It had been half a year. On that day, six months ago, a war was fought between species. A war that started in an instant, and ended just as abrubtly, with the blow of a hammer from the great skies above, which shook the ground to its core. It had gone down as the most cruel and gruesome war in all of Equestrian history, eventhough the fighting only lasted a couple of hours. Several dozen Equestrian Royal Guards were lost that day. The enemy suffered two casualties. For the invaders, it was nothing more than a strike, a mission to retrieve a single citizen. For Equestria, it was the end of an era.
"Y'all sure about this?"
As they stood there, on the tarmac of Camp Ebony Airbase, they didn't really know if they were sure about it. They were about to leave their planet, and in a few days, go further than anypony had ever gone before. Aside from the Princesses and the 4 Guards that had been with them, nopony had ever even left the atmosphere of the planet that the other civilization had dubbed 'Equis'.
"To be honest Applejack, no, I'm not. What about you Fluttershy?"
"Well... I don't really know Twilight. We... We have to go, right? To... make friends?"
"Yeah..."
As they were talking, Rainbow Dash, Minister of Defence, walked up to the group, slightly startling the yellow pegasus of the group. She didn't mean to sneak up on them, but with the roar of all the spacecraft landing and taking off, you couldn't hear any form of speech short of yelling.
"Hey! Twilight, Fluttershy, I'm glad I was able to find you two before you left! When I told the Ministry about this whole plan, almost all the Defence-Secretaries began nagging about how it's too dangerous! Can you pleeaaase go and tell them that you'll be fine? They don't believe me!"
"I'm sorry Rainbow, but I can't, we are leaving in a few minutes!"
"Awh, come on! We need you!"
"Look, Rainbow, we'll only be gone for a few days. When we get back, I'll talk to them, okay?"
Rainbow sighed. She knew there wasn't enough time to go all the way to Canterlot and back in just a few minutes. Camp Ebony was just too far away. "Well, just... Argh, just get back soon, okay?!"
Twilight couldn't help but laugh at that. "Don't worry. We'll be back before you know it!"
At that moment, like it was planned, someone emerged from behind a parked EU55C Hornet. "Hey there! Are you two 'Twilight Sparkle' and 'Fluttershy' by any chance?"
The four ponies all looked towards the source of the voice, finding that it came from a human wearing what they thought to be a formal attire. As with every other human, she looked intimidating, given how tall she was relative to a pony, but something about her appearance made them all feel at ease.
"Hi! Yes, I'm Twilight Sparkle, Minister of Science and Education. These are Fluttershy, Minister of International Affairs..." Fluttershy shrunk a little, "...Applejack, Minister of Industry and Agriculture..." Applejack gave a quick nod, "...and Rainbow Dash, from the Ministry of Defence."
"And who are you?" asked Rainbow, now slightly annoyed.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought I had introduced myself! I'm Alexa Wittenberg, and I'll be your guide for the coming days!"
Twilight immediatly turned to shake hooves with the human, but remembered just in time that pony and human customs were obviously very different. "Ah! Uhh, great to meet you Miss Wittenberg!"
"Please, call me Lex. I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long?"
"Oh, it's not a problem at all Lex! We were just talking about a few things... Anyway, how long until we leave?"
"Hold on, let me check..." She lifted her arm, taking a look at her VisionAR. Twilight still didn't understand those machines, or any of the more advanced machines the humans posessed, but that was exactly what she was hoping to fix with this trip. "Okay, it seems our transport is almost here. In fact, it should be landing right about now..."
And indeed it was. From their relatively calm, albeit noisy, part of the hangar, they could see how a large white-and-grey craft, with the letters "UEE" boldly printed on the side, gracefully touched down on the hardened runway, speeding along it at a speed that would leave most pegasi in the dust. Steadily it slowed down, before turning to leave the runway somewhere halfway, while still going at a decent pace. Out of all the ponies, Rainbow Dash was probably most impressed by these machines. Their ability to reach speeds that would rival her own, was something she never imagined anyone or anything would achieve, let alone a large metal box, yet the humans seemed to be able to do so for more than 200 years.
