Author's Note

New story, this time with a bit of a sci-fi twist.

Chapter 1: Any landing you can walk away from

*/Error...error... no data network found...*

*/Location:...Planet Unknown...*

/Emergency Beacon status:...Beacon disabled by user/H@r~%¥....ERROR:user unknown...ERROR:unable to remove user...ERROR: unable to restric-...User/H@r~%¥ verified. ...Resuming emergency operations...beacon initialization failed...

*/Damage report:.........Warning! Life support critical. FTL drive.....error. Drive not located.....Port main engine condition red.....ventral hull thrusters condition red..... all other systems green...Testing ship T.D.O.S.A systems:...All tests green... T.D.O.S.A uploading from Admin/GDFTR....Displaying ship ident and beginning emergency log entry*

*/Date: 07.15.2120...*

*/Commander: John Cormier...*

*/Ship:...T729843...Designation:...Scythe...*

*/Begin audio log transcript...*

Hey there, if you’re hearing or reading this then…well if I’m being honest, I have no idea why anyone would be reading this except for me, but for all I know I’m either dead or this has been published. Either way, I suppose I’ll introduce myself. My name is Johnathan Cormier, I’m 30 years old and I’m a pilot for…well myself, I guess. A freelancer if you want the exact terminology. I’ve got a few hobbies, including wood working, metal working, and oddly enough, the guitar and piano. Now you’re probably wondering why I’m doing all of this… Well I suppose I’m recording this as some way to document what happens to me over time after I…landed in this world, and Apollo if you say it was a crash again I’m going to kill you... anyway I suppose that it will also maybe serves as proof to myself that I’m not losing my mind. But anyway, I suppose that I’ll get this train wreck started, so with all that being said, lets boogey.

==

The Titan Dynamics Arrowhead. Though it is classed as an interdiction ship, the Arrowhead model also contains a cargo hold to allow for the transportation of small amounts of cargo, or even other people in a pinch. It comes standard with a weapons package of three gimbal mounted guns, and 4 missiles. It has an overall length of 22.5 meters, a wingspan of 16 meters, and a height of 5.5 meters. It’s name comes from the fact that the thing looks like an arrow from the days of old. Inside it has three main sections, the cockpit at the front, accessible from a deployable ladder and an opening canopy. It contains the controls to the ship along with the Titan Dynamics Onboard Ship Assistant, or as he has me call him, Apollo. Moving back from the cockpit there's the living quarters, containing a bed, weapons and ammunition locker. Next to the weapons locker was an armor locker which held my under suit and armored helmet, the two primary devices that, when worn, would allow me to perform EVAs in non-habitable environments. Next to the under suit was my light armor, and heavy exo-armor, both of which could easily attach to my under suit and beside it there's a locker for personal items. The last portion of the ship was the cargo hold, which currently held my crash kits, a station to repair me gear, and my favorite ground vehicle, a Hoplite. It was an electric all-terrain bike armed with a small autocannon on the left, and a heavy machine gun on the right. It could be charged from my own ships power supply, and was perfect for scouting or fast attack runs. Sometimes the bike was swapped for cargo, but that was mainly how the ship was set up. I wasn’t a merchantman or a delivery boy, I'm a freelancer, and my current contract was to guard the ships of Time Light Express on transportation runs from Forwaya to Orion-15. The job paid me 12,000 credits per run, and it was gonna be easy…Or so I thought.

“Terra control this Arrow 729843, I am clear of the landing pad”

“Arrow 729843, this is Terra control. We confirm that you are clear of the pad, have a nice flight. Control out.”

With my departure confirmed, I opened up the throttle of the ship, bringing its speed to 1000 meters per second. A minute, Apollo chimed in. “Attention, we have left an armistice zone, weapons and FTL drive now online.”

“Thanks for the heads up Apollo. Plot us a course for Forwaya and send a blink message to Time light and Lancer command letting them know that I’m on my way.” With the flick of a few switches, and a few taps on a screen later, I began to hear the familiar hum of my drive spooling up, and as it did, my HUD changed to display my drives spool percentage and calibration percentage. Once both reached 100, I pressed the button on my console, and with a flash, I jumped into faster than light travel.

--

I was about 5 minutes into my quantum jump, just relaxing and taking in the sight of planets and stars flying by me, and the sound of music from Earth's past when my HUDs master alarm went off, snapping me back to attention and scanning my displays “Apollo, sitrep.”

My AI companion immediately responded, “Warning, FTL Drive unstable...Automated emergency stop failed, recommend immediate action.”

My left hand went to the quantum drive control panel, and I slammed the emergency stop button.

“Manual stop failure.”

“Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me.”

“I am not. I recommend that you put on your EVA suit.”

I jumped up out of my seat and ran to the hab section, donning my under suit, helmet, and heavy exo armor, before running back to the pilot's seat, getting back onto the controls just in time to see a bright light fill the cabin and blind me, but that’s not all folks.

“Looks like something happening with the electronics/ Apollo, go mobile.”

“Roger. uploading T.D.O.S.A to Godfather…..Upload complete...Warning, ship and suit CO2 scrubbing systems failure.”

“Oh, now you're just adding insult to injury...is there any…..way...to……..” I collapsed to the ground and 30 seconds later, I blacked out.

