First Contactby The Art of LoungingChaptersChapter I (Arc I-Intro)Chapter II (Arc I-Intro)Chapter III (Arc I-Intro)Chapter IV (Arc II-Race against time) Chapter V (Arc II-Race against time) Chapter I (Arc I-Intro)~Just outside the Gnattura System, 4:01 AM Terra time, Year 2398~ You sigh contently as you look out the cockpit window out into the dark void of deep space. Slouching back into the cushy leather seat of your one man express courier vessel, you put your legs on the dashboard of the ship’s controls, careful not of press any controls or obscure your sight of the faintly glowing holographic HUD set into the window. You flip on some music, completing the serene atmosphere This ship cost royalties, but one can’t deny how almost sickeningly luxurious the sleek vessel is. You crack a small grin at the thought of other couriers flying in the clunky standard ships. You would even go as far as to liken them to 21st century mail trucks. The poor bastards, the standards are a pain to fly in. But enough of that. Looking at the digital clock on the corner of the HUD you see that you have a full 6 terra hours before you need to report back for another delivery. Excellent. Leaning forward to the control panel, you punch in an autopilot command set for 6 hours from now on a number pad before pressing ‘enter’ ///AUTOPILOT SET FOR TERRA IN ‘6’ STANDARD HOURS/// says the synthetic female voice of the computer. The ship turns in a lazy arc, facing a nebula with twinkling stars scattered throughout the massive cloud of pastel colored dust before beginning the journey back to Terra at a leisurely pace. You sit back and gaze into the nebula you were about to go through, the awe inspiring sight making you stop for a moment and think. Without even realizing it your lips begin to move “What cosmic clouds swirl about; its lengthy arms astride? And recompense the void of death. The stars, the space, the signs.” “What astronomers drift in bits against the black and empty sky, or people left in misty ruts? The Earths, the wreck, their cries.” “What beauty shifts through the ink, and winks back into space, or drifts across the universe to reach us in our place?” You blink from the unexpected burst of inspiration brought on by the nebula before smiling and covering your face with a hand. Here you are, waxing poetic in your thoughts when you could be catching up on your sleep. The greatest reason you became a courier was to travel the stars like you always wanted as a child, to sate your yearning for adventure even as mild as courier work is, but the scheduling is always beyond atrocious. With a final glace at out in space, you settle yourself down in the leather seat and slowly drift off into a restful, dreamless sleep as the ship enters the space cloud. …Or you would have if alarm klaxons hadn’t started blaring in the cockpit Startled back awake you look over the control panels in a hurry, needing to know what is going on before disaster can strike. Frustration begins to set in as you find nothing wrong. The map radar, the Geiger counter, and the hyperspace wave detector all turn up with inconclusive results, making this all the more confusing. You stop the ship and think for a moment, what could be going…wrong..? Looking out the cockpit window, you see bits and pieces of debris and nebula dust all moving in one direction, condensing into a singular point. Wait, you’ve heard of this somewhere before. Then like lighting it hits you with shocking force. No…there’s no way… All the dust begins to move more franticly, dragging your vessel with it. Daring to turn your eyes onto the growing mass of shining stardust, your fears are confirmed. The nebula is collapsing, and you’re right in the thick of it! “I think not!” Grabbing the controls with enough force to make the plastic creak from the abuse, you turn away from the core of the soon-to-be star and mash the throttle with a vengeance. The engines whine as they cycle titanic amounts of fuel-grade plasma to fulfill the stressful order. Both thrusters on the end of the ship light up a blinding white, firing off vectored superheated gas and sending the ship flying forward like a bat out of hell. You keep the throttle pressed down, but to your horror you find that you are slowing, the immense gravity well of the unborn star beckoning you to a painful demise. The engines sputter and backfire, barely keeping themselves in one piece. Finally you come to a total stop before the ship begins to creep backwards… “No no no! Not like this!” Your heart pounding in your ears, you rake your eyes over the controls in a peril driven frenzy as the cosmic furnace behind you gains more strength by the second. Finally your attention lands on a small keyhole near the center of the console, the hyperdrive… Fumbling with your pocket, you procure the key needed and jam it in; your shaking hands making you miss and scratch up the console several times. Twisting the key so roughly it almost snaps, warning messages flair to life on the ship’s HUD, advising against jumping into hyperspace. One glance outside shows that the nebula has almost totally collapsed, all the floating hunks of rock and dust within what had to be a billion miles rushing to the point behind you. The warning messages are ignored as you hit the jump button, not even taking the time to choose a destination. The engines, the artificial gravity, and the lights all shutdown as the ship routes all its power to the physics bending hyperdrive. The ship lurches as time outside seems to slow, everything taking a curious blurry appearance as you leave the physical realm for hyperspace. Another thing worthy of praise, the ever enigmatic plane known as hyperspace you idly muse. It was right then you notice that you had neglected to strap yourself to your seat as per hyperdrive operations demanded. With stomach churning burst of speed, your courier ship blasts forward into the unknown and sends you into the blissful void of unconscious. ~Ponyville, 10:13 PM, Year 1002~ It’s a calm summer night as per usual in the quaint hamlet of Ponyville, Luna’s stars and namesake shining brightly, young colts and fillies out playing in the cool shade of nightfall, and even some nightlife gathering at local bars and clubs. But none of this was a concern to one Twilight Sparkle, who is happily trotting her way to her favorite stargazing hill out on the edge of town, her brass telescope and several books held in an aura the same hue as her violet coat. She smiles as the chilled night breeze wafts through her mane, it’s nights like these that the young magus unicorn lives for. Coming to her hill, Twilight sees other ponies with their own telescopes scattered about, a medley of clicking and chattering sounding as they adjusted their astronomy tools. Twilight looks at them, her smile growing at the thought of her neighbors taking such an interest in the night sky. Turning her attention back to her own telescope, Twilight assembles it in a whirl of metal and an expert display of magic. Satisfied with her work, the unicorn turns the telescope to face the east and levitates an open astronomy book that she flips through. ”Let’s see, let’s see…Aha!” She exclaims, stopping on a page depicting a large snake. ”Basilisk Major should be righhhhttt here!” The unicorn states, giving her telescope a number of minute adjustments. Twilight barely contains a giddy ‘squee’ as the constellation comes into focus, showcasing the artistic arrangement of the stars courtesy of Princess Luna. ”Wait a moment…” Twilight pulls herself from her telescope to squint at the stars with her own eyes, seeing something not quite right. Looking back through the brass interment she sees… ”A red star in the middle of the constellation?” But…that’s not right…there was never any mention of any red stars in her astronomy books. Plain as day however is a bright red node of light that seems to be growing in intensity. With remarkable speed Twilight opens all of her books with a flair of her horn, metaphorically tearing through each one with such swiftness that all but the most devout of scholars would be put to shame. Nothing…not one shred of information about red stars… ”No there has to be some mistake…” Twilight mumbles to herself as she opens all of the books again, scanning the text with more scrutiny. By now the other star gazers had taken notice as well, pointing at the anomaly with exclamations of surprise, awe, and in a few cases, fear. ”What could it be?” ”I’ve never seen one like that before!” ”Wow a new star!” ”Momma what is it?” ”That…that can’t be good…” ”It’s growing!” Twilight looks back up from her books at the last remark to see that the point of light had doubled in size, and is growing rapidly. Struck dumb by the anomaly, Twilight can only stare until a low ‘boom’ shakes the air around her, forcing the unicorn to take notice of her surroundings again. Worried murmurs breakout among the others as the speed of the light’s growth increases before terrified screams break out as they all realize… ”That’s not a star, that’s a METEOR!” Twilight exclaims “Everypony run!” In a scramble of hooves the hillside is clear in hardly 10 seconds as Twilight simply teleports out of harm’s way. Blinking back into existence near Golden Oaks Library, Twilight watches the ball of fire descend from the atmosphere, leaving a thick black smoke trail? She blinks her purple eyes; meteors don’t leave smoke trails… Before she can ponder further the meteor comes in low, making an ear splitting screech and forcing her to cover her sensitive ears least she go deaf. It’s so close now that she can feel the displaced air it’s producing buffet her even from the considerable distance away from the hillside Finally… BOOM! In an explosion of dirt the object impacts the hill with terrible force, rocking the whole town and sending its residents into a frightened uproar. Twilight holds herself low to the ground, eyes clinched shut as she waits for the tremors of the calamitous landing to subside. ”Twilight!” a young male voice calls Said unicorn jumps up and turns just as a scaled body barrels into her, sending them both sprawling to the ground ”Twi! Are you ok? What happened? What’s with the smoke? Wha-Omf!” The diminutive speaker is cut of mid sentence as Twilight shoves a hoof in his mouth. ”I’m fine Spike.” Twilight tells the infant dragon “As for what happened…I’m not too sure…it could be anything really…” she trails off, thoughts of the meteor bouncing around her head. The unicorn gets to her feet and looks down at her surrogate brother “Spike, head back inside and let the princess’ know that an unknown object crashed just outside town, I’m going to gather up the girls and take a closer look.” ”Gotcha Twi!” ~Canterlot Castle, 10:31 PM, Year 1002~ Celestia settles on her red dais in front of the fireplace with a content sigh, a glass of wine and a romance novel held in her golden telekinetic grip. It wasn’t often she could take time to herself, the trappings of rule and politics tending to be the leading consumers of her time, but when she did relax it was with some fine drink and a good book. Taking a dainty sip of the aged wine, Celestia opens her book back to the page she marked since her last reading and begins. Or she would have if a letter hadn't materialized before her. With a raised eyebrow, the sun deity unrolls the parchment and reads its contents, taking note of the hasty scrawl and urgency of the tone. Her eyes however are drawn to particular phrases within the note, such as ‘unknown object’, ‘fell from the sky’, and most importantly ‘close to Ponyville’. If any of the scrolls contents alarmed her, then it did not show on her face. Standing in one fluid motion, Celestia levitates her regalia onto her person and makes for the doors of her chambers. Both the double doors open soundlessly and Celestia walks out, but not before turning to the pair of gold clad guards standing sentry by her doors. ”Guards, if you would find Shining Armor and tell him to mobilize a containment team I would be grateful.” She says in her usual light, motherly voice, not letting any of her internal worry show. Both snap to smart salutes “Yes princess!” Before they rush off however the one on the right asks “Your highness? Any destination in mind?” Celestia nods gently “Ponyville.” ~Crash Site, Time unknown~ With a pained groan, you open your eyes, the crumpled ceiling of your ship steadily coming into focus. Wait, crumpled? You shoot up into a sitting position, only to fall back from a sudden case of headrush. “Ohhhh…” Sitting up more slowly this time, you survey your surroundings with dismay. You survived the random jump, but the same can’t be said for your ludicrously expensive courier ship. The cockpit is a mess, bits of detached metal and such thrown about along with more than a few broken screens and other things. It looks like the cockpit window is buried halfway up in dirt and you think you hear the engines sputtering in a mockery of their previous splendor. Wait… Looking out of the still view-able half of the window you see the night sky along with the moon. Did you land on Terra? What a lucky break! Seeing as how something went right you can’t help but jump up with a grin …Only for you to go much higher than you expected and crack your head on the ceiling with a hollow sounding ‘bong!’ You hold your smarting head as you fall back to the floor far slower than you should, as if gravity had been reduced. “Something’s not right here…” you say as you land. Walking up to the still flickering control panel, you hold down the voice command button, praying to whatever higher power there is that there is enough energy in the vessel for a few last things. “Computer…scan current atmosphere…” The machine gives a few weak ‘whur’s before the computer speaks up. ///S-SCAN complete, planet unknown… current air composition: 38% Oxygen, 59% Nitrogen, 3% various other elements…/// You feel your jaw drop, almost double Terra’s record oxygen levels? But before you can comment on it the computer continues with its skipping synthetic voice. ///Current g-g-gravity level, X 0.4 of Terra…/// “This…this is not Terra…” ///Warning! Unknown radiation detected outside of vessel, use caution wheeee…./// Without warning, the computer dies, the control lights flickering out, leaving you to your lonesome. All at once, the gravity of your situation comes crashing down upon you. You’re stranded on an alien planet, unarmed, almost totally unprepared and helpless. You take a shaky breath and look back out the unburied part of the window to see verdant plant life to the sides of what looks like a hill you crashed into. Where there’s flora, there’s often fauna… and with the huge amount of oxygen and low gravity…You gulp as cold prickles of fear tear into your stomach, all the oxygen and low gravity means the local wildlife here must be titanic in size… No! Don’t make baseless assumptions, for all you know the animals here could be the size of dogs and not have a mean bone in their body. Heh, you can wish... But first things first, you can’t stay here forever; of the few supplies you have rations are not one of them. You would come back eventually, but for now you need to get a feel for the geography and scout out potential threats. Walking to the back of the ship, you open up the small personal storage closet and pull out your hazard suit. A crackpot friend had made it and convinced you to take it in case of an emergency such as this; looking back you can’t help but feel like scum for laughing at him behind his back. It’s not really protective in the physical sense, but it fits comfortably over your clothes and sports a magnetic barrier that blocks bacteria and radiation. Once donned in the jury-rigged suit, you see the different components come to life and a corona of crackling light surrounds you before fading, the barrier you guess. You set the re-breather on the mask to emulate the air composition of Terra, not knowing what sort of adverse effects the extra oxygen could have on you. You turn to the emergency escape hatch near the back, but before you even take a step, you feel your lips move once more. “Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever Gods may be For my unconquerable soul.” “In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance, My head is bloodied but unbowed.” “Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the horror of the shade. And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.” “It matters not how straight the gate, Nor how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” Your confidence found once more, you start the march to the hatch, not even aware of how your first step outside would shake the whole world. Author's Note Here we have it, my first MLP work. I write other places but I figured I would come here to see if I can appeal to a wider audience. And yes, Anon's suit is more or less the Hacker Suit from Dead Space. Please let me know what you think. Chapter II (Arc I-Intro)~Canterlot Castle guard barracks, 10:39 PM, Year 1002~ Luna watches as the guards rush to and fro with an urgency she has not seen in a millennia, especially unicorns in solar gold armor that bare a stylized shield insignia on their front rather than the standard star, a team of shielding and barrier specialists if she remembered correctly. The moon deity couldn’t help but frown, If Celestia had whole corps of specialized forces just waiting around as auxiliary then why were the Elements the first to be called in times of crisis? Something’s not right… ”And why would this be different…?” Luna asks herself under her breath, referring to the meteor strike. Luna shakes her head, scattering her nebulous mane about before it reforms an instant later. Celestia had been in charge of Equestria for a thousand years, she knew what she was doing. With a start, Luna realizes all the guards had taken their equipment and already moved out to chariots and carriages set for Ponyville. ”I mustn’t be late…” And with that Luna concentrates a sliver of her vast, ocean-worth of magic into her horn, gently kneading and molding the volatile energy with skill matched only by her sister into a shape more to her desires. In a light hum, the magic seeps out of her horn and runs down her body like an invisible silky oil, saturating her flesh in her own lifeforce, right before Luna seizes control over it once more. Vibrations, ever so slight take grip of her mortal shell, forcing her body to come apart from the seams at their most base level, sending countless billions of atoms, all of them Luna to detach from each other yet still be connected by threads of magic so infinitely thin that some would say they were never there at all. The cloud of atoms shiver, still held imperiously by the mind and soul of Luna before they rush out to the airfields at a fraction of the speed of light, where they would reform into the indigo alicorn, passing through every solid harmlessly along the way. The whole process from start to finish takes roughly a twentieth of a second. An outside observer would have never seen or even understood the intricate and frightening beauty that weaving a teleportation spell with pinpoint control holds, to them, Luna would have been there one second, and gone the next. No kicked up dust, no blur of moment. ~Outside the crash site, 10:47 PM, Year 1002~ ”Girls! Be serious! For all we know this could change Equestria.” ”Rrrrigghhht… Keep telling yourself that egghead…” Twilight lets out a frustrated groan as she, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity steadily made their way to the crash site of the meteor, the dirt clods and bits of upturned earth thrown about telling her that they were getting closer to the hill. ”Really darling,” Begins Rarity “I can’t possibly see how all the hub-bub about a space rock could be worthy of waking me from my beauty sleep.” She finishes distastefully as she pulls hair curlers from her somewhat disheveled mane. Rainbow Dash snorts before elbowing Applejack and not-so-subtly whispering “Yeah, she needs it am I right?” Rarity, who is right in front of them, rounds about, furious “What did you say!?!” Before an argument can break out however, Pinkie pops up between them, her grinning mouth already set to rapid-fire. ”Oh my gosh girls! This is so cool! I bet it’ll look super neeto like a tiny moon! It wasn’t so neeto when it hit the ground and went BOOOOM and woke the whole town... But since everyone is awake we can have a-Omf!” Pinkie is cut off and subsequently forced to take a breath as Applejack plants a hoof in her mouth. ”Ease up Sug’, we’re jus’ here to take a gander at tha rock to make sure there ain’t nothing bad ahoof.” Applejack says with a roll of her eyes. ”Pfft! But that’s kinda boring, OH! What if it’s ALIENS?” Rainbow exclaims with excitement “That would be SO cool!” She says, her voice cracking some at the end. ”I hope it’s not aliens…” Fluttershy says quietly with a shiver, speaking up for the first time. Now it was Twilight’s turn to roll her eyes “Rainbow, be realistic, there is no such thing as aliens.” Rainbow’s jaw drops “What!? Just last week you said that there had to be planets out there with aliens on them.” ”Actually I said there had to be planets somewhere in the universe with LIFE on them. They would need to come here to be considered aliens.” The violet magus replies with a raised eyebrow. ”How come there can’t be aliens here then?” Pinkie asks with a tilt of her head. Twilight sighs and thinks to herself for a moment “For starters they would need some means of space travel. One that could withstand the vacuum of space, resistant to collision of materials floating in empty space, and be fast enough to make the trip between 2 habitable planets without the pilot expiring by some means. The biggest problems lay with the last point, otherworldly life could vary so much that there could be no other habitable planets for a particular species, and to make a trip within a reasonable timeframe would mean that the spacecraft would have to move faster than light, which is an impossibly” Twilight says with certainty. Rainbow just gives Twilight a bemused look “I’ll be honest Twi, I didn’t listen to half of that, just give me the odds of this thing being an alien ship” The unicorn gives her fellow element a glare before putting a hoof to her chin in thought “Well, I would say one in…in…” She blinks “I can’t even think of a number that high” ”Then wh-!!!” Rainbow stops mid sentence, her ears perking up and swiveling around “You girls hear anything funny?” WHOOSH!!! All six mares cringe and almost duck as a carriage pulled by a team of pegasi guards rushes by overhead, much lower to the ground than they usually are. ”What-!” Several more chariots and carriages filled with personnel and unknown cargo fly by, even a large gilded one holding Princesses Celestia and Luna, all of them heading to the destroyed hill. All of them just stare silently as the train of vehicles lower themselves a distance away, the sounds of orders and scrambling hooves breaking the silence not even a moment later. Fluttershy audibly gulps a lump in her throat “Girls? I really don’t like this…” she says in a trembling voice. Silently, all of them share the sentiment. Twilight however snaps out of the spell the unusual sight but over everyone “Come on everypony, this is no time to just stand around! Whatever this is, it must be serious! And we can’t shirk our duty to Equestria, what if the princesses need us? We’ve saved the world twice before and this can’t be that dangerous.” Twilight finishes with a flourish and a face set into determination as she turns to the direction of the crash site. Her words, shining with conviction, rouse her friends from their own thoughts With a collective glace at each other, the five follow their friend and de-facto leader. ~Crash site, 10:55 PM, Year 1002~ The very instant the first transport touches the ground a squad of unicorns, horns already sparking with arcane power, jump out and hop into formation with precision born of hard training. Some don’t even wait for their flying transportation to land, instead opting to make the fall to earth, landing with the thunderous ‘thud’ of their bodies absorbing the shock, and shrugging it off without even a backwards glance. Eight teams of four all stand stoically in front of the metal anomaly, waiting for orders. ”Stallions! Assume dome formation!” a male voice call from behind them. Without a word they all hurry to fulfill the order, running to evenly spaced points around the impact zone, horns lowered and humming with barely restrained magic. The sound of hoof-falls cut through the area as none other than Shining Armor walks calmly up to the circle of guards. Or at least he looks calm on the outside, as confused thoughts swim within the Head Captain’s mind, all of them centered on the odd metal meteor within the crater before him. Why would Princess Celestia be so worried over space junk? Nopony got hurt in it rather violent landing, and despite being somewhat unnerving to look at it seems harmless. Shining sighs and rubs his head with a hoof; it’s not his place to question the crown no matter how much he wants to. Turning his eyes back to his formation of guards, he prepares his instructions “Ready!?” ”Yes sir!” a chorus of voices call out ”Begin standard containment!” Lowering their heads, the horns of the guards spark and crackle with potent, multicolored energy, filling the site with a display of dancing lights. With a sound not unlike arcing electricity, the violent currents of magic bolt up to a central point over the wreckage, evenly yet slowly falling around the meteor in a curtain of green translucent energy. Shining, seeing that the operation is complete, takes a quick look over the dome now around the object and nods his approval. ”Excellent work, now maintain it.” The captain says with a hint of pride. Some of the younger guards preen under the praise, while the others barely even acknowledge it. Shining aims his own horn up and sends out a white, whistling flare into the sky, signaling the science teams and the Princesses that it’s reasonably safe to approach. In a medley of hoof-falls and hurried voices, the lab coat clad spooks from Canterlot University rush onto the scene from the other carriages that landed away from the area, all sorts of different technical equipment held in various colored magic auras. Shining runs his eyes over the hastily set up equipment, hardly knowing what is what and why they would be needed in the first place, but once more, it’s not his place to question a matter such as this. Walking last into the area is Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and a blue unicorn sporting a lab coat who is talking to the alicorns with ease, Crescent Sparkle, the father of both Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, and the head astronomer of Canterlot University. “That’s exactly what I’m trying to say your majesties; even though it seems harmless unknown bacteria could have survived the heat and impact of re-entry, and we could be faced with an epidemic should this be handled carelessly.” Crescent says carefully. Luna seems aghast at the prospect, but Celestia just nods, her usual aloof expression not changing in the slightest, her single exposed eye focused on the metal construct in the remains of the hill. ”Princess!” A young voice calls out behind the small group. All three turn to see Twilight along with the rest of the Elements running to catch up to them, obviously worried over the recent commotion. Celestia can’t help but feel a minuscule smile creep onto her face at the sight of her lavender hued protégé. Celestia leans her swan-like neck down to nuzzle Twilight, who returns the gesture as she walks up. The rest of the elements give Celestia and Luna short bows, sans Pinkie who didn’t seem to be taking the whole situation seriously. Once done with Celestia, Twilight happily trots up to Crescent and nuzzles him in greeting as well. Backing up to stand with her friends, Twilight takes the initiative on the conversation “So, do we know what we’re dealing with here?” Luna shakes her head “Neigh, all we are aware of is that the object fell to earth with no control.” Celestia bites her lip, wanting to share her theory but not wanting to cause panic. She glances over to the metal abnormality, knowing exactly what it really is, the only question now is how will it’s occupant react to the attention it’s going to get? Meanwhile Crescent walks up past some detection equipment to the line where the barrier is being powered by the guards, pointing his horn at it and running a detection spell…Air is still getting through, and none of it is being filtered...That will not do, not at all. ”Barrier Squad!” barks Crescent “Set yourselves to contain and, or destroy all foreign bacteria and contaminates.” ”Yes sir!” Every one of the unicorn guards holding up the energy dome cry, the glow of their horns intensifying. With a tooth rattling hum of power, the dome around the metal construct goes from a soothing green to light red, making the cool night air around it fizzle angrily. ”Professor Crescent wait!” A portly unicorn in a labcoat urges as he runs up “We can’t destroy the micro-organic samples we could collect from the object! It would be…” his words die in his mouth from the venomous glare Crescent levels him with. ”Don’t. Question. Me. One more time and you’ll be doing intern work until your hooves bleed, got me?” Crescent growls out, making the other unicorn gulp in fear and nod quickly. Watching the overweight pony quickly slink away, Rainbow elbows Twilight and whispers to her “Man, your dad is a hardass.” The young magus turns to her cyan friend, affront written on her face “Rainbow!” She