” David tried not to judge, it was an alien culture after all maybe they just really prized friendship. That made him pause, was that really a bad thing? Not really as far as he could tell and it made him think of humanity for a moment and what it said about them if he was starting to scoff at that idea.

“Okay so talk to her about this got it,” David said looking around the place. “So this is your room huh, you have a habit of bringing strange men back to your place in the middle of the night?”

Luna’s irises shrunk down, “W-what!? N-no that wouldn’t be, I mean, I’ve never, my sister would never let me hear, this isn’t what it looks like!”

David held up his hands he had to admit she looked kind of cute when she panicked like that. Then again all of these aliens had a natural cuteness to them. “Easy there Princess just a joke.”

“A yes humor, I’m not really that good at it,” She felt a bit embarrassed at her reaction. Normally others wouldn’t even dare to joke at her expense like this but although he did use her title, he seemed less formal to her. It was like how Twilight and her friends treated her, more like a normal pony which was refreshing after so long. Although that didn’t mean she would simply let that slid either.

“You are aware I control dreams and could make some very disturbing ones for you?” She asked him with a straight face.

David paused as he couldn’t get a read on her, “Right…don’t mess with the dream princess, got it.”

She did let herself smile a bit as they both relaxed.

“So how long have you two been ruling?” David shrugged figuring getting some background would be nice. “I mean you both are still Princesses and now Queens?”

“We don’t use the title of Queen,” Luna told him. “There was an incident long ago with a wicked queen and it left ponies hesitant about a new one. So when my sister and I took the thrones we didn’t use that title, over time it just kind of stuck with us.”

“As for when we were given the titles,” Luna looked up as she mentally did the math. “I believe it’s been about One thousand, four hundred and twenty…two maybe three years. I could be off it’s been a very long time after all.”

“Wait what!? You’re over a thousand years old?” David looked at her but she didn’t seem all that old then again he had no idea what a year was here or even how old they lived.

“Correct.” She said simply.

“Okay are all your species this long lived or are the years just really different?” David asked.

“Only my sister and myself are ageless, we aren’t immortal as we can die, well in theory we’ve never tested that for obvious reasons,” Luna shrugged. “It’s a complicated story, Alicorns like us are rare there is one other Cadence but she’ll have a normal life span as do all our other subjects as she wasn’t born an Alicorn.”

“As for the year, I can’t say but we have about three hundred and fifty days per year.” She finished.

David shook his head, the year thing was a little off but it was pretty close to how many days Earth had but that wasn’t what was interesting him. “Okay I feel some background is needed, you can just become this ‘Alicorn’ thing you and your sister are but without the immortality?”

“Yes, it is a complicated story.” Luna told him honestly.

David looked around as she sat back in his chair, “Well I got all night how about you? I think it’s story time.

-Canterlot Castle-

It was midday and Celestia was currently in her study sitting at a large table as she was going through a lot of scrolls and paperwork. She was working on how to break the news to the press when the time came. So far Twilight reported that their new friend was fitting in well in Ponyville so far. This was good, although it was only a matter of time before word got out and that was why she was here now trying to prepare some statements for the questions she knew others would have.

Thankfully Luna’s dream walking with the alien was helping to get a look into the lives of this [human] species. Learning more about them would help their understanding of him, so far it seemed like he was on an exploration mission when he came upon their world.

Although from what Twilight had said in her last report not only were they the first intelligent species they had found but apparently the rest of the known galaxy operated much like the Everfree Forest did. There were theories about it but to hear it in person, well this would certainly put the science community on their heads. It looked like the Everfree Universal theory would have to be looked more closely from now on.

Celestia looked at the scroll in front of her as she crossed out what she had written and tried to reword it. This was going to be her speech on the existence of alien life and she needed it to instill a sense of calm while making it memorable. After all this was something she knew would be written down in the history books and when you lived as long as she did, you got to see how things were remembered.

