It was a normal day in the badlands; nothing visible but sand for miles, the blazing sun harshly beating down on the surface, and an air so dry that anything unlucky enough to die there falls apart into dust within seconds.
The normality of it was cut short when, several feet in the air, a rift in reality opened up. This rift existed for roughly three seconds, spewing a shadowy material which drifted away as it appeared, before it coughed up a strange and bony creature. This creature, upon standing up, could be identified as a biped. It was a peachy color and lacked any fur or hair at all. Its face was covered in a bony plate, as was the rest of its body. It stood still for a second before the plate on its face retracted, revealing a rather normal face compared to the rest of Equestria’s inhabitants.
After a moment of looking around, this creature stared intently in the direction of a mountain. It nodded to itself, seeming to be sure that this is the right direction of whatever it was looking for. He started off in that direction at a steady pace.
Earth, 2576 A.D.
Alexander King was at a party. The last one before he leaves for new places. Alex had pale skin and dark brown hair with light brown eyes. He stood at about six feet tall and had a thin, yet toned build. He was dressed in a tuxedo and kept his hair short and neatly combed for the occasion.
“Hey Alex!” Shouted a masculine voice from behind him.
Alex looked over. The voice belonged to Stephen Alberto, a friend he has known for over thirty years.
“Hello, Steve. I see you came to the party,” Alex greeted his friend.
“Of course I came to the party! I would never miss by best friend’s farewell party,” Steve responded to Alex’s comment.
“No, I don’t think you would have. That just isn’t like you. I’m still not giving away my nanobots, by the way.”
The nanobots Alex was speaking of were machines he created in the mid-twenty-first century. They granted their user the abilities of immortality, advanced regeneration, shape shifting, and DNA harvesting.
“Aw, c’mon Alex! This is the last day you are spending on the planet! Can’t you just leave it as a gift when you leave?” Steve begged.
“No way, Steve. I’m not going to allow anyone to have these abilities. If I do, anyone who has them will have the ability to defeat me in battle! I can’t leave these here, especially not if someone figures out a way to follow me. I can’t risk that chance.”
“Not even for me? Surely you can trust me not to do any of those things?”
“I know that I can trust you, Stephen, but what if something happens in the future? What if you gain some sort of grudge for me and want to kill me? You’d be too dangerous. The answer remains no.”
“Fine. Let’s get off of this topic, shall we? I heard they have a pygmy giraffe here. That sounds like it’d be cool to see.”
“Okay, I’m up for seeing a pygmy giraffe. Even after all of this time, I have not once seen one of those.”
Alex and Steve continued to celebrate the day before Alex’s departure. Soon, Alex would be arriving in equestria.
Equestria, 999 A.N. (after Nightmare)
Alex was walking through the desert he had appeared in, heading towards a tall mountain with some form of structure hanging off of it. He was hoping it would lead to civilization. He was also hoping said civilization was friendly.
As he walked through the desert, he spotted a creature. Said creature was wandering around, seemingly lost. ‘I suppose I may go ahead and engage in my first alien interaction,’ Alex thought to himself as he walked towards it. ‘I’ve never seen a creature quite like it. Quadrupedal, almost equine in appearance. I might say it was some sort of micro horse except for the fact that it has a carapace and insectoid wings. I wonder if it’s intelligent?’
Alex was behind the bug-horse, examining it. He was curious as to its role in the world. Just as he was about to say something in an attempt to identify it’s intelligence, It turned around in a hop and hissed.
“HOLY FUCK!” Alex shouted in alarm while jumping back. He realized this creature was hostile, and prepared for battle. He lowered his posture into a combat stance while the flesh on his right arm peeled away to expose a bone spear used back on his home world to tear through steel like tissue. He was sure this creature would be an easy takedown, as well as a nice set of genes for him to use.
The creature lunged, baring its fangs so it could sink them into Alex’s flesh. Alex stepped to the side as the creature impacted the sand and drove his spear into its side, ready to kill and absorb it.
SCRAPE!
Alex’s spear simply slid off of the hard carapace. Surprised at the strength of the creatures exoskeleton, he stared at the spear with a pause. That pause was all he needed for the creature to tackle him into the ground and sink its teeth into his neck.
“Gah!” Alex grunted in pain before changing his bone spear into a hammer-like appendage, slamming it into the creature’s head and knocking it off of him. He rolled away from the bug-horse as the holes in his neck slowly sealed shut. A quick glance at where his club impacted the monster’s head and saw a medium-sized crack in its shell, noting that brute force seemed to work better on it.
Alex jumped above the creature and smashed his hammer into the same spot that he first hit it, causing a small piece of the carapace to chip off and ooze blood. Stunned, the creature lied still for a moment on the ground. Using its temporary immobility to his advantage, Alex grew a bone knife in his left hand and drove it into the space he made in the creatures head. Sensing the sharp object within its skull, it started bucking and jumping in an attempt to knock Alex off of its back.
Alex started absorbing the creature while it was trying to knock him off, and had gone through the left half of its face before it rolled and made him fall. As he was getting up, the creature reared back on its hind legs while a green glow appeared on its hind legs. Just as he got to his feet, the bug-horse blasted a wave of fire at him. He was only just able to dodge out of the way, though his side got caught by the flame and blackened due to the charred flesh. He lied on the ground, gasping in surprise and pain before the monster slammed its head into his chest and gored him on its dagger-like horn.
“AAAAAAGGGHHH!!!” Alex screamed, the spike of chitin shredding one of his lungs and just barely missing his heart. The creature pulled its horn out of his chest and was about to impale him once more, but he grabbed the sides of its head and held it in place. The creature struggled in his gasp and almost got free, but Alex had been absorbing it while he held it. As he let go of its head, the magical bug-demon-horse let out its final breath and collapsed on top of him.