--

When I came to, I immediately noticed two things, the first was the blue sky around me, and the second was the fact that my helmet was on the floor of the ship next to me. Looking around at the sky around me and I saw that my HUD had shut off, but it seemed that the auto stop had come back online, and a further look into the planet’s atmosphere composition also told me that my ship had also found a planet with a breathable atmosphere once my CO2 scrubbers died. Getting back into my seat, I re-initiated the HUD.

“Apollo, you there?

a small screen with the picture of an arrowhead came up on my helmet's HUD “Affirmative Captain. Apollo is online”

“Good, Damage report.”

“Quantum drive:...Error, no drive found...

Engines:...Power fluctuating, landing recommended...

Communications:...Error, no blink comms arrays found...

Life support:...Warning, life support damaged, estimated failure in 01D:13H:20M:00.0S...

All other systems green...”

“Fuck…fine, looks like I’m landing.” I raised up my left arm and activated the display on my mobiholo, watching as it projected up a holographic display in front of me, showing the current time, any issues is my health, of which there were thankfully none, my heart rate, and the current level of gravity in my environment. “Link with ship sensors, don't upload, with the power fluctuation i don't want to risk you getting damaged. Analyze atmospheric composition and display current readings to my mobiholo.”

“Affirmative...Link established...Displaying…”

The holographic display in front of me changed, with the aforementioned windows decreasing in their size to allow for the newest window displaying the composition of the atmosphere outside my ship, as well as its overall quality/survivability, and what I saw astonished me. “Jesus, these readings are even purer than earth.” Seeing that I could definitely survive, I turned off the mobiholo’s holo-display, took my helmet off and disabled the ship's life support, instead allowing for the planet’s atmosphere to provide me with the air that I needed. Seeing that I was no longer in any immediate danger, I turned back to my ship's console, and brought up a display detailing the extent and location of the damage to my ship. Seeing that I was definitely going to need repairs to get it space worthy again, I decided that the best course of action would be to land and make repairs. “Apollo, any recommendations for our power issue?”

“Readings show we have approximately 20 minutes before engine system failure, and 1 hour until total system failure. recommend shut down of non-essential systems.”

“Give me a scan of the area, two pulses at max range.”

“Affirmative...sending pulses now.”

I watched on my HUD as the two scan pulses went off, and in the distance i saw a large mountain highlighted by the scans

“Scans show no ships within the area, no spacecraft in this planet's orbit, some settlements nearby and no aircraft...correction, scans picking up flying objects both large and small, analysing.........”

I lifted up the switch and readied myself to disengage the master safety. “Well come on man, give me a PID”

“PID not available. no IFF tag detected on the larger airborne objects. They appear to be balloons surrounding what looks to be a city on the side of the mountain. Possibly for guidance of ships in the airspace. The smaller ones also appear to be biological.”

“Given the atmosphere I think we'll be safe to keep the ship's life support off and vent in air from the outside. pressurization is still holding so that means we should be good to operate at any altitude...Im thinking we shut down weapons, blink comms, any systems in the red and the passive scanner array.”

“Shutdown of Weapons system requires authentication.”

“Godfather 1-1 authorizing weapon system shutdown. authentication, Willis.” I replied

“Authenticated. shutting down weapons systems. System now reads total failure in 5 hours, engines estimate failure in 1 hour.”

“Well then we've got no choice, I've got to take us down and effect repairs. were going to the mountain.” I began to slowly lower the ship down beneath the clouds, and what I saw astonished me. I was not over the woods of the north east, but instead I was over a, empty grass like area, similar to the fields in that were in the older European countries back on Earth, I could even see a small town in the distance of to my right, and some sort of structure on the side of a mountain about 20 klicks away. From the looks of it, the mountainside structure was probably some sort of landing zone or spaceport, so I adjusted my course accordingly, turning on my collision lights, and setting my nav lights to pulse out an SOS, that way the ports ATC wouldn’t consider my hostile, and would hopefully signal back to me with a place where I could land. I stopped my descent once I thought I was level with the top structure, so about 1000 meters off the ground, and I continued towards the structure, which looked to be a five-minute flight away. “Come on, just last me another ten minutes without any issues.”

I have no idea why I went in that direction when there was a wide-open field just below me that I could land in and go to the town to call for some assistance. I mean my systems were damaged so legally I could land anywhere safe, but I just felt drawn to that place. Anyway, I didn’t get to far before I saw something else that made me wonder if I was high or not, a fucking Pegasus, and not just a normal colored one, no, that would make too much sense. This one was fucking sky blue with a rainbow mane and tail, and it was flying right alongside me, trying to yell at me, I just shook my head, and tried to wave it away, but it didn’t leave, in fact it was joined by a mix of white pegasi with blue manes and tails, but these ones were wearing fucking gold armor and had spears. “Apollo. were these the biological objects you told me about?”

“Affirmative.”

“.....You and I are going to have a talk about relevant information later.” I turned to look out my cockpit window and started to try and wave the flying creatures away from my ship. “Get away from this thing, or you’ll get hurt!”

Of course, my shouting didn’t do much of shit, except for maybe anger murphy’s law even more, because as if it was on fucking queue, the master alarm sounded, causing me to look down to the display as Apollo called out the problem.

