The memoirs of Princess Brighter Skiesby Disembodied_PonyChaptersTracelessStarting from scrappedGood morningGood and Bad daysPlanet 1: EquusThe Strangest MinotaurHistory; Lifecraft(pre-release)Chapter ??: Universes CompassionTracelessFar outside the confines of the SOL system, the Extended-Transport NeminDar made way to its destination. Some two hundred and nine thousand light years away; a mining outpost that had been made operational only six years ago, was it's destination. The ship's skeleton crew of 8, oversaw the ship's operations, course, and passengers. Consisting of 26 humans; all of the passengers were bound for the outpost. Most of them to engage in the mining operations as permanent career workers. Though, a couple were nomadic workers; getting exposure and experience as they searched for a fulfilling career somewhere in the galaxy. The nearly three-month voyage, was not even a month way through. One of the young nomads was going over the project's scope of what he was to do there. Laying on a cot, bored after reading the same parameters for the fourth time that day, was, well... me. 'There's only so much I can get out of this without meeting the people that will be using the system' he thought. His job, and talent, was fine tuning the automation systems user interface. Though not a special talent like ponies get, he did have a knack for customizing the 'personality' of the computers to be a more productive fit for varying environments. The baseline system was quite good in of itself, but a mining operation doesn't have the delicate and intuitive touch that a research lab would benefit from the vanilla system. They needed things like; the barest of facts, and quickly as possible; Short & Quick. The fine details that the system was defaulted to give, wasted their time, and it added up. Thus his knack was in demand. When he finished getting it to their liking, off he'd be on another transport to begin again elsewhere. He wasn't the only one that did this, but there were few. Few enough to keep one constantly busy for a number of years, easily. He knew this wasn't a permanent career, it was a springboard. A vector to see the outposts, colonies, terraformed planets, and meet the people there. See what they did in their lives, and find something more challenging. After all, doing the same simple thing repeatedly with so many options out there, was squandering one's own life. Such was the philosophy of his people in that era. "What they're like now, I can only guess? That was so long ago... Oh, but I'm getting off track." "Your highness, did you ask me something?" "Sorry Golden, no. Just thinking out loud." 'Where was I? Hmm... yes, my job back then. Sweet, simple, times.' There, he'd be reworking the system to be more likable and useful, for the next many months, perhaps even a year. Reaching the end end of his patience, he sat up and placed the pad in the drawer next to his cot. Looking around to make sure everything was put away, he got up and left the room. Walking down the corridor toward the cryosleep rooms, the corridor was quiet. Most of the passengers were already fast asleep in the tubes already. Back in those days, I put off sleeping in those pods as long as I could. Reason being, that waking up from them after being in one for weeks, even months; was an unpleasant affair. Grogginess and disorientation the norm, even many hours after waking. Half of a day would pass by before you felt completely normal. Stimulants being the only way to shorten the effects even a little. Coffee was beverage of choice for every single person waking from the pods. There were few alternatives aboard the ship however. Though it was not spartan by any means, recreational facilities were not the ships forte. Making long voyages like this a mind numbingly dull affair after a number of weeks. So, resigning himself to his fate of future lethargy, he walked into the first cryosleep room he came to. Walking down the row of six pods, one each side, he found they were all taken. Walking out of the room, he proceeded down the corridor, skipping the next room, expecting the same results there. Coming to the third room, he went inside and came up to the first pod that was unoccupied. Tapping the control screen, he set the timer to wake him three days before the ETA of the mining outpost, coming to roughly two months in cryo. 'Not too bad a duration in the pod. And that should give me plenty enough time to get the cob webs out of my head, and refresh myself of the job.' he thought. Laying down and tapping the close button, he settled in for making the coming weeks fly by as they were nothing. I imagine that the crew were gong about their day as was normal on this route, which was traveled so many times previously. Likely engaged in mundane conversations between them. Something along the lines of; 'what are you going to do when we reach the outpost? I'm going to visit their recreation center. To welcome visitors and new arrivals, they've established many reputable diners and whatnot.' the response being 'Yeah they have, I always visit this one place; they've go-' his response cut off, never knowing what hit him. Another in the ship, looking to his console, seeing something interesting appear upon it. Whether reaching for it in curiosity or even panic, his finger would never make contact with it... Whatever had appeared before the ship, was never observed or recorded before. And without warning, the ship collided with it faster than the speed of light. The front quarter of the ship, all decks and compartments, compacted and snapped off completely; Gone instantly. The crew dead before they knew anything had even happened. Energy from the phenomenon; coursed through the ships infrastructure, overloading and frying everything in its path. Arcing from conduit to bulkhead and back again, anyone in its path, was mortally stricken down. The engine room, was obliterated. The engine's containment systems, and their redundant systems; failing instantly from the intrusion of the foreign energy coursing through them. As the energy contained within the engine spilled out, the materials the engine was comprised of, vaporized. The components around it, were launched like projectiles and sent like shrapnel, piercing everything in their paths. Their velocity producing gaping holes in the hulls throughout what remained of the ship. From what would now be considered the stem, to stern, there were no compartments that didn't completely loose atmosphere. Stasis pods were fried by the energy, and even punctured by debris. Exposing the occupants to the vacuum of space, or ceasing their life signs due to the pods electrical system failures. Even the ship's redundant micro-fusion backup reactors were nearly depleted of their fuel supplies, providing very little power. Of the ones that were still operational at all. The containment force fields never stood a chance of fulfilling their purpose in keeping the atmosphere in place; Their controls and sensors being taken out of commission, as well as having their energy supply cut off at the sources. Completely unprepared for an event of this nature, the ship was entirely at the mercy of it. And it was a harsh mistress indeed... To any investigators that would arrive at the scene, it would appear as if the ship had simply vanished. With only some possible trace wreckage alluding to it's fate. In another galaxy, or even another dimension in space, appeared a heaping wreckage of a ship; Swiss cheesed, drifting, and almost entirely unpowered. Not a living soul aboard.... Except one. There would be no tale to tell if all of them had perished. One human still lived, though asleep. The pod's redundant backup system having been barely damaged, had entered grey mode: minimum operation. Programmed to do so in extreme situations of being cut off by the ships computer, and external power; was still functional enough to perform its most basic of function. It had missed being pierced by shrapnel, and with its primary onboard system having failed; it operated just enough to keep the human from dying in his sleep like the others. So it did; Surrounded in vacuum, exposed to space, and on its own. With no end in sight, he might have slept for even a century before the pod completely exhausted it's remaining internal power reserve. All of this, I had come to learn in hindsight, while perusing the repair logs performed by the automated systems. So close to oblivion, in so many ways... If the wake timer had continued to operate, I would have been revived just to suffocate before even becoming conscious: The cryosleep compartment still having no atmosphere, even months after the event. Years, it would turn out to be. Starting from scrappedOne of the many systems on board the Transport, was the self maintenance system. Usually controlled by the main primary computer control processor, they were very capable drone devices. A ship this size carried eleven of them. Tucked into their charging and communication alcoves throughout the ship, they waited for a task assigned to them, and reported their maintenance progress back when they were given one. Considered a critical system, they had basic autonomy programmed into them for emergencies such as ship-wide power or communication failure. In such a case, they executed their directive lists: 1. Procure power for self to maintain operational charge, 1a. Build energy harvesters (wide-spectrum solar-voltaic) to that end <if> local reserves are inoperative 1b. Maintain self/repair 1b1. Maintain/repair other repair units 1c. Establish operation of the emergency distress beacon 1d. Establish operation of the secondary processor unit, and relinquish autonomy control to it, to direct further repairs This is an extremely simplified version of what they really process. There are many thousands of 's and recursions happening for each one of those directives. So, armed with a very basic set of operation, limited memory storage capacity of ships architecture, and a millimetre replicator attachment; they went to work. And with only three units still in operation, at that. . . . Wouldn't you know it, the little things finished their directives! It took nearly Six Months, but they did it. Reading over all of the work that they did on their own, I wish I had met the genius's that programmed them. 'They must had been masters of recursive logarithms and the like' The ship itself didn't look any better, except that it now had a pair of solar arrays attached to it. Looking like a shredded metal bumblebee with puny wings. However, the secondary processor was operational now, and talking to the drones in their alcoves while they recharged. While outside their alcoves, they worked on the processor's only objective: 1. Expand energy harvesting to meet requirements of 1a 1a. Establish operation of the primary processor, and it's data banks. Then relinquish the management of the repairs to it. . . A few months more, and it was now online. From that point, things picked up considerably. With the primary processor online, very nuanced repairs of the ship's system's and structure began. And when I say 'picked up considerably', I mean Years went by. The ship drifted for Years. 'How it didn't drift into a star, or a gas giant, or a simple moon or asteroid is beyond my comprehension' I try not to think about it too hard anymore. I'm serious! Pondering the odds too long actually caused me to fall into a bout of madness for a small time. To be fair though, I was suffering from complete social isolation at the time... Sighing loudly, I turned to the stallion a short distance to my right; "Never ponder the universe's motives to long, Golden. It actually Can drive you mad. At least, for a little while" With a chuckle at the random bit of advice, Golden Ray replied; "Naturally. Um, what are you typing, if you don't mind me asking, that is, your highness?" "It's fine. I'm recording my thoughts. Perhaps I'll fashion it into a biography, or maybe a performance piece one day?" "Ah" Golden nodded. Golden is my Guard Captain by the way. He's often at my side here at the palace. 'Hmhmm, and slowly going into a madness of his own, from receiving all the unconnected strings of advice that fall from my muzzle while I reminisce' thinking to myself. "Are you going to put in the part where you seduced one of Celestia's guards, princess?" He asked with a knowing smile "Of Course I Will, that's one of the best parts. And He pursued Me, I'll have you know. In fact, I was quite shocked at the time..." "Ah, just thinking about him on Equus right now..." Just thinking about him gets me flustered in all the best ways. 'Even his name is perfect...' I thought to myself, getting lost in the dreamy haze. Shaking myself from it, I turned to Golden; "You did this on purpose, didn't you Golden? Now I'm all fired up, and no Sure Shot to put out the fire. You can be an incredibly devious pony at times." I told him, pointing my accusing finger at him. "To think that your highness gets so unsettled at the mere mention of her Equestrian Guard stallion... *tisk*" Golden teased, "You must be compensating for all those years by yourself?" he followed up. "Could be.. hey, I earned it." "True. But, if I may ask, why him of all ponies? Why not one of their prince's, even one of your subjects? I was available before I got married?" Golden admitted... why he Does This To Me. Sometimes I think that he wanted to follow in Prince Shining Armor's hoof steps? "He won't be returning for four more days Golden...So I am not going to detail everything about him now, that gets me weak in the knees." Sighing I went on; "I suppose that when I first met him, he was all grown up? Where with my ponies? Well, I raised and taught their grandparents, saw them and you when you were still nursing... I suppose there is a lot to be said for first impressions?" "Maybe it's a carry-over from when I was human? Seeing a handsome stallion, and then remembering how cute and small they were just, doesn't work..." Taking a slow breath, I thought to myself 'At least the fire's out now. Good play Golden.' After a moment, I went on; "Sisters tell me the same thing of their ponies. It in turn, led them to our relations with each other... I was the first pony they didn't see in that light. Not I'm going to think about that either. It'll be even longer before they'll be visiting again" I finished. "Are? you going to.." Golden asked. "Oh course I'll have that in there. It was a beautiful moment of mare's being there for each other. I can still remember the gentle and needy, but afraid look in their eyes..." Smiling at the memory; "They made me want to wrap them up in my wings and never let them go. And? I haven't even come close to doing so, metaphorically speaking." "Of course, I'll have to get their permission first. They might not be ready for their ponies to officially know of that kind of affiliation. Leaving it to unconfirmed rumor, at most." "And how did they react to Sure's relationship with you?" Golden poked. "Ah, very supportive actually. They have a soft spot for him too. It's just that other thing I mentioned that spoils it for them. They're glad I'm happy, and that the good stallion found a good mare." 'Hmm, saying stuff like that used to bother me. It's funny how time changes ponies?' Levitating my headset over, I called up Page Planner: "Page? Whats my afternoon schedule look like?" My expression sagging, I thanked her and closed the call. 'Golden went and put Sure And my sisters into my mind, and I can't get away; This is going to be a long afternoon.' Good morningAboard the Extended-Transport NeminDar, everything was still. The engine was cold, rooms and corridors dark, many decks' environmental systems were on standby, and the only occupied deck was being kept at a steady five degrees Celsius to prevent condensation. The only systems actively running; were the internal data routers, the processors, few sensors (internal and external), few environmental units, and a pod. Occasionally, a thruster fired, keeping the ship in position. Which was; In a very high orbit above an uncharted planet, capable of sustaining life. Nearly three years previously, once the sensor arrays came back on line from their repairs; the computer executed one of its lower priority directives. That being; to adjust the ship's course toward a world suitable for evacuation to. Though there was no one left to issue the evacuation, it didn't matter. The computer simply did what it was programmed to do, and to there the ship drifted. Once it came into range of the planet, the computer established a stable orbit with its now-operational-again, thrusters. Also, it began to perform scans of the surface, atmosphere, and fauna, to furnish a report to the command staff to aid in the evacuation. The ship? It looked like new now, with the exception of the added solar array wings it still depended on in order to regularly supply its energy needs. Those needs were now very few, and had been for some time. Between there being no active life aboard, all the repairs completed, and virtually no wear upon the systems; just about everything went in standby sleep mode and consumed comparatively no energy. The excess energy harvested; was directed into regenerating the engine's fuel supply, the backup reactors' fuel supplies, as well as replenishing the thrusters. Even the three shuttlecraft's engine cores were replenished after being pilfered previously. So there the ship waited; asleep, much like it's lone occupant. Speaking of; The pod he was in was now fully operational again. Its wake timer now functional, continued to wait for its set: three-days before the ETA of the mining colony... A time that would never come, now. However, there was another timer in operation once again; The maximum-suspension-duration safety-limit timer. With it now having reached its Nine-Year hard-coded set point, it triggered the animation/wake cycle. The ship being notified of this; Turned on the lights and engaged the environmental heating units on the passenger-access decks, bringing the temperature up to a comfortable twenty degrees Celsius. As a side-note; The safety-limit timer was imposed, due to a theoretical projection on the effects of long term cryo-suspension. Though the limit never came close to being reached in practical use, it was included none the less. "Thank the stars for that.." The implications of it not having been implemented, are personally horrifying. Anyway, back to the story: I barely remember waking up. Just flashes of images of; sitting aside the pod, trudging down the corridor to the galley, fighting with the replicator to get my coffee, and sitting at the counter. Time was a blur. No surprise now that I know why; The longer the suspension, the more extreme the effects are. I don't know how many times I chugged cups of coffee, relieved myself, sat there, or even looked up. But, as what must have been hours passed, I became more lucid. And my stomach, no longer numbed as badly, decided to demand some actual sustenance. Going back to the replicator and getting something besides coffee, and with less fighting this time; I sat back in my seat at the counter and nibbled my food, still shut out from my surroundings. After another trip or two to the rest facilities, I had finished my breakfast, and got another. While I was nibbling away at my second breakfast, it started to dawn on me how quiet the galley was. Eventually taking the great effort to look around, I found I was the only one there. That wasn't too unusual, it wasn't like the ship was packed full of passengers or anything, it was just a little unlikely. 'Maybe they're all late-risers, waiting till the last day?' I remember thinking. Switching to water now that I was at least half human again, I began to wonder how long I had been there, and heard not a single voice or door opening. Finishing up my meal... I was Still a little hungry? How long had I been in there? Long enough to nearly digest two meals? Where were even the crew? 'At least one of Them would have stopped in by now I'd think?' I thought. This was getting eerie. "Computer, how long have I been awake?" I asked out loud, addressing the ship's command processor. -You were revived fourteen hours, thirty-nine minutes, and twenty-two seconds ago- 'Fourteen hours?? I've been sitting here for Fourteen hours? I've never had cryo-lag, fourteen hours-plus bad before.. Maybe I should get checked out in medical?' "Computer, who's on call in medical?" -There are no medical officers available currently- 'Great, it's the middle of the night too. I'm gonna have to wait.' "Computer, whats the ship's time?" -The ship's time is Thirteen hundred hours, Fifty-nine minutes, and Eleven seconds- 'Thir... It's midday, and no medical staff on call?' Deciding to tempt fate, I posed the nagging question in the back of my mind; "Computer, how many people have entered or left the galley since I arrived?" -There have been zero entries or exits since your arrival in the galley- Doing the math; 'That would mean nobody had breakfast, or lunch either?? What in the hell is going on? Did I oversleep?' "Computer, Have we reached the mining outpost?" -Negative, the ship has not reached it's destination- "What's our ETA?" -That information is unavailable- "What?" -Please rephrase the question- 'Ugh, vanilla systems..' I thought, shaking my head. 'Lets try it this way then, piece by piece. Ugh, I hate playing the game of twenty-questions, asked ten different ways, to get answers from a computer...' "Computer, what is our current rate of travel?" -The current rate of travel is Eighteen point Two Kilometres per second- 'So where not stopped... Wait, that's practically standing still!' "Computer, What's our current location?" I asked, though I was not prepared for the answer I got. -The ship's current location is unavailable- 'Unavailable?? That's impossible!' "Computer, get me in touch with someone on the command staff or crew, I don't care who, the captain if you have to!" -There are no registered command staff or crew on board- "What? How can there be no command staff?! Was the ship evacuated??" By this point I was becoming alarmed. -Negative, no evacuations have been executed- "Then how.. Where.. When did the command staff disembark?" -That information is unavailable- Shaking, and filled with dread, I was afraid to ask my next question, but did; "Computer... How many Passengers are aboard the ship, and where are they?" -There is one passenger aboard, located in the galley- . . . I, wanted to throw up everything I had eaten since I woke up.... and I did. Sparing you the results of the crushing implications of my then, situation; Sufficed to say they were not pleasant. Being a mere passenger, I had no approved authority aboard the ship, and now that meant; to the computer. I was trapped, marooned. In a cage that spanned a couple decks of non essential areas. I didn't have the authority to access the transporters, shuttlecraft, or even an airlock to throw myself out of... though the thought did cross my mind. It wasn't till many days later that I even spoke to the computer again. Finally doing so, I played the questions-game again, and learned how much time had passed, and that the ship was in orbit of a planet. Going to one of the passenger conference rooms, I looked down at the planet from the windows. It looked nice enough, though it was completely unreachable to me right then. I needed to get authoritative access to the ships systems, and that meant; study and testing. Therefor getting the computer to register my capabilities as I learned them. Fortunately, it had field-commission provision capabilities for emergency situations like this, though never meant to be a situation in any way this extreme. What was supposed to have happened was; the distress beacon would draw a rescue party. The beacon having been broadcasting for over eight years with no response to its call, meant no one would be coming. Likely ever. I had a lot of work to do, entire careers to take on, all of the metaphorical hats to grow into, if I was going to go anywhere... Good and Bad daysThose were turbulent days for me, back then. My mood swinging from; Having intense drive to get the access I needed and get past it, to days of being completely inert. One day I was learning how the navigation sensors functioned with fervor, and the next; curled into a ball sobbing for the entire day. Wishing I had met the same fate as the rest of the crew and passengers. Between distracting myself with tasks at hand, and being overwhelmed with the crushing loneliness and the immensity of what I was trying to accomplish... I lashed out often, at everything around me. It was madness, sheer madness. It was fortunate that I was a powerless human at the time. Had I been a unicorn then, I would have begun tearing everything around me apart, and not stopping till I pierced the hull... I did my best to keep the turbulence at bay. Having the computer play performances, songs, novels, anything that would fill the silence. Even having them play in the background at low volume while I slumbered. I also took to talking to the command