The Traveler

As she wanders through a prairie at night, watching the ponies begin constructing a new city on the side of a mountain, Equise is startled by a thunderous boom that echoes throughout the skies above her. Lifting her head up to see what startled her, she watches a strange object soaring through the sky surrounded by fire and leaving a trail of smoke in its wake towards the Everfree Forest.

When the object crashes through the canopy, it startles the birds that were perched, into taking flight. Curious about what it is, she spreads her wings and hurries over to investigate it.

It takes her a few minutes of flying to reach the site when she looks down to see branches broke off the ironwood trees, seeing a great furrow three times as wide as she is long leading further ahead into the Everfree Forest. When she lands beside the furrow and walks along the bank, she sighs when she sees smaller trees bowled over and uprooted. Not wanting to leave the furrow there, she smooths it out and continues to follow the path of destruction.

She follows the furrow to the end, smoothing the furrow with the ground as she goes, and arrives to see small fires burning around the furrow. Needing to stop the fires from spreading, she uses her magic to quickly smother them when she watches a whole tree start to burn wildly.

Rushing over to put the fire out, she spots a strange shape in the darkness behind the great tree. Almost forgetting about the fire, she starts to walk around the tree to get a better look at the object until a pop sounds beside her and sends a hot ember flying past her nose. Jumping back, she turns back towards the tree and uses her magic to smother the fire, which takes her a little bit to put out for some strange reason.

After succeeding in smothering the fire by using her magic to remove the air around it, she sighs when she looks at the charred tree and says, "I'm sorry for not putting the fire out sooner, it proved to be different from normal fire, but I am sure that you will make it past this and thrive once again."

Returning her eyes to where she saw the object, all she sees is darkness until she hears a strange crackling sound somewhat similar to lightning in the sky during a thunderstorm. When a reddish glow then appears around the corner just ahead of her, her eyes are drawn towards it's source when she notices the shape of a strange object appearing to have what seems to be unmoving wings on its body.

Making her way around the object, she uses a spell to examine it as best she can. When she discovers that it is made out of a strange metal, she wonders where it came from as she notices a space on the machine with a clear material all around it with numerous cracks running through it. As it is far too dark to see inside, she casts a spell to illuminate her horn and spots a strange creature in a strange outfit inside the space.

Her attention is pulled away by the red glow again when she spots a bright flicker on top of the large object, looking up to see that a flame is burning hotly as she hears a loud crackling pop that sends sparks flying everywhere. As a few of the sparks land on the ground, some of them land on fallen, dry leaves and start fires of their own. Spurred into action to stop the fire, she puts out the smaller fires first before flying to the top of the object to tackle the large fire.

When she lands on top of the metal object, she sees two thin, square, metal piece bent upwards. Looking the top over, she notices that the other metal pieces are flat all around the other pieces, assuming them to be damaged, she looks the plates over quickly to spot several indentions placed evenly along the edges of each piece with a strange piece inside each one.

A closer look at the indentions tells her that the pieces inside the indentions are holding each of the larger pieces in place, causing her to drop her illumination spell and use her magic to grip one of the pieces inside the large, damaged pieces, and attempt to remove them.

Attempting to pull it straight out and failing to do so, she then attempts to twist it to her left and then right. After a few minutes of applying more force each time, she succeeds in getting one loose. Taking it the rest of the way out, she sets it aside and starts to work on the next one.

It takes her only a couple minutes to get the others out when she is able to lift the plate out of the way and set it aside, revealing a large fire underneath the plate that burns white-hot. Using her magic to subdue the flame with water, she gets a nasty surprise when the spell fails spectacularly and sends her backwards, and off the top of the object.

Hitting the ground roughly on her flank, she painfully exclaims, "OW!" Equise groans and rubs her horn, saying, "That was really unpleasant... It has been quite some time since I experienced a spell's blowback that fiercely." Getting back onto her hooves, determined to stop the fire, she returns to the top of the object and tries a different approach to smother the flames.