Grabbing the corpse, Alex absorbed the rest of it while his nanobots catalogued its DNA and converted its cells into the ones he had lost in the fight. His injuries would have healed even if he didn’t absorb the beast, but this way he didn’t have to expend any cells on his part. Once he was done using the cells to heal, he simply used them to grow in size. Doing this, he gained about five inches in height.
Mentally going over the new DNA he acquired, Alex remembered the part of the fight where the creature shot fire at him and how it cam from the horn. Smiling excitedly at the prospect of shooting fire, Alex skimmed the new genes for the structure of the horn. Once he had it, Alex grew a horn out of his head. ‘It seems as though the horn was made out of some crystalline material… the carapace as well was coated in it. From what I can see, the rest of the creature’s shell was made of chitin. Perhaps this material is what gave the exoskeleton its toughness… Or maybe it does more than that. The structure of the material was different in the horn than in the rest of the carapace. Maybe the horn’s structure gave the creature energy manipulation. It would explain the glow and the flame, since there were no organs that gave the beast these abilities. I will have to experiment with this new crystal material some more.’ Alex pondered the monster’s strange abilities.
As Alex walked through the desert, he practiced using the crystal material the creature gave him. Eventually, he learned that the formation that covered the carapace strengthened it and made it incredibly difficult to pierce. The horn formation, on the other hand, stored an energy within it that could be released through the horn. This energy acted in a way that seemed to defy the laws of physics, creating something from nothing or enacting the user’s will upon objects from a distance, among other things. So far, all that Alex figured out how to do was cast a spurt of fire, weakly use telekinesis, and disguise himself as something else. He could already do the third thing, though normally he required the DNA of the subject to do it whereas the energy could do it from a memory or an image. Figuring out how to use it was surprisingly difficult, even when one had control of their body on the cellular level.
While Alex was lost in thought using the energy, he almost missed the transition from desert to grasslands. It was so abrupt, it was almost like someone drew a line and said, “On this side will be sand and heat, and this side will have grass and dirt and cool air.”
Appreciating the cold air, he stopped for a few minutes to feel the wind. After his short break, he continued on his way toward the mountain with what appeared to be, at this distance, a castle hanging off of the side.
When Alex neared a village, he was thrilled. ‘Yes! This confirms that there is civilization here! I thought that the mountain castle was pretty convincing, but even that could have just been ancient ruins. This seals the deal; there is some sort of people here!’ As Alex walked through a field of holes, he felt something grab is leg. Looking down, he saw the paw of some sort of bear creature. He only had a moment to think about how the hole looked too steep to reliably climb through before this new beast yanked him down through the hole.
Landing with a thud, Alex groaned and got up. Looking around, he saw that he was surrounded by some kind of dog creatures. They looked at him smugly, as if they had the upper hand here.
“We surround you. Give up, and maybe we treat you nice,” the dog in the front spoke to him in broken English.
‘So they speak English? Good to know. Very helpful for me, considering I no longer have to learn a new language just to communicate with the locals.’ Alex thought, appreciating this new development.
“And you think I’m just going to give up like that? If you wish to take me prisoner for any reason, expect to fight for it.” Alex replied to the dogs, thinking up ways he could take them down.
“Well, you warned,” the dog said smugly, expecting an easy fight. “Capture him!” the dog shouted.
With that, the dogs charged all as one. Jumping over their heads, Alex shifted his hands into heavy, boulder-like clubs covered in short, thin spikes. He covered them in a layer of the crystal substance, making them extremely strong. He then landed on the opposite side of the ring of dogs and threw one fist at the closest dog. The dog was sent flying into a nearby wall.
The next dog was forced into the air when Alex punched him in the chin. He lived from that, surprisingly. He then made some more room around him by swinging his fists around him, spinning him on his heels and sending any dogs unlucky enough to get too close crashing into a wall.
Using the room he was given, Alex took in the DNA left by the blood of a dog he punched. He then turned his arms from the spiked boulders into many long, ropey tentacles which he wrapped around each dog and used to hoist them into the air. Slowly squeezing the air out of the dogs’ lungs, he asked “Do you give in, or must I start killing you?”
“NO, WAIT!” the lead dog shrieked, “Let us live! We’re sorry! We let you go! Just please, don’t kill us!”
“Hmmm…” Alex pretended to ponder the dog’s begging for a moment, squeezing the tentacles around the dogs tighter all the while.
“ACK!” a dog choked, his face turning a pale blue.
“Fine, I’ll spare you,” Alex finally said, releasing the dogs who were gasping in air, “but in return I want you to take me to your leader. I wish to see who would control such a measly group and convince them they could fight.”
“Yes! Yes, we bring you to boss!” the dog agreed anxiously, directing Alex and the rest of the dogs to follow him as he walked to a nearby tunnel.
After several minutes of walking, they finally arrived in a large and shiny cavern. Piles of gold coins and gems lay nearby, identifying the area as some sort of treasure stash.
“What you idiots doing!?” a voice shouted from above the furthest treasure pile, “You supposed to capture ponies! Why you bring me an ape!?”
“Uh, sorry boss, but he said he want to see you. So we bring him here.” The one who spoke to me earlier replied.
“You listen to me, not some monkey! Get rid of him, and next time you bring useless creature I kill you!” the boss, which Alex could now identify as a pit-bull variant of the dogs, said.
“Now see here, Mr.Bossyface, these fellows were simply taking me to see you after I laid the smack down on them. There’s no need to start a hissyfit.”