Welcome To The 'Verse

Chapters

Business As Usual
Trouble In The Black
First Contact
Our Miss Sparkle
Knowledge Is Power
Simon Says
Gaining Insight
Old Friends
Curiosity

Business As Usual

It was a warm and sunny day on the hazy moon of Fiddlers Green, with the system's primary sun Georgia and the secondary protostar Murphy tracking almost equally through the bright blue sky. Despite the presence of two suns, Fiddlers Green wasn't overly inhospitable, as it was orbiting the gas giant Elphame along with three other moons, all of them roughly equal in their distance from both of the stars so much so that they could all support life well-enough without lending to danger. That wasn't to say it wasn't hot, or without its drawbacks, of which there were plenty.

The planet had greenery in patches across its surface where pockets of humidity tended to gather more freely, but they also tended to be both swampy and dense, almost jungle like in their setting. The far drier and semi-plains like areas of the planet were where the majority of towns were settled, and work on Fiddlers Green consisted primarily of harvesting the trees of the jungle-like swamps as they were constantly flourishing, leading to the planet being a little bit sparse in other places to make way for its export of lumber. The towns had a rustic feel to them, almost old western in the structure of the buildings due to simplicity and the sheer abundance of wood, and the communities were small and tight-knit to better get along and survive.

The people of Dirtside were friendly enough, mostly to one another, and were generally amicable towards strangers and outsiders, the hillfolk that preferred a more secluded lifestyle, and even the forest dwellers that lurked in the swampland to help support the lumber business. Although the townsfolk tended to gather and wonder with a level of interest when an honest-looking spaceship like Serenity came roaring overhead as it had not long ago, landing a few miles from the small town. A couple of them talked amongst themselves as they watched a few new people outside the bank at the town's edge, having come in a couple of minutes earlier on foot.

With the suppressed warning shot fired, the few townspeople hurried off immediately from the small crowd they’d been amassing into, fleeing with the haste of people that would much rather be safe and sound in their homes than be too curious and get shot by the group of strangers. Jayne made a snide remark accompanied by a laugh as they went.

“Yeah, keep on walkin’, ya idjits,” he said with a sneer, resting Vera on his shoulder. He lovingly patted the powerful semi-automatic rifle with a smile to himself. “You know how to handle a crowd, don’t ya, girl?”

Jayne was a simple sort of man. He enjoyed roughhousing, booze, women, and guns. If he could spend a day drinking and beating the shit out of people that annoyed him, got a new firearm in the process and bedded a wench or two, he would be all too pleased and call it life-changing. Short buzzed dark-maroon hair and steely blue eyes accompanied a fairly handsome suntanned face, along with a chiselled and intimidating physique that sent women weak at the knees.

He wasn't the smartest of men, known for his greed and general quickness to anger, but he was someone to have in the friendly corner during a scuffle or gunfight, and on occasion, had a measure of intelligence to share from his rough life and skills for survival. For all his faults he was dependable when the chips were down, and he was a man that loved his family. No one talked poorly about Mama Cobb unless they very quickly wanted to find themselves eating through a straw for the foreseeable future.

The moment he'd taken to praising Vera for her well done efforts on his behalf was the exact time another of his shipmates showed up, and he lowered the prized weapon as he was fixed with a scrutinising look.

“Jayne, are you talkin’ to that rifle again?” Zoë asked, making Jayne scoff as she stopped her jog around to his position from around the side of the bank. “Any trouble?”

Jayne waved her off. “Nah, jus’ the townsfolk pokin' their noses in.”

“Let’s keep it that way. Captain says not to fire any shots ‘less there’s Alliance, can’t keep a low profile outside a bank if you’re firing at people,” Zoë warned with a look, hefting her lever-action up, the sawed-off rifle commonly called a mare's leg. “Mal wants this clean and quick, and we don’t wanna attract undue attention. That hunk of iron aint exactly what you'd call subtle.”

“I like shootin' at 'em.” Jayne started, throwing her a look, but begrudgingly slung Vera on his back, unholstering a massive .38 calibre Civil-War-style wheelgun he affectionately called Boo and using that instead. While not silenced it probably wasn't as loud as Vera, even without any suppression on the barrel as the rifle possessed.

Ignoring him, she turned about and briskly paced back around the side of the building, kicking up dust and dirt as she made her way to the Captain who was busy currently trying to break into the secluded bank on the outskirts of the small town. This was seemingly the perfect crime and the job was going well so far, but their jobs never did go all according to plan, they never had and never would. If it did go without any hitches on a bank robbery of all things then she’d buy Wash that awful new Neo-Hawaiian shirt he’d had his eye on back on Persephone, during their visit to Badger to get this little shindig in the first place.

She loved her husband. Wash was an odd fellow sporting scruffy blonde hair, a tan, and an honest smile, with often amusing ways of doing things alongside a relaxed attitude to life that complimented her serious side. He was wonderfully funny and had a habit of getting along with everyone, always managing to diffuse tense situations with his sense of humour, so it lended to eccentricity at times but she tolerated such things along with his rather questionable dress sense. Zoë was quite practical like that, and a marriage needed two to tango, he equally put in tolerance of her stoicism just as much and kept her from delving too far into her old self, the yang to her yin, in a sense. She was pragmatic and efficient, career military before signing up with the Captain, always calm in a dangerous situation.

Her bright hazel eyes scanned her surroundings for even the slightest bit of movement that could land them in hot water, yet she saw little out of the ordinary. Zoë was efficient above all else, she didn't like to leave things to chance if it could be helped. Small things, like keeping her long dark flowing tresses tied back into a tight ponytail so it didn't obscure her line of sight, or not wearing a loose duster that would hinder her movements like the Captain did as a symbol of his oh-so-rugged manliness.

She also liked the feeling of the sun on her ebony skin but that was by the by, it was just better to not be hindered with what wasn't necessary. The only eccentricity she allowed herself were the shoelaces tied around her neck, of which she had her reasons that few were aware of. She was careful with many things, to which the Captain wasn't as careful as she'd like, though he was a man of action and steadfast resolve and he'd always take her word into consideration no matter the situation, and she would always follow him anywhere. Even to darkly hidden places the Alliance took great pains to secret away such as the hellish planet Miranda.

Zoë quickly looked back over her shoulder before coming to her original position and siding up to the Captain, the man standing with a focused and busy look on his face outside the bank. She glanced around warily for anything out of place before looking back at him.

“Sir, Jayne was just keeping the peace. Told him to keep it simple.”

“Good... Once this newtech cracks the door we’ll be in and out ‘fore the Alliance knows we were even here, the fed station a few miles out can rest easy.” Mal said, mostly to a panel that he was doing his best to jiggle around as the device he was handling was calibrating, then speaking into the short-wave radio he had on his upper coat. “‘Course, that’s assumin’ we aint got any trouble inside with the defences?”

“Like I said, Cap’n; should all be shiny!” Kaylee's cheerful voice replied out of his radio.

The bubbly mechanic was back on their ship Serenity making sure everything was going fine in the ship's engine room in case the plan went south and they needed a quick rescue, it was likely she was also caked head to toe in engine grease too, though that was very normal for her. With mousy-brown shoulder-length hair framing sweet jade-hued eyes on a homely girlish face, all-too-often smudged in something relating to her passion of working on engines and machinery; Kaylee was a young woman with more optimism about the 'Verse than Mal had personal gripes with the Alliance, and she was probably just about the nicest person that most people could ever meet in their lives. If someone had an issue, Kaylee had the time to talk, a shoulder to cry on, and a hug lined up. If someone had engine trouble, Kaylee was the girl to see about getting it fixed in a jiffy. She was also very handy with fancy newtech that the Captain didn't much care to understand.

“Badger gave us these codes an’ they should work just dandy; it’s gonna be red all across the board, an’ I made double sure that the system would be scrambled when it gets disabled. Only trouble’ll be whoever comes lookin’.”

"Thanks, little Kaylee." Mal said into the comm.

“Gonna be some townsfolk inside,” Zoë stated. “It’s early morning, people are still going to work but tellers and guards are a certainty, perhaps a few patrons. Aint gonna be many with any luck.”

“Best hope.” Mal nodded, his eyes glancing past Zoë, luck was never something to count on for their crew, least of all for him and Zoë. “An’ once we do get inside, we best keep an eye an’ ear out cos’ we aint got our albatross with us this time ‘round to alert us to anything.”

He meant River, of course, their little psychic assassin girl with an innocent heart.

“Duly noted, sir.”

“Wash, you ready with the ship in case things go south?” Mal asked curiously to the upper of his duster as a twig snapped to the side of them back the way Zoë had come. It was simply Jayne doing a sweep, and he reported nothing out of the ordinary and joined them. Mal's eyes darted to the hill a short distance away they’d come over from, hoping no one was poking their nose into their flying transport they’d hidden beneath a basic camouflage. The Mule was large and bright yellow, and wasn't exactly what he'd call inconspicuous.

“I'm good, Captain,” Wash replied from the comm, in his usual jubilant tone. "Just say the word and we'll come running."

With a triumphant smile as a sequence of flashes on the device pinged, Mal eased a little as the side door, far more modern and technological than a rural backwater bank's side-entrance should be, released its locks, and shifted with a heavy whir as it opened inwards. A security door like this would make folk want to try a frontal assault, only for them to be hit by the heavy defences inside. Knocking this way with their hack meant there was a bigger element of surprise. He took care as he removed the newtech device and stashed it in his inner coat pocket; Badger was going to want the expensive gizmo back as soon as possible.

“There ya go, Cap’n! I'm readin' all red on this side. Stay safe you three, I'll sort the fuel injectors for hard burn just in case." Kaylee chirped from the comm.

“Appreciated, xiǎo mèi mèi.” Mal replied to her. He lifted his reliable sidearm, bearing a mouthful of a name most simply chose to call the Frontier Model B ─he liked to call his the Liberty Hammer, but that was only to himself─ and slowly paced towards the open door. There was a sudden heavy knock from behind that made him jump to attention, he whipped around with his sidearm pointed squarely at the gruff mercenary of his crew. “Húndàn, Jayne! You tryin' to get shot?”

Laughing only to himself, Jayne came over with Boo resting loosely in his grasp, a nasty glare from Mal and a look of annoyance from Zoë told him his work was done.

“So we doin’ this or what?” He asked, checking his pistol. “I'm gettin’ restless.”

Nodding to the two, Mal once again faced the other way. Readying his gun while waving Zoë forward to take point, they moved up together with Jayne covering the rear. The doorway would remain open, the codes keeping the system in a state of flux and playing havoc with the internal electronics. It was hopefully going to be active for a good while yet, which was plenty of time to get things done with no fuss.

Well, that’s always the idea.

Striding through the entrance and down a low-lit hallway with his long coat billowing behind him, Mal quickly paced to its end and opened the worn wooden door set before him with a shove, immediately sighting a guard in a loose coat and a clear iron on his hip idly relaxing against a wall. He was very interestedly looking at a buxom young woman in a pretty red number as she looked in her purse. Firing a shot into the ceiling Mal then snapped his sidearm down at the guard the second he jumped in alarm and fixed his attention to their group. Zoë was already moving forwards and sweeping, as Jayne sided up to the surrendering guard who realised he was very outnumbered.

As per the norm, Mal spoke up as everyone instinctively dropped to the floor. Considered to be quite a dashing rogue mostly by himself, his short rich-brown side-flip, mischievous deep-blue eyes, and handsomely boyish good looks lending to the side of pretty atop a modest masculine build tended to make him someone many people underestimated, often to their downfall. Mal was a greatly charismatic man with a strict code of honour and ethics, underlain by a darkly serious streak when he was truly angry, a side that rarely came to the surface around his crew unless it was entirely necessary.

“Alright folks, it seems you know what to do so I’ll cut to the quick. We aint here to hurt ya, we’re just here for what the Alliance are hidin’. Now we don’t quite know where it is, we just know we’re lookin’ for a fancy black crate ‘bout the size of a… crate... I suppose.”

“Very eloquent, sir.” Zoë commented, helping Jayne with moving the bank's occupants into a corner.

She quickly frisked them down for any weapons as Jayne stood watch to make sure no one tried anything that would result in injury for both sides, although he was apparently a little more interested in eyeing the generously-breasted lady in the frilly red dress same as the guard had been. To their luck there weren't as many people as she’d guessed, and only few of them were armed other than the guard, giving their weapons up with no tussle.

“Now, we could spend a fair bit of time makin’ a ruckus lookin’ about for the thing, but that’d be mighty inconvenient for us an’ for you, an’ we don’t wanna be in your hair longer than we have to. So considerin’ we’re gonna be takin’ the modest reserve the Alliance stash here an’ all, we’d be plenty willin’ to split it with the kind soul that shows us where it is.”

Mal let that settle for a few moments, scanning around at the ceiling to where he could then see the turret hatches of the building's newtech defences. A frontal assault without the hack device would have been plain stupid. He hoped Badger’s codes were good for more than a few minutes, otherwise they’d be in very big trouble. It was a small boon that this place relied solely on its machines for security rather than having several guards.

“Captain Malcolm Reynolds, thought it might be you.”

Mal turned about to look at the source of the voice, being the security guard they’d relieved of his weapon. Zoë raised an eyebrow as the man stepped apart from the mass of people past her with his hand held out despite the rifle she was training on him. He was quite the sight now Mal took his weathered features in; the wizened face with wrinkles that spoke of experience, and the complete moustache and beard that was entirely salt-and-peppered with almost a full head of hair to match save the bald crown. With his steely grey eyes the man just needed a wide-brimmed hat to complete his casual on-the-range look.

“It would be an honour t’ shake yer hand, sir,” the man smiled, grinning. “And damn me if I didn’t show ya where that black box is at.”

“Well now.” Mal said with surprise. “Ain't that something. What’s your name, old timer?”

“Danny, sir. Danny Sallon,” he replied, as Mal cautiously met him but did indeed shake firmly, carefully lowering his pistol. “Fought my part in the war. 77th regiment, Scouters Eagles. Ain't a man alive fightin’ fer Independence who don’t know you an’ yours.”

“Unfortunately I’d reckon so,” Mal nodded, catching the small smile Zoë had. “Point of pride for most of my crew, hurtin’ the Alliance the way we did with the truth of Miranda, but it painted a mighty big target on our backs, and we've gotten into a little more trouble since as well, they're probably gunnin' for us something fierce.”

“Yet here ya are, still showing those Alliance dogs what for.”

“It does tickle to keep messin’ with them some.”

“Sir, clock’s ticking.” Zoë warned.

“True that is,” Mal nodded, looking at Danny. “So, fancy showing us this box?”

“It’s down past the generator out back, they don’t keep it inside.” Danny explained, he waved towards the townspeople who promptly eyed the trio of brigands but relaxed and went about their business, Zoë stopped training her mare's leg and Jayne read the situation as being acceptable as well, thankfully not starting anything. Zoë assessed there wasn't any remaining threat easily enough and laid the weapons she'd relieved down upon a teller desk as she moved to fall in behind Mal as he went with Danny, who kept talking. “Y’all don’t gotta worry ‘bout us folk, we’re all supportive of Independence. We all make nice faces at the Alliance and dance their tune but we don’t like it none.”

Mal scoffed as he amicably followed Danny back down the hall they’d entered in from. “So then how did the tactical geniuses of the Alliance Brass end up putting one of their shady assets in Browncoat territory? Surely they’d have sniffed that out?”

“I'da thought so too, but I suppose what with the fallout of Miranda an' losin' support from a dozen planets, coupled with that they’re so damn far up their own asses, they probably thought we was all glad they came along an’ stationed their shit in our backyard when we played nice for them,” Danny shrugged a little. “Maybe they was relieved we weren't tryin' t' shoot 'em. I mean, credit where it's due, them turrets is nice an’ all, an' they do stop small time robberies from the hillfolk that sometimes come in with poor intentions, but we was always able t’ stop things happen’ the second they started anyway. Folks are plenty armed around here when the situation calls fer it.”

“Just the benevolent Alliance helpin’ the little people with their endless love.”

“Amen.” Zoë deadpanned behind as they went.

Coming around to an iron door on the far side of the bank that led outside into a chain-link fenced area filled with scrap and debris. Mal glanced around and didn’t see anything that looked particularly interesting, and that was likely the point. He looked to his left seeing Zoë and Jayne step next to him, where Zoë immediately locked her eyes on what Danny was moving over to, ever sharp and inquisitive. Mal had been looking around at the various bits of scrap for anything that might hide something, but she'd seen past that.

“Y’all probably spied this lil' junkheap out here on yer way in, but it is mighty unsuspecting to the everyday traveller,” Danny then pointed at and casually kicked a water pump, pulling on it at an odd angle. “Them bastards hid it well, gotta give 'em that.”

With a jump, the ground to the side of the pump shook, and gravel and dirt shifted, falling into an opening that began to appear in the earth, perfectly hidden away. Jayne scoffed as it took its time doing so, grinding open at what seemed a snail's pace. Mal could have stripped his weapon and put it back together twice by the time it finished.

“The slow openin’ time is meant to give the Alliance ample opportunity t’ respond as usually by now they’re already on their way if the turrets go active, or this hatch gets opened without the right clearance in time. They show up every end of the month with a special badge that plays nice with all the newtech, but whatever ya did seems t' have screwed with the system.”

“Doesn’t that mean the system malfunctioning would also alert them?” Zoë asked, idly readying her weapon and glancing around to the hills for anything coming their way.

“Nah, ‘cos of the newtech them turrets got an’ the old electricals of what the bank’s got they tend to mess up, so they don’t bother runnin’ on over for each time a wire splits,” Danny shook his head, then pointed to the hole. “S’done, box is below.”

He led them down the dirty metal stairs into a low lit room with clean metal-tiled walls that certainly didn’t look like it would have fit into the architecture of the rural bank. The walls were a dull uniform grey and the floors were also decked in metal plating, strip lighting along the floor plates keeping things moderately visible. Their prize lay at the end of the underground tunnel in a storage area, a faint cyan glow emanating from the secure crate.

“Jayne, go grab the Mule, double time,” Mal ordered. “Zoë an’ I’ll get it up top ready for movin’.”

“I was hopin’ for some action. Damn delivery jobs…” Jayne grumbled, going back up the stairs and leaving them in the near darkness.

“Alright, let’s see what we got.” Mal nodded to Zoë.

Slinging her rifle on her back, she pressed the button on the front of the container, which gave a small hiss of air as it clicked in place. The top sides of the box split, raised up, and quickly opened outward. Zoë breathed out with an appreciative whistle.

“That’s a lot of paper-money, sir.”

“It is, ain't it?” Mal whispered, slightly awed by the sight.

“Also tracked, you think?”

A gruff laugh made them turn around.

“Nope, that’s the best part,” Danny smiled, his voice was an amused growl. “This lot of cash needs t’ be registered an’ finished, which is why they stored it here on Fiddlers Green. Feds bitch plenty 'bout havin' t' come out here 'cos of it. Couldn't tell ya why here, but it's here all the same.”

“It’s useless as currency on a border planet, so most people would have no reason to steal it.” Zoë deduced, looking back at the paper again. “And the time taken to find a buyer with the feds about looking for it wouldn’t be worth the effort. It's likely here because there's shady high-class business to be had in the Blue Sun system, and Georgia's a safe throughway.”

“Could be.” He shrugged, gesturing towards them. “‘Course they didn’t take account of y’all or some sumbitch crazy enough to try liftin’ it.”

“Well that's shiny, but a slight issue in that I did promise payment for helping us,” Mal began with a glance. “It ain't a currency used like platinum, it’s only generally for the fancy core planets.”

“Knowing this’ll hurt ‘em some is payment enough fer me,” Danny waved off, gesturing to the crate. “Want help shifting it?”

“That’d be a treat.” Mal nodded, looking at his first-mate. “Zoë, get yourself up top an’ keep an eye out for Jayne, we’ll get this up in a second.”

“Sir.”

She faced about and promptly marched up the metal stairs, her footsteps becoming faint when she left. Mal holstered the Liberty Hammer and took a hold of the box on one side with Danny handling the other, and together they lifted it. It wasn’t majorly heavy, though it was certainly easier to have two people moving it than one person struggling with the strain on their back in a semi-lit passage up some stairs.

Zoë turned her head back over her shoulder to see Mal coming out with the crate, the Browncoat helping diligently. She was slightly distrustful that he’d been so fast to offer his assistance, yet having taken the few extra seconds she’d not been mistaken seeing several clues as to the town being affiliated to the Independent's cause. A certain type of hat hung here, or a mark or emblem etched there from old squads, like secret code for those knowing where to look.

And he'd mentioned the Scouters Eagles. They'd been a damned fine regiment before they’d been mostly wiped out on Cojax during the war and the survivors reassigned to other ghost companies. For him to have served around his age, give or take a couple years, must have been quite the feat of strength.

She turned her head. “Jayne’s not long away, can hear the engine from here.”

Mal huffed, placing the box down to the ground. “Good, that’s what I thought it was. Hell, I’d hate to jinx it but things are going a mite easy.”

“Sir…” Zoë frowned, fixing him with a glance.

“Just saying, figured there might be a few more noses gettin’ bloodied.”

“Then we can stop by a bar on the way back to Persephone.”

The thrum of the Mule’s large engine turned into a roar as Jayne eventually drew up close outside the gated area. Danny moved forward and unlocked the gate itself, opening it and moving a few things out of the way for them. Mal was just about to radio to Wash before Danny spoke up, dusting his hands off.

“Alright, I think yer good to-”

Danny suddenly shouted in pain and was thrown backwards like he'd been hit with a giant hammer as there was a massive echo, a split second later came the loud subsonic clap of the rifle, the shot had to have been to the chest for that effect. He’d hit the wall with a thud and crumpled down. Immediately Mal, Jayne, and Zoë were into action.

Mal grabbed the crate with a hand and dragged it through the gateway while drawing his sidearm and keeping it at the ready. Zoë quickly went to the Browncoat, putting her arms around the older man and dragging him into a safer position behind one of the junkpiles.

“Anyone see where that came from?! Jayne, you got eyes?” Mal barked.

“Can’t see nothin’!” Jayne replied, scanning the hills and the area around them from his hunkered down position on the Mule. Another tooth-rattling shot rang out and impacted against the Mule’s frame so heavily that it pierced and buckled. Jayne ducked down into cover, swearing loudly as several more rapid-fire shots hit into the dirt around all of them from other weapons, helping Mal spot them from the flashes.

“About eight of them north-east of us, a good klick out!” He announced, taking a few blind shots in their direction. It likely wouldn’t hit at this distance but it would still make them scatter for any possible cover and approach more cautiously, Jayne adding to the fire with Vera as he took the rifle off his back after holstering Boo.

“Keep an eye out for the sniper, Jayne.” Zoë said, opening Danny’s shirt to see the rifle round had gone right through the man's light armour vest and through him, the basic layer of kevlar was only meant for maybe a round or two from a small calibre pistol, not a heavy weapon. He’d most likely died the second he’d hit the ground. “Dammit.”

“We’ll have to give our respects later, Zoë,” Mal warned, not looking away from the position of the feds. “Got more pressin’ issues right now, come help me with this.”

She glowered silently as she sprung forwards from her position, another shot ricocheting from behind her. If they kept moving around at this distance then the sniper couldn’t reliably hit them as they had with the older Browncoat, she grabbed ahold of the black box and lifted it with Mal, and together they got it fully onto the Mule before climbing on themselves. They were on it within a second as another high-velocity round smacked into the Mule's frame, and Jayne punched it at full speed. The kick of the vessel lurched them backwards, but they held steady.

A few more bullets zipped past, keeping them as low as possible. Jayne returned a few shots towards the feds running at them on foot, making them scatter again.

“That what you wanted, sir?”

