Pathfinder 5

Chapter 4: Strange Encounter

David Miller was making his way through the woods as he was glad for the sunlight. He really didn’t want to go through here in the dark. His mind kept going back to what just happened and at times he felt like slapping his head at some of it. He had panicked when the...Pegasus for lack of a better term, landed next to him. His plan to remain undetected was now so far out the window he couldn’t even see it anymore.

He sighed as he made his way back to the ship maybe it wasn’t a total loss. She had seemed to have cooled off after giving her the water but when the other one was showing up he didn’t want to push his luck. He also got a nice scan of her and at least it might help him figure out what he was dealing with.

David heard different animals wondering around him but thankfully they were staying away. He also noticed that at least there did seem to be some non-Earth plants, at least they seemed to be. There was a strange patch of blue flowers he wanted to take another look at later along with some other plants. He took some visual images for comparison when he got back to double check before getting any samples.

He really wasn’t sure how to deal with everything so far, all the strange similarities to Earth was pretty unnerving. All the planets he had been on and nothing was this close to Earth, it was a statistical anomaly with how close everything was. The plants, the animals and the local sentient life forms that were something out of mythology, it was all making his head spin.

He was a trained scientist, hell he had a damn doctorate in astrophysics not to mention all the training he did just for the damn program making him a jack of all trades in several fields and all of that was screaming at him that all of this was impossible.

David just wanted to get back to the ship where everything was normal again and just slowly pick apart everything until he could start finding explanations for something. He just got to the clearing when he had to pause as there was something by his ship. Whatever it was had some kind of cloak on looking over his ship.

“I hate my life sometimes,” he muttered trying to figure out what to do. The whole point of picking this forest was because the scans showed that the locals didn’t seem to go into the forest. He pressed up against one of the trees as the camouflage kicked in.

By the ship Zecora slowly walked around it, since last night there had been something odd going on with the forest. It felt like something had sent it out of balance, the animals had been scared and she herself had been woken up by strange lights and sounds. It had taken her time to find it but it looked like she found what she had been looking for.

Ever since she had made her home here she had seen some strange thing but this was far stranger than anything she had seen in her life. It was like some kind of giant metal bird, it was obvious a vehicle of some kind like the trains that ran into Ponyville but it was so much more than a train. She wasn’t all that knowledgeable on technology but just looking at it, it was so much different than anything she had seen.

You didn’t need to be a scholar of technology to know things, all you needed to do was just open your eyes and just see the world instead of looking. What she saw was that the craftsmanship went above and beyond anything she figured could be used on this world. There were letters that were unfamiliar to her, a ramp to a closed door, strange glass up front where someone would use to look out of when moving. From the all of this and the shape she could tell it flew, how she had no idea but there was more to this craft than what she could see.

Zecora was about to try knocking on the door when she felt something, something was watching her.

When you lived in a dangerous forest like this you learned to have eyes in the back of your head, to feel the world around you and what was in it. She felt the presence near but she didn’t feel anything dangerous. There was no bloodlust or malevolent intent coming from it so she started to calmly turn around.

She looked but she couldn’t see anything but something was there.

“Please come out I mean you no harm, there is no need to be alarmed.” She gently called out to the forest.

David wasn’t sure how but this creature knew he was there although it wasn’t looking right at him it was looking in his direction. Again it spoke in that strange language although it felt different for some reason. There was a strange cadence to the words that he couldn’t put his finger on.

It sat down in front of his ship and David got the feeling it was going to wait him out.

“Fuck it...maybe I can get this right this time around.” He slowly walked out of the forest letting the camouflage melt away. He calmly walked out holding up his hands slightly up showing there was nothing in them or that he was threatening.

Zecora’s eyes widened at the creature walking out, it seemed to melt out of the forest in a way she had never seen before even among the shamans who could hide in the world with their spells. It was tall, if she had to guess her face would come up to its chest. It reminded her of a Minotaur in stature but the legs were all wrong. It was wearing something, like a full body clothing of some kind, even the face was obscure.

“Now that is something new, just what are you?” She asked him.