It took her over a hundred years to erase any mention of that incident with herself, Luna and the Griffon and Minotaur ambassadors over a thousand years ago. She and Luna swore to never speak of that incident again and let it be forgotten by history.

A knock at her door as one of her guards opened it up. “Your Highness, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Prince Consort Shining Armor are here to see you.”

Celestia’s smiled and started to feel the weight of everything starting to lift a bit off her shoulders. “Excellent, please let them in.”

The guard bowed before her adopted niece and husband entered, the door being shut behind them.

“Cadence, it’s so good to see you,” Celestia got up and hugged the younger princess close.

“It’s good to see you too Auntie,” Cadence always liked how warm and affectionate Celestia was and how warm her hugs were, even as a filly.

“It’s good to see you again your Majesty,” Shining said with a slight bow to his head.

Celestia giggled, “Please Shining you can call me Celestia, we are family now after all.”

“Oh right,” He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I’m still getting used to that, old habits from my guard days are hard to stop.”

“I’ll say,” Cadence smirked looking at him. “You still get up early and insist on going for morning exercises every day, I have to basically bribe him to stay in bed.”

“Oh? What kind of bribery works?” Celestia asked and then regretted it as she saw the blushing looks on them and remembered that they were still newlyweds. Now things had gotten a little awkward as she really didn’t want to know of Cadence’s sex life. Celestia coughed into her hoof trying to think of a way to change the subject.

“Well then, I’m glad you both could come on such short notice.” The Sun Princess said getting the conversation back on track.

“Well your letter made it seem it was very important,” Cadence was a little worried on what was so urgent. “It’s not some terrible plot, creature or another enemy coming back is it?”

“Are my sister and her friends needed?” Shining asked knowing how well her little sister and her friends were at saving the day. They were fast becoming national heroes, back when he was Captain of the Guard he had been thinking of trying to see if an honorary rank could be given to them or at the very least if they could be put into the royal reserve forces.

“No it’s nothing like that,” Celestia went back to the table and motioned for them to join her. When they sat down she took a breath to tell them. “What I am about to tell you is something that everypony will hear about soon and I need your help in keeping everypony calm.”

“This sure sounds like it’s terrible,” Shining said not liking the sound of this already.

“It’s not terrible but it is news that will change, well everything,” Celestia started from the top. “Not long ago your father and his team at the Royal Observatory found something floating next to the moon.”

“My dad?” Shining blinked as he hadn’t heard anything from his dad at all, he was actually a little concerned as he was going to visit his parents as they normally wrote a couple times a month to him and Cadence.

Celestia nodded, “Yes. As it turned out…it is a ship from another race.”

“Another race?” Cadence’s voice waivered a little as she hoped her aunt meant a race of their world but a ship in the sky, next to the moon? There was no technology that could do that, at least not to her knowledge and as a Princess of Canterlot and now the Crystal Empire she knew all kinds of things that most ponies weren’t meant to know about.

Celestia continued, “We were following it as it seems to be in a stable place but before we could get anywhere apparently the occupant had already landed in a much smaller craft…near Ponyville.”

“A-are you saying…there’s an actual ALIEN in Ponyville!?” Cadence reared back her eyes widened.

Celestia sighed and nodded, “His name is [David], odd sounding I know, but he is learning our language from Twilight. He’s an explorer that found our world and thankfully is making peaceful contact. Myself and Luna met him in person and he does seem like a nice and friendly fellow, Luna is talking to him in his dreams as apparently they can talk normally there and it’s helping him get direct translations to help him understand our language. At least that’s what Luna told me he said, I have to see if he’s been improving through Twilight later.”

“I…I don’t know what to say, this is all just so…” Cadence suddenly felt very small or maybe that the world had just gotten too big all of a sudden. Actual life from another world, it was hard to wrap her mind around it but she knew this wasn’t one of her aunt’s jokes, it wasn’t her style.