The large craft, which Lex introduced as an H250A Dagger, rolled up to where they were standing, stopping just a few meters away from them. Rainbow had already began to head for the vehicle to inspect it more closely, when Lex quickly pulled her back, yelling at Rainbow that it was too dangerous to get near it at that point. All of the ponies present moved back a bit, slightly scared by what Lex was saying. In an effort to calm them, she quickly corrected her mistake, explaining that she meant that the engines suck in a lot of air while active, and that they might get sucked in if they were too close. She didn't need to explain how that might be bad.
After a few minutes, the crew of the H250 had shut down the engines, and one of the crewmembers opened a ramp on the rear. He looked over at the ponies, took a quick glance at Lex, and then said, in his full Southern accent: "So, y'all 'r them ponies we meant'a transport?"
"Wot in tarnation..." mumbled Applejack.
"Good to see you too, Rick..." Lex sighed, and introduced the ponies. "I'd like you all to meet Rick Stoner, our shuttle-pilot. But don't worry about him, he will only be taking us up into orbit, where we will dock with a bigger ship that will you to our solar system! Are you all as excited as I am?" If anybody at the Council ever asked why she acted like that, she would tell them that she wanted to impress the ponies. The fact that it helped even slightly to avert attention form Rick was simply a welcome bonus.
Applejack had walked up to the Dagger, and slightly brushed the side of it with her hoof. "So this here thingy goes up in the sky? How's that work? Don't see no propellor-thingies on it." She was ofcourse reffering to the fact that all matters of machine-flight she ever knew, were performed using propellors. Things like the airships that frequented Canterlot, for example.
Seeing how Applejack seemed to show interest in his spacecraft, Rick slowly shuffled towards her, hands in his flight-suit's pockets. "Well, since ah like yer accent, I reckon I oughta tell ya a bit 'bout 'er!"
"You can tell them later!" Lex interjected. "We have to leave now, or we'll miss our connecting flight!"
"Ah, we'll be fine-"
"Please..." Her voice had a slight hint of fear to it. "Please, just leave it and bring us to the Hermes, okay?"
Rick looked at Lex. He saw her fear, hidden behind her mask of joy and excitement. He had known her long enough to know that he shouldn't press the issue any further. "Fine. If y'all 're ready to leave, we oughta get y'all some suits!"
Twilight had seen the suits they were talking about. Due to UEE-Regulations, everyone needs a spacesuit if they want to leave the atmosphere. Apparantly, if you went into space without one, you would boil to death. Or so she was told. Normal human suits didn't have a chance of fitting on a pony. Therefore, with the help of some Equestrian clothes-designers, the UEE's Department Of Spaceflight-Safety was able to construct some prototype pony-spacesuits. They were supposedly produced by something called the 'Olympus Organization', whatever that might be. She made a mental note to ask about that later.
After they entered the Women's locker-room, Lex took her spacesuit, a beautifull white-and-grey graphene and carbon-fibre suit, designed by the Parallel Clothing Company. Several darker-grey lines could be seen where the nanofibres were molten together trough molecular assembly. For Twilight and Fluttershy, she was able to get the latest model of Equine spacesuits. These suits would be able to protect them incase of an accident, but they still looked relatively nice. Whether a certain fashionista would agree, is still up for debate.
"Okay then, here you go." Lex handed them their suits. She then pointed at one end of the locker-room."Over there are some stalls where you can get changed. I'll be there aswell, so if there's any trouble getting the suit on, I'll be able to help you!"
Twilight took the suit, and said: "Sure, but we don't need to get a stall for that, do we? We can just get changed here, right?"