“Port thruster power low… Port thruster power low.”

A quick scan of the display panel confirmed that my left primary thruster was failing, and as if Apollo's alarm wasn’t enough, I was also greeted with the sound of a loud pang and the smell of smoke. Looking up to the rearview mirror in my cockpit, I could see the aforementioned thruster begin to spit it out like it was Winston Churchill.

“It's been like fifteen minutes, what the hell happened to ‘engine failure in one hour!?”

“It would seem the damage has cascaded, engines now predict imminent failure.”

“Well this just keeps getting better and better.” I replied. With the danger of total failure now increasing, and still no signal of any kind from ATC I made my decision. I was going to land, ATC and technicolor horses be damned. However, there was one small saving grace. The castle-like structure I was headed for was now within full view, and I had spotted my landing zone. There was a large plaza type area, definitely large enough for me to set down in…if it wasn’t half full of…other technicolor horses. “Right…freak out about horses later, land now.” My hands flew across my consoles, turning off my left thruster, and diverting the extra power to my RCS thrusters, and I quickly put my helmet back on, just in case the landing was a rough one. I looked at the creatures flying beside me, “Sorry about this, but I’ve got to get rid of you all somehow.” I turned a few knobs and set the volume on the outer speakers to max. “Now let’s just hope that this didn’t break as well.” I flicked a switch, and sound of Stranglehold by Ted Nugent Blasted out of the speakers, causing the pegasi around me to grab their ears, but more importantly, stop following me, allowing me some breathing room so slow and land safely…or at least that was the plan until another bang came to my ears followed by the warning system.

“Starboard engine, failure...Starboard engine, failure.”

“Bad timing Apollo.” As the ship began to lose altitude, my emergency training wanted to kick in, but I had an idea.

“As you are aware, I am unable to control the time at which these failures happen.But I would recommend following emergency procedure and going full RCS”

“Nice to see your charming whit still works. I've got an idea. give me one last boost from the engines and ready to fire the RCS thrusters on my go ”

“I see we are making a crash landing and you are hoping to fo-”

“Apollo its called a grand entrance, and don't explain it, that's gonna ruin the fun for me. Just do it.”

“.....all systems ready. firing engines now.”

I was pushed deeper into my seat for a half second as the engines fired, giving me enough momentum for a controlled fall/glide. By this point, the crowd below had noticed me, if only because of the music at first, but when they saw the ship somewhat careening towards them, they all began to run away. Of course, I wasn’t really focused on this, but more on trying to make sure that I landed in the plaza instead of smashing into the mountain and keeping the torque in the rotors in the green. “Come on, Come on.” I said to no one in particular as I watched the plaza get closer and closer.

“Terrain…Terrain…Terrain”

“I'm aware! ” The ground of the plaza kept getting closer and closer. I put my landing gear down,and pushed the throttle to full, firing the RCS thrusters at max power. I felt the ship begin to slow, but looking at my speed and height, this was gonna be a rough one. And a rough one it was. the ship slammed into the ground with enough force to shake me through my armor. “See Apollo? A grand entrance, not a crash.”

I shut down everything, opened my rear door, got out of the ship. As I did I could see that the area around my landing gear was heavily cracked and chipped.I took my helmet off and just sat down on the ramp facing the crowd and taking in what just happened. I looked to the crowd of ponies now all staring at me and with a smile I said, “Please tell me someone got that on camera because I will NOT be doing it again.”

I was met by wild-eyed stares and many faces held a confused-but-worried look on them.

“Uhh…you all can understand me, right?”

I didn’t get an answer, instead, out of the crowd came a large force of guards. Some of them looking extremely familiar to the guards that were around my ship while I was…flying, but there was also two new kinds of guards, some of them looked to be unicorns, and some looked like normal horses, but all were either brown or white, and all had the same gold armor and lances. They surrounded me and my ship with their lances lowered, so naturally, I put my armored helmet back on and my hand went to my pistol. It’s a custom model 2 Laslight laser pistol, modified to be able to stun and/or kill. with a micro dot sight and tac light, in its holster on my hip. As I did this, another guard, a unicorn with a white coat and a darker blue mane with purple armor stepped forward, “Who are you? State your intentions!” His voice sounded older, possibly my age, he had blue eyes, and stood at maybe 5 feet tall at the tip of his horn.

I kept one hand on my pistol, ready to draw it, but I put my other one up in the air, “Everyone chill out! I come here in peace. It’s not like I intended on making my emergency landing…where ever the fuck this place is.”

“That didn’t answer my question.” The guard replied

“You look different, you must be the one in charge here, so how about you order your men to stand down, and we'll talk about this calmly like gentlemen.” I took my hand away from my pistol, “See, I’m moving my hand away from my weapon, so how about you all take yours away from me?”

That may not have been my smartest move, as I said that the guy who looked to be in charge shouted out, “Weapon! Get down on the ground!” I backed up to the door of my ship and I was about to close it when another voice came out from the crowd. The voice was female and it sounded younger, probably in her early twenties.