She just sat there for a moment as her mind tried to grab hold of everything that was passing through it. The Crystal Empire was still catching up for all the lost time and now this, it would be a lot to take in for her people.

“Uh…Shining Armor?” Celestia asked noticing how quiet the new prince consort had been.

Suddenly he rushed up into Celestia’s personal space with a near manic look on him. “What does he look like, are there more, can I see his ship, does he have any weapons, how many legs does he have, how tall, what color is his coat?”

Celestia was taken aback she had never once seen him like this, not in all the years he had served her.

Cadence stifled a giggle, “Sorry, Shinny is pretty into science fiction.”

“You know I love things like Smash Fortune, Star Trot, Thunderponies, Buck Stallion, and others. You know how much I’ve always wanted to meet a real life alien and go into space.” Shining told her.

“He does?” Celestia asked she had never known that about her former Captain of the Guard. Just when you know somepony but then again she supposed that she never really knew him outside of his duties.

“When I was a child I wanted to go out into space,” Shining said a little embarrassed.

“Why did you stop?” Celestia asked a little amused but also now a bit interested to learn a bit more about him.

He scratched the back of his head, “Well I learned that we couldn’t go into space I was kind of crushed, but it did lead me into going into the guard later so I guess it was all good in the end.”

Cadence nuzzled him, “Oh don’t worry, now that there is an alien maybe if you ask really nice he’ll take you up for a trip?”

“You really think so?” Shining’s eyes filled with hope of completing a childhood dream of his.

“We’ll have to see,” Celestia had to admit the idea did hold an appeal. “At any rate we’ll have to let our subjects know soon, not to mention I’ve already called upon all the ambassadors for a meeting as well.”

“And we should also be there to represent the Crystal Empire.” Cadence nodded.

The political status of the empire did kind of fall into a grey area at the moment. While it had been its own government it had also been very tightly aligned with Equestria. Then when the empire had disappeared, Celestia and Luna had annexed the territory. They mainly took it to ensure that no one else tried to take the land until the day the empire returned. Not that any would really want it being in a frozen wasteland but they were being cautious just in case. The Yaks for instance might have tried to expand their territory into that area as they were the closest country.

The fact that Cadence was the adopted niece of Celestia and Luna also muddied the waters. As technically she was still third in line to the Equestrian throne, was born an Equestrian citizen and was a princess of Equestria before taking over the Crystal Empire. Even if her ancestor had been apparently related to the former Princess that Sombra had overthrown, her status was very complicated.

“What about this alien, actually what’s his name again?” Shining asked as calling him ‘the alien’ was kind of rude as he did have a name.

[David] Celestia offered.

“Right that,” it would take some practice to say the unfamiliar word. “Does this [Da-y-vid] have any security?”

“I have an agent in place watching over things,” Celestia admitted that much but she wouldn’t compromise the identity of said pony even in their company. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust them, but she felt that Bon Bon as she was calling herself now, would prefer it.

“Plus your sister and friends are there as well,” Cadence offered knowing they had a way of dealing with trouble, although trouble did also seem to find them as well she thought.

Shining smiled and nodded at that point, “Yeah although she is my little sister, I have to admit she’s really done a lot. The whole family is brought of her accomplishments and her friends as well.”

Celestia nodded as she looked at the paperwork with a sigh, “Well now that that is out of the way, I don’t suppose you two could help me out with another problem.”

Cadence only giggled as she took a pile, “I don’t see why not, I do run my own kingdom now so all those lessons you taught me about government and paperwork come in very handy.”

Shining shrugged, “I’m no stranger to paperwork although I do admit I thought when I become a prince, even through marriage, it would have been the last I would have seen of it.”

“I fear paperwork will outlive even me,” Celestia muttered as they got to work.

Next up chapter 17: News getting around

Author's Note

Not as long as the last chapter but I thought it was a decent length. Not sure when I'll get another chapter out but I will try to work on my stuff and post when I can. It will just be January when I can start updating normally again.