The planet of Hocotate was a dry an arid place with scarce any liquid water to be found on the surface. The wildlife there reflected that hostile environment and the surface boasted an incredible number of dangerous animals. But most dangerous of these were the Hocotatians themselves. How they managed to survive the cycle of evolution was a mystery to even the most intelligent minds they possessed, they had just simply won the life lottery it seemed.
The hocotatians were very greedy individuals by nature, actively seeking bigger fortunes, sometimes at greater costs than the fortunes were worth. One would've guessed that with the climate of their world and the scarcity of resources that they would've banded together long ago and shared what little they had, but the exact opposite is true. The first tribes of Hocotatians, when not fighting other tribes, were often fighting among themselves. Even far into their modern era, wars were fought over the most trivial of things, be it a trade deal gone sour or a stolen bucket, the different city states wanted what the others had. The history of Hocotate was bathed in bloodshed and greed. Then something happened that would change the course of the Galaxy's history. They looked up.
What they saw was a sky full of diamonds and endless space to live. The various city states then began to invest all their wealth into aerospace technologies and soon the first fixed wing flight took off from the chief of these cities, Capricorn. In another decade, the first rocket to reach sub-orbital flight took off from the space center in Capricorn as well. Another year saw the first artificial satellite. Soon Capricorn became the center of all politics on the planet and its now de-facto capital. Several city-states of similar influence saw this as a threat and launched a large attack against their prospering neighbor. In the following weeks, the planet was engulfed in a war that encompassed the entirety of the globe, the first of its kind. The City of Capricorn and its few allies, against the rest. In a remarkable twist of fate, Capricorn managed to secure victory over its fellow city-states and established a world-wide nation under its rule. So, with the entire planet and its resources at its disposal, Capricorn focused once again on the heavens and soon all three moons of Hocotate were colonized and new minerals were being mined. Among these was Unobtainium, a once thought hypothetical substance that could generate worm holes. Now armed with this new resource, the scientists of Hocotate sought to conquer the last frontier of their race, the stars themselves.
Chosen for the test flight of the first Wormhole ship was a Capricorn war-hero Captain Olimar. After a well documented escape that lasted nearly 30 days, Olimar returned with a trove of treasure from a distant world and the populous was invigorated. Soon ships of increasing size were leaving and returning to Hocotate laden with the spoilers of far off worlds. New longer ranged ships were built and farther stars were conquered by the Hocotatians.
On the bridge of one of these ships, the H.S.S. Dolphin, stood Olimar. Coffee in one hand and a tablet in the other. This new ship was not the largest of the fleet but it was larger than anything Olimar ever imagined. On the bridge with him was Louie, his ever present second-in-command. With them were four or five other officers busy monitoring all the screens and looking for any signs of new riches. It was getting late in the day and Olimar was ready to head off to rest when one of these officers said, "Captain, I'm picking up a strong signal from sector C."
"Sector C? That's across the Grey Nebula. We shouldn't be picking up any signal at all from this distance." Olimar retorted.
"I know that sir, and I re-calibrated the array and the signal still holds." Olimar made his way over to check the findings. Sure enough, there was a faint but unmistakable signature for a far off system. What ever it was, it was bound to very strong, and strong energy like that could feed the entire race indefinitely.
"Alright, its worth us checking out, ensign, plot a course for the system and wake me when we arrive" Olimar ordered as he made his way to his room.
"Aye Aye sir." The bridge staff replied.
As Olimar slowly opened his eyes and recovered from his sleep, he became aware of another person in the room. "What is it ensign?" He asked groggily.
"We arrived at the system and I think you may want to look at this." The Ensign reported and then ran off to the bridge.
"Better be good," Olimar said as he put on his uniform and made his way to the bridge.
He found the bridge to be packed with virtually all the ship's crew. "Whats the fugg is going on here?!"
"Sir, come take a look at this." another officer said.
Olimar pushed his way through and looked at the screen, and his eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. "This is a prank right? Right?"
"No sir, this is live footage from our drone near the third planet from the star."
Olimar couldn't believe his eyes. On the scree were colorful equines prancing about, that, in and of itself wasn't too much to worry about, what was though was the fact they were prancing around in a city made of a pearly white stone and roofs topped with gold. "This is the power signature?" Olimr inquired.
"No sir, the power we saw was coming from this tree," the ensign said as the screen moved away from the surreal city to a forest and then focused on a small alcove where a bright tree made of crystal was hiding. "This is the source sir."
"Damn, that's bright. Any locals nearby?"
"No sir, the only structure in the vicinity seems to be in ruins and abandoned."
"Okay, I want a team put together and I'll lead the first shuttle down, and Louie will lead the second. All right people lets get to it, we have riches to take."
