Legacy of the Past

Two Days Later

Nathaniel stared at the viewscreen, watching the horizon of the planet his ship was orbiting. Things were progressing well, the crew had adapted quickly to their new bodies and Doctor Zeb had been giving regular updates on his progress in finding a way to reverse what had happened to them. Nathaniel also had several crewmen use the Sensor Array to scan and monitor the planet and what they found was extraordinary, to say the least. The world was inhabited by many creatures of different kinds, most of them were strongly, if not directly, based off of creatures from human mythology. Nathaniel was baffled and amazed, but he wasn't sure what Zeb would find on this planet. What did Command want him and his crew to retrieve?

"Sir," Tyler called out, catching the Captain's attention. "Doctor Zeb is calling you to the Medical Bay, he says he may have found what we're looking for."

Speak of the devil...

"Tell him I'm on my way." Nathaniel immediately turned and borderline ran to the Medical Bay, eager to get some answers. When he arrived, the Medical Bay remained as it was, save for two large tanks filled with bubbling, blue translucent liquid. Nathaniel shuddered, knowing that was the XV-388 and that one wrong mishandling of them would turn this whole section of the ship into a raging inferno.

Zeb was crouched over a console, overlooking some of the equine inhabitants of the planet.

"Alright, Zeb? What have you found?"

He turned and Nathaniel noticed his eyes which looked in opposite directions. Deep down, they unnerved him.

"Captain, come over here and take a look."

Nathaniel obeyed and looked at the screen. It was a small equine village, at the centre of the screen, was a gray pegasus with a blond mane with a small unicorn child with her, talking to a pink equine carrying some sort of box. Smiles clearly on their faces.

"Okay," the Captain said after a while. "What am I supposed to be looking at here, Zeb?"

"Take a good look at the gray pegasus, Captain."

Nathaniel stared, something in the back of his mind told him he recognized the pegasus from somewhere, but that was impossible. He shook his head.

"I'm still lost, Zeb."

Zeb sighed and tapped a few keys. The screen moved around to the front of the equine, where the Captain blinked in surprise. She had the same eye condition as Zeb!

"The hell?"

Zeb nodded. "I've run scans and managed to do a flash scan here, getting a copy of her DNA. You should look at this, Captain."

Zeb pulled up another screen, bringing up the results from his scan, showing a DNA strand. Nathaniel stared at it, the same thought stirred again.

"She's human..." He muttered.

"Yes, but not fully, look at what's been added..."

Nathaniel looked, the screen reflecting on his eyes, which soon widened. It was impossible, but the facts were staring him right in the face. "No..." he muttered, shaking his head, trying to deny it.

"It's pointless to argue, Captain, who else has that DNA structure?"

"But it can't be, everyone's scoured the whole galaxy looking for her, I thought she had died."

"Clearly not." Zeb looked at the DNA and chuckled. "Gotta hand it to her, of all the places to hide, no one would ever suspect it was another dimension."

"But... how? and why?"

"Does it matter? This must be what Command had sent us to retrieve, the galaxy is in chaos and I think she is the only who can bring it at peace again."

Nathaniel turned to the screen, the friendly conversation between the gray pegasus and the pink pony had disintegrated, the box was now on the ground, muffins were spilled all over the place and the little child was busy trying to pick them all up, while the pegasus was shaking the pink pony, crying hysterically over the spilt and now ruined muffins. It would actually be comical, if he didn't know who he was looking at.

"This can't be her, though." He said, still not believing it. "I mean... look at her, she doesn't really act like I thought the Founder of the Confederation and the most powerful warrior in the galaxy would act."

"Yes... keep in mind, Nathaniel, my father saved her life at one point."

The Captain glanced at the doctor. "Your father also tried to kill her after that, he was a psychotic madman."

"Yes, well..." Zeb pulled at his coat collar nervously. "...my father was always a little unstable... But, remember, we were at war at the time. Just like we are now."

Nathaniel sighed, then he noticed the little child that looked very familiar to the pegasus. "Zeb... that child, she isn't...?"

"I'm afraid so, sir. I flashed scanned her as well, and her DNA matches."