It takes a few minutes to get the fire to die out when she figures out why her first attempt failed, saying, "Note to self, water and lightning don't get along."

As she drops her spell, the lightning flashes again and starts the fire anew. Casting her spell once again to kill it, she notices something leaking out from a strange tube, wondering, 'Could that fluid be the cause of this fire? Let's find out...'

Using her magic to seal the end of the tube, she watches as the fire slowly dies out, causing her to grin at her success, saying, "There, now there is no more danger from the fire, I can continue investigating this object."

Meanwhile, inside Travis's cockpit

The sounds of alarms stirs me awake, causing me to look around groggily at the gauges before me. Not recognizing any of them, I start to look for a way out of this small space I am in when I hear a speaker crackle to life and say, "Starship's life support system...damaged, Exosuit life support system...functional. Multi-tool rifle...heavily damaged, systems available...mining beam and boltcaster." The voice then seems to address me as it says, "Glad to see you've come to, Traveller, I was worried that you would never wake up."

Wondering who just spoke, I ask, "W-Who are you and where am I?"

Controlling the eye over my shoulder, she swivels it around and says, "I am your companion AI, my name is Evette." Looking around her, she attempts to initiate a scan through the starship systems, but fails, saying, "I am currently unable to tell you our location and date due to the status of your suit and ship. Apologies, it seems that the analysis systems of both your exosuit and starship are critically damaged, among others."

Letting out a frustrated groan at not being able to remember what brought me here, I then say, "Wonderful...just wonderful." Shaking my head, I sigh and ask, "Okay then, can you at least offer me guidance about what I need to do next?"

As I try to recall anything I know about myself, everything comes up blank as I listen to Evette speak, saying, "It is strongly recommended that you exit your starship due to it being unable to properly function."

Blinking, I nod and then ask, "Okay, and how would I do that if I don't remember how?"

Worried, Evette moves the camera around to look at me and asks, "Are you capable of remembering anything at all, how about your name?"

Trying to remember what my own name is for five minutes, I give up and shake my head, saying, "Unfortunately, I can't remember anything besides how to speak, and walk. Oh, and I do have some basic knowledge about hot and cold, as well as a few other things. Can you tell me anything you know about me or my life, Evette?"

She considers it for several long seconds before replying, "I could, but it is best if you can recall it on your own, for if I were to tell you what I know...it may not feel real to you and potentially lead you into darkness. Fear not, for I shall aid you whenever it is necessary. With that said, you should check the lower right corner of your starship's cockpit for a sliding handle and slide it back towards you."

Finding the handle on the right side, I slide it back with a little force, watching as the cover slides forward, then lifts upwards, asking her, "Okay, how do I shut this thing off?"

She looks down towards the right arm, saying "To power down the starship, look at the key inserted into the dashboard before you and twist it towards you, then pull it out of its slot and store it in a pouch on your exosuit."

Looking at the front dashboard, I find the mentioned key and grab it with two fingers, then twist it toward me. Hearing the alarms go silent as the lights turn off, causing everything to go dark, wondering, 'Uhm, does my exosuit have any lights on it?'

Raising his arms to look for controls, he finds a control panel on his right forearm and sees a few buttons on it, though some of them are red.

Watching him going to press one of the buttons, Evette speaks through the internal speaker on his helmet, saying, "If you are looking to turn the lights of the exosuit on, press the button that has an illuminated symbol having a blue tube connected to a small cone. Once you see three lines in front of the cone end, you will know it is on aside from seeing a white light follow where your head is facing."

Pressing the button, I see the white light illuminate the interior of the cockpit, then try to stand up when I am stopped from doing so. Looking down, I spot a straps holding me in place and investigate how to disconnect them so I can exit the cockpit. Once I get them disconnected, I stand up and climb out of my seat. Looking over the edge of the cockpit, I see a ladder extending towards the ground and climb down it.

Watching from behind the bushes, Equise observes the strange, sentient creature with two voices look around as it speaks to itself in a language she has never heard before, asking in a seemingly male voice about what to do next. Not hearing the second voice respond, the creature then turns and starts walking away from her towards something. Wondering what it is about to do, she quietly makes her way around out of sight to watch when she watches him pull something off his back and hold it like a weapon.

