June 04, 2142. New Exodus Division Base 33-01, Somewhere hidden in California.
“Intruder Alert,” the intercom blared as screams rang through the halls.
Jonathan Xavia blinked, looking down from his seat toward a monitor. As soon as he found out who the intruders were, he gulped. He had known this would come soon. He’d tried to warn his co-workers about the incoming storm, but they never believed him. Fearing for his life and his daughter’s, he quickly ran toward the main control panel and activated the launch protocol. However, as he was about to head toward the console chambers, which were the only safe place, he discovered the intruders were killing all the NED members on the base, one by one, destroying every room as they moved. It was a slaughter. He then realized something else deeper much to his horror.
Other than the people in the stasis chambers, he was the only New Exodus Division member left alive at this location.
He ran. It would only be a few minutes before they destroyed everything. They were probably going to shoot down and destroy everything the NED had. He noticed they hadn’t cut the power. His mouth widened into a grin. He set about ordering a lockdown to the stasis room, and through this he safely got into the main stasis lobby, which was still free of the intruders.
“Jonathan? Jonathan! Buy yourself some time! Hurry! I’m sending the stasis room into space! Get into a pod, now! Hurry–” A scream immediately replaced by static followed after hearing the voice of another seemingly-alive employee in the building. He figured somebody had gotten to the console first and redirected him towards the stasis room. He began to wonder who it was.
He shook his head, clearing his thoughts before continuing to run until he felt searing pain from his leg. Glancing to find a bullet wound, he pulled out an adrenaline shot from his uniform and stabbed himself. Limping to the doors, he saw the stasis room’s emergency doors closing.
“Oh, crap.” He saw a handgun lying on the floor beside a bloodied security guard and took it. Afterward, he looked back and randomly shot at one of the intruders, who reacted with a yelp as the round narrowly missed its neck.
His vision blurring, he scuttled over to the doors before they had closed shut. He knew there wasn’t enough time for him to get himself into a stasis pod and felt horrible about what would happen to his little girl.
Sighing in defeat, he went to lay his back on one of the pods as the adrenaline washed away and the handgun on his hand felt light, very light, as it seemed. Suddenly, he realized it was a wand, his wand from his days as a sorcerer, with the ability to conduct a powerful séance. He chuckled, remembering how those were the best days he’d had since his time as a young boy.
Feeling the coldness, he broke the wand and began to speak. Once he had finished, he threw the wand towards his young girl’s pod which had reassembled on itself, and, before long, he breathed his last.
…
A young girl in a blue jumpsuit woke up. Her first reaction was to push away the pod covering to stretch herself and immediately call out to her father.
Nobody came.
She tried to call her father again, but, to her continued dismay, the silence continued until she spotted an 11-inch stick of silver on the stasis bed where she had woken up. Picking it up, she felt like her father was behind her, and, on one sudden turn, like a ballerina, she saw a kitten that playfully meowed back. Lily, having a fascination with kittens, picked the tomcat up, and snuggled him until she spotted her father’s necklace.
“Oh. Heheh…” Lily didn’t recognize the necklace and decided to carry it to her open pod and let her legs rest as she sat on the edge of it. “Cute kitty. I think I’ll call you… um… Jj!”
Jj meowed in approval as Jonathan, who was now the kitten, couldn’t help but feel happier for his daughter. Lily felt like hugging the kitten until she heard her stomach grumble. She giggled, figuring she must’ve slept too long and was hungry. Jj also agreed and hopped out and began to sniff out some food. Lily jumped to her feet and followed the kitten until they found themselves in one corner of the room, where a girl and two boys were eating a can of sardines. Lily recognized them as her friends.
“Hey, it’s you!” Lily called.
The girl, whose hair was black as the night like her headband, which gave her cat ears, waved back. “Hi, Lily! You’re awake! Yay!”
“Yay!” Lily went to hug the girl before her stomach grumbled again, making her awkwardly back off.
“That’s alright,” one of the boys, a blonde, assured her. “Blake, mind getting us another can of meat? And… apples! Yeah, fruits.”
“Then what?” Blake, the girl, placed her hands at her sides. “Why don’t you get your own apples, John?”
The second boy, who looked like a young Nicholas Cage, frowned. “You know what? I’ll get it myself.” He stood up and walked off away from them.
“Thanks, Carl!” both John and Blake called before locking their eyes. “You’re so lazy!” they shouted at each other.
“Hey, I’m a girl!” Blake explained.