“Wasn’t what I meant, no.” Mal frowned, knowing full well her meaning and feeling a tinge of guilt at her tone, radioing to Serenity with his comm over the roar of the Mule as it gained speed. “Wash! Get to us, quick as you can, we got trouble!”

There was a second before the crackle of the pilot’s voice came through.

“Sure thing, Captain. Alliance?” came Wash’s quick reply over the static-filled device, the comms were shaky at the best of times, it was likely the Mule was interfering somehow.

“Surely is, double-time it if you can, might be they got a patrol on us!” Mal finished, pressing off the button as there was an equally loud whir similar to their own transport. He sometimes hated when he was right.

“Sir! Cruiser!”

Mal looked behind after Zoë, seeing an Alliance manned vessel hurtling towards them faster than they were travelling on a smoother course, kicking up less dust and debris and gaining in swathes. He levelled his pistol against his other arm and fired off several times at the small land cruiser, making the three Alliance soldiers on it duck behind the heavy protective plating it boasted around its fore.

“Zoë, I see another!” he shouted over the noise of their engine, spotting yet another vessel zoning in and joining the first in their pursuit. They were far more well-designed and powerful and were going to catch-up in no time at all.

“On it!” Zoë growled, firing in the new cruiser's direction.

“This is more like it!” Jayned yelled, firing burst shots from Vera at each of the pursuing cruisers, managing to hit one of the men in the first, who fell back and nearly slipped off the rail until his fellows caught him. “Scratch ‘em one!”

“Good to see your spirits ain't dampened none.” Mal humorlessly spoke at him, pressing the radio button again. “Wash that’s two cruisers on us, if you can push her faster we’d be mighty appreciative!”

“Going as fast as Serenity’ll allow, Captain! Kaylee’s giving her a boost!” Wash replied, there was a pause. “I gotcha on radar, we’ll be coming in fast on your right side!”

“Got it!” Mal lifted his thumb, his other arm outstretched with his gun. “Hear that, Zoë, Jayne? Get ready to brace for a swallow!”

Zoë was aiming carefully as her mare's leg was better for shorter ranges. At this speed and distance she needed to be as accurate as she could. A bullet hit off the metal beside her and she didn’t flinch, then squeezing the trigger as she tracked. She hit her mark squarely, the man being knocked backwards before his allies could catch him and he tumbled off the speeder and rolled in the dirt behind the vessel. Now it was two to a speeder.

Jayne cried out in anger as a shot found its way into his torso but he still stood, the hit having punched his side near the ribs. A glancing shot that missed the ribcage and was quite luckily just a flesh wound. He’d keep strong on the adrenaline for the time being, and it didn’t stop him furiously firing the remainder of his magazine in response.

“Jayne, you good?” Mal shouted, shooting another round.

“Hǎo,” came the growled response through gritted teeth.

The Mule was kicking and starting to chug strangely, it was likely the repair done last week starting to act up, of all the times it could. They dropped in their speed and the cruisers were now almost upon them. It was thankfully an immediate turn of luck that Mal would rather credit to an outstanding pilot in which a scant moment later Serenity came thundering in at high speed from their right just as promised, the ship's main hatch open ready to take them in as it flew into position.

Clearly noticing the transport ship beforehand, the two manned Alliance vessels increased their fire on the Mule instead of taking practised shots, and it was all the trio could do to hobble down behind the thin protection the contraption offered. From low down between the seats Zoë haphazardly fired shots from her rifle with Mal and Jayne blindly doing the same.

They all braced as best they could and felt the impact, everything screeching and blurring as the bottom of the Mule collided with the inner deck of Serenity while she swooped and took them in. They were tousled about and back to and fro in the Mule as Wash harshly pulled the ship up in its trajectory, closing the hatch as he pushed hard for a fast ascent towards the open sky. Fumbling about trying to regain some balance as the thundering roar of the air cut off with the hatch shutting, Mal managed to right himself and stumble off the Mule once it had come to a very firm scraping halt, succeeding in making it to an intercom despite feeling like utter crap.

“Nice work, Wash, Kaylee. Get us out of the world nice an' fast, quick as ya can. Doctor, need you fired up and ready, we got-ah, damn, we…” he paused and panted for a split-second.

He stopped walking as he realised that he was actually shot, now noticing the sharp pain in his middle catching up with him as his adrenaline hit wore off, a hand going to the wound. He’d taken a bullet to the gut sometime during the chase that had punched through his armour vest. Placing his hand to the area that hurt most, it came away bloody.

“...Wounded.” he finished the sentence, letting the intercom buzz off and partly resting against a wall as the pain managed to overwhelm him before he could tough it out.

“Sir!” Zoë rushed to his side, supporting him. “Jayne, help me here!”

Jayne, having already slapped a quick packing of cloth over his far lighter injury, came bustling over gently sweating and slightly drained, but didn't grab Mal. “You’ve had worse, Mal.”

“I’m thinkin’ so.” Mal chuckled through a sweat as Zoë helped him across and around the cargo bay to its lower back exit, awkwardly leading him down the short stairs to where the Infirmary was with Jayne lumbering behind.

The Doctor, as Mal often called him, and their polite top-notch surgeon being who he was, Simon was thankfully quick on the draw and already moving around inside prepping what he needed. He stepped out and assisted the Captain into the small room and onto the gurney as the two crewmates shuffled him along. Kaylee managed to be heard as Mal was pushed down by Simon so he could be doped up, smiling as she rushed into the Infirmary and fretted over his condition, and he stopped waving her off as she came over and held his hand.

“Jayne, I’ll see to your wound while Simon helps the Captain.” Zoë commented, grabbing some sterile wipes and a sewing kit and pointing to space on the counter for him to sit at.

“Sure.” he grunted, moving on over.

Mal wasn’t under just yet, having felt the good doctor just prick him with what was likely a heavy sedative, a shot that wasn't in the gut but still central wasn't going to be fun to remove while awake. He patted Kaylee and looked at Zoë and Jayne with a small grin, groaning with the pain that hadn’t quite been dulled yet.

“Well… I’d say that went alright, all things considered," Mal said, then sighing. "We’ll raise a glass to the fallen later.”

"We'd better," Zoë somberly nodded. "Sleep well, sir."

"I plan to."

It wasn't all that long before he fell under.

Author's Note

Húndàn - Bastard/Scoundrel.
Hăo - Good/Very Good.

Trouble In The Black

The ship rumbled ominously again.

That wasn’t a good sign.

“Doctor, ya mind tellin’ Wash to keep her steady?” Mal asked offhandedly, still lying on the padded gurney. “I’m gettin’ mighty queasy with all this turbulence kickin’ me about.”

Simon smiled genially at the Captain’s usual humour he employed, finishing up the clean dressing on his wound. The operation earlier had gone perfectly, Mal would be fine pending no further damage to the area. Jayne’s injury was minor and would also heal quickly if the man could hold still for an extended period of time. It was always good when they came back from a job not so in shambles that he couldn't fix them up.

He was a smart-dressed and light-skinned man in formal clothing and a waistcoat, with short-combed brown hair and inquisitive blue eyes, and was quite simply just all-around smart. It was no small thing that he was more intelligent than any of the crew, but he didn't brag about it; it was simply how it was with a very rich upbringing on a core planet. One of the best surgeons on his homeworld of Osiris, he'd thrown it all away to rescue his sister from the Alliance, and ended up on Serenity shortly thereafter. He was often calm and well-mannered to everyone, at least until his sister was in danger, then he might deign to at least throw a punch, or get shot as with their run-in with a bounty hunter once upon a time. He'd earned a place here on Serenity since helping her escape, and even with its rustic and plain-rusty appearance there really was no other place he'd want to be.

“I’m sure it’ll pass soon, Captain,” he said, starting to put everything away.

“So, I gotta stay here for a spell or can I get to commandin’ my boat?” Mal wondered with a brief wave in Simon's direction, the pain in his middle not even noticeable with the painkillers the doctor had him on, so long as he didn't move too much.

“I’d recommend against it, but since when do you listen to me?” Simon replied with a sigh, not bothering to look back. “You’ll probably be alright to walk around lightly, and rest would be highly recommended to avoid any undue altercations.”

Mal nodded, sliding his legs around and putting his feet to the metal floor, slowly pushing himself up until he was standing. “I hear ya. I’ll be sure to have plenty of Zoë’s chicken soup, good work, Doctor.”

Mal wasted little time in going over to the intercom, moving past Simon who’d looked both mildly surprised and appreciative of the praise, as he still wasn’t exactly used to Mal being nice to him. A lot had changed since their horrendous experience on Miranda and their other insane adventures, the crew was definitely much closer.

Mal pushed a button on the wall, speaking into the device. “Wash, we alright? It was getting real shaky there for a time.”

“We’re all good now, it’s just this patch of black is playing merry with us,” Wash replied after the second delay. “Real pretty though; take a look outside, the wife’s loving it.”

“Alright, keep me posted.”

“On Zoë? Alright, well, she’s sittin' in my lap, looking out the window and gazing-”

Mal lifted his thumb off the intercom.

Carefully making his way out of the infirmary, he walked up the flight of stairs into the aft hall of the ship that led through its core, to outside the engine room. Deciding to check in on Kaylee as she’d been worried sick when they’d gotten back and she’d seen him on the bed, he gave a short knock and poked his head in the open door.

Kaylee was resting in her hammock, reading some fancy looking book that Simon had no doubt given her as a present. They were intimate now, she and Simon, so it was no surprise that he was doing even more to make her happy in terms of gift giving and the like. He'd been quite distant before in not knowing how to bridge the gap between them despite the length of time he'd been with the crew, and it was a breath of fresh air not to see the two so damn awkward around one another anymore like a pair of lovesick teens.

She was in her ever-oily flower-patterned overalls, her hair tied up into a chinese style of bun and speared through with a chopstick in a messily done way, the sunkissed mechanic not noticing his looming presence in the doorway. Her boundless well of optimism for life always lifted the crew's spirits, and seeing her always had a way of shifting weight from the shoulders, including now.

“You doing fine, little Kaylee?” he spoke up, smiling as she turned.

“Captain! You shouldn’t be walkin’ around, you’ll get yourself hurt.” she chided, placing the book down and slipping out of the hammock, her pretty green eyes shining as she stepped up to him to bring him into a very light hug that didn’t offend his injury. “An’ you’ll make more work for Simon, he won’t like it none if you split them stitches.”

“Doctor can handle it if they do, he’s good at his craft,” Mal waved off, looking back at her freckled face with an almost fatherly smile. “Nice job today with the codes an’ gettin’ to us. You always do know how to push this old girl of ours.”

Kaylee smirked, lightly slapping him on the arm. “Serenity ain't an old girl, she’s more like a young woman in her prime, like River, she just gets real scuffed up sometimes, but thank you, you’re welcome.”

“Alright.” he smiled, turning to leave.

“Cap'n?”

He twisted around briefly.

“Glad you’re okay.” Kaylee beamed.

Mal chuckled, gently giving her shoulder a squeeze. “Me too, little Kaylee.”

Keeping on his way he walked up the gangway and through to the ship's comfortable galley where everyone commonly preferred to gather when they weren't busy, seeing Jayne sitting at the main table making himself at home, the large bruiser eating some supplies he’d pilfered from the cupboards. Mal frowned in annoyance and kicked a table leg.

“Jayne, how many times do I gotta tell you we all eat together,” Mal sighed, gently taking a seat for the moment, before shaking his head. “...Chuck us that nutrient bar.”

With a delightfully devilish grin that said he’d gotten away with it, Jayne happily threw one of the snacks at Mal, who managed to catch it from the air. They both sat in agreeable silence while eating, their chewing the only noise in the room until there was another heavy rumble in the ship, throwing Jayne and Mal sharply in one direction, and almost making Mal fall out of his seat.

“Gǎo shénme guǐ[/],” Mal grumbled under his breath, keeping a careful hand on his midsection. “Is Wash going through the roughest bit of black he can find?”

Sharply getting to his feet again while Jayne just shrugged and returned to his eating, he roughly paced over to the intercom mounted on the galley wall, activating it with a mite amount of frustration.

“Wash!” Mal grunted, thumb firmly on the button. “What in the name of Earth-That-Was are ya doin’ up there? ...Are you trying to sleep with your wife on the console again?!”

“Sorry Captain, this is the usual stretch of space we go through while waiting on Badger, same as always,” Wash responded apologetically. “Have you tried the ‘looking out a window’ idea I suggested? You might see the trouble.”

“Just… try and keep her flying even.” Mal asked, lifting away from the comm.

Glancing through the upper windows of the galley out into space, he did actually see it was very odd out there in the black. Not so black at the moment though as it was positively rife with all manner of swirling pinkish colours and twinkles that looked as if River had been trying to paint it during a fever dream. It was naturally 'speak of the devil' as she kind of just suddenly appeared and placed a hand on his arm, that was always rather creepy when she did that.

Disturbed, broken, almost ethereal with her unnatural grace at times. River was remarkably pale and remarkably beautiful, the dark cascade of wavy black hair flowing down around her shoulders as she bounced to a stop before Mal. Her piercing murky green eyes peered out from the covering veil, looming like a fragile doll suspended by silk threads, yet she was anything but helpless. The young girl had been twisted by the Alliance into a living weapon, and Simon had rescued her before she'd been completely lost. She was still in there, though there was always the question of what might come to the surface at any given moment. It made the crew uncomfortable that she knew things she shouldn't, however at this point her ability to see into people's minds and sense the world around her was one of those little oddities of hers they took in stride.

“Little Albatross, how ya doin’?” he asked, as she seemed distracted.

Since their foray from that damned planet Miranda and her discovery of the evil the Alliance had done there, their encounters with the Blue Sun operations, and encountering all manner of crazy the Alliance had kept locked away in general... Finding solace had been something River had been trying to attain with little luck. Even if it was all said and done it didn't rest easily on the young girl's mind, more trouble piling into an already fraught stack.

She was staring at him, but he felt it was through him.

“She’s not well, the black’s making her uncomfortable, pulling things apart. She knows something’s wrong,” River spoke in her cryptic manner. “It’s all happening so fast that it makes her jumpy, she's feeling stretched thin.”

“Serenity?” Mal wondered at the girl's riddle-like manner of speaking, noting River’s gentle tremble. “Wash’ll fly her true, she’s gone through storms rougher than this.”

“It’s the biggest storm,” River whispered with a ghost of a smile. “Magical.”

“It is quite pretty out there, despite the rough ride.” Mal found himself agreeing.

Before Mal could reassure her again, Serenity violently lashed and there was a disturbingly worrying noise that sounded like an explosion coming from the engine room. Worrying about Kaylee, Mal immediately whipped around and jogged through the pain that started to flair up in his gut despite the painkillers. He was thrown again as the ship rumbled, tightly gripping the catwalk and clinging to it as he inched forwards step by step.

“Kaylee!” he shouted, seeing smoke coming from the open door, the engine was on fire. “You alright in there?!”

“Everything’s shiny, Cap'n! Whatever's happenin' is just a little too much for Serenity is all!” Kaylee shouted across to him as there was another bump and she almost tripped, the fire extinguisher in her hands spraying the flames that were cropping up from the overload on the system.

“That boom wasn't nothin’ important?” he asked, hoping they wouldn’t be floating dead in the water like they had during Simon’s last birthday. He just had to keep getting reminders of that situation didn’t he? He did not want a repeat of it, he already had the body wound.

“No Cap’n!” she rushed around, grabbing a piece of equipment Mal recognised but forgot the name of as she furiously got to work undoing something on the engine's frame, probably a valve to release pressure. “Little patching and we’ll be right as rain!”

“Stay safe, Kaylee.” Mal warned, turning away.

He needed to properly know what was happening, making the walk back to the galley as quick as he could go without the wound opening back up, he was diligent in navigating past all obstacles and through. River decided to follow along which he quite appreciated, if he took too bad a tumble she’d be able to help him.

Walking into the fore deck he yelled up to the bridge.

Another lurch and groan, it caused him to lose his footing and he tripped, sending him flat onto the ship's metal grating. He growled out in pain as his midsection exploded in pain and fire went through his body, it was damp when he fumbled up enough to place a hand on his wound.

He could feel River grabbing him and placing an arm under his own, he muttered his thanks and with her assistance got back shakily to his feet, a little surprised at her strength. “Zāogāo... this ain't my day.”

“Sir! You alright?” Zoë sharply called, rushing down the stairs from the bridge and taking him with an arm, nodding to River who carefully let him go. “That was a nasty one, don’t quite think it’s over.”

“Wish it was. Feelin’ like paper in a gale.” Mal complained, resting himself.

“Wash is handling it, let’s get you back to the infirmary.” Zoë said, already moving him along, not that he was protesting, the pain was already growing sharper.

“Magical…” River whispered.

Zoë stopped for a second as she turned her head back to set her eyes on the girl, regarding her. “River, sweetie; can you rush ahead an’ let Simon know we’re comin’?”

She nodded, swiftly slinking away with her unnatural movement. With that, Zoë kept her arm under Mal and helped him forwards, again to the galley as it was the fastest way down to Simon. Their pace was measured if a bit slow, but Mal had to keep a tight hand on the wound that was now bleeding.

“An’ I wasn’t even doing any heavy lifting,” he commented. “I was jus’ going about my business, peaceful like.”

Zoe raised an eyebrow. “Your business ain't usually peaceful.”

“Maybe so, but I was bein’ careful this time ‘round.” Mal grunted, stepping past the table Jayne was still at, having stolen another few snacks. “Jayne! Stop eatin’ everything!”

“I’m hungry an’ I’m eatin’, an I aint lettin’ a storm stop me eatin’,” Jayne said, not caring to look Mal’s way. He started up a little when Mal slammed his hand on the table surface. With a scowl, he conceded. “Gorram it, fine. Dammit, Mal, can’t a guy have some food after a hard job?”

“Yes, he can, when everyone does.” Mal grunted, swallowing past the annoyance that coupled with the stabbing feelings he was having.

“I’ll have to hurt you if I find you back here before I cook supper.” Zoë warned calmly in a manner that suggested a slight joke, but Jayne couldn’t tell if she was serious or not.

With a glare, Jayne got up and likely went to skulk off back to his bunk, but not before grabbing the remaining snack he’d had on the table. Rolling her eyes, Zoë let Mal rest his weight on her again as she helped him through to the aft hall towards the stairs that led down outside the passenger dorms. They descended step-by-step, with Simon meeting them outside the infirmary.

Helping him inside, Simon had already prepared the gurney with fresh pads. River was sitting up on the counter in the corner with her legs drawn up close against her chest. She watched the scene unfold as Simon grabbed a lower dosage of pain medication considering it wasn't that long ago he'd drugged Mal.

“Captain, I told you to rest.” Simon sighed, shaking his head at Mal’s recklessness.

“An’ I was takin’ it mighty easy, Doctor. The black had different plans.” Mal replied with a level of annoyance, laying back with a grimace.

“Yes… I suppose it has been rather hectic,” he agreed, especially as just then the lights flickered and there was another short rumble. “It might take a little while to stitch you back up with this going on.”

“That’s fine by m-” Mal started, before being cut off by the strangest noise he’d ever heard, which instinctively made everyone flinch as it hit their ears, it sounded like the screech of a banshee caught in a trap. “What in the sam hell is that?!”

“Not a clue, sir.” Zoë said, covering her ears with a frown.

They all became alert as the ship comms crackled to life and Wash spoke up.

“Not to panic, but we’re about to hit a-”

That was all he got out as there was the biggest clamour they'd suffered so far, followed by a loud explosion as the ship rocked and the lights went out. They all very painfully felt the ship ‘crash’ as it came to what could be considered the equivalent of a handbrake stop, all of them being thrown to one side as the ship's systems were just as thrown for a loop. It seemed the lighting throughout the ship had died as well, only the gloomy red of the emergency panels flaring to anaemic life and illuminating their surroundings now. The highest sound was the ship's alarm that was going off alerting them to a fire. After they’d picked themselves up, Zoë went over to the intercom and tried to use it, but it was dead.

“Blackout,” she commented, going to the door. “Gonna see if Kaylee’s alright and check on Wash, sir.”

“Go on.” Mal nodded, she gratefully gave her own back and left.

River smiled, laughing to herself. “There it is. Whole new world.”

Simon went over to his sister and checked her over, taking River’s hand as she seemed giddy at that moment and lost in her own mind, yet she appeared to be fine. He turned his attention back to Mal. "Captain, lay yourself down, I'll sort that wound."

Mal did his best to get comfortable, looking at Simon as he came over and let River walk outside the infirmary, the girl was wandering aimlessly in one of her episodes. So long as she wasn't smashing things up he was happy. “Think you can patch me up without anythin’ fancy, Doctor?”

“Yes, I’d only need my tools for surgery,” Simon said, grabbing some sterile wipes and gauze along with a sewing kit. “This is all we need.”

Gritting his teeth through the ordeal, Mal calmly watched as Simon ever-so-carefully removed the present broken threads and began the process of putting the needle through his skin again, applying some soothing gel and patching it over. He imagined that if Shepard Book were here instead of leading the community on Haven, he'd probably be reading a bible passage to mock him, something about hubris seemed about right. The older man was a pain, but a calming presence nonetheless, a rock the crew anchored themselves to. His wisdom was always something to count on. Just like Inara, the ship felt emptier without his dark wizened features, that annoying holy book he kept close to his chest, or his wisdom and insight from his clearly not-so-holy life before their time to look upon for guidance. Simon quickly finished his work, the whole thing taking less than a few minutes as he went over to the sink to wash his hands.

Mal felt a minor pang of annoyance at the thought of Inara. Book had his reasons that he'd explained in detail, feeling as if he was losing himself to sin the more he stayed on Serenity despite its welcoming nature, they were crooks after all, but Inara was something of an enigma. He chalked it up to having something hidden in her past, as with him and his own daemons that had come back to haunt him regarding his homeworld Shadow and his choices there, which had resulted in his kidnapping by his own former comrades. Although his own skeletons had been thrown from the closet and dealt with now, Inara had neglected to tell the crew anything of what lay obscured in her own life and left them just as soon as she'd come back.

They'd thought perhaps she might stay with the events of Miranda behind them, she even alluded to the fact in a private conversation with him, but before long she'd decided that departing for House Madrassa on Sihnon again was for the best. She'd done the same after her dear friend Nandi had died at the Heart of Gold, the rustic whorehouse the crew had been hired to defend once upon a time. Even so, with all the craziness they'd been through since then and playing merry with the Alliance along their journeys, she still hadn't deigned to return to the ship despite her love for it.

“Now, Captain,” Simon spoke, running the tap as he spoke over his shoulder and distracting Mal from his thoughts. “I know I can’t make you, but were this an actual military vessel and it were the case my orders were able to override your own for reasons of health, I’d be declaring you unfit for your duties. The amount of sedative you've been administered and the severity of your injury means you should be confined to your quarters for rest and recovery.”

Mal nodded, starting to feel the effects of the painkiller playing with his system. “I get your meaning, that’s not a bad idea, Doctor.”

“I’ll help you to your room, then. At least to make sure you don't wander.” Simon nodded, Mal barely heard him and was feeling much less aware than usual, felt like hell was tap-dancing on his head right now. Although, whether that was the ordeal they'd just experienced or a side-effect of the sedative he wasn't quite sure.

“Appreciate it,” Mal nodded. “Feels like I’m swimmin’”

Together they walked out and around to the stairs leading up into the aft hall, which was all the more harder without light. Kaylee was seeing to the engine and Mal gave pause as they passed the engine room, eyeing the barely-visible blackened marks around the doorway that had clearly come from an explosion, one that’d likely caused their loss of power.

“Do we know th’ issue?” Mal asked as Kaylee went about with a little hand torch, shining it all over the place and in every nook and cranny the machine had.