processor to fill the need for any kind of interaction. Though after hearing one too many: -Please rephrase the question- I took to threatening the computer with what I was going to do to it's personality once I gained access. However it didn't care. It wasn't an AI, not even close. In fact such technologies were universally banned. A precedence I still hold to this day with my ponies. Even remembering how it was then, puts me in a poor mind to this day. Sometimes it comes out in unexpected ways. As the months dragged on, I learned how to trick and train my mind into being able to function in isolation, and without the madness taking hold of me. It was a slow progress, on all fronts. Working my way into becoming a recognized crew member; My access to the other decks was unlocked, though still quite limited. Rising to the rank of an acting-Ensign; I finally had the proficiency to perform basic medical checkups upon myself as well. However some parts of the results were still beyond my comprehension... which would become a very important matter, later. In gaining access to the logs as an Ensign, I pieced together what had happened to the ship while I was asleep, and a little bit about the world I was in orbit of. In hindsight, being awarded the rank of Ensign did my psyche an immense amount of good, more than I even realized at the time. Answers began to come, which I was sorely needing. My Sure Shot came to visit me like he does every week, things went on as they usually do when we're together. We visited our favorite places, caught each other up on the last week's events, and amused each other in the usual and mundane ways. Only in hindsight can I tell how much I've changed from the human I used to be. Comparing my memories from my early days to now, it was like I was asleep. My life then comparatively bland, like seeing things without colors. When I grew into my new form, my brain chemistry changed somewhat. The levels of empathy and sociability increased by folds. I had to train myself even more in dealing with the isolation I had to put myself through. I supposed it was the herd instinct mentality; As I was often feeling vulnerable, being by myself? Even though my mind had rewired somewhat, I was still sure of who I was. Though, at the same time, I'd be a little embarrassed to meet my past self now. I know my old self would have trouble acknowledging me, the way I am when I'm with Shot. Unexpected impulses take hold, and I become a different creature altogether, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's difficult to reconcile sometimes. Seeing my mate off; back to Equestria at the visitors center, I flew back to my palace. Already, I missed him. The next day during court, I thought about how frightening it was to subject myself to the genetic alterations. The only thing that got me to perform it, was the alternative. An anticlimactic end just felt insulting, considering everything I'd already been through, and put myself through. I did however I put it off as long as I could, while I went over my data and research... over and over again. Programming every single contingency I could think of should the unexpected come to pass. A couple of the contingencies saved my new flanks as it turned out: I technically ceased living during the procedure; My respiration and heartbeat stopping on two different occasions while parts of my brain restructured... The life support systems taking over as programmed to do, until my body could do it again on its own. Then there was the horrifying realization that I couldn't consciously move any of my muscles when I awoke, even my eye lids. I would have starved to death had I not considered the possibility, and also chose to try addressing it, to give myself a chance. I did by setting up the musculature training system beforehand; To give me very mild shocks in individual muscles, over and over, until my brain made the connections. It was unpleasant, but better than the alternative. Again, it was the pathways in my brain that needed time to reform, and reconnect things to my conscious mind. As well as connect the things that I didn't have before; Wing muscles, tail muscles, ear musculature control, and of course; a couple of fun ones that I had to figure out I now had control of. Afterwards, there were the dietary considerations; Figuring out exactly which foods Didn't agree with my new equine digestive system. I won't go into detail of Estrus right now. Sufficed to say; Alicorns Do experience it, even alien ones like me. And, it's a wonderfully horrible double edged blade when alone. Before all that, I was spending an increasing number of hours each day on the table, having my remaining good cells stimulated to divide to replace the damaged ones. Since my cells and DNA weren't native to this universe; They had no protection nor ability to coexist with the latent energy that was present everywhere here: The 'magic'. In short, since I wasn't a living magical creature, the universe treated my body as if it were dead tissue. Breaking it down constantly, as microorganisms would do in my old universe. Finally, it was zero hour. I had reached the point of no return with cellular regeneration. Medical science had given me much needed time, and a stay of, well, crumbling to death... But it wouldn't keep me together and going any longer. Too many cells in my body had already had it's DNA broken apart, and they wouldn't divide anymore. It was either; take the plunge now, or the end. Realizing that I might never wake up from this procedure; I asked that whatever power had brought me here; watch over me once more. Laying down on the medical bed, I took a deep breath and tapped 'initiate programmed procedure' From that point I was placed into a coma, so I wouldn't have to experience what was about to be done. The DNA swap would go quickly and easy enough. Taken from a coma, to stasis, and back again into a coma, while every cell had a DNA-slight-of-hand done to it. By that point, I was technically a pony in a way, though my physical form was almost indistinguishable from before. Some things would have slowly changed on their own: skin texture, existing hair follicles changing the hairs' thickness and color. Soft tissues changing slightly. Nothing drastic, but at least I wouldn't simply crumble anymore at that point. The gruesome part was yet to come: Cell-by-cell transplantation, and the replication of calcium-based lattices, and openwork; For my new muzzle, teeth, legs and hooves, wings.. When I learned about this, it made me queasy. In one way; It was like wearing away at stone with water, where in another; It was like a blender. Parts of me, would be going through a cell-by-cell blender. Sensitive parts... Planet 1: EquusEquus and Equestria, where to begin? Starting with gaining access to the report on the planet prepared for 'the evacuation', I was shocked and delighted to see that there was a thriving race a sentient creatures. Many in fact! In all of known human history, this was a first. And, I guess it will be an unknown first as far as they know? Of all of the sentient creatures there, the ponies, impressed me the most. Some could manipulate objects without touching them, as well as others would fly through the air with bodies completely incompatible with flight dynamics as I understood them. Three different kinds, with incredibly different abilities, yet they all lived and worked together cohesively. Also, it was as if their abilities ebbed and flowed through the generations and family bloodlines. This in itself amazed me to no end; Families of the earth ponies, would have a unicorn foal heralding from back in their lineage, for example. But I'm getting ahead of myself again. In my observance of them, I came to know whom their leaders were. It was not too difficult to find them; Their residence in a castle on a tall mountainside, as well as their physical stature and abilities made them easier to identify. However that brought more questions to my mind: How did they become their leaders? Was it their larger and more powerful stature that led the others to follow them? Were they a rare type of equine that manifested all of the traits that the others possessed? Did that manifestation of traits inspire the others around them to function together? My mind reeled with the answers that I slowly found. Finally having access to the transporters, I began harvesting discarded newspapers from their trash bins. However, that didn't get me very far at first, as the computer couldn't make heads nor tails of the written language since it was so alien. It, nor I had a common point of reference to build off of. I had to go back to the source of the written language; school. Specifically: pony elementary schools. I had to borrow books, scan them, and put them back before any of them noticed. By the time I put together a basic understanding of their alphabet and a third year language level, my cellular degradation problem became apparent to me. From that point, I had to put my fascination with the amazing creatures on hold, for the most part. However, that problem would lead me right back to them again, I would find. I came to the inescapable conclusion that I had to become one of them, at least largely. Sure, I could have went for a griffin, or dragon, zebra too, but the ponies sociable structure had me spellbound. 'Hmhm, that phrase has another meaning to me nowadays.' So I decided on 'pony', but what kind? There were three, plus the culmination of that... What kind was I going to be, and what was I going to do with the rest of my life once it was saved, hopefully? Before I would address that existential question, I needed to understand and map pony DNA... generally; an alien DNA. Since the problem I was facing could be remedied with cellular regeneration for a while, I had time to map the DNA with the onboard computers tools. The primary processor was quite powerful, and I could extend it by replicating and linking subprocessors for this purpose in the cargo decks. The repair and maintenance drones could handle that task for me... ...Cargo Bay:4... A sad place aboard the ship. It was where; What little remained of the crew and passengers were stowed by the repair drones. I avoided bay four for a long time, until the remains were gone. . . . Ahem, digressions... I needed samples, alien DNA samples. Samples to scan and run cell division simulations from, and lots of them. A sample from every kind of animal I could find. I was going to need a lot of subproccesors for simulations, running constantly. I'd need to expand the solar collection array more to power them, too. This snowball-effect of preparation, would turn out to be practice for what I would be doing in a few years time... but that's for later...for when I talk about: Maneous, my new home. By that point in time, it hadn't even crossed my mind yet. I'm not proud to say that I played the part of the stalker of ponies, from aboard the ship. Spotting a pony; I would make note of their appearance and traits, and observe them going home. Once they used their mane brush and turned around, I would fire up the transporter to steal some hair follicles from off of their brushes. I needed the cells and the physical traits to map any bits of DNA I could attribute to them. Thousands of times I did this: Random ponies, families with their own separate brushes, and most importantly; the princesses. The last scared me, I'm not afraid to admit. The three tribes didn't appear powerful enough to touch the ship from the sky and ground, but the princesses? I found a reference or three in the foals books mentioning them moving the sun and moon. While I never noticed them changing positions per-say, it's perceptual. Meaning they would possibly have the ability to alter the planets rotation at will... Finding slight inconsistencies in the daily rotation of the planet, gave the concept some credence. What could that kind of ability to manipulate an object, do to the ship with me on it? Yank it down? Push it into the moon, should I take a step too far? With them, I waited till they left their chambers the next morning and evening to gather follicles... Better safe, than extremely-sorry. For the next few months, I switched between genetic engineering study, pony language research (Equish), and finally pony culture. The last two, to help me eventually decide what tribe I specifically was going to work towards. That eventually led me to that nasty existential question of what was I going to do with my life... That answer is appearant now; I was going to start my life anew, on a new world, with a new family. I would be the first of them. Of course; No pressure, to be sure. I was either driven with a purpose by the universe, or completely mad to think all this was within my grasp. I believe it was one, made by the other. Learning of the princess sisters helped me with this immensely. With ponies, which I was going to be now; worked extraordinarily well with a matriarchal leader. A mother figure of sorts, and extremely long lived to provide the accumulated experience to the rest across lifetimes. If I had more time, I could have looked into becoming an alicorn prince. But I had language, culture, and physical barriers, as well as a time limit pressing me. At first I lamented loosing some things that I was quite accustomed, and comfortable having.. Then I had second thoughts; 'Need I loose all of them? The DNA is mostly mapped out by now, why not put in the extra work to keep my bipedal stance and more, though redressed in pony fashion? If I have the required time, that is.' It's evident now that I had, and did. The only things I really lost were; My feet, traded for hooves. And my old omnivorous digestive system. And I gained so much more, more than I even realized then. When my changes were complete, I wanted to go down to Equestria and meet the ponies that saved me. I wanted to learn from the princesses that inspired my future hoof steps. But it wasn't time yet. I had preparations to make, a place to go, and more study to do. If the princesses would teach me, their lessons best be fresh in my mind when I'd need them. The future depended on it. While I borrowed more of their books and scrolls to build my own library of pony knowledge, I looked far and wide across the immediate stars for a new home. I found two that could be made suitable. One was barren and lifeless, the other was a frozen world of ice from what I could see. Though the second one was closer, I decided on the first. Where there was water, there might have been primitive life in some form there already. Knowing as little about life here as I did, I chose the sterile world to terraform. The other I had named: Tailous. Though, little did I know then, that it already had a name. A long history as well... I put off the journey to Maneous as long as I could, having a innate desire to remain as close to the ponies as I could. Eventually though, I had to leave. To take that first step into the void, entirely alone. It was a feeling that I had not felt in years; since I first had awoken. Setting the course with my acquired captaincy, I began the two year trip to my future home. Along the way, planning out what would need to be built to make it livable. First was slowly constructing the infrastructure; energy harvesting arrays for the local sun. Then constructing an orbital space station to manage it all from. It would take many years to build; Which, had I the nerve, I would trust sleeping through the years of construction: in stasis. Time became relative, and with nothing around me pressing me for time, the passing years meant little. Well, except for Posy Meadow: My first pony friend, and the only one who knew of my existence for many decades. The only pony to ever see a human in the flesh. I'll make an entry especially for her; she was quite special. It brought tears of joy to my eyes when I saw her again, more than eighty years later. The Strangest MinotaurDuring my time in orbit around Equus, I was learning many things. Most of which, were vital in the immediate future, the rest; were what I delved into to ward off the monotony and to distract myself from the scope of what was before me. One of those things, was learning about the ponies culture and life. I read small stories here and there, translated into my native tongue, though it wasn't perfect. Utilizing the programming methods available, I had painstakingly, and slowly; built a translation matrix of printed Equish. The ponies had an amazing library of written works, containing things which I would need in order to prosper in this new universe. Among those, I hoped I would find advice and instruction on how to use... wings and horn. Provided that I survived the process which would be the gateway to leaving my eroding form behind, that is. ... Having collected copies of everything written that I could find, everywhere I could find it; My time spent in distractions, turned to reading their words. After some months into reading the imperfect translations, frustrations in my translation comprehension pushed me to try learning their alphabet. Doing so had led me to another point of contention; Pronunciation. Of which I had no mappings to. The sounds that I recorded them making via covertly deployed monitoring devices, had no connection to what their written words were. I had the written, and their assembled dialogs, however no mappings between the two. I needed somepony to actually speak it out to me. To demonstrate what sound the letters made. Even the ponies printed phonetics were beyond my comprehension. ...For how would anyone know what sound the letter "a" makes, without another making it first, and pointing to the symbol that it represents? Sure they had letters that worked like the letter "a", however they might make an "ql" or an "ng" sound when spoken? Such was my conundrum, and my next step in trying to understand the natives here. And so entered; Posy Meadow, the only pony to ever see a human in the flesh. With my thoughts wandering back to this puzzle from time to time, I eventually devised a plan that I wasn't sure would ever bear fruit. That plan was to use the ships sensors to monitor the wild-lands outside of the ponies villages and small towns, in hopes that somepony would wander into them. Admittedly, I'm not proud that this plan depended on a pony coming into harms way while abroad inside the confines of the woodlands, however it was the best plan that I could assemble. Having set the computer to monitor those areas, I instructed it to alert me should a pony encounter specific non-ponies while there. Specifically keeping watch for a threatening situation where a lone pony would be in need of rescue or evacuation. More than a year had passed by since I set the alert up. Meanwhile, I figuratively banged my head against screens trying to learn how to implement genetic manipulation, where the source genetics were alien equine. It was mostly all new to me, and simply learning the methods and tools was a grueling effort on my part. One day while I was reading the same course chapter for the fourth time, the alert sounded and an overhead scan came up on the screen I was reading from. There it was; a pony running through a swampland, followed by one of those large creatures with three heads; A Hydra as I came to know they were called. I increased the scan area, and it showed that the pony was running deeper into the swampland, farther away from the nearest settlement. From what I could tell, she got turned around and was heading into deeper trouble. Coming to a small bog, she had plowed into it without hesitation. Though she was making her way through it, it slowed her travel greatly. The hydra's bulk displaced the water easily as it chased after her into the bog without loosing much speed. The distance between them shrank at an alarming rate. I have to admit that I panicked and initiated the transport when I saw the hydra's heads reaching for her. Though she might have evaded them herself had I not intervened, I didn't know so at the time. In a mere moment, the fleeing mare appeared in one of the NeminDar's transportation rooms; clean, dry, panicked, confused, and breathing heavily with her heart racing inside her barrel. Surrounded by suddenly foreign surroundings, Posy immediately backed up against the back wall, where she looked around at everything frantically. The strange room was big enough to be a living room, or even a small shop, but everything about it was wrong and strange to her eyes. There were windows all over the place, small and black, except for a big one sitting in the middle of the room. Even the lights above were bizarre, as they just glowed softly without flickering. "Am I....did I?" She gulped as she wondered if the hydra had gotten her, and *this* was ~after~? After a while, she looked herself over and stepped onto one of her own hooves, eliciting a little bit of pain. "Ah! Okay, I'm not sleeping. And that sure feels real?" She said to herself. "Is this a cave? Am I in... Tartarus?" Shaking her head, she thought; "It can't be, that's for villains who get banished. I've never.." Shaking the thoughts of doom from her head, she then looked around the strange room again. The room seemed unreal to her. Scanning across the windows for daylight, she finally noticed that one had words on it. It said; "Hello on board" "Ship of stars" Her head tilting slightly working out what it could mean, she slowly approached the black window. "Hello on a board?" she asked herself. "ship of stars... I'm aboard a ship? This isn't like any ship I've seen before... below decks maybe? But I don't feel any rocking?" Posy pondered the meaning. Reaching a hoof up toward the glass, she asked herself; "Is it night time-already? Why would anypony write words on a window?" However when her hoof touched the glass, a dot formed where she had touched it, and it stayed there when she pulled her hoof away. Thinking that she made a dirty spot on the window, she tried wiping the smudge away. However it made the spot wider and longer into diagonal lines where she touched it. Dismayed that she couldn't make the mark go away, she resolved to let it be. However after a moment, she breathed onto the glass on another spot and drew the word; "Hi", adding to her unintentional artwork. What she didn't expect, was that the word she drew, glowed a different color than the rest of the lines. After a moment, the previous message above disappeared, and the word; "Hello" drew itself anew. Jumping back a step in surprise, she studied the window, and the others, for any more changes. "Does it repeat what I draw?" she asked nopony in particular. Thinking it over for a couple moments, she approached the glass again and used her hoof to draw the word; "Pie" Afterward, the glowing word she drew dissappeared along with the previous message, and the words; "Are hungry?" appeared. Taking a step back, Posy looked around to see if anypony was looking through any of the other dark windows around her. "This window must be enchanted or something?" she thought. Shaking her head, she spoke "no", however the message didn't change. After a moment, Posy wrote 'no' onto the glass, and it glowed and then returned with; "Ask if are, visit hello" "Drink?" "If this is enchanted, it's not done very well. I can barely make heads or tails of this..." she said to herself. She then drew the word 'water' onto the glass, but messed it up. Scratching through it, she drew it again above the previous attempt. It then glowed and disappeared. A moment later, the message changed to; "Short time" While she pondered the meaning of the words, she heard a sound to her left. Whipping her head to the side to focus on the sound, her eyes caught a cup appearing on a shelf built into a wall. Looking away from the cup and back to the window, showed that the message changed to; "Water to you" "What is this place! Where arm I?!" Posy shouted aloud to the empty room, feeling like the walls were closing in on her. She looked around the room huffing and puffing, awaiting an answer to her outburst, but none came. Meanwhile, a human was wincing as his heart sank. Thinking that this was going to end badly for both him and the mare in the transportation room; Trauma to the first pony he'd ever had contact with, and failure for his one chance to learn how to speak Equish. But luckily for them both, Posy was a stalwart pony. As the moments of silence without answer pressed on, she got ahold of her breathing and calmed herself down. Finally back to a sense of rationality, she snorted through her nostrils and drew on the glass; 'Where Am I?' To which the reply was; "From creature" "safe far" Having worked out that she was in fact; still alive, but pony-napped far away, she wrote with renewed alarm; 'What do you want?' What came back was; "Help speak?" "Help speak?... Pony-napped from a Hydra's jaws, to... but I'm no teacher?" she thought to herself, her head swimming at such a monumental task. As she was shaking her head, the message changed to; "Only sounds need" "letters" "short time" "help?" Such was my plea to Posy through the (rough) translation matrix, from another room. She didn't give me an answer for a while. For a time, she paced back and forth, thinking and talking to herself. Eventually, she walked over to the cup that appeared a little bit ago, and sniffed it. Gingerly taking a sip from it to judge it to be simple water, she drank about a quarter of it, and returned to the window. 