The Traveler

With us both not knowing what each other is saying, I pull the crystal cores out and harvest the materials from them one by one with the mining beam before begin creating the di-hydrogen jelly that I need for the repairs to my MTR. When I notice the creature looking over my shoulder that Evette identified as a type of horse, I recall how she also detected from scans that the creature is a mare and a pony due to her size.

Knowing that the mare is far too small to even consider riding, Evette says, "Since she is sentient and clearly capable of speaking, as well as capable of using a strange form of energy, it is strongly advised to never be rude and consider her a mount or it might be you she attacks next."

Nodding along, I say, "I will remember that if I ever find a way to understand and speak to her." Turning my attention back to my MTR, I look for where to insert the jelly and find a metal container with a split in its side. Carefully setting the jelly aside, I start to remove the damaged container when I notice the mare pick up the jelly with her strange energy and attempt to touch it with her hoof. Lurching forward to stop her, I grab her hoof and jerk it aside while shaking my head, saying, "Evette, please find a way to convey to her that this substance is dangerous to touch before she hurts herself."

The action startles her into trying to pull her hoof back as she lets the gel drop to the ground, pausing when she watches a light emit from the strange object over his shoulder. Moments later, she sees an image appear before her showing the leg of a creature's hooved leg with a droplet falling onto a portion of the leg, having a portion of the flesh missing and revealing the bone underneath. Gasping when she sees a wispy line wafting out from the missing flesh, she understands that the image means the substance is dangerous to bodily contact and quickly sets her hoof back down, saying, "Sorry for my curiosity, I didn't know it was dangerous."

Sighing in relief, he pulls the jelly back towards him as she looks at the jelly curiously while surrounding it with her strange energy, asking his AI, "What is she doing with her energy?"

Scanning the phenomenon, the AI says, "She seems to just be attempting to study what you made, you may proceed with deconstructing the old container and then making a new one from the leftover Ferrite you collected."

Nodding, I pick up the container and then dematerialize it, then extract some leftover Ferrite to craft a new container for the jelly. Once the container is finished, I install it to where the old one came from and remove the cover from it. Picking up the jelly ball, I then clean it as best I can and set it into the compartment, then squish it down with the lid to make the jelly fill the space, then screw the lid on tight before finally pulling out some carbon to craft a nanotube.

Equise watches curiously as he makes another small tube, then pulls out the tool from a spot on his forelimb and unfolds it. Using it to take a small tube off, he moves the bands over to the new tube and puts it where the old one came from, then moves the bands towards the outside ends. Appearing to be finished as he puts the long piece back onto the weapon, he then breaks the old tube down into its base substance and absorbs it before folding the tool back up.

Returning the pliers to their place, I pick up the MTR and ask my AI, "Okay, it is functional now, right Evette?"

Examining the MTR, Evette turns the lens to him and answers, "Affirmative, now you are able to terraform the ground around you, meaning that you can alter the very ground you walk on. By turning the larger dial behind the smaller one on the front left side of the weapon's forward grip, you can choose which function to use. The available options are: mine, create, restore, or flatten. If you look at each of the icons when you turn the dial, you will see level ground with a big downward bend in it, showing that it is the mining setting. The image with a bump on level ground indicates the create ground setting. With all four settings, you can adjust the size of the worked area by using the plus or minus buttons beside the indicator led. The level ground with a soft downward bend and a plus sign above the bend indicates the restore ground setting. Lastly, the level ground icon with a downward arrow signifies the leveling setting. The forward dial is how you select other weaponry installed into your MTR, unfortunately, all of them require repairs."

Nodding my head, I then stand up and hold it at the ready position while looking at the mare, using my left hand to gesture in the direction of the mountain range with my thumb for her to ask her to come along, asking, "I'm going this way if you would like to tag along, miss."

When the alicorn watches the biped start walking towards the mountain range again after gesturing over his shoulder with his appendage, she asks herself, 'Wait, was he asking me if I wanted to go with him?' Rising to her hooves and wanting to learn more about this intriguing creature, she trots after him to catch up a bit as the sun starts to go down.