A few moments pass when she suddenly sees a bright blue orb come out one end of the weapon and strike a broken branch, breaking it into pieces. The sight surprises her and makes her think, 'So this creature can use magic too? What was the purpose of breaking the branch?'

After being told about the weapon being on the wrong tool, I sigh and say, "Should have asked how this thing works before I tried to use it..." then hold in in front of me and switch it over to the mining laser, saying, "Let's try this again and see what this is made out of."

Equise watches him raise the weapon and aim it at the broken branch, cocking her head and wondering, 'Just what are you trying to do with the pieces of that branch?' She gasps when she sees a dark red beam shoot out the front and hit one of the broken pieces, causing the branch to glow a bright red color as it transforms into a small dust cloud and hover before him in the red glow.

Releasing the trigger, I release the weapon with my right hand and pump it in the air, saying, "Yes! It's made out of carbon, now I just need to mine a few more of these to be able to craft a nanotube..."

When she watches a small hole open up on the object on his back, the floating cloud is then engulfed by a small white beam and then pulled inside of the opening as he turns the rest of the broken pieces into floating red clouds of dust. Once they too are absorbed, he moves to a larger branch and does the same thing to it as she uses her magic to subtly examine the clouds. Shocked to learn that they are just clouds of carbon, her eyes are wide as she thinks, 'So that red beam spell transforms the branches into their base element, interesting. What do you need the carbon for?'

Once I gather enough carbon, I return the rifle to my back and then follow Evette's instructions on how to craft a nanotube. It takes me a few minutes to create one, so I take a seat and set it on my right thigh before starting on making a few more. When the last tube is made, I ask, "Alright, now what do I do with them?"

Using his internal speaker, Evette says, "The analysis visor is actually installed in the MTR you carry. You need to set it across your lap and remove the cover, I will use the camera lens lights to provide additional illumination. Look for a double button-slide release to either side of the cover, then once it pops up, remove it and set it aside to see the tubes below it. The nanotubes are held on by a set of butterfly clamps which can be opened by using the compact, folding multi-tool in your left arm's compartment. To access the pliers combination, simply unfold the tool in half fully. To use the pliers, simply open and close your hand as far as you need to, as the pliers have a spring built into the head of the pliers. To remove the butterfly clamp, simply grip the two tabs and squeeze them together, then gently wiggle them back and forth to pull them off the end of the hard tube that the soft nanotube is squeezed onto. Do I need to repeat myself, Traveller?"

Shaking my head and saying no, I retrieve the pliers from my forearm's compartment and open them up, then give them a try by opening and closing my hand. After dropping them once, I brush the dirt off and set them beside the new nanotubes then set myself to the task of taking the MTR off my back.

Equise watches him as he removes his weapon and set it across his lap, the object beside him turns to it and shines light upon it. Removing a long piece off the back of his weapon, she sees him use the device from earlier and start to work on doing something to it. Realizing that he is fixing something when he puts one of the newly-crafted tubes into the weapon, she watches him slide tiny bands around the ends of each of the replaced tubes. When the last one is in place, the long piece is returned to its place as he then picks up his weapon and returns it to his back, wondering to herself, 'I wonder what purpose those tubes serve in that weapon?'

Sliding the weapon into place on my back, I ask, "Now does my analysis visor work?"

As she finishes testing the integrity of the newly repaired parts, Evette says, "Affirmative, you did a wonderful job at not damaging the delicate tubes while installing them, you can now examine objects to discover information about their makeup."

With that repaired, I look at the information in the bottom left of my visor, seeing an indicator just above the temperature showing that my oxygen is at 75%. When I look at the temperature, I see that it is currently 50 degrees Fahrenheit with 0.2 radiation and 0.6 toxicity and then ask, "What do you recommend I do next?"

