Chapter 1
How could I have been so careless.... there I was.... plunging towards a planet I knew nothing about... inside of a green egg. Was it my end finally coming? Me? A demi-god of the skies? How could I die so soon in my career? I still had a lot to learn. Pretty ironic, I thought, since eggs are supposed to be the beginning of a new life... The egg was brutally shaking all around me and in mere seconds, I thought all of this would be over. No clone to save me this time. my conscience would be trapped in this fading body. I could'nt see anything at all since my camera drone probably melted as we descended into the atmopshere and i couldn't launch another one, obviously. I was now blind and descending really fast towards a certain death.
All of a sudden, the little container's scanners started to make noise in my head. My scanners detected a large city like signature really far below.
“What's this? Civilization?! On this deserted planet?!” I told myself, surprised. “Maybe, I can be saved after all!” A shock even stronger then before reminded me the position i was in. “Oh yes! I need to find a way to land!” A split second thought came as i remembered i was in hostile territory, but the signature differed from usual Amarr ships or structures.
At that point, I was desperately searching for a way to make it out of this alive. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. In my mind, i quickly reviewed everything i could do in this little Jovian coffin: even the scanners, which were blinking red and not helpful at all. Then i got an idea about the engines and how i could use them.
“Of course! It's my only chance!”
-~*~*~*~*~*~*~-
A few hours earlier...
It was a boring day, in this unknown system my corporations settled in. We didn’t find any signature that day, not even a 'gravimetric' one to mine. Nothing.
I was bored of staying in my ship, that i commanded with my capsule, alone in our corporation star base. I was also fed up of looking at mining lasers in High security space and shuttling between an asteroid belt and a space station. That last word reminded me the station life with my parents i had. When i was younger, the technology behind capsules weren’t discovered yet. I think it was discovered when i was twelve or something. I didn't really had the skills to command a crew of a ship, but it didn't really matter when commanding a capsuleer ship since you dont really talk much with the crew. I just send them orders and they execute, simple as this.
Each time i die, my conscience is immediately transferred into a new body, to be reborn again. Of course, each time, i have to deal with the loss of my ship, which can cost in the hundreds of millions of ISK, the interstellar currency of New Eden. However, when i look back, i think of all the people who did'nt have the same chance as me. Even my parents... its been so long since I’ve seen them. Since i left for the pilot academy. I was really far from them, even farther then i could imagine. I was sitting in a small frigate, there in our corporation controlled wormhole.
When seen from the back, my ship at the time looked like a bent curved 'flat tower' resting on an arm-like wing, on its left side. This particular one was actually a modified version of an exploration ship, the Imicus, its stock 'out of the mill' version. Since it's equipped with a way better computer, it can use cloaking modules that makes cloaking while warping possible. This faster calculating equipment also increases the scanning results of probes.
While looking at my surrounding, only another ship was there and it was an Hurricane, a Minmattar battlecruiser ship piloted by a corp mate named 'Fires Darkness'. He's actually a clone of another guy named 'Duke D89'. No, those are probably not his real names, but we have a tendancy to use nicknames among capsuleers. It's just that we think our normal names wouldn't fit what we have become. Anyway, since the 'minnie' - diminutive of Minnmatar- ship is standing still, I concluded that the guy was resting or something, so he's not really there. I never quite understood how alt-clones works to be honest. How can two consciousnesses be connected to form one even though there's a galaxy between them was beyond me.
Anyway, i was sure there was an explanation, somewhere, I simply had yet to find it. I rotated one of my camera drones I used to see around and looked at the Control Tower, in the center of the star base. On my helmet screen, i could see a modified six kilometers high pirate Minmatar tower which had more power and CPU capabilities then its stock counterpart. I guessed 'Dad', our corporations CEO, got it from some pirate ally or contact he had. Like most 'minnie' designs It looked like it has been stripped from most of his armor, since some of the structure inside was visible. One mustn't think less of these, though, since control towers, even minnmatars, are really tough to destroy. An offline tower, without its shield, can take at least six hours to destroy, without heavy siege ships, like Dreadnoughts.
I looked at my star map, a map of all of Known Space in the new Eden cluster. I've set it up to see the systems sovereignty, to check if there was any unclaimed system. Not that i could claim one by myself, but we can always dream... There was a gray lone dot near a Low Security system at the bottom of the Ammatar region: Assah, that bothered me. It was weird since the system was isolated from other Null Security space. It was also surrounded by Ammattar low security systems.
This made me curious. It looked pretty suspicious since it's vary rare that a null security system like this wouldn't be connected to other 'null sec' systems and found that this system has been open to be claimed by capsuleers for a year now. I thought that strange that no one claimed it yet. Then I thought that the obligation to traverse a 'low sec' system which were unclaimables, since one of the four empires owned it, may have made it less attractive to 'null sec' alliances. It doesn't explain why no 'low sec' capsuleer dwellers claimed it. I was sure they would jump on the occasion. This was enough to make me curious about it and decided to go check it out myself.
I thought that, since I was able to warp unseen in systems, I would be able to travel trough the low sec systems untouched and explore the odd one without any problems. I went and checked my equipment one last time, because i had the feeling it would be a long trip. Of course, i would stayed in contact with my corp mates at all time, but i also knew that in null security, there's no markets where to buy new equipment. So i looked my ship fitting in my head... a modified covert ops module, a scanning probes launchers and probes... i had some speed modules to decrease warp out time. Well, its the best fitting i would ever be able to use. I then fire up the engines towards the wormhole that lead to known space and started the warp drive. The ship computer then took on from there and aligned the ship at exactly the right angle towards the wormhole, which was a few AU 'astronomical units' away from me.
On the other side lied a Gallente owned high sec system. The nebulae I could see from it was of a bright green with clouds of a brownish tint, which seems to be composed of a much more dense stuff than the green ones. Bright spots of light were illuminated in these random shaped zones. This nebulae contrasted a lot the one from the wormhole space I just left, which looked like lots of white and turquoise clouds on a dark blue background. It looked way more lively as well.
Nebulaes were always a beautiful sight. They reminds capsuleers that, even when flying the biggest ship ever, they're still almost nothing compared to the gigantic size of the universe, i thought, ...and it's even more true when flying a frigate sized ship like an Helios. This made me feel so small and useless, in this huge galaxy.
The ship was again decelerating and, soon, I could see the Gallente Star gate. It looked like three rings forming a line, attached to a bulbous base, where the control rooms probably were. The rings each had an inner ring where bright blue lights could be seen circling around. I approached my ship near the back end of the three rings and sent a jump request to the gate. Once he received the authorization to proceed, he directed his ships towards the first rings and passed through it. His ship, then, became enveloped in a pure white blob which propelled him at speed greater than light. In a split second, I reappeared at the receiving end of the destination stargate and could see whitish lines forming behind me. Those were the remnants of the neutralized blob of energy that allowed my travel.
I am used to those kind of light speed traveling. Each system i went through gate, i had to warp to the next systems one. When the destination is something like fourty 'gate jumps' aways, it can take a while to travel through all of them. So, i decided to take this time to rest a bit before the challenges that awaited me, once i had reached 'low sec' and 'null sec' and started the auto-pilot. I decided to set it to the last high security system before the low security area and went to meditate before the actual journey begins.
-~*~*~*~*~*~*~-
An alarm rung loudly into my ears as a voice was telling me my ship has reached the destination system i had input into the auto-pilot. Since the auto pilot dropped me at the arriving gate in the system, i had to align and warp again towards the gate that leads to the next system on my route.