Making my way back to the mountain a bit after sunset, I sigh and realize that I am far too tired to mine when I let out a big yawn. When I hear the mare yawn herself, I look around for a spot to sleep and see a clearing a short ways away. Making my way to the clearing, I gather up some scattered pieces of wood lying on the forest floor and make a pile to start a fire.

As Equis realizes he intends to sleep here tonight, she flies up into the sky and gathers a large piece of cloud to make a bed to sleep on when she remembers how he slept on the ground for the past couple of nights. Knowing that she is very well off compared to his sleeping arrangements, she pushes the cloud down to the ground near him and notices how he looks at her curiously. Wondering how she will offer to let him rest his head on her, she thinks it over before deciding to act out her offer.

I look at the golden yellow mare with a strange flowing white mane curiously as she pushes the cloud to the ground near me and the fire, then flattens it out with her hooves before sitting upon it and pointing at me with her right front hoof. She then moves her hoof to one side and raises the other front hoof to join it, then places the bottoms together, and lays her head sideways upon them before closing her green eyes to indicate sleep. Still not done, she then lifts her head up and opens her eyes, placing her left hoof back on the ground while lying on the ground and then patting the side of her body. Not really understanding it until she performs the same motions two more times, I finally understand that she is telling me to use her side as a pillow to sleep on. Smiling at her and nodding to tell her yes, I then pull out a small hand torch and start the small fire after making sure nothing flammable is near it. Once the fire is going, I pull off my MTR and set it away from the fire, then remove my backpack and set it nearby. Once it is off, I then pull out several of the apples I collected and offer them to her, which she accepts with a bright smile.

After eating dinner, I watch as she gets comfortable on her cloud bed and use her energy to put up a bubble of light around us before patting her side with a hoof. Nodding my head, I make myself comfortable beside her and lie down on my back with my head on her barrel. Drifting off as I feel her wing gently lay over me, I say, "Keep watch Evette, and wake me if anything happens or if other creatures appear."

While comfortable on her stomach, the alicorn wraps her head around the right side of her body so that she can keep watch, letting herself drift off to sleep, saying, "Goodnight, bipedal creature."

The night passes without incident as morning arrives to wake the sleeping pair when the bipedal creature is the first to stir, finding himself on his side with his head lying on top of her neck and cradling her head in his arms.

Unable to help myself, I grin and lightly chuckle at finding myself in this position when I see her open her eye and look at me curiously.

When she observes the position he is in, she chuckles herself and says, "Good morning, bipedal creature. Did you sleep well?"

Still not understanding her language, I shrug and say, "I have no idea what you said, but I slept great last night. Thank you for letting me use you as a pillow." As she lifts her head up and looks at me curiously, I find myself sitting up to kiss her forehead. I see the surprise in her eyes as she cocks her head curiously and blinks twice, with the smile on her face widening.

Not understanding what the kiss was for, she takes it as a show of gratitude when he pulls out more apples and offers them to her. Taking a half dozen of them, she happily eats them as they are a rare treat that can be found only in the fall, five days out of the year.

Once finished eating breakfast, I offer her some water and then slowly pour some into her mouth before taking a drink myself. Returning my canteen to my belt, I then rise to my feet and put my backpack onto my back before kicking dirt over the remains of the fire. Finally picking up my MTR, I watch as she reduces the cloud to nothing with her front hooves and dismiss the bubble around us. Looking around, I then ask Evette to send out another pulse to reveal nearby sources of copper. Thanking her for doing so, I then make my way towards where she detected one source of the metal.

Following him back to the same spot from the other day before the Timber Wolf attack, Equise watches him pull his weapon off his back and look it over a bit before making some kind of adjustment to it. Aiming it at the mountain, she sees a small red dot shows up where the end is pointed at a spot on the rocky mountainside. Moments later, a large, light red bubble appears against the mountain side as she wonders, 'What is going to happen now, I wonder?'

As I adjust my aim, I pull the trigger and watch as a hole twice my size appears at the base of the mountain, I ask Evette to guide me to the source of copper.

The alicorn watches as he uses the weapon to carve his way deeper into the mountain, having to put his helmet back on due to the large amount of dust pouring out from inside. Keeping a fair distance behind him while using her magic to illuminate her horn, she watches him head past seams of silver, gold, and iron, along with pockets of gems.