“Shining, calm down!” there was a flash, from behind the crowd and a half second later another flash appeared in front of me, and out of the flash emerged a purple pony with a dark purple mane, that had a streak of pink in it, but the difference between this one and the rest was that it had both wings and a horn, and some kind of tattoo of stars on her flank. It spoke again while pointing to me, “He said that he comes here in peace, and while yes he has a weapon, if he meant us harm, he would have used it.” Of course, while this was happening, I walked towards the door that went into the living quarters, and opened up a panel next to it and began to inspect my ships oxygen system. Apollo, run a check on the atmosphere and my own O2 for me.”

The mechanical voice of my AI companion came through my helmet speaker “Affirmative. Reasoning?”

This caused the purple mare to walk up to me and the guards to move closer. “Uhm, Sir, I’m assuming that you are a sir, what kind of creature are you? What was the voice? And just what exactly are you doing?”

I chuckled, “The obvious.” I turned towards the pony talking to me “I’m surprised that my own hallucination doesn’t know my own race, and at the moment I’m checking my ships oxygen system to see what’s got me so high off my ass that I’m seeing all this.” I gestured around with my left hand as I inspected my life support systems with my right.

“Sir this is not a hallucination, this is Equestria, and I am Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship.”

Upon hearing this I stopped, turned around, and burst into laughter, this got me a lot of looks, but I continued, “Oh I’m sorry, but I just can’t help myself. I mean this place looks like something out of a children’s book, and ‘Princess of Friendship?’ I mean wow, I’ve got to be completely lucy in the sky with diamonds right now.” I turned back to my ship, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to just go back to fixing my ship until this high wears off and I see where I actually am.” With my system looking like it was in order, and Apollo insisting that the atmosphere was breathable, I took off my helmet and turned to my right. I was just about to open my crash kit, when I was wrapped in some kind of pink aurora. Startled, I reached for my pistol while I began to look for its source, and I found the same aurora coming from Twilight's horn. I was levitated closer while my weapon was removed from my grasp by the aurora. I flailed around trying to escape the magic field that was holding me, but to no avail as my limbs were all pinned tightly against my body.

"What are you?" she asked, "I've never seen a creature like you before."

“I’m a human for your information.” I tried to struggle, but I couldn't free myself “Now let me out of…whatever this is.”

She looked at me like she was confused, "You never seen magic?!"

I look at her skeptically and then said, "Magic? Yeah right. Look, I’m a reasonable guy, so if you let me go I’ll cooperate in exchange for some help and answers from your end."

She let the me go from her magical grasp and returned my pistol, letting my comment about her ‘magic’ slide and walked toward the doors, "Follow me then."

Once she set me down I began to weigh my options. On one hand, I just made a landing in some sort of world that seemed to be run by rainbow colored horses with magic no less, and on the other, I could try to get my ship going again and leave, but there was no guarantee that id even be able to take off, or if I’d be able to escape their magic

I let out a deep sigh and I closed the rear door before I turned and followed after her, along with about 4 guards, including the one with the purple armor. I had barely gotten more than 20 feet from my ship when she turned to me. “What is your name?”

“My name is Johnathan, but you can call me John.”

She stopped and faced me while holding out her hoof, “Twilight Sparkle.”

I took it and we shook, “Well I guess it’s nice to meet you.” I continued to follow her and we walked through the crowd, flanked by guards, and towards the castle nearby, and as she did, I began to notice something else about this place.

Ponies. Ponies everywhere. I mean back when I was in the plaza and in the air I could have figured maybe it was some kind of hallucination to birds or something, but it looks like they own the place.

“Holy shitbucket, If its not a hallucination then maybe I died.”

“Watch your language!” she sternly scorned, “and you’re not imagining this, this is Canterlot, the capital of Equestria”

She walked in front of me and lead me through the town. Of course, the guards made it feel like a perp walk, which wasn’t helped by the fact that as I walked through the town, every-err-pony, stopped what they were doing to look at me like I was some animal at a zoo.

Every once in a while, Twilight would point some things out to me. Like restaurants or a few shops here and there. I will admit, overall, it’s actually a nice town, aesthetically speaking. I don’t know about its inhabitants yet, as I didn’t exactly talk to any of them.

Eventually we reached the castle. The main gate of which, was a drawbridge over a river that fed a waterfall, that was designed to go up to cover a massive set of double doors. Through the main gate was the opening to the main hall, it was a large open area with a set of stairs the lead up and to the left or up and to the right, along with passageways that lead left or right, our escort led us up the stairs and to the left down a hallway with stone or granite support pillars on both sides and large windows every fifteen or so feet. At the end the hallway was another set of double doors. Positioned at each side of the doors was a guard, who opened them for us, and according to Twilight, on the other side of the doors was the throne room. We stopped in front of the doors and my escort, with the exception of Twilight and the guard with the purple armor broke off and probably returned to their normal duties. The two massive doors swung open to reveal the throne room. It was about 200 feet long, by 100 feet wide and had pillars and large windows on both sides. Only the windows were glass paintings of Twilight and some other ponies. At the end of the room, was a single throne with…. Holy shit were those waterfalls on the side of it? As we continued into the room and I saw it in more detail I realized that in fact, they were little waterfalls. While I was standing there surveying my surroundings, Twilight walked up to the throne, and from behind me, I heard a high-pitched scream. I turned around with my hand instinctively on my pistol, to see what it was. I had just enough time to see a fancy looking clothes rack before I was smacked over the head with it.