It said something in a language she didn’t understand as she frowned. “So a common tongue we do not share and that language seems quite rare.”

Zecora stood up as she flipped back her hood, “Zecora is my name, may you do the same?”

David paused as he felt his brain nearly shut down at the sight in front of him. It was a damn zebra, it was a damn zebra with a Mohawk, a damn zebra with a Mohawk and wearing jewelry.

“That’s it, I’m done, nope, no more!” He ran his hand over his face. He wondered if this was how insanity felt like, because it felt like the ground was trying to swallow him whole.

It was speaking again and pointed to itself and then to him. She was saying one word over and over again. He focused on that because honestly he wasn’t sure he could handle anything else at the moment.

He pointed at her, “Ze-kor-ah?”

It nodded her head and he realized it was giving its name up. He placed his hand on his chest, “David.”

“Day-vid?” It asked and he nodded his head.

He watched as the Zebra creature took a long stick it had, it looked like something out of some kind of shaman tribal thing with its design as the creature used it to start drawing. He had to pause at how she was holding the long stick it was holding it with a hoof like he would an object. He couldn’t figure out how that was working, its hoof curled around a bit that he knew normal horse like animals on Earth didn’t have a joint there.

David cocked his head as he watched what looked like houses and then a forest. Then there was a house in the forest with crud drawings of the life forms from the village in the village and what looked like itself in the forest with the house in it.

The zebra pointed to itself and then to the drawing of itself, then circled the entire forest. Then it pointed to him and then to the dirt.

“Are you asking me where I’m from?” He wasn’t sure but he felt that’s what this ‘Zecora’ was asking him. Although he wasn’t sure how at first to tell it that he was from another world. “Well, let’s try and see if this works.”

Zecora watched as he made a circle with his slender appendages. The creature then made the same images she had of the ponies and herself on the large circle. Then it made dots and a crescent moon, she finally understood that it was the world surrounded by the night sky but why was the night sky being shown? This ‘Day-vid’ creature then made a stick figure that had to be it but then something happened she wasn’t expecting.

He circled one of the stars and pointed to it.

For a moment she stood there as she was hoping she understood him correctly because if she was, he said he came from one of the stars in the night sky.

“Among my people there is only one thing you could be,” She looked at him remembering the old stories and legends. “One of the Sky people you must be.”

Her people had legends of those that lived in the sky they were the oldest stories her people had. To stand among one, to be honest she wasn’t sure she could explain how she felt. How would you feel to stand face to face among something that was only just myth, she wished she could figure out a way around this language barrier. An idea did come to kind of just the pony that might be able to help with that.

-Golden Oaks Library-

Twilight looked at the objects on the table in front of her, when Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy came in with the objects and Dash’s story she honestly wasn’t sure what to believe. Looking over the objects however revealed some strange things to her.

The metal for the canister of water was some kind of aluminum but it was a higher grade than what you could find in any store. Using her magic to scan the items she found a purity level for the metal that was beyond anything you could get outside of very expensive shops. Not only that but it was extremely well crafted you couldn’t see any seams in it, like it was poured instead of forged.

That alone was boggling to her mind, you could make something like this with magic but that was the thing. When you made something with magic there was a residue of that magic left but there was none in any of the items. Not just nothing but zero, everything on this world had some kind of magic saturation to it but these items, it was like they were made in a zero-magic environment.

That just wasn’t possible!

The canister that had held the gas was another odd thing, she didn’t recognize the metal used in it. It wasn’t steel but it was strong maybe even stronger. That and the markings on it were so strange, she had copied them all down on a both a sheet of paper and another with diagrams of the object in as much detail as she could.

The wrapper was another problem she had no idea what it was made of. The inside was shiny and reflective and but whatever it was she had never seen or heard of a material like this before.

It was all so fascinating.

“So...you got any ideas yet or what?” A very bored Rainbow Dash asked from her position on the floor. She was just lying down trying to pass the time, she thought about reading a Daring Do book in the meantime but she just didn’t feel like it. She read them all multiples times anyway and the new one was at least a year away.

“I have no idea,” Twilight admitted but then smiled. “But I intend to find out all this is just so fascinating. You said this creature was upright on two legs?”

