Pathfinder 5

Pathfinder 5

Chapter 23: The Big Night (Part1)

David looked around at all the faces looking at him, there were various expressions and he wasn’t sure what to do. A quick look around and he could see how the room was huge, flawless marble floors, tables filled with all kinds of foods. He saw a small stage with a small group of ponies playing instruments. He thought he saw Octavia but it was hard to tell from across the room.

He noticed that everyone here was dressed up, which was odd to see. He had gotten used to them all just going around with little to no clothing on all the time. He guessed they only used clothing like this for major occasions.

David knew that he had to do something by this point but he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to say something or not. He just placed his palm over his heart and bowed to everyone there. It was one of the old-style greetings he remembered that some people used in high society. Or was that from a movie?

It better not had been from a movie.

Thankfully Celestia moved to his side as she smiled warmly at everyone in the room.

“Everypony this is [David Miller], I formally introduce him to all of you and our world.” She started. “He has come from so very far away, we had often wondered if we were all alone in the universe and now we know we are not.”

“I want everypony here to show him the friendship our country is known for as we all get to know one another.” She bowed her head slightly as they moved off together as the band started up a small waltz of some kind.

“Nicely done,” David whispered to her.

“A thousand years of experience,” She whispered back with a wink.

He forgot about that, she didn’t really act like someone that old. Well maybe sometimes he caught a hint of something but she seemed more motherly than anything. Maybe with a bit of an impish side as well thrown in. He followed her lead as he could already seeing the entire place was glued to his every movement.

Hell, he couldn’t blame them an actual alien being was walking in front of them. As long as there wasn’t someone selling tickets he was okay with them looking. The group came to another group and he could already tell these must be leaders of other countries, mainly because they weren’t the alien ponies he had seen.

Two of them looked right out of the Greek myths of minotaurs and griffons, like perfectly out of those stories. The griffon was a little bigger than your average pony but the minotaur, now he was large. David felt the guy had at least a few inches on him with his red hairy body with lines of grey here and there. The guy looked like he could bench press a full on human and David hoped he wasn’t going to find that out first hand.

The other was another zebra like Zecora only he was pretty sure this one was male, he had gotten better at telling the different from ponies and they looked similar enough to take a good guess.

Celestia started off the introductions, “May I present ambassadors Gaius of the Griffon Kingdom, Azari of the Zebra Lands and Red Bull of the Minotaur Republic.”

David had to fight the smile on his face, the translation in his head about the last ambassador’s name into English had a very funny coincidence to an old energy drink. He only knew about it because he had a university friend that tried to make the drink himself from the old formula. The results had been…interesting to say the least.

David gave a small bow to them all, “I great you all on behave of my people.”

They all bowed in response as it was the minotaur that came up first and extended his hand. David took it although instead of a handshake he took David’s wrist in hand. David mirrored him following the big guy’s lead.

“Excellent to meet you in person, I have to say it’s nice to meet another bipedal species,” he laughed before slapping David on the shoulder.

David swayed from the impact but thankfully caught himself from tumbling over, the guy had a lot of strength in those arms.

“Yes I have noticed that in this world,” David grinned back. “I only met one other so far that only stood on two legs.” He referenced Spike although he doubted the guy knew him personally.

“Well it’s nice to meet another bipedal race then, I look forward to getting to know your people.” He spoke.

David nodded his head, “Oh I’m sure there will be plenty to learn from everyone.” He looked around at those gathered. “So are you all the representatives of this world?” David asked.

“Not entirely,” Celestia admitted.

“There are a few more isolated races,” Luna told him as they had explained a little about it.

“I think you told me about a few, Diamond Dogs being one of them, right?” He asked. He noticed a few shifts and some not too pleasant looks from the other ambassadors. Apparently, this race was not well liked if he was reading them correctly.

Celestia nodded. “That is one of them. Recently we have reopened diplomatic ties with Saddle Arabia thankfully,” Celestia put in. “The last two sultans had been very firm in an isolationist agenda but the new one has opened the borders and shown signs of wanting closer ties with other countries.”