"Get away from my friends’ you...you...you..." the female metropolitan voice behind the clothes rack wavered off in her anger as she took a closer look at me.

Twilight turned around and yelled, "Rarity wait, he's a guest!"

I grumbled to myself as I stood back up, rubbing the spot where the rack had hit my head, “Nope, definitely still alive.”

The refined voice belonged to a unicorn pony, similar in size to Twilight. She was white, with a violet mane, and with another one of those tattoos in the same spot on the flanks in the form of three diamonds.

"Oh dear heavens!" she responded, "My apologies darling, that was very unladylike of me."

I stopped rubbing my head where she hit me and gave her a slight nod, "It’s ok, I’ve been through worse."

The white unicorn nodded back, "Well, I am Rarity and may I ask your name as well as what you are?"

"My name is Johnathan and I am a human."

She looked to Twilight, "I thought they were only myths?”

Twilight shook her head, “I did too, I thought he was a strange minotaur at first.”

“Well here I am, the mythical human...” I stated sardonically.

Twilight rubbed her chin for a second before gasping “Oh! Idea!~”

“Come this way Johnathan,” She turned around and opened the doors again. She motioned for me to follow her, so I did. We walked for a minute or two then entered a large library area where she made a scroll appear with her magic, I watched her write something on it, and then it disappeared. She then motioned for me to sit down in one of the chairs, “Take a seat, I’ve got some questions to ask you when spike gets here.” She pulled up a chair for me to sit in, as Rarity walked over to me and inspected where I’d been hit.

“Are you sure that you’re alright darling, that looks like an awfully dreadful bump.”

“I’m fine,” while out of the corner of my eye, I watched as books began to fly around. A few of them, maybe three or four, landed on the table in front of me and each opened to a certain page.

“So, you’re using ‘magic’ to do all this?” I asked.

“Yes,” Twilight replied as she turned around and brought over a chair for her. She set two more chairs into a semi-circle in front of me. As she did so, Rarity continued her answer.

“Yes, unicorns as well as alicorns in Twilight’s case, can use the magic in our horns for things like fine manipulation of the environment, spells, or even teleportation.”

“Huh, neat…. hang on, alicorn?” I replied.

“Yup,” Twilight replied, “A combination of all three types of ponies; earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi.”

“Ah I see,” I replied as I thought back to all the ponies I had seen today. From what I saw, she seemed to be right.

Not much later, Spike came into the room, and I again was left in shock as it turns out that spike was a fucking dragon! He calmly walked up to twilight, he looked at me with a bit of shock, but he then looked to Twilight who nodded and he took out a piece of paper and a quill. The three of them all sat down across from me. Spike lifted up a quill and what looked like some kind of scroll and nodded to Twilight.

Twilight looked at me directly, “So John, where are you from?”

“I’m from Earth, it's where my kind resides and from what I can infer, this land Equestria is probably in a different galaxy or even dimension.”

“Why is that?” Twilight asked.

“Well the first clue was the fact that none of my technology can acquire any form of signal here. Plus, we’ve explored almost all of our galaxy, and we haven’t found anything like this place in space, so I’ve got no other logical choices.”

“I see...” Twilight responded.

I broke off my focus on her and looked to see that spike was furiously taking notes.

I pointed to him “I’m guessing that you’re having him transcribe what I say?”

“As always!” the little dragon answered, “Twilight likes to make sure that her information is as accurate as possible.”

I smiled, ”Well she does seem to be quite the studious type, maybe even a bit of an egghead.”

Spike and Rarity snickered as Rarity replied, “A good friend of ours would say so.”

Twilight cut back in wanting to continue her study of me, “Anyways back to you John, what did you do for work?”

“I am a body guard of sorts. My job was to protect VIPs and escort cargo ships to their destinations. In my free time I would fix up my ship, play piano or guitar, or work with wood or blacksmithing. ”

That piqued Twilight's interest and got Rarity to look at me oddly as Twilight spoke, “That’s a rather Interesting list of skills that you have. But I am unfamiliar with your weaponry and why you still have them, but that definitely explains some things.”

Rarity spoke up, “Yes, and it would also explain his rugged look which I didn't notice when I first saw him.”

I just put my hand over my face and shook my head at that as she continued, “Honestly darling, you do look rather handsome and I’m sure that all the mares will swoon for you, especially with nicer attire.”

I chuckled at that, “Yeah sorry but no, I’m not exactly the fancy or refined type I'm just a simple guy at heart,” I sighed, ”Also, a woman genuinely falling in love with me?” I scoffed, “That's just a bullshit fairytale to me.”

The two mares were shocked. Both by my language and answer. Honestly, the only one in the room who wasn’t looking at me funny was spike. He was too busy staring at Rarity.

Ah, to be young and in love.

“John, why is your view so negative?” Twilight asked.

“It may be somewhat negative, but it’s the reality I have to live with given my line of work.” I stated, “and all I can do is accept it and just get used to the loneliness...”

There was an awkward silence that followed as the ponies in the room were stunned by my words. I then cleared my throat to break the silence.

“Look, I know this is a little fast and I'll understand if you say no,” I took a deep breath and exhaled, “but can I go back to my ship for the night?”

