Spike nodded to a human technician working alongside him, the two typing quickly at their terminals. With a soft hiss of a door opening, Applejack poked her head in. "How's it lookin'? We gettin' some new ponies back from the edge?"

"It's working." Spike gestured to screens before him. "They were uncorrupted, as expected. The physical structure seems accurate." His screen showed detailed anatomy and close ups of teeth, hair, hooves, wings, and more. "Strangest thing are the timestamps, actually. From what I learned, this is after they should have left Equestria. How they managed a sync in space, or maybe down with those bugs, is beyond me."

Applejack shrugged gently. "Ya ain't worried about that, are you? Ain't a reason for alarm, or cause to fret." She patted Spike lightly on the head. "Let 'em wake up at their own pace and figure out somethin' to do with them. 'Sides, they'll be able to tell us how they did that themselves."

One of the monitors flickered gently, turning white. A message was scrawled across it in bright letters. "Hello world." Below the letters, lines of code scrolled quickly.

"What in the world..." Spike worked quickly, the message ceasing its scrolling. "Huh. There's two uncorrupted personalities stored in here. A unicorn, and an earth pony." He looked over the data a moment. "Both female. Any preference which we bring online first?"

Applejack frowned. "Which one seems easier, quicker to access, load, whatchacallit, wake up?"

The computer gave a single beep. On one of the display screens, a simple message read: "Try harder."

Spike huffed at that message. "One of these ponies, or both, knows how to program a computer pretty well. Looks like they put a few surprises in their recall data." He looked aside at his fellow technician. "Go ahead, you helped plenty. Pick one."

She looked over the screen with wide eyes and a small smile. "That is so fascinating," she cooed. Pointing, she indicated the left option. "Why don't we go with her?"

Moments later, a new holographic pony appeared. She was seated on her haunches, looking less amazed or confused about things than most of the others so far. "That didn't go well." She sighed gently, looking around. "What ship is this?"

Applejack blinked. "Starlight? That you? Been a mighty long while." She stepped closer, looking Starlight up and down. "Yer even a holopon."

Starlight's brows went up. "Applejack?! Wow, yes, I never thought we'd meet again." She reared up, but fell through Applejack on the way down. "Right, I'm not physical. Our mission failed in a way nopony could have seen coming. Everypony survived, but the mission was a failure."

Spike rolled a hand in the air. "Care to share the details? And how did you sync once you were off Equestria?"

Starlight sighed. "That was my fault." She smiled wryly. "With Twilight learning so much about how it worked, I got curious myself. When we crash landed, but the locals proved friendly, perhaps too friendly, I had plenty of time to figure it out. I figured, if somepony ever showed up, they'd get the most up to date version of me and my crewmate as possible."

Applejack grinned. "Gotta admit, that's clever."

Starlight smiled more warmly at Applejack. "Well, I learned from the best." She glanced aside. "Is Cheerilee awake? I only see two ponies." She pointed at herself, then Applejack.

Applejack waved for Starlight to follow. "Come with me and we'll get ya all sorted. It's been an awful long trip, fer ya. Ya got a lot ta catch up on."

***

On the bridge, Twilight adjusted her glasses after a beep made her jump. "Oh!" She pressed a button with a hoof and the notification spring into view. "They've revived two ponies, who were synced mid-mission? Amazing! We can get a complete report then about what happened and how we ended up with the ponies of that world living such a curious life with the Buzgar."

Cadance, standing nearby, pointed towards the navigation screen. "Do you want to change course based on the information you gather from these ponies? You may as well alter our itinerary depending on what they have to say."

Twilight shook her head quickly. "I doubt their story will change much. Still, it's nice to find living ponies and a mission not entirely failed in the worst way possible."

"You say that." The front screen snapped to a solar system. "I found one of the signals coming from an occupied world. Unlike the Buzgar, these creatures have become space-faring. They have a habitable moon and several mining colonies set up around their system, using what looks like fusion power, from what I could get without attracting their attention."

Twilight studied the map intently, horn glowing as she turned a display around in three dimensions. "Fascinating! That is an ideal place for this mission to land. Humans were a bit more primitive when we arrived, and that worked out quite well. Let's see if it worked out the same there." She held up a hoof. "But let's come in outside their solar system. Gating too close could be seen as an attack.

"Right," Cadance responded, entering coordinates.

An equine bell chimed over the intercom, alerting everyone to an announcement coming from Captain Sparkle. "Attention. I repeat, attention. Sparkle Gate charging, be prepared for transport. Thank you." She took her hoof off the intercom button. "Harriet, take us out as soon as the engine's warmed up."

The Sparkle Drive activated and everything went blank with that flash of brilliant color.

When the gate reopened, the system hung below them with planets drifting along. Twilight gasped, checking her displays with interest. "These guys are highly advanced compared to the other aliens I've seen. Let me scan their computers a bit before we try contact."