just shrugs “Just saying, I don’t see why the eggheads are so worked up over space germs.” ”We “eggheads” are worked up about this because this has the potential to spiral out of control if we weren’t, who knows what sort of malignant diseases an object from deep space could have? ” Crescent loudly says from his place over by some sensor equipment, having overheard Rainbow. The speedster has the decency to look sheepish, making Twilight and the other elements giggle. ”Professor!” The unicorn stallion sighs and turns to an intern rushing up to him from another sensor array.”What is it this time?” He asks, exasperated. ”Professor Sparkle, we just got the results of the scan we did on the object and well…” the intern looks away nervously. ”And?” The intern gulps and looks back to Crescent “Professor, we detected life signs within it.” The head scientist rolls his yellow eyes “Precisely why the barrier was put up, to keep bacteria in.” ”No no sir! What I mean is…there is a SINGLE something in it…something alive.” …What? Crescent blinks in surprise, before looking at the sweating intern with a skeptical eye, as if daring him to say more ”…Show me.” It seems the intern’s outburst was overheard by others, as Twilight, several other scientists, and even Celestia and Luna make their way to the wire-infested equipment the young unicorn intern lead Crescent to. The poor unicorn just got more flustered by the multitude of heads looking over his shoulder at the sensors, which flashes with different graphs and readings, all centered on the fallen object. ”W-w-well” The unicorn takes a nervous breath “After we managed to get some advanced scanning spells within it, we picked up a disturbing amount of brainwaves and other neural activity, akin to an average pony.” Silence settles over the group, before Celestia breaks it, her voice not betraying her underlying worry in the slightest. ”My little pony, are you sure this just isn’t a malfunction of the scanning array? Or perhaps you scanned a pony nearby by mistake?” The sun goddess asks, her gaze boreing into his skull He shakes so violently that he looks ready to seize at any moment, before Celestia takes her eye off of him after realizing what she was doing. Calming some, the intern returns to the matter at hand “I-I’m sure Your Majesty, I double checked before I went to get the professor.” ”So that means… “ Twilight trails off ”It means that today is going to be a changing day for Equestria.” Luna finishes for her, not bothering to hide the awe in her voice. If Luna were totally honest with herself, the thought of life out beyond her stars, utterly different than what they have on Equis, thrills her to no end. How different would they be? What would they eat? How advanced could they be? Would they be friendly? All of it raced around her head with dizzying speed, the thirst for knowledge not of this world overtaking her. Twilight meanwhile was having a similar train of thought; whatever is in the newly confirmed vessel must be of an advance race, one with so many secrets of the universe to share. Celestia however, was not taking the news of the potential visitor as well as her sister and student. She had lived so long that she had the time to come up with a plan of action for almost everything, Nightmare Moon, Discord, and her plan for Sombra’s eventual escape was shaping up nicely, all of it done to the best interest of her ponies, but this…There are too many variables, too many unknowns; there was no possible way to have a contingency for the encounter of alien life. The ivory alicorn sighs inaudibly, she could just be blowing this whole this out of proportion, but it never hurts to be careful. Turning her head to the formation of guards she issues an order to stand down. ”Guards! Drop the barrier and step away from the object, assume non-threatening stances! That is not a meteor, but an alien craft.” Gasps of fright and amazement, break out in the site as all of the guards look at each other in confusion, as if hoping for an answer on the face of another, before cutting the feed of magic to the fizzling dome and stepping back several paces. The shield fades, the crackle it produced going with it, leaving the area soundless save for the wind whistling through nearby trees. The quiet is not long however before frantic beeps from the intern’s sensors cut through the air. Looking over the new readings, the unicorn’s eyes widen in untold alarm “Professor! Princess! Sudden spike in neural activity!” Crescent pushes him out of the way as he looks over the machine himself, his face going pale under his fur as it dawns on him just what’s going on. ”Dad? What’s wrong?” Twilight asks concededly from behind him. The astronomer just looks at the readings as he mumbles to himself “…It was unconscious before…” All the ponies around him perk their ears up, trying to listen to Crescent. Celestia decides to dig “If you would repeat that Mr. Sparkle, then I would be thankful.” She says, making use of her motherly voice and suggesting form of order. He looks back at them “The old readings we had? That said it had as much brain activity as a normal pony? As it turns out, the alien was unconscious at the time, now that it’s awake, we’ve got an accurate reading on it’s brainpower and it’s boasting impressive numbers…” ”Why’s that a big deal?” Asks Rainbow as she flutters up to the group with the other elements in tow, all of them now interested in the proceedings. Rarity rolls her eyes “It’s of obvious concern Rainbow, although I’m not one for scientific jargon it must mean that our guest is of high intelligence,” ”So…the alien is an egghead?” Rainbow lets her shoulders slump “Lame!” ”Rainbow…that’s not very nice, what if you hurt it’s feelings?” Fluttershy asks, her usual kind nature showing even in the defense of someone she doesn’t know. Celestia just shakes her head at their not realizing just how dangerous an intellectually capable creature such as this is. ”Actually my little ponies, Fluttershy has the correct idea on the matter.” Celestia says looking over all of them. Seeing some confusion directed back at her, the princess elaborates “Girls, this is a situation that must be handled with the utmost tact and care, we cannot afford to offend the visitor for doing so has unknown consequences.” All of the Elements spare a glance at one another. ”An what if the critter turns out to be ornery? What do we do then?” Applejack ask with a distrusting look at the still unmoving ship. ”If all goes as I hope it will then it will not come to that.” Celestia says gently, she opens her mouth to say more but is cut off by a heavy footfall. Another, the sound of a heavy hoof on metal sounds throughout the area. Wait metal? All heads turn to the ship, which the sound is coming from. ”Quickly girls! Come with us!” Celestia urges as she and Luna trot up to the rim of the crater. Although Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash eagerly follow, Applejack and Rarity come only reluctantly, dragging an almost petrified Fluttershy with them. All of them stop a the rim of the crater, in plain sight of a door on the side of the vessel, where loud footsteps grow closer …clang… ”Remember my little ponies…” Celestia begins, her voice as soothing as a lullaby …clang… ”You are about to make history once more…” …Clang… ”Only this time, it will without a doubt be your greatest…” …Clang… Just how grave the situation is begins to settle over them, killing the enthusiasm of the group. Clang… ”But you all are the Elements of Harmony…” Clang… ”Nopony is as suited for this as you six are…” Clang. The tension is growing so thick that Fluttershy has to choke back a gasp. Clang. ”So chin up, show our guest your best… Clang! Everyone’s eyes are glued to the door, even if they don’t want them to be. Clang! ”We are about to experience the greatest change to the world ever seen…” CLANG! ”I know that you girls can do it…” CLANG! ”So prepare yourselves…” … No one can move, hardly even breathe. The door hisses in a shrill keen as the ship depressurizes. Then it slowly swings open… CLANG! Author's Note Second chapter is up. After this my updates are going to slow down to about one a week. and before anyone asks, no, this is not going in a Tyrantlestia direction. Normally I don't reveal anything in a story but I loath Tyrantlestia. Please tell me what you thought. Chapter III (Arc I-Intro)~Ship wreck, time unknown~ The instant the depressurization is over you give the hatch door a nudge and let it swing outward, letting in a chilled night breeze. With a final look at the HUD on the inside of your mask, displaying your vitals and atmospheric stats, you take a step out of the hatch, falling the several feet to the turned ground at a rate that just seems too slow for you. In a crunch, your feet sink into the dirt almost half an inch, the weak gravity making the ground less dense than it would on Terra. You take a deep breath, your mask making a mechanical rasp as it filtered out most of the oxygen it takes in. *S-squeak!* Shit! Is the local wildlife closing in on you already!? Your head shoots up to the origin of the noise up at the lip of the crater, where you can’t help but stare dumbfounded. Even as a trio of reticules race around your HUD, scanning the curious creatures staring down at you, your mind struggles to grasp what your eyes tell it. Looking down at the crater at you, totally frozen is what seems to be eight quadrupeds, all of them in equine in nature…if nature allowed such garish coat colors to be successful. With a beep, your suit finishes its scan and quickly reports what it finds as text. //Scan complete, 8 unknown, female, carbon based lifeforms detected. 4 subtypes detected. Warning! All specimens emitting unknown radiation. No other information available.// Well that did a lot of good… But you’ll have to make do with what little information you have. You let your eyes wander over the colorful animals, making sure to note everything that seemed extraordinary. All of them have bright coats of fur that differed from their manes and tails, ranging from blue to pink to white and everything in-between, the blue one even has a rainbow striped mane. In addition some have extra appendages, like single spiraled horns, small wings that seemed perfect for the low gravity, or the last two who have nothing at all. Looking at the largest one, you see that she had both wings and a horn…And a golden crown. You blink in confusion, what the hell is up with that? It’s not like they possess the mental capacity to…to…Your eyes are drawn to a picture of an 8 pointed sun on the largest equine’s flank, the mark standing out in stark contrast to her white fur. That’s not natural…the chance of her fur growing in such a specific pattern has to be well and beyond astronomical. You were willing to write off the odd coloration they all possessed as either chance, or simply alien adaptation as either seems likely. But the more you look at them, the more inconsistencies with that thought become apparent. Every one of them possesses a unique, tattoo like marketing emblazoned on their flanks, the meaning of the marks lost on you. The smaller white one possessed a royal purple mane and tail, both of which look carefully stylized into complicated looking curls and in no way looked achievable by natural means. The orange was even wearing a Stetson hat This this didn't make sense… Unless…Could these beings be sentient alien life? The very notion of crashing on the planet owned by an unknown race makes you break out into a cold sweat. Had you angered them? Frightened them? Maybe even hurt one of them in the crash? No matter what, none of this bodes well; none of this bodes well at all. Your eyes gravitate to the large ivory alien and the midsize indigo one, both of whom sport crowns, chest plates, and both wings and a horn. Just from observation you can tell that these two must be a higher breed, and as such were probably made leaders if the regalia they possess are any indication to their status. You move your whole head to look at both of them, praying to whatever higher power there is that you can salvage the situation and avoid offending them at once. Ivory, as you decide to call her locks eyes with you, her amethyst gaze focused on the blue glowing optics of your mask. Here goes nothing… Slowly, you incline your head in a nod to her, doing your best to convey that you recognize her as a form of authority. Lifting your head, the repeat the action for Indigo since you have no idea who is superior. You pull your head back up just in time to see the collective eyes of the whole group widen in surprise. The ball is in their park now, all you can do is wait. Idly, you can't help but wonder what is going through their minds right now. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Applejack has no idea what in the world is going on. When it was announced that the odd metal stone was not actually a stone, but instead an alien craft, she couldn't help but be skeptical. They say seeing is believing, but this almost defies imagination. No matter how much effort she put into convincing herself that this is some sort of dream or hallucination, no matter how hard she clenches her eyes shut and opens them again, the tall, metal clad biped refused to disappear. This is like something out of the comic books that Applebloom would borrow from Spike from time to time. Only this alien is not a green pony with antennas standing at the height of a foal, no that would've been too easy. Even from her position at the lip of the crater Applejack could see that this thing is as tall, if not taller than Princess Celestia and almost twice as broad as Big Mac. The only thing the apple farmer could think of that is larger than this thing would be Discord, and even then the mismatched Mad God lacked the sheer mass, the presence that the bipedal stranger seemed to radiate. And if what all the University workers said is true, then it has considerable brains to go with its brawn. One thing was for sure. Applejack didn’t like this in the least bit. Carefully turning her bottle green eyes to roam over her friends and the princesses, she took in and gauged their expressions. Rarity is frozen in her place, staring down the alien with terror that seemed out of place on the fashionista’s face. Twilight however, in stark contrast to her fellow unicorn is looking down the crater with wide eyes, eyes that burned with rabid curiosity as she forced herself to stand her spot. Moving on, Fluttershy seems almost catatonic on her feet, the poor pegasus frightened stiff by the unnatural happenings right in front of her. Rainbow seemed to be taking everything well, even if her nonchalant stance is obviously forced, but then again she's likely not taking this seriously. Finally Pinkie looks ready to burst in excitement as she normally is when meeting somepony, or in this case, someTHING new. She too is not taking this as seriously as she should. Looking up at the alicorns, Applejack inspects them as well. Princess Luna looked at the creature with open awe, her eyes widened and her mouth slightly open; one could only surmise her thoughts on this matter. Celestia however… The Element of Honesty gulped at the severe expression adorning the sovereign’s face. Eyes narrow, lips set into a thin line, and her ears pulled back as a visible bead of sweat runs down her face, obviously the Sun deity is not having optimistic thoughts. Then, it moves. It wasn't a large movement in any sense of the word; it simply craned his neck to point its face at the princesses. Slowly and deliberately, it nods at Princess Celesta then moves its head ever so slightly to repeat the action with Princess Luna. No words… Did it really recognize the princesses for who they are with just a glance? Silence overtakes the area as everyone stares at it, each of them bearing a different expression from the ponies around them. For almost a minute nothing is said, before Princess Celestia backs up several steps and taps the ground with a gold cupped hoof, staring at the alien the whole time. ~~~~~~~~~~ While you waited for Ivory to make the next move, you busied yourself by going through the functions of your rather haphazardly put together suit. All in all it's a rather bare-bones system, the magnetic barrier, a small 10 TB built-in computer with simplistic AI, an industrial grade PDA on your wrist, holo projectors on the palms of your gloves, and your hazard mask. You aren't really surprised by its underwhelming capabilities, but really you would have been in much worse shape without the suit. If you are trapped on this planet for any considerable length of time, you would definitely see about trying to upgrade it or even just build an entirely new suit. That is if you can come across the resources to manufacture the parts needed, for all you know this planet could be barren in terms of useful elements. You really hope that's not the case, the hex-cell steel of your ship’s hull held up nicely but doubtlessly some necessary internal components were destroyed beyond repair in your cataclysmic landing. Come to think of it, even if you can find everything you need, with this planet's inhabitants let you have it? You glance up at Ivory to see her equine face scrunched up in thought, before the expression eases and she backs up several steps, giving the ground a few light stomps as she looks at you. Perhaps she wants you to come up out of the crater? Seems plausible enough, but you keep in mind that making assumptions is dangerous in situations like these, and immediately run through an escape plan should things go south. That horn of hers looks like it could easily run you through and have enough length to come out your other side if this is a trap... With a nervous sigh you steel yourself and begin the ascent. Slowly you begin to walk up the crater, not taking your eyes off the colorful equines for fear that they would react negatively to your approach. The others follow Ivory’s lead and backup several steps so that they remain in line with her. With a few crunches of dirt underneath your metal boots, you climb out of the hole in the earth and feel your stomach drop once you get a good visual of the surrounding area. Other equines litter the clearing, some wearing coats, others in polished gold armor, and every single one of them has their large eyes trained on you. So not only did you crash on the planet with creatures smart enough to appreciate physical appearance and form leadership, but they also had a form of armed forces. Your prospects seem to get more and more deplorable the longer you look around. Finally you crest the crater and stand several paces away from the welcome party, who all continue to gape at you like they did before. However you simply wait patiently seeing as how there is little you can do. Before any of them can deliberate on what to do next, the lavender colored unicorn? Unicorn seems to fit, steps forward and walks up to you until she stands hardly 2 feet away, much to the vocal protest of her friends and numerous others around the clearing. You take a moment to listen to the voices, having never heard them before. You identify a medley of mewls, chirps, squeaks, and snorts mixed in with a flowing, melodic, gibberish that you couldn't even begin to identify, certainly no language you've ever even heard of. Lavender, as you dubbed her, cranes her neck up to stare at you with large, violet eyes filled with almost childlike curiosity. In response you bend your knees and crouch down to her level, hoping to make her more comfortable and to maybe look less threatening. She seems to marvel at the simple act before her returning her attention back to the optics of your mask. Lavender blinks before apparently remembering what she wanted to do. Lifting a single hoof off of the ground, she pokes herself in the chest and says something in her sugary sounding speech, the sound in question beginning with an almost purr and ending with a quietly rolling T. She she repeats her action and words once more, slightly slower this time before she points at you with the same hoof, an expectant look gracing her features . With a start you realize she just tried to tell you her name, and now she wants to know yours. How curious, as a human you understood how having personal names made identification of others much easier than going without, but was such a thing a universal trait of organized societies? Perhaps the equine natives use a similar concept to humans? Whatever, you could find out later, but you’ve been keeping Lavender waiting long enough. Again moving slowly to come off as nonthreatening, you take a single finger and point to yourself before reciting your name. “Anonymous.” You can't help but wince at the rough, mechanical sounding voice that comes through your mask, making Lavender flinch slightly. She bounces back however as a grin comes to her face from her success. For the first time you notice just how cute and almost cuddly Lavender and her fellow equines are in appearance. They’re almost like cartoon characters… Without even realizing what you're doing, you reach an arm out and scratch the unicorn right behind her ear, drawing a chorus of gasps from the onlookers. She stiffens in surprise, before a dopey smile finds its way to her face as she leans into your hand, as if trying to get you to scratch harder. You pull your hand away but remain crouched, mentally berating yourself for taking such a huge step out of your boundaries. ~~~~~~~ Celestia couldn't even begin to describe her relief at how well the whole situation is going. Nopony had been hurt, there’s no mass panic, and the visitor proved it could handle itself in a civil manner and even express light affection. This is nothing like the doomsday scenario that she was almost sure that was going to play out right in front of her eyes. Twilight, bless her heart, had taken the initiative and approached the tall biped, disregarding her own fear in the name of the historical establishment of extending an olive branch to a creature not of this world. Although Celestia knew that there would more than likely be problems down the road, the Sun deity couldn't help but let a smile come to her beautiful face, happy that this crucial moment has gone so well. Now that the stigma around the visitor have been broken by her student, Celestia watches as the other elements and Luna approach Twilight and the space faring biped. Even some of the guards and scientists edge closer, curiosity plain on their faces. Celestia thinks over the last hour and how it's simply the beginning of a change that will rock the whole world to its core. This could be the dawn of a new age for Equestria, or could simply be the calm before the storm. But the way things are looking; the solar Princess can't help but see it as the former. Her smile still in place, Celestia begins the walk to the unlikely group. ~~~~~~~~~ You look around at the colorful group surrounding you, taking in the close visages of the equines. No, equine feels too stale, too catch-all a word for them, really they seem more like ponies than anything else. You grin under your mask, what a silly thought, a whole planet ruled by nothing but ponies, but then again here they are right in front of you. Once more, the rainbow pegasus flutters up right into your face with an inquiring gaze, prompting you to gently push her away. It seems that she, along with Lavender, has a considerable interest in you. Right after you stopped scratching Lavender’s ear, she rushed up with incredible speed chattering excitedly as she did. The only one as enthusiastic as her was the pink one who crossed the gap between her spot by the leader and right in front of you with a single, energetic bound, her mouth run even faster than the rainbow pegasus’. And right after the others followed. The orange one seems suspicious and distrusting of you, but then again you can't really blame her. Once over her fear of you, the white unicorn took to inspecting your clothes along with the bits and pieces of hazard suit placed over them with a hint of disgust. The yellow pegasus still seems horribly afraid of you, but at least she had the nerve to approach. Then finally there is Indigo, who seems content to look you over with sparkling eyes. You couldn't help but run your eyes over her as well, wondering if there is any symbolism with her having both wings and a horn compared to her peers. You are cut off from that train of thought however when Ivory trots her way up to the group, prompting you to stand so you could look her in the eye. She seems the slightest bit intimidated that she has to look up some to meet your gaze, but she immediately and expertly hides it. With a deep breath in and out, she raises it foreleg and holds it out to you. So here we are at last, where you would likely formally acknowledge her as a leader and begin what you hope beyond hope is in agreement to nonviolence. You stare at the outstretched appendage for just a moment before you bring your hand around and grasp her hoof. Up, down. A handshake, the most basic greeting in all of human history. And just like that, your time in Equestria officially began, even if you didn't know it. ~~~Ponyville town hall, 11:41 PM, Year 1002~~~ Luna sighs from her spot in front of the town hall as the citizens of Ponyville gathered in front of it, all of them still awake from the alien’s violent landing. It was the briefest exchange of words between her and her sister, that the citizens needed to know what exactly happened tonight. Personally the Princess of the Night is opposed to the whole notion, knowing how her people usually did not react well to the unknown, but at the same time Celestia argued that they needed to be honest with those that they rule over, and how such a huge event was bound to become known anyway. Luna had a hard time disputing that one. On a more personal note the alicorn wished that her sister was the one to make the announcement instead, as Luna wanted to spend more time at the crash site and maybe learn more of the alien. Seeing as how most of the town had gathered Luna begins, careful to keep her voice loud enough to hear, but not so loud as to deafen the ones closest to her. ”Citizens of Ponyville, I have come to bring you news on the meteor strike that occurred an hour ago.” Murmurs break out amongst the group of ponies, many of them fearful. ”After some investigation” the Princess starts, quieting the townsponies “we made a rather startling discovery.” This time everyone is silent. ”The meteor was not a meteor but was in fact… A crashed alien vessel.” More murmurs, now more disbelieving than fearful, a few even had the gall to chuckle. ”This is no laughing matter!” Luna almost shouts, quieting everyone “For the occupant survived the crash.” Gasps breakout in the crowd as the pressure of what the ruler said begins to set upon them. Luna looks over the crowd still debating the wisdom of Celestia wanting to inform them. Finally she continues. ”My fair ponies, at approximately 11:28 PM... We established first contact with extraterrestrial life…” Author's Note Here we are, chapter 3. To address some issues you may find in this chapter or others, just wait for more to read. Other readers expressed some confusion on a number of things that will be addressed later. Next update should be in a few days, then my speed will drop to about one update a week for real. Chapter IV (Arc II-Race against time) Chapter IV (Arc II-Race against time) You stare mystified at the spot that Indigo was just a moment prior. She was there not even a second ago, talking with Ivory before she just…just…vanished. There one moment and then gone the next, if you weren’t right here watching then you might have discounted it as your mind playing tricks on you. But you know what you saw; she disappeared into thin air with zero trace. Could the little pony aliens have access to teleportation technology? As outrageously farfetched as the idea is, you can’t think of an alternative means of moving that quickly, unless of course it was an innate ability that she possessed. But that seemed to be venturing even further into the realms of impossibility, naturally having the ability to teleport of all things? You mentally jot down the question on your ever-growing list of what you want to ask when you can find a way around the language barrier. Come to think of that, how are you going to find a way around it? New languages are always uncertain business, and even a single miscommunication could bring about some serious disaster, especially when dealing with native speakers of said language. In all honesty this might be one arena where you let them try to sort everything out. Turning your attention back to the colorful group around you, you notice that Lavender has left to go talk with Ivory, Lavender speaking with urgency as well as excitement while Ivory look to be considering Lavender’s words carefully. Eventually Ivory smiles and responds to Lavender in their almost musical sounding speech. That was the first time you ever heard Ivory speak, her voice is slightly deeper than any others of your "welcoming committee" and much smoother, holding a tone of a mother speaking to her child and had the effect of almost immediately making you feel homesick, despite only being stranded for about an hour. You shake it off, there's no need being distracted right now, the more important things to be doing other than being upset over nothing. Lavender gives the larger equine a megawatt smile before producing an old piece of parchment, a quill, and an inkwell from seemingly nowhere, all of them held in a shifting aura matching her coat. Wait what? You stare dumbfounded at the anomaly surrounding the trio of objects, and