It takes me a little while to reach the source, but I eventually come across a few small deposits scattered throughout various pockets of a type of mineral Evette informs me is called quartz. Once the light shows cracks running through the ceiling, I decide it very wise to create stone pillars from the floor up to the ceiling to help provide support as I continue to collect copper.

Equise watches as he carves out a vast space with his weapon while creating stone pillars to hold up the ceiling, only stopping when he isn't able to find the white crystalline rock anymore. Making another adjustment to his weapon, he begins to fill the space with the white rock he just harvested. Confused at why he is putting it back, she uses her magic to scan the stone around her and discovers that there are bits of metal scattered throughout the quartz that runs all throughout the mountain range. Scanning the quartz he is replacing, she discovers that only the quartz is being put back and thinks, 'I see now, so he is only after the metals contained within the quartz.'

After having to recharge the Terrain Manipulator a few times over several hours, I ask, "Do I have enough to make repairs to my ship?"

Evette goes through the list of what all is damaged on the ship and then says, "Fortunately, you have enough to repair the vital systems and make partial repairs to some of the more advanced, secondary systems."

Letting out a sigh, I then continue to mine the quartz until I run out of it, then replacing it as I work my way back towards the front. By the time I am finished collecting enough material here to not require any more, I discover that I spent most of the day in the mountain and nearly dug my way out through the top of it. Having run out of the white quartz to put back near the opening of the tunnel I made, I wind up having to use the granite that I mined to fill in the large space left of the hollowed out section of the mountain.

After running out of granite, I am left with no choice but to leave the tunnel open and return to the world outside. When I get several hundred feet from the tunnel's start, I spot the mare lying on the ground and looking incredibly bored as she kicks a pebble against the side of the tunnel.

Bored out of her mind, Equise notices movement to her right and turns to see the bipedal creature finally making his way to the entrance with a sheepish look on his face. When he chuckles nervously and scratches the back of his head, she sees a look of guilt cross his face for a long moment as he says something she wonders is an apology. Rising to her hooves and leaving the pebble where it hit the wall, she snorts in annoyance and jerks her head towards the exit, saying, "Let's get out of here."

I follow the mare out of the tunnel to find the sun already setting and head to where we set up camp the night before, making another pile of wood for another fire as the mare gets another portion of cloud to make her bed from. Taking out several more of the colorful apples and offering them to her, I take some out for myself and then offer her some water.

Once we satisfy our thirst and hunger, we settle down beside the fire for the night and fall asleep after she puts up a bubble around our small camp.

Morning comes as the first rays of light hit my eyes, I find myself up against the mare yet again. What is different, however, is that her wing is draped over me like a blanket and has her head on the other side of her body, then think, 'Huh, I must have been having trouble sleeping last night.' As I quietly lie there, I wonder how I will approach the issue of our lack of communication as I hear the mare let out a breath and move her head around to her other side.

When Equise opens her eyes to see that the bipedal creature is awake, she raises her wing off him and watches him get up and walk towards some bushes some distance away. Assuming that he is going to relieve himself, she gets the same urge and waits till he gets back to go to a different bush.

Taking out the remaining apples, I give her the larger share and start to eat breakfast. As I watch her lift an apple with her energy, I start feeling like a fool for not realizing sooner that she can hold things on her own with it. Taking my canteen off my belt, I set it between us so that we both can reach it to take a drink.

Finishing breakfast, I watch her take a drink and set the canteen back down before taking a drink myself. There is just enough left to satisfy my thirst, but means that I will have to refill the canteen. Kicking dirt over the remains of the fire, I return my canteen to its place, then pick up my backpack and then sling it onto my back before grabbing my MTR.

The alicorn continues to follow him as he first heads to the stream to refill the container with water, then turns and makes his way towards where the zap apple trees are located. When they arrive a couple hours after midday, she sees that they are gone and watches him scratch his head in confusion.

Pretty sure that this is where the apples were at, I search through the trees with both hands to see if the apples are just hidden. Unable to even find one, I give up and decide to search for another source of food. Ending up spending the rest of the evening finding food, it starts to get dark as we find some fruit bearing trees that Evette identifies as Pear Trees. When we pick enough pears for dinner tonight, I gather wood for a fire in a small clearing within the small grove of fruit trees.