'Are you enchanted?' she wrote. I wasn't sure what she meant, so I replied; "No enchanted" "Am me" "Stranger" 'Stranger?' she echoed, to which I told her; "Far of Equestria away" 'What are you?' Posy asked me, to which I faltered. Sensing her impatience, I replied; "..." "odd look" Which I followed up with a simple outline of the human form; 'A Minotaur?' she wrote after studying the drawing image for a few moments "no" "Other" Dreading the passing moments, I asked her; "See?" After a minute of agonizing wait for her response, she eventually nodded. This was it, I was about to have my first contact with any living creature after years of isolation. Of that, it was to be a first contact with another intelligent species in all of human history. Even though I thought I was prepared for it, as much as I could ever be... I thought I was going to loose conscienceness from the lightheadedness. "wait" "difficult" I replied. To which she asked 'why is it hard?' "Long time to another" "years" I'll skip over the frantic checking myself over, and the long wait outside the transportation room door as I built up the nerve to go through the doors. Sufficed to say that I brought a pad with me, so that I could communicate with her through the touch glass translator. Finally, I stood in front of the doors and pressed the open key. The doors opening with a swishing sound, Posy jumped and backed away from the doorway toward the far side of the room. Near to where the cup of water materialized. Trying my best to remember everything I had read about equines from my world, I kept a few things running through my mind; no sudden movements, they are alarming never approach a strange pony head on, as it was what a predator would do remember the forces of push and draw, let a pony approach you when they are comfortable enough to. In fact, face slightly to the side, as to appear not standoffish, and more so nonthreatening keep sounds to a low intensity, avoid low octaves, or excessively high ones Slowly raising my arm, I waved to Posy slowly. This appeared to be a universal greeting. Afterward, I placed my hand on my chest and slowly nodded in her direction. I hoped this would be interpreted as a respectful bow, and not a charge. Entering the room, I walked perpendicularly to the console in the room, which was behind the touch glass. Touching a few of the controls, I increased the lighting in the room in hopes that Posy could see me better. Hopefully this would subtly help her to evaluate the strange creature she found herself in the room with? I glanced at her from time to time, finding her eyes locked onto me; studying my movements I presumed. Turning away from the console, I crossed the room to the farthest side; From Posy's left, to her right. Sitting down on the floor, I assumed a laying position on my side, facing the touch glass; My head propped up with my left arm. Thinking it through beforehand, I presumed that taking a sitting position would do little more than decrease my imposing height over a pony's. Being unfamiliar with a human, she wouldn't be able to discern whether I was sitting or springing for an attack. A laying position however, is pretty evident that a creature is not alarmed or prepared to strike. Tapping my pad a few times, I sent a message to the glass; "Is me" "Hello" Glancing over to Posy, showed that she hadn't taken her wide eyes from me the entire time, and hadn't read my message. Directing my gaze to the glass and nodding to it, and back to Posy once more, eventually got her to glance that way. Eventually she realized that the message had changed. Nervously lifting a hoof, she gingerly pointed it in my direction, to which I nodded. Tapping a few more times, I said; "Nice see" After a couple hours of awkward communication, I thanked Posy by giving her a sight that no other ponies, save Luna herself had witnessed. It was then that she realized what 'Ship of stars' meant. I will always remember the look of wonder in her eyes as she looked at Equus from the assembly room window aboard the NeminDar. When I transported her back to the outskirts of Ponyville, just beyond the confines of the Everfree Forest, I was terribly saddened. I felt that I had lost a promising friend, forever... Nearly Eighty years later, during my tutelage by the princess sisters, we met once more. She, a pony with many summers behind her by that time, and myself; very different in form. I remember the day quite clearly. I was invited to sit in the princesses court to observe. Word spread, and many came to see the strange pony attending court with the princesses, aside their thrones. In the audience one day; was an older mare who kept watching me intently. Every once in a while, I'd look to the audience to see how ponies carried themselves in the presence of the rulers, and observe their reactions to their decisions and decrees. Most were how you would expect, some eyes wandered to and from me. However one pony just stared, as if they she were trying to remember a face, or muzzle in this case. When the court came to a close, the other ponies filed out, however this mare came closer to the thrones. After bowing to the princesses, she turned to face me and asked if I was from a 'ship of stars?' When I spoke to answer her, she smiled. And in a very forward fashion, she exclaimed; "You look better with a coat and fuller mane, but your claws give you away. Only one creature in all my years had claws like those. I remember you, stranger" she finished with a confident nod. Stunned, I couldn't believe that this pony had sought me out after all this time. She hadn't dismissed the event as some dream or hallucination, and connected me to the creature she had met only once. The other two princesses present, when asking how I knew of this mare, Posy answered for me; "She? Saved my life... by pony-napping me. So in turn,I taught her how to talk" she explained, brandishing a sly smile. Momentarily glancing to princess Luna, Posy didn't mention the gift I gave her. Simply giving the princess of the night a curious wink, Posy left it to me to later explain what it was about. The sisters giving us leave to catch up, we reminisced for hours more than the actual event lasted. She told me about her life, her family, the 'fiction' book she wrote about a visiting Minotaur, and how nopony believed the first draft of the story she penned of it. Posy visited the court every day I attended from that point after, and we chatted regularly now that I could converse with her properly. I made a friend, many many decades after meeting the pony. The legacy of that fateful trip Posy took from Ponyville that one day, is still heard now. The smallest of that is; To this day, my dialect remains to be of their central region, with tinges of their southern habitations influence. All thanks to Posy's help to a strange looking Minotaur. History; LifecraftSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.(pre-release)Chapter ??: Universes CompassionAuthor's Note I had an urge to write some of the meat of the story out-of-chronological order. ~~Here's what I have so far:~~ Done! (pre-release)Chapter ??: Universes Compassion So many titles this entry could have; Miracles and Sacrifices, My Greatest Failure, Life in Balance? For you see, where I came from, humans never had contact with other kinds of intelligent life. Whether by chance, or some other happenstance, they never encountered anything more advanced than microorganisms amongst the stars by the time I left them. Leading to the belief that life was more spread out and rarer there, than it is here. In their isolation, humans perceived the universe as a rather indifferent place to exist in. Occurrences of misadventures throughout time, had led to that perspective. In contrast, what I have lived through and seen with my very eyes, has changed that belief in me; in this one. Meaning that my ponies and I, have seen a widespread miracle happen, a thing beyond our complete comprehension... And I and my ponies, were never before or since; both more humbled and honored, to be a tiny part of it. However, that honor was tempered by another's loss. Which leads us to the matter of the world of: Everwind, and their connection to the Gilata Chi'n T'ali. The latter is... was... the name of a species, and roughly translates to; 'Life's purpose'... They themselves, I can't see as bad creatures. It was what they believed, that made them... enemy. Had I the foreknowledge, or the wisdom, I hold that could have stopped what happened. However, I didn't have either of those, then. And now they're gone. The result placing me, I feel, in the same shoe as they lived. ... ... I don't know if they'll return someday, as the Gliders, which they once slew all of; miraculously did. To this very day, I still don't have the heart to try and find the answer to that question. It's possible that, in finding that answer, will be the fulfillment of why I was brought here? Perhaps the Gliders was the 'Why'? ...The universe may be compassionate, but it still keeps its secrets. I suppose I should start with the Gliders, and their world Everwind; The Gliders are slightly longer in leg, and broader in wing compared to their Equus pegasi counterparts. Their form, is adapted to contend with the occasional strong storms which naturally form on their world. Everwind, has little in natural predators. Leaving the primary cause of mortality of the Gliders; to misadventure by storms. However their numbers remain quite stable as the mortality rate is low, and their foalings similarly few. These pegasi do not live amongst the unpredictable clouds, but rather live in conventional structures as land bound ponies would. In this way, they maintain a safer and more stable culture and population. Nonetheless, they are renowned weathermasters, and their crops bountiful all year long. With their numbers consistently modest, and their needs always met, they remain content. The Gliders are not technological, and it remains to be seen if they will ever venture out into the stars. However because of the Gilata Chi'n T'ali and our interventions, their imaginations might have been forever influenced? The Gilata Chi'n T'ali, saw intelligence in other forms as a test against their own. As if their very existence in the universe would be violated if another persisted. As other forms were a mockery of intelligence as they knew it. So they lived, expanding their territory and purging mockeries as they went. I'll probably never know how many times they were tested, but whatever they encountered, had led them to develop into a force to be reckoned with. Space faring and technologically advanced, their abilities were ahead of us in some ways, and behind us in others. We learned of them covertly. My ponies may reach out into the stars, however they are not what I would call bold or reckless. Being a stranger in a strange universe myself, early on I bid my ponies to develop stealth technologies, over combative types. And reaching outward into the depths slowly, stealth probes charted worlds and phenomena. The probes themselves would remain silent in their work, never transmitting until their return to our space. And should they experience an unpredicted or unhandleable event, they would implode and self vaporize to leave no clues behind to their origin, at the cost of their collected knowledge. A scant couple decades before our encountering the Gilata Chi'n T'ali, the first shift-phasing cloak was deployed to the probes designs. Still in its infancy, it wasn't known how effective it could be against the unknown. Our first probe to discover intelligent life, did so through intercepting a short communication transmission. Slowly coming to a halt through randomized counter-inertia thrusts (another stealth method of disguising emissions as intergalactic phenomena), it waited and listened, going no further. Nearly a month overdue, the probe was considered lost and its course marked as a risk zone. However it returned intact with its logs stating that it returned after drifting slowly for a great distance in accordance to its programming. Inspection of its recorded data had us ecstatic, as the first space faring life outside of ourselves was discovered! However the recorded transmissions puzzled my ponies; For they were very short bursts, and regular like clockwork, yet the contents were always varied. So they weren't merely complex tracking data. Decrypting them, which took many months, showed what appeared to resemble duty reports, and little else. The communique were entirely regimented, yet seem to be made by living creatures and not machines. Getting an uneasy feeling, my ponies suspended probe deployments into that sector, as well as all adjoining sectors for a great radius. My ponies are very wise. As the deciphering of the language progressed, discussions over how to proceed, were had. We had two options before us; Attempt to learn more of them through surveillance, or avoid them all together. Both were a risk. Should we avoid them and have no contact, we would never know if they were friendly, nor if they posed an eventual threat. Should we survey them, we ran the risk of being discovered. And if they were potentially friendly, our efforts to evaluate them would work against us by turning potential friends into enemies should we be caught doing so. After months of debate, a consensus was reached that we wouldn't pursue them in any fashion until our stealth technology was more refined. Leaving them be until our chances of success had increased. While the decades after; passed, we stayed far clear and quiet of that area of space, hoping that our presence would not be discovered. ... The lives of my ponies and myself continued as normal, with only our curiosity of them remaining unsatisfied. When nearly a century had passed by, the debate was broached again. The desire to reach out to the other space faring species and befriend them hadn't dimmed. Passionate speeches of differences and similarities were made, and the prospect of learning more about the universe through them was argued favorably. Little did they know the immensity of future efforts then, that their arguments would realize in the coming decades. Nearly every single pony, including mothers with their foals at their sides, would be aboard ships eventually, in a combined effort against the Gilata Chi'n T'ali The little ones would remember their parents looking sad, and looking down to them with tear filled smiles as they worked, but not then understanding why. But I'm getting ahead of myself... Risking much on our revised stealth technology, we pressed into their space; slowly and cautiously. Observing their movements, my ponies shadowed their ships at a distance, all the while; recording their transmissions. Having deciphered their language, other ponies back home, poured over what was in them, building a small window into the mind of the Gilata Chi'n T'ali. What they assembled, showed to be; a difficult task in approaching a species so very different from ponies. However, they were ready to make the effort. As more detail of them reached my ears, the more I expected this to be a great burden on myself; Of maintaining relations with the species. Such is the weight of being a princess, and nothing worthwhile is ever easy... In hindsight, I'm not sure which weight would have been lesser; the burden of relations, or the guilt? Where was I? Ah yes; In shadowing their ships, we were led to many worlds that they inhabited. Mining resources there, they kept small contingents of labor to extract resources; A familiar sight. One world however, stood out like a sore thumb... Having no resource extraction, a small group lived there. Merely keeping a presence on that world, perhaps as a future resource, or a claim? Waiting for a window to open up, one of our ships tarried to perform some scans. Abandoning the unwitting escort, we waited for it to clear sensor range, and then scanned. When...that ship, returned back home to us... Our hearts sank, and our hopes were crushed... This world; was Everwind. Ponies... wiped out, gone. Our Kin ... We would never get to know them, or so we thought Then. My ponies which had to pour over the scan data, had troubled sleep for a long time after. As the other surveling ships returned home from their missions, none were sent back out to continue the efforts. All hope of establishing relations with the Gilata Chi'n T'ali died. Rational debates that followed, compared what we already knew of their culture and ways, against the possibility that they might have changed since the extincting of the ponies of Everwind. Perceiving the minds and ways of the Gilata Chi'n T'ali, convinced us that they had not changed, for this was a core principal that they held. Already at this time, some broached the specter of abandoning Maneous, and getting as far away from these creatures as possible. Expecting their territory to expand to our space in the coming centuries. In the back of my mind; I kept thinking of Equus... They couldn't flee, on their own. And why should they? But would our choice to flee, eventually doom them to a similar fate as the Gliders? Whatever the span of time would be, we were the only thing standing between these two polar opposites. The more I thought about it, the more my wariness and sorrow, turned to fire. That never, would I abandon my adoptive kin, in all ways imaginable; to such a fate. I would perish before that. What I now faced, was either a relocation on a scale incomprehensible, or a war. Either way, the cost would be immense. The worst part was; I did not see ponies being the successor. We were outnumbered, outclassed in aggression, weaponry, and mobility. As it stood, with even a century or two of preparation; I was convinced that time would not see pony kind as the survivors in a battle of attrition. Troubled by this, I sought the council of my adopting sisters. Over time, we had talked about the things that impacted our lives, and the Gilata Chi'n T'ali had come up a number of times throughout the many decades of idle chitchat. So they were not out of the loop in things which played beyond the skies of Equus. Though they didn't have the amount of detail on what I knew, they could see into me and in there; the weight that I was under. Both often teased that their long accumulated experience had left me as an open book to them. With few words from my muzzle, they could gleam how serious this matter was. Luna... In the manner that I cherish her most deeply, spoke directly; "It is war, is it not?" To which Celestia closed her eyes in resignation of the issue laid bare. Where Celestia was the olive branch of Equestria, Luna was the sword and shield, should the branch be trampled upon as it was offered. Things now had passed beyond the olive branch, and were firmly in her area of expertise. Her keen eyes were quick to see past my reticent words. After a moment, I replied; "Yes, one that I do not see any of our beloved ponies winning." Their eyes widening for a moment, then looked down and closed their eyes as my meaning settled upon them. After a time, Celestia looked back up and over to me. "What will you do?" she asked. "I don't know yet, but perishing... is not an option." "Mm-hmm. Flee then?" Luna asked. "That depends. It will be immensely difficult. Are you ready to forsake Equus, never to see it again?" I asked them both. After moments of silence had fallen between us, I took a deep breath and answered my own question; "Neither am I." With those three words, I decided which course would be taken. And in turn, set in motion things that would be joyous, as well as regrets, when I learned of them. Returning to my ponies council, I informed them of Equestria's position on the prospect of permanent relocation, and that we'd have to find another way to resolve the problem of the enemy. A few threw their hands up in defeat, however another stood up and spoke; "Why don't we look at this relocation issue from a different angle? Why should we, and the Equestrians; be expected to give up everything short of our very lives, to the Gilata Chi'n T'ali? They may be greater in numbers than we are, but we outnumber them in purview, two to one. Already one world has had ponies removed from it, and with that alone, they've already expended any deference that they're afforded. No more, I say; it's time that They be moved, and nopony else!" With that speech, the ears of ponies who had already given up, turned their ears up again. The words were spoken by Paradox; A stallion with a penchant for literature of dramatic irony. In listening to the discussions of fleeing the enemy, he was compelled to turn the tables around on them. In this he had all of our attention, transforming our melancholy into hope. Asked to go on, he replied with a simplified version of; putting all of the Gilata Chi'n T'ali back on their home world, and smashing their ships, all done in cloak. Effectively pulling their teeth out, and stranding them for a time, on a world that was already theirs. In one fell swoop, we'd have the leg up for as long as we remained vigilant. It would be more complex than that, of course, but I remember thinking; Yes, why couldn't we pull that off? Sure, the cost would be great, however it would be lesser than our terraforming multiple distant worlds to relocate to... which is already off of the table. There would be no open warfare, no attrition, and even... no bloodshed! Stars above, he's a genius! We can win this, and without emulating them! Murmurs filled the room as, one by one; they came to the same conclusion. Eventually cheers and tears of joy erupted as the weight of unwinnable war, melted away. When I told my sisters of this, they were at first; simply relieved. As they thought over it, they both eventually broke into gales of laughter at the incredulity of winning a war of unimaginable devastation without any loss of life whatsoever. Never had such a thing been done. This pleased both of my mentors greatly. Celestia; by the non-violent solution. Luna; that the danger would be thoroughly routed, and be made neutralized for the foreseeable future. So began our Un-War against the Gilata Chi'n T'ali A brief summery of the Un-War; Nearly all of it consisted of the preparation. Over twenty years were spent dedicating our excess energy to shipbuilding. The ships that were constructed, were of two designs; One was of low cargo capacity, but was our fastest design, even at the expense of navigation precision. These were for ferrying the Gilata Chi'n T'ali from their far flung ships and outposts, to their nearest core world. A great fleet of these were made, ponied by skeleton crews. In fact, nearly all of the ships were thinly staffed. Due to their vast area of habited space and number, relocating them all to their home world, was impossible. Time constraints, and their own home world resource availability made such a thing impossible. So we had to settle for a few worlds to constrain them to. The second design, was a more balanced design of large carrying capacity, versus speed. These were for the more closely located ones, and performed the bulk of the relocation effort. Both ship types carried an armory of implosion torpedoes, high power tractor arrays, and MmJ emitters. The last was used for spell casting purposes; in this application was a sleep spell, combined with a mild stasis. The stasis didn't provide us much latitude, due to the planetside Gilata Chi'n T'ali. Casting a spell worldwide sounds great in theory, however keeping an entire world in stasis for days at a time becomes untenable the longer it persists. As soon as the operation began, the clock was ticking on how long we could hold it together. From far flung outpost, to core world; it all had to happen at the same time, lest they would realize something was occurring and react violently. One thing we learned of the Gilata Chi'n T'ali, was that they keep a tight grip on each other at all times. During our shipbuilding years, we watched them. Close enough to track their movements and look for anything that might change our minds, but not too close. My ponies learned their outpost maps, schedules, and even their ship identifiers; Giving us a precision number of ships that they kept in service, and where to likely find them when the time came. ... When the time came, Maneus was practically exodused. Ponies everywhere boarded ships for the relocation effort, however unlike the plan posed earlier, they would return to their homes a short time later. By the time our invisible armada entered their space, all ships with their clocks synchronized; Had Two Weeks to find their designated target. Once found, they would shadow it until the mission clock reached zero. No communication was to be made, and all transmitters were disconnected. Once