“Yes the new trade agreements are in talks,” Red Bull nodded in agreement. It was always nice to have new trading partners and Saddle Arabia did have some resources that his own people could trade for.

“We already have a trade mission on the way there as well,” the griffon added in.

“I guess a fractured world must seem odd to you,” Shining Armor spoke up. “I take it your race must have overcome that kind of stuff.”

David just burst out laughing for a moment.

“W-what did I say?” Shining said looking around.

“Sorry-sorry,” David said getting back under control. “Trust me we got several different governments. We’re not so ‘united’ as you might think, we never have been.”

“Oh,” Shining placed his ears back looking embarrassed. “Sorry I just thought that any race that could travel the stars would be you know, more like a single power or something.”

“While that would be nice, human history says otherwise,” David sighed. “We’re a very diverse species.”

“So what are these other governments then?” Gaius asked rubbing the side of his beak wondering how many other powers they would have to deal with and maybe put up into a bidding war in the future.

“Let’s see a little back history is needed,” David tried to ignore the way Twilight’s eyes just lit up as she looked like she really wanted something to write this down with. “When humans started going into space we realized that it was a very expensive and costly thing. Even the most powerful nations had trouble getting it done by themselves so soon alliances were made. These eventually become huge nations over time.”

“Now the major players would be the [Pacific] Alliance or just Alliance for short. Then the [European] Union, sorry there’s no translation for some of these names. The Federated Commonwealth, Sun Empire, [Russian] Consortium, United [Arab] Kingdoms. Then there are the smaller independent colonies or powers.”

“So who might you represent, of those that are present?” Azari asked him.

“Well the Pathfinder Program is part of the [Galactic] Survey Corp which if a multi-national organization under the [Galactic] Defense Force or GDF.”

“GDF?” Cadence asked next rolling the name around in her mouth. “Why is that?”

“Well again a little backstory here,” He was starting to get thirsty but suddenly found Pinkie ready with a cup of what looked like punch. “When did you…”

“You looked thirsty,” She explained with a smile.

David nodded as he hadn’t even noticed she had left but took a drink, it wasn’t bad. “Now where was I…oh yeah. Well when we first started exploring companies and nations were jumping at claiming whatever they could, it was a mess. Some fights broke out but nothing major. Then someone had the idea to make an organization that would be funded by everyone and they would be impartial.”

“Sounds reasonable.” Celestia nodded her head.

“Yeah but no one really took the GDF seriously until the [Freeman] Incident.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Rainbow Dash said getting a bit more into the story now that he said that. She could feel with the way he said it that something major had happened.

David grinned at her, “Well you don’t go throwing the word ‘incident’ around unless something big happened. Basically, two powers laid claim to the same large asteroid. It was full of minerals so it was a huge payday for whoever could get it.”

“Now see the Alliance had laid a documented claim but the Consortium thinks that as long as you have people on the ground it’s yours.”

“I can see where the problem is coming in,” Luna sighed.

“Yeah both said they had legitimate claims, the Consortium started setting up a mining operation while the Alliance came in their ships to get rid of them, which of course meant the Consortium sent their own ships. To say that things were getting tense was an understatement.”

In fact, it was the closest to all-out war in space that human history had come to so far and to those living in a space colony where getting the hull breached by weapons fire was one of the worst fears for those that lived there.

“So what happened?” AJ asked as everyone was very into the story now.

“Well the GDF was called in to negotiate, the Captain of the small fleet named [Freeman] well he knew that both sides were too stubborn to back down but a war was something he had to stop. So he came up with a plan. He managed to convince them to allow him to send his own people down to ensure the safety of the miners. He said that if his people were down there the Alliance might think twice about shooting but told the Alliance it would help with the removal process.”

“Somehow his people managed to rig a small explosion and made it look like a disaster happened. They were very sure to do it in an area where no people lived as well. So under the disguise of an emergency incident he evacuated the station of everyone. Then when everyone was off, he fired everything he had and blew up the asteroid.”