Thinking it over for a moment, the AI says through the internal speaker, "It is recommended that you repair the scanner inside it to find resources vital to your survival on this planet, please look around and scan items for anything primarily containing Ferrite. If you are wondering what to do with the damaged nanotubes, you can deconstruct them to regain some of the materials used to craft them."

Equise watches as he picks up the tubes and turns them into red clouds of dark dust with a magic that comes from somewhere at the end of his upper limbs. When he rises from the forest floor, he pulls the weapon from his back and then aims it at a rock upon the ground before casting a spell. As he aims at various things around the forest floor, casting the same spell on each one, she follows him through the forest at a distance while wondering, 'Just what are you looking for?'

Before she gets too far away, she recalls the large object being out in the open and decides to cast a large illusion spell to hide it from view and keep others from getting too curious. Turning back to the bipedal creature, she resumes following him at a distance as he resumes searching for something.

While he wanders through the forest, scanning objects as he goes, he comes across a big boulder and scans it. Once he sees the makeup of it, he grins and then begins to mine the boulder, saying, "Here we go, finally I found some Ferrite."

As Equise watches him turn the whole boulder into a red cloud filled with sparkling bits in it, she uses her own spell to scan the cloud in a subtle way. Discovering that one of the materials is some kind of metal and the other stone, she observes him resume scanning things after absorbing the cloud. Once he collects enough of the materials needed, she follows him to a clearing as he begins working on his weapon again.

I look all around the clearing, scanning various items in search of anything capable of being refined into chromatic metal, striking out until I decide to use the scanner to send out a pulse to reveal anything useful, saying, "I hope that there is something in the area that I can use..."

The mysterious alicorn feels something pass through her, causing her to shiver lightly, thinking, 'Just what in the world was that spell supposed to do' Her question goes unanswered as she looks around for any indicators of it doing anything, causing her to wonder, 'Did it reveal something that only he can see? I better follow him and find out.'

So, I spend several hours wandering through the forest looking for anything usable, but only finding traces of gold and silver below my feet as well as scattered gems of various types. In fact, I wander around so long that the sun is high in the sky above me when my stomach rumbles and sigh, saying, "I sure hope you know of another way to repair the life support systems on the ship so that I can eat..."

Rotating the camera around, Evette looks at him while speaking through the internal speaker, saying, "Not to worry, I have taken a few samples of the atmosphere here and have discovered that the air is breathable and is quite tolerable to the sensitive needs of the human bodies, so you can take off your helmet to save oxygen."

I blink a few times and ask, "Are you certain that I won't suffocate with my helmet off?"

Nodding the camera up and down, the AI says through the internal speaker, "I am absolutely positive that you will survive without wearing your helmet."

Letting himself trust her, he sets his weapon across his back and then reaches up to remove his helmet, asking, "How exactly do I remove it?"

Looking at the environment around the them, she answers through the internal speaker, "Just below the helmet on the left side, is a button to open the lock and seal that keeps your helmet in place, press it and then just twist your helmet to your left and pull it off. Once you get it off, be sure to press the blue button to activate the protective barrier to keep bugs and other pests out of it. When it is active, there are a couple of hooks on either side of the pack that clip onto small rings on either side of your helmet."

As Equise watches him remove his helmet curiously, she sees that they have tan skin with a brown mane on top of their head, coming down to their shoulders and wonders, 'What manner of creature are you?' While she continues to follow him through the forest, he starts to investigate nearby bushes for something before she hears the strange voice say something that she doesn't understand. Grumbling silently to herself, she thinks, 'I really wish there was a spell to help me understand whatever they're saying...'

Walking away from the inedible berry bush, I continue walking into the forest when I eventually find a clearing which has several trees with strangely colored objects growing on its branches and ask, "What in the hell are those?"

Evette uses the camera to look at them and scans them, saying, "Even though they are colored strangely, they appear to be a member of the apple family, and are edible according to what my scan tells me. It is strongly recommended to wash it off with clean water before taking a bite out of it."