Once i saw the gate slowly appeared, I didn’t really thought anything of it, other then it was normal Amarr designed with large structures that looked shielded on one side by a huge and pointy layer of golden-ish armor. All my life, I’ve been told that ammarians were but a bunch of religious bigots, enslaving any race they could conquer, saying that their 'God' told them to. Of course, that's just bullshit, i thought, since i was raised as a liberal Gallente. "There's no god in this universe. Just us, humans, killing each other for egotistic reasons... ", i thought.
"Ah, why being angry at it, now? It's always been like this and i would never be able to change it. Yes, they're religious, but it never stopped me from traveling in here neither." While i was thinking, my ship has been out of warp right there next to the gate to low sec. I guess it must have been the stress of going there in a ship that can get blown in seconds if it is discovered, that fueled my thoughts. It was just a frigate, but these particular versions cost way more then the stock versions, on the market and i didn’t have the money to replace it. I thought then that it wasn’t that bad, actually. I just had to mine a couple of times like i did in the past. I looked at the gate and approached its rear and prepared for the light speed transfer... and sent the request to the star gate. Same thing happened, only this time, the blob wasn’t pure white but gold in appearance. On my arrival, i was still under the cloak that the gate puts on arriving ships. It was a protection against being killed, while still being unconscious from the light blob. I heard many horror stories where pilots and their crews, have been killed by pirate ships camping the gates, while still being under the daze of the travel. Of course, if it happened to me, i wouldn't mind since i would wake up in my clone in a split second, but before the capsule technology existed and clones were bound to it.... it meant all those lives were lost forever. I feel sorry every time i think about it... Losing a life- no, a conscience, an individual, is the worst that can happen, at least, that's what i believed. My mind went to the handful of people in my ship i knew nothing about.
As i was once again lost in thought, i suddenly noticed with horror the cloak was dissipating. I quickly search for the command of my cloak module and turned it on. Luckily, there was'nt anyone nearby so i was fine. I located the next gate on my route and activated the warp, only this time i was more nervous. There could be pirates waiting for me at the gates with a bubble, common word for a warp jamming sphere. If they got me into it and uncloaked me, i was done. Sadly, since there is nothing to do about it, I’ll have to do my best to avoid anything that could uncloak me in this bubble, like jettisoned canister (jet cans). It was a commonly used strategy for pirates to drop some of those around the bubble so that cloaked targets would be uncloaked as soon as they arrived in the bubble near those. That's because if there's an object less then two kilometers away from you, the cloak doesn’t work anymore.
So there i went, from star gates to star gates, again. I did encounter some ships, but no bubbles and nothing to actually kill me. It was almost as if it was too easy, but it happened to me before when traversing low sec systems, so it didn’t bother me. The last gate leading to the dreaded system soon appeared in the black horizon... wait, it was different then normal gates. It looked strange, as if it included design from each of the four empires and embedded into one star gate, with a coat of white paint on it. The bulbous shapes of the gallentes, the straights from the caldaris, the rounded spikes of the amarrrians and the armor stripped from the minnmattars. I approached the thing and placed myself at the back like every other door i took since i left our unknown system and.... I stood still for a moment. It was the first time i ever visited a null sec system that i didn’t know if it was safe or not. If it wasn’t for the fact that i knew I could easily come back to life if I died, I would have never sent the request to jump. However, since it wasn’t the case, my ship, and its crew suddenly took less and less value, compared to the knowledge and thrill I would probably get from that system. I'm certainly not the first capsuleer to have visited that system and i was sure i wouldn’t be the last, but the risk of the unknown called me and I answered.
-~*~*~*~*~*~*~-
Well, I kinda expected it a bit. I had hopes that i would be able to warp somewhere right away, but it seems I’ll have to move a little before going anywhere. Strange though, why put a bubble on this side of the gate when cloaked people can easily get out of their reach. I could see the ships standing by, waiting for a victim and had some pity for them, since i thought their commander was incompetent. Little did i know about their strategy and plans. The two waiting ships were two big Abaddons, the strongest amarr battleship. They looked like horned monsters with that spike armor on top of their ship, going right past the front and overshadowing it. On each side of the main body were eight 'slots' that could each be fitted with a battleship sized turret. Those in particular had energy or 'laser' turrets, the specialty of the Amarr empire.
These were pretty good ships actually. Even though i wasn’t too fond of their creator's believes and actions, i still was able to see a fine ship when i saw one... That was strange, the two golden monoliths had no capsuleer signature attached. Usually, each ship has the name of its pilot attached to it.
Wait, are they... navy ships? Here in null security?!, i thought.
I couldn’t believe it! The system hasn't been claimed at all. I could see that something was pretty fishy already and i only just jumped into the system. I knew I still had the choice of either continuing, or leaving by the same star gate i arrived here. It made me hesitate a little, but my decision was already taken and i wanted to explore this system, whatever i was going to find. Plus, those two amarr vessels got me curious about what were they defending. So once, i was out of the sphere, i started to look around the system for somewhere to start my improvised 'espionage'. I then noticed something... weird about the sun of the system. It's as if it was emanating something. Not something that my light sensors (also commonly known as camera and eyes) could pick up but something i felt from my body directly. Anyway, i looked away from the sun onto my scanners and they picked up the signal of only one planet in the system. There seemed to be a moon around it as well. I decided to warp to it and drop one hundred kilometers from the destination. I couldn’t know what i was going to fall in, and from my experience in our unknown system, its best to be safe then having a destroyed ship, and that's even more true in the one i was.
The two battleships were nothing compared to what i saw when i arrived there. A fricken Avatar! An amarr titan ship! It was sided by two super carriers and an immense fleet of sub-capital ships. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Why was an amarr fleet here- no, why did the amarr invaded a system that was clearly intended for capsuleers by Concord? There must be something the Amarr wanted in this system. I looked a bit more and noticed that a station has been built around the planet. It wasn’t as big as a standard station, it was actually an Outpost. It looked like two long spikes that went out of the main part of the structure which was composed of an hangar, of which the exit was between the two huge armored claw. It also had some kind of tower shielded on the outside, on the left side of it. On the other side of the main structure, opposite of the hangar exit, was a main platform for ships to dock in and out of the building.
All the ships were evenly parked around the station like soldiers, side by side. It was a true army. I decided to go check the moon as well since i was thinking that there could be a Star base there i could spy on. I warped towards it, again with the same one-hundred-kilometer precaution and my heart rate tripled: i dropped right in front of two frigates patrolling the area who were close enough to break my oh-so-useful cloak! Without thinking, i spammed the hell out of the button inside my capsuleer helmet, to warp back to the planet. My ship appeared and the two ships noticed me as they moved to engage. They locked me but I was able to escape before any shot were fired. Then, i realized i was already doomed. I forgot to warp at one hundred! Now, i wasn’t even cloaking back. I knew their ships would uncloak me the second i would drop from warp anyway. So yeah, when i arrived, I was right there, between a planet and an army of Amar navy ships. The first thing i saw was an interdictor ship, positioned near me who fire up its bubble around me. I tried to speed up in the general direction of the planet in a futile attempts to free myself from it, but it was too little too late. They didn’t even sent the heavier ships to kill me. The interdictor locked me and fired its lasers which tore my ship apart as my capsule was ejected towards the planet, accelerated by the momentum of my ship.
-~*~*~*~*~*~*~-
End of Chapter 1
Chapter 2
How could I have been so careless.... there I was.... plunging towards a planet I knew nothing about... inside of a green egg. Was it my end finally coming? Me? A demi-god of the skies? How could I die so soon in my career? I still had a lot to learn. Pretty ironic, I thought, since eggs are supposed to be the beginning of a new life... The egg was brutally shaking all around me and in mere seconds, I thought all of this would be over. No clone to save me this time. my conscience would be trapped in this fading body. I could'nt see anything at all since my camera drone probably melted as we descended into the atmopshere and i couldn't launch another one, obviously. I was now blind and descending really fast towards a certain death.