“For the twentieth time yes,” Dash groaned.

“I’m sorry but the only thing that matches that is a Minotaur.” Twilight had looked through all the books she had on creatures of the world and nothing really fit.

“It didn’t have the same hoof prints as one,” Fluttershy spoke up as she had been quietly looking through a book herself. “I saw the print left behind and it wasn’t shaped like it, but I do think that what Rainbow saw for the upper body was right.”

“Yes what did you call them again?” Dash asked as she hadn’t seen this Iron Will fellow or had seen Fluttershy’s reaction to his ‘motivation’. She had been away in Cloudsdale visiting her folks and sending in a report for Ponyville’s weather needs for the season. Although from what she had heard, she was kind of sorry she had missed ‘New Fluttershy’, if only because she couldn’t believe the stories Rarity and Pinkie told.

“Arms, hands and fingers,” Spike said holding up a book on Minotaurs with a picture showing them.

“Yeah like that only I think it has one more of those finger things on it,” Rainbow looked at the diagram of a hand and it certainly looked like what she had seen but like she said, she was pretty sure there were five in total and not four.

“Plus no horns, it wasn’t as bulky up top, the legs were different and the face was a lot flatter,” she put in.

“Yes and this makes it all so exciting,” Twilight smiled brightly at this. “This could either be something super rare species or maybe one that has been undiscovered until this moment. Think of all of what we could learn!”

“If we can get it to talk right,” Dash sighed. “I couldn’t understand a word it was saying.”

Twilight had to think about that, “Most species share a common tongue I do know that there were translation spells but the problem with those is that you have to have a general understanding of the language for it to work.”

The whole point of the translation spell was so that someone that knew the language could share that with others, usually traders to help with negotiations since you didn’t have to go through just one individual.

Before anyone else could say anything the door the library opened up as a pink blur ran in and stopped right in front of Twilight.

“Twilight have you see the new pony?” Pinkie Pie asked quickly.

“T-that what?” Twilight was taken aback by her friend’s sudden appearance and odd question.

“There’s a new pony in town and I’ve been looking for him or her but no pony seems to have seen the new pony,” Pinkie sighed. “How can I make a welcome to Ponyville party without the new pony?”

“How did you know there’s a new pony in town?” Rainbow asked her.

“Oh that’s easy, my Pinkie Sense told me. I was just walking in town when I felt it kick in, actually it was a strange combo but I’m pretty sure part of it was about a new pony.”

“Wait it was a combo?” Twilight had learned her lesson from trying to explain the Pinkie Sense and instead just cataloged all the different senses that Pinkie had.

“Uh-huh I only ever felt like this once before when Gilda showed up that time,” Pinkie didn’t noticed the slight scowl on Rainbow’s face at the mention of that. “I didn’t know what it meant but maybe I have a Pinkie Sense for a new species I haven’t met before.”

Pinkie noticed how everyone else in the room was looking at each other suddenly.

“What? Something I said?” Pinkie asked.

“Rainbow kind of ran into something earlier today and we don’t know what it is,” Twilight told her.

Pinkie got excited by that, “Ohhhh, do you think it likes parties?”

“Perhaps I could shed some light on the subject, that is if you don’t me borrowing your intellect.”

They all looked to see Zecora by the door, Twilight was always happy to see their friend given she stayed so long in the Everfree.

“Of course please come in,” Twilight offered. “So you said you might be able to help?”

“Yes indeed for you see the stranger I did see.”

“You met that thing?” Dash asked getting excited that finally someone else had finally seen it.

Zecora recounted how she had been searching the forest and why, looking for what had disturbed it. She explained the limited communications she was able to establish, the craft it apparently went into after their ‘talk’ and of course where this being came from.

“Sky People?” Twilight had never heard of that term but there was a lot of Zebra culture that wasn’t written down as a lot of it was passed down orally.

“That is true, legends my tribe have must be a clue. From the stars he did claim of that if so long distances it must have overcame.”

“A-are you saying we have an alien in Equestria?” Spike’s eyes widened as all those comics he read about aliens came coming back to him.