Lily sighed in relief. At least she wasn’t alone and wouldn’t be hungry. After they had eaten, John had the window open, and everybody looked at the little girl with interest. The air was flowing somewhere, and Lily had decided to investigate. Her brown hair rested gently on her shoulders as she leaned toward the window.
“Ponies!” Lily squealed in delight as she looked out the window. “They’re so cute! Eeeeeee!”
“They don’t look like regular horses,” John commented, taking a look and immediately backing off, “and I don’t want to look again.”
“What? Too girly?” Blake teased.
Carl looked over at his friend whose face had turned red like the skin of a ripe, red, American apple and chuckled.
“I want to touch the purple one!” Lily wailed.
The kitten suddenly screeched, which activated a small panel, closing the window, leaving them in the dark, the only source of light being a few ever-working LEDs. It made Lily feel a little sad, but she was immediately cheered up when she began to walk around. For a daughter of a sorcerer who wasn't aware of the fact, it seemed like walking is a good replacement.
‘Maybe that’s why dad always takes me for a walk: it makes me feel happy,’ she idly thought as she found herself walking towards the stick. ‘What is this thing anyway?’
She took the stick and immediately returned to the others, who had the window opened again and were watching the outsiders firmly. Lily blinked as she heard something from the other side. Walking closer, she began to listen to what were unmistakably English words.
“...I understand. Where are your parents?” the voice asked.
‘Parents?’ Lily thought. “Guys, what’s going in?”
“On,” John corrected. “It looks like the tall unicorn pegasus with a… vest knows English, so we went to talk with her.”
“Unicorn?” Lily asked. “What are those?”
Blake looked at her with a stink eye. “You don’t know unicorns?” Lily shook her head. “How about pegasus, you know what that is?”
“Pegasuses are those horses with wings,” Lily stated. “I like them.”
“Huh, doesn’t know unicorns but knows pegasi,” Blake mumbled. “Cool. I like unicorns more. And it’s also called pegasi, not pegasuses.”
“Hey, pegasi are cool…” John whispered.
Blake and Carl looked to each then screamed back at John, saying, “They are not!”
It had taken a few moments before they all descended into generous laughter as the other side of the window wondered what had just happened and why they were laughing. Princess Celestia quickly assured the other ponies who were listening in that humans laugh because she knew what laughter could do to humans, and it caused her to hide a soft snicker.
The window was beside the main door, and something was leaking in.
“When are we gonna go out? I wanna meet the ponies…” Lily whispered as they prepared themselves for the night.
John, who had been a scout, had set up four tents after pushing aside dozens of surprisingly light stasis pods. Carl helped by tying them to the ground within the uneven flooring and Blake helped by ripping off blankets from the pods. Lily, being the youngest, tried to help by placing the sheets within the tents. She also helped when she spotted their items in a medium box beside the eating corner and distributed what was theirs, making John blush when Lily pulled out a ribbon since it was his, and making Blake laugh when Lily pulled out a small orb plushie.
Once they were ready, Lily decided to sing a little before they drifted off to sleep.
A Few Hours Ago
“What the?” a rainbow-maned cyan pegasus mumbled as she inspected the shooting star that had crashed right on the backyard of her princess friend’s castle. It was the most peculiar thing she had ever seen. “What the hay is this?”
Said princess pony friend was thinking the same thing, although she seemed more curious than ludicrous. “It’s made of metal and heat insulation materials,” she noticed. “It’s not made by a pony, pretty obvious, but it doesn’t look like it was made by anyone on the planet! It’s amazing! It’s fascinating, considering that it’s not made by a natural formation…”
“Pfft,” Rainbow snorted. “Only you would look at a weird mess of rocks and call it impressive.”
“Rainbow, it’s not a weird mess of rocks. It’s something too artificial to be a weird mess of rocks,” Twilight explained. “And, besides, my scanning spells don’t work on it. Weird. Unless it’s enchanted, but then it would take a long time to find a hole in this enchantment, and it looks like this is built to last for years, generations, maybe.”
“How long, exactly?” Rainbow wondered. “All I understood is that this weird mess of rocks is made by something with a spell that makes it stay good for… years?”
“Probably even two-thousand, according to how old it is,” Twilight replied. “It’s… awesome!”
“Only you, Twi.” Rainbow let out a sigh which sounded like she was more amused than before. “Oh, hey, Spike. How’s the egghead’s letter about this mess?”
“All done and sent Rainbow Dash!” Spike reported. “And I also took the liberty of asking Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts about ‘large iron rocks falling out the sky’ and what to do when somepony reports about it.”