zero time was reached, some ships would project its sleep stasis field, and transport the entire target crew aboard. Others, cast it upon the worlds they orbited. Others yet; launched their implosion torpedoes upon uninhabited relay stations, defense satellites, shipyards, dry-docks, and outposts. An hour after zero time, communications were allowed to resume. Reconnecting their transmitters, ships checked in with each other and managed the variables in logistics. Nearly four days later, it was done. The Gilata Chi'n T'ali were safely placed into rooms, offices, halls, anywhere they were protected from the elements upon one of their core worlds. Their interstellar infrastructure was gone without a trace, and all of their emptied ships were towed into suns, leaving no wreckage behind. Had they any world bound ship production facilities; they were cleared of their slumbering occupants, and the facilities were removed with precision. In the end, we had evicted the Gilata Chi'n T'ali from space. Should they wish to enter it again, they would have to rebuild it from ship: one. Had the Gilata Chi'n T'ali any confusion whether this was somehow an unexplainable natural phenomenon, I left them a simple message that it was not. A message that their handiwork did not go unnoticed. Upon the courtyard of their central governance of each world, I carved a symbol into the stone a meter deep. Deep enough that it would not be repaired by the automated systems for weeks, certainly enough time for them to awaken and take notice amongst the confusion. That symbol, was the emblem of the Gliders: A hoof print, with a pair of wings adorning its outer sides. On their home world however, I carved something slightly different. Into the stone there, I carved the Glider's Cutie Mark, once I collected him from their tableau of proof of successful testings. The fact that he was the only pony there provided little solace to me, and I have to admit that all of my doubts of the mission had left me for a time thereafter. Pulling out of their core space; I declared the mission a success, and I made for Everwind to return the Glider to his home in an opaque container. He had more than his share of eyes look upon him as it was. The after un-war; Stepping hoof on Everwind; Myself, a few guards, and a couple advisors laid the unnamed stallion to rest in a silent ceremony outside their ruined stone city. Afterward, I walked through the streets among the toppled structures and between the growth that had begun work reclaiming the land. Entering one of the larger buildings, I looked for anything that would help me in some way, to know the pony that I laid eyes on. Entering a darkened room, I lit my horn so see what was within. I found a collapsed bookshelf, and stooped down to pick up one of the moldy books littering the floor. Opening it, I turned a couple of the pages. Not being able to read the words in it bothered me. That in all my travels, I had learned so many scripts... and here I was, for the second time; presented with a pony language which was now dead. A feeling of wrong-ness filled me, that this was not supposed to be. Something happened here, and it was false. Taking the book with me, I left the room and walked back out into the daylight. Spreading my wings, I flew up to the highest point still standing in the city. Looking down at the vista below, my imagination could almost grasp what the city was like in its hayday. But not quite. Looking to the book in my hands, I made up my mind. This city will rise again. It may not be quite the same, nor will be the ponies... But hooves will walk these streets, wings feel the air, and voices call this home, once more. Hopping from where I was perched, I glid down to my ponies, where I told them; "The un-war is over, and after a respite; the recovery is to begin." Leaving Everwind and making my way back home, I felt restless. Even though I was exhausted, thoughts of Everwind and the Gliders remained in my thoughts. Already I was making plans to undo the terrible event that had fallen there. The restoration project; Two years after I left Everwind, my hooves touched the stone of the city streets again. In orbit over the planet, was a contingent of ships. They were the same large ones used in the un-war, however now their cargo holds were filled with supplies. Another contingent had split off from the rest, to begin a patrol maintaining a border in space which sundered this sector of space from the Gilata Chi'n T'ali, and protected it from any future incursions by the enemy, should they appear. Whatever the enemy was engaged in, we were unawares. For the time being, our attention was committed here; on Everwind. Many of my ponies heeded my call to reverse, as much as could be done; the loss of the Gliders. Linguistic experts, engineers, architects, casters, analysts... the latter; some of which were graying in the mane upon their second visit to this world. Long having come to terms with what they saw from afar decades ago, were ready to enact some form of closure; in pony. Our first task was to record everything we could find, in attempts to learn the culture of the Gliders. The second task, was to rebuild the stone city in the finest detail, to what it was before the enemy came. The casters and myself were heavily involved in this task. The unicorn casters were trained by me personally in a couple of magics that I recovered from Tailus. Time scrying; Perilous, if used to decide your own actions based on what is seen with it. But if used to perceive the past, is as safe and accurate as any taken image. Setting up recording scanners around the viewing glass, every aspect of the city could then be seen, measured, and inspected, as it appeared centuries ago. With this method, even lost tomes could be recreated through using it. However it's a magically exhausting endeavor, even with a dozen combined unicorns, and therefor its application sparingly used. Outside of the city, a complex was constructed. There, the efforts of the analysts would bear fruit. As I did with my ponies in the beginning, ponies would grow from a single cell. The cell would be provided by those who heeded my call, however inside that living cell, would be the recovered dna of every glider that perished in that fateful event. Once grown, we would rear them in everything that we learned of their foster culture. With good fortune, they would not be reliant on us as they took to what they'd learned. Though it would never be the same as it was, their prosperity would be all reward we could ask for. As proud parents, and at the same time not, we would leave them to live their lives and their memory of us fade with the generations. Such was the plan. As the decades passed, some ponies entered and left the project, and I came and went as my duties allowed. My sisters saw less of me than they liked, and I had to compensate them with a tour of the Gliders restored city. In that time, I and the Linguistisists learned their spoken word, as well as the written. The former was the result of the scrying. In order to teach the new generation of Gliders their native tongue, we had to learn it first; first hand. Which is a little more difficult when one is an unseen third party centuries after the fact. My ponies scoured the land and seas for every Glider that was lost, specifically in that time. It was a long and morose task, but we prevailed. Dna was collected, and physical details were recorded Finally having every piece of the puzzle that we could think of, the conception phase commenced at the complex. Wonder; Little more than four months had passed since the beginning of the incubation phase of the Gliders' heirs; when one of the medical engineers made a startling discovery while performing routine checkups on the rapidly growing foals. One of the immature foals had... a cutie mark Getting the attention of her colleagues, the entire complex's staff was soon in an uproar. I was notified immediately via the emergency communications channel. Not believing my ears, they were quick to show me the side of the incubator: Floating inside: There she was; an unborn filly, with a peach fuzz brown and white coat, and a tiny cutie mark bearing a grey cloud with rain drops below it. Dropping everything, I boarded a ship to Everwind at maximum possible speed. When I got there, I saw it with my own eyes; It was true. But how? What did it mean? As I marveled at her, one of the medical engineers approached me, and handed me a pad without saying a word. Looking at it, my eyes widened as I beheld the brain scan of the filly. The neurotransmitter presence was astronomical! No young filly, not even a prodigy had this much. Let alone an unborn foal! Being advised to look at the previous days scan by Graph Chart, I did; Normal, only trace amounts. "We searched the database for her cutie mark your highness. We can't be sure, but we think it's also a match to the dna source of this filly." He said, handing me another pad. Looking at the next pad, there was just the biographical data listed next to a rough sketch of a cutie mark; "Brown and white coat, approximately Fifty Years age, Found eight hundred meters from the city, aside a foal; Colt, Beige and white coat, approximately Ten Years age, presumed.." Turning my head from the pad, I had to stomp down my emotions and squelch the images in my mind. Returning back to the first part of the data; "approximately Fifty Years.." I mumbled. "Yeah. Consistent with the levels of neurotransmitters we see in this filly. Fifty years worth of memory..." Graph Chart added while looking to the incubator. "Stars above..." From the corner of our eyes, a dim flash came from inside another incubator. As Graph Chart went to investigate, I stayed, as I felt what it was. It was what always happens when a pony learns of their special talent. Falling to my knees, I was overcome. ... I didn't have the words then. I still don't, even now. Kindred; Taking a risk, I bid my ponies to accelerate the growth of the filly to full physical maturity. Thinking that if she was what I thought, and her colt was going to rely on her... she would need to be fully grown. A few weeks later, she was foaled, dried off, and tucked into a bed in one of the staff quarters. Sitting at a table on the other side of the room; I waited for her to awaken. Stirring slightly, she then awoke with a start. Leaping up onto her shaky legs, she looked around in a panic. Spotting me, she spread her wings wide, pinned her ears, and adopted a threatening posture. This was a challenge. A natural response to a stranger with unknown intentions. "Who are you!? Where am I?! Where's my son?!" she spoke in her native tongue. She spoke... This is no foal that's confronting me; She's indeed, herself. I thought to myself. If I was going to establish any dialog with her, I would have to answer her challenge, first. Getting up, I spread my wings out fully, but kept my ears up, and my expression confident and neutral; Responding to her challenge. After a number of moments of silence, staring eachother in the eyes, the mares wings sagged and she broke eye contact. Lowering her head, she acknowledge that she lost the challenge against a stronger pegasi. Swinging my wings behind myself to be less threatening, I replied in her tongue with a soft voice; "Don't loose heart young one. I am no enemy to you, or any of the gliders, but a friend. I may be strange to you, but I am a pony as well. We'll reunite you with your son, if we can." As her ears perked and her head tilted, I was worried if anything I said made sense to her, and if what I spoke was complete gibberish in her language. "You talk strange" she said. Smiling a little, I folded my wings and sat down on the floor before her. "Maybe I didn't get your tongue completely right?" I asked, and she nodded. "It's all changed around" she said. "I apologize, we had to learn it by ourselves. There was nopony to teach it to us..." I let slip. "Nopony?" She asked me bearing a heartbreaking expression. Looking down, I nodded. "But, I..I'm..." She spoke with rising angst Smiling back, I replied; "Wonderfully, yes, you are." Beginning to tear up some, I continued with my voice thick with emotion; "Whatever exists amongst the stars... Deemed it too soon, for you to....go. And held you in its embrace, in slumber. Until now" While I had waited for her to awaken, I worked out in my mind; the answers to the big question she would ask. Though I didn't know, I knew that she would need answers. So I gave her the best one I could give. Something that made sense to me. Swallowing a lump in my throat, I said; "I think, the same power brought my ponies and I here...to wake you again" Wiping a few tears from my eyes, I told her; "It's an honor to meet you. I was worried that.. I wouldn't." Not meeting my eyes, she asked me; "Am I the only?" A little louder than I meant to, I answered; "No. So many, are nearly ready to wake up again. Will you help me? Help me greet them with a familiar face?" Her eyes wide, she asked me; "W-Why me?" "I ask myself the same question often. But I also ask myself, why not me? I'm here when I might not have been, so I... just do." Looking at me with a confused expression, I said it more plainly; "I too, should not have awoken again, a time ago. But I did. We have that in common. And I don't regret it." Thinking back, I became lost in reflection for a moment, when I realized that I hadn't introduced myself. "Oh, I forgot. I am princess Brighter Skies. I'm the ruling leader of my kind of ponies. May I have your name?" Slowly, she pushed out her name. She was still quite nervous, though I didn't expect her not to be. She had been though a lot, thought I didn't know the extent. "I'm..Rain Drops" "It's wonderful to meet you Rain Drops. Am I wrong to presume your special talent is mastering rainfall for crops?" Nodding, Rain Drops added; "I'm the sixth in succession to lead of the fruit trees orchard, in the east" To that my expression fell slightly, and she picked up on it. "What's wrong?" Signing, I answered her; "In your absence, the trees have either grown wild, or perished, I'm afraid. The other crops, had fared even worse. There's much work to do, though my ponies have restarted a small portion of each crop." Getting no reply, I filled the silence a bit; "I'm sorry, we should have prepared better. But we weren't sure... It will be some time before everypony wakes" Jumping up, Rain Drops demanded; "I must see them!" Nodding, I conceded her demand; "Of course. I will take you to where they are slumbering and growing. But I must tell you. By just looking at myself, and this place, that our ways are strange to you. And though they are strange, they work well. Same as would a new form of cloud busting or weather making. I ask that you keep that in mind as you see them. Though it will look strange, it is how you slept and became healthy before waking in this bed" Nodding again, I got up and turned toward the door; "If you will follow me Rain Drops, we shall visit the place where you were only a few hours ago. Along the way, you will likely see some of my ponies. Please forgive them if they stare. They are a a friendly lot, and are as honored to see you awake, as much as I am." Leaving the staff quarters, we walked to the lift, where I had a hard time convincing Rain Drops to get into a tiny room with a stranger pony. Eventually reaching the lower level, her bumping her read on the ceiling of the lift along the way down; we walked out with me stifling giggles as she rubbed her head and gave me an evil eye. "You should have warned me" Rain Drops grumbled. "I would have, had I thought you would try to fly in a tiny little room. Why would anypony bother to do that?" I asked her. "It moved! What pony would just stand there when the floor falls away?" she asked in exasperation. Realizing that Equus ponies had lifts, where the Gliders didn't, I replied with a simple shrug. Giving me a huff, Rain Drops stayed in the air, while I walked down the corridor. Every so often we'd pass by a pony that greeted us; Where I introduced Rain Drops, and she learned what a fist-hoof bump was. My ponies were well familiar with it because of the visitors from Equus. With a double door sliding open, and a jump from Rain Drops in response, I led her into the incubation room. Levitating a pad from a console we passed, I walked to the unit Rain Drops was in previously. "How did you do that?" she asked me. "Hmm? Do what?" "That thing, it just came over to you?" she elaborated. "Oh, I used my magic. My horn" "That's what that thing does? I thought it was for spearing things?" Rain Drops answered. "Ouch. No. That would hurt. And just so you know, never hit a pony's horn. Its more unpleasant than you can imagine, and more infuriating to a unicorn than you'd want to experience. If you did, you'd likely consider a spearing, a better alternative" I said with a grin, trying to discourage any thoughts she might be entertaining about weak spots. "Hmm...Whats a unicorn, and why do some not have wings or a horn?" She asked me. "There are three types of ponies where I'm from. Some have wings, some horns, some neither, and then there's me; who has all three perspectives of those types" "Ponies that never fly? That's terrible!" She blurted out, to which I laughed. "It's not so bad. When you don't have wings, being off of the ground is scarier than the floor falling away. I know." "You didn't have wings?" she asked incredulously. "Nope. Nor was I a pony, once" Looking over to her shocked expression, I said with a smile; "but I got better" Interrupting her reeling mind, I directed her to an empty incubation pod; "Here we are. This is where you were a short time ago, resting comfortably" "What do you mean, its a...thing?" Nodding I answered; "Right, it's just a thing. But it can do much. My ponies ancestors came from such a simple thing, much like the seed of a tree, and fertile ground. I was the seed, and this was the soil. Wonderful futures can grow here, like trees. Its up to the tree and the wind that blows through its leaves, to do the rest" Thinking it over, Rain Drops asked me; "Then I came from you?" Shaking my head, I kept my answer vague; "No, you were always you. Remember, that you were never really gone. Part slept somewhere I know not where, the rest, was where you lived..." Pausing for a moment, I couldn't restrain myself from asking; "If you'll forgive my curiosity, and you don't have to answer, but....what is the last thing you remember before waking and seeing me?" Landing on the floor, Rain Drops grew sullen. "I remember... it." Crouching down, I grasped one of her hooves. "I'm sorry Rain Drops. I wish I could take that last memory away... But I can't. Many things are beyond my ponies and I" "Me too. I don't want to remember that." "Please forgive me, I shouldn't have asked you" Shaking her head, she told me; "It's the foals that I'm sad for. They'll remember, too" Taking a moment to collect herself, Rain Drops asked me; "My son?" Giving her a nod, I turned my head to the pad in my hand; "Of course, give me a moment, please" Trying to avoid any more questions about those final past moments, I entered Rain Drops unit number on the pad, and cross referenced the Colt she was found with. His was just above hers. "Could you tell me about him? What did he look like? Had he a cutie mark yet? And, his age?" I asked her. "He's Nine years old, beige coat with white hooves, yellow mane like his sire, no cutie mark yet" The description matched the unit above hers. Checking the brain scan showed greatly elevated levels of neurotransmitters. Standing up, I peered into the incubator with a little colt floating inside. "I believe he is here. The lack of a cutie mark makes it a little harder to be sure however" It hitting her like a ton of bricks, she slowly realized that the containers were full of ponies. It had just not clicked with her before. Turning around, she took in the sight of the hundreds and hundreds of containers; all filled with ponies. It was a good thing that she had already landed, because she swooned and her legs collapsed under her. Tapping her leg, I offered her a glass of water. "What happened?" she mumbled. "You became dizzy and passed out. Here, some water" Eyeballing the clear cup, she sniffed the contents and grabbed my wrist to tip the cup. A moment later, she got back up on her legs and said only two words; "Which one?" Placing my hand on a container on the third row up, she hovered up to it, and looked inside. "I want him out of there, now!" Nodding to her, I said; "He can come out now, but he'll be only Eight years old, in pony. If he is to be Nine years old as he was, he must stay in there for a week more, and grow stronger. He's your son, choose his age" Rain Drops looked angry and conflicted. "You can stay with him for the week if you wish. I can bring a bed here for you, if you would like?" With a grunting huff, she conceded to wait. As the week passed by slowly, I talked with her to pass the time, as did one of the linguists who could speak her tongue. From time to time, she wandered a couple aisles, looking at the ponies inside. It was like she was trying to find a familiar face. She helped me put some names to cutie marks, which helped my ponies in deciding which order to accelerate growth and foal from the incubators. When the week was over, her son was foaled again. He was quite scared at first... echo's of the past. The strange surroundings at the complex didn't do him any favors either. Later that day, I showed them both to the exit, the colt buzzing next to his mother. Where they took off and flew over the city a few times, and into a couple of the buildings. When they came back to the side of the city where the complex was, she talked about how clean it was, and that there was no sign of what happened. I thanked her for the compliment, and admitted that I couldn't have accomplished it without my ponies help. Feeling a bit more trusting of the strange ponies she met, Rain Drops vowed to help me wake the others. She also insisted that they wake up in a room in the city, rather than in the complex. Which made perfect sense. Over the next half a year, the Gliders all woke, and were reunited with their friends and families. Though they were friendly, under the surface I could see that they were a little skittish about us. Not surprising after what they remember happening like it were yesterday.... In the end, only their orchards would be of poor production for the foreseeable decade or so, but they compensated for that with larger crops. Taking down our complex, we replaced it with the crop of their choosing; A carrot-like taproot, I believe. Bidding Rain Drops and the rest farewell, my ponies and I left Everwind. I placed a few satellites in orbit so we could make sure there were no unforeseen consequences of the compromised orchards. Beyond that, I let them be, as we had planned in the beginning. They are still going strong today, unchanged as far as we can see from afar. But who knows? Hopefully, I lived up to my special talent; in bringing life to a world. And in the process, maybe made the horizon, the skies; just a little bit brighter. The other shoe; A little while after we left Everwind, and with our attention freed again; More than just my thoughts returned to the Gilata Chi'n T'ali. More than three decades had passed since we last had dealings with them, and the patrols never encountered as much as a single transmission this far out from their core space. As the second part of our plan required staying vigilant, it was required that we know if a problem was reasserting itself far off. The patrols were diverted to the Gilata Chi'n T'ali core worlds' space, to evaluate the situation. ... They were gone. The core worlds were not just empty of Gilata Chi'n T'ali, but life altogether, save for maybe some subterranean microbes that we haven't found. What still remained in the upper atmospheres; told the story of what they would do, should they fail their tests of their place in the universe. I refer you to the analysis reports, should you seek the morbid details, for I will not write them here. Sufficed to say, that they found themselves bested by another. One of the mockery's, had outplayed them, and I did not appreciate what that meant to them, and what they'd do as a result. Their cities still stand, the planetside infrastructure still maintaining itself, though it's starting to fail. Empty tombs, sterile and clean. A monument to so much, yet at the same time; nothing. I thank the stars that the message I left there has at least been erased, as it was in a way... a mark of death. Despite my best efforts... I failed, there. We placed all of the ships we built in that time on a planetoid, including the ones used for the patrol. Serving no purpose any longer, it was discontinued. Storing them all in hopes that they would never be called on again. So far, that has held. Life continues on for ponies, whether they remain on land, the skies, or amongst the stars. I hope that the universe, in its course; shall continue to smile on us all, and will forgive me my shortcomings in it.