They both just sat there and stared

“I don’t know how long I’ll be there, but I’ll pay you for the space and any damage I may have caused when I can get the money,” I scratched my beard, “but from what I’ve seen, I don’t think this place accepts United Planets Credits as a valid currency.”

Twilight didn’t even take a second to respond, “Of course! Today has probably been a long one for you, and don’t worry about payment.”

I was somewhat surprised “That is...quite generous...uh your majesty…”

She giggled, “Please, there’s no need for formalities. Just call me Twilight, I’ll have some pony lead you back. Just give me a few seconds to talk with my friends here and I will meet you there.” She got up and her and spike walked off into another room, leaving me with Rarity. While Twilight was off somewhere, I took out a notepad and pen from my cargo pocket, and began to jot down what I was going to have to do to set up camp as well as possible events that lead to me crashing here. My primary suspect, the drive malfunction. As I was defining my suspects and possible mechanical issues, Rarity walked up to me.

"Again, I’d like to apologize for my earlier actions dear, in fact, stop by my shop here in Canterlot when you can and I’ll make you some clothes better than those garish rags that you have on as an apology."

I looked at her and then I thought back to what was packed in my crash box. I had maybe three to four days of clean clothes in there, well maybe longer if I stretch everything. Though my shirt and pants would be filthy. Obviously I couldn’t wear my undersuit all the time, so not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth I spoke.

"I’ll take you up on that offer then."

A smile came across her face as she replied, "Splendid darling, I’ll see you then, ta ta~," as she turned and walked out, Twilight walked in with a scroll in her grasp which looked kind of official, and another pony behind her. She floated the letter over to me and her and the new pony sat down across from me. I looked over the letter and saw that it had some sort of seal on it and it was addressed to me.

"This came in for you," she floated the letter over to me.

"I have mail already? I haven't been here for long."

"Well while you were waiting, I had Spike send a letter to my old mentor, Princess Celestia. I think she is interested in meeting you."

I opened the letter.

Dear John,

My name is Celestia.

I have been notified of your arrival to our world by my faithful student, and I have been given the transcript of her interview with you. I would like to have an audience with you tomorrow back here at the palace Canterlot. I know you have many questions for me and I will do my best to answer them, just as I hope that you will be able to answer some of mine.

Yours, Princess Celestia

I set the letter down on the table beside me. Something about that letter, something about that name, Celestia. It stirred something inside me, I don’t know what it was, but it lasted for only a second or two.

I must be anxious; shes does seem to be the mentor of Twilight who seems to be head honcho here.

Twilight walked up to me and asked "So what did it say?"

"Well the Celestia wants to see me tomorrow."

"Really? That’s great news!"

"If you say so.” I looked over to the pony sitting next to Twilight, “And who are you?”

The other pony got out of her chair and walked up to me, she was maybe 6 feet tall at the top of her horn and 5 feet without it. She had a white coat, a bright pink mane, and she had a crown for a tattoo on her flank. “My name is Majesty. I’ve been assigned to you as a liaison between you and the equestrian government.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” I replied, “But I don’t think I’ll need you at the moment, I’m just going back to my landing site to set up camp for the next few nights.”

She stood up and with her horn, she made a large saddle-bag-like backpack appear on her back, “I’m well aware of that. In fact, I will be joining you.”

I looked to Twilight with confusion but then I took stock of the situation. I’m a foreigner who crashed in their lands, and I’ve said that I’m armed, they are probably making sure that I’m as friendly as I say. “That’s fine by me.” I got up and offered my hand to her to shake it, “Pleasure to meet you Majesty, I’m sure Twilight has already told you, but my name is Johnathan, but you can call my John.”

She stuck her hoof out and shook my hand, “And it is nice to meet you too, shall we head out to your crashed ship?”

“I didn't crash.” I replied. “I made a grand entrance.” I got up and walked to the door and opened it for the majesty who walked out of it and led the way back to my ship. The guards followed us of course, but given the situation, it was understandable.

When we got back to the landing site, everything seemed the same, with two exceptions. It seems that a fire pit had been placed in the area which would allow me to light a fire for either heat or cooking, and there was a ring of guards surrounding the area. We walked through them and majesty went to set up her camp as I walked back to my ship, undid some straps, and took out two large black boxes from the sides of the cargo bay. The boxes held an extra 50 charges for my pistol, 10 days’ worth of MRE’s, a mess kit, three canteens of water, about 4 days’ worth of clothes, a small tripod chair, a flare gun, flares, matches, an emergency radio, a solar charger for the radio and my mobiglass, Medical supplies, a whistle, glow sticks, some emergency blankets and a normal blanket. The next box held A few tarps, a toolbox, a personal hygiene kit, about 100 feet of paracord, a backpack, Two jars of moonshine and the piece de resistance, my guitar. I know I know, it’s not practical, but in the event that I crashed and wanted to do something to keep my hopes up, the guitar will go a long way. I am also aware that the moonshine also seems out of place, but the line of thinking there was either A) I use it for sterilization. Or B) A celebratory drink for when I was rescued or something like that.

