The Odysseus Detailby tyrantOFathensChapters1: The Conference Let's Go On an Adventure!Mountain Skirmish4: Of Cliffs and VolleyballCan We Go Home Now?1: The Conference Author's Note Hey all you party people, I am moving this over from Fanfiction.net, so it will take a while to get caught up. please let me know how I am doing, and what I can fix! 1: The Conference The court room was in chaos. Dozens of leaders from all over the world, and some that were not, were all raising their voices over each other. Celestia sat, the only one except her sister to be silent. Discord was arguing with a human, a gryphon, and a Starglom. Strange creatures, those Starglom's, made of pure fire, born from the collisions of stars. They had shown themselves to be ready allies though, especially in the face of the newest threat. The cause of this mass assembly, was a new race, the Telipren. Far beyond the reaches of any space dwelling peoples they came, bringing destruction wherever they went. It was under this threat that many different species now allied together. Ponies, dragons, gryphon's, other equines, humans, Starglom's, Nebulastii (another odd but strong race), along with a handful of others, who were less strong, but more numerous. The bickering and arguing finally made Celestia sigh. She offered to host the meeting, so she decided as the hostess, she should redirect the conversation. With a little pushing and shoving, if need be. "ENOUGH!" Her royal canterlot voice shook the tables, and startled more than a few of the visitors. With order somewhat retained, Celestia continued in her normal voice. "I was not aware I would be having to chaperone a bunch of school children, I was dearly hoping for some shred of maturity and mutual respect between all of the races represented here. So if you are all done yelling, I would like to move on in a more civilized manner. Any objections?" No one moved, except Discord, who slowly raised his hand. "No, Discord, you can't make it rain Chocolate Milk!" Celestia said sternly. Discord slowly brought his hand back down. "Ok, thank you. Now, if everyone will please make room, I would like to bring your attention to something that is not going to be very moralizing or uplifting." Celestia cast a small spell at the center of the room, which sprouted into a map of the explored universe. "This is the last planet of neutral beings." A planet was highlighted a bright yellow. "This is the last neutral planet as of three days ago." The map shimmered, and where there was once a yellow planet, was now a blank spot on the map. A few murmurs went around the room. "This is the current position of the Telepren." A red streak showed up on the map, slowly moving. "As you can see, it is rather large, the last fleet to go up against it could have bested any one of ours. And it was destroyed within minutes. And so I urge you to stop bickering like boys in a toy store and help one another plan out a strategy for the defense of all we know." Celestia watched with rising dread as the representatives from all the races shrugged and stared at one another. The representative from the humans, General Maltius, spoke up first. "Well, if every race here joined their whole armadas', it would be roughly about the same size as their own, correct?" A few nods answered him. "Well then I propose one of the most basic and unfailing strategies in the book. The hammer and anvil." A few different reactions were heard among the assembly. "They are so arrogant, they think that it would take an elaborate and complicated plan to defeat them. So we give them what they are not expecting. Now, which race here has the sturdiest warships?" The human general asked. A Nebulasti admiral spoke up. "If I may boast, our ships have been designed to pass through the hottest stars known to all kind. If that is not sturdy then I am a duck." A few chuckles ran around the room. Another representative spoke up. "While Carthinian ships cannot pass through stars, they are certainly able to hold their own from a defensive point. We do not have many guns though." A few nods followed the statement. General Maltius spoke up again. "See? So we can present a wall of Nebulastii and Carthin ships, with small, long range vessels to provide support, while another, greater part of the fleet surprises the enemy rear. Then we keep a small reserve, so when we begin to push in, we can send the reserve through any holes created in the wall, providing two offensive sides. Any objections?" One by one, all of the representatives agreed. But a new voice entered the scene. "If I may, I think we will need some more help if we are to win here. I propose a more dedicated search for Odysseus." A small, seconds long stretch of silence was broken by nearly all of the representatives shouting and yelling at once. "disappeared long before I was born-" "hasn't been seen in ages-" "didn't he die-" "where would he be if he was alive-" The room died down into silence once more as Celestia cleared her throat. She looked at the dragon responsible for the sudden outbreak, graciously accepting to be shrunk to more easily fit into the room. "Do explain, Master Dragon." Celestia gave him the floor to speak again. "Well, this is a fine strategy, but we all know the only reason half of our species are still here is because of Odysseus. Yes he was a dragon, yes he was named after a Greek hero, yes he has been missing for a very long time, but he single handedly took on the fleet that threatened the world ages ago. We cannot simply bypass this chance to seek him out." A bipedal Lion voiced his thoughts next. "Where would we search? How many resources must be spent? How long do we have before we must admit it is a lost cause? Tell me this and I will offer what assistance I can." The dragon shrugged. "Those things can only be guessed. But we should search wherever we can, with whatever resources can be spared." The separate representatives fell to murmuring amongst themselves again. "I implore you to think about this option, if I cannot gain the council's help, I will do it with what I personally have at my disposal. That is all I wished to say on the matter." In the few days that followed, it was agreed that the Hammer and Anvil tactic should be instituted, and messages were sent to all available fleets to regroup and assemble above Delta-Atari 9, an un inhabited moon that held a large space installation in orbit. The next issue to be resolved was the search for Odysseus. While only half of the present council supported the notion that said mission would be successful, it gave them a little more hope to know such a possibility existed, so the search was approved. The dragon that offered the notion summoned his own son, Artekæ, to accompany the expedition. Celestia wrote a letter to Twilight, asking her to join, to which a speedy acceptance was replied. General Maltius also asked his son to go, and with him came a young captain, who would provide transport if the occasion arose. Along with them a Bipedal leopard named Ornlisco, a Starglom named Flash(his parents were big fans of the comics), and a Nebulastii by the name of Jostian who had astounding training in the medical field also joined. And so the search for Odysseus was started, aboard the ironically named Argo. Twilight hopped from hoof to hoof, standing outside the U.F.E. Argo, waiting for the others to arrive. She was nervous, she had only been in space one other time, and most of her experiences with dragons other than Spike were not very welcoming. A sudden gust of wind ruffled her feathers and caused her mane to go crazy. She looked up and saw a dragon bracing against the wind to land. To her surprise the dragon landed almost silently, and laughed a little when he had to pull his tail in to keep it from getting in the way of hangar personnel. Then, Twilight grew doubly impressed, as the dragon began to shrink, slowly but surely condensing. He stopped when he was only about two or three times the size of Twilight, instead of fifteen or sixteen. "That was amazing! I wasn't aware dragons were capable of altering their body structure to resize themselves." The dragon gave her a toothy smile. "It is something we don't usually get the chance of discussing, for various reasons. Whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?" Twilight stepped forward a bit and offered her hoof. "Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. And what is your name?" The dragon gently shook her hoof, careful of his claws the whole time. "Artekæ, unfortunately, I am not a prince, but I can make a mean fajita." Twilight stopped short. "Artekæ? THE Artekæ? The Artekæ who wrote on the theory of magnetic disruption in flight patterns?" The dragon gave a dramatic bow. "The very same." Twilight gave a rather un-princess like squeal and and clapping her front hooves together. "We have so much to talk about on this trip! Oh, this is so great! I have been dying to meet you and discus your whole paper!" Artekæ took a small step back, worried at the sudden change in character, when he noticed the Nebulastii and Starglom walk up, with a leopard in tow. Jostian, Flash, and Ornlisco got introductions out of the way, before the group lapsed into silence. "Where are those two Humans? They should have been here before any of us." Ornlisco growled in a soft voice. On cue, a tall, brown haired human came running from the loading bay, not pausing to introduce himself, yelling, "we're going to be late for tea!" As he ran up onto the Argo. "That solves one issue. I guess we should follow." Flash resolved, taking lead of the group and walking aboard after the human. They found their charge about to press the open button on the door to the bridge. He saw them and put a finger to his mouth, and the group fell silent. He opened the door, and strode in quietly. "Ok ladies, we've been cleared to get this bird out of the nest. Get the engines prepped, and make sure you get everything secure this time people, we don't want another Jell-O incident." A young woman was shouting orders on the main deck of the bridge, unaware of the new arrivals. The man crept closer, standing up straight right behind her. "BOO!" The woman jumped, and screamed, before punching the man in the arm, and launched into a stream of curses that made most people on the bridge raise an eyebrow. Twilight was glad Spike wasn't here. "Ugh, you idiot! For the last time stop doing that!" The woman screamed. The man just laughed, and spread one arm to the assembled group. "Is this the way you act in front of guests? I'm embarrassed to be associated with such behavior!" The woman's face paled, as she looked at the small group standing behind them on the bridge. "Oh, I'm sorry everyone, heh, ahh... So, I am Captain Andrea, welcome aboard the Argo!" Once Captain Andrea had