"Uhm... Yeah, if that's what you want, then I suppose it's fine..." Lex said. She thought that it was a tad strange that they wanted to change out in the open of the locker-room. She managed to remind herself, after looking at the two ponies in front of her again, that they weren't wearing clothes to begin with. Thinking back, none of the ponies were, she realized. She simply added that to her mental list of cultural differences: 'They do not mind being naked around each other.' Good to know. After that awkward moment, she made her way to an unoccupied stall, and began to take off her formal attire. The Council had requested that she dressed up in her most formal and official way possible, but considering that the ponies seemed to not wear clothes at all, she decided that she could just wear normal clothes once they arrived.
After a few minutes of fumbling and tumbling, Twilight had managed to get the suit on. The suit was designed to be stept into, and then pulled upwards, where a zipper on the back would close it airtight. It was probably not the most efficient design, but it was the best that designers could come up with on such short notice. Finally having managed to put on her own suit, she then helped Fluttershy, who was having quite a few problems putting it on, considering it was hard to do without hands or magic.
"Are you two ready?" Lex walked out, carrying her previous attire in her briefcase, and with her spacesuit on. As she went around the corner towards the central area of the locker-room, she saw Fluttershy, rear up in the air, desperatly trying to fit her rear in the suit. "Oh, uhm... You... Do you need help?" She did her best to try and remain official and professional, though she couldn't help blushing ever so slightly.
"Y-yes, please..."
It took some pulling and pushing, but a few seconds later, both ponies were wearing their spacesuits. The designers had thought of (almost) everything: There was a special pocket for the tail, room in the neck and around the head for the mane, magnets on the hooves for zero-G maneauvring, and the majority of the face was still exposed, to make sure that both mares and stallions could use them, given their different facial-shapes. They only had one thing left to do before they were ready to fly.
"Okay, I just have to activate your thermal regulators. It will fill the suit with a thin layer of liquid-silicone, which will harden into a sort of jelly after a few seconds. You know, to make sure that your temperature won't change dramatically, and it will make the suit a lot less itchy and uncomfortable. Just.. Give me second... Where's the button... Ah, there it is!"
A soft humming eminated from the small devices on the front of Twilight's and Fluttershy's suits, as the soft and cold substance began flowing trough them. It filled the space between the outer and inner suit, creating an isolation layer. While Lex always enjoyed this feeling, the two ponies in front of her were clearly taken by surprise.
"Heh. Don't worry. I'm pretty sure I know just how you two feel right now." Lex said, trying to comfort the two very clearly startled ponies. "The thermal silicone should be dry by now. How does it feel? Does it fit well?"
Despite the uncomfortable experience, their suits did feel a lot better. "It feels... pretty good. Kinda nice, actually!" said Twilight.
"It... It DOES fit quite nicely..." Fluttershy said. "It feels a bit like being hugged by a big fuzzy bear!"
Now it was time for Lex to be confused, but given that their flight would depart soon, she decided not to press the issue any further. "Okay, not going to question that... Now, are you two ready?"
"Ready!"
"Alright then, let's get you two seated in the Dagger! Oh, before I forget though, here are your helmets! I'll let you know when to put them on." Twilight and Fluttershy were both given a large helmet. The front was a curved, made from glass with graphene coating, with a slight outward bubble for the muzzle, and equipped with some internal and external lights. The back and top of the helmet was made from a solid white material, a compound of graphene and carbon-nanotubes, strong enough to be capable of withstanding a bullet.
As they turned the corner to enter the hangar, the first thing that the three of them noticed was an orange earth-pony sitting behind the controls of the Dagger. The second thing was the blue pegasus standing atop the same craft, with a human sitting next to her with what Lex determined to be the widest grin in the explorable universe.
"Hey, Twilight! Can you believe this guy?!" Rainbow flew down from the H250, landing just a few feet away from the trio. "He says that those clunky things can go twenty-five times the speed of sound! And you said I can only go three times the speed of sound!"
"Yeah, so what?" said a nervous and jumpy Twilight.
"SO WHAT?! There's no way that that hunk of metal over there can go faster than me!"