With my crash supplies inventoried, I moved into my living quarters to inventory my weapons and ammo. Staring on the left side, there was a modified Destroyer-12 energy shotgun with a 1x sight and flashlight, with the shotgun itself being modified to stun or kill like my pistol. I had enough charge packs with it for 120 shots. Next to it was my Coventry Arms CA-45 ballistic SMG with a 1x holographic sight and flashlight. Looking into the locker I saw that I had about 300 rounds of ammo with 150 of them already in magazines. For medium ranged combat, I had a CA-15 with a 3x holo sight, a laser, and a flashlight. The rifle itself had 500 rounds of ammo for it in the locker with another 150 already loaded into magazines. As I moved onto my next two weapons a smile came to my face. Both of them were rather large, and I could only hold them for long periods of time with the assistance of my heavy exo-armor currently on my body. This armor was basically a heavy armor suit with integrated exo skeleton. It allowed me increased strength and speed, along with its durability, made it the perfect armor for me to wear in any combat situation on the ground or in orbit. A feature which I gladly hoped would help me survive a crash back when I was unsure if I would have made the landing. Anyway, onto the guns. The first was an CA-55 ballistic machine gun. It had a 3x holo-sight, with a laser and compensator, as well as the ability for me to mount it by my rear door for use as a door gun. In the locker I had 2000 rounds of ammo for it, with 500 of those loaded into drum magazines. And finally, the piece de resistance, the Bolshoy energy machine gun. It has the same attachments as my CA-55, but the fun thing with this gun is that it could switch between stun and kill, meaning that I could use it for either crowd control or actual gunfights. The locker held 20 battery magazines for it, totaling up to 2000 charges, with the ability for more once the cells have been recharged. Having taken my inventory and writing it all down in my notebook, I locked the guns and ammo back up. I walked to the back of the ship and inspected the mounting system for the guns that came up from the floor, and with everything in its working order, I went where I usually kept my heavy armor and took it off along with my undersuit and placed them into their locker. Once I had some actual clothes on, I went to the door and picked up my helmet, I put it on my bed and going back to my boxes. I then took out an MRE, my chair, and some matches and I walked to the fire pit in normal clothes where I saw Majesty already trying to light it with her magic.

“Come on you stupid thing, light”

I chuckled as I walked over “Need a hand with that?” I asked

Majesty looked at me and I could see some surprise on her face, “Oh, I see you have changed your size, is that an ability most humans can do?”

I chuckled again, “No, I just took off my Armored EVA suit.”

“EVA?”

“Extra-Vehicular-Activity” I replied, “It allows me to leave the safety of my ship and enter any environment while it regulates temperature and provides me with oxygen. Most of them also come standard with maneuvering thrusters for movement in zero-gravity environments, and exoskeletons to aid with moving materials, or movement in environments with increased gravity. Mine also has armor plating on it, which increases its size and level of protection.”

“That sounds interesting, but I'm saddened to hear that you require armor.”

“Trust me, you’re not the only one.” I replied “But you'll be happy to hear that in this instance, I was wearing it in case my ship gave out before I could land it, and while I don’t let my emotions affect my job, I still wish that it wasn’t needed. The feeling of spaceflight, or even flight in general is…something else, the freedom it provides, the adrenaline rush that you get when you push to full throttle…there’s nothing in the universe like it.”

Majesty smiled at me, “I’ve heard something similar form many pegasi…..but to answer your previous question, yes, I suppose I could use some assistance.”

I set my chair down and picked up the log and laid it in the center before taking some of the smaller sticks and leaning it against the log and stuffing some of the napkins from my MRE under it, I then lit the match and placed it in the napkins and waited for them to light the twigs. After a few minutes of adding twigs and blowing on the fire, the log began to catch “There you go” I replied.

Majesty smiled and began to warm up some water from a pot over the fire, “Thank you John, may I ask where you learned that?”

“Yeah, I was a solar scout before I was a freelancer.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a group from where I’m from, its goals are to teach children life skills and survival skills” I replied

“And is there a similar program for females?”

“Actually, its co-ed. It’s nice because while some people may laugh at it, I believe that the program does impart useful knowledge onto those who are in it.” I replied

“That is good to hear” she replied as she walked back to her tent. With the fire lit, I sat down and tore open my MRE. I was going through the process of cooking it when Majesty returned from her tent with some pots. “John, what are you doing?”

I lifted up the MRE and took the meal out of the pouch and tore it open, revealing a burger patty inside. “Making myself some dinner.” I lifted up the slightly hot burger on the bread with the cheese spread “Take this for example, the Jalapeño and cheese burger, like a normal hamburger…but fucking disgusting.” And I took a bite and swallowed “But it’s better than nothing.”

Majesty giggled and shook her head. “I have a much better idea.” Her horn lit up and I saw my MRE disappear into the fire, and in its place, a plate and silverware. I heard some shuffling off to my right and I looked to see a chef with a meal cart making its way through the ring of guards.

He stopped next to us, took out a folding table from the cart, and placed it next to us. He then placed a table cloth and a covered try on it, with some glasses of water and a wine bottle. He then turned around, and left. I looked to majesty with a look of confusion. “Uh, what’s this all about?”

She smiled back at me, “It would seem that the princess wanted you to have a nice first meal in Equestria.” She got up and sat down on a cushion and I moved my seat over to the table. Using her magic, Majesty removed the cover off the try to reveal a sort of alfredo pasta dish with peppers and onions. She put some on our plates and poured some wine into a glass for her. She then levitated up my glass, “Would you like some wine?”