“It can’t be an alien...right?” Twilight asked looking around for help on that. If this was an actual alien then, well her mind raced with all kinds of things. Although it would be amazing if it was, that was all science fiction...wasn’t it?

“Big metal spaceship,” Spike started to count off with his claws. “Strange unknown creature, talks in a way nopony can understand, weird metal objects with alien-like writing on them...”

“Oh my gosh, I just met an alien!” Rainbow shouted out. “I’m the first to meet an actual alien!”

“Didn’t you say you tried to dive bomb him?” Fluttershy put in.

That took the wind out of Dash’s sails that she had actually attacked an alien. What if it got mad or came back with disintegrators looking for revenge? What if she had just started a war?! She was about to start panicking when she remembered the water offering and maybe things weren’t as bad.

“Well I think we’re cool...maybe...probably?” Dash asked not feeling extremely confident about that.

“Oh I can’t wait to meet the alien!” Pinkie jumped up. “I get to have a welcome to Equestria party, a welcoming first alien party and welcome to Ponyville party all in one!”

“Zecora do you think you can take us to the ship?” Twilight asked her as she wanted to see firsthoofed what this ‘giant metal bird’ looked like.

“Yes but night is coming, the Everfree is no place to go walking.” She warned them.

“She’s right,” Fluttershy said. “The Everfree is a lot more active at night Twilight and there are more predators active. It’s a lot more dangerous to travel through it.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, “We already have traveled through the Everfree at night.”

“Yes and we were lucky, the first time maybe Nightmare Moon had pushed aside all the really dangerous things out of the way.

Twilight remembered her own encounter with a cockatrice, who knows how long she would have been stuck in stone before anypony had found her made her shiver slightly at the memory. Thankfully she didn’t remember actually being stone but still, nearly a full day had gone by for her in the blink of an eye for her.

Looking out her window it was getting late and finding their way would be easier in the morning plus she wanted to get the other girls together for this.

“Okay we’ll leave in the morning then, Zecora we’ll meet you at Fluttershy’s place okay?”

With that all agreed upon, Twilight asked for Pinkie and Dash to inform Rarity and Applejack as well if they wanted to come but to keep it quiet. The last thing she needed was to spook the town with talk of aliens among them.

-Canterlot-

When night had fallen Luna was ecstatic, she was at the royal observatory with her sister and the royal astronomer. She hadn’t met the pony yet but when she did she had a surprise, the blue unicorn that was in charge was none other than Night Light, the father of Twilight Sparkle. Luna wished she had known sooner but she had been catching up on everything she had missed out on, learning to talk with a normal tone and adjusting to her role as co-ruler.

In short, she had been a very busy mare since her return and hadn’t had much in the way of free time.

The observatory was located near the castle high up to avoid any light from the city below. The large dome had been constructed apparently fifty years ago and Luna wished she could have seen its construction. The place was as modern as you would expect as Night Light came out to greet the rulers and his in-laws.

“Your highnesses, welcome.” Night Light said with a bow.

“Please you don’t have to do that anymore with us,” Celestia smiled at him. “We are family now with your son married to my niece.”

“Oh right, sorry, force of habit.” He scratched the back of his head slightly embarrassed. It was something he and his wife had trouble coming to terms that they were now related by married to the two Princesses. Not to mention adjusting to having a daughter in law who was princess of an empire. Then there was Twilight and her role she had been doing lately.

Night Light turned to Luna, “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you came last night.”

“It is alright,” Luna waved it off. “One of your assistants said you were out with your wife.”

“Yes she’s been having some empty nest syndrome with both our children no longer in the capital and I wanted to take her out for a special night for the two of us.” He explained. It was true that his wife Twilight Velvet had been feeling a little empty not being able to see her children at any moment while they had all lived in Canterlot.

So he figured taking her out for a nice little romantic date would help her out of her funk, it seemed to work as she was feeling more upbeat.

“Well that’s very sweet of you,” Celestia liked to know that Twilight’s father hadn’t lost his romantic side of things even after all the years married.