“He what!?” Several voices said at once.

David grinned, “Yeah his thinking was, no asteroid no more fighting.”

“Somehow, I get the feeling not everyone felt that way,” Red Bull said but he too was grinning as he stroked his beard at the unique way this human had solved the problem. His people did like those that thought outside the box.

“Oh yeah he was court martialed and kicked out of the GDF but you know what? He didn’t care, he made this famous speech during his hearing about how sometimes you have to do what’s necessary to keep the peace and the only true compromise was when both parties weren’t happy and that he’d do it all again to prevent anymore loss of life.”

“There were governments wanting his head but honestly they could yell all they wanted but it was up to the GDF to punish him so they just fired him and left it at that.”

“Really?” Shining saw the point but in all honesty if that had been a Royal Guard they might have gotten a lot more than just that.

“Well the thing is the GDF knew that they had to do something to him but they also agreed with his choice because it saved lives.”

“Politics,” Celestia said realizing what had happened.

“Yep that’s the reason, they had to do it but they gave him the lightest sentence they could without causing international outrage. The thing is after that governments were a bit more eager to listen to the GDF just in case there was another [Freeman] in command.”

Dash burst out laughing at that, “Oh man that’s great.”

“Great?” Twilight said shocked. “He blew up an asteroid!”

“Yeah but it sounds like he made sure no pony got hurt.” Pinky put in.

David saw what was coming and quickly stepped in, “Hold it, please. My own people have been arguing over this for over seventy years since it happened, please don’t let this go into other cultures. We have a hard-enough time with it in my own.”

“Well that was certainly entertaining,” Celestia started to take the conversation into another direction.

While this was going on many of those in attendance were mingling and of course the conversation everyone was talking about was of course the alien in the room. The nobles looked with interests as something like this was unprecedented. No one was sure what to make of this but the fact that all the royalty and the ambassadors were in one group together, well that spoke that this alien was very important.

The guards there were lucky enough to get posted to the inside of the hall despite their training couldn’t resist a glance now and then. Servants and staff weren’t sure if they were supposed to offer him anything or let him come to them.

Among the guests many were in attendance, the upper crust of Canterlot, guests of theirs as well as certain celebrities with some journalists here and there. One group of mares not far away were a group of fashion models, they were with their own dates but the males were off networking and so the females got together to gossip. There was always something good going on at these kinds of events of course.

“He’s very tall,” A light yellow Pegasus said looking over at David.

“I don’t know Sunny,” a friend named Lime Green, whose mane matched her name. “He’s not as tall as a minotaur.”

A blue unicorn with a deep red mane looked at David holding a drink with her magic. “Hmmm.”

“What is it Desire?” Sunny asked.

“I think there’s something to work with,” Desire smirked.

“Oh please tell me you’re not thinking of rutting with an alien,” Lime sighed. “Honestly have you no shame?”

“Of course but there’s nothing to be shameful of this,” she simply said. “I wonder what those hands of his will feel like.”

“His what?” Sunny asked.

“The things at the end of his arms, minotaurs have them,” Desire explained. “I once dated one for a week, he was very energetic and his hands felt amazing but honestly he was a bit too loud and he couldn’t stop talking with his mouth open, that was a deal breaker.”

Sunny looked at David and shrugged, “His face is a little too flat for me.”

“I’m not sure I’d like someone that big,” Lime admitted.

“Ladies you have no idea what you might be missing out on,” she took another sip of her glass. “You know I think I might just try my luck with Mr. Alien sometime tonight.”

Lime blinked and gave a chuckle, “oh so you want to be the first mare to ride something from out of this world?”

“Oh I so hope it’s out of this world.” Desire laughed as the other two joined in.

“Where’s Fleur?” Desire said looking around. “She’s usually very into this.”

“Where else?” Sunny asked and pointed to Fleur Dis Lee who was with Fancy Pants.

“They are still together?” Lime was surprised by that. “I guess it might be getting serious between those two.”

Desire smirked as she swirled her glass a little, “Well their ‘tastes’ are very similar if you remember their special parties.”