“That’s an excellent idea, Spike. I was about to send one myself about these rocks,” Rainbow praised the baby dragon, assistant of the lavender alicorn pony. “So… what now, Twi? We wait for Princess Celestia?”
“If we need to, since she’s actually right behind you, RD,” Twilight pointed out.
“Pfft, hahahah!” Celestia laughed as she watched Rainbow Dash sputter and nearly hyperventilate after the pegasus turned around. “Good one, Twilight. I suppose some ponies never change.”
“So… I guess you can explain why you have to call me from a jungle exploration with my sister towards this…” Celestia gaped at the sight of the object in front of them. “Sweet stars, even after they killed themselves, they still give me surprises. Twilight, when did you say that this crashed here?”
“Uh, six hours ago. Why?” Twilight was amazed she had never seen Princess Celestia being informal, currently wearing an explorer vest, jungle cap, and boots.
Princess Celestia frowned. “Six hours ago? Why didn’t you tell me then? With this state, you would’ve missed what it contains!” she explained.
“Wait, it’s a container?” Rainbow Dash guessed. “Does it have aliens?”
“Aliens? There’s no such thing as aliens!” Twilight opposed Rainbow’s guess. “Probably some intelligent apes, but aliens?”
Before they could descend into a fight and before Princess Celestia could correct them, there were sounds of air escaping the craft as a window opened. They could hear something from the other side, and Princess Celestia leaned in to listen to the sounds, sounds she could understand due to her… first contact with them.
The first thing they heard was something squeeing.
“Oh. Sensitives.” Celestia looked at Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. “I suggest you return to your business. This is going to be a long talk. Don’t tell anypony.”
Author's Note
Interestingly, this version actually met one of the proofreader's suggestions about the girl. Sort of.
And FIMFiction keeps adding bold formats...
EDIT: I got my free week at my online proofreader and modified a few things out. I do like my current proofreader though! Really nice!
It was during the time when the sun had just been touching the peaks of the highest mountains of Equestria that everyone felt something was wrong. At first, nopony had noticed the falling star that had crashed from the sky toward Princess Twilight Sparkle’s back yard, but, as the routine begin to set in, all the unicorns felt an alien pulse of magic course through them. Twilight, who had woken up to check on the rock, felt something trickling from her nose, and, to her shock, it was blood. Immediately, she called on Princess Celestia as she cleaned her muzzle.
Princess Celestia accepted on her favorite former student’s call and used her magic to travel towards Twilight’s castle and to Twilight’s room, where the Princess of Friendship waited. Twilight silently nodded to Celestia who faced towards her backyard. Preserving their mana for possible attacks, both princesses walked to the rock just to find a doorway. Stepping inside, they saw the origin of the strange pulse.
Blake, John, and Carl were panicking. One, because their friend had an unusually high fever and two, they were scared about Lily and her life. They felt something was wrong after an ancient pulse of wind came from her friend. Little did they know, it had opened the doors of their stasis chambers, and, on their backs, were two alicorn princesses who could only gasp.
Both parties were too busy to notice each other as they watched Lily, whose skin were paler than her natural color, and was coughing as she attempted to breathe naturally, having trouble moving at all.
“Quick,” Princess Celestia instructed Twilight, “get a nurse. I think I can handle this.”
Blake looked back and nearly jumped, but then noticed that she might help. “Hey, boys, I think she can help us,” she told them.
“Who?” John glanced at her, then to the uninvited guests which caused him to yelp, then returns his view to Lily. “Okay, maybe. How?”
Princess Celestia walked closer to Lily. “I have a theory, but, because it’s been so long since I’ve seen a human, I may be missing a few terms on how I should… why are you looking at me like that?”
“We’re kids. Deal with it,” Carl stated. “Also, it’s because you’re, like, really tall, and… what do you mean? How long have we been asleep? Also, why can’t I recognize anything?”
Lily blinked and slowly sat up. “Huh?”
Everyone looked at her and gaped because her sickness had suddenly vanished like magic. Lily looked at Celestia with complete amazement, and hopped up from her bed, and the humans relaxed as Lily walked closer.
“So soft!” Lily commented as she touched Celestia’s leg.
“Wow, really soft!” she reacted as she climbed up Celestia’s back. “Look, feathers!” She pulled out a feather, causing Celestia to flinch.
“Ohmygoshthis. Is. So. Cool!” Lily added as she let Celestia's mane brush her fingers. “Ooh, a gold tiara!”