TracelessFar outside the confines of the SOL system, the Extended-Transport NeminDar made way to its destination. Some two hundred and nine thousand light years away; a mining outpost that had been made operational only six years ago, was it's destination. The ship's skeleton crew of 8, oversaw the ship's operations, course, and passengers. Consisting of 26 humans; all of the passengers were bound for the outpost. Most of them to engage in the mining operations as permanent career workers. Though, a couple were nomadic workers; getting exposure and experience as they searched for a fulfilling career somewhere in the galaxy. The nearly three-month voyage, was not even a month way through. One of the young nomads was going over the project's scope of what he was to do there. Laying on a cot, bored after reading the same parameters for the fourth time that day, was, well... me. 'There's only so much I can get out of this without meeting the people that will be using the system' he thought. His job, and talent, was fine tuning the automation systems user interface. Though not a special talent like ponies get, he did have a knack for customizing the 'personality' of the computers to be a more productive fit for varying environments. The baseline system was quite good in of itself, but a mining operation doesn't have the delicate and intuitive touch that a research lab would benefit from the vanilla system. They needed things like; the barest of facts, and quickly as possible; Short & Quick. The fine details that the system was defaulted to give, wasted their time, and it added up. Thus his knack was in demand. When he finished getting it to their liking, off he'd be on another transport to begin again elsewhere. He wasn't the only one that did this, but there were few. Few enough to keep one constantly busy for a number of years, easily. He knew this wasn't a permanent career, it was a springboard. A vector to see the outposts, colonies, terraformed planets, and meet the people there. See what they did in their lives, and find something more challenging. After all, doing the same simple thing repeatedly with so many options out there, was squandering one's own life. Such was the philosophy of his people in that era. "What they're like now, I can only guess? That was so long ago... Oh, but I'm getting off track." "Your highness, did you ask me something?" "Sorry Golden, no. Just thinking out loud." 'Where was I? Hmm... yes, my job back then. Sweet, simple, times.' There, he'd be reworking the system to be more likable and useful, for the next many months, perhaps even a year. Reaching the end end of his patience, he sat up and placed the pad in the drawer next to his cot. Looking around to make sure everything was put away, he got up and left the room. Walking down the corridor toward the cryosleep rooms, the corridor was quiet. Most of the passengers were already fast asleep in the tubes already. Back in those days, I put off sleeping in those pods as long as I could. Reason being, that waking up from them after being in one for weeks, even months; was an unpleasant affair. Grogginess and disorientation the norm, even many hours after waking. Half of a day would pass by before you felt completely normal. Stimulants being the only way to shorten the effects even a little. Coffee was beverage of choice for every single person waking from the pods. There were few alternatives aboard the ship however. Though it was not spartan by any means, recreational facilities were not the ships forte. Making long voyages like this a mind numbingly dull affair after a number of weeks. So, resigning himself to his fate of future lethargy, he walked into the first cryosleep room he came to. Walking down the row of six pods, one each side, he found they were all taken. Walking out of the room, he proceeded down the corridor, skipping the next room, expecting the same results there. Coming to the third room, he went inside and came up to the first pod that was unoccupied. Tapping the control screen, he set the timer to wake him three days before the ETA of the mining outpost, coming to roughly two months in cryo. 'Not too bad a duration in the pod. And that should give me plenty enough time to get the cob webs out of my head, and refresh myself of the job.' he thought. Laying down and tapping the close button, he settled in for making the coming weeks fly by as they were nothing. I imagine that the crew were gong about their day as was normal on this route, which was traveled so many times previously. Likely engaged in mundane conversations between them. Something along the lines of; 'what are you going to do when we reach the outpost? I'm going to visit their recreation center. To welcome visitors and new arrivals, they've established many reputable diners and whatnot.' the response being 'Yeah they have, I always visit this one place; they've go-' his response cut off, never knowing what hit him. Another in the ship, looking to his console, seeing something interesting appear upon it. Whether reaching for it in curiosity or even panic, his finger would never make contact with it... Whatever had appeared before the ship, was never observed or recorded before. And without warning, the ship collided with it faster than the speed of light. The front quarter of the ship, all decks and compartments, compacted and snapped off completely; Gone instantly. The crew dead before they knew anything had even happened. Energy from the phenomenon; coursed through the ships infrastructure, overloading and frying everything in its path. Arcing from conduit to bulkhead and back again, anyone in its path, was mortally stricken down. The engine room, was obliterated. The engine's containment systems, and their redundant systems; failing instantly from the intrusion of the foreign energy coursing through them. As the energy contained within the engine spilled out, the materials the engine was comprised of, vaporized. The components around it, were launched like projectiles and sent like shrapnel, piercing everything in their paths. Their velocity producing gaping holes in the hulls throughout what remained of the ship. From what would now be considered the stem, to stern, there were no compartments that didn't completely loose atmosphere. Stasis pods were fried by the energy, and even punctured by debris. Exposing the occupants to the vacuum of space, or ceasing their life signs due to the pods electrical system failures. Even the ship's redundant micro-fusion backup reactors were nearly depleted of their fuel supplies, providing very little power. Of the ones that were still operational at all. The containment force fields never stood a chance of fulfilling their purpose in keeping the atmosphere in place; Their controls and sensors being taken out of commission, as well as having their energy supply cut off at the sources. Completely unprepared for an event of this nature, the ship was entirely at the mercy of it. And it was a harsh mistress indeed... To any investigators that would arrive at the scene, it would appear as if the ship had simply vanished. With only some possible trace wreckage alluding to it's fate. In another galaxy, or even another dimension in space, appeared a heaping wreckage of a ship; Swiss cheesed, drifting, and almost entirely unpowered. Not a living soul aboard.... Except one. There would be no tale to tell if all of them had perished. One human still lived, though asleep. The pod's redundant backup system having been barely damaged, had entered grey mode: minimum operation. Programmed to do so in extreme situations of being cut off by the ships computer, and external power; was still functional enough to perform its most basic of function. It had missed being pierced by shrapnel, and with its primary onboard system having failed; it operated just enough to keep the human from dying in his sleep like the others. So it did; Surrounded in vacuum, exposed to space, and on its own. With no end in sight, he might have slept for even a century before the pod completely exhausted it's remaining internal power reserve. All of this, I had come to learn in hindsight, while perusing the repair logs performed by the automated systems. So close to oblivion, in so many ways... If the wake timer had continued to operate, I would have been revived just to suffocate before even becoming conscious: The cryosleep compartment still having no atmosphere, even months after the event. Years, it would turn out to be.
Starting from scrappedOne of the many systems on board the Transport, was the self maintenance system. Usually controlled by the main primary computer control processor, they were very capable drone devices. A ship this size carried eleven of them. Tucked into their charging and communication alcoves throughout the ship, they waited for a task assigned to them, and reported their maintenance progress back when they were given one. Considered a critical system, they had basic autonomy programmed into them for emergencies such as ship-wide power or communication failure. In such a case, they executed their directive lists: 1. Procure power for self to maintain operational charge, 1a. Build energy harvesters (wide-spectrum solar-voltaic) to that end <if> local reserves are inoperative 1b. Maintain self/repair 1b1. Maintain/repair other repair units 1c. Establish operation of the emergency distress beacon 1d. Establish operation of the secondary processor unit, and relinquish autonomy control to it, to direct further repairs This is an extremely simplified version of what they really process. There are many thousands of 's and recursions happening for each one of those directives. So, armed with a very basic set of operation, limited memory storage capacity of ships architecture, and a millimetre replicator attachment; they went to work. And with only three units still in operation, at that. . . . Wouldn't you know it, the little things finished their directives! It took nearly Six Months, but they did it. Reading over all of the work that they did on their own, I wish I had met the genius's that programmed them. 'They must had been masters of recursive logarithms and the like' The ship itself didn't look any better, except that it now had a pair of solar arrays attached to it. Looking like a shredded metal bumblebee with puny wings. However, the secondary processor was operational now, and talking to the drones in their alcoves while they recharged. While outside their alcoves, they worked on the processor's only objective: 1. Expand energy harvesting to meet requirements of 1a 1a. Establish operation of the primary processor, and it's data banks. Then relinquish the management of the repairs to it. . . A few months more, and it was now online. From that point, things picked up considerably. With the primary processor online, very nuanced repairs of the ship's system's and structure began. And when I say 'picked up considerably', I mean Years went by. The ship drifted for Years. 'How it didn't drift into a star, or a gas giant, or a simple moon or asteroid is beyond my comprehension' I try not to think about it too hard anymore. I'm serious! Pondering the odds too long actually caused me to fall into a bout of madness for a small time. To be fair though, I was suffering from complete social isolation at the time... Sighing loudly, I turned to the stallion a short distance to my right; "Never ponder the universe's motives to long, Golden. It actually Can drive you mad. At least, for a little while" With a chuckle at the random bit of advice, Golden Ray replied; "Naturally. Um, what are you typing, if you don't mind me asking, that is, your highness?" "It's fine. I'm recording my thoughts. Perhaps I'll fashion it into a biography, or maybe a performance piece one day?" "Ah" Golden nodded. Golden is my Guard Captain by the way. He's often at my side here at the palace. 'Hmhmm, and slowly going into a madness of his own, from receiving all the unconnected strings of advice that fall from my muzzle while I reminisce' thinking to myself. "Are you going to put in the part where you seduced one of Celestia's guards, princess?" He asked with a knowing smile "Of Course I Will, that's one of the best parts. And He pursued Me, I'll have you know. In fact, I was quite shocked at the time..." "Ah, just thinking about him on Equus right now..." Just thinking about him gets me flustered in all the best ways. 'Even his name is perfect...' I thought to myself, getting lost in the dreamy haze. Shaking myself from it, I turned to Golden; "You did this on purpose, didn't you Golden? Now I'm all fired up, and no Sure Shot to put out the fire. You can be an incredibly devious pony at times." I told him, pointing my accusing finger at him. "To think that your highness gets so unsettled at the mere mention of her Equestrian Guard stallion... *tisk*" Golden teased, "You must be compensating for all those years by yourself?" he followed up. "Could be.. hey, I earned it." "True. But, if I may ask, why him of all ponies? Why not one of their prince's, even one of your subjects? I was available before I got married?" Golden admitted... why he Does This To Me. Sometimes I think that he wanted to follow in Prince Shining Armor's hoof steps? "He won't be returning for four more days Golden...So I am not going to detail everything about him now, that gets me weak in the knees." Sighing I went on; "I suppose that when I first met him, he was all grown up? Where with my ponies? Well, I raised and taught their grandparents, saw them and you when you were still nursing... I suppose there is a lot to be said for first impressions?" "Maybe it's a carry-over from when I was human? Seeing a handsome stallion, and then remembering how cute and small they were just, doesn't work..." Taking a slow breath, I thought to myself 'At least the fire's out now. Good play Golden.' After a moment, I went on; "Sisters tell me the same thing of their ponies. It in turn, led them to our relations with each other... I was the first pony they didn't see in that light. Not I'm going to think about that either. It'll be even longer before they'll be visiting again" I finished. "Are? you going to.." Golden asked. "Oh course I'll have that in there. It was a beautiful moment of mare's being there for each other. I can still remember the gentle and needy, but afraid look in their eyes..." Smiling at the memory; "They made me want to wrap them up in my wings and never let them go. And? I haven't even come close to doing so, metaphorically speaking." "Of course, I'll have to get their permission first. They might not be ready for their ponies to officially know of that kind of affiliation. Leaving it to unconfirmed rumor, at most." "And how did they react to Sure's relationship with you?" Golden poked. "Ah, very supportive actually. They have a soft spot for him too. It's just that other thing I mentioned that spoils it for them. They're glad I'm happy, and that the good stallion found a good mare." 'Hmm, saying stuff like that used to bother me. It's funny how time changes ponies?' Levitating my headset over, I called up Page Planner: "Page? Whats my afternoon schedule look like?" My expression sagging, I thanked her and closed the call. 'Golden went and put Sure And my sisters into my mind, and I can't get away; This is going to be a long afternoon.'
Good morningAboard the Extended-Transport NeminDar, everything was still. The engine was cold, rooms and corridors dark, many decks' environmental systems were on standby, and the only occupied deck was being kept at a steady five degrees Celsius to prevent condensation. The only systems actively running; were the internal data routers, the processors, few sensors (internal and external), few environmental units, and a pod. Occasionally, a thruster fired, keeping the ship in position. Which was; In a very high orbit above an uncharted planet, capable of sustaining life. Nearly three years previously, once the sensor arrays came back on line from their repairs; the computer executed one of its lower priority directives. That being; to adjust the ship's course toward a world suitable for evacuation to. Though there was no one left to issue the evacuation, it didn't matter. The computer simply did what it was programmed to do, and to there the ship drifted. Once it came into range of the planet, the computer established a stable orbit with its now-operational-again, thrusters. Also, it began to perform scans of the surface, atmosphere, and fauna, to furnish a report to the command staff to aid in the evacuation. The ship? It looked like new now, with the exception of the added solar array wings it still depended on in order to regularly supply its energy needs. Those needs were now very few, and had been for some time. Between there being no active life aboard, all the repairs completed, and virtually no wear upon the systems; just about everything went in standby sleep mode and consumed comparatively no energy. The excess energy harvested; was directed into regenerating the engine's fuel supply, the backup reactors' fuel supplies, as well as replenishing the thrusters. Even the three shuttlecraft's engine cores were replenished after being pilfered previously. So there the ship waited; asleep, much like it's lone occupant. Speaking of; The pod he was in was now fully operational again. Its wake timer now functional, continued to wait for its set: three-days before the ETA of the mining colony... A time that would never come, now. However, there was another timer in operation once again; The maximum-suspension-duration safety-limit timer. With it now having reached its Nine-Year hard-coded set point, it triggered the animation/wake cycle. The ship being notified of this; Turned on the lights and engaged the environmental heating units on the passenger-access decks, bringing the temperature up to a comfortable twenty degrees Celsius. As a side-note; The safety-limit timer was imposed, due to a theoretical projection on the effects of long term cryo-suspension. Though the limit never came close to being reached in practical use, it was included none the less. "Thank the stars for that.." The implications of it not having been implemented, are personally horrifying. Anyway, back to the story: I barely remember waking up. Just flashes of images of; sitting aside the pod, trudging down the corridor to the galley, fighting with the replicator to get my coffee, and sitting at the counter. Time was a blur. No surprise now that I know why; The longer the suspension, the more extreme the effects are. I don't know how many times I chugged cups of coffee, relieved myself, sat there, or even looked up. But, as what must have been hours passed, I became more lucid. And my stomach, no longer numbed as badly, decided to demand some actual sustenance. Going back to the replicator and getting something besides coffee, and with less fighting this time; I sat back in my seat at the counter and nibbled my food, still shut out from my surroundings. After another trip or two to the rest facilities, I had finished my breakfast, and got another. While I was nibbling away at my second breakfast, it started to dawn on me how quiet the galley was. Eventually taking the great effort to look around, I found I was the only one there. That wasn't too unusual, it wasn't like the ship was packed full of passengers or anything, it was just a little unlikely. 'Maybe they're all late-risers, waiting till the last day?' I remember thinking. Switching to water now that I was at least half human again, I began to wonder how long I had been there, and heard not a single voice or door opening. Finishing up my meal... I was Still a little hungry? How long had I been in there? Long enough to nearly digest two meals? Where were even the crew? 'At least one of Them would have stopped in by now I'd think?' I thought. This was getting eerie. "Computer, how long have I been awake?" I asked out loud, addressing the ship's command processor. -You were revived fourteen hours, thirty-nine minutes, and twenty-two seconds ago- 'Fourteen hours?? I've been sitting here for Fourteen hours? I've never had cryo-lag, fourteen hours-plus bad before.. Maybe I should get checked out in medical?' "Computer, who's on call in medical?" -There are no medical officers available currently- 'Great, it's the middle of the night too. I'm gonna have to wait.' "Computer, whats the ship's time?" -The ship's time is Thirteen hundred hours, Fifty-nine minutes, and Eleven seconds- 'Thir... It's midday, and no medical staff on call?' Deciding to tempt fate, I posed the nagging question in the back of my mind; "Computer, how many people have entered or left the galley since I arrived?" -There have been zero entries or exits since your arrival in the galley- Doing the math; 'That would mean nobody had breakfast, or lunch either?? What in the hell is going on? Did I oversleep?' "Computer, Have we reached the mining outpost?" -Negative, the ship has not reached it's destination- "What's our ETA?" -That information is unavailable- "What?" -Please rephrase the question- 'Ugh, vanilla systems..' I thought, shaking my head. 'Lets try it this way then, piece by piece. Ugh, I hate playing the game of twenty-questions, asked ten different ways, to get answers from a computer...' "Computer, what is our current rate of travel?" -The current rate of travel is Eighteen point Two Kilometres per second- 'So where not stopped... Wait, that's practically standing still!' "Computer, What's our current location?" I asked, though I was not prepared for the answer I got. -The ship's current location is unavailable- 'Unavailable?? That's impossible!' "Computer, get me in touch with someone on the command staff or crew, I don't care who, the captain if you have to!" -There are no registered command staff or crew on board- "What? How can there be no command staff?! Was the ship evacuated??" By this point I was becoming alarmed. -Negative, no evacuations have been executed- "Then how.. Where.. When did the command staff disembark?" -That information is unavailable- Shaking, and filled with dread, I was afraid to ask my next question, but did; "Computer... How many Passengers are aboard the ship, and where are they?" -There is one passenger aboard, located in the galley- . . . I, wanted to throw up everything I had eaten since I woke up.... and I did. Sparing you the results of the crushing implications of my then, situation; Sufficed to say they were not pleasant. Being a mere passenger, I had no approved authority aboard the ship, and now that meant; to the computer. I was trapped, marooned. In a cage that spanned a couple decks of non essential areas. I didn't have the authority to access the transporters, shuttlecraft, or even an airlock to throw myself out of... though the thought did cross my mind. It wasn't till many days later that I even spoke to the computer again. Finally doing so, I played the questions-game again, and learned how much time had passed, and that the ship was in orbit of a planet. Going to one of the passenger conference rooms, I looked down at the planet from the windows. It looked nice enough, though it was completely unreachable to me right then. I needed to get authoritative access to the ships systems, and that meant; study and testing. Therefor getting the computer to register my capabilities as I learned them. Fortunately, it had field-commission provision capabilities for emergency situations like this, though never meant to be a situation in any way this extreme. What was supposed to have happened was; the distress beacon would draw a rescue party. The beacon having been broadcasting for over eight years with no response to its call, meant no one would be coming. Likely ever. I had a lot of work to do, entire careers to take on, all of the metaphorical hats to grow into, if I was going to go anywhere...