All three mares giggled at that.

Back with David he had been getting to know the ambassadors after his little story on human history. It seemed this world had a lot of diversity to it but so far whenever he asked how far back their written history went it went as far back as the Ponies. This wasn’t helpful as there were so many mysteries to this world that he wanted an answer to.

“I believe it’s time for my sister and I to preform our duties,” Celestia broke in as she and Luna started to walk towards a huge set of glass doors.

“What’s going on?” David asked.

“Oh they’re going to lower the sun and raise the moon,” Twilight told him.

David remembered being told about this but this was something he had to see for himself. “I’ll be right back.”

He quickly left the group as he caught up to the two princesses.

“I take it you wish to watch,” Celestia said with a knowing smile.

“And take readings with his if you don’t mind,” He held up the gloved device on his left hand.

“I don’t see why not,” Luna spoke up. “Although what that device will tell you I’m not sure.”

“I am interested in what your technology has to say myself,” Celestia said.

The three of them went to the doorway as it opened for them as they walked out into a large garden area. David got the scanner on his device ready as he watched the sister take places next to each other. Their horns glowed as suddenly David saw the sun lowering at a rapid pace, the moon wasn’t far behind it either.

Quickly he took a scan of the two of them as he watched it happen in front of him. This shouldn’t be physically possible but then again, this planet had a way of making the impossible happen. He was sure there were going to be a lot of scientist pulling their hair out trying to explain how these two were pretty much going against what all known science said wasn’t possible.

By the end of it the day had gone and night had come just like that.

David looked down at the device and glared at it, like it had personally insulted him in some way.

“Is something wrong?” Luna asked seeing the look on his face.

“My device couldn’t get any decent readings, it was overloaded with information again,” he sighed. If he wanted to get an accurate reading of some of their more powerful abilities it seemed he would have to make it himself or wait until he got back to Earth and they could sent more specialized equipment.

He looked around the garden as he saw the many statues. “Mind if I look around?”

“Of course feel free,” Celestia pointed to a large hedge, “I’d stay out of the hedge maze in case you got lost.”

“Yeah good advice,” He planned to stay in view of the doors so he could get back easily. The place was lit by lamps as the servants went around lighting them either with magic or small candles on very long sticks.

David wanted a little alone time to think on what he just witnessed. He was just trying to wrap his head around it, he didn’t really fully believe it until now but damn, they moved the sun and moon. He walked around the garden as his mind tried to make sense of how that was possible. Moving two celestial objects like that, that fast should have had consequences.

But since his time here he had looked at the readings from Pathfinder and so far the planet wasn’t tearing itself apart. The only thing he could think of was that they were somehow altering the gravity of the sun, moon and planet. The only problem was how in the known universe did you do something like that? If humanity could figure that little trick out it might allow them to develop artificial gravity, one of the things they had been looking for.

It would mean stations and ships that needed gravity wouldn’t have to be designed around having a spinning axis. It could lead into a whole new era of space design.

He stopped as he came to a strange statue, it looked like a Chinese dragon that was put into a blander with a bunch of other animals. It looked to be in a pose like it was warding something off.

“The hell is this supposed to be?” He wondered out loud. He couldn’t think of anything in mythology that looked like that. He took a picture for later research with the glove and saw a plaque under it.

“Let’s see…The Dra…Dragon? No that’s not right..Draq…wow that’s a hard word.” David typed it into the device in his glove but apparently there was no direct translation for it yet. There was something else. “Ghost of-no wait I think that’s spirit. Spirit of Chaos? And the name is…conflict? That’s can’t be right either.”

Speaking the language had gotten easier but reading was a bit trickier at times.

“Oh wait it’s discord, so it’s something I can’t pronounce the Spirit of Chaos, Discord.”

David looked up at the statue and for some reason it was giving him the creeps. There was just something about it that almost made him feel it was watching him somehow.