The Bridge was flung into a flurry of activity as crew were ushered off to perform various tasks and the officers prepared to descend into the unknown. Olimar took his seat on his chair and stared at the strange city once again, and, in some weird primal way, as he sat there watching those strange ponies, he could swear something was watching from inside that castle in the city.
Author's Note
Well, here's chapter one, I wouldn't expect chapter two for at least a week, but here's to hoping.
Any suggestions and criticisms will be heartily accepted, so feel free to point to any errors you see.
With that, I'm off, have fun.
As she pulled down the sun on her kingdom and her sister raised the moon, Celestia thought about the day's events. It had started normal enough, a mountain of paperwork, a line of complaining nobles a mile long, and a line of complaining commoners 3 miles long. She endured it as she had for these past few millennia, with a regal pose, a soft motherly voice, and a good amount of self-restraint, some of those nobles would've been piles of ashes upon her Throne Room's floor under a lesser ruler, but she endured it for the sake of her people, as loud and obnoxious as they were, they were her little ponies.
As the sun slowly made its way down and the night officially began, she left her office and made her way to her personal chambers. Once there she took off her crown and other regalia and sat upon her bed thinking. Most didn't know that the two immortal sisters had not needed sleep in over a few thousand years, and when the night came, Celestia simply sat on her bed and thought. It was at the end of the night and in the middle of detailed internal conversation that Celestia noticed something off with the stars. She stood up and trotted over and studied the sky closely. It had remained unchanging since time began, but now something was off about it. THERE! For the briefest moment she saw a blink of light traveling across the sky. Again! This time she knew she wasn't seeing things and she pulled out a letter and a quill and wrote to her sister, informing her of this change and sent it on its way.
A few moments passed and Luna teleported next to her sister. "The Nobles are not pleased at this sudden meeting. We were in the middle of a very 'polite' discussion on why attacking the local buffalo tribes was a very bad idea, Blueblood said that he didn't have to lis-"
"Luna! Look at the sky, what do you see?"
Luna spared a hurtful glance at her sister before obeying and began to stidy the stars she knew by memory. Was that a flash of light? There it was again! "What in Tartarus? Sister, I am not familiar with this type of prank, it seems I still have a bit to catch up on."
"It's no prank dear sister. Not I nor anyone else I know put that ther-" Celestia groaned. Her horn lit up with a powerful spell and before them a familiar draconequus appeared before them in a floating chair reading a book.
"Why, isn;t this a surprise, being summoned by the sisters themselves," Discord did an excessive bow. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"What is that?" Celestia pointed a hoof out the balcony door.
Discord spared an amused glance and his face quickly turned puzzled. "Well, in all honesty Celly, I have no idea." Noticing the withering glare being thrown his way he pleaded, "I, Discord Lord of Chaos have had no hand, hoof, or claw in this strange phenomenon be it directly or indirectly, I swear on Mother Faust's dear heart".
Celestia sighed and looked back out the window, "Well if this is not you than what or who is it?"
"Honestly Celestia, I think you will find out in due time. Now if you excuse me, I have a whole season of Doctor Whooves to catch up on," with a snap of his claw discord popped out of existence like a bubble.
"Well Celly, this is a puzzling riddle, but I am in accordance with Lord Discord on this matter, as strange as it seems, but we simply do not have the knowledge or the cause to go investigating. I say leave it lie until it either leaves or decides to show what or who it is."" With that Luna Turned around and teleported back to her "important" meeting with the bloodthirsty nobles.
Celestia lingered a moment longer, staring up at the sky, a strange feel sank into her, like she was being watched. She shivered and took out another sheet of paper and began to write:
Dear Princess Twilight,
I have urgent need of your council in Canterlot, please bring your friends if you so wish. I will expect you by noon tomorrow.
Signed,
-Celestia
Celestia's horn glowed and the scroll disappeared and she sat down on her bed, once again plunging into the depths of her own thoughts. What was the strange star? Who had sent it? Was sit even a who or a what? All these questions rolled around in her mind like a storm raging inside her. The new enigma of the strange entity consuming her mind for the remainder of the night.
As Celestia rose the Morning Sun, a poof of green fire signaled the reply to the previous letter. Celestia eagerly opened it and read:
Dear Princess Celestia,
I am Honored to be sought for council, I will arrive half before noon. I hope everything is alright there,
Love,
-Twilight
Celestia grinned and set the letter down, and she gingerly got up and dressed to perform this day's list of chores before her meeting. As she neared her door, she could hear the muffled shouts and complaints from the few that had managed to get this far into the castle. She grimaced, signed, then putting on the most sincere smile she could do, she opened the door and and greeted the crowd: "Now, My Little Ponies, what can I do for you today?"
Author's Note
Well, what do you know, Chapter two on the same day, funny how the universe works.