Night Light coughed feeling his face warm up a bit, “I believe Princess Luna had a new star to show us.”

“Yes indeed,” Luna walked up to the open area with the others following her. “I found it last night right...there?”

She paused looking at the spot she had seen the new star but it wasn’t there anymore. That didn’t make any sense to her stars didn’t just show up and vanish like that. Sure they moved but they moved extremely slowly with the seasons and they all moved not just one.

“I-it was right there,” Luna pointed to the spot.

Celestia and Night Light looked but didn’t see anything, Celestia looked to her younger sister. “Are you sur-.” She didn’t get to finish that with the glare Luna was sending her.

“My apologies if any pony knew where it was it would be you.” Celestia forgot for a split second that this was Luna she was talking to she knew the night better any individual on the planet. “Still that is very odd it’s not there.”

“Yes I don’t see-wait! There it is!” She had seen it by the left of the moon last time but now it was to the right side of the moon. She was certain of this, it was the same intensity and there hadn’t been a star that bright in that area before now. “I...it moved!”

“Moved your highness?” Night Light asked looking at the star as he used his magic to pull out a saddle back his star charts. He found the right one as he looked at them and the night sky.

“I am sure of it,” Luna insisted.

Night Light checked a few times and that star wasn’t in any of the official documents. “It is a new star perhaps we should take a closer look at it?”

“An excellent idea,” Celestia told him as they three went back inside. She watched the pony give a few orders to the assistants as they helped to move the large telescope in the room to the correct spot. The massive structured turned as the telescope was adjusted to the right pitch. Ponies moved massive wheels that were connected to various gears as the sounds of them all working together filled the structure.

Finally it was set as Night Light went to the telescope to view through the small lens. He adjusted a few knobs on the side to get it in focus. With this powerful telescope you could make out creators in the moon. He remembered how sometimes Celestia had used it on the moon for hours on end some nights. It wasn’t hard to figure out why now looking back on it.

There, he saw something. He called out a few adjustments to the device as assistants went to work. He ordered a stop when it was dead center. He paused by what he saw, he actually pulled back.

He looked to one of the Pegasus assistants, “You there, I need you to go up there and see if there is anything on the lens for me.”

“Yes sir,” the stallion few up and soon reported that nothing was wrong.

Night Light went back to what he saw as he brought it into more focus and when he did he felt his breath catch in his throat. What he saw in the night’s sky made his blood run cold because what was up there wasn’t something he ever expected to see.

“Night Light what is the problem?” Celestia asked seeing the pony go pale. He looked at her with a shocked expression as he tried to say something but couldn’t find the words.

“May I?” Luna asked him as he nodded quickly and got out of the way. Luna took one look and gasped before jumping back. “Sister!”

Celestia was worried now as she took a look as her eyes widened, there was something up there. She could see that it was metallic and long with a cylinder body with a lot of reflective material. She wasn’t sure what they were for but the only thing she knew was that object was not of their world. Celestia pulled her head back and looked around her.

“Everypony I need your attention,” Celestia didn’t ask but commanded, she was in full ruler mode now as everyone in the room could feel the shift.

“From now on no other pony is allowed in this facility other than those here tonight,” she began. “You are all under royal order sworn to secrecy, you will tell no pony of what is going on. There will be guards placed at the entrance but you are free to come and go but you are not to talk about anything inside these walls outside of it until further notice.”

She looked to Night Light, “You are now to research this...object for as long as you can see it.”

“W-what will we tell the others?” Night Light knew that there were others that worked here and various ponies did show up like relatives and friends. They even had school children on field trips come in but thankfully there weren’t any planned until next month. “Plus won’t the guards be kind of suspicious?”

“They are here to ensure that the current upgrading to the facility goes well,” Luna stepped in seeing the confused looks on everyone that worked here. “That is the story you will tell if anypony asks what’s going on and that’s all.”

Celestia nodded her head it would be a good cover story at least for now, perhaps she could arrange some building materials to be brought to the front of the building in the morning to help sell the idea. “Night Light, we’ll have reports on everything you can give us starting tomorrow.”