“Okay I think I’ll go back into the party now, bye creepy statue.” David took a few steps back and walked away and yet he couldn’t get that feeling like something was looking at him. That feeling you get at the back of your neck when you’re alone but feel like you’re not.

Looking back at the statue David decided he was being silly but something deep inside was crawling around under his skin. Something almost primal was itching at him from the deeps of his mind. He shook his head and went back into the party leaving the statue behind in his mind.

David walked back into the large room and noticed that everyone he knew seemed to have split off from each other. He looked around to see any familiar faces to walk towards, thankfully he didn’t have to look far as someone found him first.

[David] Twilight spoke up and quickly meeting up with him. “I saw you leave with the princesses to look at the lowering of the sun and rising of the moon but when you didn’t come back I was starting to get a little worried.”

He only smiled down at her, she really did seem to worry a lot. “What could possibly happen at a party with guards everywhere?”

Twilight paused, “Well, you never know what could happen.”

He only gave a small chuckle as he got next to her. “Well I’m here now, let’s see what the others are up to.”

“Good idea, I think I saw Rarity and Pinkie over there,” Twilight pointed as they started in that direction.

They didn’t get far as David bumped into someone in the crowded room. “Sorry about that.”

The pony turned around as David took a look at her, she was a blue unicorn with red hair that went and covered one eye, she was taller than Twilight with a slimmer build as well. She looked up at him in surprise but then smiled.

“Oh no worries, you know I was actually thinking of a way to talk to you.” She said.

“Oh?” David knew others would want to talk to him and given he was here basically representing his entire species, he should do his best to make a good impression.

“Oh yes,” she held out a hoof as David took it with a polite shake. “I’m Desire, Sultry Desire.”

David was pretty sure she was giving him a look that would have the males of her kind weak in the knees. David had to admit her eyes were very deep and what a name, seriously what kind of parent names you kid that? Then again with all the different ponies he had been meeting and all their names he really shouldn’t be surprised by this point.

“Nice to meet you,” David said politely.

“And it’s very nice to meet you,” She said to him looking up and down with a smile. Then she noticed Twilight standing next to him. “Oh I didn’t know you had a date with you.”

“I-we’re not-he’s not my date!” Twilight said flustered.

“Oh?” Sultry smiled at this as she looked back to David. “Well then maybe we can talk later when you’re alone, I’m sure there are so many interesting things we could learn about each other.”

She walked by him as she dragged her tail against his side as she left. David watched her leave and he was pretty sure she was putting a bit of sway into her hips. The tail thing was a little weird but he was pretty sure she was putting on a show for him.

He honestly wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

“Twilight is there a reason why she did that with her tail?” He wanted to know if something was significant about it.

“Oh uh…well…you know,” Twilight didn’t really want to get into an embarrassing subject as she blushed.

“No I don’t, alien remember?”

“It’s a sign of, well, that somepony is interested in somepony else.” She shifted uncomfortably.

“Interested as in…”

Twilight said something he couldn’t hear.

“I didn’t hear that.”

“Sexual.” She said a bit louder.

“Oh,” So he was right about that mare. Okay so it was a bit flattering but honestly he wasn’t really going to open that can of worms. He really wasn’t going to go all Captain Kirk on this planet either. Yes they were an intelligent species and he had gotten to know them, even made some friends.

But it would take a bit more time to even start to think of them in that kind of way.

“Are you okay with that?” Twilight asked him.

“It’s…different,” He told her shifting bit himself. “Never had an alien make a…well we call it [pass] but I’m not sure what it would be in your language.”

Twilight ran her hoof in a circle looking at her front hooves. “She was really pretty.”

David shrugged, “If you say so, I’m honestly not sure what you think is pretty or ugly in your society I just know what I like.”

“Oh?” Twilight’s ears perked up a bit.

David got a sense that this conversation might go somewhere he wasn’t prepared for yet, she looked a little too hopeful on that response and he thought maybe he should change the subject for now.

“So about Pinkie and Rarity?”

“Oh right!” Twilight had completely forgotten about them as she continued to lead the way.

Next up Chapter 24: The big night Part 2