"Actually." said Lex. "As much as I don't want to agree with Rick, he's right! The Dagger can reach speeds upwards of 10 kilometers per second when entering the atmosphere! Our fastest spaceships however, are the ones with the Warp Drive, which can go just below lightspeed! Although, they reach their destination faster than light, so it depends on what you mean by 'lightspeed'! I'll explain it later. The Hermes isn't going to wait forever!"
With the flightsuits on, the pilots ready, and the majorit of issues on Equis handled, the two pony ministers and their human guide set foot, or hoof, in the passenger compartment of the H250A Dagger. They each went to their assigned seat, with Twilight and Fluttershy sitting down in modified double-seats, which allowed them to lie down on their stomach, with special seatbelts safely tying them down.
"Oh, quick question: What's this planet's gravity?" asked Lex.
Fluttershy thought about it for a few seconds as she layed down on her seat, adjusting the seatbelt ever so slightly to make herself more comfortable. "Gravity? Uhh... I'm not sure. Twilight, do you know?"
"Huh?" Twilight was too occupied with listening to the start-up procedures to hear Fluttershy's question. Before Fluttershy had time to ask again, the sound of the engines had grown too loud, droning out all other sounds, including Fluttershy's question. "WHAT?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU! IT'S TOO LOUD!"
It took Rick and his co-pilot a few seconds to get the noise-cancelation operational and configured. It had to adjust to the atmosphere of Equis, which is considerably denser than that of Earth. In fact, the atmospheric pressure of Equis is exactly 1,542 times that of Earth at sea-level. It explains why Pegasi can fly, even with their relatively tiny wings. It also made re-entry very violent, given that drag was immense, even in the upper layers of the atmosphere.
Having finished configurating the noise-cancelation, the Dagger's cabin was nearly silent, safe for the occasional click and whir. Fluttershy tried again: "Lex asked what out gravity is?"
"Gravity? I'm not sure... I'm more experienced with magic than with science..."
"I suppose I could check if the planetary data has been uploaded yet. Give me a second..." Lex lifted her left arm, bringing the VisionAR up to her face. With her right hand, she shifted between several menus and selections, eventually selecting 'Equis' from a long list of planets. Her AR-display was invisible to Twilight and Fluttershy, but Lex could see everything through her contact lenses, including the planetary data which had been collected over the last month.
"Says here that it's 7,73m/s2. I knew walking felt lighter! 7,73, so that's... 0,8g? Something like that. A bit lower than on Earth, but more than on Mars." Lex said, mostly to herself.
"You'll explain all that later, right?" Twilight asked, interested in whatever it was that Lex was saying.
"Wh... Uh, yeah, sure! Okay, Everyone ready?"
Twilight gave a nod. "Yeah, I think so!"
"I.. I suppose I'm ready too..." Fluttershy said, still uncertain about this whole endeavour. She knew that, once that ramp was sealed shut, there would be no way back.
And with a hiss, the ramp of the Dagger was sealed. With every passenger seated, and all systems checked and checked again, it made its way onto the taxiway. At this point, Fluttershy spoke up to ask the one question that had been bothering her for days. "Is... this going to be scary, or painfull?"
Lex looked at her. She saw the fear in her eyes. She recognised someone in those big, round, cyan eyes. The way she was scared on her first flight. That one day where she first left Earth. Where she first experienced life beyond the ground she had known. She had been scared. But once she was up there, in the deep blue of space, looking down upon the entirety of her previous world, she instantly knew one thing.
She was going to show others what it was like. No matter what she had to do.
Author's Note
I hope you are all as excited as I am about exploring the United Earth Empire! Along the way, we'll be exploring Sol, or atleast the most important planets.
With an ear-shattering force, the H250's two Hammer Propulsion Voltaire-55 SCRAMjets fired up their afterburners, and a long sharp cone of plasma, accompanied by a sound that could only be described as the earth itself being ripped apart. From within the cabin, Twilight experienced the take-off in full force. She could see the flames. She could hear the rumbling. She could feel the heat.