Twilight, who had been inspecting the architectural designs of the stasis chamber, jumped and hurriedly tried to remove Lily from her former mentor as the curious girl reached for Celestia’s tiara. However, Blake stopped Lily first by calling her for breakfast. Twilight was left gaping as she saw the children walk toward a corner near the window and begin to eat breakfast. Celestia found their eating antics amusing. Twilight noticed this.
“Celestia,” she began. “Why are you amused? One of them tried to take your crown.”
“Yes, because she is young,” Celestia explained. “Young and curious. How she managed to climb my back is peculiar, however.”
“Yeah, she’s like a mixture of Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy,” Twilight commented, “though they look like they’ve been trained.”
“They are, remember?” On Twilight’s confusion, Celestia elaborated. “Yesterday, I had asked about them. You and Rainbow Dash left to check Ponyville and never returned.”
“Oh, right. You did say to go back to our business, and we were having a picnic.” Twilight pulled up something. “I saw this metal panel, but I don’t understand what it says. I could go away and formulate a translation spell, but it would take days.”
Celestia saw the panel and translated. “‘This plate certifies that the settlement, New Exodus Division Base 33 Building 01, is space-worthy and in a position to evacuate…’” Celestia stopped and took the panel closer to her eye. “‘In accordance of… signed by the Sorcerer of Lufera, President of Yeltor Enterprises, President of the United States of America on the year of the Lord, 21st day of June 2140.’”
Twilight frowned. “What?”
“Twilight, what’s the current date?” Celestia inquired.
“Oh, it’s the third Thursday of the sixth month, 2010 AU. Why?” Twilight wondered. It seemed like she was discovering something before ponies came!
“Two thousand and ten years after Equestria founded, which makes it about one thousand and fifty-one years ago when Equus was fully formed—”
“Wait, how did exactly did Equus form?” Twilight asked.
“Long story, involves Equestrian land being placed on their planet’s ocean and the dimensional rift expanding to take over the whole planet. Now, where was I… oh, a thousand and fifty-one years,” Celestia answered and calculated, “and the last human year was 2499, and if I am correct, and if truly am correct, the current human year must be… 2,500 plus the 1,050 years of Equus… This year must be the Human Year 3550. Now, if they said that during the year 2142 that New Exodus Division has been rumored to depart for unknown reasons, then that means the humans have slept here for a thousand and forty-eight years. Wow, and, yet, they’re still alive, without my help in the first place! Amazing!”
“...what?” Twilight, for the first time, didn’t understand a single thing the solar princess just babbled. She winced, considering her friends had the same reaction when she goes science, and now she had just understood why.
“The children,” Celestia clarified, “just woke up from a thousand and forty-eight-year sleep, yesterday, and what was amazing is that humans have magic!”
“Yeah, you said they didn’t when we headed over to the legends section of my studies.” She blinked. “You said sorcerer. Aren’t those like dark unicorns who can cast curses?” Twilight guessed.
Celestia closed her eyes and curled her lips. “That is what I told them, for human legends are rather vague about magic,” Celestia answered. Her eyes immediately shot open as she stared at the girl that had climbed on her. “...and we have one in our midst.”
“Really? Who?” Twilight looked at the group who were having canned fruits for breakfast, which was illogical, unless something or someone in space made fruits. “Is it the one with the black hair?”
“No, it’s the girl with the brown hair,” Celestia whispered. “She has magic.”
“She doesn’t seem to know,” Twilight noted.
Celestia nodded before she overheard one of the children speak the girl’s name. “Lily… Twilight, didn’t you wanted to have a foal named Lily?”
“Twinkling Lily,” Twilight corrected. “What are you suggesting, Celestia?”
“I am suggesting that you should let these humans get adopted by pony families,” Celestia began, “while you would take Lily. I would check in often, and, if we can, we will have to teach this young child about the world of magic. Once we have learned what this ‘New Exodus Division’ plans to do with their little offshoot of humanity, we will have to hope that they are not interested in an invasion.”
“Like… barbarians?” Blake asked, interrupting their conversation, apparently listening in. “Oh, please, we don’t do that anymore, like we’re going just to throw a bomb and then stick a flag in the dirt. But, then, they might try to clean out a forest then start to expand from there. And we might- okay, maybe like advanced versions of barbarians that have ordered formations and weapons that can hit enemies very far…”
“You… you humans kill,” Twilight realized in horror.
“No, we don’t!” Lily corrected. “My dad said killing is bad! I wanna hug them! Make friends! I wanna make friends with everybody!”
Celestia and Twilight Sparkle were dumbstruck by the sudden courage and the undeniable truth Lily had told them about herself. Twilight was beginning to like her.