After eating dinner, Equise makes her bed for the night as she watches him bite into an unripe pear and make a face at the bad taste. Unable to keep herself from laughing as he tosses the fruit away, she smiles and asks, "Was the unripe pear not to your liking?"

Still unable to understand her, I assume she was saying something about the pear I just bit into and say, "Should have paid attention to the ones you were picking instead of grabbing whatever I could see." Getting an idea on how to approach the language barrier, I ask my companion to show a list of elements.

Understanding what he is trying to do, Evette projects an image of the periodic table of elements onto the ground and watches as he extracts a small pile of copper and holds it in his hand. As he begins to gesture to the pile and to himself, saying copper slowly and then pointing at her then the pile with a raised eyebrow, she observes curiously as the mare begins to understand after a few seconds and says something while pointing a hoof at the pile with a smile.

The alicorn feels overjoyed on the inside at learning what his word for copper is and hears him say it back to her incorrectly the first few times, which makes her giggle and repeat herself more slowly so he can understand and pronounce it correctly. Once he gets it correct, he points to the pile and says, "Copper" to her once more with a questioning look upon his face. Nodding her head in confirmation, she points to it with a hoof and then says, "Copper" in his language. As he smiles and nods, she watches him put it back into his storage container and pull some new element out. Scanning it with her magic, she discovers that it is gold and smiles as he does the same thing from before, point at it and speak a word.

Time Skip

I spend a few hours pulling out some of the elements I gathered earlier and learning her words for them as she learns mine, waking up to the sun shining down upon us from above. As I find myself beside her yet again, I sit up and carefully set her wing down against her side when I see her awaken.

After we eat breakfast and clean up camp, we go back to picking pears while trying to learn simple words for things. Taking most of the day harvesting pears while also learning, we start to make our way towards my crashed ship and set up a campfire in a different clearing.

Returning back at the crashed ship the next evening, we begin to try to learn other words, which proves to be a bit trickier until I ask Evette for aid. With the AI helping, I start to make repairs to my ship while trying to teach new things to her and learn from her. Some things are easy to learn and teach her, such as her wings and that the long things on the sides of my ship are also called wings.

Over the few days it takes to make repairs to the ship, we continue to learn new things about each other and set out to find more materials to repair my ship further. Encountering a group of six other ponies in another part of the forest, the mare pulls me behind a bush and shushes me. Making an effort to remain hidden from them for some reason, I follow her example and do the same while watching the blue unicorn pony with the grey hair and beard, wearing a hat and a long robe over most of his body. Seeming to be searching for something, we watch them as they pass by and wait for a few minutes before going on our way.

Returning to the ship the next day, further repairs are made as I decide to find a new spot to hide my ship and set out to find a good spot hidden from view. Once a new location is found, I call my ship to me and watch it land in the clearing with little room to spare as the mare is amazed by what she just saw.

As we continue to wander through the forest and learning each other's language, weeks go by as the days get shorter when I gather carbon to build a shelter for the two of us deep in the forest near where my ship is hidden. When winter arrives a few months later, I spend most of my time gathering wood to keep the fireplace going as the mare goes out to do whatever it is that she wishes during the day.

Once the supply of pears starts to dwindle two weeks into winter, she begins to bring back various types of food, including vegetables, fruit, nuts, berries, grass and flowers. Crafting a couch from some carbon, we cozy up on it in front of the fire as she rests her head on my lap.

The snow on the ground starts to bury my ship as I continue to do what I can to keep the door clear to the outhouse and my starship, which still requires repairs. The weeks we spend together slowly turn into months as we begin to attempt actual conversations for the first time.

End of Time Skip

The following section is not safe for work or necessary to understand the story, please feel free to skip to the next chapter to continue reading!

Shortly after spring arrives, the snow finally starts to melt away while Equise lies upon the couch with her head upon the bipeds lap as she makes herself comfortable, feeling his hand rubbing the side of her neck as she sighs, saying, "It feels so good when you rub my neck."

Letting out a brief chuckle as I understand enough to know what she means, I say, "I like the time we're spending together in this cozy cabin."

Smiling as she understands most of his words, she closes her eyes and lets herself drift off to sleep, saying, "So do I."