gotten the ship into orbit, and out of the way of interplanetary traffic, the party sat around in a conference room, deciding where to go next. "So, we know that Odysseus is no where on Equiz, nor our planet's moon, nor the next two closest planets, Earth and Galatyr, so the next closest would be Great Havana, here." Twilight explained, pointing to various planets. "The only problem with that, is Great Havana is almost solely a Human populated planet, and any search will most likely prove no traces of dragon." Everyone nodded affirmative. "So, the small question here, is spend the time scanning, or move on to a more probable area?" Everyone lapsed into silence. Jostian began floating, while Ornlisco continuously checked his claws. Flash opened up a flame resistant comic. Captain Andrea was looking at the map, but everyone could tell she had fallen asleep with her eyes open. No one knew how though. The man, Jorayn, was cleaning and reassembling a small firearm. Artekæ was reading over Flash's shoulder, and Twilight was still going over the pros and cons in her head. They weren't the most decisive group, that's for sure. Let's Go On an Adventure!Author's Note Ok, so this chapter will be a bit redundant due to the way my mind wanted to relay this scene. You will start to see some characters personalities jump around, it was supposed to be random, so yeah. Thanks for reading and let me know how I am doing! The next chapter will be put up tomorrow, so once i get caught up to chapter 4 i will start posting new stuff. The overall feel of the story will start to get more serious as it goes on, just a heads up. Let's Go On an Adventure! The Argo streaked past Great Havana, Twilight having made the decision to move on, and zoomed off into space. At their current speed, it would take them about two hours to reach their destination, a small moon with few sentient life forms. Andrea was at the helm, overlooking the bridge, Twilight was taking a nap, Artekæ was in a specially made chamber where he could grow to his normal size and stretch, Ornlisco was dominating a ping-pong tournament held by the crew, with Jostian and Flash holding a card game for the losers. They had a pretty full table when the overcomm sounded. "20 minutes until destination. 20 minutes." Ornlisco glared at his opponent, it was the final, him and a junior officer. "Whoever has the most at fifteen minutes wins?" The junior officer nodded, and presumed his ready stance. Ornlisco growled, and served. The record books say their battle was glorious to behold, but in the end Ornlisco lost by a single point. "Alright ladies, get a few landing craft prepared, we're sending people planet-side." An officer at one of the controls raises his hand after Andrea had finished speaking. "Don't you mean moon-side?" A woman next to him whacked him upside the head. "The captain said what she meant, don't ask questions!" Andrea beamed at the girl, before heading down to the hangar herself. She met up with the rest of the party, before noticing something that put everyone on alert when voiced. "Where is Jorayn? Has anyone seen him lately?" Everyone shook their head, and looked around nervously. "I'm up here! Don't worry, I have everything under control!" Everyone looked up to see Jorayn hanging by his fingers from the ceiling of the hanger, a bag held between his legs. "What are you doing up there?" Andrea asked, a little angry. "Well, you see, I was minding my own business, when I heard something about a pineapple being smuggled aboard, and as we all know, pineapple are not in space regulation food supply, so I decided to investigate. I found not only one pineapple, but three, five grapefruits, ten pomegranates, and a few Kiwi. I don't want to go into detail of how I got up here, so let's just leave that to your imagination, shall we?" Everyone stared at Jorayn, who stared back. No one moved, until Jorayn was enveloped in a purple glow. "Wha- hey, not cool, tell me before you use magic like that!" Jorayn yelled at Twilight as she floated him down from the ceiling. Andrea punched his arm again. "Ow! What's with you and punching me! Now, shall we go exploring? We have a whole moon to cover lads!" Jorayn marched dutifully towards the loading ramp of one of the landing craft, but he was stopped by a clawed hand grabbing his collar. "Now wait just a moment, I think our captain here has some more to say." Everyone looked expectantly at Andrea, who shrugged and pointed to Twilight. "Oh! That! Right. So, Andrea and I were talking about how to best search the planet, and we decided it would be best to split up. Each of us will lead a team of, say, ten, and cover a sector of the planet. I have taken the liberty of dividing up the planet into sectors, and your teams are already assembled. They will be coming with us, whether we split up or not. Any po- ahem, anyone not agree? No? Ok, as you can see, I also painted an easily identifiable emblem on each craft, your teams are already waiting! Good luck everyone!" Twilight walked off, happy as could be, leaving the rest behind. "Does she normally do this?" Flash asked aloud. Artekæ shrugged. "She's a princess, I assume it's normal." Artekæ turned and shuffled towards the largest craft, a crimson dragon head painted on the side made him smile a little, and he stepped aboard. All eyes snapped to him, and everyone saluted. All of them we capable of flight, Artekæ noticed, in some form or another. "At ease." The team dropped their arms, still looking expectantly. He could get used to this... Jostian walked/floated onto his ship, his gaseous looking form shifting nervously, and was startled when the team assigned to him snapped to attention, and saluted. "Uh... At ease, gentlemen, and lady, that is the right word, correct?" The closest person gave a short nod. "Ok, good. I don't know much military speak. I'm a doctor for crying out loud." Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was rather impressed, especially with the eagle of stars that had become his emblem. Jorayn vaulted into his craft, not taking the time to admire his emblem, and immediately began shouting orders. "Ok, listen up, you three, will cover left, you three, cover right. You, you can fly, watch the skies for me. The rest of you, center with me. Let's make this smooth and quick gentleman, I want to be back before dinner." Still standing at attention, all ten of his team shouted in unison. "SIR YES SIR!" Ornlisco stepped aboard his ship silently, not alerting anyone of his team to his presence. He stopped short when he heard two talking ping-pong stats. They were both great cats. "Ornlisco could totally school him! Don't you know who he is?" Ornlisco walked up behind the cat defending him. Opposite him stood a stunningly beautiful she-cat. Her eyes flickered to Ornlisco, and she adopted a mischievous grin. "I know of him. Your reputation precedes you." Ornlisco laughed. "As does yours." Nine out of the ten team members present jumped at the sudden appearance of their commanding officer. Flash walked past his emblem, snorting at the Supernova, and mentally prepared himself to meet his crew. "Hi everyo-" Ten Starglom's looked his way. "My people!" Flash exclaimed and began giving everyone hugs. Andrea nodded approvingly at her symbol, a red fist, and stepped aboard, greeting each of her commandos like old friends. In a way they were, having served years together, they were more like family to her. She hoped for one more smooth trip. Twilight glanced over her cutie mark painted on her ship, and checked it off her clipboard. She stepped aboard and gave the at ease to her team, and checked off another box. "Ok next is... Oh! Hello everyone, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and you are all here because you showed a particular trait that corresponds with my friends, the elements of harmony. Any questions?" Ten hands shot up into the air, and Twilight face palmed with her clipboard. She began answering all of their questions on the way down to the moon below, and asked a few of her own, before they hit the surface. The loading ramp hissed open, and a world unlike any Twilight had seem greeted them. Mountain SkirmishTwilight looked over her team once more, two unicorns, three humans, a Tiger that looked at home in their current position, a Nebulastii, a gryphon, and two eager looking Starglom's. They walked down the ramp, into the lush world ahead of them, holding things that would have impressed Princess Celestia herself. Huge trees reaching almost a mile into the sky, their trunks so huge that even Artekæ wouldn't be able to fit around them in his normal form. Sounds of animals reached her ears, birds most likely. Before Twilight had taken more than a few steps, she began to feel how humid it was. Twilight almost completely forgot about the search for Odysseus at this point, going into full research mode. She opened up a report log, and began filing away information. "Ok, stay together, no telling how long we could be lost in this jungle if we got turned around. Let's move!" Jorayn looked around the clearing they had landed in, the trees were a lot thinner, most of the heavy jungle up to the north. Instead, he got to go rolling in thick shrubs and brush, wide ferns, and a lot of nasty looking thorn bushes. They seemed to have some sort of fruit though, so that might be worth looking into before they left. True to his past orders, the team split up, far enough to cover ground, but close enough to help each other if needed. Their sole gryphon flew up above, watching all three groups move. It was about an hour into their search when something interesting turned up. "Captain, sir! Over here!" The group to the right was signaling, hopefully it was a ice cream shop. Jorayn called out to the left group, before making his way towards the right. When he stopped by the three men, he froze. "Sir... What do you make of it?" One of the men asked, looking from Jorayn to what lay before them. The green floor was flattened, tree branches littered the ground, in some places the ground was churned up, the rich soil spread like black flour. And at the far end of all the carnage, was a bloody, mostly dead beast. The three men from the left group arrived, having similar reactions of freezing up. The gryphon landed, giving a soft whistle. The beast twitched in its last moments, swinging its head around to face the team of soldiers standing near it. "It's a giant snake, the thing must weigh tons!" The serpent hissed, trying to move, but all that did was stretch out the wounds along it's sleek scales. "Whatever did this had some sharp knives, man." One soldier mumbled. Jorayn shook his head. "Not knives, claws, if it was a knife it would have made a finer cut. Keep your eyes open and weapons close, lets hope whatever did this isn't hanging