All of a sudden, the little container's scanners started to make noise in my head. My scanners detected a large city like signature really far below.
“What's this? Civilization?! On this deserted planet?!” I told myself, surprised. “Maybe, I can be saved after all!” A shock even stronger then before reminded me the position i was in. “Oh yes! I need to find a way to land!” A split second thought came as i remembered i was in hostile territory, but the signature differed from usual Amarr ships or structures.
At that point, I was desperately searching for a way to make it out of this alive. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. In my mind, i quickly reviewed everything i could in this little Jovian coffin: even the scanners, which were blinking red and not helpful at all. Then i got an idea about the engines and how i could use them.
“Of course! It's my only chance!”
I started the right thrusters to try to debalance my capsule which had its pointty nose towards the planet. It was'nt enough so i started my top thruster as well and pushed those two up to their maximum. I might have overheated them as well, but i thought they would be useless after that landing, anyway. I felt the capsule move then almost came to a stop against the air resistance. It slowly reached the point of no return and turned upside down, main engine towards the planet.
“Perfect! Now, let's hope for the best!”
I sent all the power, i could into the small capsule engine, again probably overheating it. I even fired up the warp drive as well, setting its destination to the station to try to slow the capsule down. I knew I wouldn’t warp away any time soon, but it was my only hope. I thought that I did everything I could, the ground below was coming fast. The initial push of my ship gave my capsule lots of momentum as well. Through the smoke covering the cameras, I could see more buildings, fortunately for the inhabitants, I wasn’t going to crash into it. After that, my cameras went down and i was blinded by darkness. I was panicked inside.
The capsule scrapped the top of the first tree it hit, then went right through the branches of the second leaving a huge burning hole in. As it continued its descent, it went right through all of the carefully lined up trees. They slowy but surely reduced the momentum of the capsule until it arrived to a stop... after crashing through a fence, the bottom of its nose burried into the ground.
The pain was horrible and I could feel my mind fade away....
-~*~*~*~*~*~*~-
Moving along the road, was an orange pony, carrying a closed stand behind her, the road was right along the length of her family's orchard and led directly to Ponyville. She was on her way to sell apples, as she usually do on this day of the week. Everything seemed calm around her. Last week, has been hell with what happened in Canterlot and the changeling invasion. At least, they they still got a nice party in the end, thanks to the true Candence's power and her love with Twilight's brother. Applejack never knew love would have been so powerful as to rid the entire city of the invaders when mixed with magic and Shining Armor's shield spell. At least, in the end, everything have ended well.
She continued walking along the road pulling the cargo behind her and then she looked to the sky, for no apparent reason then feeling calm. She thought it was a pretty good day so far and she was looking forward to selling lots of apples. The season has been a pretty good one and a loads of apples grew in the trees. With an orchard that big, it has been an harvest longer then usual and they ended up with full of apples to sell. She do realized she's still young though. Only last year, she truly realized their property's sheer size when she tried to harvest it all alone one time, last year. Big Macintosh was hurt and couldn’t help. Willing to help everypony she could, she went on to say she would do it all alone. Of course, Big Mac thought her crazy, but she acted out of pride and was'nt paying attention to his wise words. Of course, she ended up super exhausted and butched the help she gave to her friends. She worked day and night to harvest the apples, until one day Twilight went to see her and reasoned with her. At that point, she thought she got all the apples, only her brother making her realize that she only got something like half of them.
She stopped walking right there. She noticed something in the skies, up facing her. It looked like a small dot surrounded by bright light at first, but it was getting bigger the more she looked at it. She did'nt knew what it was, so she standed there, he eyes fixed on the unknown entitie. Soon, she noticed the object was actually on fire and realized it was an object coming right at her! She did'nt have time to do anything that the object flied right past her at a speed she never saw any pegasi reach, not even Rainbow Dash, ripping through trees one by one. AppleJack ducked to avoid being crushed by the branchs that flew everywhere around her, she then stood back up and looked behind her. All the trees next to the road have been torn apart by the crashing object. She could'nt see the farm because of all the trees blocking the road. She quickly detached herself from the closed stand and ran as fast as she could towars the farm and the unknown object.
What she discovered, seemed strange to her, not from around here. It was green and large and encased itself into the ground, right in the middle of the road. She looked at the trail of devastation and gasped at the line of trees that has been destroyed during the descent. Big Macintosh who heard the explosion from afar came out fromthe farm only to abandon his own calm self at the sight.
“What the hay happenned!?” he said loudly and panicked at the idea that his family could be hurt
“Ah have no idea!” responded AppleJack, panicked “A-Ah was walking towards Ponyville and then... and then that thing came out of no where in the skies and destroyed all the trees next to the roads!”
“'re you awright AJ?!”
“Yeah, don't worry, ah just got bruised by branches, but i'm fine otherwise.”
“Good, at least everyone's safe.” said Big Mac as he sighed.
“True but our trees are ruined!” responded AJ while pointing at the trail the alien object made in the orchard
Big Mac returning to his calm self, responded: “It's alright, we got more then enough apples. Ah' would be more worried about that thing, if I were you.”
Applejack stopped looking at Big Mac and looked at the overgrown egg, just outside of their front gate. “Do you think it's hostile?” she said looking back at Big Mac
Big mac, shrugged.
“This looks scary...” she said as she looked at the overgrown object, worried, and thought “Ah...Ah'll go get Twilight. Maybe she will be able to help us with this... egg...”
Big Macintosh nodded and Applejack ran towards Ponyville.
-~*~*~*~*~*~*~-
The purple mare was reading a book she found deep into a hidden part of the basement of the library. In it, was written all of the thoughts and calculations somepony made showing that the whole princesses-raising-the-sun-and-the-moon was but a lie and that they only made it up so that they could be leaders of the kingdom. Of course, Twilight thought that the author, her predecessor as the librarian, went crazy with conspiracy theories, and she didn’t even finish reading the book. She thought however that no book should be left forgotten. Something in her, was curious about what the ex-book guardian had to say.
Twilight, believing her teacher 'knew' all of this was but simple machinations from a confused pony. When she was young, she actually saw Celestia raise the sun, one morning and that's even been one of the events that made her realize what she wanted to do in life and study magic. She came back upstairs, levitating the book back with her. Since it was named 'The Universe', she decided to put it in the 'U' section. As she went down stairs to go check the other books in that bookself, somepony knocked at the door. She turned back and went to the door instead, wondering who that might be. When she opened, she saw the mare farmer in front of her, a worrying look on her face.
“Twilight! You really need to come with me! We have a big problem! Something just fell from the skies in our farm and it looks out of this world!”
“What?” responded Twilight “What is it?!”
“Ah don't know! That's why Ah came and asked you for help!”
“Alright, I’m right behind you”, said Twilight as they ran towards the Apple Orchard.
After running for some minutes they arrived at the farm where Twilight saw 'it' for the first time. It was shaped like a huge green shiny metallic egg.
Twilight was stunned by the scene. A whole row of trees have either been shattered or cut off. There were branches, shuncks of wood and apples everywhere! "Wow! This place is in chaos!" She joined with Applejack, at the front of the strange object.
"Don't tell me, that thing made a hay' of a mess. Now, do you have any idea what that might be?"
“I... I've never seen anything like this before! It does look like its from another world!”
“Eeyup.” responded a familiar voice, behind them.
“Oh hi, Big Macintosh.” responded Twilight.
“Hi, Twilight Sparkle.”