“I aint rightly sure, Cap'n,” she huffed, pausing and placing the torch in a pocket on her overalls shoulder-padding. “She was working fine ‘till we hit whatever that patch of black was. I’d been admiring it all pretty out there an’ we flew into this real nice purple and pink haze, then Serenity threw a fit an’ it was like an EMP hit us, ‘cept I can’t seem to get her runnin’ again.”

“S’alright. If it’s jus’ a bit of flux then it’ll pass soon ‘nuff,” Mal drowsily assured her. “Th’ scrubbers still run on auxiliary, even at less power than they oughta, they’ll clean th’ system.”

“I’m hopin’ so,” she agreed. “All parts of the engine are mostly fine, won't need any patchin', an' that big boom weren’t from nothin' here, it came from below the deck platin’.”

“An issue with the internal batteries, perhaps?” Simon chipped in. Kaylee beamed as he showed an interest with her craft. He'd clearly picked up a few things.

“I thought so too, but I gave ‘em a quick once over an’ they was fine.” Kaylee pouted at her lover, taking the torch in hand again and checking a system panel for any signs of life.

Mal couldn’t help but smile though as the lights came back on just then, and Serenity shuddered while a small hum passed through the entire ship. The engine before them gave a deep bassy thrum as it started to power back up automatically, likely as Wash rebooted the system the second he knew there’d been juice to play with.

“Ther' we go, we’re shiny,” Mal said. “Scrubbers did their job.”

Kaylee smiled wide, patting the bulkhead next to her. “My good girl, worked it out.”

“Now, Doctor,” Mal craned his head to face Simon. “If you’d kindly?”

“Of course, Captain,” he nodded, helping Mal along.

Once more they passed through the galley, now thankfully empty of ransacking Jayne’s, and came into the fore deck where the crew's cabins were stationed below. He could see the door to the cockpit was open, and Zoë sitting on Wash's lap, the two giving him a brief wave and a smile. He gave them a nod as he pressed the entry button to his quarters, the hatch to his cabin sliding inward and connecting to a pre-welded ladder to complete the way down. It was an odd design but it functioned well enough. Waving the doctor off, Mal gingerly took hold of the ladder and lowered himself down until his boots met the deck plating. With Simon still poking his head over to see into the cabin, Mal gave him a final wave and closed the hatch.

Letting out a sigh, he turned down to face into his quarters.

It took a second for him to focus, however he then promptly jumped backwards in equal parts confusion and shock, his hand instantly going on his sidearm. He almost pulled it free to quickly fire a shot, but he stopped himself because he wasn’t rightly sure just what he was seeing, and he was fairly certain he was hallucinating from whatever the doctor had given him.

His instincts tugged him a little out of his haze as he tried to register what he was looking at.

At first he thought it was a stuffed children's toy that was in the middle of his room and was going to chalk it up to a strange present from Kaylee thinking it was an adorable gift for her grumpy old captain, but that was before the thing blinked, and he saw it was clearly breathing the same air as him. He’d stopped himself from getting his weapon in hand because he was definitely hallucinating, and there was no sense wasting a shot and putting a hole in his cabin for an apparition.

Kinda didn't want to shoot it regardless. For a spectre of the mind, it looked mighty afraid of him. It possessed very… expressive eyes. His mind was not sound, and he had no plan on what to do right now. Before he could actually think on what to do however, the sedative caught up with him and he barely managed to stumble forwards before collapsing on his bed, fast asleep.

* * *

Twilight wasn’t sure where she was, not at all.

One second she’d been working on ─and failing at─ a new mass teleportation spell she’d developed from Star-swirl’s ancient teachings, and trying to implement it into a strange artefact that seemed akin to a battery she’d found from an old ruin in the Undiscovered West while exploring with the girls. It had kept petering out and causing small fluctuations in the air quite by accident, malfunctioning all day to the point that several meal trays had piled up from Spike next to her in the basement of her library. Then she'd tried to alter the spell on the fly in her frustration and it had quite suddenly felt like she was being hurtled through a portal.

Well, somewhat like it.

She’d been through portals before, and they‘d never felt anything like that. It had been as if she’d been stretched down to her most base molecules and put back together again thrice over, while Pinkie had been singing in her ear at the top of her voice, and playing an entire band's worth of instruments while doing it.

When it had stopped it still hadn't really stopped, because she’d been thrown extremely hard against a dense wall and it was very painful, and something had also gone crack. Whether that had been a rib or anything more worrying she didn’t care to check, because she’d quickly cast a powerful healing spell on herself before even registering her immediate surroundings. With an exasperated groan she'd picked herself up properly and ignited her horn for some light, blearily wondering if she was still in the library's basement.

And she was not.

She had no idea whose home this was and her brain was still catching up, so she waited for the nausea to settle as she examined what was clearly a rather rustic looking bedroom despite it being quite dark, which became clearer when she ignited her horn for some light on the situation.

There was a neat bed to her left with an ornate metal-wrought light hung near it, and a big bench that took up most of the space to her right, with all sorts of nik-naks and strange metal parts on it, a few dangerous looking knives as well. There was an odd indent into the wall behind her just past the bed, with a mirror hanging above it and a toilet roll hanging nearby, so she assumed the toilet was built into the wall itself? Curiously austere. Most bizarre was the deck chair that would look right at home in a camping ground or at the beach, just folded against the wall beside the room's final oddity; a ladder going up that, as best she could see in this light, led into nothing but the ceiling. Its design must have been deliberate, so it was most likely a hatch that required opening from the outside.

Logically, she told herself that with that ladder, this was not the home of a pony. Quite clearly it was either the home of a gryphon or a minotaur, as not many other species would live in such urban conditions besides those races along with ponies. She barely took a step forward before there was a noise; a small clunk, followed by a low humming as the lights slowly came on.

“Hello?” Twilight curiously called out, her voice echoing off the walls as she let her horn douse now there was ample illumination. "Is anyone home?"

The ladder was indeed a hatch but it was still closed, so unless she forced it open with magic she wasn’t getting out of this bedroom, and she didn’t want to possibly damage anything. There was also that maybe using magic around a stranger's home would make them feel she was being hostile. Instead, she opted to wait as surely it wouldn’t be long before someone came in, right?

The Princesses must have answered her plea because just then the hatch opened and she heard conversation. She couldn’t make out what was being said, which she reasoned was due to her distance and the speaker's higher elevation. What happened next was confusing though to say the least. Twilight saw a creature's legs appear, then a torso, and then a head, but her brain didn’t quite process it for a few seconds because this was most definitely not a creature she recognised. It was like a minotaur in that it stood on two legs and had two arms, except that unlike a minotaur its head was different and it was almost hairless, save for the small mane on its head. It was fully clothed as well, which was highly uncommon for most inhabitants of Equus outside of social gatherings, and not even minotaurs liked to wear that much clothing even in the winter.

As it turned, it looked right at her and shouted out in horror. She was feeling very sorry for it and understood its plight as it had certainly never seen a pony before, the same as she had never seen whatever it was before. This was either some other part of Equus and not the continent of Equestria, or was a part of Equestria's outermost lands that were still largely undiscovered, perhaps somewhere in the Undiscovered West itself, but at least she’d had the culture shock of meeting other new species before. The look this creature was giving said it had never seen anything like her before, which of course came across as complete terror.

“Hello,” she said simply.

The creature hadn’t responded, just stared at her with a slight level of hostility. Its hand was on its hip gripping something that was attached to the belt it wore, possibly a weapon, before stepping forwards and promptly fainting from the ordeal of seeing her and her intrusion in its home.

Princess Celestia was going to punish her so badly for causing a diplomatic incident…

Author's Note

Gǎo shénme guǐ - What the hell.
Zāogāo - Damn it.

First Contact

Brave, headstrong, and stoic. These were good things to be and something he'd always strived to be. To be so when under duress even more so the case, keeping in line with his own personal code. He could push stoicism to one side when it was needed, when it was called for, though that was rarely the case. When under a particularly high level of duress it was an absolute necessity to keep such mentalities, certainly the case in battle aside from a joke or two to keep spirits high and ease tension, but also when being tortured by an enemy. Stoicism was generally the one that stepped away when some zhāzǐ chánshēn de hùndàn tried to take advantage of those he had personal ties to or couldn't defend themselves, though that was more a pride thing.

This particular instance of duress however was a mental assault.

When Malcolm Reynolds had awoken, he'd fully expected his hallucination to be gone and he could mull over whether he wanted to share his experience with Zoë, and try not to be amused at her serious examination of the situation when he did tell her. However, that wasn’t the case, and he wondered just how much Simon had drugged him up. It wasn't like the good doctor to make an error like that, but perhaps he'd reached into the wrong drawer in the confusion of the blackout.

At first when he’d opened his eyes and saw the worn duvet and his gun table he was rather thankful, until he managed to sit himself up and saw the bizarre thing he thought he'd imagined was still there in the room with him, though now it was sitting instead, and on the end of his bed of all possible places it could be.

He was remaining calm and reading the situation carefully like Zoë would do, instead of how he would usually. In most incidents he was either too damn angry or cocksure to care about what others thought, and charged in, albeit with a plan even if it was haphazard. It had worked extremely well for him and he was still alive, but right now this present problem required a little more tact, and his first mate was nothing but stoic and calm with how she dealt with life. His mind was doing gymnastics trying to make sense of it, yet try as he might he really couldn’t justify any understandable reason for this being possible.

All signs pointed to his brain being scrambled just like River’s, not that he was disrespecting the poor girl but her mind did run on a different frequency to everyone else's.

Was this truly madness? Seeing fuzzy ─and admittedly adorable─ critters just sitting about in his abode? For what had to have been at least a couple of minutes or so he decidedly sat there with the creature, not willing to move too much. The creature sat there all the same, as if willing him to make the first move and curiously inspecting him with large innocent eyes.

It looked real, he wasn't going to touch it just now but it was displacing his duvet with weight, and he was pretty sure he couldn't imagine that. He could feel the slight air that travelled with each rise and fall of its chest and that too wasn't something he could write off as hallucination, unless he had a rather overactive imagination when high on sedative.

Of course, there came the thought that if this creature wasn't an apparition, that it was something else... something otherworldly. It was an odd sort of feeling.

That he was entertaining the notion that an alien was sitting in his cabin was a rather mad one, and up until this point Mal had always believed such things were something out of science-fiction ─even if Zoë had once made the point that they lived on a spaceship─ and that aliens were simply fairy tales or make-believe.

It was the kind of exciting thing that first made man want to leave Earth-That-Was and go beyond the stars to explore, and in the modern day was very much a wild goose chase that only fools would waste fuel on to go about and look for such beings, only to find they were still alone in this ‘Verse. However, at the current moment he was possibly looking at a reason to think that now that notion wasn’t the case.

This thing wasn’t human, that was for damn sure, it looked like a damn mythological unicorn.

Well, if someone had designed it for girls.

Its smooth coat was a light shade of purple that Kaylee would call 'lavender', and Mal's eyes were drawn to the long spiralled horn atop its head as he assessed it as a possible weapon. An obvious part of its appearance was the neatly done multi-shade dark purple hair cut into a fringe, a vivid pink stripe running through it with a tail that matched, like the thing knew about hairdressing and keeping a personal appearance. Its face was strange, with big eyes that almost seemed too large for its head, and a muzzle that was too small, the snout somewhat flat and round in a way that a normal horse's wouldn't be.

The body looked just as disproportionate; he was the son of a rancher, and he'd never known a horse to have such a weight distribution. The neck and crest were small, its withers almost nonexistent, while from chest to flank to dock it was far more compact length-wise than it should have been, Its barrel was pinched too, moving into larger haunches with thighs and a croup that were far too big. Its odd shaped legs and hooves were somewhat like the smooth coat, gently brushed over and soft looking, almost like marshmallows.

Perhaps the oddest part of the thing was the eccentric starry mark on its haunch. Like someone had stamped or branded it with a pattern for identification. Maybe it was.

It was all so otherworldly that Mal couldn't help but glance away, though eventually his vision passed back and he found himself looking into its wide eyes. They were a similar shade of purple to its hair, varying in lighter degrees in a way that he could compare looking at those pretty amethyst rocks they sold in various stalls at market. The eyes he was witnessing had a massive intelligence to them. to the point where emotion was almost both felt and seen. The creature projected a certain aura, and it seemed to him that a lot of that was through eye contact.

In all, with its size along with its strange small physique, it more resembled a pony than a horse. With this major observation out of the way he figured he was already insane, so screw it, why not be polite?

“Yí gè jìnǚ de pòsuì de duòtāi… howdy, little critter,” he greeted it, burying his face in his hands and sighing. “I’m Mal, an’ clearly I ain't got no sense left in my head.”

He froze in surprise for a second, as what he didn’t expect was a reply.

Granted, he couldn’t understand what it had said, the sounds it made were like a mix between random syllables a child learning a language would make and higher pitched neighs and whinnies, but it did respond. Given the noises, it was certainly... equine. He really was quite mad, he had to be.

With a slightly quick shuffle he got to his feet, careful to maintain his balance. He was much more sure footed now having likely slept off a majority of the sedative but his gut wound was still tender and likely prone to splitting open. Trudging over to his room intercom and pressing firmly, he decided that even if he was insane that he was not drunk enough to handle this alone.

“Wash, is Zoë there with ya?”

“Naturally, Captain,” came the reply a moment later, followed by the sound of a kiss. "I'm fine by the way, blackout had me hitting my head but I'm alright."

“Never doubted you weren't, I saw ya up there earlier. Zoë, would you mind comin’ to see me?” Mal said, not entirely an order. “I’m in my cabin, got-” A quick glance back at the… pony? “-things, we need to discuss.”

“She’s going,” Wash told him, speaking again after a second. “No funny stuff though, she’s a married woman, would make her husband all kinds of angry I bet. ...There could be bloodshed.”

“Roger that.” Mal scoffed, lifting his thumb.

It wasn't even a second before there came the knock on his hatch, fast as always.

“Come on in.” Mal spoke up to the entrance, purposely moving in front of the small purple creature he still wasn’t entirely comfortable calling a pony. When Zoë's boots appeared and she started descending into the room he kept a straight face. “Make yourself at home.”

Zoë regarded him with a quizzical look when she’d stepped down off the ladder, crossing her arms and noting the odd way Mal was standing. She saw it wasn't just due to his injury, as his hands were tucked in around his suspenders, which he only ever usually did when he was a mite agitated or in a good mood. He didn’t exactly look to be in a good mood, even with the ghost of a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. Zoë knew him well enough to know that he was on edge, something was wrong here.

“You alright, sir?” she asked tentatively.

Now Mal decided here came the fun part in seeing if this was all real.

He stepped aside, tilting his head briefly at the thing. Pony? It.

Zoë froze as her eyes immediately snapped to the obvious newcomer sitting on Mal's bed, her hand not quite going for her lever-action, but near enough, though there wasn't so much shock from Zoë, just pure cold assessment. It had been why she'd stopped her slide into combat mode as the creature wasn't moving at them or being aggressive. She said nothing as she studied it for a few seconds, visibly swallowing as she composed herself while possibly thinking what to say. Her brow knitted as her eyes flicked between the thing and Mal, then back to the thing, and finally again back to Mal before opening her mouth to speak, but words failed her.

"Crazy, ain't it?" Mal offered, glancing around and looking at it before returning his attention to his first mate. Still nothing from Zoë as she took it in. "Yeah, my thoughts too," he dipped his head, sighing as he turned about and met eyes with the critter, it automatically looking at him as he turned his attention its way. He exhaled deeply as he looked back at Zoë with a raised brow. "Can't rightly say just what I make of it at this juncture, but I got all manner of theories."

"Be quiet." Zoë sternly said under her breath.

"I- excuse me?" Mal baulked almost as much as he did when the thing had talked at him, his eyebrows raising higher as he looked at Zoë. "What was that, exactly?"

"Sorry, sir." Zoë immediately corrected course, her brow knitting further in worry momentarily at the disrespect she'd dished out, she only usually did that when Mal was being completely unreasonable and he never got on at her for it because he knew it too. Mal could allow that the situation was such that she was very much off-kilter right now. "I just..."

"Yeah, I getcha, lots to take in. No fuss." Mal nodded, sighing.

After a few tense moments, she breathed in deep as she resettled herself into the current scene playing out before them. She glanced apologetically at Mal before looking back at the bed with concern.

“Sir, why is there a... a small purple pony on your bed?” she asked, doing her best to keep her face a solid mask of neutrality, but her hand was still partially reaching for the rifle on her hip. That she'd called the creature a pony at least meant Mal wasn't far off his own estimations of its similar appearance to an equine. “Is it real?"

“Looks that way, it's just been sittin'.” Mal said, looking at the lavender critter with its wide curious eyes staring back. He sniffed, clearing his throat. “But at least you seein’ the critter means my brains aint scrambled.”

“I think we're both possibly insane, sir. Maybe we hit our heads a mite hard."

Mal felt himself smile. Humour. Good, defuse the situation.

“It’s not hostile, whatever it is.” Zoë said, it was a statement.

“No, don’t look the type. Seems more a ‘have a tea-party’ type, to be honest.” Mal nodded, somewhat amused by her process of working this through like an assessment and trying to make sense of this insanity. It was cheering him up immensely considering he'd not been happy or amused by much in a long time.

“I’m lost,” Zoë commented, taking an experimental step forwards and felt actually rather intrigued when the pony shrunk back ever so slightly; it fully recognised her as a threat. “I… don’t know what to make of it. I’m guessing it can’t talk?”

Mal glanced at her with a look. “Oh, it did,” he nodded as she gave him an incredulous glare in return, his hand moving in a vague gesture as he tried to express it. “Just came out as… horse sounds, is all.”

Zoë nodded slowly, closing her eyes and heavily exhaling. She was a practical first mate, in any situation she tried to figure out the best way forward ─pending captain’s orders to do things differently than she liked─ and rolling with it as easily as possible, which usually meant the crew dealing with a complete mess and making the best of it.

Like Mal's decision to knock Jayne unconscious and leave him out in the desert so he wouldn't bring a disturbing Alliance weapon aboard their ship, which he'd ended up doing anyway out of pure stubborn bullheadedness, and they'd all suffered hallucinations and almost died from it until River had been the one to save them all. Great times.

This was possibly another one of those times.

Somehow, Mal had acquired a strange creature that could have been an extremely strange Alliance weapon for all she knew, and of all places it was in his quarters. He clearly wasn't aware of how it had come to be here, and she knew his mannerisms well enough to know he wasn't pulling a fast one on her. It had to have been quite sudden and gotten on board without his knowledge, which raised the question; if he didn’t bring it here, then who or what did?

Her mind immediately and logically went to the blackout, the deafening wailing scream and the haze that Serenity had passed through, and River acting a little more peculiar than was normal for her. A trap set in space perhaps? If this was some kind of Alliance asset, which she honestly wasn't too sure of as 'cute' really wasn't their modus operandi, then it wasn't doing a lot. Then again, just like that container Jayne had taken aboard ─the Ghost Machine, as River had dubbed it─ the creature could be building up something in their minds the longer they spent in its presence, something to control or harm them.

That might have bordered on paranoia, but given the absolute everything they'd all been through with the Alliance she really wasn't going to put it past the possibility of that being the case.

“So… what do we do with it?” she wondered after taking a deep breath and coming up with nothing. “Can’t just let it live in your quarters, or, well... maybe we should until we can... Hell, no one would take it. You said it spoke?”

“Aint rightly sure, could have just been animal talk. Could keep it as a pet,” Mal smiled jokingly, ignoring Zoë’s expression that said for him to stop screwing around. “Could have us all manner of fun playing fetch, probably be a good foot warmer too, train it to bring me my slippers.”

“Sir.”

“I know, I know,” Mal waved, not laughing and letting his smile die down into a flat expression, looking back at the creature. “Just... dealin’ with the situation in my own way.”

Standing up straight and fixing a look on the pony ─as Zoë seemed certain to call it such he may as well too, odd as it may be─ he supposed the only way forwards here was to see, if at all possible, how intelligent the pony was. He knew horses well, what made them tick, what they liked, what they generally hated, and how they thought. Mal wondered if it was the same for this rather horse-like looking critter. Moving forwards just a tad and very gently crouching down to its level he felt much less out of sorts as things felt like they were calming down, but that was likely because a strange creature had jolted his senses into overdrive and he was partially in a combat mindset the same as Zoë was.

He met its gaze, those mighty bright eyes looking into his own. Those orbs really were like massive wells of colour and pure emotion, which honestly didn’t seem right but it was what it was. He had no misgivings; those were intelligent eyes with the way they regarded him, that they were questioning what he was himself as much as he was questioning what it was.

“Zoë, I’d already had the notion, but I figured I’d run it by ya,” Mal pondered, tilting his head back while keeping his eyes trained on the creature. “An’ I know it aint gonna sound right, probably’ll sound like crazy talk, but-”

“Thinkin’ it might be an alien?” Zoë finished, hand on her hip as she sucked in a breath and exhaled. “Yeah, gotta say that’s at the top of my mind, but that just sounds... too strange. Like if aliens were real, they’d have been found by now. Remains, or... something."

“Yeeee-ah... that was my notion,” he nodded, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Seems far-fetched of all the folk in the 'Verse to make some kinda contact that it'd be us, that would be some mighty bad lu-”

He paused.

The pony was getting off the bed, while looking at them. He didn’t tense nor freeze, but he did hear Zoë audibly breathe in again, and he knew her hand had gone straight to her rifle instinctively. Can’t ever take away the soldier in ‘em. He didn’t need to tell her not to shoot, he knew she wasn’t going to as it was just reflexive. Slowly, the pony very cautiously took a step towards them, pausing to see if they reacted, and its face was most certainly full of curiosity. If that wasn’t a sure sign of intelligence then Mal wasn’t sure what would have been beyond speaking full blown English.

It stopped in front of him, leaning in and properly examining him as well.

He couldn’t help but laugh a little when one of its wide, flat, and soft hooves was placed on one of his hands he was resting against his legs as he crouched. Even while low down like this, he was massive in comparison to the little pony as it was roughly the size of a medium-breed dog, and stood only a little higher than one, likely only just coming up to his thigh if a little higher. The pony gently tilted its head upward and met his eyes with its own deep ones, and then it spoke again.

More horse sounds and syllables he couldn’t understand, but it had definitely just tried to communicate like a normal human being would have done.

“Well now… That is something, aint it.” Mal breathed out.

“Yes, sir.” Zoë agreed, a slight crack in her voice.

“Where do we go from here?” Mal asked, not really thinking Zoë had the answer, but it seemed the thing to ask. “This certainly aint no dumb beast, but it aint from ‘round these parts, that's for damn sure.”

“Mhm.” Zoë agreed again.

“Clearly it don’t speak the language, and I aint sure it can,” he said, carefully turning his hand upwards and taking a gentle hold of the pony’s hoof. He audibly scoffed with a smile when the pony actually shook though, like a gorram handshake. “Nǐ tài bàng liǎo, ya see that, Zoë?”

“I did."

Mal looked back at her and got up. “You fancy greetin’ it?”

He figured she took that as more of an order, or she was just as fascinated with this creature as much as he was, but tense as she was she came over and crouched down to one knee in front of the pony, and smartly held her hand out in a clear gesture that was the universal initiation for a handshake. Damn if it wasn’t amazing when the creature placed its hoof in her hand too, shaking with a genuine smile across its odd little face, like it had accomplished something truly grand. Which, maybe it had.

“Zoë, you good?” Mal asked, crossing his arms as he noted the way she’d breathed in as the pony had smiled at her.

Zoë nodded, breathing out a shaky breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding as she looked incredulously at its happy expression. “This is insane.”

“Feels like,” Mal agreed, then posed a thought. “Wanna go show an' tell?”

"No!" Zoë frowned, twisting back at him with a scowl. "Sir, I aint one to question your judgement often-"

"You do. All the time."

"-A little, yeah, but, don't you think it's best to play this safe? You do recall the Ghost Machine?" she said darkly. "What if this... pony, alien... whatever it is; what if it's an Alliance experiment? What if it was put on the ship without our knowledge?"