around." Jorayn slung his own rifle, a simple standard issue space marine rifle, and stepped a little closer to the now deceased snake. "We stay together from now on, except our eye in the air. Move out!" With that, he moved around the serpent, heading farther south. Artekæ growled at the amount of turbulence shaking their shuttle. Their drop zone was the farthest out from the Argo, and they were drawing closer to the mountain ranges to the far west. A few clouds hung low in the sky, a small layer forming much higher up. A green light flicked on in the shuttle. "Alright boys! Show time! Form up behind me, keep your eyes open, wings up, and if you fall, just scream into you comm. Someone will hear it." Artekæ shouted to his team as the door slowly slid open. Artekæ jumped first, free falling for a few short seconds before spreading his wings. They instantly caught air, flaring up. As Artekæ leveled out, the rest of the team formed a V shape, with him at the point position. After a few minutes of flying, turning alongside the mountains, they came across a strange sight. "Sir, there appears to be a nest, what should we do? It seems to house a large eagle, or hawk maybe." Artekæ thought about each possibility, before shaking his head. "We move on, but be alert, it might not take kindly to us being in its air space." They resumed their flight, before they were interrupted again. "This is Jorayn, does anyone copy?" Artekæ shifted his earpiece a little before replying. "Artekæ here, what do you need?" Static took over for a moment while he waited for a reply. "We came across a giant snake, it was torn open by something huge, talons or claws, the area around was a mess. Any ideas?" Artekæ thought for a moment, before his eyes widened. He began to grow to his full size, and covered his receiver for a moment. "Assume defensive positions, and keep an eye behind you, we might have company!" His shout was loud enough to be heard above the wind. Uncovering his comm unit, he spoke again to Jorayn. "We came across a giant bird nest in the mountains, I think we found our culprit. Any other sign of the beast where you are?" More static. "No, nothing here, it looked like the snake was waiting to die for quite a while, so that bird or whatever it was might be headed your way." Artekæ was about to reply, but an ear-piercing shriek rang out through the air. "I think we just got its attention. Artekæ out." Glancing to his left and right, Artekæ noted that his team had split into two groups, forming two X's on either side of him. He slowed down until he was in the middle. Growling at the growing number of clouds, Artekæ shouted another order. "I don't want anyone playing hero, stick together, and guard each others back. There might be more than one, so stay near me. And keep clear of the clouds." As soon as he had finished, another shriek sounded, echoing off the mountains. This one sounded like it came from... above them? Something crashed into Artekæ, and he felt talons scratching at his scales as he began to spiral down. Twisting his body, he shook free of his attacker, sharply turning to face it. It was indeed a giant hawk, nearly as big as he was, with dark brown and grey feathers. Artekæ roared his challenge, pushing towards the bird that dared attack him. He crashed head on into the avian, his own claws tearing at the creature's wings. He dimly heard the shouts of his men, and out of the corner of his eye saw a second hawk. The ten of them combined could take it on, surely. Artekæ threw the bird from his grasp, sending it down towards the mountain, it squawked in fear as it tried to catch wind under its wings. At the last second, the bird lifted, inches from the ground. Growling, Artekæ gave chase. With one, well placed fire ball, the bird was headed back towards the mountain, trailing smoke and shrieking all the way down. With a loud crash, it landed, tons of rock sliding from the impact. With one bird down, Artekæ turned sharply, quickly spotting the second one. It was chasing three of his men down, most of the others following close behind, taking shots at its wings with various firearms. Two humans dangled from its claws, one limp, the other flailing around, a pistol in one hand going off every now and then. With a roar, Artekæ charged in. Like an orchestrated plan, the three fleeing men, or gryphon's, dove down under him, while he rammed the bird, giving the rest of his men time to fire off more rounds. "I got two earthbound, who can catch them!?" A desperate shout went over the comm, distracting Artekæ. "We got this, keep the bird off our tail." A more raspy voice replied, probably one of the Gryphon's in the group. The distraction cost Artekæ, as the bird's beak ripped across his shoulder, a few scales slicing apart. With another growl, Artekæ reached around with his tail, and grabbed the bird around its neck, and with a quick snap, slung the bird away. An audible CRACK resounded through the air as the bird fell lifeless to the ground. "Flight Team Shuttle, do you copy, this is Artekæ, requesting pick up." Static. "Repeat, this is Artekæ, come in." Nothing. Closing his eyes, Artekæ switched back to his men. "Make for the mountain, we will rest there and treat the wounded before moving on." Author's Note So, this is where the bigger personality changes occur, but hey, it was a different scenario than on board a ship with friends. They will get a bit more set in stone as the story progresses. 4: Of Cliffs and Volleyball`Jostian floated along the coast line, the jagged cliffs fading out of site to the north, and slowly turning into smooth sand beaches to the south. It was a really peaceful scene, and he had already decided he wanted to retire here. One of his team, a human, called out. "So, what exactly are we looking for?" His question was backed by everyone else nodding. Jostian shrugged. "Anything dragon-ish. We are going to set up and repel along the cliffs, check out caves and things. Lets get these ropes secure, the last thing I want is to have someone fall in. That water doesn't look very forgiving." "Aye, it doesn't, tie these ropes tight lads, no one will be falling t'day!" Jostian couldn't help but feel a strange sense of foreboding at these words, and hoped he would be proven wrong. The team set about securing ropes, anchoring them to the rocky cliff top, while adorning suits and gear for the repel. The team split into two, seven of them would repel down, while four stayed to keep an eye on the ropes. Jostian looked over the edge again, and immediately regretted it. So much for that retirement getaway… "Ok, it looks like the first possible cave is directly below us... Is everyone ready? Good." Jostian checked his gear one last time, before slowly lowering himself over the cliff. He could float, yes, but he was still physical, and couldn't outright fly. It would be a slower but still deadly descent if he fell. Using his cloud like form, he snaked part of his hands and feet into tiny cracks, getting firmer grips on the rock. About halfway to the lip of the possible cave, another joined him, moving a bit slower. Jostian froze as a loud crack emanated from the rock. The cliff began to shake slightly, followed by more cracking. Jostian looked up at the man repelling above him. "Up! Climb back! Go, go, go!" But his order came too late. A slab of rock tumbled away, more to the side thankfully, but it shook the cliff nonetheless. The giant slab passed mere inches from Jostian, crashing into the jutting lip of the cave opening, taking most of the rock with it. A shower of dust, smaller rocks, and rope followed. Jostian barely had time to register that it was rope before he was falling. The man repelling above him had it worse, being heavier and farther up, he tumbled past Jostian, landing on the remainder of the lip with a sickening thud. "Captain! Galvan!" Multiple shouts rang out from the top of the cliff. Jostian could only watch in horror as he realized he wouldn't make the lip. He was too far out. But the man, Galvan, moved. Just as Jostian was passing, his hand shot out, grabbing for anything. Jostian heard Galvan gasp at the sudden jerk on his arm from catching him, but he had never been so thankful in his life. Another cracking sound came from the rock, by farther away. Another slab fell, but this one was too far out too immediately do any damage, but it was still large enough to shake the cliff. Jostian felt his hand slipping out of Galvan's grip, and he felt adrenaline pump through his body. The shaking stopped after a moment, and grip on his arm strengthened. Still swinging, Jostian realized his other hand was tangled in rope, on end attached to him, the other end frayed and swaying in the air. Carefully, but quickly, he untangled the rough material and freed his hand. Jostian reached up with his other hand, grabbing the edge of the rock, pulling himself over the edge slowly but surely, being pulled up by a heavily breathing Galvan. "Are you alright sir?" Galvan asked when they had both recovered a little, still collapsed on the rock surface. "I think I will live, thank you. Are you ok? Catching me couldn't have been good for your arm, but I thank you ever more." He looked at Galvan, his medical side taking over when he looked over the limp arm. "I think it just popped out of the socket, hopefully I didn't break it. It doesn't feel like I broke it, but it hurts like hell." Galvan said, wincing as he tried to move his arm. "My people can help with that." A high pitched voice called, and out of the shadow of the cave, stepped a creature. It was short, maybe three feet tall, but it was slim and well toned. Muscle showed through a coat of fur, brown and gold in color, blending in with the rock behind it. It also wore rather rudimentary clothing, also a tannish color. Its face was rodent ish, but if Jostian had to guess, it seemed to resemble a raccoon or red panda. A long scar crossed two black piercing eyes, but they held a surprising amount of gentleness in them. Jostian didn't know what to make of the situation, but luckily, he didn't have to deal with it for a while yet, for after taking in the full shock of meeting a new sentient species and what that entailed, Jostian promptly fainted. Flash was walking along with his team when Jorayn's message went out. They were in a desert like area, dry dirt and sand as far as the eye could see, with patches of dead grass here and there. "I could get used to this, what d'ya say boys?" Flash asked in his usual laid back manner. A few agreed, a few didn't, but hey, that's diversity for you. Having completely disregarded the conversation between Jorayn and Artekæ, he missed the battle report sent out minutes later, detailing one casualty and a few minor injuries. Instead they had decided to play a game of beach volleyball, setting up