A New World Discovered

Carefully walking through the ruins of the unknown alien planet, the mechanical canine exploration unit, Lucky, examined every bit of the stone walls and all relics of this worlds past that littered the ground, or adorned any of the still intact walls. During the units little trudge through the ruins Lucky has interacted with some relics that John has classified as, priority objects of interest. One of which was a strange stone sculpture that looks like a solar-system display. Except none of the stone spheres had any details on them, aside from strange basic diamond cut-out holes on their faces, at least from the five circling the larger center stone. Aside from the sculpture another prioritized object of interest was a large, mostly intact, tapestry that Lucky was scanning over with its sole eye, zooming in on the fine details of the tapestry, but for the more up close examination Lucky deployed its little bird assistance drone to examine parts of the tapestry that the unit couldn’t reach.

As the drone flies about around the tapestry, it examined all of the details and designs of the large piece of stitched and woven cloth, especially the unique depictions of what looked like two anthropomorphic equine humanoids. One clad in white and gold, cradling what looks to be an iconography of the sun, while the other was clad in blue and silver, and was gently caressing a full moon image.

“I wonder what these could be depictions of?” John muttered to himself as he watches the video footage the drone was capturing, as well as the pictures it was taking.

“Given how ‘larger than life’ these figures appear to be, these must be some form of deities of some kind, and if that’s the case then whatever culture used to live in these ruins must have developed their own religion.” That’s when John thought back to the odd sun and moon that orbit around the planet, and started to run various theories and hypothesis on what kind of religion these aliens may have created.

After studying the tapestry for a bit longer, and racking his brain on what the imagery could be depicted of as well as the meaning behind them, John reached over to the far side of the terminal, the pilot pressed a button that projected a ringing phone icon. And after a few minutes the phone was replaced with the image of Henrietta, who genuinely looked surprised by Johns sudden call.

“Well this is surprise John; I wasn’t expecting you to contact me so early into your survey.” The woman said as she brushed some of her wavey dark red hair out of her face.

“Yeah, and I’m hope I’m not bothering you or anything.” John said with an apologetic tone.

“Not at all.” Henrietta said as she got into a more comfortable position in her chair.

“So what did you call me for?” instead of answering the woman’s question, John brought up a small screen next to the communicator, where Henrietta saw the pictures be displayed on the screen. “What the—” the woman said as she leaned closer, while John developed a small smile on his face. the woman then saw the other photos of the other bits of knick-knacks scattered about the ruins, as well as photos of the ruins themselves.

“Your eyes aren’t fooling you director, this planet has, or seemed to had some for of civilization at some point!” the pilot said with a bit of mirth in his voice, as he was thoroughly enjoying the directors expression of wonder, finding it to be rather adorable.

“Amazing!” Henrietta said with amazement as she adjusted her glasses to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. “First actual documentation of another race!”

“That’s right! we actually discovered possible intelligent sapient life on another planet!” John said before his smile, and voice returned to their normal straight face as he continued on. “But considering how decrepit these ruins are, and the fact that they’re deep and secluded in a densely packed forest, these ruins must be centuries old.”

“I see, well even so, this is still a monumental discovery Johnson.” The woman said before turning away from the small screen, and back over to face the pilot. “John, at this moment I want you to focus primarily in studying these ruins, and see if you can find any evidence of other ruins such of this one anywhere else. And if possible…see if there are indeed an intelligent race on this planet.”

“The study of the ruins shouldn’t be to hard, but if you want an in-depth analysis and study of the ruins, I’ll have to make a trip planet-side and bust out some of the ships archology supply.” Joh said as he scratched the back of his head. “But making first contact, you sure you want me to handle that?”

“I have complete faith in your ability to give Mankind a good first impression.” Henrietta said with a beaming face of confidence on her face, which brought back the small smile on the young man’s face.

“In that case, you can count on me!” John said while giving the director a bright smile, and a thumbs up which got a little chuckle from the older woman.

“Very well then, I leave this venture to you. But as you do, make sure to keep me up to-date on any progress you make.”

“Yes ma’am!”

After the discussion of what John’s new orders were, and ending the call, John began fiddling with the terminal, messing around with Lucky’s own pod controls making it close its hatch and rise above the tree line, and make its way to where the ruins were located. As the small craft made its way to where the ruins were, John made his way to the cockpit and set off to fly towards the site of his archaeological endeavor, with the ship soaring through the darken void before breaching the outer atmosphere.

Reaching the desired location the ship switched to its hover setting, and slowly made its descent to the ground just a little ways away from where Lucky’s pod was parked. As the ship landed John left the cockpit and head to the back of the ship, where all the supplies and other equipment was stored, and busted out the gear and equipment he’ll need in order to study the ruins. As well as a pistol, and an small assault rifle for personal protection, along with other tools for self-protection. Cause the last thing John need was to be caught with his pants down when a monster comes lumbering out of nowhere, and tries to make a meal out of him, again.