"This is going to complicate things..."

For a moment the two stood, watching the screen, with Nathaniel deep in thought. Soon, Zeb cleared his throat.

"I'm sure, once we explain the situation, she'll gladly follow us and help bring everything back to the way it was."

"Maybe... but what if she doesn't?"

At this, Zeb hesitated. "We may have to use force, sir."

The Captain glanced at Zeb. "Remember who you're talking about, Zeb."

"I know, sir, but even the great S-"

<<"Captain!">> The intercom was filled with the voice of a young ensign. <<"We have two objects from the planet heading straight for us!">>

"What's there coordinates?"

<<"Feeding the data to the Doctor's Sensor Array.">>

The two glanced down at the screen, the gray pegasus was gone, replaced by an image of two new objects roughly in the shape of equines. One shone brightly and seemed to be made of pure energy that shone like the sun. The other was translucent, the light reflecting from her, revealing a rough dark outline. It was an incredibly beautiful sight, but also terrifying at the same time. "What in the name of...?"

"Oh dear..." Zeb muttered. "Captain, I've been monitoring the planet extensively and, from what I've been able to deduce, it seems that that part of the world is run by a hierarchy. I think those are the rulers coming to greet us."

At this, Nathaniel's mind went into full gear, his eyes widened. "Damn, I was not expecting this..."

<<"What are your orders, sir?">>

Nathaniel didn't answer at first.

<<"...Sir...?">>

"Open the Hangar doors, let them enter. I'll be right down."

"Uh, Captain? You do know there is such a thing as diplomatic protocol, right?"

"Do you see an ambassador on the ship, Zeb? No, I will represent the Galactic Confederation and try not to start an inter-dimensional war."

Nathaniel turned and left without another word, leaving Zeb in the Medical Bay, looking at the screen. "Be careful, Captain, something tells me that they can wipe us out in a mere second if we give them reason to..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a long time since Princess Celestia had flown beyond the atmosphere of her home. Not since she and Luna were young and reckless. She knew Luna enjoyed these flights with the stars more than ever. Celestia would smile if she could, but her ethereal form was limiting that way. It was the form they involuntarily took when beyond the atmosphere of their world and it was mystery that Celestia had secretly spent decades looking into. But, in the end, with her and her sister being the only alicorns in history, she eventually just accepted that it was who she was, maybe it was her true form and spirit, what her soul really was.

“There it is, sister!” Luna called out, seeing the black outline of the ship in the moon’s light, her voice echoing slightly due to their current forms but remaining relatively the same. “Do you think it’s visible from the surface?”

“It’s hard to say,” Celestia replied, noting the amount of weapons aboard the vessel. It was definitely not an exploration vessel, but a warship. This made Celestia uneasy, why were they here? What do they want? More importantly, who are they?

“Sister, look!” Luna gestured to the side of the ship, where a part of it seemed to open up, revealing the inside. “I think they’re letting us in.”

“So it seems...”

“Sister...” Luna hesitated, before continuing. “Do you think it is a trap?”

Celestia didn’t answer at first, she looked at the entrance that seemed to convienently open up to them. The numerous cannons aboard the ship didn’t help to put her at ease, but they weren’t moving either. “Be on your guard.” She soon said, flaring her wings and gliding toward the open door.

The ship was large, larger than the royal sisters first thought as they approached the ship, the door that opened for them dwarfed them in size. All in all, the ship was almost as big as Canterlot itself! As they approached the entrance, Celestia noticed a field shimmering in a blue aura. She slowed her speed, wondering if it was some sort of shield and if it was harmful. Luna’s horn glowed as she examined it.

“It’s a filter,” she said. “Possibly to keep the vacuum of space out and the oxygen in.”

This was a comforting sign for Celestia, as whoever was in there could not survive the vastness of space, but she wondered if whoever was in there really did breathe oxygen.

“We should be able to pass through it.” The night princess said, and waited for Celestia to go in first. It was time to make First Contact.