a net that someone smuggled down to the moon with them, taking turns being ref. Currently, they were taking a break, Flash leading his team to an early lead of 5-2. The Starglom in the ref chair called out. "Hey, Flash! Something is headed this way!" Flash looked up, scanning the horizon for any signs of movement. "I don't see anything." He called up, looking at the fiery being in the chair. "Not above the sand, in the sand! It's closing fast!" At the last word, a faint rumble spread through the ground, constantly shaking everything in sight. "Gear up boys! No telling what this could be!" Flash ordered, climbing up the chair. The other Starglom made room for them both to stand, balancing on the arms of the chair. "There, just past the cliff." He pointed, and Flash followed his gaze. Something huge was moving under the sand, no, three something's, the trail of churned earth gave that away. Whatever it was, it didn't look good. They had maybe two minutes before it reached them. Maybe. Before Flash could shout another order, something exploded from the sand. A large metal box appeared in the dust, still moving forward. "A transport of some kind, perhaps, eh captain?" The other Starglom asked. "Perhaps." Flash murmured. The metal box became a lot clearer as it finally overtook the cloud of dust and rock. It had a bunch of drills on the front, with a wide viewing screen. Two more just like it appeared, but they were smaller. They closed the distance in a few short moments, grinding to a halt across the makeshift volleyball field. A strange silence followed, but was cut off by a loud groaning sound. The side of the lead transport slowly lowered into a ramp, and out stepped a human, much to Flash's surprise. He was a rather young looking man, sporting a brown suit accented by a black tie. In his hands he held not a weapon, but a volleyball. "Good afternoon to you gentleman, I am the Doctor, just Doctor, and it has come to my attention, that you are very experienced in this fine game. Care for a little competition?" Lo and behold, the other transports opened, and out of all three came the most intense looking volleyball team in the existence of the universe. "Bring it on! For the Starglom race!" One if Flashs' team shouted, quickly followed by a very enthusiastic chant from the others. Flash smiled. This "Doctor" was in for a hard fight... Author's Note So, the new race will be explained a little later on, I got a little ahead of myself when typing.... Oh well, let me know how I am doing! (i am accepting a few OC's, so if you are dying to get your OC out there, send me a message or something) Can We Go Home Now?Andrea sat in the transport shuttle, thinking over the possibilities. A missing shuttle wasn't unheard of by any standards, but something seemed amiss with the whole affair. Her team sat comfortably around the the interior, talking among themselves. They were headed out to pick up as many of Artekæ's team as they could, and find the missing shuttle if possible. "Captain, I think we found our shuttle!" One of the two pilots yelled back. Everyone was instantly alert, and Andrea stood up, starting to make her way to the front of the shuttle. "On the ground, they look damaged a bit, but something is moving down there. We will circle once and go in for the landing, there isn't much room, so everyone buckle up!" The pilot informed everyone, and the shuttle began to lean. The rest of the team groaned and began snapping on belts and vests, shifting in their seats to not hit the person sitting next to them. Well, everyone except the unicorn, Cinnamon Berry, who laughed at their misfortune, a soft blue glow covering her vest and equipment. The shuttle rattled a bit, but they landed relatively easy, and the large door cracked open. The team jumped to action, four covering the ramp while the rest swiftly set up a perimeter. Andrea walked out, looking around, the other shuttle was a small walk away, but she could still see some movement. And then she heard gunshots. "You four, stay here and guard the pilots, the rest of you, with me! Weapons ready, shoot to kill!" She headed out at a fast jog, the six members falling in behind and keeping pace. In no time, they had reached the shuttle, and on the opposite side, were met with a less than desirable situation. A giant snake, much like the one Jorayn had found, was hissing at something, presumably the pilots. It was slithering its way closer, seemingly not caring about the bullets that hit it. Then Andrea saw something that made her rather angry with this fat reptile. A limp body lay a few yards away, lying still in the grass, face down. With a battle cry, she began firing at the snake, who was not very pleased to take a full barrage of bullets to the face. The rest of the team began to open fire as well, and Cinnamon Berry slowly made her way to the still form in the grass. The snake hissed at being denied once more, and coiled up, raising its head and neck above the ground, towering over the downed shuttle. Andrea was beginning to hate this moon. "Make way, ya pest!" A rocket flew out of nowhere, it wasn't big, but it was certainly enough to get the job done. The snake quite literally exploded, showering bits of scale upon the ground. Andrea was a blink away from screaming as a fang landed in front of her. "Ok, whoever was responsible for that gets window duty for the next year!" A faint "sorry cap'n" came across the way, and Andrea eyed down the person who brought along the heavy weaponry. Not that she wasn't grateful or anything, she just wasn't grateful. At all. "Thank Celestia you showed up when you did! I thought I was going to be the things next snack!" A rather young, dark blue Pegasus stepped out of the shuttle, favoring a leg, and a wing twitching oddly. Suddenly, his face went pale as he saw Cinnamon Berry standing over the other pilot. Everything was silent as he made his way over. Andrea walked along side and put a hand on his shoulder, careful to avoid hitting his wings. "Is he-" the colts voice didn't carry out the rest of the sentence. Cinnamon Berry shook her head sadly, and copied Andreas motion. It was never easy to loose a brother in arms. Never. Ornlisco growled as he stepped into another puddle. It just had to rain right before they had landed, didn't it? The she-cat, Jessa, laughed, nimbly hopping over the puddle, landing on a somewhat dry patch of grass. Ornlisco glared at her, before taking another slow look around them. Hills. Hills for miles. Not a tree in sight, just grass and weeds. "This is Ornlisco checking in. We haven't found anything worth noting, except a strange flower that glows when wet. Any ideas when we can head back up to the Argo?" It had been a few hours since the missing shuttle had been found, and Artekæ's group rescued, but no one had heard anything from Jostian's group yet. "We will have to wait until Jostian reports, but nobody can reach him. But I think it is pretty evident that there is no Odysseus here. Head back to the shuttles everyone, we give Jostian some time, and then we go check his position out." Twilight responded a moment later, and Ornlisco couldn't keep himself from snorting. Twilight was the natural leader, with her "take-charge-and-get-things-done" attitude, but Ornlisco still found it odd he was taking orders from a pony. Eh, she was a princess, she was used to telling people what to do. "Alright team, we are heading back. Snap a few pictures if you want, because I am sure as heck not coming back here." With that, Ornlisco stalked off and started the trip back to where the shuttle was. On second thought... Ornlisco pressed a button on his comm, and waited for it to adjust. "This is Ornlisco speaking, requesting pick up. Do you copy?" "Loud and clear sir, heading that way." A pilot answered his call, the sound of different switches and buttons being pressed in the background. "Pilot... Are you, playing a game?" Silence. "Um.... No? Maybe? Ok! So I was playing Age of Mythology, don't judge me!" Jostian woke up with a major headache, and a ringing in his ear. He couldn't quite remember what had happened, only that it had something to do with a cliff. Groaning, Jostian sat up. He was under a pavilion, a few crates and things set up around. He had been lying on a matted pad of something comfortable, but he couldn't really tell what it was. Something moved in the corner of his eye and he turned his head slowly towards it. Private Galvan stood with a little furred creature, who was bending his broken arm this way and that, testing the flexibility. Judging by Galvan's face, it looked like it didn't hurt a bit. Wait, the creature! Suddenly, Jostian remembered falling, landing, how Galvan had also fallen and broken his arm, and then the new race appearing seemingly out of no where. Jostian promptly fainted again, missing the next message spoken between Ornlisco and Twilight. Celestia sat in her room, looking up at the stars. It was a calm and peaceful night, thanks to the weather Ponies, but Celestia felt restless. She missed Twilight, but she had known she would. But she also worried. Twilight would be experiencing things that Celestia had shielded her from for a long while. Mostly murder and the like, but Twilight had read about it. But now she had to deal with the possibility the person standing next to her could be dead in the next instant. It made Celestia feel useless. A soft knock came on the door, which Celestia promptly ignored. She didn't feel in the mood to talk. The knock came a little louder. Celestia sighed. "Come on in, Luna." She heard the door swing open and closed, and the soft sound of hooves walking on carpet. Luna sat next to her in silence, both sisters looking up into the night sky. After a while Luna spoke. "I worry for her too." She didn't even have to ask what was on Celestia's mind, she knew her too well. "I just wish there was more we could do for her..." Celestia trailed off and sighed again. Then, a thought began to form in her mind. Maybe there was a way, after all. "Luna, you can send visions through dreams, right?" "Yes, bu-" "And you can go to anybody's dream, right? "Well, yes, but wha-" "And you can do this over any distance, correct?" "... Yes... I see what you are getting at now. You send for her friends, I will prepare, this will be difficult at such great a distance, but I can do it." Luna speedily walked out of the room, eager to get started, and Celestia smiled. Levitating a piece of paper to her, she began to write. Dearest friends, I am in need of your presence here in Canterlot. Do not worry, nothing bad has happened, but I have a request to make... Author's Note Thanks for reading, hopefully we can get some more "exciting" things to happen later, chapter six will take some time to get up, due to school, another project, and plain laziness. shoot me. (please don't, but i will accept cookies as bribes to work! )