“So, from the angle at which the trees have been cut, it is clear that this... egg came down at an angle. Now....” she traced an imaginary line towards the skies “...that does'nt really help...” she said, a bit scared of what she might discover.
The orange mare got annoyed: “Ah for Celestia's sake!”
“I'm sorry Applejack, I have no idea what is this. Maybe its shape could give us an hint about its purpose?!" wondered Twilight, getting more and more stressed.
“You mean... like an egg, there would be something inside?”
“It is possible, indeed.”
“Hum, ah'm not sure I wanna know what's inside, to be honest."
"Me neither i don't. That thing gives me the creeps" said Twilight as she looked at the organic looking dark green egg in front of her.
“Maybe, we can just wait a little and see if anything happens...” said AppleJack
"You're right, we should'nt touch it. We never know if anything could happen.
"..."
After 15 minutes of waiting and starring at the alien object, nothing happenned yet.
"Well, this looks pretty dead..." said Applejack
No pony out of the three there could approach the egg. They were all paralysed by fear, and apprehension.
“One thing's for sure, that thing went really fast. All that's left of the trees are little chunks scattered around.” the orange mare said, horrified at the simple idea of it, “That egg was surrounded by fire when it came down. It went so fast, I didn’t even see it pass over me.”
“Oh, wow... how is it even possible for that huge egg to have reached that kind of speed? The only thing i know who's capable who reaching that kind of speed is Rainbow.” she wondered.
“Maybe...” said a calm voice joining them as well. “Maybe, it fell from really, really far in the skies.
Twilight knew it but she was scared of actually admitting it. She knew she would have to stop denying it at some point, though.
-~*~*~*~*~*~*~-
Slowly, I came back to my senses and I woke up, still inside the goo filled pod. I tried using my cameras, but the pod didn’t have enough power to feed them. I wasn’t getting any response from the warp drive, the engines nor the thrusters. My guess was that they melted during the fall, since they were facing the air resistance directly. The fact that i overheated them must have helped as well. The life support systems has been keeping me alive, thus why I came back to myself, but , they were going down as the pod was slowly draining the last of its power. If I didn’t find a way to open the capsule fast, I was going to die out of asphyxia. This very idea creeped me out and soon, i started to panic. Usually the two hatches are opened by stations, i couldn't open them from the inside.
Outside, the three ponies were still staring at the strange object. Twilight was closer to it and was inspecting its surface. She noticed some lines forming shapes on both side of it.
"Hum... i think i found something. Let me try magic on it."
She focused her levitation magics on the two shapes and tried pulling on them.
“Uh, oh... here we go!”, said the purple one as she first saw the huge big panels unlock, surrounded by a plum of vapor like gaz. “I'm gonna open it, be ready to attack if anything jumps at us." As the two earth ponies, prepared themselves, the two lids slowly floated on each side and magically dropped onto the ground with a loud noise.
With my helmet on, i could'nt see anything, all i saw was the screen, in front of my face, but i did felt the pod move as it resonated through the goo. I turned off my helmet screen and I gasped as i saw three alien creatures standing in front of me. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I actually discovered a new sentient specie? They looked as if they came out of a children's cartoon holo. The three had different colors and i was wondering if they were from different races. The purple one on the most left had some kind of pointy appendages that was shining the same way as the hatches did. To be honest, It was hard for me to actually believe they were real, after all the dark stuff i saw in space. I was scared and curious as to what they would do to me, even though they looked smaller than me, that's only because they were standing on 4 legs.
My head started to hurt and i started to become dizzy all of a sudden.Then i remembered i was going to be out of oxygen in less then a minute and tried to get their attention to the lid keeping the tube closed. I needed to come out of this glass container. I started trying to kick the small lid, but in goo, i did'nt have enough momentum to actually do anything! I could feel that the more i was breathing, the less the air was concentrated in oxygen. I pointed my neck with my hands and they did'nt understand what i was trying to do.
"He seems to want to come out... is it safe if we do? He looks pretty tall..." said Applejack.
"You and Big Mac could take him on if he prooves to be dangerous?" asked Twilight.
"Eeyup", they responded at the same time.
"Alright, there goes nothing!"
Twilight started forcing the hatch with her magic. Soon, a crack opened in it and the green liquid started flowing out, as bubbles of air entered the glass container. In mere seconds, the lid was opened and I felt myself going down with the flow of green-yellow liquid, until my body was completely out of the goo, which dropped outside of the pod, dousing the earth under. I quickly ported my hands to neck and unplugged the first tubes, hit a switch to disconnect my helmet from my brain implants and removed it to breath air, without even considering it could be poisonous. I could feel the fresh air entering my lungs and my mind becoming less and less dizzy. I looked at the tubes on my back and remembered there were no more power to automatically unplug them. It seemed i would have to remove them the old fashioned way.
I looked at the three strange beings who kept staring at me. The orange and red one seemed ready to beat the hell out of me, but the purple one looked curious.
I removed the tubes one by one from my back implants and crawled myself out of the glass container i was in. I got up and realized how small they were compared to me. The orange and purple ones were only as half as tall as me. The red one looked a little taller and stronger then the them. I guess he was a male and they were females. He started out of a sudden
“Who and what are you?”
“My name is LeHarfang.” I told him, a little to proud.
“From where are you.... LeHarfang...” the orange little horse asked, cautiously.
“I come from space.”
The three ponies frowned in confusion as I said the last word: 'space'.
“You mean, up there in the stars?!” asked the orange one surprised and even more horrified at the answer.
“Yes.”
Now I realized that I was alone from my specie, down here. I almost suffocated into that damn goo, and now, i was'nt sure if i could trust these three.
“Alright,” the purple horned one said as she closed back the two hatches behind me “you're saying you come from the stars right?”
I nodded
“I see... now the most important question: What... what brought you here?" asked Twilight who looked worried. The two other horses were looking at me, waiting for my answer as well, prepared to face any attacks.
“Well, i wasn't planning on actually descending upon this planet to be honest.”, I said and looked at my surroundings, wondering I was going to get out of this mess. The three equine-like creatures obviously didn't understand what I meant. "Look, its complicated. Can we get somewhere a little bit more comfy to discuss about it?"
“Honetsly, I'm kinda curious to hear what he has to say. What do you think Applejack?” she asked the orange one.
"How about mah farm?" she said, getting angry. "I need answers! Why did you attack mah farm!"
I looked behind my capsule only to notice all the damage done. The trees on the other side of the road were in pretty bad shape, and some were still smoking.
“Attack your farm?! I never did such a thing! As you may have noticed I crashed into it, that's a big difference! I mean i 'would' help, but i still need to recover a bit from what happenned. I mean, i never actually wanted to be dropped onto this goddamn planet!” I responded in defense
"What do you mean by 'unforeseen'." as her angry face became laced with confusion.
"Well, obviously you know nothing of what's going on up there so it's gonna be complicated. How about we talk about that later? I mean, I don't even know where the hell I am in the first place."
“Alraight... but you must promise you're going to help us, repair the farm.”
“I...” I stopped but I then continued when I saw those narrowed eyes “Yeah, I promise. I swear, i'm gonna help repair the damage once I'm done with this mess.”
“You better!” as she came back to her angry face “Don't ever forget you promised!”
“I won't!” I responded as tensed as if a fleet commander ordered me to do so.
“Good.” she then looked at the purple creature, “Hum, mind if I come too, Twilight? I'm kinda curious as well about what he has to say to explain what he did.” she said.
Twilight responded: “Of course I don’t mind, Applejack. I would need help anyway, if..." she started to whisper down to Applejack, "...he suddenly attack me.” Applejack responded with the same low voice.