'This is the power of human-technology?' she thought, taken back by the intense acceleration as the craft quickly sped up. Within seconds, the nose went up, and before she knew it, they were up in the sky. They reached 100 meters, 200 meters, 300, 400, and still climbing faster than she would have ever thought possible. Even Rainbow Dash would have had difficulties trying to chase them. Higher and higher they went, picking up speed along the way. It felt like they were going completely vertical, and sitting in their seats, Fluttershy and Twilight began to be very disoriented.
After another 10 or so seconds, Fluttershy felt like she was about to pass out. She felt heavy, carrying an abundant weight upon her. But just as everything began to fade to black, she felt something on her head. Trying to look up, she saw that Lex had reached out towards her, and had begun petting her.
Lex tried to yell over the sound of the engines, to no avail. "Try to stay awake, we're almost in orbit!" She was right. A few seconds later, the engines were cut, leaving the cabin in a shroud of silence. The yellow pegasus felt light. Very light. Lex helped her undo her seatbelt, and as soon it was gone, Fluttershy flew upwards.
"Oh my! I’m floating!" So she was. Right before her eyes, Twilight saw Fluttershy hovering around through the cabin, softly bouncing around against the walls. The best part was that she didn't even need to flap her wings. Even if she wanted to, she couldn't have done so, given the tight suit that they were packed in.
Twilight wanted to remove her seatbelt too, but Lex stopped her just in time. “Wait! Don’t use your magic!” she said.
“Why not? What’s wrong?” asked Twilight. She was somewhat shocked by the sudden outburst but quickly regained her composure. She was on a diplomatic mission after all.
Lex tried to explain: “We’re going extremely fast right now. About eight kilometres across the planet every second. We don’t know how magic behaves at such high speeds, so for now, you are unfortunately not allowed to use it, okay? We believe unicorns are trained to use magic, especially teleportation, in relative motion with the rotation of Equis. If you’d try teleporting up here, you’d end up several hundreds of meters behind us.”
Twilight was only half listening. As soon as Lex said just how fast they were going, she had to find a window to see it for herself. She almost fainted and would have fallen over, were it not for the fact that she was floating. Instead, she just looked down at the blue and green mass below, mouth agape, stunned by the sight that lay before her. If one were to listen closely, the faintest signs of a 'squee' could be heard.
“There’s Equestria,” said Lex, pointing to a green patch that was rapidly turning away from them. “And over there is… Actually, I don’t know what’s over there. We haven’t been there yet. Is that part of Equestria?”
Twilight didn’t think so, and neither did Fluttershy. Neither had ever seen their own land from so far above. Of course, they knew that there were other nations outside their continent. They didn’t answer though. To say that they were overwhelmed would have been an understatement.
“From the looks on your faces, I presume you’re not really focussed. Not to worry, there are already plans to send out some drones and expeditions down there.” Lex said to the still amazed ponies. She had flown with aliens before. Looking back on her flight with a delegation of the On’San, this was going to be a much more enjoyable experience. These ponies weren't even the first pre-spaceflight civilization they discovered, and it was to be expected that they hadn't even seen their entire planet yet.
Through the intercom, Rick announced that they would soon be arriving at the ESE and that everyone should buckle up for the approach manoeuvres.
The ESE, of course, was short for Equestrian Space Elevator, the UEE’s largest construction project on, and above, Equis. After the horrible events of the UEE’s invasion of Equestria, the Interstellar Union had concluded that the UEE would have to offer their help to Equestria in several ways, to pay back for the attack. Several freighters full of food and medicine had already been shipped in, and a facility in Van Hoover had connected Equestria to the QE-Network.
The QE-Network was a marvellous invention. It was an abbreviation of Quantum Entanglement Network, a system that used the practice of binding the state of two individual particles to communicate without delay across any distance. It was the closest anyone had ever gotten to teleportation until the Equestrians had shown up.