1: The Conference Author's Note Hey all you party people, I am moving this over from Fanfiction.net, so it will take a while to get caught up. please let me know how I am doing, and what I can fix! 1: The Conference The court room was in chaos. Dozens of leaders from all over the world, and some that were not, were all raising their voices over each other. Celestia sat, the only one except her sister to be silent. Discord was arguing with a human, a gryphon, and a Starglom. Strange creatures, those Starglom's, made of pure fire, born from the collisions of stars. They had shown themselves to be ready allies though, especially in the face of the newest threat. The cause of this mass assembly, was a new race, the Telipren. Far beyond the reaches of any space dwelling peoples they came, bringing destruction wherever they went. It was under this threat that many different species now allied together. Ponies, dragons, gryphon's, other equines, humans, Starglom's, Nebulastii (another odd but strong race), along with a handful of others, who were less strong, but more numerous. The bickering and arguing finally made Celestia sigh. She offered to host the meeting, so she decided as the hostess, she should redirect the conversation. With a little pushing and shoving, if need be. "ENOUGH!" Her royal canterlot voice shook the tables, and startled more than a few of the visitors. With order somewhat retained, Celestia continued in her normal voice. "I was not aware I would be having to chaperone a bunch of school children, I was dearly hoping for some shred of maturity and mutual respect between all of the races represented here. So if you are all done yelling, I would like to move on in a more civilized manner. Any objections?" No one moved, except Discord, who slowly raised his hand. "No, Discord, you can't make it rain Chocolate Milk!" Celestia said sternly. Discord slowly brought his hand back down. "Ok, thank you. Now, if everyone will please make room, I would like to bring your attention to something that is not going to be very moralizing or uplifting." Celestia cast a small spell at the center of the room, which sprouted into a map of the explored universe. "This is the last planet of neutral beings." A planet was highlighted a bright yellow. "This is the last neutral planet as of three days ago." The map shimmered, and where there was once a yellow planet, was now a blank spot on the map. A few murmurs went around the room. "This is the current position of the Telepren." A red streak showed up on the map, slowly moving. "As you can see, it is rather large, the last fleet to go up against it could have bested any one of ours. And it was destroyed within minutes. And so I urge you to stop bickering like boys in a toy store and help one another plan out a strategy for the defense of all we know." Celestia watched with rising dread as the representatives from all the races shrugged and stared at one another. The representative from the humans, General Maltius, spoke up first. "Well, if every race here joined their whole armadas', it would be roughly about the same size as their own, correct?" A few nods answered him. "Well then I propose one of the most basic and unfailing strategies in the book. The hammer and anvil." A few different reactions were heard among the assembly. "They are so arrogant, they think that it would take an elaborate and complicated plan to defeat them. So we give them what they are not expecting. Now, which race here has the sturdiest warships?" The human general asked. A Nebulasti admiral spoke up. "If I may boast, our ships have been designed to pass through the hottest stars known to all kind. If that is not sturdy then I am a duck." A few chuckles ran around the room. Another representative spoke up. "While Carthinian ships cannot pass through stars, they are certainly able to hold their own from a defensive point. We do not have many guns though." A few nods followed the statement. General Maltius spoke up again. "See? So we can present a wall of Nebulastii and Carthin ships, with small, long range vessels to provide support, while another, greater part of the fleet surprises the enemy rear. Then we keep a small reserve, so when we begin to push in, we can send the reserve through any holes created in the wall, providing two offensive sides. Any objections?" One by one, all of the representatives agreed. But a new voice entered the scene. "If I may, I think we will need some more help if we are to win here. I propose a more dedicated search for Odysseus." A small, seconds long stretch of silence was broken by nearly all of the representatives shouting and yelling at once. "disappeared long before I was born-" "hasn't been seen in ages-" "didn't he die-" "where would he be if he was alive-" The room died down into silence once more as Celestia cleared her throat. She looked at the dragon responsible for the sudden outbreak, graciously accepting to be shrunk to more easily fit into the room. "Do explain, Master Dragon." Celestia gave him the floor to speak again. "Well, this is a fine strategy, but we all know the only reason half of our species are still here is because of Odysseus. Yes he was a dragon, yes he was named after a Greek hero, yes he has been missing for a very long time, but he single handedly took on the fleet that threatened the world ages ago. We cannot simply bypass this chance to seek him out." A bipedal Lion voiced his thoughts next. "Where would we search? How many resources must be spent? How long do we have before we must admit it is a lost cause? Tell me this and I will offer what assistance I can." The dragon shrugged. "Those things can only be guessed. But we should search wherever we can, with whatever resources can be spared." The separate representatives fell to murmuring amongst themselves again. "I implore you to think about this option, if I cannot gain the council's help, I will do it with what I personally have at my disposal. That is all I wished to say on the matter." In the few days that followed, it was agreed that the Hammer and Anvil tactic should be instituted, and messages were sent to all available fleets to regroup and assemble above Delta-Atari 9, an un inhabited moon that held a large space installation in orbit. The next issue to be resolved was the search for Odysseus. While only half of the present council supported the notion that said mission would be successful, it gave them a little more hope to know such a possibility existed, so the search was approved. The dragon that offered the notion summoned his own son, Artekæ, to accompany the expedition. Celestia wrote a letter to Twilight, asking her to join, to which a speedy acceptance was replied. General Maltius also asked his son to go, and with him came a young captain, who would provide transport if the occasion arose. Along with them a Bipedal leopard named Ornlisco, a Starglom named Flash(his parents were big fans of the comics), and a Nebulastii by the name of Jostian who had astounding training in the medical field also joined. And so the search for Odysseus was started, aboard the ironically named Argo. Twilight hopped from hoof to hoof, standing outside the U.F.E. Argo, waiting for the others to arrive. She was nervous, she had only been in space one other time, and most of her experiences with dragons other than Spike were not very welcoming. A sudden gust of wind ruffled her feathers and caused her mane to go crazy. She looked up and saw a dragon bracing against the wind to land. To her surprise the dragon landed almost silently, and laughed a little when he had to pull his tail in to keep it from getting in the way of hangar personnel. Then, Twilight grew doubly impressed, as the dragon began to shrink, slowly but surely condensing. He stopped when he was only about two or three times the size of Twilight, instead of fifteen or sixteen. "That was amazing! I wasn't aware dragons were capable of altering their body structure to resize themselves." The dragon gave her a toothy smile. "It is something we don't usually get the chance of discussing, for various reasons. Whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?" Twilight stepped forward a bit and offered her hoof. "Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. And what is your name?" The dragon gently shook her hoof, careful of his claws the whole time. "Artekæ, unfortunately, I am not a prince, but I can make a mean fajita." Twilight stopped short. "Artekæ? THE Artekæ? The Artekæ who wrote on the theory of magnetic disruption in flight patterns?" The dragon gave a dramatic bow. "The very same." Twilight gave a rather un-princess like squeal and and clapping her front hooves together. "We have so much to talk about on this trip! Oh, this is so great! I have been dying to meet you and discus your whole paper!" Artekæ took a small step back, worried at the sudden change in character, when he noticed the Nebulastii and Starglom walk up, with a leopard in tow. Jostian, Flash, and Ornlisco got introductions out of the way, before the group lapsed into silence. "Where are those two Humans? They should have been here before any of us." Ornlisco growled in a soft voice. On cue, a tall, brown haired human came running from the loading bay, not pausing to introduce himself, yelling, "we're going to be late for tea!" As he ran up onto the Argo. "That solves one issue. I guess we should follow." Flash resolved, taking lead of the group and walking aboard after the human. They found their charge about to press the open button on the door to the bridge. He saw them and put a finger to his mouth, and the group fell silent. He opened the door, and strode in quietly. "Ok ladies, we've been cleared to get this bird out of the nest. Get the engines prepped, and make sure you get everything secure this time people, we don't want another Jell-O incident." A young woman was shouting orders on the main deck of the bridge, unaware of the new arrivals. The man crept closer, standing up straight right behind her. "BOO!" The woman jumped, and screamed, before punching the man in the arm, and launched into a stream of curses that made most people on the bridge raise an eyebrow. Twilight was glad Spike wasn't here. "Ugh, you idiot! For the last time stop doing that!" The woman screamed. The man just laughed, and spread one arm to the assembled group. "Is this the way you act in front of guests? I'm embarrassed to be associated with such behavior!" The woman's face paled, as she looked at the small group standing behind them on the bridge. "Oh, I'm sorry everyone, heh, ahh... So, I am Captain Andrea, welcome aboard the Argo!" Once Captain Andrea had gotten the ship into orbit, and out of the way of interplanetary traffic, the party sat around in a conference room, deciding where to go next. "So, we know that Odysseus is no where on Equiz, nor our planet's moon, nor the next two closest planets, Earth and Galatyr, so the next closest would be Great Havana, here." Twilight explained, pointing to various planets. "The only problem with that, is Great Havana is almost solely a Human populated planet, and any search will most likely prove no traces of dragon." Everyone nodded affirmative. "So, the small question here, is spend the time scanning, or move on to a more probable area?" Everyone lapsed into silence. Jostian began floating, while Ornlisco continuously checked his claws. Flash opened up a flame resistant comic. Captain Andrea was looking at the map, but everyone could tell she had fallen asleep with her eyes open. No one knew how though. The man, Jorayn, was cleaning and reassembling a small firearm. Artekæ was reading over Flash's shoulder, and Twilight was still going over the pros and cons in her head. They weren't the most decisive group, that's for sure.