none of the ponies seemed startled or surprised in any sort of way. First Indigo’s teleportation and now Lavender’s telekinetic manipulation, these couldn't be abilities that they were born with right? You stop and think to yourself, teleportation isn't unheard of back on Terra but teleportation technology on a personal scale is almost impossible according to experts. And the levitation, again not unheard of, but really only the top 1% of wealthy people could afford the very pricey neural implant required to have such an ability. You sigh and add even more questions to your now huge list that you would need to inquire about at some point. Lavender rushes up, quickly scribbling on the parchment with incredible focus and control of her telekinesis, before she seats herself down back in the middle of her friends and levitates the parchment as well as quill to you, an expectant look on her face. Warily taking the brown paper and the quill, you take a look at what Lavender had written, feeling a bit of confusion. On the paper are alien symbols in a row, right above them are groups of dots that seemed to correlate to the symbols right beneath them. Below the symbols and dots are more symbols and dots grouped differently with more symbols that apparently Lavender did not bother to label in any form, along with several more rows that seemed to be missing their end symbols. What in the world could she mean by this? Perhaps it's some sort of test? Then you realize what it is and feel like slapping yourself. “Well, I certainly feel stupid..." The symbols are numbers, and the dots must be the key to what each symbol means. Counting each grouping of dots you see that it goes in order from 1 to 10, and the completed rows of symbols must be examples of basic mathematical questions. The other ponies try to get a glimpse of the paper, obviously curious as to what Lavender had written on it, so you go back to crouching down so they can see. Stetson, as you feel like calling the orange one seems confused, as well as the pink one. The rainbow one however snorts and looks like she's trying to hold back laughter while the white unicorn and the shy pegasus both hold looks of comprehension. Looking back and forth between the examples in the number key, you easily finish the problems, finding them to be basic addition and subtraction. You even add human numbers to Lavender's number key, just to punctuate that you know what you're doing and that you just didn't solve the sheet by chance. Handing the parchment back to Lavender, she takes it in her telekinesis once more, a tiny bit of it overlapping your hand, making warning messages about unknown radiation flare to life on your masks HUD. You glance the flashing text and file it away for later. Reading over the paper, the purple unicorn’s smile gets larger and larger until she reaches the end, by then her face is stretched in an elated grin. She turns the paper to her friends with some excited chatter, pointing out the problems you had completed and the line of human numbers now across the top of the paper. Ivory, apparently overhearing her smaller friend, trots over to see what all the fuss is about and catches sight of the paper. The winged unicorn turns her amethyst gaze to you, a small, knowing smile adorning her muzzle. If you had to hazard a guess you would say that she had an idea of your level of intelligence all along. A few other equines all wearing lab coats make their way closer to see the paper, all of them gaping with astonishment once they scan over the parchment themselves. It seems what they say is true, that a universal language can always be found in math. In a flurry of activity the purple unicorn flips over the paper and writes down even more equations with the sound of scratching on paper, apparently wanting to know just how far she can push you. She gives it back, her grin still as large as ever. Giving the new symbols a once over you find that she had raised the stakes to multiplication and division. While breezing through the answers with the rather annoying to use quill, you idly wonder why the equines count in base 10 rather than base 4 like you would have expected. Yet another question... For almost half an hour you solved different bits and pieces of math for Lavender, Ivory, the ponies in coats, and a few among Lavender's friends who could stay interested with the proceedings. Stetson had become bored and is apparently rather sleepy as she sat and slowly nodded off, unlike Rainbow who decided to lavish some annoying attention to a pair of gold clad pegasi, trying to get them to break their stoic façade. The stakes quickly escalated as you found yourself doing some trigonometry and calculus before long, it's times like these you are glad you paid attention in high school. Finally she seems to run out of things to throw at you, looking over the out several sheets worth of numbers with some numb surprise, apparently not expecting you to be able to do it all. Looking around you see that a number of the little ponies look almost dead on their feet, obviously tired from all the excitement and spending several hours out by the destroyed hill. You figure this would be a good time to run a quick diagnostic on your crashed ship, least you leave it without knowing what you need to do to it to get it off the ground. Rising back to your full height along with attracting the attention of everyone in the clearing, you turn back to the crater and jump to the open hatch, silently marveling at how you made the almost 9 foot leap effortlessly. Rather than close the door behind you, you leave it open, an invitation to come inside if any of them are brave enough. And apparently they are. Rainbow flies in with extreme swiftness, apparently not willing to let this chance go, Lavender follows shortly after, popping into existence in a flash of light in the doorway. You decide to just quit questioning what they can do until you have some reliable means of communication. Even Ivory decides to venture into your ship, but not without an escort of two armored pegasi, uniform in appearance, who look about the entire area distrustfully. You walk up to the control panel while the others look around, wondering how you're going to power the ship long enough to run a diagnostic. That reminds you of another problem you're inevitably going to have to deal with, how are you going to keep your suit powered? Taking a look at the corner of your HUD, you see that your ragtag suit has enough power to last for approximately one month, after that you will be totally on your own. If you hadn't immunized yourself to the local diseases and the still unsettling radiation that seemed ambient in almost everything here by the time you run out of power, you will likely die. Again you are reminded just how serious the situation is, even if everything has been going swimmingly, you are still stranded on a planet where death could loom around every corner with you totally unaware. You grit your teeth and shake away the negative thoughts plaguing your mind as you remember what you told yourself. “I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul…” Looking back at the control panel you see Rainbow inspecting all the different switches and buttons, the barely restrained urge to flip and press all of them shining in her eyes. “Don't even think about it.” She looks up at you and blinks in confusion. You shake your head in a firm no, hoping the gesture gets across to her, and apparently it does as she crosses her forelegs and flutters off, grumbling. Coming back to your original problem, how are you going to power the ship for diagnostic? Well, you could use the power from your suit to do so, but you're not sure how much it would take or how the suit itself would handle its power being siphoned. But the more you try to think of another way, the more blanks you draw. With a dejected sigh, you unclip a thin cord from the suits power supply located on your lower back and plug it into the control console. Holding up your wrist and scrolling through the options on the PDA as the others look on in curiosity, you come to the option of ‘Connect to unknown port’. You click it and watch the controls light up as the ship's CPU directs power from your suit to itself with a loud buzz, drawing frightened gasps from the equines in the room. Without any warning a pair of weights slam into your back, knocking the breath out of you and pushing you into the controls, where you bang your head and see stars. You turn your head and see the pair of guards glaring at you menacingly, their eyes shifting between you and the noisy control panel. In a pained fueled panic you flip yourself around and push both of them off as hard as you can, sending the surprised guards flying across the cockpit where they crash into the wall with pained grunts. Both Lavender and Rainbow drop their jaws at the display of herculean strength. It must've been the lower gravity, there's not much other explanation for how far they both flew considering they both look as if they should weigh at least 200 pounds each with the armor. Both of them get to their feet and shake off the effects of their unintended flight, glaring at you with even more vehemence than before. Just as they crouch to charge you again, a frightfully loud shout rings out from within the cockpit forcing everyone to wince and stop what they were doing. All eyes turn to Ivory, who despite only wearing a small frown; you could tell she was positively livid. You sigh and bring your hands your head, it looks like this adventure had just come to a premature end, you could only hope it wouldn't be a painful premature end... To your utter surprise however, Ivory does not turn her fury to you but instead to the pair of guards, who gulp and stand rigidly at attention. The snow white ruler looks them both over, her face betraying absolutely nothing, before she says something quietly in an ordering tone that left no room for any argument, making the guards give shaky salutes before they rush back outside. You got the impression that Ivory being quiet was even worse than her raising her voice. Once done with the guards she turns to you, her steely expression melting into one of genuine concern as she walks up to you, craning her head at different angles to inspect you, possibly for injuries. She looks into your masks optics and offers a single sentence in an apologetic tone, clearly sorry for what had just transpired. You smile under your mask; the equines have definitely done something right by appointing Ivory as their leader. You decide then and there that the winged unicorn is definitely going on your favorites list. "Think nothing of it ma'am, I understand why they did it." You finish the sentence with an incline of your head, hoping to convey that you accept the apology over the incident. She gives you a soft smile and nods as she says something else in her motherly voice, which only adds to the sincerity of her actions. Without any warning Rainbow flies up into your vision, chattering away excitedly as she boxes the air with her forelegs, apparently impressed with how you dealt with the guards. Lavender seems distressed over the recent flurry of activity, her mane and tail slightly ruffled as she looked between you and the door where the guards stood outside, abashed. At least everything turned out… With a start, you realize you left your suit plug into the ship this whole time, where it was steadily losing power. “Shit!” All of your temporary guests jump as you turn and tear the cord out of the control panel in a hurry, hoping you just didn't doom yourself. With a nervous gulp, you watching the corner of your HUD as the suit recalibrates itself. The results aren't good. A full 25% of your battery was lost just letting the ship’s CPU idle, meaning you had just shaved a full seven days off of your life support. This is bad, no this isn't bad, this is horrible! You lost so much time over a little mistake. To make matters worse, you didn't even get to find out what is wrong with your ship, and now you only had about 23 days to fix this mess or else…You put your head in your hands, feeling almost ready to cry in frustration. Feeling a nudge in your side you look down to see Lavender, Rainbow and Ivory staring at you with obvious concern in their large, shining eyes. At least you aren't doing this totally alone… But how do you convey to them what is going wrong? Is it even possible without some sort of direct speech? Apparently Ivory thought so as she approaches you, the tip of her horn glowing a dull gold in the dark interior of the ship. You look warily at the marble sized ball of energy, it doesn't take a genius to deduce that the unknown radiation of the planet is closely associated with the special abilities of its natives. And that ball looks awful concentrated… But still, if she had wanted to hurt you, she would not have ordered her guards to stand down and leave the ship. Walking close, she gently taps the forehead of your mask with the tip of her long spiraled horn, where the ball disappears…What happens no-!!! The weirdest sensation tickles you in the back of the head, as curiosity not your own pokes at your brain several times. You blink and look at the white furred ruler, who has her eyes closed in concentration. Could psychic abilities really be within the realms of possibility for a being like these equines? Deciding to take the plunge, you poke back at the tendril of thought in the back of your mind with curiosity of your own. It, who you assume is Ivory, stops then radiates concern, an image of yourself holding your head flashing through your mind. Really you don't know how to respond, you doubt that anything as sophisticated as a specialized life-support system has an equivalent here, but you try anyway. At first you try words but quickly find out that they hold no meaning a mental conversation You send her an image of the suits power supply and the pony number 25 crossed out to her, only to get confusion in return. Again you try, this time trying to explain the idea of what your suit does and how you need it to her, only for an even bigger wave of confusion to wash over you. This is going nowhere in a hurry, she has no equivalent to compare any of your equipment to, you need some sort of direct speech if you're going to get any help. Wait, that's it! This time you think of the sky, and the Sun and the Moon rapidly rising and setting 23 times, on the 23rd day you send her an image of yourself, on the ground and unmoving. The very implication that this could very well be an unavoidable fate makes you shiver, just imagining it makes it feel all that more inescapable. A surge of alarm not your own comes from her, you even see her real face screw itself up in fright. An urgent inquiring feeling comes from her, obviously telling you that she wants to know how to prevent this. So you tell her, you send an image of yourself and a pony speaking in the same language with speech bubbles, then you show her the power supply though your suit in your speech bubble. It doesn't even take her a second to understand, she breaks a mental connection and turns to Lavender and Rainbow, quickly explaining the situation, making both of them gasp and look at you. Lavender pops out the ship in a flash of light and Rainbow follows out in a quick streak of color. Before she leaves, Ivory turns to you and to your immense surprise, gives you a nuzzle as she whispers nonsensical words filled with reassurance, her voice immediately making you homesick again. Pulling back, she offers you a smile before she leaves out the hatch, leaving you to your lonesome. Taking a deep breath, you sit in the beat-up leather seat of the cockpit and lean back, finally letting your both your mental and bodily fatigue get the better of you as you pass out almost instantly, sleep taking you. ~~~Outside with the Elements~~~ ”Girls it's terrible!” Twilight cries with horror as she re-materializes outside, almost on the verge of tears. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie immediately rush to her, wanting to know what had upset her so. ”Twai?! What jus’ went on in there!? We saw the guards come out, but they didn' tell us anythin’” Applejack asks in a hurry Twilight shakes her head “It’s A-anon! He's dying!” She says, stumbling over the name some. Every one of them gasps. ”What! How? What can we do to help the poor thing?!” Fluttershy jumps in, her voice the loudest they had all heard in some time. Rarity puts her two cents in as well ”Yes what can we do? If there is anything at all then we MUST do it, no matter what.” She says firmly. Rainbow interjects from overhead “According to the Princess, the big guy needs to learn Equestrian before he can tell us what's wrong, something about weird alien technology not working right.” ”Rainbow’s got it.” Twilight says, calming down some “But we've only got 23 days to do it, or else…” She neglects to finish, just leaving the implication in open-air, turning the atmosphere grim. Pulling piece of parchment that hadn't been used to test Anon to her, Twilight begins to write down an outline of a plan ”Ok girls, here's what were going to do…” ~~~The next morning~~~ Laying in the grass after you woke up and walked outside, you doze lightly in the sun seeing as you have nothing else to do at the moment. Besides, the sleepless night before had made you rather tired. If you had the schedule that Lavender has graciously shown you before memorized correctly…then the rainbow one would be the one watching you today, and a faint ‘woosh’ overhead confirms the thought. You feel the pegasus land lightly on your back before she shuffles about some, trying to find a comfortable position. She’s certainly bold; the others would probably never try to touch you, at least not before not getting to know you more. You had noted that the small ponies seem more tactile than humans, but how far did that extend however? They had all the facial expressiveness of a human, yet you noticed that affectionate gestures and contact were by no means in short supply despite it being less hassle to convey emotion otherwise. Curious creatures these aliens are. Finally Rainbow as you call her, settles on your back with a content sigh. Even though she’s more likely interested in the body heat she could extract from you than anything else, you can’t help but smile slightly at the inadvertent display of trust she had shown by willingly resting this close to you. Or maybe Rainbow is just naïve? Either way it’s still sort of nice. You look back at her, seeing large, magenta eyes looking back with all the silent questions they held the night prior. “I’m going to guess you have no idea how to tweak an A.I. to decrypt an unknown dialect do you?” She tilts her head with a raised eyebrow, her expression akin to “Dude what?” “I thought as much…” You and her simply lie there for almost an hour, dozing in the sunlight before you decide to do something productive. Bringing your PDA to bear, you look to the various folders stored within it until you find the AI files and others associated with it. Opening them up you try to recall what you learned about programming back in college, and how all languages followed a specific algorithm as you learned in English. Rainbow looks over your shoulder at the glowing blue screen of the wrist mounted device, blinking with curiosity. You scroll through almost all the files, not finding anything related to the AI learning on its own, scanning through one more time you still find nothing. “Wonderful…” It looks like you're going to have to make one from scratch, which is going to be pretty hard considering you had never even touched on AIs throughout any of your old classes or in your career. Best get started though. You hold one hand up and fire up the holo-projector on your palm, making a large screen filled with a large amount of data flare to life. In half an instant Rainbow is off of your back and lying down in front of you, her eyes, alight with interest, trained on the large glowing window now hovering above your hand. For almost an hour you and the multihued pony sit there, you trying to write up an AI assistance program with no basis to go off of and she simply watching. After some time she looks up at the sun, seeing that the position had moved and rises to her feet. With some verbal coaxing and a few gestures, she urges you to get up as well as she trots off in the direction that the others had left last night. Did she want you to come to their settlement? Only one way to find out. Getting up on your feet, you dust off the dirt and grass that accumulated on your front as well as taking a good stretch before following Rainbow into the unknown. Author's Note Chapter 4 done. Some minor corrections were made from the source, which I will fix soon as well. The Intro Arc is over and now the story begins to take off. It will seem slow until the language barrier is broken sometime from now, but I assure you it's needed for the story. Chapter V (Arc II-Race against time) Chapter V (Arc II-Race against time) ~~~Ponyville, 11:09 AM, Year 1002~~~ ”Alright! Here’s what we’re going to do girls,” begins Twilight, looking at her friends around the kitchen table of the library sans Rainbow. All of them look back, each of them listening intently. “The Princesses have gone back to Cantorlot and left us to care for Anani…Anyo…Anon until further notice.” Twilight says, again stumbling over the foreign name some. ”Twilight, I don't mean to sound rude, but how exactly are we going to go about this?" Asks Rarity with a delicately raised eyebrow. ”I was just getting to that." Twilight says as she levitates over a stack of books and numerous sheets of parchment. ”I was thinking we would go with a two-pronged approach, every day Anon would come here and I could teach him Equestrian the traditional way from the ground up." She says, indicating the books “After we finish for the day, one of us would take him out into town and let him immerse himself in Equestrian in a more practical manner." Twilight finishes with a smile. Fluttershy speaks up, ”um Twilight, I don't mean to stamp on your plans or anything, but wouldn't it be easier to use some sort of translation spell?" The butter colored pegasus asks. ”Yeah, that does seem like it would be way faster than trying to teach the big guy with books,” Pinkie chips in. Twilight’s jaw drops at the suggestion “WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT?!” She almost screams. Rarity turns her blue eyes to rest on her friends ”Girls, although that would seem like a marvelous solution to this little conundrum, a translation spell would likely just make things even more confusing.” All eyes turn to her, each one reflecting considerable confusion. ”Think about it, doesn't our guest’s speech sound greatly different when compared to Equestrian, or even any other language?” The alabaster unicorn asks. Everyone turns to Twilight, expecting the brainy unicorn to shed light on the tidbit of info. ”Well, Yes…” Rarity nods "Exactly, so the way he speaks must be structured differently than any known language here in Equestria, meaning a translation spell would only make a horrific mess of any attempts to talk.” The unicorn blinks at the incredulous expressions she sees on the faces of her fellow elements. ”What? Any fashionista worth her silk simply MUST have an eye for detail, or in this case an ear.” Rarity huffs. The lavender magus bites her lip as she thinks. “Well now that I think about it…Anon’s sentence syntax could, and most likely is different from ours, which would mean he would know the words but have no idea what order to put them in and us talking to him with just be confusing gibberish.” Pinkie’s face drops “Awww…That means we can't ask him what sort of party an alien would like…” The others can't help but smile at their friend’s kind, if single-minded outward musings. ”Well, we gots our plan ready now right? So what now?” Applejack asks. "Actually you girls can leave for now if you want." Twilight says, glancing upward thoughtfully. "Rainbow should be bringing him here anytime now." ~Ponyville, 11:43 AM, Year 1002, 22 days until life support failure~ You walk with the sky blue Pegasus in a companionable silence as you do a quick recap of the last 12 or so hours in your mind. Crash on unknown planet. Meet the sapient and apparently intelligent locals. Establish rudimentary communications. Find out that your suit only has a month worth of power, a week of which was wasted. And finally the current moment, which is you following Rainbow to some unknown form of civilization, supposedly her home where she would help you learn her language. All of that still leaves an uncomfortable amount of problems still not solved, or even close to being answered. You need to find a way to give yourself immunity to any bacteria and toxins in the air, least you fall over and die as a melting pot of disease. If you found a way around that gruesome fate, you still have the problem of dealing with muscle atrophy, which you are likely to suffer in the low gravity of this planet. The idea of being nothing but skin and bones is not appealing to you in the slightest bit. You gulp, so much of this could go wrong in a split second, and there would likely be nothing you can do about it. Now you think about it, this is all being going far, far better than anyone else in your situation could have ever hoped. Maybe you aren't being led into civilization to be taught how to speak like the equines after all; it could all be a ruse to lure you away from any forested area so you can't escape later on… You shake your head, that couldn't be it, they had so many opportunities to harm you before and yet here you are still in one piece and alive. Silently, you hope that your trust in them is not as misplaced as you believe it to be. Back to your most prevalent problem however, you have heard of people making themselves highly resistant, or even out right immune to diseases and venoms by carefully administering small amounts to themselves, perhaps the same would work with the air here? Taking a look at your HUD, you see the filter settings for your mask are set at 100%, meaning absolutely nothing but carefully controlled air is let inside. Here goes nothing… Scrolling through the settings for your suit on your PDA, you find the different settings for the mask, and lower the filter percentage down to 99.5%. This is going to be a very slow process, but if done correctly you would be able to live without the magnetic barrier of your suit and without your mask, in theory that is. It would likely be almost a year before you could breathe without some sort of mechanical assistance, assuming that you survive that long or don't find a way off the planet before then. Even with such a small drop in the filter strength, you faintly smell just how fresh the air is on this planet, the ever so faint, and vaguely familiar scents of grass and foliage. Curious that such a sweet smelling atmosphere could hold microbes that wouldn't hesitate to tear you apart from the inside out, just one of the subtle terrors that evolution can hold you suppose. Realizing that you had slowed and that Rainbow had not bothered to do so as well, you catch up with her in a brisk walk, making her look back at you as you remain careful not to kick off the ground too hard. Again you find yourself at peace even though you should be panicking over your current predicament, but something about this place simply takes the edge off of you. Rainbow stops abruptly, making you stop as well, least you knock her over. Then you see why she stopped. In the distance stood a quaint and almost old nordic looking village, all the stone and thatch buildings painted and decorated in bright pastel colors that would seem more in place in a child's coloring book. A shiver runs down your spine, the whole town seems almost humanlike from the distance, yet another uncanny similarity these little ponies seem to share with your race…It all seems out of place, surreal even. It's as if the longer you look, the further you march forward, the more knowledge you seek, the further down the rabbit hole you go… “Your hometown I take it?” Rainbow turns and makes an eager chirp, signaling you to walk with her down into the town with a wave of her foreleg. You follow, silently muttering a prayer under your breath. The trip is far shorter than you would've expected, and before long you and Rainbow are at the edge of the small hamlet. Before you can go any further, a pony walks out of a nearby house, looking at Rainbow with the foreleg raised in what you guess is a greeting, right before its eyes turn to you, making it totally freeze. With the same shaking hoof, it points to you, stuttering out a fearful string of words. Rainbow just nods and replies back, her speech rather fiery, you even catch your name mentioned even if it's noticeably butchered. The other pony gulps and steps out of the way, prompting your winged escort to start walking again with you following along. It’s the same reaction for every single one that you meet, freezing in place, stuttering, and then you were given a wide berth. All of them hold the same expressions of either fear, confusion, disbelief, and even in a relatively small fraction, hatred. But they aren't running for the hills, which you guess you can count as a small victory. The only exception seems to be with the youngest of them, tiny equines who barely reach your knee try to peer around their older kin wearing expressions of amazement, who try to shield them from you, in an effort to get a good eyeful. The walk through town is almost suffocating with the amount of eyes you feel on your back, as none of them want to stare you in the