"Yeah... ah don't trust him yet, either, but ah guess we have to comply with his conditions if we want to hear anything else."
I heard a faint Applejack through their whisper and i could see it in their face: they didn't trust me. I wondered if I haven't been better off dead, then in this mess.
“Alright, Big Macintosh, can you take care of the farm while ah'm gone? I don't how long I will be.”
The big red one whose name was Big Macintosh responded simply: “Eeyup!”
So the two creatures and I went down the road, towards Twilight's home.
-~*~*~*~*~*~*~-
End of Chapter 2
Chapter 3
While we were walking down the road, i could see all the destruction my pod caused when i crashed. There was a line of half burnt remains of trees with branches scatterred in a radius of fifty meters around it.
“What a mess...” i said, looking at the chaos knowing what caused it.
Applejack stopped moving. She tried to look away as she closed her eyes for a second and then looked at me:
“Why.... Why of all places, you fell in mah farm...” I could feel her anger.
“It's not as if i had the choice...”
“Yeah, right...” said AppleJack, still not trusting me.
“Look, there's things so big up there, they could annihilate this whole place in one single shot.” i said to defend myself, as i remembered the titan, and its massive fleet, over the planet. "I don't even know why they attacked me in the first place, actually."
"You're bluffing, r- right?"
Twilight, was listening in silence, looking at us.
"I wish i was..." i said, angry. "To be honest, I'm not sure if we're even safe down here."
Out of instinct, Applejack looked at the sky. She've never been so scared of the sky in all of her life.
I looked towards the sky with her and said: "I warped directly into the middle of it... and when i realized it, it was too late to stop... They didn't even ask questions, they just shot. If my pod didn't fell on the planet and got destroyed in space, my conscience would have been transfered to a new body, and all of this would have been but a bad dream...” I stopped as my exhaustion made me lose my concentration and yawned loudly "Urgh.... sorry, but it seems you'll have to wait if you want more details, though. I'm too tired." She looked at me.
“Yeah, you better tell us.” she said as she returned her focus on the road and we all continued walking.
"Great.", i thought, "I'm stuck on a planet with two ponies who don't trust me. Yeah, now I'm sure of it: i should have just died in that damn pod..."
Not much was said during that next part of the trip. I did hear Twilight and Applejack speak together, but i didn’t really have the strength to focus on anything for now. I was like a walking zombie, looking around, feeling the breeze on my skin. The sky was beautiful. I never saw a sky in my whole life, not from this point of view anyway, but there was a strange feel to it. As if just being under it was healing me.
Soon, roofs started to appear around us. I looked down from the sky to them. That architecture looked like nothing i ever saw. The houses were white with brown beams of what i thought were wood and the roofs were made of straw. I wondered how some of those houses were able to stay standing as the base was smaller then the floors onto it. The houses were decorated with flowers, bushes and a couple of pink ornaments of which, the doors was decorated like. Those looked so weird to me since i was raised on a station and lived there ever since.
Around those houses, there were lots of other creatures who looked like my 'companions'. As they noticed the three of us, they stopped and looked at me, a question mark on their face. I could see them speak to each other, wondering what i was. I felt alienated to be looked at like this, but i couldn’t do anything really about it. I was an alien in this city- no, on this planet- after all. I was as confused as they were as well when i first saw their specie, and to be honest, i still was. I continued to look around the city, trying not to pay too much attention to the curious around us.
We passed near a sizable building, around double the lenght of the houses around it, well its footprint was, that had a little public plaza in front of it. With the plaza included, the roads formed some kind of an 'H' where the big building was the inside of the top section of it. I can't describe it really since it was but a pile of burning ruins. My two 'companion' equines looked at me and then turned their heads towards where i was looking and that's when they saw it, too.
“Oh my gawsh!”
“By Celestia!”, they exclaimed at the same time, as they were obviously horrified.
I said, horrified, shaking my head a little in disbelief: “Don't tell me my ship... killed innocent people...” even though, i thought there were surely ponies in it when it went down. Such a waste of lives. Tears dripped from my eyes on my cheeks, seeing all those ponies missing their loved ones.
That's when i saw things from another perspective. I was used to see ships and even other humans as little more then things that could get replaced from up there. Crew member knows what are the risks when they sign up, so they arent technically innocents. However, this time, my body couldn’t be replaced and neither those dead ponies could. A lot of ponies were scattered in and around the rubbles. Lots were crying and/or searching the rubble. That building looked as if it was shot by an howitzer artillery module right in the middle of it. The projectile seemed to have entered from the back and came out on the front, creating a crater around three to four meters in radius in the plaza in front of it. A crowd of around twelve ponies, were gathered around the crater and some were inside, examining the alien chunk of scrap which seemed too small (small as in approximately fourty centimeters of radius) to be identified. One thing i was sure of, though, is that it came from my ship...
The two other ponies looked at me as i shielded my face with my arm, as if there was a reflex inside me that didn't want me to be seen crying.
"Are you... crying?" asked the purple one, starting to get some tears as well.
"How can i not cry... they were innocent and seeing all those survivors who lost their friends or family..." i said.
"But..."said Applejack as she had her hat tipped off, in respect for the dead. "What makes you cry for us? We aren't humans like you."
"No, but... seeing cute beings like you crying and being in pain like this... only a monster wouldn't cry..."
As i said that, a certain turquoise colored pony who was observing what was happenning looked around and noticed my two helpers.
“Hey! AppleJack! Twilight!” she said as she waved her hoof at them. Then she noticed me. She looked somehow pretty joyful for some reason, heavily contrasting the current scene, as she closed the distance between us and her. “Is he really a.... human?!”
“Yes, Lyra... It seems your theory about humans was right after all.” said Twilight, as if she was a little too much used to it.
“Haha! I knew it! Every time i looked at the stars at night there was stuff happening up there!”
“How did you know how we, humans, look like?” i asked confused still sad at what i just saw.
She saw the moment wasn't really joyful and made a more serious face. “Well, I actually saw one of your kind. It was actually two years ago, when i went to Canterlot and visited its castle. I noticed there was an semi opened door, leading to a hall, and since no guards was watching i peaked into it. That's when I saw him, speaking with Princess Celestia herself.” Twilight and Applejack seemed exasperated and i could hear a faint 'not again...' “He had two hands like you and was standing on his hinge legs.” She looked at her hooves a bit disappointed. “For those two years, i've been... a bit obssessed with those hands, to be honest... I've felt trapped in my body, not being able to get the experience of what it is to have hands...”
Somehow i could understand her feelings, being trapped in a body or a pod in my case. Controlling another body, or a ship, with my mind, that i've already experienced it as a capsuleer, even though it was never the true experience of having another body. Anyway, the human she saw conscerned me a little. It seemed i wasn't the first, after all to have encountered these ponies. I also wondered about the castle she mentionned since it reminded me the one i saw on the scanners as i was falling down.
“I understand how it feels... I could say i'm kinda in the same situation...” the purple and orange ponies looked at each other, frowning in confusion. “Hum, there is something that made me curious in what you said, though. Would you like to tell me a bit more about the human you saw, if you don't mind, like what was he wearing?”
“Well he was wearing a cloak i think. A brown cloak, that covered most of his body. Only his hands and feet were visible. I could'nt see his head though. Luckily, now with you, i'm finally able to see how your specie looks like!” she was so joyful at finally finding out about us, but it was short live. “Sadly... it had to be on a day like this...” she said as she turned her head to look behind her at the crater and the building in ruins.
“I'm sorry if you lost any friends in there... and sadly, this happenning is no coincidence with my presence down here."
“What do you mean?” she asked as he she looked at my capsuleer suit.