Good and Bad daysThose were turbulent days for me, back then. My mood swinging from; Having intense drive to get the access I needed and get past it, to days of being completely inert. One day I was learning how the navigation sensors functioned with fervor, and the next; curled into a ball sobbing for the entire day. Wishing I had met the same fate as the rest of the crew and passengers. Between distracting myself with tasks at hand, and being overwhelmed with the crushing loneliness and the immensity of what I was trying to accomplish... I lashed out often, at everything around me. It was madness, sheer madness. It was fortunate that I was a powerless human at the time. Had I been a unicorn then, I would have begun tearing everything around me apart, and not stopping till I pierced the hull... I did my best to keep the turbulence at bay. Having the computer play performances, songs, novels, anything that would fill the silence. Even having them play in the background at low volume while I slumbered. I also took to talking to the command processor to fill the need for any kind of interaction. Though after hearing one too many: -Please rephrase the question- I took to threatening the computer with what I was going to do to it's personality once I gained access. However it didn't care. It wasn't an AI, not even close. In fact such technologies were universally banned. A precedence I still hold to this day with my ponies. Even remembering how it was then, puts me in a poor mind to this day. Sometimes it comes out in unexpected ways. As the months dragged on, I learned how to trick and train my mind into being able to function in isolation, and without the madness taking hold of me. It was a slow progress, on all fronts. Working my way into becoming a recognized crew member; My access to the other decks was unlocked, though still quite limited. Rising to the rank of an acting-Ensign; I finally had the proficiency to perform basic medical checkups upon myself as well. However some parts of the results were still beyond my comprehension... which would become a very important matter, later. In gaining access to the logs as an Ensign, I pieced together what had happened to the ship while I was asleep, and a little bit about the world I was in orbit of. In hindsight, being awarded the rank of Ensign did my psyche an immense amount of good, more than I even realized at the time. Answers began to come, which I was sorely needing. My Sure Shot came to visit me like he does every week, things went on as they usually do when we're together. We visited our favorite places, caught each other up on the last week's events, and amused each other in the usual and mundane ways. Only in hindsight can I tell how much I've changed from the human I used to be. Comparing my memories from my early days to now, it was like I was asleep. My life then comparatively bland, like seeing things without colors. When I grew into my new form, my brain chemistry changed somewhat. The levels of empathy and sociability increased by folds. I had to train myself even more in dealing with the isolation I had to put myself through. I supposed it was the herd instinct mentality; As I was often feeling vulnerable, being by myself? Even though my mind had rewired somewhat, I was still sure of who I was. Though, at the same time, I'd be a little embarrassed to meet my past self now. I know my old self would have trouble acknowledging me, the way I am when I'm with Shot. Unexpected impulses take hold, and I become a different creature altogether, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's difficult to reconcile sometimes. Seeing my mate off; back to Equestria at the visitors center, I flew back to my palace. Already, I missed him. The next day during court, I thought about how frightening it was to subject myself to the genetic alterations. The only thing that got me to perform it, was the alternative. An anticlimactic end just felt insulting, considering everything I'd already been through, and put myself through. I did however I put it off as long as I could, while I went over my data and research... over and over again. Programming every single contingency I could think of should the unexpected come to pass. A couple of the contingencies saved my new flanks as it turned out: I technically ceased living during the procedure; My respiration and heartbeat stopping on two different occasions while parts of my brain restructured... The life support systems taking over as programmed to do, until my body could do it again on its own. Then there was the horrifying realization that I couldn't consciously move any of my muscles when I awoke, even my eye lids. I would have starved to death had I not considered the possibility, and also chose to try addressing it, to give myself a chance. I did by setting up the musculature training system beforehand; To give me very mild shocks in individual muscles, over and over, until my brain made the connections. It was unpleasant, but better than the alternative. Again, it was the pathways in my brain that needed time to reform, and reconnect things to my conscious mind. As well as connect the things that I didn't have before; Wing muscles, tail muscles, ear musculature control, and of course; a couple of fun ones that I had to figure out I now had control of. Afterwards, there were the dietary considerations; Figuring out exactly which foods Didn't agree with my new equine digestive system. I won't go into detail of Estrus right now. Sufficed to say; Alicorns Do experience it, even alien ones like me. And, it's a wonderfully horrible double edged blade when alone. Before all that, I was spending an increasing number of hours each day on the table, having my remaining good cells stimulated to divide to replace the damaged ones. Since my cells and DNA weren't native to this universe; They had no protection nor ability to coexist with the latent energy that was present everywhere here: The 'magic'. In short, since I wasn't a living magical creature, the universe treated my body as if it were dead tissue. Breaking it down constantly, as microorganisms would do in my old universe. Finally, it was zero hour. I had reached the point of no return with cellular regeneration. Medical science had given me much needed time, and a stay of, well, crumbling to death... But it wouldn't keep me together and going any longer. Too many cells in my body had already had it's DNA broken apart, and they wouldn't divide anymore. It was either; take the plunge now, or the end. Realizing that I might never wake up from this procedure; I asked that whatever power had brought me here; watch over me once more. Laying down on the medical bed, I took a deep breath and tapped 'initiate programmed procedure' From that point I was placed into a coma, so I wouldn't have to experience what was about to be done. The DNA swap would go quickly and easy enough. Taken from a coma, to stasis, and back again into a coma, while every cell had a DNA-slight-of-hand done to it. By that point, I was technically a pony in a way, though my physical form was almost indistinguishable from before. Some things would have slowly changed on their own: skin texture, existing hair follicles changing the hairs' thickness and color. Soft tissues changing slightly. Nothing drastic, but at least I wouldn't simply crumble anymore at that point. The gruesome part was yet to come: Cell-by-cell transplantation, and the replication of calcium-based lattices, and openwork; For my new muzzle, teeth, legs and hooves, wings.. When I learned about this, it made me queasy. In one way; It was like wearing away at stone with water, where in another; It was like a blender. Parts of me, would be going through a cell-by-cell blender. Sensitive parts...
Planet 1: EquusEquus and Equestria, where to begin? Starting with gaining access to the report on the planet prepared for 'the evacuation', I was shocked and delighted to see that there was a thriving race a sentient creatures. Many in fact! In all of known human history, this was a first. And, I guess it will be an unknown first as far as they know? Of all of the sentient creatures there, the ponies, impressed me the most. Some could manipulate objects without touching them, as well as others would fly through the air with bodies completely incompatible with flight dynamics as I understood them. Three different kinds, with incredibly different abilities, yet they all lived and worked together cohesively. Also, it was as if their abilities ebbed and flowed through the generations and family bloodlines. This in itself amazed me to no end; Families of the earth ponies, would have a unicorn foal heralding from back in their lineage, for example. But I'm getting ahead of myself again. In my observance of them, I came to know whom their leaders were. It was not too difficult to find them; Their residence in a castle on a tall mountainside, as well as their physical stature and abilities made them easier to identify. However that brought more questions to my mind: How did they become their leaders? Was it their larger and more powerful stature that led the others to follow them? Were they a rare type of equine that manifested all of the traits that the others possessed? Did that manifestation of traits inspire the others around them to function together? My mind reeled with the answers that I slowly found. Finally having access to the transporters, I began harvesting discarded newspapers from their trash bins. However, that didn't get me very far at first, as the computer couldn't make heads nor tails of the written language since it was so alien. It, nor I had a common point of reference to build off of. I had to go back to the source of the written language; school. Specifically: pony elementary schools. I had to borrow books, scan them, and put them back before any of them noticed. By the time I put together a basic understanding of their alphabet and a third year language level, my cellular degradation problem became apparent to me. From that point, I had to put my fascination with the amazing creatures on hold, for the most part. However, that problem would lead me right back to them again, I would find. I came to the inescapable conclusion that I had to become one of them, at least largely. Sure, I could have went for a griffin, or dragon, zebra too, but the ponies sociable structure had me spellbound. 'Hmhm, that phrase has another meaning to me nowadays.' So I decided on 'pony', but what kind? There were three, plus the culmination of that... What kind was I going to be, and what was I going to do with the rest of my life once it was saved, hopefully? Before I would address that existential question, I needed to understand and map pony DNA... generally; an alien DNA. Since the problem I was facing could be remedied with cellular regeneration for a while, I had time to map the DNA with the onboard computers tools. The primary processor was quite powerful, and I could extend it by replicating and linking subprocessors for this purpose in the cargo decks. The repair and maintenance drones could handle that task for me... ...Cargo Bay:4... A sad place aboard the ship. It was where; What little remained of the crew and passengers were stowed by the repair drones. I avoided bay four for a long time, until the remains were gone. . . . Ahem, digressions... I needed samples, alien DNA samples. Samples to scan and run cell division simulations from, and lots of them. A sample from every kind of animal I could find. I was going to need a lot of subproccesors for simulations, running constantly. I'd need to expand the solar collection array more to power them, too. This snowball-effect of preparation, would turn out to be practice for what I would be doing in a few years time... but that's for later...for when I talk about: Maneous, my new home. By that point in time, it hadn't even crossed my mind yet. I'm not proud to say that I played the part of the stalker of ponies, from aboard the ship. Spotting a pony; I would make note of their appearance and traits, and observe them going home. Once they used their mane brush and turned around, I would fire up the transporter to steal some hair follicles from off of their brushes. I needed the cells and the physical traits to map any bits of DNA I could attribute to them. Thousands of times I did this: Random ponies, families with their own separate brushes, and most importantly; the princesses. The last scared me, I'm not afraid to admit. The three tribes didn't appear powerful enough to touch the ship from the sky and ground, but the princesses? I found a reference or three in the foals books mentioning them moving the sun and moon. While I never noticed them changing positions per-say, it's perceptual. Meaning they would possibly have the ability to alter the planets rotation at will... Finding slight inconsistencies in the daily rotation of the planet, gave the concept some credence. What could that kind of ability to manipulate an object, do to the ship with me on it? Yank it down? Push it into the moon, should I take a step too far? With them, I waited till they left their chambers the next morning and evening to gather follicles... Better safe, than extremely-sorry. For the next few months, I switched between genetic engineering study, pony language research (Equish), and finally pony culture. The last two, to help me eventually decide what tribe I specifically was going to work towards. That eventually led me to that nasty existential question of what was I going to do with my life... That answer is appearant now; I was going to start my life anew, on a new world, with a new family. I would be the first of them. Of course; No pressure, to be sure. I was either driven with a purpose by the universe, or completely mad to think all this was within my grasp. I believe it was one, made by the other. Learning of the princess sisters helped me with this immensely. With ponies, which I was going to be now; worked extraordinarily well with a matriarchal leader. A mother figure of sorts, and extremely long lived to provide the accumulated experience to the rest across lifetimes. If I had more time, I could have looked into becoming an alicorn prince. But I had language, culture, and physical barriers, as well as a time limit pressing me. At first I lamented loosing some things that I was quite accustomed, and comfortable having.. Then I had second thoughts; 'Need I loose all of them? The DNA is mostly mapped out by now, why not put in the extra work to keep my bipedal stance and more, though redressed in pony fashion? If I have the required time, that is.' It's evident now that I had, and did. The only things I really lost were; My feet, traded for hooves. And my old omnivorous digestive system. And I gained so much more, more than I even realized then. When my changes were complete, I wanted to go down to Equestria and meet the ponies that saved me. I wanted to learn from the princesses that inspired my future hoof steps. But it wasn't time yet. I had preparations to make, a place to go, and more study to do. If the princesses would teach me, their lessons best be fresh in my mind when I'd need them. The future depended on it. While I borrowed more of their books and scrolls to build my own library of pony knowledge, I looked far and wide across the immediate stars for a new home. I found two that could be made suitable. One was barren and lifeless, the other was a frozen world of ice from what I could see. Though the second one was closer, I decided on the first. Where there was water, there might have been primitive life in some form there already. Knowing as little about life here as I did, I chose the sterile world to terraform. The other I had named: Tailous. Though, little did I know then, that it already had a name. A long history as well... I put off the journey to Maneous as long as I could, having a innate desire to remain as close to the ponies as I could. Eventually though, I had to leave. To take that first step into the void, entirely alone. It was a feeling that I had not felt in years; since I first had awoken. Setting the course with my acquired captaincy, I began the two year trip to my future home. Along the way, planning out what would need to be built to make it livable. First was slowly constructing the infrastructure; energy harvesting arrays for the local sun. Then constructing an orbital space station to manage it all from. It would take many years to build; Which, had I the nerve, I would trust sleeping through the years of construction: in stasis. Time became relative, and with nothing around me pressing me for time, the passing years meant little. Well, except for Posy Meadow: My first pony friend, and the only one who knew of my existence for many decades. The only pony to ever see a human in the flesh. I'll make an entry especially for her; she was quite special. It brought tears of joy to my eyes when I saw her again, more than eighty years later.
The Strangest MinotaurDuring my time in orbit around Equus, I was learning many things. Most of which, were vital in the immediate future, the rest; were what I delved into to ward off the monotony and to distract myself from the scope of what was before me. One of those things, was learning about the ponies culture and life. I read small stories here and there, translated into my native tongue, though it wasn't perfect. Utilizing the programming methods available, I had painstakingly, and slowly; built a translation matrix of printed Equish. The ponies had an amazing library of written works, containing things which I would need in order to prosper in this new universe. Among those, I hoped I would find advice and instruction on how to use... wings and horn. Provided that I survived the process which would be the gateway to leaving my eroding form behind, that is. ... Having collected copies of everything written that I could find, everywhere I could find it; My time spent in distractions, turned to reading their words. After some months into reading the imperfect translations, frustrations in my translation comprehension pushed me to try learning their alphabet. Doing so had led me to another point of contention; Pronunciation. Of which I had no mappings to. The sounds that I recorded them making via covertly deployed monitoring devices, had no connection to what their written words were. I had the written, and their assembled dialogs, however no mappings between the two. I needed somepony to actually speak it out to me. To demonstrate what sound the letters made. Even the ponies printed phonetics were beyond my comprehension. ...For how would anyone know what sound the letter "a" makes, without another making it first, and pointing to the symbol that it represents? Sure they had letters that worked like the letter "a", however they might make an "ql" or an "ng" sound when spoken? Such was my conundrum, and my next step in trying to understand the natives here. And so entered; Posy Meadow, the only pony to ever see a human in the flesh. With my thoughts wandering back to this puzzle from time to time, I eventually devised a plan that I wasn't sure would ever bear fruit. That plan was to use the ships sensors to monitor the wild-lands outside of the ponies villages and small towns, in hopes that somepony would wander into them. Admittedly, I'm not proud that this plan depended on a pony coming into harms way while abroad inside the confines of the woodlands, however it was the best plan that I could assemble. Having set the computer to monitor those areas, I instructed it to alert me should a pony encounter specific non-ponies while there. Specifically keeping watch for a threatening situation where a lone pony would be in need of rescue or evacuation. More than a year had passed by since I set the alert up. Meanwhile, I figuratively banged my head against screens trying to learn how to implement genetic manipulation, where the source genetics were alien equine. It was mostly all new to me, and simply learning the methods and tools was a grueling effort on my part. One day while I was reading the same course chapter for the fourth time, the alert sounded and an overhead scan came up on the screen I was reading from. There it was; a pony running through a swampland, followed by one of those large creatures with three heads; A Hydra as I came to know they were called. I increased the scan area, and it showed that the pony was running deeper into the swampland, farther away from the nearest settlement. From what I could tell, she got turned around and was heading into deeper trouble. Coming to a small bog, she had plowed into it without hesitation. Though she was making her way through it, it slowed her travel greatly. The hydra's bulk displaced the water easily as it chased after her into the bog without loosing much speed. The distance between them shrank at an alarming rate. I have to admit that I panicked and initiated the transport when I saw the hydra's heads reaching for her. Though she might have evaded them herself had I not intervened, I didn't know so at the time. In a mere moment, the fleeing mare appeared in one of the NeminDar's transportation rooms; clean, dry, panicked, confused, and breathing heavily with her heart racing inside her barrel. Surrounded by suddenly foreign surroundings, Posy immediately backed up against the back wall, where she looked around at everything frantically. The strange room was big enough to be a living room, or even a small shop, but everything about it was wrong and strange to her eyes. There were windows all over the place, small and black, except for a big one sitting in the middle of the room. Even the lights above were bizarre, as they just glowed softly without flickering. "Am I....did I?" She gulped as she wondered if the hydra had gotten her, and *this* was ~after~? After a while, she looked herself over and stepped onto one of her own hooves, eliciting a little bit of pain. "Ah! Okay, I'm not sleeping. And that sure feels real?" She said to herself. "Is this a cave? Am I in... Tartarus?" Shaking her head, she thought; "It can't be, that's for villains who get banished. I've never.." Shaking the thoughts of doom from her head, she then looked around the strange room again. The room seemed unreal to her. Scanning across the windows for daylight, she finally noticed that one had words on it. It said; "Hello on board" "Ship of stars" Her head tilting slightly working out what it could mean, she slowly approached the black window. "Hello on a board?" she asked herself. "ship of stars... I'm aboard a ship? This isn't like any ship I've seen before... below decks maybe? But I don't feel any rocking?" Posy pondered the meaning. Reaching a hoof up toward the glass, she asked herself; "Is it night time-already? Why would anypony write words on a window?" However when her hoof touched the glass, a dot formed where she had touched it, and it stayed there when she pulled her hoof away. Thinking that she made a dirty spot on the window, she tried wiping the smudge away. However it made the spot wider and longer into diagonal lines where she touched it. Dismayed that she couldn't make the mark go away, she resolved to let it be. However after a moment, she breathed onto the glass on another spot and drew the word; "Hi", adding to her unintentional artwork. What she didn't expect, was that the word she drew, glowed a different color than the rest of the lines. After a moment, the previous message above disappeared, and the word; "Hello" drew itself anew. Jumping back a step in surprise, she studied the window, and the others, for any more changes. "Does it repeat what I draw?" she asked nopony in particular. Thinking it over for a couple moments, she approached the glass again and used her hoof to draw the word; "Pie" Afterward, the glowing word she drew dissappeared along with the previous message, and the words; "Are hungry?" appeared. Taking a step back, Posy looked around to see if anypony was looking through any of the other dark windows around her. "This window must be enchanted or something?" she thought. Shaking her head, she spoke "no", however the message didn't change. After a moment, Posy wrote 'no' onto the glass, and it glowed and then returned with; "Ask if are, visit hello" "Drink?" "If this is enchanted, it's not done very well. I can barely make heads or tails of this..." she said to herself. She then drew the word 'water' onto the glass, but messed it up. Scratching through it, she drew it again above the previous attempt. It then glowed and disappeared. A moment later, the message changed to; "Short time" While she pondered the meaning of the words, she heard a sound to her left. Whipping her head to the side to focus on the sound, her eyes caught a cup appearing on a shelf built into a wall. Looking away from the cup and back to the window, showed that the message changed to; "Water to you" "What is this place! Where arm I?!" Posy shouted aloud to the empty room, feeling like the walls were closing in on her. She looked around the room huffing and puffing, awaiting an answer to her outburst, but none came. Meanwhile, a human was wincing as his heart sank. Thinking that this was going to end badly for both him and the mare in the transportation room; Trauma to the first pony he'd ever had contact with, and failure for his one chance to learn how to speak Equish. But luckily for them both, Posy was a stalwart pony. As the moments of silence without answer pressed on, she got ahold of her breathing and calmed herself down. Finally back to a sense of rationality, she snorted through her nostrils and drew on the glass; 'Where Am I?' To which the reply was; "From creature" "safe far" Having worked out that she was in fact; still alive, but pony-napped far away, she wrote with renewed alarm; 'What do you want?' What came back was; "Help speak?" "Help speak?... Pony-napped from a Hydra's jaws, to... but I'm no teacher?" she thought to herself, her head swimming at such a monumental task. As she was shaking her head, the message changed to; "Only sounds need" "letters" "short time" "help?" Such was my plea to Posy through the (rough) translation matrix, from another room. She didn't give me an answer for a while. For a time, she paced back and forth, thinking and talking to herself. Eventually, she walked over to the cup that appeared a little bit ago, and sniffed it. Gingerly taking a sip from it to judge it to be simple water, she drank about a quarter of it, and returned to the window. 'Are you enchanted?' she wrote. I wasn't sure what she meant, so I replied; "No enchanted" "Am me" "Stranger" 'Stranger?' she echoed, to which I told her; "Far of Equestria away" 'What are you?' Posy asked me, to which I faltered. Sensing her impatience, I replied; "..." "odd look" Which I followed up with a simple outline of the human form; 'A Minotaur?' she wrote after studying the drawing image for a few moments "no" "Other" Dreading the passing moments, I asked her; "See?" After a minute of agonizing wait for her response, she eventually nodded. This was it, I was about to have my first contact with any living creature after years of isolation. Of that, it was to be a first contact with another intelligent species in all of human history. Even though I thought I was prepared for it, as much as I could ever be... I thought I was going to loose conscienceness from the lightheadedness. "wait" "difficult" I replied. To which she asked 'why is it hard?' "Long time to another" "years" I'll skip over the frantic checking myself over, and the long wait outside the transportation room door as I built up the nerve to go through the doors. Sufficed to say that I brought a pad with me, so that I could communicate with her through the touch glass translator. Finally, I stood in front of the doors and pressed the open key. The doors opening with a swishing sound, Posy jumped and backed away from the doorway toward the far side of the room. Near to where the cup of water materialized. Trying my best to remember everything I had read about equines from my world, I kept a few things running through my mind; no sudden movements, they are alarming never approach a strange pony head on, as it was what a predator would do remember the forces of push and draw, let a pony approach you when they are comfortable enough to. In fact, face slightly to the side, as to appear not standoffish, and more so nonthreatening keep sounds to a low intensity, avoid low octaves, or excessively high ones Slowly raising my arm, I waved to Posy slowly. This appeared to be a universal greeting. Afterward, I placed my hand on my chest and slowly nodded in her direction. I hoped this would be interpreted as a respectful bow, and not a charge. Entering the room, I walked perpendicularly to the console in the room, which was behind the touch glass. Touching a few of the controls, I increased the lighting in the room in hopes that Posy could see me better. Hopefully this would subtly help her to evaluate the strange creature she found herself in the room with? I glanced at her from time to time, finding her eyes locked onto me; studying my movements I presumed. Turning away from the console, I crossed the room to the farthest side; From Posy's left, to her right. Sitting down on the floor, I assumed a laying position on my side, facing the touch glass; My head propped up with my left arm. Thinking it through beforehand, I presumed that taking a sitting position would do little more than decrease my imposing height over a pony's. Being unfamiliar with a human, she wouldn't be able to discern whether I was sitting or springing for an attack. A laying position however, is pretty evident that a creature is not alarmed or prepared to strike. Tapping my pad a few times, I sent a message to the glass; "Is me" "Hello" Glancing over to Posy, showed that she hadn't taken her wide eyes from me the entire time, and hadn't read my message. Directing my gaze to the glass and nodding to it, and back to Posy once more, eventually got her to glance that way. Eventually she realized that the message had changed. Nervously lifting a hoof, she gingerly pointed it in my direction, to which I nodded. Tapping a few more times, I said; "Nice see" After a couple hours of awkward communication, I thanked Posy by giving her a sight that no other ponies, save Luna herself had witnessed. It was then that she realized what 'Ship of stars' meant. I will always remember the look of wonder in her eyes as she looked at Equus from the assembly room window aboard the NeminDar. When I transported her back to the outskirts of Ponyville, just beyond the confines of the Everfree Forest, I was terribly saddened. I felt that I had lost a promising friend, forever... Nearly Eighty years later, during my tutelage by the princess sisters, we met once more. She, a pony with many summers behind her by that time, and myself; very different in form. I remember the day quite clearly. I was invited to sit in the princesses court to observe. Word spread, and many came to see the strange pony attending court with the princesses, aside their thrones. In the audience one day; was an older mare who kept watching me intently. Every once in a while, I'd look to the audience to see how ponies carried themselves in the presence of the rulers, and observe their reactions to their decisions and decrees. Most were how you would expect, some eyes wandered to and from me. However one pony just stared, as if they she were trying to remember a face, or muzzle in this case. When the court came to a close, the other ponies filed out, however this mare came closer to the thrones. After bowing to the princesses, she turned to face me and asked if I was from a 'ship of stars?' When I spoke to answer her, she smiled. And in a very forward fashion, she exclaimed; "You look better with a coat and fuller mane, but your claws give you away. Only one creature in all my years had claws like those. I remember you, stranger" she finished with a confident nod. Stunned, I couldn't believe that this pony had sought me out after all this time. She hadn't dismissed the event as some dream or hallucination, and connected me to the creature she had met only once. The other two princesses present, when asking how I knew of this mare, Posy answered for me; "She? Saved my life... by pony-napping me. So in turn,I taught her how to talk" she explained, brandishing a sly smile. Momentarily glancing to princess Luna, Posy didn't mention the gift I gave her. Simply giving the princess of the night a curious wink, Posy left it to me to later explain what it was about. The sisters giving us leave to catch up, we reminisced for hours more than the actual event lasted. She told me about her life, her family, the 'fiction' book she wrote about a visiting Minotaur, and how nopony believed the first draft of the story she penned of it. Posy visited the court every day I attended from that point after, and we chatted regularly now that I could converse with her properly. I made a friend, many many decades after meeting the pony. The legacy of that fateful trip Posy took from Ponyville that one day, is still heard now. The smallest of that is; To this day, my dialect remains to be of their central region, with tinges of their southern habitations influence. All thanks to Posy's help to a strange looking Minotaur.