“I wish my mom and dad were here,” she whispered just to herself, immediately wiping the tear that had formed in her eye. “They would’ve liked what I said.”
Unfortunately, Celestia caught what she said and started tearing up, understanding what she meant. Twilight didn’t, which caused Celestia to recover and approach Lily. Celestia carefully thought about what to say as she crouched down and wiped tears that caused the other children to freeze in confusion.
“You know, you can see her castle,” Celestia told her, surprising Twilight. “You, and all your friends.”
Lily looked up and locked eyed with Celestia.
“We have food better than canned goods,” she added. “I also have cake. Lots of cake.”
“Really?” Lily clarified. “Do you have cakes with sweet decorations?”
“We do, indeed. Isn’t that right, Princess Twilight Sparkle?” Celestia announced.
Twilight flinched and immediately saw the girls’ surprise. “Yes, yes we do! I know a baker who can make a hundred-layer cake for all of us!” she sputtered.
“Being a pony princess myself, I suppose you all can ride on my back, too,” Celestia declared.
Twilight’s eyes bulged out of shock hearing that from her former mentor. The other kids simply but respectfully denied the invitation but Lily had other ideas.
“Really? You’re a pony princess!? Can we go to your castle!? Can I ride on you?!” Lily requested.
Celestia merely giggled as she extended her wing. “Unfortunately, we cannot head to my castle, but her castle is nearby. Hop on, my little child.”
Lily giggled as she began to climb to her back only to remember something. “Wait, I need to get Jj and my dad’s stick!” she said.
“Jj?” Carl asked, and his answer came in a muffled meow from a kitten inside Lily’s jumpsuit. “Oh, the cat.”
Celestia merely raised an eyebrow before she stood up after the little girl had climbed on her back after returning from her pod where the cat and wand were. Twilight could see the silver wand from Lily’s back and saw how much the rod looked like a unicorn’s horn. Shivering at the thought of humans killing a unicorn and taking its horn for magic, she hurriedly followed after Twilight realized that she was alone in the chamber and the others had left, probably following Celestia and Lily. Before she followed, she thought about adopting the girl.
Heck, she was already jealous that Lily had ridden on her mentor.
Realizing that she was feeling insecure caused her to immediately run out of the chambers and follow Celestia.
“Wow, the castle is amazing!” Lily commented after Twilight and Celestia gave her a tour. Lily was allowed to ride Twilight after a long and rather annoying request and Twilight had to wear a weight-distribution saddle Celestia somehow kept on her fur to keep Lily on her back, then they promised not to call them by their royalty in return.
“Amazingly confusing,” Blake joked. “You really need to place some signs, Twilight.”
“Yeah, you’re right—” Twilight realized something. “Somehow we can understand you now? How did that happen?”
“I think it’s me,” Lily admitted. “I always do weird things when I have my dad’s stick.”
In truth, Celestia had secretly placed a human-exclusive translation spell with the kids in the stasis room, since she’d developed such spell so that she wouldn’t need a translator for all humans who needed to talk to her. She hadn't used it since humans died before her spell was universally compatible, and, by then, it had been locked within her memories.
“Okay, then. So… I was kind of hoping you guys would stay here for a while,” Twilight offered. “At least, until you want to leave. It’s okay if you don’t want to—”
“I wanna stay!” Lily answered, agreeing. “It’s okay if my friends don’t want to, but I will miss all of you. Besides, Twily reminds me of my mom.”
Twilight blushed, but realized that the stasis room was just steps away from the private rooms. She facehooved.
“What is it?” Celestia asked, catching her sudden facehoof.
Twilight shook her head. “Just some realizations that they’re currently just in my backyard.”
“Hey, does the offer still stand? I wanna stay here,” Lily told the ponies with impatience. “Please…”
“You sure, Lily?” Carl asked.
Lily crossed her arms. “I hate sleeping in tents.” Her kitten meowed in sympathy. “I hate sleeping in places where I have been sleeping for a long time, and I hate seeing those pods! They scare me!”
“You will visit us, right?” Blake clarified.
“Of course! I can just go through the back door,” Lily answered.
Like a falling chain of dominoes, everybody facepalmed as they realized how close they were after talking like they will be separated for a very long time.
“So… can I get my other stuff and move to a guest room now?” Lily asked with impatience. “I want to see how soft the bed is.”
“You are quite energetic,” Celestia noticed, “and impatient, too.”
“I dun care. You don't know meh.”
…
...
“Are all humans like this?” Celestia mumbled to the sky. “I wish I don’t meet an adult like her during these times.”
“Hey!”
“I’m sorry, dear child.”