“Oh hum... that's a bit complicated... and like i told hum... Twilight and Applejack?", the two nodded "Yeah, like i told them, i'm too tired right now to go through it.” i responded. I didn't want to break the image she had of humans too much, right now. Not with what just happenned.
“He's gonna tell us his story and what's gonna happen later. He said he needed some rest, before, though and to be honest, we all need to rest too after the shock of this.” Twilight said.
“'No coincidence'.... do you think i could come and listen as well?” asked Lyra, looking worried.
“Hum sure, but i don't think this will be pretty.” responded the pruple mare
“I don't mind. I mean, i want to know a lot about humans! Their good side...” she said joyfully, but then went to a more worried look and tone, “...as much as their bad side.”
I couldn’t stop thinking about the deaths of those defenseless creatures and went in thoughts. There was a ghost that started haunting me and making me feel the guilt of those deaths. And what about my specie? Were we as bad as this? I knew it wasn't my own fault but...
“What is it, LeHarfang?” asked Twilight, as she noticed me worrying.
“Not- hum, nothing. I'll... tell you later, i'm too tired. This... whole mess is making me crazy...” I tried not to cry, but tears were showing anyway.
She and Applejack seemed to have realized how bad the situation was at that moment. Lyra, who saw the damage first-hand, or first-hoof in their case, looked like she understood. That human was the key to understand what is happenning.
“This doesn't sound like good news. Not sure i want to know your story anymore.” said Twilight,
“Sadly, i have the feeling you will need to, one way or another.” I said as we went on towards something that seemed to be a pretty large tree. She sighed and started walking.
-~*~*~*~*~*~*~-
From up close, the tree was as big as the houses around it, maybe even bigger. Yeah it was definitely bigger, with windows and balconies all around it. One of those balcony was at the very top of the tree and there was a big telescope on it. I wondered if we could use it to see the station and the ennemy fleet, for a second. Anyway, we approached the door. It was made into three parts, the bottom two parts with handles and the top one. The latter seemed to have a candle on it, although it wasn't lit, since the sun of the system illuminated the planet. There was a sign, near that door, with a picture of a book on it and I wondered why.
“Why is there a sign with a book, in front of your house, Twilight?” I asked out of curiosity.
“Oh it's simply because it's the town library.” she said, “I live in it actually.”
“I see...” I simply responded as I, Lyra, AJ and she entered.
Inside, almost every walls were covered in books. The main room was round like the tree and at its center lied a pedestal with a horse head statue on it. On the right, there was a stair that went to a higher part of the library, where there were some beds.
“Come, Lee, the beds are upstair. Come with me.” said Twilight as she went towards the stairs.
“Thanks... Twilight, i really appreciate it...” I responded.
“Well, i don't know you, but... i saw your tears earlier, for those poor ponies. They were sincere, and that's when i saw that i could trust you... or at least, I noticed we were both in the same mess.” She smiled at me and i smiled back.
After the stairs, we reached the top and the beds. There were two beds, one closer to the stairs, pointing away from the the front of the library and another one right in the opposite direction. If she and I were to sit in the respective beds, we would be facing each other.
So, Twilight pointed me to the further bed and I sat onto it.
“I'll have to remove that thing if I want to be able to sleep.” I said.
“Oh, I thought it was part of you, hehe, alright. Sorry, it's just that us, we dont need to continually wear clothes” she responded as she stayed there.
“Hum... and you're going to watch? You, see, we humans are kinda... shy about our bodies. Especially... well, the 'bottom' part, if you see what I mean.” i responded in a little bit of embarassment.
“Oh... well, I’ll let you get comfortable and sleep a little. Me and the others will come back later and see if you're awake.”
After a couple of seconds, as she was at the top of the stairs.
“Hey Twilight?"
"Yes?" as she turned her attention on me.
"I was wondering... do you take me responsible for those.... well, for what happenned in the plaza?”
"I don't know yet, to be honest. It will depends on what you will tell us. Anyway, get some sleep and we'll talk about that later.” she said.
I nodded and then she went downstairs. I then proceeded to the removal of my suit and, in my underwear, I took the blanket off a little on the bed and covered myself with it as I laid down on the mattress, my head resting onto the pillow. It seemed the bed was made for more then one pony so I didn’t have any size problem. I closed my eyes and thought about all the stuff that happened today, until I slowly lost conscience as started sleeping.
-~*~*~*~*~*~*~-
Something was weird. Everything around me was dark. I tried moving around but I could'nt. I touched around and realised I was stuck into some sort of a container! A green liquid started pouring from tubes at the bottom, but I had nothing to be able to breath! I tried to yell but no voice came out of my mouth! The goo was now at my waistline and i was banging on the containers! I was panicked and really wanted to be out of here, i felt more and more trapped as the goo reached my head. Soon i would'nt be able to breath anymore!
I woke up in panic as i yelled and realized it was only a nightmare. I sat in the bed and looked around the room huffing and puffing. I noticed by looking in the window that it was dark outside. I could see the moon from here, but as i stood on my feet, still weak from the crash, i approached the window. The houses outside were still there and the ponies as well, although there were a bit less of them around. What i would have given to be in a station back in high security. I turned around and sat on the side of the bed that was closer to the window. I looked at my capsule suit and sighed. If only i took a pair of pants before leaving the station... I didn't really want to put that back on, but at the same time, i could'nt just go outside almost naked like that. Well i could have, but, it would'nt feel right to me. So, i reluctantly put back my garment on.
I was hearing noise from downstairs, as if a whole bunch of ponies were discussing. I went down the steps and saw the three mares there, accompanied by what seemed like a small reptile, still waiting for me. They were all sat around a candle. The whole place was lit with those and it gave the library an eerie atmosphere.
I approached the circle and when they noticed me, Applejack started:
"Ah! We'll finally get to know all about the mess we're in."
“Hum, were you all waiting here this whole time?” i asked a bit surprised.
“Of course not, silly. I went to take a walk around ponyville with Lyra and look if there was any other damage done.”
“Anything else got hit?” i said being a bit worried.
“Well, the town hall is ruined. It's nothing more then a pile of debris now and we've heard other places got hit too.”
“Great...”
I sighed and then, the Twilight said, “I actually stayed here, all of the time you slept. There was a book that i really needed to read.”
"What kind of book?"
"Oh, just an old book about astrology, somepony left in here."
“I see, and the little reptile there, who is he?” i asked nodding towards the small lizard.
“Me? I'm not just any reptile, I'm Spike! A baby Dragon!” the creature said proudly as he stood up, bombing his chest.
“A dragon?! I thought those were only legends. Aren't they supposed to be dangerous?” i said as i looked a bit scared at Twilight.
“Oh don't worry, he's fine. He's still a child of course and he's not dangerous, don't worry.” she told me, with a worried and tensed voice as if she remembered a particular event.
“Hum... alright, if you say so. So, how about we clear up that situation already?”
“Alright, let's get on with it.” said Applejack.
So we all sat in a circle on the ground on cushions with only a couple of candles to light the darkness, in the main room and, well, i started.
“Alright, first i need to check something with you all. You do know how a solar system works, right?” they all shaked their heads in negation, except Twilight who was a bit scared. “Ok....”, i sighed, “Well, i'm gonna explain that before i move on to the situation at hand. In a solar system, there's always a star at the center. Depending on the distance at which we see it, it can be called a star or a sun.”
“Wait, so you mean all those stars we see are actually other suns and worlds?” asked Lyra
“Yes. They all have planets around them, but of course that does'nt mean all of those planets have devellopped life like on this here planet. So yeah in the system we're actually, oddly, there is only one planet-”
“Oh yeah? Which one are we on? Which one are we on?” asked an happy voice out of nowhere.