(pre-release)Chapter ??: Universes CompassionAuthor's Note I had an urge to write some of the meat of the story out-of-chronological order. ~~Here's what I have so far:~~ Done! (pre-release)Chapter ??: Universes Compassion So many titles this entry could have; Miracles and Sacrifices, My Greatest Failure, Life in Balance? For you see, where I came from, humans never had contact with other kinds of intelligent life. Whether by chance, or some other happenstance, they never encountered anything more advanced than microorganisms amongst the stars by the time I left them. Leading to the belief that life was more spread out and rarer there, than it is here. In their isolation, humans perceived the universe as a rather indifferent place to exist in. Occurrences of misadventures throughout time, had led to that perspective. In contrast, what I have lived through and seen with my very eyes, has changed that belief in me; in this one. Meaning that my ponies and I, have seen a widespread miracle happen, a thing beyond our complete comprehension... And I and my ponies, were never before or since; both more humbled and honored, to be a tiny part of it. However, that honor was tempered by another's loss. Which leads us to the matter of the world of: Everwind, and their connection to the Gilata Chi'n T'ali. The latter is... was... the name of a species, and roughly translates to; 'Life's purpose'... They themselves, I can't see as bad creatures. It was what they believed, that made them... enemy. Had I the foreknowledge, or the wisdom, I hold that could have stopped what happened. However, I didn't have either of those, then. And now they're gone. The result placing me, I feel, in the same shoe as they lived. ... ... I don't know if they'll return someday, as the Gliders, which they once slew all of; miraculously did. To this very day, I still don't have the heart to try and find the answer to that question. It's possible that, in finding that answer, will be the fulfillment of why I was brought here? Perhaps the Gliders was the 'Why'? ...The universe may be compassionate, but it still keeps its secrets. I suppose I should start with the Gliders, and their world Everwind; The Gliders are slightly longer in leg, and broader in wing compared to their Equus pegasi counterparts. Their form, is adapted to contend with the occasional strong storms which naturally form on their world. Everwind, has little in natural predators. Leaving the primary cause of mortality of the Gliders; to misadventure by storms. However their numbers remain quite stable as the mortality rate is low, and their foalings similarly few. These pegasi do not live amongst the unpredictable clouds, but rather live in conventional structures as land bound ponies would. In this way, they maintain a safer and more stable culture and population. Nonetheless, they are renowned weathermasters, and their crops bountiful all year long. With their numbers consistently modest, and their needs always met, they remain content. The Gliders are not technological, and it remains to be seen if they will ever venture out into the stars. However because of the Gilata Chi'n T'ali and our interventions, their imaginations might have been forever influenced? The Gilata Chi'n T'ali, saw intelligence in other forms as a test against their own. As if their very existence in the universe would be violated if another persisted. As other forms were a mockery of intelligence as they knew it. So they lived, expanding their territory and purging mockeries as they went. I'll probably never know how many times they were tested, but whatever they encountered, had led them to develop into a force to be reckoned with. Space faring and technologically advanced, their abilities were ahead of us in some ways, and behind us in others. We learned of them covertly. My ponies may reach out into the stars, however they are not what I would call bold or reckless. Being a stranger in a strange universe myself, early on I bid my ponies to develop stealth technologies, over combative types. And reaching outward into the depths slowly, stealth probes charted worlds and phenomena. The probes themselves would remain silent in their work, never transmitting until their return to our space. And should they experience an unpredicted or unhandleable event, they would implode and self vaporize to leave no clues behind to their origin, at the cost of their collected knowledge. A scant couple decades before our encountering the Gilata Chi'n T'ali, the first shift-phasing cloak was deployed to the probes designs. Still in its infancy, it wasn't known how effective it could be against the unknown. Our first probe to discover intelligent life, did so through intercepting a short communication transmission. Slowly coming to a halt through randomized counter-inertia thrusts (another stealth method of disguising emissions as intergalactic phenomena), it waited and listened, going no further. Nearly a month overdue, the probe was considered lost and its course marked as a risk zone. However it returned intact with its logs stating that it returned after drifting slowly for a great distance in accordance to its programming. Inspection of its recorded data had us ecstatic, as the first space faring life outside of ourselves was discovered! However the recorded transmissions puzzled my ponies; For they were very short bursts, and regular like clockwork, yet the contents were always varied. So they weren't merely complex tracking data. Decrypting them, which took many months, showed what appeared to resemble duty reports, and little else. The communique were entirely regimented, yet seem to be made by living creatures and not machines. Getting an uneasy feeling, my ponies suspended probe deployments into that sector, as well as all adjoining sectors for a great radius. My ponies are very wise. As the deciphering of the language progressed, discussions over how to proceed, were had. We had two options before us; Attempt to learn more of them through surveillance, or avoid them all together. Both were a risk. Should we avoid them and have no contact, we would never know if they were friendly, nor if they posed an eventual threat. Should we survey them, we ran the risk of being discovered. And if they were potentially friendly, our efforts to evaluate them would work against us by turning potential friends into enemies should we be caught doing so. After months of debate, a consensus was reached that we wouldn't pursue them in any fashion until our stealth technology was more refined. Leaving them be until our chances of success had increased. While the decades after; passed, we stayed far clear and quiet of that area of space, hoping that our presence would not be discovered. ... The lives of my ponies and myself continued as normal, with only our curiosity of them remaining unsatisfied. When nearly a century had passed by, the debate was broached again. The desire to reach out to the other space faring species and befriend them hadn't dimmed. Passionate speeches of differences and similarities were made, and the prospect of learning more about the universe through them was argued favorably. Little did they know the immensity of future efforts then, that their arguments would realize in the coming decades. Nearly every single pony, including mothers with their foals at their sides, would be aboard ships eventually, in a combined effort against the Gilata Chi'n T'ali The little ones would remember their parents looking sad, and looking down to them with tear filled smiles as they worked, but not then understanding why. But I'm getting ahead of myself... Risking much on our revised stealth technology, we pressed into their space; slowly and cautiously. Observing their movements, my ponies shadowed their ships at a distance, all the while; recording their transmissions. Having deciphered their language, other ponies back home, poured over what was in them, building a small window into the mind of the Gilata Chi'n T'ali. What they assembled, showed to be; a difficult task in approaching a species so very different from ponies. However, they were ready to make the effort. As more detail of them reached my ears, the more I expected this to be a great burden on myself; Of maintaining relations with the species. Such is the weight of being a princess, and nothing worthwhile is ever easy... In hindsight, I'm not sure which weight would have been lesser; the burden of relations, or the guilt? Where was I? Ah yes; In shadowing their ships, we were led to many worlds that they inhabited. Mining resources there, they kept small contingents of labor to extract resources; A familiar sight. One world however, stood out like a sore thumb... Having no resource extraction, a small group lived there. Merely keeping a presence on that world, perhaps as a future resource, or a claim? Waiting for a window to open up, one of our ships tarried to perform some scans. Abandoning the unwitting escort, we waited for it to clear sensor range, and then scanned. When...that ship, returned back home to us... Our hearts sank, and our hopes were crushed... This world; was Everwind. Ponies... wiped out, gone. Our Kin ... We would never get to know them, or so we thought Then. My ponies which had to pour over the scan data, had troubled sleep for a long time after. As the other surveling ships returned home from their missions, none were sent back out to continue the efforts. All hope of establishing relations with the Gilata Chi'n T'ali died. Rational debates that followed, compared what we already knew of their culture and ways, against the possibility that they might have changed since the extincting of the ponies of Everwind. Perceiving the minds and ways of the Gilata Chi'n T'ali, convinced us that they had not changed, for this was a core principal that they held. Already at this time, some broached the specter of abandoning Maneous, and getting as far away from these creatures as possible. Expecting their territory to expand to our space in the coming centuries. In the back of my mind; I kept thinking of Equus... They couldn't flee, on their own. And why should they? But would our choice to flee, eventually doom them to a similar fate as the Gliders? Whatever the span of time would be, we were the only thing standing between these two polar opposites. The more I thought about it, the more my wariness and sorrow, turned to fire. That never, would I abandon my adoptive kin, in all ways imaginable; to such a fate. I would perish before that. What I now faced, was either a relocation on a scale incomprehensible, or a war. Either way, the cost would be immense. The worst part was; I did not see ponies being the successor. We were outnumbered, outclassed in aggression, weaponry, and mobility. As it stood, with even a century or two of preparation; I was convinced that time would not see pony kind as the survivors in a battle of attrition. Troubled by this, I sought the council of my adopting sisters. Over time, we had talked about the things that impacted our lives, and the Gilata Chi'n T'ali had come up a number of times throughout the many decades of idle chitchat. So they were not out of the loop in things which played beyond the skies of Equus. Though they didn't have the amount of detail on what I knew, they could see into me and in there; the weight that I was under. Both often teased that their long accumulated experience had left me as an open book to them. With few words from my muzzle, they could gleam how serious this matter was. Luna... In the manner that I cherish her most deeply, spoke directly; "It is war, is it not?" To which Celestia closed her eyes in resignation of the issue laid bare. Where Celestia was the olive branch of Equestria, Luna was the sword and shield, should the branch be trampled upon as it was offered. Things now had passed beyond the olive branch, and were firmly in her area of expertise. Her keen eyes were quick to see past my reticent words. After a moment, I replied; "Yes, one that I do not see any of our beloved ponies winning." Their eyes widening for a moment, then looked down and closed their eyes as my meaning settled upon them. After a time, Celestia looked back up and over to me. "What will you do?" she asked. "I don't know yet, but perishing... is not an option." "Mm-hmm. Flee then?" Luna asked. "That depends. It will be immensely difficult. Are you ready to forsake Equus, never to see it again?" I asked them both. After moments of silence had fallen between us, I took a deep breath and answered my own question; "Neither am I." With those three words, I decided which course would be taken. And in turn, set in motion things that would be joyous, as well as regrets, when I learned of them. Returning to my ponies council, I informed them of Equestria's position on the prospect of permanent relocation, and that we'd have to find another way to resolve the problem of the enemy. A few threw their hands up in defeat, however another stood up and spoke; "Why don't we look at this relocation issue from a different angle? Why should we, and the Equestrians; be expected to give up everything short of our very lives, to the Gilata Chi'n T'ali? They may be greater in numbers than we are, but we outnumber them in purview, two to one. Already one world has had ponies removed from it, and with that alone, they've already expended any deference that they're afforded. No more, I say; it's time that They be moved, and nopony else!" With that speech, the ears of ponies who had already given up, turned their ears up again. The words were spoken by Paradox; A stallion with a penchant for literature of dramatic irony. In listening to the discussions of fleeing the enemy, he was compelled to turn the tables around on them. In this he had all of our attention, transforming our melancholy into hope. Asked to go on, he replied with a simplified version of; putting all of the Gilata Chi'n T'ali back on their home world, and smashing their ships, all done in cloak. Effectively pulling their teeth out, and stranding them for a time, on a world that was already theirs. In one fell swoop, we'd have the leg up for as long as we remained vigilant. It would be more complex than that, of course, but I remember thinking; Yes, why couldn't we pull that off? Sure, the cost would be great, however it would be lesser than our terraforming multiple distant worlds to relocate to... which is already off of the table. There would be no open warfare, no attrition, and even... no bloodshed! Stars above, he's a genius! We can win this, and without emulating them! Murmurs filled the room as, one by one; they came to the same conclusion. Eventually cheers and tears of joy erupted as the weight of unwinnable war, melted away. When I told my sisters of this, they were at first; simply relieved. As they thought over it, they both eventually broke into gales of laughter at the incredulity of winning a war of unimaginable devastation without any loss of life whatsoever. Never had such a thing been done. This pleased both of my mentors greatly. Celestia; by the non-violent solution. Luna; that the danger would be thoroughly routed, and be made neutralized for the foreseeable future. So began our Un-War against the Gilata Chi'n T'ali A brief summery of the Un-War; Nearly all of it consisted of the preparation. Over twenty years were spent dedicating our excess energy to shipbuilding. The ships that were constructed, were of two designs; One was of low cargo capacity, but was our fastest design, even at the expense of navigation precision. These were for ferrying the Gilata Chi'n T'ali from their far flung ships and outposts, to their nearest core world. A great fleet of these were made, ponied by skeleton crews. In fact, nearly all of the ships were thinly staffed. Due to their vast area of habited space and number, relocating them all to their home world, was impossible. Time constraints, and their own home world resource availability made such a thing impossible. So we had to settle for a few worlds to constrain them to. The second design, was a more balanced design of large carrying capacity, versus speed. These were for the more closely located ones, and performed the bulk of the relocation effort. Both ship types carried an armory of implosion torpedoes, high power tractor arrays, and MmJ emitters. The last was used for spell casting purposes; in this application was a sleep spell, combined with a mild stasis. The stasis didn't provide us much latitude, due to the planetside Gilata Chi'n T'ali. Casting a spell worldwide sounds great in theory, however keeping an entire world in stasis for days at a time becomes untenable the longer it persists. As soon as the operation began, the clock was ticking on how long we could hold it together. From far flung outpost, to core world; it all had to happen at the same time, lest they would realize something was occurring and react violently. One thing we learned of the Gilata Chi'n T'ali, was that they keep a tight grip on each other at all times. During our shipbuilding years, we watched them. Close enough to track their movements and look for anything that might change our minds, but not too close. My ponies learned their outpost maps, schedules, and even their ship identifiers; Giving us a precision number of ships that they kept in service, and where to likely find them when the time came. ... When the time came, Maneus was practically exodused. Ponies everywhere boarded ships for the relocation effort, however unlike the plan posed earlier, they would return to their homes a short time later. By the time our invisible armada entered their space, all ships with their clocks synchronized; Had Two Weeks to find their designated target. Once found, they would shadow it until the mission clock reached zero. No communication was to be made, and all transmitters were disconnected. Once zero time was reached, some ships would project its sleep stasis field, and transport the entire target crew aboard. Others, cast it upon the worlds they orbited. Others yet; launched their implosion torpedoes upon uninhabited relay stations, defense satellites, shipyards, dry-docks, and outposts. An hour after zero time, communications were allowed to resume. Reconnecting their transmitters, ships checked in with each other and managed the variables in logistics. Nearly four days later, it was done. The Gilata Chi'n T'ali were safely placed into rooms, offices, halls, anywhere they were protected from the elements upon one of their core worlds. Their interstellar infrastructure was gone without a trace, and all of their emptied ships were towed into suns, leaving no wreckage behind. Had they any world bound ship production facilities; they were cleared of their slumbering occupants, and the facilities were removed with precision. In the end, we had evicted the Gilata Chi'n T'ali from space. Should they wish to enter it again, they would have to rebuild it from ship: one. Had the Gilata Chi'n T'ali any confusion whether this was somehow an unexplainable natural phenomenon, I left them a simple message that it was not. A message that their handiwork did not go unnoticed. Upon the courtyard of their central governance of each world, I carved a symbol into the stone a meter deep. Deep enough that it would not be repaired by the automated systems for weeks, certainly enough time for them to awaken and take notice amongst the confusion. That symbol, was the emblem of the Gliders: A hoof print, with a pair of wings adorning its outer sides. On their home world however, I carved something slightly different. Into the stone there, I carved the Glider's Cutie Mark, once I collected him from their tableau of proof of successful testings. The fact that he was the only pony there provided little solace to me, and I have to admit that all of my doubts of the mission had left me for a time thereafter. Pulling out of their core space; I declared the mission a success, and I made for Everwind to return the Glider to his home in an opaque container. He had more than his share of eyes look upon him as it was. The after un-war; Stepping hoof on Everwind; Myself, a few guards, and a couple advisors laid the unnamed stallion to rest in a silent ceremony outside their ruined stone city. Afterward, I walked through the streets among the toppled structures and between the growth that had begun work reclaiming the land. Entering one of the larger buildings, I looked for anything that would help me in some way, to know the pony that I laid eyes on. Entering a darkened room, I lit my horn so see what was within. I found a collapsed bookshelf, and stooped down to pick up one of the moldy books littering the floor. Opening it, I turned a couple of the pages. Not being able to read the words in it bothered me. That in all my travels, I had learned so many scripts... and here I was, for the second time; presented with a pony language which was now dead. A feeling of wrong-ness filled me, that this was not supposed to be. Something happened here, and it was false. Taking the book with me, I left the room and walked back out into the daylight. Spreading my wings, I flew up to the highest point still standing in the city. Looking down at the vista below, my imagination could almost grasp what the city was like in its hayday. But not quite. Looking to the book in my hands, I made up my mind. This city will rise again. It may not be quite the same, nor will be the ponies... But hooves will walk these streets, wings feel the