Now that everyone was seated, the H250 began its approach. From their windows, Twilight and Fluttershy looked out over the vast plains below, their view dominated by the awe-inspiring Midway Station. It was, as the name suggests, the middle-point of the soon-to-be space elevator, and currently orbiting in a geostationary orbit. Several hundreds of kilometres above it was Shepherd Base, an asteroid that acted as a counterweight for the cable and a source of rare resources for Equis.
The giant structure hovering before them had two large rings around it, which spun around the station, connected to the core structure by pylons. Fluttershy asked what it was for, and Lex explained that it was meant to simulate gravity for the inhabitants of the station. “Floating around in zero-G for too long is bad for your body. Your bones become brittle and your muscles start to decay." she said bluntly when asked why one would need something like that.
The docking-procedure went without issue, smoothly connecting the H250 to one of the Gates of Midway’s transfer terminal. From there they, with some help from Lex and a steward, made their way to the upper Hab-Ring. A series of stairs later, and with some small bruises and scrapes, the colourful group stood in the main hallway of the habitats.
It took the mares a few minutes to adjust to walking again. The metal floors resonated with the clanking of hooves against Durasteel as the diplomats and their guide made their way to the living quarters.
“So...” Lex began. “What do you think of the station so far? I hope it’s to your liking! Don’t worry about the walls, they’ll be getting a nice layer of Redwood planks across them as soon as the shipment arrives. Or, if you’d like, we could use some of your own trees! I’d need to have a chat with the Foreman about it, but I’m sure we could arrange-”
“Lex, please.” Twilight interrupted, putting a hoof up. “We’re both very exhausted from… Well, from everything! I hope you don’t mind, but Fluttershy and I would like to relax for a moment before we have to go on another one of those... things again. It’s just all so much, and I need to write everything down, you know?”
Lex looked at both of them. Fluttershy, who she had thought to be the more active of the two, was hardly able to stand on her hooves, and her companion wasn’t doing much better either. Perhaps the engineers had messed up the atmospheric controls? Or, maybe, they were just really tired. She decided that the latter was more likely, and so she brought them to their room to rest. They had a few hours to spend before their transport would arrive, and she felt like getting a quick drink at the bar.
Making her way through the hallway across heaps of construction equipment and the occasional Construct-o-Bot, she found her way to the partially completed bar. It took her a few moments, but she eventually managed to turn on the power to the eTender. As the machine whirred to life, she considered getting a beer, or maybe a whiskey. It was then that she noticed an option on the screen she had not seen before.
“‘Sweet Apple Acres Apple Cider’? That’s a new one. From the looks of it, it’s just two bottles, three at most. Did one of the engineers bring it?” She thought about it and then decided that nobody would be missing a single glass. When she pressed the picture of 3 apples, a message popped up in bright red:
WARNING!
High Alcohol-Concentration!
Serving limited at 15ml in accordance with the 2119 Alcohol Act
A quick tap on the screen later, a faintly gold-coloured liquid seeped through the sterile plastic tube, snaking its way to the shot glass below. As the drink left the tube and poured into the glass, Lex heard footsteps behind her.
As she turned around, she corrected herself. ‘Hoofsteps, Lex. Hoofsteps.’ She quickly regained her composure, and asked: “Miss Sparkle? Anything I can help you with?”
“Oh please, you don’t need to call me that. Twilight is fine.”
“Oh. Okay then, Twilight, I don’t suppose there’s anything I can help you with?”
“Actually, there is. You see, I last drank something a few hours ago, and that would normally be fine, but with all this stress, and the excitement, and-”
Lex interrupted the rambling alicorn. “You wanna drink something? Maybe talk a little off-record?”
“Oh, Celestia yes! Please!” Twilight was beaming with joy.
“Okay then. Here, make your choice.” Lex motioned towards the eTender’s screen.
As her large eyes scanned the display before her, they found themselves hovering over one name in particular. “Wait, you have Cider? Real Sweet Apple Acres Cider?”