“Alrighty then, time to see what these ruins have hidden inside them.” John said as the back hatch of the ship released a sharp hiss, before they slowly lowered itself down, allowing the young man to take in a deep inhale of the fresh air of this new world.

“Wow. Now that is some fresh air.” John commented before stepping out of the ship, where the warm rays of the early evening sun shines down upon him. making his way towards the ruins the young man was met by the mechanical hound, sitting, and waited for the pilot at the collapsed entryway of the ruins.

“Hey there boy.” The young man said as he petted the machine on the top of its dome eye, which the robotic canine leaned into before Johns hand was removed from its head. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, so let’s get down to business, shall we?”

The mechanical unit quickly rose to its feet, and lead its human caretaker into the ruins where they would set out to unravel the mysteries that this ancient structure.

~~Elsewhere~~

So far Twilight wasn’t exactly enjoying her given task of being Overseer for the preparation of the Summer Sun Celebration. Sure she promised Spike that she’ll try and open up to the ponies she was suppose to meet, and see over their prep for the festivities…however that was proving to be rather difficult, and down right annoying for the mare.

The first pony she meet didn’t say anything or even greeted her properly, all she did was just make a dramatic gasp and just bolted past Twilight and Spike as if she was startled by something.

The next pony that Twilight was a bit better, at least she was friendly and overly wholesome, but she was a bit overbearing and kind of pushy in having Twilight and Spike join her and large family for an oversized lunch. After being stuffed with so much apple-based food, Twilight struggled to finish up her duties, and that’s when she meet the next pony she was supposed to meet who was in charge in making sure the weather was clear, although meet was not the correct term.

The next pony that Twilight meet crashed into her and made the unicorn dive into a large mud pile, which the pegasus just laughed off as a small goof move. But in her defense the pegasus did attempt help clean Twilight off, however that just ended up with Twilight’s clothes being all wrinkled, and mane and tail being all frizzy and puffy, which the pegasus found hilarious. Course the unicorn didn’t find her predicament to be all that humorous.

Moving onto the fourth pony that Twilight met, she seemed generally normal if a little eccentric, and when she saw the state that Twilight’s mane, tail, and clothes were in she insisted on helping the mare get her clothes, mane, and tail fixed. However as the white unicorn properly washed and dried Twilight’s clothes, and fixed her disastrous mess of mane and tail, the mare found out that Twilight came from Canterlot and just went full on, well, there wasn’t an actual term that Twilight could think of to compare the mare to, so all she could do was run off once her clothes had finished drying.

Then there was the final pony that was in charge of the music, which was a flock of birds instead of traditional instruments, which Twilight found to be rather odd. But the results were still beautiful to listen to. however while the singing bird chorus was an amazing sight, the conductor of the chorus wasn’t much to look or speak of, as she was constantly hiding behind her knee-length mane and only whispering when Twilight spoke to her. but that changed when the mare started fawn and dot over Spike, who through the whole day was actually enjoying all of the little meetups, especially with the unicorn and the doting pegasus.

But all of the meetings today was nothing compared to what Twilight found at her temporary stay. When she and Spike made it to the towns library, they were greeted by the same pony that the pair meet…and WOW could she just jabber on and on as she talked about how she meet Twilight, then gathered up ponies for a welcoming party, and even setting up the party for Twilight. Who just found the whole thing, jarring.

“Ugh…what a day.” Twilight groaned into the pillow her face was buried in.

“Come on Twilight at least try and enjoy the party.” Spike said as he stood in the doorway that leads up to the library’s living quarters. However the only response that Spike got was a very annoyed grumble, as she lays on the rooms bed.

“I know I promised to be more social Spike, but this is bucking ridiculous!” Twilight eventually said as she pulled her face away from the pillow. “I mean seriously, who throws a party for a complete and total stranger, even it is in good faith?”

“Maybe that’s just how the ponies of this town are.” Spike commented as he made his way up to the bed, and then sitting on the edge. “Although, I guess this whole day has been over, stimulating for you. probably should had you ease into it.” the dragon was then smacked on the back of the head playfully by Twilight’s tail. the two then gave each other a playful smile before Spiked leaned over, and gave his sister-figure a kiss on the forehead.

“I’ll let you get some rest, and explain that you won’t be joining the party.”

“Thanks Spike.” Twilight said as she gave her assistant a hug.

The little dragon returned the hug, and left the room to give Twilight her space as he headed back down stairs. Now alone to recover from the rather hectic day she just had. as she laid in her bed the unicorn tossed and turned until she was lying on her back, looking out the nearby window and seeing the afternoon start to get darker, and as the sky grew more darker Twilight’s previous fear of what she discovered earlier today.

“I really hope the return of the dark alicorn is nothing more than a myth.” The unicorn muttered to herself as she turned to lay on her stomach, and tried to take a nap to recover the energy she spent today…that is if she can sleep through all the noise from the party downstairs.