"I'd say with our luck that, well, it's always a possibility, but I mean..." he gestured at it. "Look at the critter, it don't exactly scream 'terror weapon' to me."

"And that's what has me worried, we once thought River was just a normal girl too." Zoë said quietly, looking back at it.

The pony simply smiled at them still with its large eyes glancing between them, as if feeling almost awkward that they were looking at it for an extended period of time. It sat down on its thick haunches after a few seconds seeing as they weren't doing much with it.

Mal came to a decision after a moment.

"Usually I get a hunch when somethin' aint truly right. Had it with that Ghost Machine, had it with the first drop we took back in Serenity Valley, had it with every gorram step I took on Miranda. Somehow, I aint gettin' that from this pony, not even that odd tenseness the way I did with River lookin' into my mind, same as she did all of us before we knew what it was she was doin'. The way I'm seein' it is that it could just be you an' me knowin' about it, sneakin' in to feed it or whatever, make sure it's all fed an' watered, but River would find out in a heartbeat, if she doesn't already know; intuition leads that girl to strange conclusions an' she'd just see it from our minds anyway." A pause. "What I'm also seein' is that it's most certainly equine, an' it'll likely go stir-crazy from bein' locked in my room all the time, the chances we'd have to let it out an' about would be few an' far between. I think the best option we got is just to let everyone know we've got a new passenger for the foreseeable future."

"So we're not ditching it?" Zoë said, keeping the pony's gaze.

"No, we're aint. Besides, you think Kaylee would ever forgive me if she found out we left it on some rock to fend for itself?" he fixed her with a quick glance. "Not sure I'd feel quite right my own self, somethin' powerful in me tells me that'd be highly criminal. If this lil' critter is connected to the Alliance then you can tell me 'I told you so', but if it's the genuine article, I aint gonna be the one to abandon it for them to pick up and pull apart."

"I suppose so..." Zoë gave a nod, sighing as she quickly gave a dry scoff. "I will look forward to saying 'I told you so' if this bites us on the ass, though, sir."

"I got no issues with that." Mal shrugged, looking at the pony. "So... let's go introduce it to the crew."

* * *

Twilight was pleased, she’d made progress.

The creature was undeniably male. She’d sat there around an hour since she’d calmed down from her panic, and she’d taken the time to examine the creature lying on the bed snoring away peacefully without being intrusive. It was indeed just like a minotaur in its overall body structure. Bipedal, broad-shouldered, and rather muscular in such a way that denoted its masculinity. She couldn’t really see its face properly right now as it was face down into the duvet, but it had been quite angular from what she had seen.

So, it had to have been male. A lack of breasts and high curvature normally found on female minotaurs said as much, and she was certain she had no need to see the creature's genitalia to confirm her suspicions, she wasn't that curious.

Progress. It wasn’t much, but at least she could mentally catalogue this new possible race or even minotaur subspecies for when she made the trek back to Equestria, which might take a while. Then again, for all she knew this was just on an island somewhere far east of the Badlands beyond the Dragonlands, which naturally would be quite undocumented, or maybe further south of Badlands where it was rumoured that odd species lurked.

If that was the case then really it was just a hot air balloon ride back and she was home, maybe she could enquire to the local authority when she was out of here.

She then looked at the creature as it had made a noise.

It was waking up!

She sat patiently and calmly as it properly arose, curious as to why it regarded her with a strange expression that seemed like incredulity. It knew she was here, after all. Maybe it had believed she would go away, but she felt a scientific need to find out more. The not-minotaur shifted about until it looked comfortable, and then met her eyes. It was actually quite amusing the creature was doing the same as her and trying to understand what she was, so she sat in silence and let it cast its eyes over her until it was done.

And then it spoke!

...But it wasn’t a language she understood. That was problematic.

Something told her it had just said hello though.

“Hello to you too,” she nodded, it would be rude to not greet it back even though it likely couldn’t understand her. It was a given as she didn’t understand what it had said either, though more was the surprise when it seemed amazed she had even tried to speak at all, clearly her first assessment of it having been afraid of her was very wrong.

That was a bit of an issue, however. There were very few species that were known to ponykind that didn’t know or speak Ponish, those usually being the more bestial and feral of races that had no need of such civilites, so it begged the question of just how far she was from Equestria. Possibly more than a hot-air balloon ride.

The creature got up and walked away for a moment, though only near to the ladder, then pressing against a little off-white box built into the wall and speaking its unknown language into it. That didn’t make sense to her, though it certainly improved how the creature was feeling, as it was standing easier and not being so discouraged by her presence.

Moments later the entrance to the small bedroom opened again, and she saw another set of feet clad in boots come down the ladder, before the first creature moved in front of her to block her from view. That was interesting, was it trying to hide her?

They both conversed until the first stepped out of the way to reveal her to the newcomer.

The new not-minotaur fixed her with what felt like an almost cold hatred, which did make her wither under the intensity of it as the creature took a step towards her, but she could still clearly discern its features. The obvious teats ─or breasts as minotaurs would call them─ upon its chest and the ample curvature of its figure undoubtedly denoted its femininity and the fact that it was female of the not-minotaur species, a minobous, or well, a not-minobous.

Quite interestingly as an aside; this not-minobous shared the lack of fur over its body with the other one, but its skin was a gorgeous shade of ebony.

Its face still had the trademarks of femininity that were shared by ponies, such as the full lashes on the eyes or the thicker pouty lips, though. This female had a strong jaw too, yet that wasn’t uncommon among minobous either, with the females having the slightest of masculine traits while retaining the essence of feminine beauty.

Twilight watched as the male crouched down nearer to her, as if wanting to get a better look.

She’d do it one better. Ignoring that the two were still conversing between themselves, she slowly got down from the bed so as to not spook them, not that she thought at this point that she would at all, they seemed very strong-willed. Of course, the second she did that they stopped talking and watched her. She took it step by step until she was face to face with the male, again looking into his eyes. They were a very nice shade of blue, with green flecks.

Taking a deep breath, she placed a hoof on one of his hands, and she smiled when he turned his hand and took her hoof into it. His hand was rough and calloused, which suggested a life of either labour or fighting. Not uncommon for minotaur-like beings she would have believed.

“It’s very nice to meet you, I’m Twilight Sparkle,” she smiled. This was good, even if it didn’t understand, it meant they weren’t hostile and relations could be built between their species.

Deciding it was a good idea, she shook his hand in a formal greeting.

It seemed absolutely awed by the gesture. It spoke again and backed off, the not-minobous coming over and kneeling down now instead, holding out her hand in what was undeniably the universal gesture for a hoofshake. Twilight placed her hoof into her hand and greeted her with a smile as well.

This was great!

The female then let go and stood up, walking away from her and back to the side of the male, casually talking between themselves again. It seemed quite interesting, the two of them standing side-by-side, both somewhat relaxed and yet very alert, they looked quite different and yet were obviously friends or shared some bond. She highly suspected they might be warriors of some kind, they both had strange instruments on their person that were definitely a type of weapon, and it interested her to know how they functioned. She'd have to wait on that one until their friendship had improved, nopony liked it when somepony just tried to fiddle with things that didn't belong to them.

Twilight smiled as the male beckoned her forwards with gestures as he knew they couldn’t communicate through speech, so she complied, going straight past them and looking up at the hatch. Thinking on it now the occasion had arisen, she hadn’t used magic in front of them yet, though now it seemed like it might be necessary because of the ladder she wouldn’t be able to properly climb up with just her hooves.

She had no idea how they would react, if they’d never seen a pony before then it was a very safe bet to assume they hadn’t seen magic before either, as ponies were one of the sole races able to control it at all. It did seem like the not-minotaurs had that one figured out about the ladder, because the male lent down and looked her in the eyes. He pointed to her, then up, then mimicked lifting.

She understood perfectly. It would be weird, yet a hurdle that needed to be gotten past.

With a slightly reluctant nod, she blushed as one of his arms hooked around her haunches and rested on her chest, and she yelped in surprise a little when he fully succeeded in lifting her in just the one arm with a strength she didn’t foresee. It was slightly embarrassing really as she was being handled by an unknown creature, but he then proceeded to quickly carry her with no effort on his part, up the ladder and out of the room in very little time without being underhoofed ─underhanded?─ in any manner at all.

He gently knelt down and deposited her into a strange dark metal hallway that was rather gloomy and only illuminated by pale blue lighting along the sides of the floor, and she looked around at its angular design as the female came out of the hatch too, closing it after herself. The difference between the bedroom and this hall was night and day, this was the most bizarre home she’d ever seen.

But she was excited to explore it.

Author's Note

Zhāzǐ chánshēn de hùndàn - Scum-ridden bastard.
Yí gè jìnǚ de pòsuì de duòtāi - Broken abortion of a prostitute.
Nǐ tài bàng liǎo - You're amazing.

Our Miss Sparkle

Within what seemed the blink of an eye, the pale female had crossed the gap almost immediately and very slowly started to crouch down in front of her just enough to be subtly out of place. Her posture was also very odd, with her knees pressed up against her chest as she hugged herself closely. She wore a nice red dress and went barefoot, which was a distinction between this species and minotaurs, who had hooves. Twilight had only ever seen some types of bird or reptile with feet, and those were usually webbed or clawed, and these not-minotaurs had soft looking rounded digits on their feet as with their hands. She had been curious as to the strange shape of the boots the other two had worn. Now she knew why they were the way they were, it was all quite fascinating to discover.

Twilight smiled towards her kindly, and the pale one smiled back. It was the innocent smile of a child. She’d say a filly, but this was a not-minobous. It was a tad strange as this female didn't look like a pre-teen, the smile not seeming quite right on her features. The female raised her hand, outstretched in a friendly manner, and didn’t break eye contact.

Thinking the female definitely wanted Twilight to come over, the thought came that the female also wanted to shake Twilight's hoof, so she walked over to greet her but was instead surprised when the hand moved in a blur as she came near and stroked through her mane, around her ears, and around to the back of her neck. The action gave her immediate pause at the oddity and sent a jolt down her spine, while it was incredibly bewildering it hadn’t exactly felt bad, just… different, it had also made her leg kick involuntarily… oops.

She didn’t want to be rude, so she smiled.

The male behind her had said something, the pale female responding while still looking at her, but whatever had been said stopped the female from continuing to stroke through her mane and she got up, gracefully slinking down the metal gangway and into another room.

This wasn’t goodbye however, as it seemed that was where the two adult not-minotaurs wanted her to go anyway. She felt herself smiling as this was going so well, she was already technically making friends with this new species despite the language barrier and they seemed more than willing to do the same, if their genial attitudes were any indication.

With them following close behind, she trotted lightly in that direction and curiously stepped through the large metal doorway into a rather comfortable and evidently lived-in living space that exuded the very feeling of home. Like the bedroom, it was vastly different here than in the cold-feeling hallway she'd just come from. There was a minimal amount of angular metal and much more nice varnished wood, the floor and walls being made from it or at least having panelling to look as if it was. In a corner there were plush looking cushions and a full surround settee off the main area, of which included a small table with some kind of game unfinished atop it. A large table with plenty of mismatched chairs around it sat near the centre, it was the sort of set-up a family home would have.

It was really very pretty, she mused as she looked around. This must have been a dining area as well, going by the layout of cupboards and counters on one side of the room, with a sink and what looked to be additional storage built into the other side. It was a strange set up in the kitchen, with the cupboards behind the pillars looking more like storage boxes than anything else. It was a simple added touch of homeyness that the entrance ways, upper walls, and the supportive pillars of the room were all lovingly engraved with floral patterning. She wouldn't be surprised if this was a room they spent most of their time in. The most mesmerising aspect of the room for her was the ceiling though, which made her wonder if these creatures had magic after all.

There was a large row of windows on one side that had a beautiful star patterned blackness in them, and it was moving around as if the night sky itself was pressed right up against the glass, it was almost like looking through her telescope up at space. She gazed wonderously at it for a few moments before she felt a light pat on her back.

Turning her head, Twilight looked up to see the handsome ─at least by minotaur standards─ male one again, and he gestured for her to sit down, pointing to the small section off the main area in the corner. Nodding, she examined everything as she went on over and got comfortable on a cushion. It was a little threadbare, but soft. It made her smile a bit to see the slender pale one was sitting just across from her with her knees drawn up against her petite chest again, as if it was a favoured position to be in. The female watched her silently with curious green eyes, utterly curious and full of wonder.

She followed the male's movements with her eyes as he leisurely walked to another of the small white boxes built into the wall and spoke into it just as he had in the bedroom, noise coming from it when he stopped, and then he talked with it again in turn.

Interestingly, the noise had sounded like his own sounds.

It seemed like it was a communication device utilising technology, if indeed these not-minotaurs didn't possess magic they'd have to create and expand through wholly technological means, much as minotaurs or gryphons themselves did.

She startled a little as there was an audible crackle overhead from a source she couldn’t pinpoint, and more of the language she didn’t understand was spoken into the air, almost as if from nowhere but at the same time all around her. Again, this seemed to calm or placate the not-minotaurs who then started to seat themselves, until the male paused halfway through sitting with a pained grimace on his features. What was that about, she wondered? Was he injured? Slowly, he got back up after looking at her and moved over to the strange lockboxes in the kitchen, tracing a finger until he found the one he wanted.

He pulled out something in silver packaging and quickly unwrapped it, and from where she was she could definitely see carrots. He grabbed a small bowl and put an assortment of what were also certainly vegetables into it, smiling as he brought it over to her and placed it down. He gave her a nod and stood with his hands around his suspenders.

Oh, this was for her? That was kind.

Her stomach did growl at that moment. It had been quite a while since she’d eaten, she always did forget to take care of herself when doing large projects, even with Spike dropping her off meals she sometimes forgot to eat properly other than just pick at them. Smiling at him and nodding her thanks, she leant down towards the table and looked at the food. It was all vegetables she knew, so that was both interesting and a good sign. There was carrot, celery, cucumber, lettuce, and beetroot. She decided on the carrots first.

She glanced up, noting the pleased expression he wore.

Clearly he liked being a good host, and it was nice to see that even if she had accidently forced her way into his home without even trying. She would really need to fix that spell once she got back home to Equestria, she didn’t want this same thing happening again even if it meant meeting another entirely new species, they might not be as friendly as these ones were.

Perking up at the sound of footsteps she and the male looked at the direction they were coming from, and she saw more of the not-minotaurs! They hadn’t seen her yet so she got down and started to trot to them, before a hand rested gently between her shoulders. Looking up she saw the male hold up an index finger. From what she knew of minotaur mannerisms with their digits that meant he wanted her to wait for the moment. Nodding, she sat on her haunches and looked at the newcomers starting to come in.

The first one she saw was very large and imposing as from what she would have expected of an actual minotaur, muscle plainly on view for intimidation purposes unlike the others with the sleeveless shirt he wore, and she had to admit it was slightly unnerving. A few seconds after came more hoofsteps and in came another male ─smaller than the other two males in terms of muscle─ wearing a floral patterned shirt, who immediately saw her and baulked, quickly shouting out in surprise.

That was at the same time the really big one noticed her as well.

She couldn’t help but laugh a little when he, this massive imposing creature, jumped out of his seat he’d just sat in and nearly fell over it in confusion from having seen her, a small little pony. It was exactly like an elephant's reaction to a mouse, she felt wicked for laughing at his discomfort.

“Hello,” Twilight said, stifling her giggles and waving to them. It felt nice to greet them verbally despite the clear communication issues presented. “It’s nice to meet you.”

A new observation arose from all this however, as she noticed very apparently that all of them were looking to the male next to her as he was currently speaking. Which actually gave credence to the fact that he was in charge and that he was their leader. It could have been that they were paying attention to him as he was the one talking, but the idea that he was the boss was solidified when the larger not-minotaur started to talk very aggressively and pointed at her in a manner which she didn’t like. However a few short stiff words from this male next to her immediately gave the big one pause to his angry actions, and he sat down like he’d been told he wasn’t allowed his favourite toy, the leading male next to her staring him down into submission.

That was absolutely fascinating as that meant these creatures didn’t operate on the basis of pure strength being the ruling factor in who was in charge like a majority of non-pony species. It seemed to her that the big one would be much stronger than the one she stood beside. Ponies were somewhat the same, even if the Princesses were immortal rulers that controlled the stars themselves, pony societal norms still mainly went with a pecking order based on brains and skill over brawn.

How many other similarities would she find among their species?

Twilight very much wanted to try using magic around them but for now she would refrain until everypony here, well, everyone here, was a little more comfortable with her. Soon she'd see if she was able to communicate about going outside, as space in here was rather limited as it had been back in the male’s bedroom. She'd spend so long in her basement that she really had that natural urge all ponies got to stretch their legs under the open sky. She wondered what it was like in this part of the world? Would it be a sort of desert or tundra, filled with the same sort of metal structures as this house? It would have to be quite a harsh urban area to warrant such high levels of metal housing, surely? Her drive to know these things only deepened when she glanced up at the windows, the night sky was so very close and she wanted very much to go outside, to see this world and breath its chilled air.

She looked back to the group of not-minotaurs, only to start a little when she saw she was almost face-to-face with another female, this one with tousled mousy-brown hair just going past her shoulders and a wide grin on her flat muzzle. Her clothing looked like gardening overalls and she even had a belt with tools in it, but that didn’t matter so much as Twilight felt this creature was overly happy to see her, more so than the pale one had been.

The creature spoke to the Alpha ─as Twilight felt she should call him for now─ much in a manner that sounded like a child asking their father for something, and Twilight couldn’t help but giggle into a hoof at the display. The second the Alpha had finished his response though, this female was upon her with a pure look of awe in her eyes.

Twilight knew what was coming next.

She braced as the female started petting her, like she was one of Fluttershy’s animal friends that enjoyed that sort of attention. It wasn’t to say it was unpleasant, the running of the female's hands along her back and neck felt comfortingly nice, and maybe that scritching behind her ears did give her warm fuzzy feelings in her chest and send a shiver down her spine like it had earlier with the other younger female, but it wasn’t to say she actively sought this type of thing. She cleared her throat as a means of getting the creature to stop what she was doing when Twilight involuntarily felt a hind leg kick again, backing off a step and blushing.

That seemed to amuse the female a great deal.

Then Twilight found herself being hugged. The female was very considerate to not try putting arms under forelegs, that would have been a problem. It was just a simple movement of her arms around Twilight’s neck and resting her head against Twilight's withers. The female's hair smelled like… this home, and something that was heavily chemical? It wasn’t unpleasant per se, but it was as if she worked in a factory, maybe greasy would be the term but her hair was fairly clean, and that probably wasn’t the best word to describe it.

She was only a bit scruffy, in any case.

She pulled back after less than a minute, likely wary from being stopped once already.

Twilight looked up to see the Alpha was speaking, so she waited for him to finish. When he had, she got back on her hooves and made to follow him until she saw nearly all of them, including another pale not-minotaur that had come in, were looking at her. She gave them all a quick nod in lieu of anything else to do.

At that point the newest male she’d seen swiftly came over, but was far more removed and cautious than the female with the overalls had been. Despite that, he politely stuck his hand out for a hoofshake, which Twilight happily met. He started talking to the Alpha while looking back at her on occasion, examining her features with a healthy interest and gesturing or pointing to parts of her every now and then, conversing with the others from time to time before looking back at her. She guessed him for an intellectual type based on his clothing in comparison to everyone else, as it was far more neat looking than all of theirs, especially since what he was doing was clearly describing her in an academic manner given the scene of everyone paying attention to him like he was a teacher. She had to say it was also just in the carried himself, he somehow just looked smart, as Rainbow Dash would have said she looked when she was doing anything nerdy.

She followed him with her eyes as he quickly went to the table and grabbed a piece of paper off of it, turning it over as it already had things written on it, and took what she had assumed was a writing implement from his waistcoat pocket. Twilight could hardly contain her excitement when she realised what he was doing a few seconds into him drawing on the paper. He was writing down numbers and basic dots to indicate the numbers, and there were even sums! He was trying to communicate via mathematics!

Once he passed it to her, she eagerly took it from his hands using her forelegs and quickly scanned the paper with a greatly animated interest. She nodded and held her hoof out with an equally returned polite smile, her hoof unmistakably pointing towards the writing tool. He carefully placed it in her upturned hoof ─annoying to write with, but she'd had practice for times when she suffered a magic burnout─ and she started writing the Equestrian Ponish equivalent of the numbers he’d put next to each dot that represented a single increment, up to ten dots. After burning through the various sums she even did him one better by putting dots all the way up to one-hundred. She passed it back to him, barely keeping herself from bouncing on her hooves. Writing without using magic was always a challenge but this was great!

This was unprecedented! This was amazing and exciting! Aaaaah!

She was waiting with bated breath just in case he started writing down their version of an alphabet, that would be the start of true communication if he pronounced the sounds. She’d hoped this would happen the second she realised they were a new or sub-species likely unencountered before, but she hadn’t expected it so fast!

Knowledge Is Power

Once Wash had jumped back and oh-so-very kindly informed them all with a shocked outburst of xiǎo mǎ!, the crew had turned to face the little purple pony and collectively either also jumped or started just a little, save for Jayne who practically fell out of his chair and nearly went to the floor.

That tickled Mal something fierce, chuckling to himself when he saw the pony was laughing too and trying to stop in a very human fashion of covering her mouth with her hoof. After making the same noises to everyone that she’d made to him back in his cabin, she even waved in a way horses shouldn’t have been capable of. Definitely alien to some degree. This was as confusing and surreal as the time they'd concluded that River was psychic, but at least they'd had the course of a year or so to come to terms with her oddities, this was basically full blown culture shock.

“Alright, listen up,” he looked around to include all of them. “This here’s… well, we... aint exactly got a name right now, she don’t speak the language, so, couldn’t exactly ask, but she aint hostile an’ she ended up here on the ship somehow, so-”

“Mal, that xiǎo zǐ sè guài tāi aint natural!” Jayne interrupted with a shout, hand going to the knife on his hip. “We gotta toss it outside! Space the damn thing!”

“Jayne, sit down! Now.” Mal growled, glaring at the man, already having thought he might have acted out like this. He met eyes with the mercenary of his crew in a challenge that given their colourful history, gave Jayne immediate pause and reconsideration to his ornery behaviour. “She aint hurtin’ no one an’ you definitely aint to be puttin' hands on her. Or, are you afraid of the cuddly little space critter just barely comin’ up past your knee? You afraid she might cuddle you to death?"

The intended blow to the man’s pride did the trick. Jayne glared daggers and mumbled a string of curses, but he slowly sat down with his head low while giving the little pony venomous looks every now and then. The situation stood tense for mere seconds until Kaylee came in from the other end of the galley, and he’d anticipated this one as well, but it was like a gorram chain reaction had been set off.

Kaylee had seen the cute and cuddly little pony. Kaylee had gasped in an expected Kaylee-like manner. Kaylee had then made the same squeak of delight an excited girl makes when her father tells her she’s actually getting a pony for christmas. Kaylee had fidgeted on the spot and tried to contain herself. Kaylee had then failed in a spectacularly girlish manner to contain herself and made another noise almost entirely alien to anyone who possessed a Y chromosome, one which sounded like someone had squeezed an overly joyous unicorn much too hard.

He hoped Kaylee didn't do that to this critter.

Mal wasn’t quite sure, but he felt she’d crossed the gap from the galley entrance to where the pony was standing quicker than River had crossed the gap out on the fore deck. Maybe he should set up a race of who could get to the critter first, take bets on it. He'd make a killing in platinum.

“Oohhhhhhhhh, Captaiiiiin!” She breathed out, her eyes full of such pure happiness and love. “What is she? Oh I aint even carin’ what she is, she’s like a tiny pony! She’s so lovely, I just... I wanna just stroke her! Please?!”