“Hum... who is that?” i responded, looking behind me.
“Oh hey Pinkie Pie!” said Applejack at the new pink ponie who just entered the library.
The pink pony looked at me for a second: “Hum, you seem familiar...”
“Huh... i... never saw you before...”
"Not you! I mean the other human!"
"Wha... but i'm the only one here, how do you even know how our specie is called anyway?!"
“Oh come on! Don't be so downy!” she said, being the most happy being- counting humans as well- i ever saw.
“Alright, anyways, lets continue.” i said as Pinkie went on to bounce around the room. “Where was I.... oh yeah: oddly enough there's only one planet in your system. Usually, there's at least four or more, but your system seems different as it only had one planet.”, i looked at Pinkie Pie annoyed,“ And obviously, this is the planet we're on, right now."
She stopped bouncing and returned the stare. “Of course i knew that, i just wanted to liven up the place! It looks like a funeral with all those candles around.” I looked down.
"It might as well be one... did you hear about the ponies who died today?"
Her puffy hair went down her look became depressed. "No... don't remind me that..." she said putting her hooves to her eyes, crying.
I tried not to cry as well, and went on as Pinkie approached the circle to hear what i was going to say. “Ok... so, that planet we're on is in orbit around the sun. For your information about perspective, by the way, a planet looks like a little grain of sand compared to the size of a sun.”
Already, i could see frowning and confusion on the face of my listeners. “Yes. The universe out there is pretty big. Speaking of the sun, you do know its responsible for the day...”
They all nodded, wondering why I asked this.
“Alright, and you do know that the night is actually the lack of sun right?”
At that point, i lost them all and their confused look confirmed it.
“I...I thought that it was Luna who brought the night...” said Twilight
“Luna? Huh... I don't know who is she, but i can say the she has nothing to do with it.”
They all gasped at what i just said.
“So... who- or what- brings the night if not Luna, Mister LeHarfang?” asked Lyra. I know it was out of politness she said 'mister' , but somehow, I didn't think i deserved that title.
“Alright, hum... how can i explain this... do any of you have something round? A ball or anything?”, i asked.
They all thought for a while and Twilight seemed to have gotten an idea. She went upstairs and came back with a floating apple around her. She then gave it to me and sat back on her cushion a look of worry in her face. I looked at the apple for a second in my hand and said:
“What the hell did you do? I mean, that glowy purple aura and the floating of the apple? You did it as well with my capsule today, right?”
“Oh, it's called magic. Us unicorns”, she pointed her horn, priding herself, with her hoof , “can use it to cast spells like the levitation one i used to bring you the apple.”
“Wow... that sounds pretty neat. Anyway, thanks for the apple.” i responded as she nodded at me, still worried and impatient of hearing what I was going to say next.. I went on with my explanation. “So, the concept of night and day is as simple as light and shadow.” There was a candle in the middle of our circle. I approched the apple with my hand under it, on one side of the candle creating a highlight on one half of the fruit and a shadow on the other. “Just imagine that this apple right here, is in fact the very planet we're sitting on right now. Do you see it yet?”
“Wait... you're saying that day or night is only because... one side is hidden from the sun and the other not? That does'nt make sense! How would day and night cycle then?” asked Twilight, being skeptical of me, all of a sudden. To answer her question, i simply started rotating the apple on itself.
“Oh now, ah get it, but... does'nt that mean Celestia was lying to us?” asked the farmer mare.
“Alright, who are Celestia and Luna? What do they have to do with this?”
The purple mare responded, as if she was speaking of her idols: “Celestia and Luna are simply the most powerful beings in Equestria and our Princesses! Celestia has always risen the sun and Luna the moon! I've even seen Celestia raise the sun when i was young! They've always been there for us ponies... well, except maybe that problem with Luna who got jealous of Celestia. You see ponies were awake during the day but not during the night. That's when Luna went evil and made Nightmare Moon. She refused to let go of the night so that the sun could take its place, so Celestia had to banish her to the moon, with the elements of harmony. Two years ago, however, she found a way to escape her prison. Me and five other ponies, including Pinkie and Applejack right here, had to use the elements to free her from her madness.”
“Well...”. I sighed as I rubbed my face with my hand. This looked like another goddamn religion without any basis. “...we seemed to have a contradiction between our two stories. From my perspective, day and night works like light and shadows. Gravity and rotation of the planet creates the illusion of day and night. From your perspective, you were taught, and even, somehow showed that it was Celestia and Luna who both made day and night even though I have evidence of my theory.”
“Looks like we're stuck here.” said Lyra who was sat right in between me and Twilight. “Hum, Lee?”
“Yes, Lyra?” i said as i looked at her a bit too seriously.
“What about... what about that human i saw in Canterlot? Do you think he had anything to do with the Princesses?”
“Well, speaking of false believes... from your description, he reminds me of an Amarr priest. Coincidently, its an Amarr fleet that's up there. I despise them for their disgusting religion and their believes that they are superior beings who can enslave other humans for to serve their stupid 'god'.”
They thought for a second.
“Can you please speak about that fleet? No matter how hard it is for us... You said earlier that it was dangerous and ah really need to know what's threatening mah family and friends.” I looked at the origin of the voice and it was Applejack, who was worried, but became more confident as she continued “We must know in what mess we're in.”
I sighed and remembered how i got into this mess in the first place. “Ah... Alright.”
“Here's what happenned to me in details, up there.” i coughed a little and started.
“First, i arrived trough a star gate, which is a huge structure, that can launch ships at the speed of light to another system. Yes, even light has a defined speed" i said as i saw them being confused again. This time, however, Twilight wasn't confused, as if she already knew that. "When i came out, there were two Amarr navy ships there. I thought i was in high security space, in Amarr territory, for a second, but no, this system has been rated as null security so, empires should'nt be here. Plus, those ships weren't the kind they used to patrol their system. Since i was in a ship that could cloak and travel around unseen, i decided to explore the system a bit more.”
“I warped to the planet, of course i had my warp drive set to stop before one hundred kilometer of the target, to not warp right into harms way, and that's when i saw the huge fleet. That first time, i managed to be far enough to avoid getting uncloaked, since an object closer to two kilometer disrupts the cloaking module. There were around a hundred of ships, ranging from small frigates to the gigantic , thirteen kilometers, titan. That was a pretty, but scary sight. Once i saw that fleet, i still wanted to go further and explore the moon, since there's usually star bases there.”
“Sadly, my luck ran out. I did the same as before and warped at one hundred kilometers from the moon's grid and appeared right into two ships of the same size as me, only they were geared for combat and i was'nt. Even with my precaution, they were too close and uncloaked me. That's when i made a mistake: I panicked and warped back at the planet, only this time, i forgot to set the distance properly on the warp drive and ended up right next to the fleet. A few seconds later i was locked on and shot at. My ship got destroyed as i was trying to escape towards the planet, i was between them and the planet, my pod got shot towards it, when it got launched from my ship, and, attracted by its gravity, started to descend in the atmosphere. That's the air around the planet, by the way.”
“The parts of my ships also followed me. At that point, i thought i was done for. You see, as a capsuleer, if my pod is damaged too much, the cable i had on my head would have record, and burn, my brain data and sent it to a station faster then light speed, so that i could be cloned back to life I knew, however, that this communication system would'nt work will all that air around me, so for a moment i thought i was done for. I thought it was the end for me. I mean, i did'nt know where i was going. Even if i survived the crash, i was certain i would get killed by the local fauna or something. That's when i saw a castle a top a mountain, on my scanners as i was falling down. This gave me enough incentive to actually save myself. There was hope and a whole civilisation to explore! I had to live to see it! That's when i reverted my pod back towards the ground to use my propeller to slow my descend the more i could. After that i went through some trees and as my pod hit the ground hard, i lost counsciousness. From what i've seen today, sadly, it seems the debris of my ships fell with me on the planet, though, causing some buildings in Ponyville to go down... so many unecessary deaths...” the sadness was too much at that point and had to take a break.