Reaching up to one of the hanging fruits, I hear my stomach grumble as I pluck one off the tree, saying, "Alright then, see if you can locate any nearby sources of water."

Using her connection to the MTR, she makes it send out a pulse and looks around at what it revealed. It takes a few seconds, but she does spot a small stream a fair distance away. Turning the camera around, she says, "There is a stream to the south 1000 meters, to your left that might be adequate to clean the apple in."

Plucking a few more apples off the tree to satisfy my hunger, I pick up the pile in my arms and start to make my way to where the stream was located.

Equise follows the creature as he heads south to the river, having to walk a fair distance before reaching it. Finally arriving, she hears the creature say something to the second voice. When it replies, the creature puts the pile of apples down and grabs one by the stem, then place it into the water and shake it vigorously in the water a few moments before pulling it out.

Holding it in my hand, I then raise it up to my mouth and take a small bite out of it. A sweet and tangy, juicy flavor erupts through my mouth as I start to chew the chunk of apple, drawing a pleased hum from me as I say around the small mouthful, "Mmmm, this is so good!"

She watches him devour the rest of the zap apple and toss the core aside, then wash off another and start to eat it. Relieved that he seems to enjoy fruit, she watches him continue to wash and eat the rest of the apples. When the last apple is gone, he talks to the second voice briefly before reaching for a circular object with flat sides hanging at his side. Pulling the object free and removing a small cover, he then raises it up and tips the opening towards his mouth. Realizing that the fluid is only water, the container is soon emptied and then dunked into the stream to be refilled.

After going back to pick a bunch more of the tasty apples, having to jump up to reach a few of them, I then store them inside my backpack and go back to searching for metal to refine into chromatic metal, eventually arriving at a large mass of stone to the northeast and scan it with my MTR, saying, "Well, I found some copper, but will I be able to mine it inside this mass of stone?

Turning the lens towards him after scanning the rock face, the AI says, "Unfortunately, you will not. To mine the copper hidden in the mountain, you will need to repair your Terrain Manipulator. In order to repair it, you will need to find either hydrogen or di-hydrogen in order to create three ounces of di-hydrogen jelly and craft one carbon nanotube. If you are unable to find any sources of di-hydrogen, here are a couple of recipes to be able to manufacture it."

As the creature turns to resume wandering through the forest, Equise watches him scan various plants for something else. Several minutes pass by as he encounters a Timber Wolf, causing her to open her mouth to warn him, but something keeps her from uttering a sound as she decides to remain hidden.

Looking up to see a strange creature made from bits of wood, I bring my MTR up and aim it at the creature and scan it, asking, "What exactly am I looking at here?"

Evette looks the scan details over and then says, "A strange type of wolf seemingly made out of bits of wood, though it has an internal core formed of crystalized hydrogen and methane gas. This wolf is clearly a predatory carnivorous creature as I do detect old traces of blood, flesh, bones, and meat between its sharp, wooden teeth. It is strongly recommended to find a way to kill this creature and harvest its heart, located within its chest cavity as it will try to kill and eat you. Shoot it until it falls apart, then mine its heart to ensure it stays dead or else it will gather its pieces and regenerate its body."

Switching to my Bolt Caster, I aim at the creature's head and pull the trigger to see it break off a piece of a branch and say, "Well, this is going to take a little while..."

The alicorn stays hidden as the creature starts firing blue orbs of light at the Timber Wolf, blasting small bits off of it with each one. While managing to dodge out of the way, the creature slowly gets the upper hand in the fight and presses the advantage. As the Timber Wolf falls to pieces, the bipedal creature moves branches around until it finds a glowing, green crystalline orb.

Finding the orb, I quickly stand up and switch my weapon to my mining beam and quickly mine the orb for resources. Once it is fully harvested and collected, I ask Evette, "Okay, how many more of those orbs will I need to collect to make some jelly?"

Her eyes are wide with surprise at seeing the creature successfully and permanently defeat a Timber Wolf, thinking, 'I can't believe that he managed to truly kill a Timber Wolf, I never thought that I would see it happen. I wonder what he intends to do with what he collected from the core?'