air, and voices call this home, once more. Hopping from where I was perched, I glid down to my ponies, where I told them; "The un-war is over, and after a respite; the recovery is to begin." Leaving Everwind and making my way back home, I felt restless. Even though I was exhausted, thoughts of Everwind and the Gliders remained in my thoughts. Already I was making plans to undo the terrible event that had fallen there. The restoration project; Two years after I left Everwind, my hooves touched the stone of the city streets again. In orbit over the planet, was a contingent of ships. They were the same large ones used in the un-war, however now their cargo holds were filled with supplies. Another contingent had split off from the rest, to begin a patrol maintaining a border in space which sundered this sector of space from the Gilata Chi'n T'ali, and protected it from any future incursions by the enemy, should they appear. Whatever the enemy was engaged in, we were unawares. For the time being, our attention was committed here; on Everwind. Many of my ponies heeded my call to reverse, as much as could be done; the loss of the Gliders. Linguistic experts, engineers, architects, casters, analysts... the latter; some of which were graying in the mane upon their second visit to this world. Long having come to terms with what they saw from afar decades ago, were ready to enact some form of closure; in pony. Our first task was to record everything we could find, in attempts to learn the culture of the Gliders. The second task, was to rebuild the stone city in the finest detail, to what it was before the enemy came. The casters and myself were heavily involved in this task. The unicorn casters were trained by me personally in a couple of magics that I recovered from Tailus. Time scrying; Perilous, if used to decide your own actions based on what is seen with it. But if used to perceive the past, is as safe and accurate as any taken image. Setting up recording scanners around the viewing glass, every aspect of the city could then be seen, measured, and inspected, as it appeared centuries ago. With this method, even lost tomes could be recreated through using it. However it's a magically exhausting endeavor, even with a dozen combined unicorns, and therefor its application sparingly used. Outside of the city, a complex was constructed. There, the efforts of the analysts would bear fruit. As I did with my ponies in the beginning, ponies would grow from a single cell. The cell would be provided by those who heeded my call, however inside that living cell, would be the recovered dna of every glider that perished in that fateful event. Once grown, we would rear them in everything that we learned of their foster culture. With good fortune, they would not be reliant on us as they took to what they'd learned. Though it would never be the same as it was, their prosperity would be all reward we could ask for. As proud parents, and at the same time not, we would leave them to live their lives and their memory of us fade with the generations. Such was the plan. As the decades passed, some ponies entered and left the project, and I came and went as my duties allowed. My sisters saw less of me than they liked, and I had to compensate them with a tour of the Gliders restored city. In that time, I and the Linguistisists learned their spoken word, as well as the written. The former was the result of the scrying. In order to teach the new generation of Gliders their native tongue, we had to learn it first; first hand. Which is a little more difficult when one is an unseen third party centuries after the fact. My ponies scoured the land and seas for every Glider that was lost, specifically in that time. It was a long and morose task, but we prevailed. Dna was collected, and physical details were recorded Finally having every piece of the puzzle that we could think of, the conception phase commenced at the complex. Wonder; Little more than four months had passed since the beginning of the incubation phase of the Gliders' heirs; when one of the medical engineers made a startling discovery while performing routine checkups on the rapidly growing foals. One of the immature foals had... a cutie mark Getting the attention of her colleagues, the entire complex's staff was soon in an uproar. I was notified immediately via the emergency communications channel. Not believing my ears, they were quick to show me the side of the incubator: Floating inside: There she was; an unborn filly, with a peach fuzz brown and white coat, and a tiny cutie mark bearing a grey cloud with rain drops below it. Dropping everything, I boarded a ship to Everwind at maximum possible speed. When I got there, I saw it with my own eyes; It was true. But how? What did it mean? As I marveled at her, one of the medical engineers approached me, and handed me a pad without saying a word. Looking at it, my eyes widened as I beheld the brain scan of the filly. The neurotransmitter presence was astronomical! No young filly, not even a prodigy had this much. Let alone an unborn foal! Being advised to look at the previous days scan by Graph Chart, I did; Normal, only trace amounts. "We searched the database for her cutie mark your highness. We can't be sure, but we think it's also a match to the dna source of this filly." He said, handing me another pad. Looking at the next pad, there was just the biographical data listed next to a rough sketch of a cutie mark; "Brown and white coat, approximately Fifty Years age, Found eight hundred meters from the city, aside a foal; Colt, Beige and white coat, approximately Ten Years age, presumed.." Turning my head from the pad, I had to stomp down my emotions and squelch the images in my mind. Returning back to the first part of the data; "approximately Fifty Years.." I mumbled. "Yeah. Consistent with the levels of neurotransmitters we see in this filly. Fifty years worth of memory..." Graph Chart added while looking to the incubator. "Stars above..." From the corner of our eyes, a dim flash came from inside another incubator. As Graph Chart went to investigate, I stayed, as I felt what it was. It was what always happens when a pony learns of their special talent. Falling to my knees, I was overcome. ... I didn't have the words then. I still don't, even now. Kindred; Taking a risk, I bid my ponies to accelerate the growth of the filly to full physical maturity. Thinking that if she was what I thought, and her colt was going to rely on her... she would need to be fully grown. A few weeks later, she was foaled, dried off, and tucked into a bed in one of the staff quarters. Sitting at a table on the other side of the room; I waited for her to awaken. Stirring slightly, she then awoke with a start. Leaping up onto her shaky legs, she looked around in a panic. Spotting me, she spread her wings wide, pinned her ears, and adopted a threatening posture. This was a challenge. A natural response to a stranger with unknown intentions. "Who are you!? Where am I?! Where's my son?!" she spoke in her native tongue. She spoke... This is no foal that's confronting me; She's indeed, herself. I thought to myself. If I was going to establish any dialog with her, I would have to answer her challenge, first. Getting up, I spread my wings out fully, but kept my ears up, and my expression confident and neutral; Responding to her challenge. After a number of moments of silence, staring eachother in the eyes, the mares wings sagged and she broke eye contact. Lowering her head, she acknowledge that she lost the challenge against a stronger pegasi. Swinging my wings behind myself to be less threatening, I replied in her tongue with a soft voice; "Don't loose heart young one. I am no enemy to you, or any of the gliders, but a friend. I may be strange to you, but I am a pony as well. We'll reunite you with your son, if we can." As her ears perked and her head tilted, I was worried if anything I said made sense to her, and if what I spoke was complete gibberish in her language. "You talk strange" she said. Smiling a little, I folded my wings and sat down on the floor before her. "Maybe I didn't get your tongue completely right?" I asked, and she nodded. "It's all changed around" she said. "I apologize, we had to learn it by ourselves. There was nopony to teach it to us..." I let slip. "Nopony?" She asked me bearing a heartbreaking expression. Looking down, I nodded. "But, I..I'm..." She spoke with rising angst Smiling back, I replied; "Wonderfully, yes, you are." Beginning to tear up some, I continued with my voice thick with emotion; "Whatever exists amongst the stars... Deemed it too soon, for you to....go. And held you in its embrace, in slumber. Until now" While I had waited for her to awaken, I worked out in my mind; the answers to the big question she would ask. Though I didn't know, I knew that she would need answers. So I gave her the best one I could give. Something that made sense to me. Swallowing a lump in my throat, I said; "I think, the same power brought my ponies and I here...to wake you again" Wiping a few tears from my eyes, I told her; "It's an honor to meet you. I was worried that.. I wouldn't." Not meeting my eyes, she asked me; "Am I the only?" A little louder than I meant to, I answered; "No. So many, are nearly ready to wake up again. Will you help me? Help me greet them with a familiar face?" Her eyes wide, she asked me; "W-Why me?" "I ask myself the same question often. But I also ask myself, why not me? I'm here when I might not have been, so I... just do." Looking at me with a confused expression, I said it more plainly; "I too, should not have awoken again, a time ago. But I did. We have that in common. And I don't regret it." Thinking back, I became lost in reflection for a moment, when I realized that I hadn't introduced myself. "Oh, I forgot. I am princess Brighter Skies. I'm the ruling leader of my kind of ponies. May I have your name?" Slowly, she pushed out her name. She was still quite nervous, though I didn't expect her not to be. She had been though a lot, thought I didn't know the extent. "I'm..Rain Drops" "It's wonderful to meet you Rain Drops. Am I wrong to presume your special talent is mastering rainfall for crops?" Nodding, Rain Drops added; "I'm the sixth in succession to lead of the fruit trees orchard, in the east" To that my expression fell slightly, and she picked up on it. "What's wrong?" Signing, I answered her; "In your absence, the trees have either grown wild, or perished, I'm afraid. The other crops, had fared even worse. There's much work to do, though my ponies have restarted a small portion of each crop." Getting no reply, I filled the silence a bit; "I'm sorry, we should have prepared better. But we weren't sure... It will be some time before everypony wakes" Jumping up, Rain Drops demanded; "I must see them!" Nodding, I conceded her demand; "Of course. I will take you to where they are slumbering and growing. But I must tell you. By just looking at myself, and this place, that our ways are strange to you. And though they are strange, they work well. Same as would a new form of cloud busting or weather making. I ask that you keep that in mind as you see them. Though it will look strange, it is how you slept and became healthy before waking in this bed" Nodding again, I got up and turned toward the door; "If you will follow me Rain Drops, we shall visit the place where you were only a few hours ago. Along the way, you will likely see some of my ponies. Please forgive them if they stare. They are a a friendly lot, and are as honored to see you awake, as much as I am." Leaving the staff quarters, we walked to the lift, where I had a hard time convincing Rain Drops to get into a tiny room with a stranger pony. Eventually reaching the lower level, her bumping her read on the ceiling of the lift along the way down; we walked out with me stifling giggles as she rubbed her head and gave me an evil eye. "You should have warned me" Rain Drops grumbled. "I would have, had I thought you would try to fly in a tiny little room. Why would anypony bother to do that?" I asked her. "It moved! What pony would just stand there when the floor falls away?" she asked in exasperation. Realizing that Equus ponies had lifts, where the Gliders didn't, I replied with a simple shrug. Giving me a huff, Rain Drops stayed in the air, while I walked down the corridor. Every so often we'd pass by a pony that greeted us; Where I introduced Rain Drops, and she learned what a fist-hoof bump was. My ponies were well familiar with it because of the visitors from Equus. With a double door sliding open, and a jump from Rain Drops in response, I led her into the incubation room. Levitating a pad from a console we passed, I walked to the unit Rain Drops was in previously. "How did you do that?" she asked me. "Hmm? Do what?" "That thing, it just came over to you?" she elaborated. "Oh, I used my magic. My horn" "That's what that thing does? I thought it was for spearing things?" Rain Drops answered. "Ouch. No. That would hurt. And just so you know, never hit a pony's horn. Its more unpleasant than you can imagine, and more infuriating to a unicorn than you'd want to experience. If you did, you'd likely consider a spearing, a better alternative" I said with a grin, trying to discourage any thoughts she might be entertaining about weak spots. "Hmm...Whats a unicorn, and why do some not have wings or a horn?" She asked me. "There are three types of ponies where I'm from. Some have wings, some horns, some neither, and then there's me; who has all three perspectives of those types" "Ponies that never fly? That's terrible!" She blurted out, to which I laughed. "It's not so bad. When you don't have wings, being off of the ground is scarier than the floor falling away. I know." "You didn't have wings?" she asked incredulously. "Nope. Nor was I a pony, once" Looking over to her shocked expression, I said with a smile; "but I got better" Interrupting her reeling mind, I directed her to an empty incubation pod; "Here we are. This is where you were a short time ago, resting comfortably" "What do you mean, its a...thing?" Nodding I answered; "Right, it's just a thing. But it can do much. My ponies ancestors came from such a simple thing, much like the seed of a tree, and fertile ground. I was the seed, and this was the soil. Wonderful futures can grow here, like trees. Its up to the tree and the wind that blows through its leaves, to do the rest" Thinking it over, Rain Drops asked me; "Then I came from you?" Shaking my head, I kept my answer vague; "No, you were always you. Remember, that you were never really gone. Part slept somewhere I know not where, the rest, was where you lived..." Pausing for a moment, I couldn't restrain myself from asking; "If you'll forgive my curiosity, and you don't have to answer, but....what is the last thing you remember before waking and seeing me?" Landing on the floor, Rain Drops grew sullen. "I remember... it." Crouching down, I grasped one of her hooves. "I'm sorry Rain Drops. I wish I could take that last memory away... But I can't. Many things are beyond my ponies and I" "Me too. I don't want to remember that." "Please forgive me, I shouldn't have asked you" Shaking her head, she told me; "It's the foals that I'm sad for. They'll remember, too" Taking a moment to collect herself, Rain Drops asked me; "My son?" Giving her a nod, I turned my head to the pad in my hand; "Of course, give me a moment, please" Trying to avoid any more questions about those final past moments, I entered Rain Drops unit number on the pad, and cross referenced the Colt she was found with. His was just above hers. "Could you tell me about him? What did he look like? Had he a cutie mark yet? And, his age?" I asked her. "He's Nine years old, beige coat with white hooves, yellow mane like his sire, no cutie mark yet" The description matched the unit above hers. Checking the brain scan showed greatly elevated levels of neurotransmitters. Standing up, I peered into the incubator with a little colt floating inside. "I believe he is here. The lack of a cutie mark makes it a little harder to be sure however" It hitting her like a ton of bricks, she slowly realized that the containers were full of ponies. It had just not clicked with her before. Turning around, she took in the sight of the hundreds and hundreds of containers; all filled with ponies. It was a good thing that she had already landed, because she swooned and her legs collapsed under her. Tapping her leg, I offered her a glass of water. "What happened?" she mumbled. "You became dizzy and passed out. Here, some water" Eyeballing the clear cup, she sniffed the contents and grabbed my wrist to tip the cup. A moment later, she got back up on her legs and said only two words; "Which one?" Placing my hand on a container on the third row up, she hovered up to it, and looked inside. "I want him out of there, now!" Nodding to her, I said; "He can come out now, but he'll be only Eight years old, in pony. If he is to be Nine years old as he was, he must stay in there for a week more, and grow stronger. He's your son, choose his age" Rain Drops looked angry and conflicted. "You can stay with him for the week if you wish. I can bring a bed here for you, if you would like?" With a grunting huff, she conceded to wait. As the week passed by slowly, I talked with her to pass the time, as did one of the linguists who could speak her tongue. From time to time, she wandered a couple aisles, looking at the ponies inside. It was like she was trying to find a familiar face. She helped me put some names to cutie marks, which helped my ponies in deciding which order to accelerate growth and foal from the incubators. When the week was over, her son was foaled again. He was quite scared at first... echo's of the past. The strange surroundings at the complex didn't do him any favors either. Later that day, I showed them both to the exit, the colt buzzing next to his mother. Where they took off and flew over the city a few times, and into a couple of the buildings. When they came back to the side of the city where the complex was, she talked about how clean it was, and that there was no sign of what happened. I thanked her for the compliment, and admitted that I couldn't have accomplished it without my ponies help. Feeling a bit more trusting of the strange ponies she met, Rain Drops vowed to help me wake the others. She also insisted that they wake up in a room in the city, rather than in the complex. Which made perfect sense. Over the next half a year, the Gliders all woke, and were reunited with their friends and families. Though they were friendly, under the surface I could see that they were a little skittish about us. Not surprising after what they remember happening like it were yesterday.... In the end, only their orchards would be of poor production for the foreseeable decade or so, but they compensated for that with larger crops. Taking down our complex, we replaced it with the crop of their choosing; A carrot-like taproot, I believe. Bidding Rain Drops and the rest farewell, my ponies and I left Everwind. I placed a few satellites in orbit so we could make sure there were no unforeseen consequences of the compromised orchards. Beyond that, I let them be, as we had planned in the beginning. They are still going strong today, unchanged as far as we can see from afar. But who knows? Hopefully, I lived up to my special talent; in bringing life to a world. And in the process, maybe made the horizon, the skies; just a little bit brighter. The other shoe; A little while after we left Everwind, and with our attention freed again; More than just my thoughts returned to the Gilata Chi'n T'ali. More than three decades had passed since we last had dealings with them, and the patrols never encountered as much as a single transmission this far out from their core space. As the second part of our plan required staying vigilant, it was required that we know if a problem was reasserting itself far off. The patrols were diverted to the Gilata Chi'n T'ali core worlds' space, to evaluate the situation. ... They were gone. The core worlds were not just empty of Gilata Chi'n T'ali, but life altogether, save for maybe some subterranean microbes that we haven't found. What still remained in the upper atmospheres; told the story of what they would do, should they fail their tests of their place in the universe. I refer you to the analysis reports, should you seek the morbid details, for I will not write them here. Sufficed to say, that they found themselves bested by another. One of the mockery's, had outplayed them, and I did not appreciate what that meant to them, and what they'd do as a result. Their cities still stand, the planetside infrastructure still maintaining itself, though it's starting to fail. Empty tombs, sterile and clean. A monument to so much, yet at the same time; nothing. I thank the stars that the message I left there has at least been erased, as it was in a way... a mark of death. Despite my best efforts... I failed, there. We placed all of the ships we built in that time on a planetoid, including the ones used for the patrol. Serving no purpose any longer, it was discontinued. Storing them all in hopes that they would never be called on again. So far, that has held. Life continues on for ponies, whether they remain on land, the skies, or amongst the stars. I hope that the universe, in its course; shall continue to smile on us all, and will forgive me my shortcomings in it.