“Yeah, apparently. I chose that one as well. I have no idea what it is, but I’m guessing you do?”
“Of course I know! That’s AJ’s own brew!” Twilight answered energetically.
Lex looked at the purple pony before her, and confused she asked: “AJ?”
“Yeah, AJ! You know, Applejack? She’s the orange earth pony who was with us at the airbase.”
“Oh yeah, I remember. Wait, I thought she was a minister of Agriculture?” wondered Lex.
Twilight gave Lex a knowing look. “She is, but she used to work on Sweet Apple Acres, her family’s farm. They make the best cider in all of Equestria!”
“Huh.” Now it was Lex’s time to be amazed. “Well, I guess she’s also the first of your species to have their own beverage be sent into space.”
“Ooh, she’ll be so excited to hear about this!” Whilst they were talking, Lex had ordered a glass of cider for Twilight, which was now filled. Lex took both their drinks and guided Twilight to one of the plastic-covered booths.
“I’m sorry about the crinkliness, biopolymers aren’t very easy to work with!” said Lex, sitting down at one end of the bench. “Here’s your drink.”
“Thank you. I hope you’ll enjoy it!”
“I hope so as well! Prost!” And with that, Lex threw back the drink. As soon as it hit her tongue, she was in complete bliss. It was the sweetest drink she had ever tasted, and the taste was somewhat overwhelming to her. Alongside the sweet taste was the familiar burning feeling.
Roughly an hour later, Lex was carried to the station's Medical Ward by paramedics.
"Uuuuuuurrgghhh..."
"Are you okay?"
She wasn't. The single drink from last night had rendered her completely wasted, and wishing she had gotten a biomechanical liver implanted before the terrible mistake of trying an Equestrian alcoholic drink. As a result of her dubious choice of beverage, Lex was forced to stay in the Medical Ward until the ventricular-inserted chemicals broke down enough of the alcohol so that her liver wouldn't die on the spot. A few hours would be enough, but it did mean that she would be holding up the transport.
"Don't worry." The purple pony beside her bed calmly said. "Fluttershy and I have no problem waiting for you. I just hope you get better soon!"
"But I don't understand. You drank that stuff too, didn't you?" Lex inquired weakly.
Twilight cocked her head, looked at Lex with a confused expression. "You mean the cider? Yeah, I did, but I don't see what that has to do with you being sick?"
"Didn't the doctor tell you why I'm sick?"
"No, not really. She just said that you 'had too much to drink last night', although I know you only drank that tiny glass of cider. Was she being sarcastic? Is it because you're dehydrated? Would you like me to get you some water?" The purple book-horse was propping herself up on the side of the bed, looking ready to jump up on it at a moments notice.
"No, it's... It's fine. Just... give me a few more minutes to recover, okay?
"I still don't understand how you got so sick?"
As Twilight Sparkle, holder of the deepest secrets of the arcane realm tried to gather enough data to make her own diagnosis, her little yellow friend interrupted her thinking with a subtle cough.
"Oh, Fluttershy, you're here! Don't worry, Lex is doing just fine, but she just needs to rest. I was trying to figure out why she is so sick, but I just can't figure it out. It doesn't add up!"
Fluttershy looked between the two of them with something faintly resembling a smirk. With a face as loving as always, but with a more serious tone to her voice than usual, she said: "I think I can explain what happened... Lex, humans like to drink alcoholic drinks for both the taste and a 'buzz', correct?"
"Uhm... Well, yeah." Lex answered.
"The thing is, us ponies don't get 'drunk', as the doctor called it. I don't know how it works exactly, but it's got something to do with the way our liver works."
"So... So that means, that you little ponies, can outdrink any full-grown human with ease?"
"Essentially, yeah. That's why AJ's cider is roughly 85% alcohol."
"85%?!" Lex yelled. "How is that even legal?! Wait, is it legal? And how did it end up here anyway?"