Mentally preparing herself, Celestia flapped her wings gracefully and slowly guided passed the field. She felt an odd tingling sensation as she passed through and immediately felt the pull of atmosphere and gravity around her. And air. Immediately, as they passed through, Celestia felt her physical form come into being, the strands of gold solar energy reverting into her multicoloured, flowing mane. Her eyes, once bright orbs of pure light, returned back to normal, showing centuries of wisdom gained through her long life. Her hooves clopped onto the metal floor, her now feathered white wings stretched out as they fully materialized. That was when she heard a gasp filled with wonder.

The princess glanced and found herself looking at another pony, a pegasus, his wings flared in surprise. Celestia blinked, she had not expected to see another pony on the ship. It was comforting, actually. The pegasus flinched and flew towards a ramp at the edge of the large room, where there a line of more ponies stood, fully suited in strange blue and white armour, where helmets with V shaped visors that glowed blue adorned their heads. They wielded strange weapons that Celestia didn't recognize. Behind them was a large towering machine that stood on two legs, it took a step forward, causing the whole room to shake, but the soldiers didn't flinch. The large machine was a white bloated thing where the top was adorned with a head-like structure with several eyes that glowed blue. It brought up two arm-like structures that ended in huge cannons, and aimed them at Celestia and her sister. Immediately, the two royal sisters flared their wings defensively.

<<"IDENTIFY YOURSELVES!!!">> A loud voice boomed from the giant machine, echoing around the room. Personally, Celestia had seen few things more terrifying than this, but her sister seemed completely unphased.

She stepped forward confidently, glaring at her opposition, and spoke in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

"YOU SHOULD BE THE ONES TO REVEAL YOURSELVES SINCE YOU ARE IN OUR TERRITORY!!!" This time the soldiers flinched, not suspecting Luna's voice to be so loud or terrifying. Luna continued.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING FLYING BY OUR WORLD!? SPEAK! FOR WE HAVE LITTLE PATIENCE!!!"

The giant machine took another step forward and the soldiers regained their composure, aiming their weapons at Luna and Celestia. Before another word could be said, another voice, though much quieter, called out, brimming with authority.

"Master Sergeant Benedict, what the hell do you think you are doing!?"

The Royal pony sisters and the machine's head swiveled to the new arrival, who stood by a door that closed behind him. He was a cream-coloured unicorn with a pitch black mane and tail, wearing a light blue and white uniform. Immediately, Celestia could tell this was the one in command.

<<"CAPTAIN...">> The voice boomed. <<"I AM MERELY FOLLOWING PROTOCOL, TWO UNKNOWN CREATURES JUST-">>

"I know, Sergeant, I allowed them to enter. Now stand down, all of you!"

A second, then the machine head swiveled back, and then the bloated centre of the machine lowered and separated into multiple pieces, revealing another suited pony, who jumped out of the machine. The rest of the troops lowered their weapons as the Captain walked toward the princesses.

"I apologize for that, my troops can be a little overzealous." He promptly saluted them, Luna eyeing him suspiciously. "I am Captain Nathaniel Caster, commanding officer of the Galactic StarShip Fallen Star. I represent the Galactic Confederation of Freed Races and Planets."

Luna raised an eyebrow, Celestia noticed that Nathaniel (strange name, she mused) was speaking to her sister and that Luna stood in front of her, like she was the one in command. Perhaps it was because she felt more at home in space, not only that, she seemed a lot more calm than the older Alicorn was, though she could just be hiding it well from her.

"I am Princess Luna," the Night Princess said, speaking in a normal voice. "And this is my elder sister, Princess Celestia. We are the rulers of the land of Equestria and the controllers of the Moon and Sun. Respectively."

It was incredible, Luna had taken command of the situation and Celestia felt like the younger sibling. Was it perhaps Luna felt more confident about the situation because they were in space? Or did she feel Equestria was threatened and wanted to see no harm come to it, thus the sudden boost in confidence. For she never, ever, acted like this in any of their political meetings back on the ground.

Nathaniel's eyes widened slightly upon hearing that they controlled the Sun and the Moon. But aside from that there was no reaction. Instead, he bowed slightly.