"Hail incoming." Harriet raised a hand. "Should I put them through"

Twilight huffed. "Never mind that then. Yes, put them on the main screen." She composed herself in her seat, facing it as it switched over to the fuzzy face of the creature that looked like a panda and an abstract painting had a baby and the end result survived the experience. "Hello, I am Twilight Sparkle, captain of this rescue vessel. We are not aligned with any military force."

"Greetings, sentient aboard unregistered vessel. State your purpose in our space immediately."

Twilight stood, feeling oddly threatened by that voice despite it simply demanding a response. "My ship and its crew originate from a distant alien civilization known as Earth." She touched her chest lightly with a hoof. "I am from a third civilization altogether, one that made contact with Earth after one of our colony ships malfunctioned and was lost forever. We are here because our instruments detect one of our vessels crashed in this system."

The panda creature sat there quietly a few moments, clearly thinking before giving an answer. "Your words are extraordinary, but they are—"

They were pushed aside as a pony shoved forward to look at the camera. "Oh look!" They were looking at Twilight directly with a big smile. "One of us."

Twilight blinked in astonishment, sitting upright. "Whoa. I did not dare to imagine a pony on this call aside myself. Greetings."

"Pony?" The pony inclined her head. "Is that what you call us? That's a funny name."

The panda gently brushed the pony back and aside. "My apologies. Some of our crew do not understand personal space. As I was saying, your words would be impossible to accept if not for the presence of others like yourself that give weight to your words. We have allied with the Starsk for quite some time. They helped us during a sensitive time, and together we rose back to the stars they left behind."

Twilight looked curious, her hooves hovering near one another. "Am I correct then in assuming, like ourselves, you have become a unified people." She gestured to her various human crew on the deck. "As you can see, it is not just I, or other, hm, Starsk as you call them, on this ship."

"We would prefer you remove yourself from our sovereign space immediately. Our relationship with the Starsk does not guarantee that same relationship to yourself. While the Starsk are trusted neighbors and allies, you remain strangers of unknown intent." The strange kinda-panda leaned closer. "Proceed to be as far away from our most distant planet as it is from our sun."

Twilight mouthed numbers even as she nodded. "As you wish. We're not here to start trouble." She waved, the orders going in to get them moving. "We would much rather be new friends, all of us."

The call remained active, and the panda creature did not seem opposed. "We appreciate the sentiment. Your arrival method caused concern."

Twilight tilted her head slightly. "I apologize. The Sparklegate is new technology of my design. It's quite fast, but I can see how our arrival could cause some alarm."

The tension in the alien ursine seemed to dwindle as distance grew. "You have done as we asked. We are not an unreasonable people. your cooperation is noted. Allow me to forward this conversation to our leaders, that the council may decide the next step."

Twilight took a quick breath and tried to project calm and understanding. "Very well. If you need us again, reach out, and we will respond quickly to your request. Until next time."

The call ended and Twilight sagged, hoof to side of her glasses. "Tense, but not unsuccessful. I hope they see us as the peaceful presence we are." Her armrest chimed with an incoming call. "Yes?"

"Hey." Spike appeared in flat holographic form. "I have both ponies on the crystal up and moving. Starlight and Cheerilee, ring any bells? Applejack seemed to know them both."

Twilight grinned widely. "Really! Oh yes, it does indeed! My old student, returned from the void itself." She let out a soft sigh. "You've made my day. And Cheerilee. We had less direct contact, but she was a dear pony, caretaker of foals. Are they in a condition to be spoken to?"

Applejack appeared behind Spike, poking her head into view. Spike nodded once. "I'll get it set up, Captain Sparkle." She saluted before drawing away from the camera and vanishing.

Spike nodded. "They both knew her and were happy about it. I imagine both will be just as happy to see you, Captain, whenever you have the chance."

Twilight nodded back with a smile. "I'm going to finish up some paperwork here and then head down to see them." The screen went blank with a wave of her hoof.

She watched the world below slowly turn. It was a zoomed in view of one of the new alien's world. It glowed with life, most clearly visible on its darkside that glittered with likely artificial light against that darkness. "A new species contact, that is space faring. We should get word back home about this."

Harriet nodded from her spot. "We've been scanning their radio transmissions. They don't send any out intentionally, but stuff does escape into the void. They're called the M'hoth. Their world has one big super continent, and they've colonized several other rocky planets in their system."

Twilight's ears rose, perked up and listening. "Excellent work. Keep it up. Maybe we'll get an audience with them after all." She hopped down from her chair. "I'm going to visit with our newly awakened ponies. I feel certain they have questions about their situation. Alert me if the M'hoth hail us. I'll come back at a gallop."

Harriet chuckled. "Yes ma'am." She tapped her screen. "You wouldn't wanna miss that meeting for the world."

Author's Note

This seed went and sprouted! Good news, hirrah!

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