After hearing that I need to collect three more cores to have enough to make the jelly, I sigh and then continue wandering through the forest to find another wood wolf, sending out a few wolf-whistles, saying, "Where are you hiding, you wooden wolves? Too scared to come out and play with someone half your size?"

Assuming that he is taunting the Timber Wolves from the way he walks, talks, and whistles, Equise watches from a safe distance as he then encounters a pack of four Timber Wolves ambushes him. The wolves have the upper hand for several minutes, pinning him 7 times until he gets a lucky hit in and causes one of them to fall to pieces. Desperately wanting to help out in the fight, her inner voice of reason tells her that it is best to let the creature defend itself.

With one of the wolves defeated, I fire shots at the three remaining wolves to keep them at bay while I glance down at the pile and shuffle bits of wood aside to find the glowing crystal core. Taking me several long seconds to find it, I see it and then say, "There it is Evette, collect it before it regenerates!"

The alicorn watches as the crystal is pulled into a small opening in the thing on his back, taking it to be some kind of a storage container of sorts when she gasps at seeing three more sneaking up behind him. Unwilling to stay out of the fight any longer, she trots out from behind the brush hiding her and shouts, "Behind you!" then uses her magic to grab all three of them and throws them towards trees in front of the creature.

The appearance of the new creature surprises him, but what really leaves him speechless is the fact that it spoke with a clearly feminine tone. Watching as three more wolves are thrown against the trees, they struggle to get to their paws and decides to deal as much damage to them as possible and fires several rounds at their heads. It takes six rounds to knock the first one into pieces, leaving only five more foes to deal with when he spots movement to his left to see one of the wolves seizing the opportunity to rush him.

As Equise sends another wolf flying into a tree, she feels the bipedal creature grab her by her tail and yank her backwards. Shouting out in pain, she then whips her head around to yell at him for yanking her tail like that, but sees a Timber Wolf rush by and snap his jaws shut where her neck would have been.

Quickly knocking another wolf out of the fight for a bit, I then rush another wolf and bash the butt of my weapon against its head. When it collapses into a pile of debris, I then start firing rounds off at another wolf attempting to attack me from behind while digging through the pile for the orb.

Using her magic to toss a couple other wolves into trees, she helps the creature dig through the piles for the cores and sets them before him, saying, "Here are the fallen one's cores, collect them before they rise again!"

Not understanding her words, her actions are clear when I spot the two cores from the two downed wolves and see Evette starting to pull them into the backpack already, then keep firing at the wolf from before. As it charges me in an attempt to bring me down, I focus my shots at its head until it collapses to the ground, the pile sliding forward until an orb rolls to me out of the pile. When my AI starts collecting it, I see one of the two remaining wolves be thrown into a tree, I concentrate my shots at it to knock it out of the fight until something slams into me and sends me across the ground violently.

As Equise watches the bipedal creature struggle to get up, she uses her magic to tear the wolf away from him and slams its back against the tree hard. Once she hears a crunch from it, she knows that something broke as it growls low and stalks around with a hobble in its back legs, silently praying that the bipedal creature will get back up soon as she can't keep throwing them around for much longer.

Several seconds pass when my vision finally stops swimming, allowing me to stand back up and return to the fight. Shaking my head clear one last time, I raise my MTR up and fire at the wolf with the strange walk. Once it falls apart, I turn my attention to the last surviving wolf and start firing at it, nearly making it fall into pieces when it howls and disappears into the forest. I hurry to the pile and search through it for the core as I look around for any more of the wolves, finding the core and letting my AI collect it before remaining quiet and observant for several minutes.

Once it is clear that the wolves have given up, I look at the strange creature who helped me and start to let out a relieved laugh.

Not knowing why, the alicorn joins in on the laughter for several seconds before letting out a sigh, saying, "Hello, my name is Equise, and I am an alicorn. Who and what might you be, stranger?"

Cocking my head in confusion at her strange language, I blink twice before asking, "Huh, what are you saying?"