“Yes your majesty,” Night Light bowed slightly as he sighed. He guessed he was going to be busy these nights, he hoped his wife didn’t mind him not being around much in the mornings.

The two sisters left the observatory and they couldn’t help but steal looks at the ‘star’ in the sky.

“How long can we keep this quiet?” Luna whispered to her as they were in the halls of the castle.

“I’m not sure but we need time to figure things out.” Celestia thought of the implications this could cause. Was what was up there hostile, was it peaceful or was it just curious and it would leave? They had no way of knowing at this point and without any kind of answers the public could panic.

“There are other observatories in the world,” Luna reminded her sister. “We’ll have to keep watch on those in our kingdom but it’s those outside of our kingdom I worry about.”

“True...” Celestia felt a headache coming on if one of the other realms found out about this. They would have to send a messenger to Cadence and Shining Armor in the Crystal Empire at least. The Diamond Dogs stayed underground so they weren’t an issue. Dragons didn’t bother with things like telescopes and the Changelings hadn’t been seen since their failed invasion.

The most she might have to worry about were Saddle Arabia, the Minotaur Republic, the Zebra Tribes had one in their capital city that might be able to see it as well. The Griffons might have one as well if they were still using it, as that kingdom had fallen on hard times lately.

They were silent as they made their way deeper into the castle seeing a few guards here and there on night duty. Both of them had their minds full of questions but there was one thing they both were thinking about. One of the biggest questions in the entire world had just been answered. The question of “are we alone in the universe?” had just been answered and neither of them knew where this answer would take them or their world.

Pathfinder Personal Log Entry
Log ID: Planet 423-D
Log Entry: 2

Well things didn’t go quite as planned today, I already am finishing up the report so far for today and I just know someone back on Earth is going to tan my hide for what happened. Not exactly the best first contact scenario but I think I was able to save some of it.

Okay I’ve already going through all the video and recordings so far, putting them into different categories for now. The plants and animals are going into their own folder because at the moment I really don’t want to open that can of worms. For some reason there are animal and plants here that are found on Earth and I don’t mean they look the same. Well yeah they do look the same but the looks are way too close for comfort. I’m going to have to get more detailed scans later if I can maybe get some DNA samples from the wildlife.

Anyways the really weird thing or at least one of them is the scan of the female Pegasus. I’ve been digging through it with the help of the computer and it just seems I got more questions than answers. The DNA is very similar to equine life found on Earth but it’s also different, hence the wings of course. Even with the quantum computer going at it, it’s taking time to go through all the data so I’ll update as I go.

Originally I thought that her bones had to be pretty tough (see video marked Crash) and you’ll see why. Turns out her bones are just the same as mine how she was able to just walk off a crash like that I have no idea. Not only that, but AVI said that her wingspan shouldn’t support her size but trust me it does.

The Zebra named Ze-kor-ah (I know I spelled that wrong I’ll fix it later if I remember and can figure out how it’s spelled in their own language) seemed pretty helpful. I think I might have made peaceful contact with at least one of the locals now although why this one is living alone does make me wonder.

It’s the only Zebra type I’ve seen so far, are the others in the town shunning it? If so why? I really hope I didn’t land into some kind of alien race war or something.

At any rate the Pegasus I’ve named simply Blue for now until I get her name at some point.

I tell you when I found life this isn’t what I thought would happen, okay I’m not sure what would happen but so far all of this wasn’t even close to any of the thoughts I had. Still there is some kind of mystery to this world and I’m going to find it.

I think I need to get some sleep I’ve been going on through all the data since I got back. Worked through the entire night and I think I see the sun coming up. I just wanted to get these thoughts down before I forget them. I’ll turn in for a few hours and try and adapt to the day/night cycle of this world.

End of Log

Next up Chapter 5: Gone to see the Alien

Author's Note

I just want to say that although I like Zecora writing her is a major pain I think I see why the writers don't use her as often. Again if you like what you saw please leave a like and/or comment with the story and if you got any questions don't be afraid to ask.

Also I hope no one minds what I did with Twilight's father, it's never said what he does and I figured with his name and mark this kind of made sense for him.