"I know you both must be nervous with our ship in such close orbit to your planet, but we mean you no harm. You see, we are from an alternate dimension, our ship was testing out a new Jump Drive, attempting Inter-Dimensional travel, and it seemed to have worked perfectly, minus a few unforseen consequences."

Celestia blinked in surprise, and Luna raised an eyebrow. "How do you expect me to believe that?"

"I don't." He replied simply. "But it's the truth." He stared at Luna unblinking.

Celestia cleared her throat, taking a step toward them. “So now that you are here, what do you plan on doing?”

Nathaniel looked up and stared at Celestia, sizing her up and wondering what to do next. After a moment, he answered.

“I’m not going to lie to you, we weren’t originally told what to do once we arrived because we weren’t sure what we’d find here. But, now that there is a world with life here, I wish to study the planet and its lifeforms without interfering with the inhabitants below, if it can be helped.”

Celestia stared at the Captain, trying to see if there was any truth in his words.

Luna spoke up. “Why send a warship with ‘overzealous’ troops instead of a more peaceful ship?”

“We had no idea what we’d find here and whether if we found anything hostile, and the Confederation didn’t want to send a defenseless civilian ship without assessing if the other dimension was dangerous or not.”

“I see...” Celestia muttered, thinking this through. “...and what is the progress on your assessment?”

“We haven’t made much for you see, upon entering, we had a slight... error... These are not our original forms. We are of a species called ‘humans’, but it seems during transit, or right after our exit of the portal, we had been changed to an assortment of different creatures, most of us have been transformed into ponies, and all of them seem to be natives of the planet.”

Celestia blinked, they were of another species, but they were transformed? Twilight would have a field day here... Even Luna seemed amazed as she blinked, wide-eyed.

“But we have adapted, as you can see, and we have recently begun looking in and doing scans of the planet, nothing harmful, and I am considering sending a team down to collect a few plant and dirt samples for study.”

“You were planning on just landing in the open?” Luna said, “you could start a panic!”

“I know, I was weighing the options when you arrived. Since you two are rulers of one nation, perhaps you could assist us?”

Luna clearly did not trust the Captain and Celestia herself wasn’t sure what to think of him. What he asked for seemed harmless, if he was telling the truth.

“Have you tried contacting your ‘Confederation’ for advice?” The white alicorn asked.

Nathaniel nodded. “We have tried multiple times, but we cannot reach them. It makes sense, the distances are beyond realities, mind you. We are on our own until we return. But returning costs a lot of energy and I do not want to leave hastily when there is so much to find out here.”

Celestia slowly nodded, understanding the logic, she would probably act the same in Nathaniel’s place.

“Luna and I will have to discuss this in more detail, and we may have to inform the rest of Equestria of your arri-”

“Actually,” Nathaniel said. “I would prefer we did not have the population know of our arrival, I think that would complicate things. I am also no diplomat and I have a feeling the Confederation wants someone with experience to form official political ties, if they want to...”

Celestia nodded, thankful she would not have to explain this to the nobility.

“How would you be able to get down without anypony noticing you?” Luna asked.

“We have smaller ships, or shuttles, to transport survey teams down, we’d land in an empty area or your choosing and have the teams move from there, since they are already in the form of equines and such, it won’t be hard for them to fit in without drawing any suspicious eyes.

“But it will, of course, be with your permission, and I am perfectly content with scanning the planet from orbit if you decide not to let us enter.”

“And there is nothing harmful with your scanners of our home?” The Night Princess asked.

“None, I can assure you that they are perfectly harmless and unnoticeable in every way possible.”

Celestia nodded again. “Alright, we will discuss in detail and come back to you with our answer. In the meantime, I ask that you do not do anything else until then.”

Nathaniel nodded. “I will keep the doors open for your arrival. Again, I apologize for intruding in your space.”

“It is alright,” Celestia and Luna turned, flaring their wings. “Until then, Captain Caster.”

Nathaniel saluted as the princesses jumped through the shield, returning to their ethereal forms as they entered the vacuum of space.

“I do not trust them,” Luna said after a moment of flying from the large vessel.

“Care to indulge me?” Her elder sister asked.