I nodded as I took a napkin and placed it on my lap, “Sure.”

As we started eating, Majesty looked to me “John, I have to ask, what is it like in your world?”

“It has its ups and downs.” I replied, “Humanity was once only found on one planet, but a hundred years ago, we reached for the stars. Slowly we found our place out among them. Humanity now has colonies on hundreds of planets, but unfortunately, exploration and space flight hasn’t put out the flames of hatred. Fights still break out, and ships still get raided by pirates. So people will hire me to protect their shipments or personnel…..but even though there is some bad, there is still good. Many seek to just explore the stars and share their knowledge with all, it’s a noble effort, but sometimes it gets overshadowed by the violence.”

We continued to eat for a bit, having more conversation as we both learned more about each other’s homes. I was surprised to find out that ponies are not the only creatures here, there were also dragons, griffins, yaks, hippogriffs, and a many more other magical creatures, but for the most part, Equestria seemed to be the more prominent country, and all of them managed to stay in peace and harmony. Majesty was shocked when I showed her my mobiholo and its many abilities, and was awestruck when I told her that it was a staple of everyday life in my universe and just how far we had advanced even without magic.

Eventually we had finished our meals and we had made our way back to the fire, and as we did Majesty looked to me again. “So, John, Twilight tells me that you are a musician?”

“Of sorts” I replied, “I mean it's nothing professional, just another hobby to pass the time you know?...i'm probably not even that good”

“Oh please, John, you mustn’t be so hard on yourself. In fact, I would love to hear you play.”

I looked at her inquisitively, but then I got up and retrieved my guitar from my case. I picked it up and did my best to tune it, and while I did, I was also trying to figure out what to play. I looked up at the skyline to see the setting sun turning the sky and clouds a nice shade of pink and orange as the night sky began to take over, and the perfect song came to mind. I raised my guitar and I began to play the opening of Stairway to Heaven. Majesty sat there and smiled as I played the notes, and when I was done, Majesty stomped her hooves and smiled at me.

“That was beautiful John.”

“You’re just flattering me.” I replied

“Far from it.” Majesty countered

I smiled at her, “Thanks…do you play as well?”

Majesty nodded. “I play most instruments.”

“Wow, that’s amazing.” I replied, setting the guitar down. We sat there for a bit before I called out to her again, “Hey uh Majesty?” I called out.

“Yes?”

I looked down at the scroll and looked back up to her “Could you tell me about Celestia?”

“Sure, what would you like to know?”

“Honestly, I don’t know… tell me anything about her; her past, how she looks, anything.”

“May I ask why?”

“Just so I can prepare for my meeting with her and ease my anxiousness.”

“I see...well let’s see what I can do,” Her horn glowed and a few orbs began to appear around me, each one containing a snapshot of something.

“What are these?” I asked.

“They’re snapshots of sorts, pieces of Equestrian history.”

I took a look at them and noticed that Celestia was in almost all of them, and as I saw her I noticed I was feeling more anxious but couldn't figure out why.

“What do you think John?”

“She certainly seems interesting.”

“Hmm, also here are some of my memories.” Her horn flared again and one of the orbs opened up and was displayed in front of us.

What came into view was a towering white Alicorn in gold jewelry sitting before me, with a flowing mane of Cerulean, Turquoise, a light pink, and a light blue, with her Magenta eyes staring down at us and a smile on her face. I could tell from this that she was very regal but not uptight in nature, she also looked...stunning.

I remember thinking to myself, “Wait, what did I just think?” I shook my head at those thoughts and with a flash of Majesty’s horn, the image before me began to play out and Celestia began to speak

“Eventually I realized all the anxiety I felt was because I didn’t want you to go.” As she spoke softly, I found myself fixated on her gentle caring voice.

“I loved having you as a student as you challenged me and taught me just as much I taught you,” Celestia looked shamefully at the ground, “I am embarrassed to admit it, but I was afraid that if you made friends, you wouldn’t need me anymore.”

The vision disappeared along with the rest of the orbs and I was left with the image of her smiling face burned into my mind.

Once again, it brought back some form of what must have been anxiousness in my chest but this time though there was a warmth there that wasn't before.

As I contemplated these strange feelings, I felt something tap my leg, and I realized then that I had spaced about for quite a bit.

I shook my head and sat down on my bed, “Sorry Majesty, that I spaced out there.”

“Don’t worry, you seemed perplexed and I didn't want to bother you.”

“Yeah...”

“Are you really that nervous about meeting the princess?”

“I guess so.” I replied with sigh as I got up and made my way over to my ship.

She put her hoof on my leg, “It’s okay she is a very kind pony.”

“Still, I can't help but feel anxious about-”

“Trust me,” she interrupted, “and don’t worry, when you meet her I will be there to support you.”

I smiled “Thanks Majesty, that kind of helps ease my worry”

She smiled “Anything for a friend in need” she replied

I looked down to her confused “Friend?”

“Yes dear, everypony needs a friend…would you accept my friend?”

I thought for a bit as I sat there “You know what…I think I’d like that” I replied then yawning, “I also think I’m going to call it a night."

She smiled at me and got up to walk to her tent, "Ok, good night John."

"Good night Majesty."

--

*/End audio log transcription...*