“Little Kaylee, that there aint no normal animal. She’s an intelligent being with a strong
mind, as far as I can wager,” Mal cautioned his mechanic. “So I aint rightly sure if that’s fine, you’ll know she aint comfortable if she... bites you, or somethin’, I suppose.”

“Oh nahhh, she wouldn’t do that!” Kaylee grinned with a wave at Mal, almost flying at the pony. “Would you? You’re just so cute, aint’cha? Yes, you are!”

Baby-talking the critter aside, while she had looked slightly uncomfortable to start, the pony was pushing against Kaylee’s hands with her eyes closed for a brief moment. Mal suspected such a thing wasn’t a motion it had felt too much before, and it was actually enjoying the experience. He fondly remembered that horses did seem to love a good scratch behind the ears, a lot of animals did. Intelligent creature or not, it had that biological instinct going on as plain as day.

That was until the pony cleared her throat and backed off, having had quite enough of that sort of attention. He smiled as Kaylee laughed a little and leant forwards, enveloping the pony in a warm hug. Kaylee took no prisoners on the front of affection, though at least she mostly understood boundaries, stopping the hug before long and leaving the pony be.

Mal shifted and spoke up.

“As I was sayin’ before y’all intervened,” Mal continued, making sure all of them were focused on him. “Aint too certain as to what we should do with her, but ‘course we aint just gonna leave her high an’ dry on some border planet to kick rocks, I’m fairly certain any person that aint Jayne would agree anyway.”

"Can I please interject and ask why there's a fuzzy extraterrestrial being from an oaty bar commercial on the ship?" Wash piped up with a slight rise of the hand. "Not that I have anything, yannow, against the... critter, but where did she come from?!"

Mal shrugged lightly at Wash's exaggerated tone. "Don't know that either, but as you might suspect if it didn't occur already, it likely has somethin' to do with that blackout we had earlier."

"Was she in the cargo bay?" Wash wondered.

"No, my quarters, of all places." Mal replied, groaning as he knew that look.

"What is it with you and having strange girls in your cabin, Captain?" Wash said, posing it almost innocently as Zoë chuckled to herself. "I hope you don't plan on kissing this one."

Mal glared as Zoë and Kaylee fought to contain their amusement, and Wash quickly relented from his poking fun and found the dining table far more interesting as the mood settled from Mal's glowering. Mal cleared his throat after a moment to reassert control. "For now let’s just…” he semi-shrugged, looking at the pony. “Let her be. She aint gonna cause no harm I don’t think, an’ we all got things to be doin’. Keep her out of the engine room an' the cargo bay, least for the time being, but other than that I don't know, this is an uncharted space to be explored."

With that he shrugged and took to leaving, noting the pony looked eager to follow him which probably would have been for the best even if his wires were pretty frazzled from all the craziness. He paused mid-step as Simon came onto the scene and raised a hand to stop him from going though. He'd already been standing there watching with interest but now he was getting involved.

“Captain, if I may,” Simon asked, stepping forward and gazing inquisitively at the small pony before him. “This is like no other sort of creature that we've ever encountered, let alone seen, unless she's quite literally a long-lost offshoot of an equine. That's also assuming the Alliance doesn't already have some kind of knowledge on alien life and is hiding the information. I'd certainly like to examine a few things with you here.”

“Her call too.” Mal shrugged, glancing at the pony.

Mal tracked Simon with curiosity as he cautiously approached the pony and met her with a professional looking handshake. The man never ceased to make things look so formal and it somewhat amused him how he was going to turn this situation into something almost academic. He turned back from going to leave and stayed at the edge of the galley as Simon started to examine the creature.

“This is unprecedented, more so than we can grasp for now, but I can see a few key details that give us some insight into things," Simon immediately began, pointing. "You see here, the legs aren’t the same as they are on an equine we know, and equines don’t have collarbones or ball-and-socket joints either, they have basic hinge joints that allow their legs to fold up at certain degrees with a very small amount of side-to-side movement. I'd wager that she does actually have both given that slight ridge over her chest there, and her frankly human level of movement in her forelegs,” he theorised, indicating to the pony’s legs and torso while she sat still, simply letting him talk and watching him do it as if she knew full well what he was doing. It was pretty inquisitive to Mal how Simon could see this with only just seeing her and not taking a proper scan. Mal hadn't caught onto it because he hadn't exactly been looking for it, despite his ranching background, but he could certainly see where the good doctor was getting the idea. “What little I’ve already seen of her basic movement, her shoulder blades are also further back beside the ball joints, it’s what allowed her to wave at us as she did just then.”

“It still doesn't seem right,” Zoë said in a hush, looking lost and trying to keep her calm mask of cool indifference. “That it’s ─she’s─ alien...”

Simon challenged her. “Why not? It’s a very big universe and we haven’t explored all of it, we never will. As I said before, for all we know the Alliance is already aware of alien life, and we just happened to come across it ourselves.”

“How comes y’all know it’s a girl?” Jayne questioned with a look.

“Well... I'd have thought that was obvious, the form is very feminine, don’t you think?” Simon said, pointing to the generous curvature of the pony’s body. “And there, you can see from here as she sits that those are teats, quite large for her smaller size, the croup and haunches too, mare's don't usually..." he saw their quizzical looks and cleared his throat. "If her species follows our own equine biology more than they do in their skeletal structure, then only females of their race should have teats. Given that, it’s also quite safe to assume the bump there just below her teats is the apex of the vulva.”

Kaylee giggled at his straightforward description with a light blush given the subject matter, while everyone else other than Simon, River, and Mal looked slightly bemused at the bluntness of such talk.

“You’re awfully comfortable describing anatomy, aren’t you?” Wash wryly pointed out.

“I’m a doctor.” Simon stated equally dry and matter-of-factly. “It’s just a basic description of a body, and I've studied the anatomy of various animals in case I ever wanted to get into veterinary care. It’s nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about,” he continued on, either oblivious to the bemusement or just outright ignoring it as simple childishness. “All female creatures have the exact same sort of reproductive organs on a basic level, that more or less function the same.”

“Alright, so, moving past that part, Doctor,” Mal intervened, hopefully before the young prodigy started trying to theorise how the alien-pony’s reproductive cycle worked. “She’s a bonafide girl, that’s apparently officiated by a doctor now, what else are you wantin’ to say?”

“She was speaking then, trying to communicate with us,” Simon smiled, getting to his feet and going to grab some paper. “She has a wide range of gestures and emotions given Kaylee’s interaction and Jayne’s… being himself, and while we couldn’t understand what she said it was certainly a language, there were common phonetic sounds in her speech alongside the equine sounds.”

“Pho-wha?” Jayne asked with a raised lip, as if he were both confused and disdainful.

“Phonetics,” Simon started, looking at Jayne as if this should be something even he should know about. “The sounds we make when we speak? Ah, buh, cuh, and so on,” he explained, which amazingly Jayne did nod in his understanding. “It means that while her language is different, because of the certain sounds she’s already made it’s more than possible she could pronounce all other sounds of the phonetic alphabet.”

“So she could learn English. That’d be quite something.” Mal nodded, with everyone else giving varying degrees of a nod from their understanding.

“That's my belief, yes,” Simon continued, starting to write something down on the paper he'd acquired. “That is of course assuming she has just as many muscles in her facial structure as we do, and given the shape of her face I’d actually wager she does, by a greater amount, her range of expressions is going to likely be better than ours.” After a few seconds he turned towards the pony. “Here we go─oh, she took it off of me…” Simon laughed, the creature almost snatching the paper from him as he started to pass it to her, with her hooves no less. “This is probably the most basic manner I can think of to indicate a greater intelligence, as well as the simplest means of communication.”

“What is it? Pictures?” Wash asked from where he was standing.

“Arithmetic,” Simon answered, handing his pen to the pony. “Just watch.”

They all did, with varying amounts of interest, as she somehow used her hoof to hold the pen and write with it. Everyone’s reactions more or less fell between either awe or bemusement, and she soon quickly handed the paper back to Simon.

“Incredible. Look at that, it’s her own numbers for one through ten where I marked our own, and she's gone up to one-hundred in her own numbers or numerals. I put basic sums in there as dots in place of our numbers with the key to denote them, and she correctly answered those as well. A perfect score.”

“Woah, good horse.” Wash said in a hush.

“That confirms she must have a language, not that I had any doubt of that after a few minutes of studying her. It's clear that she's sapient.” Simon said, more to himself than anyone else.

“Because of numbers?” Jayne asked, an eyebrow raised as he dared a look at the alien.

“Yes. Mathematics. Or… one of the most basic levels, which is arithmetic; numerals and elementary arithmetic, that is,” Simon explained again. “That coupled with how she gestures and makes sounds all points to the idea of an oral language, the evidence is undeniable. It would be amazing for her to learn to speak with us using English, the same as it would be amazing for us to learn hers, assuming we could accurately mimic the slight equine sounds she's been making. By all means I should be able to pull up basic teaching methods on my datapad, establishing communication is one of the most important barriers for any people to overcome, especially in a first contact situation as with ancient peoples from Earth-That-Was. She certainly seems interested in learning given the speed with which she wrote those numbers down.”

All this time they’d been talking, the small pony had almost been bouncing with an ear-to-ear grin, if not outright vibrating with anticipation.

“Very interested.” Simon added, giving her a polite smile.

* * *

Mal had just finished up helping Wash with something on the bridge regarding the blackout messing with the control systems in place, when he turned around to the sound of footsteps clunking on the metal stairs up to the cockpit, seeing Simon partly winded in the airlock. The doctor wasn't unfit so Mal would have guessed that he'd likely run across the ship from the Infirmary or his quarters in the passenger dorms at a hurried pace. He was trying to form words and stumbling over himself in the attempt.

“I… Captain, I… look, just come! It’s unreal! It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before!” he managed, seeming both shocked and amazed at something, and there wasn't a whole lot on the ship that ever fascinated him so Mal would put platinum on it being to do with their new arrival.

“Slooow, slow down, Doctor. You’re gonna give yourself a heart attack, y’aint meant for those ‘till you’re older.” Mal scoffed, following Simon as he rushed as fast as he could back through the ship. With his wound he was a little slower going through, but he caught up as Simon waited for him at points. They passed through the galley into the aft hall before Mal spoke again. “What’s ruffled your fancy feathers anyhow?”

“Real, pure honest-to-God magic.” Simon breathed.

Mal tutted, still following as they went down the stairs off from the aft hall leading to the Infirmary, nodding to it. “Alright, forget me then, you’re clearly feelin' scatterbrained, might wanna check yourself in.”

“You just, you have to see it to believe it.”

The pony was in the hallway between the dorms looking incredibly guilty as if she'd broken his mother's fancy china, which if it had anything to do with the apparent real magic Simon was describing, would make for some fun. Mal looked at Simon who knelt down next to the pony whose entire body language denoted worry.

“Captain, I’ve only spent the last two hours with her teaching the basics of English exactly how I taught River when she was younger.” Simon spoke while then looking at the pony, smiling at her and making placating movements. “She’s already picked up the alphabet and how to pronounce the letters in almost as much the same time as River did, but she’s moved well past that and also started to learn words and their pronunciation using a basic language library on my datapad.”

“How did that work out?” Mal wondered.

“I pointed to an object like the wall, and she would either remember what she’d seen in the library as each word that can have an image applied to it does, and said what it was I was pointing at. I only did a few of those because that’s kind of basic, but she can also write down exactly what I say, some things she might not know the meaning of yet, though she can say the words based on the sounds and apply something to it in most cases. Like...”

Simon directed his attention to her, with a gentle smile he spoke. “C-h-a-i-r.”

“Chair.” She perked up a little from her worried state, saying the word with a nod, then going over to the small sofa behind them beside the dorms and patting it, looking back at them. “Chair.”

“Well, that’s not a… I guess she gets the basic idea,” Mal nodded. “Doctor, what’s this thing you said about magic?”

“Right!” Simon started again, beckoning the pony over to him again.

He knelt down, taking a pen from his waistcoat and holding it in one hand with the palm outstretched, gesturing moving it from one hand to the other, then nodding to her with an approving look that told her everything was going to be alright. She looked worried, glancing from Mal to Simon for a moment, before taking in a deep breath as if preparing herself for the worst.

Mal only had one word for what happened next. She… levitated the pen from Simon’s left hand to his right, and then back again. Her horn had glowed and then burst into a blazing magenta aura, and that same colour aura had surrounded the pen in a sort of mystical haze, and it had moved without her touching it with her hooves.

“Shíme tāmāde...” he whispered, a certain level of chill running down through him as he witnessed what was quite possibly a historical singularity, placing his hand on his head for lack of anything else to do in the situation. “That’s… that happened.”

“Entirely unheard of,” Simon nodded, looking at Mal. “It’s… well, it’s telekinesis, which should be impossible."

Mal's brow furrowed. "The Alliance..."

"Yes, we've heard stories from people about the Alliance trying to create something that could do this," Simon cut in as he stood up. "From what you've told me of the time you found that ancient Generation ship they were trying to create a psychic with such powers, but they never could perfect it because it’s impossible.”

“'Cept I just saw fairly compellin' evidence says otherwise,” Mal gave a dry laugh. “I think this day is shapin' up to be the craziest I’ve ever had, an' we fought off a bunch of River's class of crazy assassins. I keep thinkin' the other shoe has dropped in our lives but apparently they keep on goin' down a very long road."

“Should I… continue telling you my findings?” Simon asked, looking back at the pony, who seemed to be taking Mal’s reaction to the magic usage acceptable.

“By all means,” Mal wildly gestured outward as he rested against a snaking exhaust pipe running through the ship. “Can’t get any weirder.”

“O.K, good. So, uh… she’s already memorised the alphabet, like I said. But most important of all, she can just write sentences based on the few words she knows or say certain words, and she knows what it is she’s asking. She’s going to learn everything there is to know if she keeps this up.” Simon smiled, shaking his head.

“So what can she say in writing, or in English?”

“I thought it best to do the basics, so she knows ‘I am hungry and/or thirsty’ as well as ‘I am tired’, and of course ‘I need to use the bathroom’. There are some words here and there that are based on areas. Like ‘galley’ and ‘infirmary’, basic for now, you know?”

“I gotcha,” Mal nodded, crossing his arms. “That is mighty impressive for an alien pony an' for just three hours work.”

“And a good half hour of that really was spent keeping River busy. She kept saying things that didn’t make sense and wanted to hang around.”

“What things?” Mal frowned.

“She talked about a... a giant tree, a place of refuge, uh… castles on mountains and apple orchards,” Simon tried to recall. “There were other things, like the stars moving of their own accord, honestly it was on par with her usual rambling. I think recent events are driving up the imbalance in her brain chemistry, so her system is fighting the medication more than usual. I asked her if she wouldn’t mind going to the galley while I taught our guest, so we've had some peace to study."

“Speakin' of our guest, we aint got name for her yet,” Mal said, then smiled. “Thought of anything we could call her? ‘Least ‘till she learns to tell us herself?”

Simon actually chuckled at that. “Actually, I did. You saw that marking on her haunch?”

“Yeah, the weird pink star.”

“I just called her that,” Simon said. “Star.”

“Well it’s certainly a startin' point ‘till she can tell us what it actually is her own self,” Mal hummed, thinking on the simple designation. “It works, easy identifier in any case. Fantastical magics aside though, an' I should probably tell the others about it later… I got work to be done, so I’ll leave you to it.”

“Actually, it’s pretty late. I was going to go to bed, and I hope you don’t mind, Captain, but I took the liberty of making the bed in the dorm across from me ready for her.” Simon told him, gesturing to ‘Star’.

Mal nodded his approval. “I’d already been thinkin’ on somethin’ like that,” he nodded, then lightly scoffed. “I was gonna stick her in with Kaylee, but she’ll probably actually manage to sleep this way without bein' used as a gorram dolly.”

With a brief wave to the pony they were now calling Star and a nod to the both of them, Mal soon walked off. Simon stretched for a moment before pulling the datapad from his pocket and checking something, then asked Star if she was tired, who very much nodded in response with a gentle smile. He wasn’t surprised after the day she’d had. They had no idea how she’d gotten on the ship and they couldn’t exactly ask her, but given her sudden appearance and all the excitement, coupled with the fact she was very clearly a long way from home, the poor girl must have been quite drained of energy.

Beckoning her into the opposite dorm, she looked around and back to Simon before gesturing to herself. He nodded as yes, this was her room for the time being. He felt his heart melt a little when she gave a very thankful bow with a very sincere smile and her hoof upon her chest, it was rather cute and would have probably made Kaylee make the noise she’d already made earlier.

He was going to go but before he could fully leave she made a noise that sounded like a polite cough used to get one’s attention, so he turned and saw her looking curious and hopeful as she now sat upon the bed. She had amazing expressions that conveyed so much with so little. She pointed a hoof at the datapad in his hands and pressed her hooves together, which clearly meant ‘Please?’

Simon never stood a chance against such weaponised cuteness, really.

That and he also wanted her to learn a great deal more by herself, as he believed she was quite up to the task. He wanted to see the telekinesis again, so he held it outstretched on his palm, and she didn’t disappoint by taking a hold of it within her gloriously purple magical field ─it almost tickled as the aura brushed his hands─ and floating it over to herself, letting it land safely in her hooves.

He bid her goodnight, leaving her light on and sliding the door closed.

Author's Note

Xiǎo mǎ - Small horse.
Xiǎo zǐ sè guài tāi - Little purple freak.
Shíme tāmāde - What the fuck.

Simon Says

Twilight hadn’t checked the time for a good while now. She was still busy trying to process the vast amount of information she’d learned from this device that the not-minotaur. No, the human, had given her. Now, she was calm as calm could be in such a situation, the situation being far more complex and quite frankly disturbing than she’d like or was used to.

She’d freaked out and had quite a severe mental breakdown once upon a time thinking Princess Celestia would send her to magic kindergarten over something so miniscule as not sending a letter on a certain day and missing a deadline, but she was thankfully long past the days of such neuroticism.

No, right now she was calm.

Yes, she was… practising breathing exercises, and sitting in the far corner of the bed against the wall with her eyes closed, trying to relax and soothe her incoming headache and greatly hoping she was wrong. Overall, she’d say she was handling the idea that she wasn’t in Equestria or let alone on Equus itself, rather well.

If there was somepony here she could confide in, she’d actually happily admit that she really wasn’t handling things too well, but right now what was keeping her from toppling over the edge into a full blown breakdown was the fact that this was a great opportunity for knowledge. The scientific pursuits that could be gained from such an insane situation could greatly benefit her world. Such potential majorly outweighed the overwhelming sense of dread that was burning a pit in her stomach.

That was of course assuming she could figure out a way home, which she didn't think was too impossible, she was Princess Celestia's protégé after all. She’d seen through Chrysalis's ploy when nopony else had and kept on through all the doubt, she'd completed Starswirl's great unfinished spell, and that hadn't been solved for hundreds of years by the mages of the Royal Court! Granted, it hadn't done much but fill her with a greater sense of magical strength, like reaching into a deep well of energy to cast more powerful abilities, but that was something to use here now. It was that no matter what, she had persevered, and her friends had returned to the way they were. She could definitely figure out how to get back to Equestria, all she needed was the correct mindset and not to give up.

It did make her curious how Equestria would fare without her though, the Elements were nothing without all six bearers…

Her friends were all strong minded, and there hadn't been anything major since Shining Armour and Cadence's wedding, Chrysalis certainly wasn't coming back anytime soon. If something did pop up then there might be a chance that one of the Princesses could utilise the Elements of Harmony as a stand-in with them now having new bearers, if indeed Princess Celestia could use them on her own in the past then it seemed like it might be possible to her mind, the Princess had as much magic as Twilight did to be capable of harnessing Magic itself. At least, it was a theory anyway.

She hoped they would be fine.

Her thoughts turned back to more current and pressing matters, a number of questions were running through her mind. One question had already been answered in that the food she’d been given from the human in charge was edible and hadn’t caused her to go into any shock from allergic reactions, and a quick detection spell showed she wasn't manifesting any signs of illness. Going through the datapad, it really was the case that they were the same sort of greens she’d eaten in Equestria, as they shared a basic periodic table of elements, give or take a few that were apparently unique to Equestria. They also did seem to share the same sort of science of agriculture, albeit far more advanced, so she could only assume some practices must be universal.

It still left other questions. What of this universe’s politics, who was in charge that she could ask for assistance in getting home? Looking up basic information using what little level of English she'd learned was one thing, elemental tables were apparently common knowledge, the same for the fact that she was in an utterly alien star system was also as plain as day to everyone else and maps and charts were highly accessible, but what about authority?

The humans of this home had mentioned an ‘Alliance’ enough that it was clear they were important, so she looked that word up and found that this Alliance seemed to rule most of the planets in this part of the universe. She could consider asking this authority, but then again it might be a moot point as the humans she was currently staying with were surprised at her magical ability. All searches on this device for magic had only turned up what appeared to be ancient myths and legends of humans from an abandoned planet called Earth-That-Was, and any capable of doing true magic beyond the sort of circus magic Trixie practised had died out long ago. If that was the case then there were no humans alive that could help her on the level she required.

What of other races? Again, there were myths and legends of species she knew; gryphons, unicorns, pegasi, dragons, minotaurs, sirens, hydras, there was even a snake-like woman that had the powers of a cockatrice and turned people to stone. But none of it was current, in this time and day the only species around were humans.

What was she going to do to start? These people were friendly enough ─other than the large muscular one─ but she couldn’t simply continue leeching off their kindness. She was already learning the basics of their language beyond the alphabet and a few phrases, that was a great start in that regard. Now that she could safely use magic without incident, by listening to the words coming from the datapad with a language spell she could glean a true sense of the meaning of the words she was seeing and hearing.

However this ‘English’, unlike on Equus, was just one in an absolute myriad of different languages in this universe, one of over one-hundred and eighty primary languages which didn't even count the massive amount of different dialects and sub-languages. It was some small luck however as according to the current calendar system the two main spoken languages were English and Mandarin, the former being the more common of the two.

That was going to make things a lot easier, even more so that she could tell the difference between them, going by what she’d picked up so far. It seemed incredibly common for most people to cut Mandarin into their English, especially for curses and the like. It was a lot to take in, but she’d done much harder things in her life, the mounting stress and worry was quite small in comparison to her optimism as she cracked on with learning a great deal more about this strange new world.

When she finally did put the datapad down many hours later, the sun still hadn’t come up.

Granted, she’d cast 'stay-awake' and 'over-focus' spells like she had back when she’d sat exams for Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, but it greatly enhanced her ability to process and understand information, and even if taxed her energy to the point of collapse the price had always been worth it. She was also stronger now than she was back then, so currently the worst she felt was an ache in her limbs and a slight pulsing pain behind her eyes when she pushed the magic. Ignoring it, she turned the tablet off and got comfortable under the duvet of the bed she’d been given.

It took very little time before she fell asleep.

* * *

Simon slowly awoke, finding River had settled down beside him with quite a content smile on his face. It was rare for her to sleep so well at all during the week when she had most of her scans and tests to see if her medication was still working properly. While he had his misgivings about overstimulation causing her to have further episodes of schizophrenia, she seemed to be doing alright now. If she truly was breaking the medication down faster than usual then she wouldn't be so stable at the current moment. He had a sneaking suspicion that perhaps Star's influence was having more of a positive impact, good things that occurred usually helped her state of mind and balanced out the negative.

Shocking, who knew.

Leaving his room to go and get ready for the day, he quickly poked his head into the one currently housing Star who was lightly snoring away. It was rather amusing to see a small alien equine snore and wasn’t too different to when River did the same. Scoffing at the thought he carefully rescued his datapad back from where it rested neatly on the bedside table and left as quietly as he'd come.