"The doctor said that they'd look into it as soon as possible."
"Thank you Fluttershy, I'm glad we got that cleared up! And I'm so sorry Lex, I really didn't know alcohol did that to humans!" Twilight looked rather embarrassed.
"It's okay. It was a misunderstanding, nothing more." The comforting words from Lex got Twilight to relax a little. "Besides, I think I'll be okay. How about you two go and wait at the gate, and I'll be there in a second. You know how to find Gate A2?"
"Lex, over here!"
Twilight had already spotted Lex from across the hall. She had been dismissed 15 minutes ago, and she'd gotten a new pair of clothes, which looked a lot more professional and official than her previous ones. "Ah, I'm glad you found it. Did you two have any problems on your way here?"
"No, not at all! We had to ask someone for directions though, but they didn't even answer us!" Twilight said.
Lex had to laugh at that. When she noticed that both Twilight and Fluttershy didn't look very understanding, she asked: "Was the person you were asking completely yellow and shiny?"
"Uhm, yes." Twilight looked over at Fluttershy, who was just as confused. "How did you know?"
"Because those are Construct-o-bots. They're everywhere around the station, both inside and outside. They're just robots used for construction, they don't respond!" Lex was barely holding back a burst of laughter, and as soon as her delegates realised what they'd done, all three of them lost themselves in laughter. It had been a long day, and they hadn't even left their planet's orbit yet. All three of them knew they were in for an interesting week.
"Excuse me?" A woman in white, black and blue formal attire had approached them. Her nametag simply said 'Amanda'. "Are you the delegates from Equestria?"
"Yes, they are. I'm their guide, Alexa Wittenberg."
"My name is Amanda, and I will be assisting you aboard the Hermes."
Fluttershy felt that something was off about this 'Amanda', and when she looked over at Twilight, she seemed to be feeling it as well. There was something about Amanda that was deeply unnerving to both of them, and neither had any idea what caused it. Twilight did notice that the thaumalogical spectrum that was indicative of humans was not present for Amanda. Every living thing emits thaumalogical energy, and while humans appeared to have only faint levels of energy, they were still noticeable. Amanda seemed to not be emitting a magical aura at all.
"Excuse me, but who exactly are you?" Twilight asked.
"My name is Amanda, and I will be assisting you aboard the Hermes."
"I mean, can you tell me more about yourself?"
"My name is Amanda. I am an AS-9000 model Automated Steward from the Olympus Organization. I am currently in service with the UEE Council. I was designed on Earth and built on Europa. My serial number is 229-"
"Thank you, we got it." Lex interrupted. "I'm sorry, but once you get them started, they don't stop. Standard marketing-protocol and all."
Twilight began to understand. "Let me guess: She isn't a human, is she?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, you're right. She's an android, a human-like robot." Lex explained. "We've got quite a few of them on Earth, and some of the newer models have some pretty advanced Artificial Intelligence. I've had a conversation with one for a solid 5 minutes before I realised that I was talking with an android."
“Seriously? Don't they seem... I don't know, unnerving?” asked Twilight.
"No, not really. I see them practically every day. There are lots of them at the embassies."
Before Twilight could ask which embassy she was referring to, the PA system crackled to life, announcing the imminent departure of the UEV Hermes. Amanda led the group on board, and, after showing them to their seats, left almost as quickly as she had appeared. Twilight remarked to herself how unnatural the 'android' seemed, with its perfect movement and blank eyes. Something she would have to ask Lex.
It didn't matter now. She was too focused on being among the first of ponykind to leave not only their planet but their solar system entirely. The only ones who had seen the human worlds before were Celestia and Luna, along with their personal guard. Twilight had spent hours listening to the tales of wonderous technologies and architecture beyond the wildest dreams. Now, she would see it all for herself. All she had to do now, was to get there.
And so, the Hermes departed, with its destination set. Next stop, Sol.
Author's Note
Kept you waiting, huh? 