face. Rainbow is either ignorant or simply ignoring the drama bringing you into the small town has caused as she just keeps trotting forward without a care in the world. You pan your eyes around, hoping to find something to distract you from the claustrophobic feeling creeping up on you. Looking up, you see guards with wings standing on clouds? Yes, they’re standing on the clouds, clouds that should be vapor, and they looking down at you with steely expressions while they’re at it. Your head is beginning to hurt from the amount of absurdity you're finding with every turn, so you bring your attention back to the town itself. Just as you saw before entering town, many of the houses and buildings are made of different types of stone with thatched roofs, others are made purely from wood and other materials that you can't name with certainty. All of this is beginning to look like some sort of fairytale, a bright, clean, town filled with inhabitants that should be given mythological status. The next thing you know, Ivory and Indigo are actually princesses… Another few minutes of walking are spent in painstaking silence, until you are led to what seems to be a large tree with windows and a door set into its front. How in the world was this accomplished? The windows and door imply that the tree has been hollowed out to be lived in, yet it's still alive, its branches filled with green. The sky blue pegasus walks up and simply flings the door open as if she owned the tree, hollering inside before waving at you to follow. Rainbow must want you to come inside. Ducking under the low doorway, you find yourself within the tree was just inches to spare above your head, letting you stand at your full height. The walls are lined with wooden bookshelves, all of them filled to bursting with tomes of all shapes and sizes, along with a desk at the back of the room A number of small tables and chairs are scattered about within the front, one of which is where none other than Lavender is sitting, her attention held raptly by a telekinetically held book in front of her face. Rainbow clears her throat, catching the attention of her friend who puts down her book to greet you both with a smile. She beckons you over with a wave of a floating quill as she pulls several books from the shelves behind her as well as a sheet of parchment from a stack next to her. Rainbow grumbles something under her breath as you both walk and sit down at the table across from the violet unicorn. You squirm some in the tiny chair, which squeaks perilously under your weight. If Lavender was concerned about her furniture, then she hid it well as she scribbled out a long line of symbols on a piece of parchment, before turning it around and showing it to you. 29, individual, rune like shapes stare back at you from the brown paper, all of them holding a subtle difference from the ones on either side of them. You look them over, figuring that Lavender must be showing you her people’s alphabet, and your thoughts are confirmed when she points to the first one with her quill and slowly sounds it out, the letter sounding similar to a short O. You mimic her as best as you can, and end up chewing the letter into something almost incomprehensible. She winces and tries again, repeating it several times at different speeds, putting emphasis on the movement of her lips. That’s not going to help much but you try again anyway, this time sounding much better than before, but if you learned this language entirely than you would without a doubt have a heavy and unique accent. She smiles and moves on to the next one, this one the faintly rolling T that she used at the end of her name when she first introduced herself. Half way through a sheet of work that lavender had given you, you swear that you feel eyes on you even from within the tree. You glance at the windows, only to find nothing. Looking at the doorway of a room connected to the one you are in you see a small purple form with green eyes rush away the instant you make eye contact with it. Does the unicorn have children perhaps? Much of the day passes in this manner, the unicorn teaching about her language as much as she could from the ground up as you slowly picked up on it, along with the small, green eyed form trying, and failing to watch inconspicuously from a distance. Lavender apparently felt that you had hit some sort of milestone, as she gives you some parchment and a quill with an expectant look on her face. She slowly recites several letters then indicates the paper, wanting you to write them out apparently. You do so with a grimace, knowing that you are going to miss a considerable amount. Once you are done, you hand her the paper and she looks over at and marks several of them with X’s. Apparently you hadn't done as horrible as you expected as she smiles and turns the paper to you, showing that you had missed only about half. Meanwhile Rainbow could only watch with bored, unfocused eyes, apparently she is not one for linguistics or anything of the like. Eventually she gets up and trots off, returning with a book of her own to read, the cover depicting a beige pegasus with the mark of a compass rose stamped onto its flank. Several hours tick by, all of it filled with you trying to cram as much of this new language as you could into your skull and make it stick. By the time Lavender is finished with you, you have a limited grasp of the alphabet and several simple one or two word phrases and greetings under your belt, nothing useful but it's certainly progress. You are really surprised by how simplistic their language is, but then again you are going to have to get used to the awkward noun and verb placements as well as practice speaking since they use more sounds than a human does to talk. Maybe you can use some right here? You think through the handful of words you had memorized, or at least you hope you had them memorized right. “T-thaaank youuu.” You belt in the pony tongue Agh, that sounded awful. Lavender thought otherwise apparently as she smiles bright and says “You’** *******! *’* happy ** help.” cheerfully. You can't help but smile yourself, even if you really didn't catch most of that, you got the feeling that it was along the lines of ‘You’re welcome’ Rainbow, seeing that the lesson is over, hops up and put her book back before rushing to the door in a blur of color, impatiently tapping her hoof on the floor “***** **!” She exclaims irritably. You stand and stretch, working the kinks out of your muscles from sitting for so long, before giving Lavender a wave and turning to follow the pegasus. Once outside, you see the sun has started its descent as a number of ponies walkabout the various stands and shops situated throughout the small town, all of them likely looking for last-minute necessities. Again you draw an enormous amount of attention, and by that you mean everyone within sight stops what they are doing to stare and gawk. The self-consciousness from earlier immediately rushes back to you, as you fight back the urge to turn away from all the prying eyes. Rather than lead you back to your crashed ship, Rainbow plops herself down on grassy spot in front of the library and motions for you to do the same. “*** **** ****, we’** ** ** ****.” She says rather unhelpfully. What in the world is gotten into her? You don't see a need for sitting around and looking like a sideshow. You try and coax her into getting up and leading you back, but she just shakes her head and points the spot next to her, saying something about listening to someone else, At least you think that's what she's saying. You sigh and take a seat next to her, idly noting that while sitting you are the same height as her. Slowly but surely, most of the locals take their attention off of you, and go back to doing what they were before. What does the colorful equine want you to do exactly? You had caught the pony word for ‘listen’ a few times but that doesn't tell you what she wants. Spacing out some, you focus on what seems to be an off white female with a rose mark haggling with a male over some produce at a stand. You catch almost nothing of what they're saying, but you deduce that the male is trying to rip off the female. Then it hits you, this is why Rainbow wanted you to sit outside with her, to listen to other ponies as they talk to each other. It’s genius, the combination of theory work with exposure to real life situations where the skill learned in theory can be honed. You really have to hand it to them, this was obviously well-planned or at least a lucky break. Sitting there for about a half an hour, you pick up on numerous different conversations and do your best to guess what they are about while trying to pull new words using the context of the few you know. All and all... You get maybe one or two new words, but it's one or two that you didn't have before. Seeing as her objective is complete, Rainbow rises and motions for you to follow her back to the crash site. The trip back is quiet as the trip into town, but this time not every pony you and your winged friend come across looks like a deer in the headlights before they jump out of the way. A few even trail behind you for short distances, their curiosity overpowering their fear. You shake your head, this whole species seems too kind even in inaction. This is nothing like the riot you were half expecting this morning. Taking a final look around at the town before you left its limits, you take note of all the things that seem familiar, yet out of place, adding it's all to your list of questions. Once back of the ship, Rainbow calls out to you before she leaves. With a smirk she says something that you can't really follow before she flutters up to your height and gives you a light, playful punch on the shoulder. You smile under your mask and return the favor, lightly tapping her on the wither. She smiles before turning and rocketing away with impressive speed, leaving a streak of color in her wake. Now left to your lonesome with the exception of a pair of guards who think they're stealthy up on a cloud above you, you hop the gap between the rim of the crater your ship made and into the side hatch that you close behind you. Walking up to the cockpit, you open up a small storage cubby under the center console and dig around some, hoping that you have something useful You pull out a clear plastic case filled with tiny identical canisters. Air purifiers, made to be used in the event of an emergency or in smog filled cities, it's a good thing that you can consider this an emergency. You flip the case over and read the instructions... It looks like this is a pack of 10 and they operate by pressing the button on the top and letting the canister release sanitizers into the air. You're not surprised to find that the sanitizers are toxic. Cranking your mask filter back up to 100% and making sure the hatch was sealed, you pull out one of the canisters and place it on the floor before pressing the button and standing back. With a loud hiss, a white vapor is released from the top where it diffuses into the cockpit air. Once you are sure the canister is empty, you pull off your hazard mask with a sigh and wipe a hand down your sweaty face. You only have 9 more and they only last so long, better make them count. But for tonight, you just want a comfortable night’s sleep without all this heavy gear on you. Slipping off the hazard suit and letting it’s bits and pieces fall to the floor, you sit back in the leather seat and drift off, dreams of ponies dancing within your mind ~Canterlot Castle, 10:13 PM, Year 1002~ ”So sister, how should we deal with the unrest that our visitor's arrival has caused?” Luna asks her sister as they both stand outside in the gardens, admiring the twinkling stars above. Celestia thinks to herself for a moment “We should deal with this as we would with any other problem, remain honest, think of what's best for the masses, and do our best to remain fair as we let the news of Anonymous’ arrival spread.” She says, watching a star shoot across the sky. Luna turns to look at her sister “And what of our neighboring countries? The peace treaty states that we are not allowed to hide events of this magnitude from other participants in the treaty, and the landing of the alien is sure to cause a storm of political intrigue.” ”Anonymous, Luna, he has a name” Celestia gently chides “And I am well aware that he will be the fulcrum of much debate in the coming months.” Celestia smirks lightly “Also, you apparently did not read the treaty close enough, for there was an agreement that emergency situations take precedence over obligations to treaty participants, meaning we have several months before we can be called out on this whole situation.” The Princess of the Night gives her sibling a sideways look “Sometimes you plan so far ahead that it frightens me sister.” The sun deity lets a small grin come to her muzzle “It looks like everything is going according to plan then…” ”Tia!” Celestia giggles before sobering “We will need to eventually call a Summit with all the nations, but for now we have plenty of time so there is nothing to be worried over.” As her sister takes flight back to her room, Luna can’t help but mutter under her breath ”We may not have problems from outside our borders…but I am more worried about problems that may arise WITHIN them.” She looks up into her stars. “Anon, for good or for ill, I can only hope that we all come out of this better than we were before, we are all going to face some extreme changes…” The princess spreads her powerful wings and takes off into the air with no sound, flying into the night gloom like a specter where she disappears. Author's Note Chapter V is done, now the story is truly beginning to pick up.