The morning was the same as any other, when he was properly washed and dressed he went to the galley and prepared a small breakfast from whatever fresh foods he could find that weren’t in a sealed package. For once they'd still had some goods left from the last stock up after the previous job. The only other person that would likely be up at this hour was their captain and he’d have already eaten, so maybe he wouldn’t have to endure the man until he’d at least had some coffee.

That didn’t stop him from being disappointed as Jayne came through into the galley lightly drenched in sweat, up earlier than he usually arose from his cave for his imposing daily exercise routine, and definitely on the prowl for food. Jayne paid him little mind beyond striding over and immediately snatching up the strips of chicken breast Simon had planned on turning into a sandwich.

“Excuse me?” Simon pointedly asked, knitting his eyebrows together.

“‘Scuse ya few’wha?” Jayne spoke after taking a large bite of the meat.

Simon sighed and glanced at the bread he’d buttered, the slices now going to be devoid of any meat that wasn’t packaged, incredibly dry, and lacking any decent flavour. He mused on the possibility of breaking his hippocratic oath and euthanising Jayne in his sleep for the great misdeed. He turned his attention upward to the odd sound of metallic clopping coming from the aft hall he’d entered the galley from, and was a little surprised to see it was Star, up already and apparently full of energy.

Of course the sound of hooves certainly made sense now.

“Good morning, Star.” Simon smiled toward the small pony, despite knowing she couldn’t reply back.

“Good day, friend!” Star did indeed reply, in clear English.

For a brief moment Simon was baffled into silence by her quick response, though recovered fast enough to manage a small laugh. Jayne scowled and swore, eyeing Star with distaste.

“I see you’ve picked up a few words,” Simon smiled, ignoring him. “You’re a fast learner.”

“Yes! I take a lot of hours study,” Star nodded. “Still not perfect, but I know enough to talk, sorry if I bad.”

“No, no, it’s good!” Simon shook his head. “Honestly I wasn’t expecting this at all, how did you manage to learn so much so fast?”

“Magic.” Star beamed, as if it was the most obvious answer.

That would have made him very sceptical, had he not seen her levitate items and learn all the basics within the space of the few hours or so that he was teaching her yesterday. She trotted over to the counter and jumped up, resting on her oddly-sizable haunches upon the chair.

“So… not to be rude, but may I eat?” she asked in an incredibly polite manner.

Thinking about it, maybe it was for the best that Jayne stole the chicken. Star probably wouldn’t like seeing him or anyone else eat meat as she was likely primarily herbivorous, and while Equines were opportunistic omnivores when the situation called for it, he doubted meat was part of her main palette.

“Of course,” he replied to her, turning around and grabbing a few packets from the cupboards behind him. “Hope you like pre-packed vegetables.”

“Beggars can not choose.”

“Picked up some sayings too, very nice,” Simon hummed. “You’re well on your way.”

“I can learn more.” Star nodded, then met his eyes for a moment. “In fact… you can be a big help.”

“Oh?” Simon wondered, placing a bowl of veg before her. “What did you have in mind?”

“A mind spell,” she slowly said, as if she was unsure. “Will not hurt you, will just allow me to see more... words? More feel of words... more of normal.”

“Mind reading?”

“Sort of? But I know if not,” Star waved a hoof. “Not hurt, but not a... normal thing, feel it is rude not to ask for a yes.”

“Well that’s fine...” Simon smiled, preparing something else for himself to eat. “River constantly invades mine and others minds without asking... she doesn't mean to but it's not something she can control most of the time, so it’s no trouble.”

“She can do magic?” Star wondered, her face lighting up.

“Well… in a sense, I suppose?” Simon shrugged. “If we as humans have magic, then psychics are as close as we’ve got.”

For a short period there was silence as they both ate, and from Simon’s point of view, he felt he was being studied by her eyes as much as he was examining her. It was nice to have something new and interesting drop into everyone’s lives, even if that something was an alien equine from god knows where. Speaking of which…

“I never asked for your name, Star,” Simon stated, looking her in the eyes again. “My name’s Simon, but what’s your name? The Captain and I went with Star based on the marking you have on your haunch.”

“It is close, in fact!” Star giggled a bit. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, I sure it is the correct words. It is nice to meet you, Simon.”

He smiled, a little amused when she held her hoof out for a handshake. Politely, he took it gently and shook, giving her a nod. She smiled and went back to eating for the moment.

“The irate gorilla over there is Jayne,” Simon tilted his head. “He doesn’t like new things.”

Jayne scowled at him, swearing in Mandarin.

“Come to think of it… He doesn’t like anything that doesn't commonly involve sex or violence.”

Twilight hid a laugh with her hoof, looking at him. “Nice to meet you, Jayne.”

Jayne, for his part, did not return the greeting. Instead he scowled even further to the point his brow was so lowered it seemed his face might collapse in on itself, snatching up the other pieces of food and his gun he’d been cleaning at the table and skulking off away from the two.

“Not very social.” Twilight noted, her posture deflating slightly.

“Don’t worry about it, Twilight, you’re not missing out on much there,” Simon sighed, a smile coming to him. “Besides, everyone else will like talking with you. Especially─Ah, Kaylee.”

Twilight turned as Simon's attention focused on the source of a noise, increasing as Kaylee moved into the galley. Kaylee had apparently heard them conversing and was now moving towards Twilight with intent. Before Twilight could react or protest she was quickly swept up off of her stool into a loving hug, being squeezed like a teddy bear for all she was worth.

“Nice to meet you, Kaylee.” Twilight managed between a breath.

Simon was unsure if Kaylee could actually sound any happier or higher-pitched at hearing Twilight speak in plain English to her.

Gaining Insight

“No, that’ll rustle ‘em much worse, can't deal with Three Hills.” Mal shook his head, placing his hands on his hips and giving an annoyed grunt. Badger had stiffed them and wouldn't take the black-box they'd lifted due to the heat from the feds. The second they'd broken atmo the cortex had flared to life with bulletins on a Firefly-class vessel having stolen important top-secret assets belonging to the Alliance.

Worse was that Badger still wanted back the odd little newtech hack-device they'd used to get into the bank, which meant they'd have to go back to Persephone just for that alone. Personally, Mal considered the gizmo to be a small up-front payment for being snubbed for the umpteenth time. Badger wouldn't be happy about it, but he'd settle down and ask for them again to work at some point, they were the only crew brave ─or possibly stupid─ enough to take on the hardest of jobs Badger threw out for the pay he commonly offered.

As infuriating as he was, at least Badger had waved them the news this time instead of waiting until they'd gotten back to him. Mal was annoyed more than angry because he'd honestly been expecting something like this, but as usual they were brainstorming on the next plan of action.

He perked up again as he spoke to Wash and Zoë.

“The way I see it, our best option here is to go to Fanty and Mingo,” he nodded, rolling the points off his fingers. “They’re still running strong after most of our contacts got torched, they got connections an’ can get this unregistered paper completed and circulatin’ in days, an' it's likely that they aint gonna give us trouble. They might take a smaller cut too, considerin’ they took all the money back on that previous bank job we did for 'em. I've been meanin' to talk with ‘em about that, just aint had the time."

“Don’t you think they’re still sore about their bar?” Wash wondered, tapping the console in front of him. “River did a number on their customers too, we might be barred entry.”

“After what we revealed to the ‘Verse?” Mal scoffed, regarding him. “Might have given us all manner of unpleasantness but it did also open a lot of doors. The respect we get might be a bit unwarranted at times, though I aint denyin' it aint helpful in situations such as ours. No, I think they’ll play nice considerin’ all the facts, and not that they’re the type but they aint likely to slip a knife between our ribs when we aint lookin’,” Mal nodded, pointing to the console at a small blip representing their planet. “It’s the best option. It’ll pay something, we can clear the air, an’ then we can rub it in Badger's face. Much as I don’t mind that we’ve been helpin’ folk in need, we’ve been gettin’ an’ awful lot of nothin’ to show for it, or we get odd trinkets we can’t use nor sell.”

“So, Beaumonde then, sir?” Zoë asked, folding her arms with a sure look.

“Beaumonde.” Mal nodded, looking at Wash, who spun his chair about.

“Alright, Captain, we’ll be on our way in a few,” Wash nodded, glancing after his wife as she followed Mal out of the Bridge. “Huálì de nǚrén.”

“I heard that, husband,” Zoë commented back with a smile as she went. “Ài de shǎguā.”

“You two ever gonna move past that honeymoon phase? ‘Bout now’s the time a couple gets to be doin’ more bickerin’ than lovin’.” Mal chuckled, heading down the stairs that lead up to the bridge.

“I disagree, sir. We’re stronger than ever.”

Coming down the steps and past the bunks Mal made to go to the cargo bay to prep the black-box for easy transport as Beaumonde wasn't too far off, but stopped short into the hall leading down when he heard an unusual voice that didn’t belong to any of his crew. Backstepping, pivoting, and poking his head properly into the galley instead of a quick lazy glance he’d passed over it before, he spotted the alien pony. He saw that Star was being viciously savaged by his mechanic. It was an absolute bloodbath of girly proportions.

He couldn’t help but crack a grin, and saw Zoë couldn’t either out the corner of his eye.

“Kaylee, might not wanna choke the poor critter,” he spoke to her, with her quickly looking up and beaming with a pleasantness only she could muster.

“But Captain!” Kaylee stressed with a grin, hugging the pony tighter. “Twilight here spoke! An' Simon just said she can do magic!”

Twilight smiled and looked Mal’s way in a certain manner, to which he knew that look of distress. It was one that said she didn’t have the heart to tell the happy woman hugging her that she couldn’t hug the pony anymore because said pony had a powerful need to breathe at some point this minute.

“Alright, Kaylee, best put her down.” Mal ordered, scoffing at the scene.

She pouted, but an order from her captain was ironclad. Twilight did her best to mask the massive breath she took in and recovered quite fast after she was released from Kaylee's loving grip, being gently placed down to her hooves as if she were made of porcelain.

“Thank you,” Twilight nodded, to Mal for the rescue and Kaylee for releasing her. She looked up at Mal and smiled, bowing her head in greeting. “It is nice to meet you, Captain. That is a nice name.”

Mal gave a brief chuckle at the misuse of English, and held his hand out, which Twilight happily rested her hoof into to receive a proper handshake in the new capacity of their understanding.

“Little pony, captain is my position. Name’s Malcolm Reynolds,” he explained to her as she uttered a very soft ‘oh’, much to both Kaylee and Simon’s amusement. “And this here boat you’re sailin’ on is Serenity, welcome aboard.”

“Boat... sailing, a ship?” Twilight asked, cocking her head.

“That’s right. An’ a pretty spaceship at that, Kaylee will happily tell ya.”

Mal charmingly smiled, though it began to falter under seeing Twilight’s expression change to one of sudden worry and confusion. She let go of his hand and fell back to her haunches with a soft phwap and a mighty concerning look that said this was something she’d never done before. If not sailing on a ship... then maybe one in space? Just because the pony was alien didn't mean she came from a spacefaring civilisation, after all... He was about to call Simon over for some possible medical assistance just in case the girl fainted from shock, but within the split second of her features being all fearsome and scared they immediately shifted and rebounded into what seemed to be pure elation.

“We are in space?!” Twilight beamed, jumping to her hooves with a start and bouncing on them slightly, almost as if they were made of rubber. “True space?!”

She was going between terror and joy pretty darn quick in a way Mal figured probably wasn’t healthy, but she seemed to be handling that bit of news well enough and wasn’t a sobbing wreck about it so he wagered it was probably fine.

“That’s right, we’re sailin’ through the black nice an’ steady,” Mal confirmed as she stopped bouncing for the time being. “We’re makin’ to go to Beaumonde, friendly sorta planet with a mostly approachable folk.”

“Bow-mand? Bo-mond…” Twilight sounded the word out with an endearingly scrunched up face as she concentrated. “Beaumonde? That is... French for…” she paused a moment before smiling. “Beautiful World.”

Simon nodded to the correct information. “You’ve done some research into other languages too, I see.”

“A lot to learn,” Twilight replied, glancing around at him. Looking back at Mal she cleared her throat. “So… Beaumonde, what will you do, if you do not mind I ask?”

Mal coughed slightly. “Well little pony-”

“Twilight.” Kaylee interjected.

“Twilight,” Mal gave the pony a nod, saying his next words with care. “We’re lookin’ to do some trading, more or less. As it happens you came about after we picked up our cargo.”

“I think I can not join? I like to stretch my legs.” Twilight said, trotting to where Simon rested against the kitchenette counter, sitting back down on her haunches again.

“Well, best not to,” Mal gestured a single shake of his head, folding his arms. “As is, we’re all still pretty much comin’ to terms that we aint alone in the ‘Verse. While you’re peaceable an’ aint reignin’ fire down on us like in the old holo-vids, others might not see ya that way.”

Twilight understood. “People will try to hurt me.”

“Not necessarily, don’t wanna spook ya into not meetin’ new folk. Just sayin’ them as such might not be as friendly as we’ve been. Jayne don’t count,” Mal deadpanned. “We walk off into port with you by our side, might be we get stopped an’ the feds get involved, or worse some Alliance Operative. Might be you just get a bunch of looks an’ people assume you’re one of those high-end newtech animatronics they got on Londinium, a few prods and pokes of curiosity ensue, an’ everyone goes on their merry.”

He wasn't sure Twilight got most of that but she got the gist of it. “It is not safe.”

“No it isn’t, little pony.”

“So I stay here as you trade,” Twilight smiled. “Safe choice.”

Mal returned her smile. “That’s the idea. I’m sure Kaylee an’ the Doctor can find all manner of fun to entussle you with.”

“May I ask, Malcolm Reynolds?”

“Beg your pardon?”

“May I ask?” Twilight repeated.

Mal looked slightly lost and confused until Simon spoke up. “She’s asking if she can ask you a question, Captain,” he chuckled towards Twilight who nodded enthusiastically.

“Question, yes! It is right,” she beamed.

“Oh, well, fire away little pony,” Mal gave her a wave.

Twilight gave a small bow of her head and a gentle look, before her posture folded inward as she tried to find the words. “It is a close feel, so I know if not… I ask Simon to feel his mind to know more words, but it is nice as more people. Not hurt or bad, but I know it is rude to not ask. It is hard to say words well, it can allow me more words.”

For a moment Mal raised an eyebrow as he compiled all of that.

“You wanna read our minds to learn to talk better?” Mal asked, folding his arms.

“Yes!” Twilight nodded with a smile.

Jayne, who had just started walking back in, very quickly did a one-eighty and walked right back out, mumbling angrily about being in his bunk. Kaylee looked amazed while Zoë definitely didn't seem fond of the idea, uncomfortable as if there was a bad smell in the galley. She started to speak up before Mal raised a hand to stop her, as for the most part he was actually a little intrigued.

So far, only he and Simon had seen Twilight do magic, and Kaylee apparently wasn't too put out at the idea. He wasn't sure how Zoë would react to it beyond her usual assessing demeanour at the unknown, though he knew she wasn't about to panic if she saw Twilight's horn glow. He'd probably be cautious about it if he'd had no warning, but so long as everyone was aware it would happen there likely wouldn't be any issues.

“Doctor, I assume you went ahead an’ gave her a yes on doin’ it to yourself, being the curious sort,” Mal looked to Simon, who became more alert to all eyes now being on him. “She tell you what it entails?”

“Not exactly, no,” Simon cautiously replied, looking at Twilight. “She did say it was non-invasive and wouldn’t hurt, and if I assume correctly it would be no different to how River sees into our minds daily and learns things about us just by intuition. Given what I've seen so far, I'd wager we likely wouldn't feel much of anything.”

“She asks politely and doesn’t meddle where she shouldn’t.”

All heads, Twilight’s included, pivoted towards the galley exit towards the engine room to see River gracefully stepping onto the threshold, barefoot as usual, without making a sound as she moved.

“She controls what she wants to see, doesn’t see anything personal that isn’t shown.”

River approached Twilight as she shifted gently to face her, her features scrunching for a brief moment in shock as River crouched down in front of her and laid a gentle hand on the back of her neck. Twilight soon relaxed and breathed out as she looked into the mysterious depths of the psychic girl's eyes.

“You hurt,” Twilight whispered, her eyes beginning to well up. “So much hurt.”

“Zhànzhēng yǐjīng jié shù, dàn xǔduō zhàndòu reng rán cún zài,” River stared back. “I'm sorry that I can’t control the flow.”

“It is fine,” Twilight shook her head, blinking away the tears that came. “Thank you for a yes, River Tam. It will help," she took a moment to compose herself after another few seconds of looking intently at River, and she turned her attention back to the others. “Simon Tam is right. It will not hurt, it will not take long.”

Mal regarded River for her choice words, but shrugged.

“Nothin’ ya can’t see River already aint,” his eyes rested on River, then to Twilight. “It’s all shiny on my end, learn your English, might pick up some Mandarin too. It’ll be fun to hear a pony talkin’ it.”

Kaylee perked up suddenly all chipper. “Like the Captain says, it’ll be shiny! An’ it’ll be good to help ya be able to talk all proper! Count me in.”

Zoë rubbed her temples and looked unenthusiastic, sighting as she regarded Twilight. “Fine,” was all Zoë had to say, face hardening to stone and bracing as if she was about to be taken before a firing squad. “Don’t break anything in here.”

“Well, that makes five of us."

A few of them looked back to see Wash standing in the galley doorway. "Course is all set, Captain. We should be in Beaumonde in no less than half a day if we don't encounter any Alliance patrols. What's all this about reading minds?"

"You really want in on this, husband?" Zoë wondered, an eyebrow shooting up.

Wash smiled. "And leave you all to possibly end up comatose from weird freaky alien psychic voodoo? No it's fine I'll join in, it'll be fun."

"It's a good thing Book an’ Inara aint about,” Mal chuckled. “Doubt she’d want to learn any of what they got anyway, religion or whorin'.”

“Cap’n!” Kaylee hissed, lightly swatting his arm, making him chuckle more until he had to clutch the wound in his side. She glanced at Twilight with a reassuring smile, re-affirming her given consent, and gave a thumbs up. “Go on, Twilight.”

A last quick look to Simon and Twilight nodded to herself, her face taking on a determined edge. Mal heard Kaylee make an odd noise as Twilight's horn started to shimmer a deep purple, her eyes slowly beginning to glow and illuminate until they were nothing but pure white.

Mal braced himself for some fun.

* * *

It was a horrendous battle.

No… it was a war.

Twilight walked through the sheer chaos that was being seen from Malcolm Reynolds eyes, the first mind she'd decided to jump into. As with all memories seen through a mind spell, it was slightly slower than it should have been. The sounds were slightly off, echoing as if everything was occurring inside a long tunnel.

Numerous young men and women were being brutally killed in ways she had never thought possible, by the very same sort of weapon the captain and ─as she now discovered─ his first mate Zoë Washburne carried on their hips. The word and understanding came to her almost as quickly as she’d asked the question of what they were in her mind. Firearms, and the bright shiny things that crawled past her vision were called bullets.

They starkly contrasted with the gloomy night, lazily piercing themselves through people who fell into the mulched dirt where they stood, and into the sandbags Malcolm Reynolds and Zoë Washburne were crouched down behind for their protection.

When the volley relented, both the captain and his first mate ─at this moment sergeant and corporal─ sluggishly stretched out from their positions and used the disturbing two-handed weapons they carried. The destructive box-like devices were called rifles, being too big to comfortably hold in a single hand without being unwieldy and inaccurate. The things' tips bloomed out light gradually like a flower opening itself to the sunlight, and more shining bullets issued forth in the direction of what she surmised was clearly their enemy. Alliance was the overwhelming word that came to her, the authority she'd seen on the datapad that had so many planets under their control. The pure look of anger and hatred was clear upon both the rebel soldiers' faces, the snarl of bloodlust, of the very need to survive against an overwhelming power greater than them.

It was a terrifying sight to behold.

She hadn’t entered into this memory by snooping, Malcolm Reynolds had very much wished to show it to her, but it was making her nauseous to see the violence and death that occurred. Twilight had never seen its like before. It didn't seem to end, the pockmarked and scorched earth that was still being ravaged by continuous explosions coming from seemingly nowhere but the sky, and the people being caught in their wake being reduced to a cascade of flying limbs and blood. In this distortion soon came the vibrating whine of a screeching angular warship that swooped overhead as it spat out beams of sickly green, tearing through these soldiers that fought in a war she was ignorant of beyond basic details that slowly came to her, all at a painfully calm pace that meant she saw every moment in complete clarity.

“Enough!” Twilight choked out, the memory immediately dispersing.

She raised a hoof and wiped at her eyes, her face was sodden with tears. Taking a deep breath, she looked up and saw that she stood in an endless hazy void that contained what could have been billions of little glowing motes all separately suspended. They orbited around her in a swirl as she stood, moving just as slowly as the bullets in the memory had done.

This was Malcolm Reynold’s mindscape, the mind of a human. Thankfully, it looked almost identical to any pony’s mind, if a tad more rugged looking with an alien feeling to it. There was no telling what she would see and glean from these memories, if the previously violent one was any indication. Usually she wouldn’t see into a memory unless the pony she connected with spoke to her through the link shared between their minds and specifically gave her permission to do so. Without magic, humans lacked that connection back to her, however it seemed that by thinking of certain memories and forcing them to the forefront of their minds, those were the first that could be pushed to her.

That didn’t mean memories had to be pushed towards her for her to learn, with any memory all she had to do was touch her mind to the lights around her and feel their energy.

Ponies ─or humans in this case─ never realised just how many words and mannerisms they used on a daily basis, and the gestures and expressions that were conveyed along with those words. The meanings behind them were all so vast that just touching upon a few of the lights would yield a considerable wealth of new information, and to do so would mean she'd know just as much as if she'd grown up in this universe.

Steeling herself Twilight carefully approached a particularly bright orb and reached out, the soft flat of her hoof caressing its surface. There was a sensation of fear and trepidation that was slowly taken over by an icy cool calm as something built in the back of her own mind, until it burst in a flurry of new senses and understanding. So many unfamiliar and unique thoughts racing through her brain being stored in their own special places. Many were terrifying and wonderous, some were interesting and fun, others were so alien the very concept amused her, and some things she saw she couldn't help but wonder why ponies hadn’t created such things themselves even though they had magic.

It was over just as fast as it had begun, though she felt invigorated with the comprehension of this new universe that it brought on, calmer away from the initial shock of violence. With a profoundly different outlook she eagerly trotted along to the next orb, to learn and grow, even if much of what she was learning was still tinted with a slight level of violence. It was all information at the end of the day, no knowledge was bad knowledge.

Eventually when she felt she’d absorbed enough data, she moved on as carefully as she could, deftly jumping from Malcolm Reynolds mindscape into Zoë Washburne’s. It was much the same as the captain's had been, however whereas with Malcolm Reynolds she had felt an overbearing sense of interest to share certain information, the intimidating aura of unwillingness to share a great deal was the main feeling she got from this space. There would be no memories here, only a brief amount of info from the orbs that surrounded her.

Malcolm Reynolds had been like a fierce and fair dragon of great power, a feeling that said he could do anything he put his mind to if wish to do so took hold. All he wanted was to soar free and not have his wings pinned, he would leave alone anyone that didn't get in the way of that. To interfere with him or harm anything he held dear to his heart was to wake a fury unlike any other. It was a fearsome anger that wouldn't abate until he had won the day or died trying, there was no middle ground and only a single absolute would be sanctioned.

Zoë Washburne was quite in the same vein, being just as much a dragon as he was and as strong in her own right. The willingness she had to fight and suffer for those she loved was almost overpowering to the point of zealotry, though Twilight couldn't fault her when she felt the same about her own friends. It was so strong a feeling that Twilight clearly felt that connection between two others linked in Zoë's mind, and one of them was Malcolm Reynolds, the other being the strange blond haired man called Hoban Washburne she'd seen yesterday. Malcolm Reynolds had her deep care and high respect. Hoban Washburne however, had it and far more; her absolute profound love that nothing else could touch upon. She smiled, they were a happily married couple.