Pinkie cried again at that point, surely remembering all of her friends who died.
“I'm sorry, Pinkie...” i said looking at her, tears in the eyes, “I couldn't do anything to prevent it.”
“Wait a second, are you insinuating Celestia, and even Luna, is with them?! That they would allow the killing of innocent ponies?!” said Twilight, a bit angry.
“Actually, no. I never said that.”
"Huh... but i thought you were saying that because the Amarr was seen in canterlot, with Celestia... No! Celestia would never betray and kill her subjects! Whatever you or Lyra or that damn book says, I know her and she would never do that!” yelled Twilight at me and Lyra.
“Look, the amarr actually did the killing, not- ” I was interrupted by the reptile.
“Applejack warned you, Twilight.” said a voice next to her. “You knew that the truth would be hard.”
Twilight responded as if she ignored me. “But... Spike! Why would Celestia betray us! That does'nt make any sense! I know her, she's been my magic teacher all my life and she would never hurt anypony without a really good reason!”
“Ah has to admit, Twilight has a point. Celestia never betrayed her subjects over power or anything. Why would she do it now?” asked Applejack.
“What if... she and her sister were actually forced to lie to us?” asked Lyra, out of nowhere.
“Forced, what do you mean, Lyra?” asked Twilight.
“Well, LeHarfang spoke of the amarrs earlier and mentionned that they sanctionned slavery right? Maybe Celestia and Luna are forced to comply with them.”
“But... What kind of power could restrain Celestia against her will, with all her power?!”
No one answered. Twilight went into a deep thinking.
“Are you all done, now?” i said, still annoyed about being interrupted.
“What?” she asked
“Alright, like i was saying, Celestia and Luna didn't do any thing today. Its the amarr that shot my ship, which dropped on the planet. Now that i think about it, i doubt even the Amarr could predict the outcome of our encounter. They shot at me and i happened to be in the right position and direction so that i would drop on the planet.” I explained.
“Another thing does'nt make sense. If the gate to your system was built just two years ago, like it was saying in Concord's database, then that means the Amarr came here two years ago. Concord is the main police force of the high security systems, by the way. That doesn't explain our problem being that the ponies, counting you three, always thought Celestia and Luna made the day and night, and that suddenly, it seems they no more do it.”
Twilight thought about it and answered: “Well, it can be possible with enough power... but, now that you told us about the sheer size of a sun... i'm starting to doubt even Celestia could have that much power.”
“Not to mention a sun is the gravitational pillar of a system. If the sun is moved, the whole system would probably move with it.”, i said.
“So you think that Celestia... would have unknowingly moved the whole solar system all of her life? Both the sun and the planet? Does Celestia have enough power to move all of this?!”
“Hold on. I saw that power you speak of earlier and i'm wondering what it is, exactly?” i asked her.
“What is magic, huh? You started that discussion with the right pony if you want to know about magic.” said Applejack, as she smiled and put an hoof around Twilight's neck,
“Hehe, indeed. I did study magic since i was a young little filly. Alright, magic is basically, the power that us ponies have. It's usually associated with us Unicorns, because we can use it to conjure all sorts of spells, but also other races do have different forms of magic. Like for example, the Earth ponies have a special power that allow them to make food and vegetation grow a lot faster and Pegasus ponies have the power of influencing the weather.”
“Your specie is really interresting, however, we can keep that for later. What is your thought on our current situation?”
“Well...” she thought about it for a moment and suddenly, her face illuminated, “What if, it was actually an illusion all this time? No... what if it was... a second, smaller sun, that Celestia created, that would create the illusion of day and warmth. That would also explain how Celestia managed to move the sun, without Luna caring for the night! It all make sense now!”
“It does make sense indeed.” i responded
I just thought about something else that i needed to ask. It was about something i felt today, before i even warped to the planet.
“If you don't mind, i have another question, Twilight.”
“Of course i don't. Ask anything about magic!” she responded still full of glee from her discovery.
"How does it feel when magic courses through you?"
"Huh? That's a strange question. Well, I don't really know how it feels actually. We just knows it's there.
“From where does this energy, or 'magic' as you call it, comes from?”
“It's inside all of us. It comes from our own bodies, i can feel it flow from it through my horn to manipulate it.”
“That was'nt my question...”
“What do you mean?” she responded confused.
“I mean, that's strange. I felt something course though my body as soon as i arrived in the system. I never felt that way before. From where does this magic, that's in your body, comes from? Everything has a cause and an effect. Your powers ain’t different.”
“I.... I...” she looked at a loss for ideas.
“I don't know!”
“What? What do you mean you don't know?!” said Applejack in disbelief.
Twilight, went on, ashamed of herself looking at both me and Applejack alternatively. “I asked myself that question as well for a long time, but never was able to find anything. Even in the books here and in Canterlot that speaks about Equestria's history and magic. They all say that ponies can use magic... but how ponies got those powers, nothing on that.”
“Maybe... because there was one thing you, ponies, could never saw, under Celestia and Luna's illusions, that you mentionned earlier...”, i started, “...but we humans could see from our point of view.”
“You mean... the real sun?”
“Maybe...”
“Yeah... it does make sense. That illusion is preventing us from studying the rays of the real sun. I detect nothing when i feel the rays of the sun, well illusion sun, on me. I guess Celestia put a spell on it so that we can't identify her magic signature.” she said.
“We don't know yet what was the goal of Celestia in putting that illusion up, however, but it wasn't when she was with-” she stopped for a second and wet on “... huh... under control of the Amarr.” Her mind clearly revolted the idea that Celestia would have betrayed them.
“We don't know of Celestia's motive behind that illusion, indeed, but it does explain why your specie have been in the shadows all of this time. If the sun really has a special property that give you ponies power over matter, that would also explain why the Amarr got interrested in this system.” i said. “I'm pretty sure they would want to study and be able to use it as well. Kowing them, they probably think its some kind of divine power or some crap like that...”
“Well, that's kinda cleared, even though it's just a theory for now.”said Lyra, “Still, their presence worry me a little. As much as i wanted to encounter humans, those Amarrs don't seem too friendly.”
“I agree, they didn't hesitate to shoot me, after all, even if i had neutral standings with them. It's as if they wanted to keep the existence of magic and your specie a secret to the rest of New Eden by killing pods before they could acknowledge what we discovered today and tell it to the rest of New Eden.” All this conspiracy theorism made me smile as i thought i understood the plans of the Amarr. “Unfortunately for them, i crash landed on the planet and... crap...” Suddenly, my smirk disappeared as I realized I was probably a threat to them and that they would probably want to kill me... and i was vulnerable down here.
“What is it? LeH you look pale?”
“He's obviously thinking that the baddies up there will want to come down here and kill him, because he knows too much!!” said Pinkie, over dramatizing, even though she was right. Her hair was still down from the momeries of her dead friends.
“And how about us?!” asked Applejack “We know as well what's happening...”
Was it the end? Were we, me and my new friends, all going to be killed by the Amarr because we knew their plans? No one knew. We weren't even sure that our theory was right. One thing we were sure of, though, is that it would confirmed itself pretty soon if it was true. After that really heavy discussion, everypony decided to stay at Twilight's home for the night until we found a solution to this mess.
-~*~*~*~*~*~*~-
End of Chapter 3