Let's Go On an Adventure!Author's Note Ok, so this chapter will be a bit redundant due to the way my mind wanted to relay this scene. You will start to see some characters personalities jump around, it was supposed to be random, so yeah. Thanks for reading and let me know how I am doing! The next chapter will be put up tomorrow, so once i get caught up to chapter 4 i will start posting new stuff. The overall feel of the story will start to get more serious as it goes on, just a heads up. Let's Go On an Adventure! The Argo streaked past Great Havana, Twilight having made the decision to move on, and zoomed off into space. At their current speed, it would take them about two hours to reach their destination, a small moon with few sentient life forms. Andrea was at the helm, overlooking the bridge, Twilight was taking a nap, Artekæ was in a specially made chamber where he could grow to his normal size and stretch, Ornlisco was dominating a ping-pong tournament held by the crew, with Jostian and Flash holding a card game for the losers. They had a pretty full table when the overcomm sounded. "20 minutes until destination. 20 minutes." Ornlisco glared at his opponent, it was the final, him and a junior officer. "Whoever has the most at fifteen minutes wins?" The junior officer nodded, and presumed his ready stance. Ornlisco growled, and served. The record books say their battle was glorious to behold, but in the end Ornlisco lost by a single point. "Alright ladies, get a few landing craft prepared, we're sending people planet-side." An officer at one of the controls raises his hand after Andrea had finished speaking. "Don't you mean moon-side?" A woman next to him whacked him upside the head. "The captain said what she meant, don't ask questions!" Andrea beamed at the girl, before heading down to the hangar herself. She met up with the rest of the party, before noticing something that put everyone on alert when voiced. "Where is Jorayn? Has anyone seen him lately?" Everyone shook their head, and looked around nervously. "I'm up here! Don't worry, I have everything under control!" Everyone looked up to see Jorayn hanging by his fingers from the ceiling of the hanger, a bag held between his legs. "What are you doing up there?" Andrea asked, a little angry. "Well, you see, I was minding my own business, when I heard something about a pineapple being smuggled aboard, and as we all know, pineapple are not in space regulation food supply, so I decided to investigate. I found not only one pineapple, but three, five grapefruits, ten pomegranates, and a few Kiwi. I don't want to go into detail of how I got up here, so let's just leave that to your imagination, shall we?" Everyone stared at Jorayn, who stared back. No one moved, until Jorayn was enveloped in a purple glow. "Wha- hey, not cool, tell me before you use magic like that!" Jorayn yelled at Twilight as she floated him down from the ceiling. Andrea punched his arm again. "Ow! What's with you and punching me! Now, shall we go exploring? We have a whole moon to cover lads!" Jorayn marched dutifully towards the loading ramp of one of the landing craft, but he was stopped by a clawed hand grabbing his collar. "Now wait just a moment, I think our captain here has some more to say." Everyone looked expectantly at Andrea, who shrugged and pointed to Twilight. "Oh! That! Right. So, Andrea and I were talking about how to best search the planet, and we decided it would be best to split up. Each of us will lead a team of, say, ten, and cover a sector of the planet. I have taken the liberty of dividing up the planet into sectors, and your teams are already assembled. They will be coming with us, whether we split up or not. Any po- ahem, anyone not agree? No? Ok, as you can see, I also painted an easily identifiable emblem on each craft, your teams are already waiting! Good luck everyone!" Twilight walked off, happy as could be, leaving the rest behind. "Does she normally do this?" Flash asked aloud. Artekæ shrugged. "She's a princess, I assume it's normal." Artekæ turned and shuffled towards the largest craft, a crimson dragon head painted on the side made him smile a little, and he stepped aboard. All eyes snapped to him, and everyone saluted. All of them we capable of flight, Artekæ noticed, in some form or another. "At ease." The team dropped their arms, still looking expectantly. He could get used to this... Jostian walked/floated onto his ship, his gaseous looking form shifting nervously, and was startled when the team assigned to him snapped to attention, and saluted. "Uh... At ease, gentlemen, and lady, that is the right word, correct?" The closest person gave a short nod. "Ok, good. I don't know much military speak. I'm a doctor for crying out loud." Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was rather impressed, especially with the eagle of stars that had become his emblem. Jorayn vaulted into his craft, not taking the time to admire his emblem, and immediately began shouting orders. "Ok, listen up, you three, will cover left, you three, cover right. You, you can fly, watch the skies for me. The rest of you, center with me. Let's make this smooth and quick gentleman, I want to be back before dinner." Still standing at attention, all ten of his team shouted in unison. "SIR YES SIR!" Ornlisco stepped aboard his ship silently, not alerting anyone of his team to his presence. He stopped short when he heard two talking ping-pong stats. They were both great cats. "Ornlisco could totally school him! Don't you know who he is?" Ornlisco walked up behind the cat defending him. Opposite him stood a stunningly beautiful she-cat. Her eyes flickered to Ornlisco, and she adopted a mischievous grin. "I know of him. Your reputation precedes you." Ornlisco laughed. "As does yours." Nine out of the ten team members present jumped at the sudden appearance of their commanding officer. Flash walked past his emblem, snorting at the Supernova, and mentally prepared himself to meet his crew. "Hi everyo-" Ten Starglom's looked his way. "My people!" Flash exclaimed and began giving everyone hugs. Andrea nodded approvingly at her symbol, a red fist, and stepped aboard, greeting each of her commandos like old friends. In a way they were, having served years together, they were more like family to her. She hoped for one more smooth trip. Twilight glanced over her cutie mark painted on her ship, and checked it off her clipboard. She stepped aboard and gave the at ease to her team, and checked off another box. "Ok next is... Oh! Hello everyone, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and you are all here because you showed a particular trait that corresponds with my friends, the elements of harmony. Any questions?" Ten hands shot up into the air, and Twilight face palmed with her clipboard. She began answering all of their questions on the way down to the moon below, and asked a few of her own, before they hit the surface. The loading ramp hissed open, and a world unlike any Twilight had seem greeted them.
Mountain SkirmishTwilight looked over her team once more, two unicorns, three humans, a Tiger that looked at home in their current position, a Nebulastii, a gryphon, and two eager looking Starglom's. They walked down the ramp, into the lush world ahead of them, holding things that would have impressed Princess Celestia herself. Huge trees reaching almost a mile into the sky, their trunks so huge that even Artekæ wouldn't be able to fit around them in his normal form. Sounds of animals reached her ears, birds most likely. Before Twilight had taken more than a few steps, she began to feel how humid it was. Twilight almost completely forgot about the search for Odysseus at this point, going into full research mode. She opened up a report log, and began filing away information. "Ok, stay together, no telling how long we could be lost in this jungle if we got turned around. Let's move!" Jorayn looked around the clearing they had landed in, the trees were a lot thinner, most of the heavy jungle up to the north. Instead, he got to go rolling in thick shrubs and brush, wide ferns, and a lot of nasty looking thorn bushes. They seemed to have some sort of fruit though, so that might be worth looking into before they left. True to his past orders, the team split up, far enough to cover ground, but close enough to help each other if needed. Their sole gryphon flew up above, watching all three groups move. It was about an hour into their search when something interesting turned up. "Captain, sir! Over here!" The group to the right was signaling, hopefully it was a ice cream shop. Jorayn called out to the left group, before making his way towards the right. When he stopped by the three men, he froze. "Sir... What do you make of it?" One of the men asked, looking from Jorayn to what lay before them. The green floor was flattened, tree branches littered the ground, in some places the ground was churned up, the rich soil spread like black flour. And at the far end of all the carnage, was a bloody, mostly dead beast. The three men from the left group arrived, having similar reactions of freezing up. The gryphon landed, giving a soft whistle. The beast twitched in its last moments, swinging its head around to face the team of soldiers standing near it. "It's a giant snake, the thing must weigh tons!" The serpent hissed, trying to move, but all that did was stretch out the wounds along it's sleek scales. "Whatever did this had some sharp knives, man." One soldier mumbled. Jorayn shook his head. "Not knives, claws, if it was a knife it would have made a finer cut. Keep your eyes open and weapons close, lets hope whatever did this isn't hanging around." Jorayn slung his own rifle, a simple standard issue space marine