It was lovely to see, but she knew she wasn’t as welcome here as she had been with the captain, so quickly and quietly she gained additional info from the lights. There was a lot that was the same as from Malcolm Reynolds, though there were other things unique to Zoë Washburne that were nice to have a greater sense of, different experiences from another walk of life. Before long she left, jumping to another mind.

When she touched down it was warm and comforting, and a veritable trove of intelligence made its way to her so quickly being pushed in the hope that might help her that she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. This was the mind of Simon Tam, she’d briefly learned from River Tam’s mind that he was a doctor and had been a surgeon, she'd been doing her best not to overload Twilight so it had been a bit of a mess, though now she knew Simon had been one of the best surgeons, if not the best, on his planet.

Simon Tam was more like a pony ─albeit a rather high-noble one─ than a dragon, he was no soldier of fate like Malcolm Reynolds or Zoë Washburne, but a proud man of his medical trade with a love for his sister and care for his friends, that even when the odds were against him could be relied upon to act even to his own detriment. There was a great conviction for the others on the ship, especially towards Kaywinnet Lee Frye ─quite a long name, she thought─ however Simon Tam’s truest bond was to his sister River Tam. A family bond that he would continuously suffer for to keep intact, and one he’d willingly sacrificed a great deal to keep going. There were a great many senses she felt through their link, his highly scientific mind was a joy to share things with. As with the two soldiers she’d delved into, she gave a sense of herself to Simon Tam too, so that he could understand who she was. She knew he comprehended just how deeply her beliefs went a lot more under the surface, something that most others would have to see in action to truly understand it themselves.

Whereas the captain and first mate's minds had been fairly calloused and more wild in nature, Simon Tam’s head was hardened in a wholly different manner. It was smooth and sleek, sharply refined in a way that spoke of a carefully orchestrated upbringing by wealth, and yet despite that he felt like one of the most sensitive and non-egotistical minds she’d ever known.

Truly, he was a good man. It made the next jump so much harder.

River Tam was once utterly brilliant, somehow more so than her brother, and now the brilliance was smothered by erratic insanity and schizophrenia. She was not who she was meant to be, a smart and innocent girl had been turned into a powerful living weapon. Twilight stepped into River Tam's mind and immediately knew her broken nature, the disturbing psychosis and the creeping shadows that settled like an eerie fog and attached to all things within the space, permanently ingrained from extreme torture by incredibly evil people, people of the Alliance. The same authority that Malcolm Reynolds and Zoë Washburne had fought so hard to be free of, the one that controlled a majority of this solar system.

Simon Tam had rescued his sibling from a fate worse than death at their hands, and they both suffered for it even now as his good hearted intentions were facing insurmountable odds to fix River Tam’s mind. It was simply the case that sometimes things couldn’t be fixed and made perfect again. He would keep trying though, that was who he was. River Tam would keep trying to get better by herself, yet she too was going against the tidal wave that continuously crashed back down upon her.

River Tam used to be pony-like, yet now she was something else entirely, twisted by the cruel hands of others into a terribly efficient tool to be used. She was more like a daemon, she could sense anything and feel everything, know the minds of others at will, twist their thoughts against them and break their spirit with ease. There was power in her to destroy and she occasionally had it under control, and even though there was the possibility she might accidentally hurt her friends there were no qualms she would unleash it against enemies that threatened her.

In her own way she was not too dissimilar to the captain.

Her mind didn't bear anything Twilight hadn’t seen from the others, beyond a few different perspectives of what was already known. River Tam was intentionally not showing certain parts of her memories however, likely as to not depress Twilight in regards to what she'd been subjected to. The sentiment was appreciated.

She got the feeling that maybe she shouldn't trust the muscular man called Jayne Cobb too much, just in case. From what she'd learned from Malcolm Reynolds and now River Tam especially there was a rather unique understanding of the things he'd done. Twilight didn't think she would be in jeopardy with him, though that didn't mean she shouldn't be on her guard even as she tried to make friends with him. She would try until he stopped being so cold, as her impression was that he was simply slow to warm up to new people. She didn't have a true sense of him, not being in his mind, but unlike Malcolm Reynolds or Zoë Washburne, he was not a soldier of fate, but of fortune, a mercenary whose contract was held by Malcolm Reynolds himself, for now. Jayne Cobb was very much like a gryphon in that regard, which at least told her that when she earned his friendship and trust that it would be almost unbreakable.

When she jumped into Hoban Washburne's mind, it was... interesting, and easing. He was a partly meek sort of man, extremely laid back about life, and very easy to take life as it came and went with the flow no matter where it seemed to lead. Very pony-like, she mused, being so able to adjust to situations on the fly. He was the most 'normal' to her that she'd felt so far. Under the surface as with the others there was conviction, a well of courage that was small but powerful and that could be delved into when the need arose. He liked everyone on the ship, respected Malcolm Reynolds, and even got along quite well with Jayne Cobb, but naturally Zoë Washburne being his wife meant that she had his undivided attention and of course his love. She had a feeling that his man would attempt to move mountains if she needed it.

The final jump was the most pleasant one, into a bubbly wild mindscape that exuded curiosity and hope. Kaywinnit Lee Frye’s head was positively saccharine next to all the others, far more like most ponies she knew. This was probably the most pony-like mind. Despite her outward appearance she was very quite girly, with a love of all things cute and small. She wasn’t a fighting sort, more gentle like a lamb, but a lamb still had a mean headbutt if angered. A woman of interesting trade in this universe, her business was the strange world of mechanics that ponies barely cared to venture into. She had a great love for her family back home, the crew, and for Simon Tam, and as Twilight had suspected from his mind that he hadn't shared too deeply and confirmed with hers; they were in a relationship.

Again she lifted the information from the many orbs around her, learning a few new things along the way that might even come in use if she helped around the ship.

When she was finally done, she projected herself outwards and stopped for a moment to take it all in and let her own mind process everything until it settled properly. It was alive with the flow of insight, the education she’d received was needing to be realised and would take a couple of days or longer to fully integrate. There was something else though, something that ate at the back of her mind about what she’d learned from every individual here, a deep fear of an entity that existed that was called a Reaver. She’d picked up on it, but beyond strong feelings of hatred, fear, and disgust, they’d all hidden whatever truths about them they had, and she wasn’t going to pry just yet; it would be something to ask about later. Trying to put those thoughts aside, she moved onto other ones for the time being.

One thing she knew for certain was that this was a group of friends, a family of sorts. All of them were intertwined. Simon Tam’s slight fear and fair respect of Malcolm Reynolds as both an ally and an authority figure; Kaywinnit Lee Frye’s deep bond with everyone on the ship ─especially Inara Serra, though she wasn't currently on the ship─ that tended to spark almost instantly with strangers too; Malcolm Reynold’s own care to keep everyone together and keep them all a crew that could see his vision of freedom. All these thoughts and beliefs, ideals and dreams, it all reminded her of her own friends and family and how much she missed them already, knowing it might be a long time before she got to see them again.

Twilight released herself from their minds and released her hold, returning to reality.

Simon blinked, the feeling of a greatly powerful presence that had pressed down upon him having gone as soon as it had appeared. He looked at Twilight, whose eyes were quickly returning to their purple hue, as she looked around at everyone with a level of concern and inspection. From what he saw everyone else had just experienced what he did and were fine, so Twilight's magic hadn't done anything she said it wouldn't.

“Did anything happen?” Kaylee wondered, looking at Twilight.

“I’d certainly hope so!” Twilight smiled at her. “I hope you all aren’t feeling unwell after that.”

“So it worked then. Speakin’ full on English now.” Mal nodded.

“She sounds so fancy!” Kaylee gushed, beaming. “Like she was from the Core!”

Twilight blushed a little at the comparison. “Well, back where I’m from, ponies felt I was quite upper-class to begin with. In a way I suppose it was true, and similar to the central planets.”

“You got a basic idea of how the ‘Verse is, I assume.” Mal asked politely, resting back against the table behind him. “Anythin’ else you found in our minds that interests ya?”

It was an obvious push, Twilight knew, one that Malcolm Reynolds was very much biassed in wanting to get into the open so he could draw the lines in the sand. He wanted her to show she understood their situation within the world, and show that she knew what her place was while on his ship. She had of course learned that the crew of Serenity were troublemakers to the Alliance, their political affiliations all more or less essentially were unresistant to or advocated for the removal or non-recognition of the Alliance's total authority, seeing it as illegitimate or too horrendous to allow to continue.

She would of course indulge him, just as much for his sake as her own.

“I do understand your position on the Core and those that rule it, Captain,” Twilight lightly ventured, thinking carefully on her wording, and being very sure to refer to him by his rank as was appropriate for his role. “I understand that you’re not exactly on the right side of what is considered the law in this universe either. While I do have my own feelings on obeying laws as a good pony should, after feeling what Simon Tam and River Tam pushed to me, what I saw from what you and Zoë Washburne have both experienced, I can’t willingly in good conscience say that what the Alliance do and the extreme measures they go to in order to keep people in line is acceptable,” Twilight shook her head in disgust. “On the contrary, it's horrendous. Our land back home is co-ruled by a Diarchy of two Princesses, if they sought to conquer the rest of the world like the Alliance have done they would be swiftly met with discontent from both the populous and numerous nations. Thankfully, despite their absolute power they would never go through with such actions, they would understand it wouldn’t be what we or the other people of those lands would want.”

“Alliance didn’t feel the same.” Mal dryly replied.

“I see that,” Twilight nodded, catching the clear tone. “This universe is very violent and unforgiving in comparison to my own.”

“Must be a nice place, all sunshine and rainbows, tea parties an’ the like.”

“Not exactly.” Twilight smiled, she did like tea parties with her friends. “But any troubles we face are always overcome as a whole, all peoples band together and solve the issue against common threats.”

Kaylee perked up at that. “That sounds real wonderful, wish more folk would do that. Sure they do in their own communities an’ such, but it aint the same as havin’ all folk do it ‘cos it’s the right thing to do.”

“Xiǎo mèi mèi here’s our beatin’ heart.” Mal smirked, shifting gently. “Glad to see you’re on our side, though.”

Twilight didn’t comment on that last. Instead she looked to Simon. “Thank you for helping me propose the knowledge spell, that’s the correct term for it, although I got pretty close with ‘mind spell’,” they both shared a smile. “Interesting that I didn’t pick up on contracted words through the datapad, which again, thank you for lending it to me.”

“That’s quite alright,” Simon nodded appreciatively. “You can borrow it whenever you’d like, however I will need it for use in my work for the time being.”

“Anyway, this is all very friendly an’ how-to-do, but we got work to be done,” Mal clapped his hands lightly and looked towards Zoë as he pushed off from the table. “Zoë, with me. Rest of you, do whatever you were doin’ before I showed up,” he finished, throwing everyone else a careless look as he moved to exit.

“Thank you as well, Captain,” Twilight said, stopping him momentarily. “Your hospitality towards me is very much appreciated, I hope to repay it somehow.”

“You’ll regret saying that, little pony. Not a problem though, I get the feelin’ y’aint gonna be trouble on my boat.” Mal smirked with a good natured smile, gently waving her off.

“Not at all,” Twilight gave a quick bow of her head. “Your ship, your rules.”

“I like her more already.” Mal commented with an amused look, turning away and leaving with Zoë smartly falling in line and following behind him.

Twilight knew she didn’t really need to refer to him by his rank, as she now understood all of what had happened after she arrived on the ship. The mercenary known as Jayne Cobb always casually referred to Malcolm Reynolds by nickname, as did Inara Serra whenever she was present. Zoë Washburne clearly referred to him as ‘sir’ and his rank of captain diligently due to her unwavering loyalty as a soldier under his command during their Independence war. Everyone else simply called him by his rank out of either an understanding of his place on commanding the ship, or out of a level of respect and ‘the thing to do’, so she would do the same.

“Kaywinnet Lee Frye,” Twilight addressed the mechanic, who rather visibly perked up in confusion at the usage of her full name. “If it’s not too much to ask, would you mind showing me how Serenity works? I don’t know if the Captain would be happy about it, but I’d be very eager to learn, that way I might be able to help fix things in return for the hospitality I've been shown."

“Oh, Twilight darlin’, call me Kaylee,” she gently asked. “Generally everyone else does, an’ my daddy’s really the only one that calls me Kaywinnit. You also don’t gotta call folk by their full names ya know? Just their first names is fine-Oh! Except Wash, that's-" she gestured at Wash, who gave a wave. "An' Book, he prefers his last name, which… is Book, though he aint here right now but it'll be shiny when ya meet him!” Kaylee finished with a kind grin.

Twilight probably should have picked up on that.

“Alright then, Kaylee, Wash,” Twilight nodded at them both. “I just tend to call my close friends by a nickname instead of their full names, most others go by a full name so I just kind of carried that over.”

“Oh, well don’t you worry, Twilight! We’re all gonna be real good friends in no time! I bet Jayne’ll warm to ya soon as sunshine once he stops bein’ such a grump!” Kaylee beamed, her happiness was almost infectious.

“I wouldn’t count on that. It took him a very long time to accept River and Simon." Wash said cautiously, Simon agreeing with a nod.

“Nooo, it's shiny!” Kaylee waved away his worry. “Even he’ll come to like Twilight, in his own odd way or… something.”

Twilight smiled at her sheer optimism, it was one of the many things she’d felt from Kaylee's mind in droves. If everyone was as amicable towards her as Kaylee, Wash, Simon, and River were, and the Captain seemed to be, then Twilight would be making strong bonds and new friends in no time at all.

“So, Twilight, ya wanted to see the engine room? Cap'n won’t mind none, especially if you really can help me fix things up!" Kaylee kept on. "I sure won't mind havin' some help."

“That’d be lovely, thank you." Twilight nodded.

River watched Twilight go, trotting along after Kaylee who was all too happy that the small purple pony was showing a genuine interest in Serenity, and Wash and Simon both went about their business. She had no doubt Twilight and the crew were going to be very close, and such bonds were going to be tantamount. There was still a lot Twilight didn’t know, and River didn’t really want her to be in the dark on it but she knew it would all be revealed in time. There were things Twilight had learned that River had given to her which she just hadn’t realised yet, questions would start to rise and need to be asked when such things came to her, she was like Simon in that regard.

Kaylee might not want to share, and if the crew didn’t tell Twilight what she wanted to know, River would carefully inform her of everything as and when it needed to be told if it wasn't being realised. That was very important for all their sakes. River didn’t know exactly how she knew, but something massive was coming, something deeply dangerous, and Twilight was going to be the key in helping stop it. She thought it had been Twilight’s arrival, though now she knew Twilight Sparkle was the prelude to something larger, and had a very important role to play in whatever it was.

Author's Note

Huálì de nǚrén - Gorgeous woman.
Ài de shǎguā - Loving fool.
Zhànzhēng yǐjīng jié shù, dàn xǔduō zhàndòu reng rán cún zài - The war is over, but many battles remain.
Xiǎo mèi mèi - Little sister.

Old Friends

The rear hatch slowly lowered when Serenity was fully docked into Beaumonde's main spaceport, Mal slipping his gloves on and striding down the metal as the ramp cleanly made contact with the plate. His trusty sidearm, the Liberty Hammer, was secure in its holster, and his small amount of coin in his coat pocket for buying information and drinks was ready, it was mostly all he needed in the general life. Zoë already had the land-mule revved up with the small black crate they'd lifted now lashed securely to the back, covered in a small tarp to keep it uninteresting to any would-be thieves.

“Ready to go, sir.” Zoë affirmed as she drove down the ramp to stop beside him.

“Good, get the crate to the twins place and wait outside for me,” Mal nodded, looking around and taking note of several differences since the last time they came here. For one, that fed station down the street was looking a mite stronger this time around, he certainly didn't recall the turrets. “I’m gonna put my ear to the ground, see if I can’t learn something new, be with you in thirty, tops.”

“Sir. Should I tell Fanty and Mingo we’re here?”

“Likely they already know, Serenity’s a popular ship now,” Mal shrugged, looking back at the beautiful home they bore. “Our girl might be getting a few visitors, Kaylee or Jayne’ll see to ‘em, dependin’ on their intentions. Just wait outside the bar for the time being, anyone says hello that aint friendly, introduce ‘em to your mare.”

“Yes, sir.”

"Be safe, honey." Wash buzzed in over their radios.

"Always am, dear." Zoë replied back.

Zoë checked her lever-action before slinging it on her back and revved the handle on the land-mule again, making the quad-bike's small engine roar before driving off and leaving a parting crowd of annoyed people in her wake. Mal gave the fed station down the way a parting glance before doing the same with Serenity.

“Kaylee, close her up!” he called back over the general bustle to the entrance where Kaylee was currently standing at the controls in her oily overalls.

"Aye, Cap'n!" she waved. "Stay safe!"

Mal watched her beaming face disappear from view as the hatch slowly lifted back towards the sky, and waited until it closed completely before he began to walk. He got a few looks from people as he passed through the crowds, ignoring the mixed looks of either recognition, awe, surprise, anger, and sometimes all four. No one had the moxy to stop him thankfully enough, but these days this was the norm and he was just glad that most folk had the decency to understand he wanted to be left alone when he was going about his business.

Someone called out his name in cheer. He didn't turn his head to the voice or give them any sort of recognition, that would only add fuel to the fire and more would do the same, that was never good for laying low. It didn't mean he didn't appreciate the praise for the efforts he and the crew had gone through and the scars they bore, and the occasional drink in a bar was never unwelcome either. After a time, he turned a corner into a dusty alley and kept going, before disappearing into a particular narrow alcove that most overlooked unless they knew where it led.

He emerged into a worn semi-enclosed area that was almost entirely deserted, with only the thrum of air-conditioners built into walls and the dirt of the earth to greet him, the street as old as the worn wooden building he was marching towards. When he came to a stop in the middle of the street and turned, a flaking blue-varnished door engraved with fancy Chinese characters and traditional art lay before him and he quickly strode up to it, firmly knocking.

He waited, he knew the answer might take some time. Eventually a muffled voice came from behind the wood. "Tell me about 'Verse!"

"A whore on Osiris has two faces, the innocent lady for the daily life, and the hungry beast for the bedroom." Mal smiled as he recited the line to the door. There was no response at first, but soon enough he heard a shuffling of feet and a few heavy bolts being drawn back.

When the door swung inward he was hit with the scent of incense, facing down at a squat old asian woman in a dark silken robe awash with floral designs. Her greying hair was bunned-up and speared through the way Kaylee often wore her own hair, and she squinted at him with slightly-clouded yet perceptive hazel eyes. She held an oiled double-barrel shotgun in her wizened hands, and it was halfway between pointing at him and the ground as if she couldn't exactly see where he was at the current moment, or if she hadn't decided on shooting him or not.

"That is old line, Reynolds. Háo bù kèqì de báichī."

Mal scoffed as she gingerly stepped aside and let him pass her inside, he was careful not to knock into her, she was as frail as wet paper. He chuckled unsurprised as she whacked him crossing the threshold, it was about as hurtful as being poked with a stick.

"Being rude, no wave before visit," she grumbled, shuffling away with the shotgun after shutting the door and locking it up. "No time for unexpected guests."

She huffily whacked him again as she went by, placing the shotgun down next to an ancient leather sofa that had been carefully maintained. Mal walked into the cushy living room that could best be described as a museum of time. It possessed all the bells and whistles that came from living a long and well-travelled life carefully stuck up around the place, complete with a rather fancy ornate glass table before the couch, and a pristine flowery tea set sitting atop it that would likely have sold for a small fortune in the right antique circles. He stood to the side of the table while she carefully set herself down and started to pour some tea.

"I figure you got plenty of time on your hands, Ming," Mal smiled charmingly at her, resting his hands on his belt and standing almost to attention. "Didn't expect to be comin', truth be told, but I could use your expertise."

Ming grunted in response. "Speak."

"Well, been a spell since we last set foot on Beaumonde, didn't leave it on the best footing either," Mal mused, watching as she delicately finished making her tea, getting herself comfortable and vaguely looking in his direction. "Need your eyes an' ears, what you an' yours have seen or heard around an' if there's any new feds I should know 'bout that need payin' off or avoidin'. Need your mind too, for a special subject."

"Hm, what to know? There is much to know." Ming nodded, he could see her interest was piqued, wasn't often he asked for knowledge beyond a local lay of the land.

Ming had a great many talents from her life, she was currently a matron for a few of the more prestigious whorehouses on this side of Beaumonde, and they had a habit of collecting information that they passed back to her. It made her a rather excellent information broker, as in her own home she also looked after many young children, many of them orphans, and employed them as lookouts and scouts to keep abreast of the goings on of whatever happened on Beaumonde's streets.

Though beyond that, she had once owned dozens of ranches and her business had been raising livestock such as cows and horses just as his mother had done. While Mal had some experience himself with the basics he'd not had much in regards to looking after them full time, the most he'd really done was feeding and watering as the other farmhands tended to all the other duties, and now he had an equine passenger for the foreseeable future.

"Got me a lovely new horse. She's an... individually minded mare by the way of things, got a strong sense of self yet seems eager to play nicely. She'll be easy to tame, I think, follows directions well so far." Mal chuckled, wondering if Twilight would be annoyed at the way he was describing her.

"Good horse to have. Win many races," Ming smiled, she'd loved raising horses the most out of all of her ranching duties, she'd probably still be hands-on about it if she could hold one's reins without being shook to pieces. "You have concern?"

"She's definitely a free spirit, don't want her gettin' cabin fever. I only got room on my boat for the one horse, an' I aint sure a second's gonna put her to her ease," Mal thought carefully on how best to describe Twilight in non alien-pony terms. "So I got two main issues there, can't always let her out when I'm on the job, an' can't be havin' other horses around."

"Hmm, no good in race if she herd-shy." Ming frowned, taking a sip of her tea. "Give her herbal tea, good for soul, peppermint to calm nerve before race, ginger for trapped air. But horse must always have care, is like your fùgǔ ship."

"Aint been many to call my boat vintage. Anythin' I can do besides dopin' her with fancible teas that'll stop her gettin' restless?"

"No. Horse need to run. You know this," Ming frowned deeper, she grabbed a scone from the tray with tea on it and threw it at him, the baked good hitting Mal's arm with a thud and falling to the floor. "Pick that up. Horse must be free to run, need care."

"Yeah... that's what I thought." Mal sighed, no ancient Chinese cure-all to his problem then it would seem. Twilight might be an alien but she was still an equine in nature, still the same sort of creature that would become spooked and agitated from a small space with no place to go, and no herdmates to cosy up to. "So, tea, huh?"

"Herbal. Not permanent fix. Care." Ming emphasised.

Mal found himself nodding. Ming meant love, really. A creature like a horse was intelligent and responded to affection just as well as any human. Engaging with Twilight in any sort of conversation would probably do wonders for her mental health, being away from her own world and people wasn't going to do her any favours.

"Alright then. So, on other topics," Mal took a few pieces of platinum from his pocket and pressed them onto the table. "Any trouble I best know about?"

"You keepin' busy in here?" Kaylee asked Twilight as she stepped back through into the engine room where the small pony was examining various parts of the system. "Cap'n's away now so we got plenty'a time to show ya what's what."

"It's really amazing, in Equestria we don't have anything like this ship. We have steam engines in our trains, but that's already pretty expensive for the treasury to have connected all around the country." Twilight spoke as she looked over the hugely complex machine, this metal mechanism was the ship's beating heart.

"So you're in your industrialisation?" Kaylee wondered, going over to Twilight to see what she was paying particular attention to. "We got that whole tussle outta the way hundreds of years ago, took us a while 'fore we set out to the stars though."