“I’m not sure... But I think their Captain wasn’t being honest with us, at least completely.”

“He didn’t seem like he was lying, he stared at us straight in the face, unblinking and unflinching the entire time.”

“I know, but something is telling me he was hiding something from us. And I am not at all comfortable with having a warship looking over our home and Equestria.”

“Luna, this could be a chance to establish a peaceful new relationship, I will not have us turn down and treat a new arrival with mistrust.”

“What if they don’t mean to be peaceful with us? I know we have the power to defeat this particular ship, but if it attacks first, damage will be done, and some ponies will be seriously hurt, or worse... and what if more of them come?”

“Luna, you are becoming paranoid. I know you have good reason, and we must consider that they do not mean us well, but we must also be aware that they may not mean us harm. That is why we must stand back and watch what they do closely for now.”

“And what of letting have small groups of them arrive and ‘collect samples’?”

“We will discuss this more fully later, for now, we must give our minds rest and consider each other’s words. Then, once we have recuperated, we will talk about what we should do...”

Luna nodded, then said. “I’m sorry for the way I acted.”

Celestia glanced at her younger sister. “Whatever are you sorry for?”

“I took immediate command there and pushed you back, you should’ve been the one doing the talking, not me.”

“Luna, I was actually impressed with how you spoke up there, it surprised me and showed me you can speak for Equestria. I’m not sure I would have been able to speak in your place there.”

Luna didn’t say anything, and the rest of the flight back to Equestria was done silently.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So, Sergeant,” Nathaniel said to his saluting soldier and his squad. “I see you’ve gotten the troops retrained and re-armed.”

“Yes sir,” the gruff sounding equine replied curtly. “We’ve even managed to develop a few new combat techniques unique to these forms. I’ve even had the techies reconfigure the Mech for equine use”

“I’m glad to hear that, I am quite impressed with your work, Sergeant.”

“Thank you, sir.”

A moment of silence, then. “I want you to prepare one of the transports for flight, we’re going down to the planet.”

“Sir,” Benedict saluted and began directing his squad about. Nathaniel noticed a pegasus engineer approach him, unsure.

“Uh, sir, permission to speak freely?”

“Granted, what’s on your mind ensign?”

“Well, I overheard you talking with those two equines and I thought you said you weren’t going to have a ship go down planetside?”

“I lied, ensign.” Nathaniel answered nonchalantly. “There is someone down there I need to speak to and have brought up here.”

“Sir, won’t the equines be watching you closely?”

“I’ve no doubt they will, or are watching us right now. That is why we will activate the Cloaking device and go in silently and carefully. They will be watching the ship, and will probably not be paying too much attention on the ground because of that.”

Benedict returned, a pair of large metallic clamps carrying a large, streamlined ship, and placing it right behind him. The sergeant assembled four soldiers, who saluted as the Captain approached.

“Captain,” Benedict said. “These are the best troops in Phasic Squad, they’ll keep you covered while you are planetside.”

“Thank you Sergeant, you four, get on the shuttle and strap in. Sergeant, remain on here and keep an eye on things.”

Benedict saluted. “Sir.”

Nathaniel followed the soldier aboard the transport, and made his way to the cockpit, where a female pegasus sat in the chair, flicking at some dials.

“Will you be able to fly this thing, Pilot?”

“Yes sir, I ran through the simulations and have a perfect record!” She said proudly, bring up a holographic map of the planet. “Where would you like me to take you?”

Nathaniel flipped the map, the planet spinning in place, and he zoomed it up toward the small village he recognized from earlier, and surveyed the area around it.

“Find us a clearing there,” He said, pointing to the large forest next to the town. “Somewhere near the village, keep the Cloak and Sound Dampeners engaged.”

The pilot nodded with a grin. “Yes sir, now strap in tight.”

Nathaniel nodded as he moved back. Outside, the ship’s engines activated, filling the Hanger with a roar. Then, the shuttle vanished, as if never there, along with the noise of its engine. Benedict looked, but couldn’t even see an outline, it was impossible to know if the ship was still down, or if it had taken off already.