rifle, and stepped a little closer to the now deceased snake. "We stay together from now on, except our eye in the air. Move out!" With that, he moved around the serpent, heading farther south. Artekæ growled at the amount of turbulence shaking their shuttle. Their drop zone was the farthest out from the Argo, and they were drawing closer to the mountain ranges to the far west. A few clouds hung low in the sky, a small layer forming much higher up. A green light flicked on in the shuttle. "Alright boys! Show time! Form up behind me, keep your eyes open, wings up, and if you fall, just scream into you comm. Someone will hear it." Artekæ shouted to his team as the door slowly slid open. Artekæ jumped first, free falling for a few short seconds before spreading his wings. They instantly caught air, flaring up. As Artekæ leveled out, the rest of the team formed a V shape, with him at the point position. After a few minutes of flying, turning alongside the mountains, they came across a strange sight. "Sir, there appears to be a nest, what should we do? It seems to house a large eagle, or hawk maybe." Artekæ thought about each possibility, before shaking his head. "We move on, but be alert, it might not take kindly to us being in its air space." They resumed their flight, before they were interrupted again. "This is Jorayn, does anyone copy?" Artekæ shifted his earpiece a little before replying. "Artekæ here, what do you need?" Static took over for a moment while he waited for a reply. "We came across a giant snake, it was torn open by something huge, talons or claws, the area around was a mess. Any ideas?" Artekæ thought for a moment, before his eyes widened. He began to grow to his full size, and covered his receiver for a moment. "Assume defensive positions, and keep an eye behind you, we might have company!" His shout was loud enough to be heard above the wind. Uncovering his comm unit, he spoke again to Jorayn. "We came across a giant bird nest in the mountains, I think we found our culprit. Any other sign of the beast where you are?" More static. "No, nothing here, it looked like the snake was waiting to die for quite a while, so that bird or whatever it was might be headed your way." Artekæ was about to reply, but an ear-piercing shriek rang out through the air. "I think we just got its attention. Artekæ out." Glancing to his left and right, Artekæ noted that his team had split into two groups, forming two X's on either side of him. He slowed down until he was in the middle. Growling at the growing number of clouds, Artekæ shouted another order. "I don't want anyone playing hero, stick together, and guard each others back. There might be more than one, so stay near me. And keep clear of the clouds." As soon as he had finished, another shriek sounded, echoing off the mountains. This one sounded like it came from... above them? Something crashed into Artekæ, and he felt talons scratching at his scales as he began to spiral down. Twisting his body, he shook free of his attacker, sharply turning to face it. It was indeed a giant hawk, nearly as big as he was, with dark brown and grey feathers. Artekæ roared his challenge, pushing towards the bird that dared attack him. He crashed head on into the avian, his own claws tearing at the creature's wings. He dimly heard the shouts of his men, and out of the corner of his eye saw a second hawk. The ten of them combined could take it on, surely. Artekæ threw the bird from his grasp, sending it down towards the mountain, it squawked in fear as it tried to catch wind under its wings. At the last second, the bird lifted, inches from the ground. Growling, Artekæ gave chase. With one, well placed fire ball, the bird was headed back towards the mountain, trailing smoke and shrieking all the way down. With a loud crash, it landed, tons of rock sliding from the impact. With one bird down, Artekæ turned sharply, quickly spotting the second one. It was chasing three of his men down, most of the others following close behind, taking shots at its wings with various firearms. Two humans dangled from its claws, one limp, the other flailing around, a pistol in one hand going off every now and then. With a roar, Artekæ charged in. Like an orchestrated plan, the three fleeing men, or gryphon's, dove down under him, while he rammed the bird, giving the rest of his men time to fire off more rounds. "I got two earthbound, who can catch them!?" A desperate shout went over the comm, distracting Artekæ. "We got this, keep the bird off our tail." A more raspy voice replied, probably one of the Gryphon's in the group. The distraction cost Artekæ, as the bird's beak ripped across his shoulder, a few scales slicing apart. With another growl, Artekæ reached around with his tail, and grabbed the bird around its neck, and with a quick snap, slung the bird away. An audible CRACK resounded through the air as the bird fell lifeless to the ground. "Flight Team Shuttle, do you copy, this is Artekæ, requesting pick up." Static. "Repeat, this is Artekæ, come in." Nothing. Closing his eyes, Artekæ switched back to his men. "Make for the mountain, we will rest there and treat the wounded before moving on." Author's Note So, this is where the bigger personality changes occur, but hey, it was a different scenario than on board a ship with friends. They will get a bit more set in stone as the story progresses.
4: Of Cliffs and Volleyball`Jostian floated along the coast line, the jagged cliffs fading out of site to the north, and slowly turning into smooth sand beaches to the south. It was a really peaceful scene, and he had already decided he wanted to retire here. One of his team, a human, called out. "So, what exactly are we looking for?" His question was backed by everyone else nodding. Jostian shrugged. "Anything dragon-ish. We are going to set up and repel along the cliffs, check out caves and things. Lets get these ropes secure, the last thing I want is to have someone fall in. That water doesn't look very forgiving." "Aye, it doesn't, tie these ropes tight lads, no one will be falling t'day!" Jostian couldn't help but feel a strange sense of foreboding at these words, and hoped he would be proven wrong. The team set about securing ropes, anchoring them to the rocky cliff top, while adorning suits and gear for the repel. The team split into two, seven of them would repel down, while four stayed to keep an eye on the ropes. Jostian looked over the edge again, and immediately regretted it. So much for that retirement getaway… "Ok, it looks like the first possible cave is directly below us... Is everyone ready? Good." Jostian checked his gear one last time, before slowly lowering himself over the cliff. He could float, yes, but he was still physical, and couldn't outright fly. It would be a slower but still deadly descent if he fell. Using his cloud like form, he snaked part of his hands and feet into tiny cracks, getting firmer grips on the rock. About halfway to the lip of the possible cave, another joined him, moving a bit slower. Jostian froze as a loud crack emanated from the rock. The cliff began to shake slightly, followed by more cracking. Jostian looked up at the man repelling above him. "Up! Climb back! Go, go, go!" But his order came too late. A slab of rock tumbled away, more to the side thankfully, but it shook the cliff nonetheless. The giant slab passed mere inches from Jostian, crashing into the jutting lip of the cave opening, taking most of the rock with it. A shower of dust, smaller rocks, and rope followed. Jostian barely had time to register that it was rope before he was falling. The man repelling above him had it worse, being heavier and farther up, he tumbled past Jostian, landing on the remainder of the lip with a sickening thud. "Captain! Galvan!" Multiple shouts rang out from the top of the cliff. Jostian could only watch in horror as he realized he wouldn't make the lip. He was too far out. But the man, Galvan, moved. Just as Jostian was passing, his hand shot out, grabbing for anything. Jostian heard Galvan gasp at the sudden jerk on his arm from catching him, but he had never been so thankful in his life. Another cracking sound came from the rock, by farther away. Another slab fell, but this one was too far out too immediately do any damage, but it was still large enough to shake the cliff. Jostian felt his hand slipping out of Galvan's grip, and he felt adrenaline pump through his body. The shaking stopped after a moment, and grip on his arm strengthened. Still swinging, Jostian realized his other hand was tangled in rope, on end attached to him, the other end frayed and swaying in the air. Carefully, but quickly, he untangled the rough material and freed his hand. Jostian reached up with his other hand, grabbing the edge of the rock, pulling himself over the edge slowly but surely, being pulled up by a heavily breathing Galvan. "Are you alright sir?" Galvan asked when they had both recovered a little, still collapsed on the rock surface. "I think I will live, thank you. Are you ok? Catching me couldn't have been good for your arm, but I thank you ever more." He looked at Galvan, his medical side taking over when he looked over the limp arm. "I think it just popped out of the socket, hopefully I didn't break it. It doesn't feel like I broke it, but it hurts like hell." Galvan said, wincing as he tried to move his arm. "My people can help with that." A high pitched voice called, and out of the shadow of the cave, stepped a creature. It was short, maybe three feet tall, but it was slim and well toned. Muscle showed through a coat of fur, brown and gold in color, blending in with the rock behind it. It also wore rather rudimentary clothing, also a tannish color. Its face was rodent ish, but if Jostian had to guess, it seemed to resemble a raccoon or red panda. A long scar crossed two black piercing eyes, but they held a surprising amount of gentleness in them. Jostian didn't know what to make of the situation, but luckily, he didn't have to deal with it for a while yet, for after taking in the full shock of meeting a new sentient species and what that entailed, Jostian promptly fainted. Flash was walking along with his team when Jorayn's message went out. They were in a desert like area, dry dirt and sand as far as the eye could see, with patches of dead grass here and there. "I could get used to this, what d'ya say boys?" Flash asked in his usual laid back manner. A few agreed, a few didn't, but hey, that's diversity for you. Having completely disregarded the conversation between Jorayn and Artekæ, he missed the battle report sent out minutes later, detailing one casualty and a few minor injuries. Instead they had decided to play a game of beach volleyball, setting up a net that someone smuggled down to the moon with them, taking turns being