"We have factories, small businesses and shops that soon expanded to have warehouses and production facilities, they're just very rare and only usually at a city's outskirts. We don't really need to aggressively expand to survive the way I saw humanity did, we're all relatively peaceful towards other races, and all our wars are in the past before we entered the Princesses reign," Twilight said, pausing her attention on the engine to focus on Kaylee. "But it also has the knock on effect of every creature slowing everything else down technologically or otherwise, we're stagnating as a nation in order to maintain our bonds with other races, to keep them at the same pace even if they can't quite keep themselves up to the standard we set," Twilight continued, Kaylee looked almost reverent at the ideal. "It hurts us economically but we see it as a necessary sacrifice to keep everyone happy, and in the grand scheme of things with the vast resources Equestria controls we can afford to not rapidly advance ourselves in the short term."

"It's like a big family, that's real sweet." Kaylee beamed.

"Well, a very large nation-spanning family that constantly bickers, but I suppose so." Twilight chuckled.

"So, what did you do back on your planet?" Kaylee asked, fidgeting on the spot.

"Well, I'm very... hm, I'm a scholar, I suppose? I guess I could say I'm booksmart, I learn at a better pace than my peers, like Simon in a way. I'm a scientist at heart if I had to narrow it down, but I have the ability to bring others together," Twilight nodded. "I think Princess Celestia saw that potential in me to unite and that's why she sent me to bring me and my friends together in the first place. Then I became a... uh, an intermediary, I guess? I hesitate to call us warriors, but my best friends and I... the six of us are capable of harnessing powerful magic within special artefacts that allow us to purge evil from a creature's heart. A few months ago we stopped an invasion and coup against the Crystal Empire by a being called Queen Chrysalis. The short of it was that we banished them all very far away, and very few lives were lost."

"That sounds an awful lot like fightin'." Kaylee frowned. As Twilight had spoken she'd gotten comfortable in a hammock that hung from the room's ceiling, her eyes still transfixed on the small pony. "I'd never be able to do that sorta thing, directing a group and fightin' armies and such."

"It wasn't anything quite so massive, really. More like the Queen herself, and a few squads of her soldiers," Twilight explained. "She was very sure of herself, and if I hadn't seen through her ploy then she'd have taken over. It was a good thing I did, but what worries me is that I'm generally the one to see through certain issues that others might not look too deeply at. I'm not sure what would happen if another threat showed up, and my friends had to take it on without me, or worse, didn't realise there was a threat. I'm worried for them."

Kaylee pouted. "They must be so worried about you. You're so far from home, an' it'd eat at me, not knowin' where one of my best friends had gone."

"My friends are strong, they'll get by without me for now. I know the Princesses can keep things steady too." Twilight said, glancing back over to Serenity's engine. "But come on, enough about that, tell me about the ship. I'm curious as to how the oxygen system works given that there's no ecosystem to produce it, so I'm guessing it's somehow created artificially through your machines."

That seemed to perk Kaylee up. "Oh no, Twilight, it's not fake, not like we're breathin' some sorta stale air. See I can show you how it works, the main part of the system that does all that is below the deckplate here," Kaylee tapped her boot on the floor for emphasis, instantly getting into the topic. "There's an access hatch to get to it, bit fiddly really, but it recycles all the waste we make and turns what it can back into breathable air and extra water. We keep the system topped up with a little compost and water the same as we keep fuel. It uses solar energy from the panels on the outer hull to make electricity, an' that works to separate hydrogen and oxygen from the water going through it and gettin' rid of all the bad stuff like methane, an' it keeps goin' round in an endless cycle."

"That's the real short an' narrow of it." Kaylee smiled as she hopped off the hammock and snatched a tool from her belt, beginning to pry the plate up. "I'll point stuff out."

Twilight was pleased Kaylee had moved away from her being stranded here, it was already something ever present in her mind, she didn't need the peppy mechanic being sad over Twilight's personal problems and getting herself down. Kaylee worked best when being overly joyful, that much was clear, and Twilight would prefer to help keep her happy.

"So what's that do?" Twilight asked, pointing to a strange cylinder that hummed with energy as the plate was fully lifted. She inwardly laughed as Kaylee's eyes lit up with the need to share her passion.

Mal eyed the entrance while Zoë rested a hand on her rifle butt, currently it was deserted outside the bar which Zoë had found strange as the area was usually very lively. It was about that time in the day where it started to fill up, though the bouncer wasn't even standing guard in front of the door. The land-mule was parked away around the side and not even a single soul had gotten curious. It made them very wary.

"Sure you want to just barge in, sir?" Zoë asked, glancing between Mal and the doorway inside. "Might be they installed some security since the last time."

"The notion had crossed my mind," Mal agreed, tapping a finger against the sidearm in his belt. "They might play with us, we know that much, an' I figure we're expecting trouble so we do it loud, see if we can't catch 'em off guard instead of the other way around."

"Sir." Zoë nodded, keeping a hand rested on her rifle as he pressed his palm against one of the doors. "When you're ready."

Like a good captain, Mal took the lead. Pushing the door in his hand went to his pistol as he strode inside the dimly lit premises, immediately spotting the bouncer at the far end and bringing his gun up in a flash. The bouncer stood a little perplexed by the action, but was already carefully reaching for his gun to drop it as Mal walked closer.

"Good man, don't want any unneeded bloodshed." Mal gave the man a nod as Zoë came up from behind with her rifle ready. He beckoned her forwards as he took the bouncer's sidearm and placed it inside his coat, it was nice of River to add some deep pockets for just such an occasion. "You go on in there now, I mean to talk to the twins, not kill 'em."

"Right..." The tall man seemed almost confused, as if he was unsure why anyone would come in here with their guns raised. "Are you uh, coming in behind me?"

"That's the idea," Mal nodded. "Move."

With a shrug the man did as he was bid, and as they passed the entrance booth the clerk behind it in her very fashionable qipao kept quiet and looked on. The building was a very simple affair with a connecting hallway from this one into the main room, so there wouldn't be any surprises unless feds were called in and Mal highly doubted that Fanty and Mingo wanted that or were so stupid as to consider it.

The bouncer opened the door that led down into the red glare of the small passage, there'd be no room to try turning around and disarming Mal, but he seemed entirely fine to lead them in. It made them cautious of some kind of ambush up ahead. The bouncer turned the corner with Mal behind him, and Mal spied the artificial rocky interior and the weapon boxes ahead with the second guard that made sure people put their weapons away. If there was going to be any trap sprung it'd be happening right about now.

"Malcolm! Are you going to stop threatening our man and come talk?" came a shout from outside Mal's view. Fanty and Mingo must have already been sitting at a table below.

"Mingo." Mal greeted the voice loudly from his position, not holstering his pistol as it aimed at the man beside the lockup instead. "If I turn the corner is there gonna be a whole ensemble of folk pointing guns at me?"

"Just us down here, precious. Promise. You can stop the theatrics."

When he'd spoken with dear old Ming earlier, he'd asked about the twins and what they were up to, she'd mentioned they were being very shifty lately and that he should watch his back, or something to that effect in her broken English. And yet, they hadn't immediately opened up on them with anything...

"I'm gonna be mighty disappointed if bullets come at me." Mal warned, gently pushing the bouncer forwards and carefully taking a couple of steps inside the open area, his boots tapping as he passed onto the transition of metal flooring. Zoë slowly began to lower her rifle as both guards clearly weren't about to make any moves and Mal walked further in. Mal looked down from the upper level and did indeed see that besides the two guards only the twins were here, seated at the same table they'd spoken at the last time they'd come here. No hidden people behind the bar, no new defences either. The place was empty.

Both Mal and Zoë tentatively holstered their weapons as Fanty gestured a look that said 'told you so', while resting back in his seat. Mal was even surprised to see a bag that was awfully similar to the one they'd stolen from him. The twins hadn't ever been ones to really scalp him on pricing for the jobs he took, so maybe they were trying to make peace.

Light music of an oriental sort was playing as they made their way down the grated stairs and over to where the twins were casually reclining, and it took Mal a second but he did eventually sit down, getting as comfortable as his instincts would allow.

"Gonna sit, darling?" Mingo asked, looking at Zoë.

"I'll stand." Zoë returned, her face solid.

"Suit yourself." Fanty said, smirking at Mal. "Drink?"

"I'm good, wanna clear some things first," Mal said, giving the man a look that bordered on serious, while resting a hand on the bag that was presented. "Is this my bank job money you so kindly looked after while a little girl played merry with your bar?"

"The same, minus the twenty-five percent we'd originally agreed on back then." Fanty smiled.

"And minus fifteen for the trouble your girl caused. Damages, loss of patrons, emotional turmoil... you understand, Mal," Mingo purred, his face a very punchable mask. "But that doesn't mean we can't still work together."

Mal found himself with a subtle smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Trust the twins to take their full forty they bumped the price up to the last. He supposed that was fair, and if this did make them even then so be it.

"Well I won't fault you that," Mal nodded. "If you knew we were comin' then it's likely you know why we're here again, so then I'll ask if you're willing to cut a deal?"

"We are." Mingo smiled at him.

"Paper-money is a rare commodity very few can deal with," Fanty said matter-of-factly, shooting a sly grin to his brother. "But we just so happen to have the means to complete it and get it to the central planets."

"Badger's one of the few who could also do that given some time, but the way we hear it over our channels, he's afraid of the Alliance bearing down." Mingo scoffed, his brother laughing with him.

"Yeah he does that," Mal agreed with mute annoyance. "He startin' to make it a habit an' at this juncture I can afford to not take work from him."

That lit a spark in the twins' eyes.

"Could be that I come to you two more often lookin' for work." Mal offered, resting back in his seat while he saw Zoë was eyeing them. "Generally I go where there's more pay, but I could take a slight hit in that area if it means a guaranteed income."

"Oh precious, you're talking our language," Fanty drawled in his odd accent, leaning forwards. "We could talk jobs once we've worked out this arrangement with the money."

"What were you thinking?" Mingo asked, clearly fishing for a bar to raise or lower.

"Well..." Mal started, taking on a more sturdy posture. "You already know I aint got the means to do anythin' with it, it's just dangerous paper burnin' a hole in my boat for the next time the feds catch me, an' I know I'd never see the light of day again if that happens.

"So, here's what I propose in the interest of fairness." Mal leaned forward to meet Fanty's position, who seemed almost excited at his movement. "You two get a very lucrative seventy percent, for all the legwork you'll be doing. The way I recall it, ten credits roughly transfers to around eighty platinum, and from what I saw in our little black box, we had a good thousand in credits."

"That doesn't account for handling fees, darling." Mingo began.

"Slow down, I'm aware," Mal cut back in, raising a finger. "I'll keep it simple to avoid any undue headaches. Say whatever buyer you find says they'll give you ten plat for every ten credits, then you'd probably look for a better deal."

The twins shared a laugh.

"If it comes to thirty plat for every ten credits then that's a starting point, the net take is three-thousand, take a heavy processing fee and you're probably left with just over half that. Say that's the deal they give you, then of that I'm happy to give you sixty percent." Mal shrugged, the twins nodding to the price. "Of course they probably know you wouldn't go for that, and you know they'll never go for a one-to-one trade, gotta make a profit for themselves, so I figure the most it'd go to is forty-five to fifty plat. It gets to that, then you can take sixty-five after the processing fee."

"And seventy is our end if we get more than fifty for ten." Fanty nodded to Mingo.

"Sounds like a very sweet deal, Mal," Mingo smiled. "Why are you feeling so kind?"

"Because, Mingo," Mal gave a smile of his own. "The next five high-paying jobs you put on offer beyond your standard work are mine, that's why."

"Two," Fanty shot back immediately. "Can't be giving you all the good ones, Mal."

"Make it four." Zoë chimed in from where she stood, her eyes steely.

Mal smiled as Fanty shifted under her gaze, speaking up again after a tense few seconds of silence. "Three would also be fine."

"We could do three," Mingo slid back in cooly as his brother relaxed. "Our best paying that come in, plus this money deal. Seems good to me. Fanty?"

"Mingo." Fanty nodded.

"It's settled then?" Mal wondered, already rising to his feet.

"We'll write up the current deal with the money, wave you the specifics, and arrange a drop once everything's been processed." Mingo confirmed, not moving from his seat but raising a hand. Mal took it and firmly shook. When the twins shook on something and a deal was printed up, they didn't renege. It had been a mistake not to get the bank job they'd taken from the twins written up in the first place. "But as it so happens we do have something that might interest you to start the first of those three jobs, pays well."

"I'm listening." Mal gave a curt nod, crossing his arms.

Author's Note

Fùgǔ - Vintage, Old-fashioned.
Háo bù kèqì de báichī - Unceremonious idiot.

Curiosity

Twilight frowned as she thought about it carefully, but her gut instinct said it was the right call to make, and it would give her the upper hoof against her opponent. She took the small polished orb of glass in her magic and tacked it over several darker orbs all the way into its destination.

"Shiny! You're real good at this, Twilight," Kaylee beamed at her, edging forwards in her seat to take her turn. "But I'll show ya I'm real better, missy."

Chinese Chequers was an interesting game, to be sure. It involved a small amount of strategy in the overall plan to have all of one's pieces on the opposite side's starting end of a star-shaped board. So far of her ten pieces she had six on Kaylee's side, while Kaylee only had three on Twilight's. The rest of their pieces were held up in the middle of the board in a no-mares land where they were blocking one another from progressing, and with fewer pieces Twilight was seeing how she could proceed.

Their game was only briefly interrupted as Jayne came storming into the galley past where they were both sat all tucked away in the comfy corner of the room, and hulked over to the cupboards in the kitchenette, yet again on the prowl. Twilight recalled seeing him go after they all split up several hours previously, only coming in a short while ago for a brief moment to avoid her, but now he was back again. He was still drenched in sweat, and still red from what she could guess was great amounts of exercise. River had also come in earlier, having watched their first few games as Twilight learned the basics, though currently she was called away by Simon as she needed to have a check up and take some medication.

"Jayne, it's only a half-hour past lunch," Kaylee admonished him as he raided the stores for something to eat. "Ya already ate, did'n'cha?"

"Not enough." Jayne mumbled, scoring a few nutrient bars and some packs of what Twilight suspected was dried meat, going by the illustrations. He looked up as the intercom sounded and took that as his cue to leave again, but not before giving Twilight a wary scowl.

"Zoë and the Captain are just about back," Wash's voice crackled through the ship-wide intercoms. "They're not in any trouble, so time to load up and get out there, people."

Twilight glanced over as Kaylee beamed in delight. "Oh, Shiny! We've been sittin' on some goods for a while now."

"What's going on?" Twilight enquired, as Kaylee got to her feet.

"Supply run," Kaylee replied with a smile back to the table. "That aint goin' nowhere, Twilight, come on, you can keep an eye on how we do things."

Twilight nodded, moving to her hooves and following Kaylee out of the galley. They went toward the stern of the ship rather than its bow as Kaylee was certainly more accustomed to the route, passing into the aft hall leading to the engine room but taking a left turn into an L-shaped passage leading down. This path led to stairs that came out next to the infirmary, which just off from it were the passenger dorms where Twilight slept, and going opposite the dorms snaking around the lounge that Simon seemed to enjoy resting in and up a short set of stairs was a back entrance to the cargo bay.

The ship's layout was compact and functional the more Twilight got a feel for it, but she could see how it came to be so loved by the crew. There were a number of places where Kaylee had spruced up the decor with little designs or homey touches by adding or painting over something, making even a semi-claustrophobic space seem relaxing. It had been done just about everywhere she could feasibly reach and it was lovely, she adored Serenity just as much as Twilight adored her library.

Entering behind Kaylee into the cargo bay, she got a better feel for Kaylee's excitement; the cargo bay was positively packed with boxes and crates of varying sizes at its sides, a few piles of smaller containers locked down with straps and nets to keep them from jostling around. She had a momentary thought of poking her nose inside them or asking to see their contents, but given the nature of the crew and her discovery of their illicit activities as vagabond bandits she decided that while they certainly weren't transporting anything illegal, at least by technicality, that the less she was involved in such things the better.

Well unless Kaylee just went right ahead and popped open a crate anyway.

"Looksee here, Twilight," Kaylee smiled gently, patting the rim of the crate as Twilight stepped over and let her eyes travel over the contents. "This here's about a double dozen's worth of calorie-dense bars for colder climates. Foodstuffs packed with all sorts'a nutrients and fats from different plants and meats that folks can't generally grow out on the harsher border planets like St. Albans."

"I'm going to hazard a guess that the Alliance doesn't make routine stops there?" Twilight commented rhetorically, already knowing the answer.

"They don't care 'bout the poor folk that don't care for their rule." Kaylee nodded with a sad smile. "St. Albans might not have been officially Independent-aligned, as an example, but a number of folk did join the Browncoats from there, an' as a border world the Alliance don't send much their way anymore to punish 'em for it."

"That's unfair," Twilight frowned. "The war is over."

"Alliance don't want 'em building up though, they're afraid that if enough people out on the rim start doin' too well that they're gonna form into a new uprisin'." Kaylee sighed. "Folk just wanna get on with their lives, not try to restart another war. ...The people with the largest fightin' spirit came from Shadow and that's-"

"A blackrock."

Kaylee turned sharply with a short squeak at the voice, then facing Mal, who quietly observed the exchange with interest. Twilight hadn't noticed his approach. Either he was stealthier than she gave him credit for, or she'd been distracted by Kaylee and the cargo.

"Cap'n! I didn't mean-"

"Ya don't gotta be light footed about Shadow, that's ancient history by this point, xiao mei mei," Mal assured with a shrug. "There aint no reason you shouldn't tell her, I aint the keeper of knowledge."

"I just don't like talkin' 'bout it is all," Kaylee replied. "It aint right what happened."

"No, but then again neither is a lot of what happened in the war." Mal said, his face hard. He lifted the stern expression a moment later and fixed Twilight with a genial smile. "That aside, little pony, I see you're exploring about."

"Kaylee was showing me some of the goods you're going to trade." Twilight nodded.

"Yeeep, we do have a lot of 'em. Ever since we took up the occasional legitimate delivery it happened to turn into a few more here an' there between other less legitimate jobs." Mal explained, looking around at the lack of space to move around. "'Course I never took into consideration that some folk might back out of a deal or that a trade agreement can be rockier than a mountain."

"So now we gotta find buyers for a lot of stuff, or just give it away because its takin' up too much space an' we can't use it ourselves." Kaylee nodded.

Zoë came into view and walked by having heard the conversation, leaning in as she went onward to add, "An' selling things legitimately needs a permit on most planets with feds on 'em."

"That it does," Mal agreed as he waved her on, looking back at the two. "That's a hassle usually, but as luck would have it we do have ourselves a permit for Beaumonde, least for the lower part of town. Less money to be had there, but we can offload some of this gear. Fanty and Mingo directed me to some place that'll take a heap of what we got on the cheap, so at least that's some coin in our pockets. There's also a fellow called Axel that'll take all that packed grain we got off those idiots on Lazarus that dropped out on us, he's got aim to use it all so we can finally be shot of it.

"Axel's also the man to see about a rumour," Mal continued, walking over to a crate and poking his nose in when he lifted the lid. "Huh, forgot we had these... Yeah, rumour," he nodded. "So, it turns out he met with a man that encountered somethin' mighty strange yesterday. The man didn't go into detail, just that his ship had a blackout an' that when it powered back up, he heard a voice talkin' to him before it just up an' disappeared."

Mal settled his eyes on Twilight. "When we took you on yesterday, our ship had a blackout too. Now, ships have blackouts all the time, s'only natural when you run an engine too hot or you pass through a patch of black that doesn't like ya, but the man happened to mention that the voice didn't sound human. He said it sounded alien, not natural."

"I'm afraid I can't help you there," Twilight said, meeting his gaze. "One of the first things I did when I knew it was safe to use magic on your ship was cast a detection spell. Generally range isn't a major factor as all magic is connected through... well, it's like a spider web, really. Every single thread is linked to another, and if you pull on one end the thread at the other end moves too. Magic is all around us even in this universe, it just seems humans can't exactly access it."

"All around us?" Mal echoed.

"Yes. I wish you could feel what I do so you could understand. If I detected anypony using magic I'd feel it immediately, and if anything like my arrival also occurred there would be a notable fluctuation in that web that I could pinpoint. Not down to the exact location, it would be more like the general direction, though I would know it had happened."

"And you didn't feel anything like that?"

"No, Captain. I'm sorry, I'd be thrilled if I did." Twilight shook her head.

Kaylee's vision went between the two of them and she pursed her lips at the odd tension that she felt had just very rapidly built up. She gently laughed it off, kneeling down to put a hand on Twilight's withers as she smiled up at Mal. "Well if Twilight says she aint felt nothin' then I believe her."

Mal nodded after a moment. "Can't say I don't either, she'd be the resident expert on fantastical magics and such else. I was just askin', just in case."

With that he turned away, talking over his shoulder as he moved to the cargo door again.

"You'll have to find somethin' to occupy yourself with though, little pony, 'fraid I'm needin' Kaylee to go an' work her own kind of magic an' get to sellin' what we got," he said as he neared the door control panel. "That also means findin' some new parts for Serenity."

"Oooh, shiny!" Kaylee smiled, hopping up as her worry disappeared. "We've been needin' some new intermitters for the fuel injectors, an some-"

Kaylee was all smiles as she kept listing things that Serenity needed to keep in repair, and as far as Twilight could tell it seemed to be a very long list. The knot of concern that had been building in her stomach unfurled as the Captain focused his attention on Zoë, his first mate coming down from the upper walkways having left the fore deck to most likely join the outing. It seemed that Mal suspected her of hiding information, and if she were in his position then she might feel the same way. Twilight knew that he was rather slow to trust from the information she'd gleaned from him, she just wasn't quite expecting his nonchalant attitude to so heavily be awash with his mistrust. It had bore down on her almost like a tidal wave and taken her by surprise. One moment he'd been genial, and the next an imposing wall had gone up and she'd found herself put up against it.

She felt that at this point if she tried to appear less shifty it would only reinforce his budding belief that she was up to no good. For now she'd have to shut up and behave, not that she wasn't already, but really follow his orders to the letter. There were a few things Twilight had wanted to ask about that might be seen as prying for sensitive information not commonly shared. Kaylee had brought up Shadow, and she knew from his mindscape that Shadow had once been his homeworld. It was now devoid of life, having been reduced to a barren lifeless monument to the cruelty that the Alliance could employ.

It wouldn't do to delve into the Captain's life right now. She wanted to in order to build rapport, but the impression she was getting was that he was a very private man. Twilight supposed his mistrust would also only grow if she were to poke her nose into how the ship worked, at least by herself. Unfortunately that would mean waiting for Kaylee to get back from the trading business she was leaving for. There was also the question hanging in the fore of her mind of what exactly Reavers were, and intuition told her they were likely pirates of some kind, though beyond that she hadn't a clue. Perhaps they were stiff competition when it came to their crew's work of piracy, all she could do was guess until she was told or found out.

As she watched Jayne come down from the upper walkways and join the other three, she then had herself a slight smile, as maybe while they did their errands Simon would be happy to teach her something she'd been wanting to ask about humans. The datapad had a lot of information, but talking and interacting with him had been very enjoyable. Twilight waved a hoof at Kaylee as she left with the others, the cargo bay door closing up noisily until there was a great thoom of metal meeting metal and it shut completely.

Getting to her hooves, she turned around and headed for the infirmary.

Author's Note

Xiao mei mei - Little sister.

Long time, no see, Browncoats. Finally, a new chapter, even if it's a small one.

Other fics took my focus for a while, but I also didn't like the simpleness of how I'd written this one, things needed clarification and having a bit more depth added. Twilight got a shift about as I'd felt the Princess angle was far too much for her power wise with how I wanted this to pan out, and I never really do like writing her as a Princess. Most of the story is the same with some additional flair added, but parts regarding Twilight have been changed to reflect that she's back to being her classic unicorn self.