Falling asleep beside her with my hand on her neck, I open my eyes to find that it is day already when I feel the mare cuddle up against my side and lay kisses against my cheek and softly ask, "Evette, just what is going on, she has never been this affectionate before."

Curious herself, the AI moves the camera towards the mare and scans her, then says after a few moments, "From the pheromones her body is releasing, my scans indicate that her body is preparing to breed with a suitable male. Further analysis indicates that she is going through something called 'heat' or 'estrus', comparing this information to my databanks reveals that this mare has a few biological traits in common with the equine races from a planet lost long ago called Earth. To further inform you, this cyle will pass by once her bodily desire to mate are satisfied or two weeks pass by." Taking a small sample of the fluids the mare is secreting, she compares them to his and discovers something interesting.

Understanding most of what she said, I still am confused by parts of it and ask, "What are you trying to tell me, Evette?"

Looking at him with her lens, she tells him bluntly, "Comparing a sample of her DNA to yours, I am telling you that it is possible for you to have sex with her and successfully impregnate her. From how her DNA interacts with yours, her DNA is more dominant than yours and will guide the development of the fetus that may appear inside her after copulation. The choice is left to you, traveller." Turning away and closing the lens, she deactivates most of her listening devices except for one to give them privacy.

More shocked than anything, I open my mouth reflexively to decide whether I want to scream or shout, which proves to be a mistake as the mare climbs on top of my lap and then places her lips upon mine and slides her tongue into my mouth.

Having lost control of her body to the effects of the mating season, the mare swirls her tongue into his mouth while grinding her hips against his body in an attempt to get him to breed her.

Not wanting to drown in saliva, I hesitantly swallow before clumsily starting to respond to her ministrations when I hear her moan into my mouth. Her mane drifts around to the back of my head as she holds onto my neck with her forelegs, rubbing her body up against mine.

Wanting to move past kissing and dry grinding, she takes note of the strange black and red clothing he wears and begins to study it in order to be able to take it off, pulling her mouth away long enough to say, "This clothing is in the way..."

It takes a few seconds to register what she is doing with her energy when I start to hear velcro strips separate and the sound of a zipper being moved down, needing to act fast, I quickly take my glove off and drop it to the floor and reach my hand underneath her moving hips, saying, "Sorry for doing this to you, but we don't know each other good enough yet!" then plunge my middle finger into her bottom entrance. Immediately able to feel how hot and wet her insides are, I attempt to find a way to get her to calm down by moving my finger inside of her.

Feeling something firm enter her, she instinctively clamps down on it and attempts to draw the reproductive fluid held within it. Her eyes glaze over as she feels herself climb towards something special, with her moans getting slightly louder the closer she gets to it.

Surprised with how tight she is around me, I try to dig my finger deep into her depths for a few long seconds until I feel her muscles twitch uncontrollably as her muscles try to draw my finger in deeper. Suddenly feeling a gush of fluid coat my hand and the groin of my suit as I feel her back arch towards me, I then see her throw her head up toward the ceiling and hear her let out a sharp cry.

An amazing feeling of euphoria crosses over her as she stares up at the ceiling, watching sparkling motes of light pass before her eyes for a few moments before a tired feeling comes over her and she begins to fall over onto her left side. Before she can hit the hard surface of the couch, she is caught and gently lowered until she rests somewhat comfortably on the padded cushion. As she looks up at the male she seduced with an affectionate, happy smile, her eyelids fall shut as dreams of bringing a foal into this world fill her dreams.

The following two weeks prove to be an uphill battle, with the mare practically jumping my body several times throughout each day with the last week being an absolute nightmare when she finally manages to get my exosuit off me. However, the last two days were way too close for comfort after she succeeds in getting my pants around my ankles, having had to literally wrestle her to keep my underwear from being lowered by those surprisingly dexterous accursed wings of hers.

When she regains control of herself, she tries to figure out if they mated, but can't find the right way to ask it without words. Having to wait for any signs of pregnancy, she spends the next month being ever so watchful for the signs. When they never come, she sighs in relief at not having to worry about being a mother just yet, though there is a slightly sad feeling deep inside her at not becoming a mother this time around.

End of unsafe section, enjoy the next chapter!