ref. Currently, they were taking a break, Flash leading his team to an early lead of 5-2. The Starglom in the ref chair called out. "Hey, Flash! Something is headed this way!" Flash looked up, scanning the horizon for any signs of movement. "I don't see anything." He called up, looking at the fiery being in the chair. "Not above the sand, in the sand! It's closing fast!" At the last word, a faint rumble spread through the ground, constantly shaking everything in sight. "Gear up boys! No telling what this could be!" Flash ordered, climbing up the chair. The other Starglom made room for them both to stand, balancing on the arms of the chair. "There, just past the cliff." He pointed, and Flash followed his gaze. Something huge was moving under the sand, no, three something's, the trail of churned earth gave that away. Whatever it was, it didn't look good. They had maybe two minutes before it reached them. Maybe. Before Flash could shout another order, something exploded from the sand. A large metal box appeared in the dust, still moving forward. "A transport of some kind, perhaps, eh captain?" The other Starglom asked. "Perhaps." Flash murmured. The metal box became a lot clearer as it finally overtook the cloud of dust and rock. It had a bunch of drills on the front, with a wide viewing screen. Two more just like it appeared, but they were smaller. They closed the distance in a few short moments, grinding to a halt across the makeshift volleyball field. A strange silence followed, but was cut off by a loud groaning sound. The side of the lead transport slowly lowered into a ramp, and out stepped a human, much to Flash's surprise. He was a rather young looking man, sporting a brown suit accented by a black tie. In his hands he held not a weapon, but a volleyball. "Good afternoon to you gentleman, I am the Doctor, just Doctor, and it has come to my attention, that you are very experienced in this fine game. Care for a little competition?" Lo and behold, the other transports opened, and out of all three came the most intense looking volleyball team in the existence of the universe. "Bring it on! For the Starglom race!" One if Flashs' team shouted, quickly followed by a very enthusiastic chant from the others. Flash smiled. This "Doctor" was in for a hard fight... Author's Note So, the new race will be explained a little later on, I got a little ahead of myself when typing.... Oh well, let me know how I am doing! (i am accepting a few OC's, so if you are dying to get your OC out there, send me a message or something)
Can We Go Home Now?Andrea sat in the transport shuttle, thinking over the possibilities. A missing shuttle wasn't unheard of by any standards, but something seemed amiss with the whole affair. Her team sat comfortably around the the interior, talking among themselves. They were headed out to pick up as many of Artekæ's team as they could, and find the missing shuttle if possible. "Captain, I think we found our shuttle!" One of the two pilots yelled back. Everyone was instantly alert, and Andrea stood up, starting to make her way to the front of the shuttle. "On the ground, they look damaged a bit, but something is moving down there. We will circle once and go in for the landing, there isn't much room, so everyone buckle up!" The pilot informed everyone, and the shuttle began to lean. The rest of the team groaned and began snapping on belts and vests, shifting in their seats to not hit the person sitting next to them. Well, everyone except the unicorn, Cinnamon Berry, who laughed at their misfortune, a soft blue glow covering her vest and equipment. The shuttle rattled a bit, but they landed relatively easy, and the large door cracked open. The team jumped to action, four covering the ramp while the rest swiftly set up a perimeter. Andrea walked out, looking around, the other shuttle was a small walk away, but she could still see some movement. And then she heard gunshots. "You four, stay here and guard the pilots, the rest of you, with me! Weapons ready, shoot to kill!" She headed out at a fast jog, the six members falling in behind and keeping pace. In no time, they had reached the shuttle, and on the opposite side, were met with a less than desirable situation. A giant snake, much like the one Jorayn had found, was hissing at something, presumably the pilots. It was slithering its way closer, seemingly not caring about the bullets that hit it. Then Andrea saw something that made her rather angry with this fat reptile. A limp body lay a few yards away, lying still in the grass, face down. With a battle cry, she began firing at the snake, who was not very pleased to take a full barrage of bullets to the face. The rest of the team began to open fire as well, and Cinnamon Berry slowly made her way to the still form in the grass. The snake hissed at being denied once more, and coiled up, raising its head and neck above the ground, towering over the downed shuttle. Andrea was beginning to hate this moon. "Make way, ya pest!" A rocket flew out of nowhere, it wasn't big, but it was certainly enough to get the job done. The snake quite literally exploded, showering bits of scale upon the ground. Andrea was a blink away from screaming as a fang landed in front of her. "Ok, whoever was responsible for that gets window duty for the next year!" A faint "sorry cap'n" came across the way, and Andrea eyed down the person who brought along the heavy weaponry. Not that she wasn't grateful or anything, she just wasn't grateful. At all. "Thank Celestia you showed up when you did! I thought I was going to be the things next snack!" A rather young, dark blue Pegasus stepped out of the shuttle, favoring a leg, and a wing twitching oddly. Suddenly, his face went pale as he saw Cinnamon Berry standing over the other pilot. Everything was silent as he made his way over. Andrea walked along side and put a hand on his shoulder, careful to avoid hitting his wings. "Is he-" the colts voice didn't carry out the rest of the sentence. Cinnamon Berry shook her head sadly, and copied Andreas motion. It was never easy to loose a brother in arms. Never. Ornlisco growled as he stepped into another puddle. It just had to rain right before they had landed, didn't it? The she-cat, Jessa, laughed, nimbly hopping over the puddle, landing on a somewhat dry patch of grass. Ornlisco glared at her, before taking another slow look around them. Hills. Hills for miles. Not a tree in sight, just grass and weeds. "This is Ornlisco checking in. We haven't found anything worth noting, except a strange flower that glows when wet. Any ideas when we can head back up to the Argo?" It had been a few hours since the missing shuttle had been found, and Artekæ's group rescued, but no one had heard anything from Jostian's group yet. "We will have to wait until Jostian reports, but nobody can reach him. But I think it is pretty evident that there is no Odysseus here. Head back to the shuttles everyone, we give Jostian some time, and then we go check his position out." Twilight responded a moment later, and Ornlisco couldn't keep himself from snorting. Twilight was the natural leader, with her "take-charge-and-get-things-done" attitude, but Ornlisco still found it odd he was taking orders from a pony. Eh, she was a princess, she was used to telling people what to do. "Alright team, we are heading back. Snap a few pictures if you want, because I am sure as heck not coming back here." With that, Ornlisco stalked off and started the trip back to where the shuttle was. On second thought... Ornlisco pressed a button on his comm, and waited for it to adjust. "This is Ornlisco speaking, requesting pick up. Do you copy?" "Loud and clear sir, heading that way." A pilot answered his call, the sound of different switches and buttons being pressed in the background. "Pilot... Are you, playing a game?" Silence. "Um.... No? Maybe? Ok! So I was playing Age of Mythology, don't judge me!" Jostian woke up with a major headache, and a ringing in his ear. He couldn't quite remember what had happened, only that it had something to do with a cliff. Groaning, Jostian sat up. He was under a pavilion, a few crates and things set up around. He had been lying on a matted pad of something comfortable, but he couldn't really tell what it was. Something moved in the corner of his eye and he turned his head slowly towards it. Private Galvan stood with a little furred creature, who was bending his broken arm this way and that, testing the flexibility. Judging by Galvan's face, it looked like it didn't hurt a bit. Wait, the creature! Suddenly, Jostian remembered falling, landing, how Galvan had also fallen and broken his arm, and then the new race appearing seemingly out of no where. Jostian promptly fainted again, missing the next message spoken between Ornlisco and Twilight. Celestia sat in her room, looking up at the stars. It was a calm and peaceful night, thanks to the weather Ponies, but Celestia felt restless. She missed Twilight, but she had known she would. But she also worried. Twilight would be experiencing things that Celestia had shielded her from for a long while. Mostly murder and the like, but Twilight had read about it. But now she had to deal with the possibility the person standing next to her could be dead in the next instant. It made Celestia feel useless. A soft knock came on the door, which Celestia promptly ignored. She didn't feel in the mood to talk. The knock came a little louder. Celestia sighed. "Come on in, Luna." She heard the door swing open and closed, and the soft sound of hooves walking on carpet. Luna sat next to her in silence, both sisters looking up into the night sky. After a while Luna spoke. "I worry for her too." She didn't even have to ask what was on Celestia's mind, she knew her too well. "I just wish there was more we could do for her..." Celestia trailed off and sighed again. Then, a thought began to form in her mind. Maybe there was a way, after all. "Luna, you can send visions through dreams, right?" "Yes, bu-" "And you can go to anybody's dream, right? "Well, yes, but wha-" "And you can do this over any distance, correct?" "... Yes... I see what you are getting at now. You send for her friends, I will prepare, this will be difficult at such great a distance, but I can do it." Luna speedily walked out of the room, eager to get started, and Celestia smiled. Levitating a piece of paper to her, she began to write. Dearest friends, I am in need of your presence here in Canterlot. Do not worry, nothing bad has happened, but I have a request to make... Author's Note Thanks for reading, hopefully we can get some more "exciting" things to happen later, chapter six will take some time to get up, due to school, another project, and plain laziness. shoot me. (please don't, but i will accept cookies as bribes to work! )