Chapter I (Arc I-Intro)~Just outside the Gnattura System, 4:01 AM Terra time, Year 2398~ You sigh contently as you look out the cockpit window out into the dark void of deep space. Slouching back into the cushy leather seat of your one man express courier vessel, you put your legs on the dashboard of the ship’s controls, careful not of press any controls or obscure your sight of the faintly glowing holographic HUD set into the window. You flip on some music, completing the serene atmosphere This ship cost royalties, but one can’t deny how almost sickeningly luxurious the sleek vessel is. You crack a small grin at the thought of other couriers flying in the clunky standard ships. You would even go as far as to liken them to 21st century mail trucks. The poor bastards, the standards are a pain to fly in. But enough of that. Looking at the digital clock on the corner of the HUD you see that you have a full 6 terra hours before you need to report back for another delivery. Excellent. Leaning forward to the control panel, you punch in an autopilot command set for 6 hours from now on a number pad before pressing ‘enter’ ///AUTOPILOT SET FOR TERRA IN ‘6’ STANDARD HOURS/// says the synthetic female voice of the computer. The ship turns in a lazy arc, facing a nebula with twinkling stars scattered throughout the massive cloud of pastel colored dust before beginning the journey back to Terra at a leisurely pace. You sit back and gaze into the nebula you were about to go through, the awe inspiring sight making you stop for a moment and think. Without even realizing it your lips begin to move “What cosmic clouds swirl about; its lengthy arms astride? And recompense the void of death. The stars, the space, the signs.” “What astronomers drift in bits against the black and empty sky, or people left in misty ruts? The Earths, the wreck, their cries.” “What beauty shifts through the ink, and winks back into space, or drifts across the universe to reach us in our place?” You blink from the unexpected burst of inspiration brought on by the nebula before smiling and covering your face with a hand. Here you are, waxing poetic in your thoughts when you could be catching up on your sleep. The greatest reason you became a courier was to travel the stars like you always wanted as a child, to sate your yearning for adventure even as mild as courier work is, but the scheduling is always beyond atrocious. With a final glace at out in space, you settle yourself down in the leather seat and slowly drift off into a restful, dreamless sleep as the ship enters the space cloud. …Or you would have if alarm klaxons hadn’t started blaring in the cockpit Startled back awake you look over the control panels in a hurry, needing to know what is going on before disaster can strike. Frustration begins to set in as you find nothing wrong. The map radar, the Geiger counter, and the hyperspace wave detector all turn up with inconclusive results, making this all the more confusing. You stop the ship and think for a moment, what could be going…wrong..? Looking out the cockpit window, you see bits and pieces of debris and nebula dust all moving in one direction, condensing into a singular point. Wait, you’ve heard of this somewhere before. Then like lighting it hits you with shocking force. No…there’s no way… All the dust begins to move more franticly, dragging your vessel with it. Daring to turn your eyes onto the growing mass of shining stardust, your fears are confirmed. The nebula is collapsing, and you’re right in the thick of it! “I think not!” Grabbing the controls with enough force to make the plastic creak from the abuse, you turn away from the core of the soon-to-be star and mash the throttle with a vengeance. The engines whine as they cycle titanic amounts of fuel-grade plasma to fulfill the stressful order. Both thrusters on the end of the ship light up a blinding white, firing off vectored superheated gas and sending the ship flying forward like a bat out of hell. You keep the throttle pressed down, but to your horror you find that you are slowing, the immense gravity well of the unborn star beckoning you to a painful demise. The engines sputter and backfire, barely keeping themselves in one piece. Finally you come to a total stop before the ship begins to creep backwards… “No no no! Not like this!” Your heart pounding in your ears, you rake your eyes over the controls in a peril driven frenzy as the cosmic furnace behind you gains more strength by the second. Finally your attention lands on a small keyhole near the center of the console, the hyperdrive… Fumbling with your pocket, you procure the key needed and jam it in; your shaking hands making you miss and scratch up the console several times. Twisting the key so roughly it almost snaps, warning messages flair to life on the ship’s HUD, advising against jumping into hyperspace. One glance outside shows that the nebula has almost totally collapsed, all the floating hunks of rock and dust within what had to be a billion miles rushing to the point behind you. The warning messages are ignored as you hit the jump button, not even taking the time to choose a destination. The engines, the artificial gravity, and the lights all shutdown as the ship routes all its power to the physics bending hyperdrive. The ship lurches as time outside seems to slow, everything taking a curious blurry appearance as you leave the physical realm for hyperspace. Another thing worthy of praise, the ever enigmatic plane known as hyperspace you idly muse. It was right then you notice that you had neglected to strap yourself to your seat as per hyperdrive operations demanded. With stomach churning burst of speed, your courier ship blasts forward into the unknown and sends you into the blissful void of unconscious. ~Ponyville, 10:13 PM, Year 1002~ It’s a calm summer night as per usual in the quaint hamlet of Ponyville, Luna’s stars and namesake shining brightly, young colts and fillies out playing in the cool shade of nightfall, and even some nightlife gathering at local bars and clubs. But none of this was a concern to one Twilight Sparkle, who is happily trotting her way to her favorite stargazing hill out on the edge of town, her brass telescope and several books held in an aura the same hue as her violet coat. She smiles as the chilled night breeze wafts through her mane, it’s nights like these that the young magus unicorn lives for. Coming to her hill, Twilight sees other ponies with their own telescopes scattered about, a medley of clicking and chattering sounding as they adjusted their astronomy tools. Twilight looks at them, her smile growing at the thought of her neighbors taking such an interest in the night sky. Turning her attention back to her own telescope, Twilight assembles it in a whirl of metal and an expert display of magic. Satisfied with her work, the unicorn turns the telescope to face the east and levitates an open astronomy book that she flips through. ”Let’s see, let’s see…Aha!” She exclaims, stopping on a page depicting a large snake. ”Basilisk Major should be righhhhttt here!” The unicorn states, giving her telescope a number of minute adjustments. Twilight barely contains a giddy ‘squee’ as the constellation comes into focus, showcasing the artistic arrangement of the stars courtesy of Princess Luna. ”Wait a moment…” Twilight pulls herself from her telescope to squint at the stars with her own eyes, seeing something not quite right. Looking back through the brass interment she sees… ”A red star in the middle of the constellation?” But…that’s not right…there was never any mention of any red stars in her astronomy books. Plain as day however is a bright red node of light that seems to be growing in intensity. With remarkable speed Twilight opens all of her books with a flair of her horn, metaphorically tearing through each one with such swiftness that all but the most devout of scholars would be put to shame. Nothing…not one shred of information about red stars… ”No there has to be some mistake…” Twilight mumbles to herself as she opens all of the books again, scanning the text with more scrutiny. By now the other star gazers had taken notice as well, pointing at the anomaly with exclamations of surprise, awe, and in a few cases, fear. ”What could it be?” ”I’ve never seen one like that before!” ”Wow a new star!” ”Momma what is it?” ”That…that can’t be good…” ”It’s growing!” Twilight looks back up from her books at the last remark to see that the point of light had doubled in size, and is growing rapidly. Struck dumb by the anomaly, Twilight can only stare until a low ‘boom’ shakes the air around her, forcing the unicorn to take notice of her surroundings again. Worried murmurs breakout among the others as the speed of the light’s growth increases before terrified screams break out as they all realize… ”That’s not a star, that’s a METEOR!” Twilight exclaims “Everypony run!” In a scramble of hooves the hillside is clear in hardly 10 seconds as Twilight simply teleports out of harm’s way. Blinking back into existence near Golden Oaks Library, Twilight watches the ball of fire descend from the atmosphere, leaving a thick black smoke trail? She blinks her purple eyes; meteors don’t leave smoke trails… Before she can ponder further the meteor comes in low, making an ear splitting screech and forcing her to cover her sensitive ears least she go deaf. It’s so close now that she can feel the displaced air it’s producing buffet her even from the considerable distance away from the hillside Finally… BOOM! In an explosion of dirt the object impacts the hill with terrible force, rocking the whole town and sending its residents into a frightened uproar. Twilight holds herself low to the ground, eyes clinched shut as she waits for the tremors of the calamitous landing to subside. ”Twilight!” a young male voice calls Said unicorn jumps up and turns just as a scaled body barrels into her, sending them both sprawling to the ground ”Twi! Are you ok? What happened? What’s with the smoke? Wha-Omf!” The diminutive speaker is cut of mid sentence as Twilight shoves a hoof in his mouth. ”I’m fine Spike.” Twilight tells the infant dragon “As for what happened…I’m not too sure…it could be anything really…” she trails off, thoughts of the meteor bouncing around her head. The unicorn gets to her feet and looks down at her surrogate brother “Spike, head back inside and let the princess’ know that an unknown object crashed just outside town, I’m going to gather up the girls and take a closer look.” ”Gotcha Twi!” ~Canterlot Castle, 10:31 PM, Year 1002~ Celestia settles on her red dais in front of the fireplace with a content sigh, a glass of wine and a romance novel held in her golden telekinetic grip. It wasn’t often she could take time to herself, the trappings of rule and politics tending to be the leading consumers of her time, but when she did relax it was with some fine drink and a good book. Taking a dainty sip of the aged wine, Celestia opens her book back to the page she marked since her last reading and begins. Or she would have if a letter hadn't materialized before her. With a raised eyebrow, the sun deity unrolls the parchment and reads its contents, taking note of the hasty scrawl and urgency of the tone. Her eyes however are drawn to particular phrases within the note, such as ‘unknown object’, ‘fell from the sky’, and most importantly ‘close to Ponyville’. If any of the scrolls contents alarmed her, then it did not show on her face. Standing in one fluid motion, Celestia levitates her regalia onto her person and makes for the doors of her chambers. Both the double doors open soundlessly and Celestia walks out, but not before turning to the pair of gold clad guards standing sentry by her doors. ”Guards, if you would find Shining Armor and tell him to mobilize a containment team I would be grateful.” She says in her usual light, motherly voice, not letting any of her internal worry show. Both snap to smart salutes “Yes princess!” Before they rush off however the one on the right asks “Your highness? Any destination in mind?” Celestia nods gently “Ponyville.” ~Crash Site, Time unknown~ With a pained groan, you open your eyes, the crumpled ceiling of your ship steadily coming into focus. Wait, crumpled? You shoot up into a sitting position, only to fall back from a sudden case of headrush. “Ohhhh…” Sitting up more slowly this time, you survey your surroundings with dismay. You survived the random jump, but the same can’t be said for your ludicrously expensive courier ship. The cockpit is a mess, bits of detached metal and such thrown about along with more than a few broken screens and other things. It looks like the cockpit window is buried halfway up in dirt and you think you hear the engines sputtering in a mockery of their previous splendor. Wait… Looking out of the still view-able half of the window you see the night sky along with the moon. Did you land on Terra? What a lucky break! Seeing as how something went right you can’t help but jump up with a grin …Only for you to go much higher than you expected and crack your head on the ceiling with a hollow sounding ‘bong!’ You hold your smarting head as you fall back to the floor far slower than you should, as if gravity had been reduced. “Something’s not right here…” you say as you land. Walking up to the still flickering control panel, you hold down the voice command button, praying to whatever higher power there is that there is enough energy in the vessel for a few last things. “Computer…scan current atmosphere…” The machine gives a few weak ‘whur’s before the computer speaks up. ///S-SCAN complete, planet unknown… current air composition: 38% Oxygen, 59% Nitrogen, 3% various other elements…/// You feel your jaw drop, almost double Terra’s record oxygen levels? But before you can comment on it the computer continues with its skipping synthetic voice. ///Current g-g-gravity level, X 0.4 of Terra…/// “This…this is not Terra…” ///Warning! Unknown radiation detected outside of vessel, use caution wheeee…./// Without warning, the computer dies, the control lights flickering out, leaving you to your lonesome. All at once, the gravity of your situation comes crashing down upon you. You’re stranded on an alien planet, unarmed, almost totally unprepared and helpless. You take a shaky breath and look back out the unburied part of the window to see verdant plant life to the sides of what looks like a hill you crashed into. Where there’s flora, there’s often fauna… and with the huge amount of oxygen and low gravity…You gulp as cold prickles of fear tear into your stomach, all the oxygen and low gravity means the local wildlife here must be titanic in size… No! Don’t make baseless assumptions, for all you know the animals here could be the size of dogs and not have a mean bone in their body. Heh, you can wish... But first things first, you can’t stay here forever; of the few supplies you have rations are not one of them. You would come back eventually, but for now you need to get a feel for the geography and scout out potential threats. Walking to the back of the ship, you open up the small personal storage closet and pull out your hazard suit. A crackpot friend had made it and convinced you to take it in case of an emergency such as this; looking back you can’t help but feel like scum for laughing at him behind his back. It’s not really protective in the physical sense, but it fits comfortably over your clothes and sports a magnetic barrier that blocks bacteria and radiation. Once donned in the jury-rigged suit, you see the different components come to life and a corona of crackling light surrounds you before fading, the barrier you guess. You set the re-breather on the mask to emulate the air composition of Terra, not knowing what sort of adverse effects the extra oxygen could have on you. You turn to the emergency escape hatch near the back, but before you even take a step, you feel your lips move once more. “Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever Gods may be For my unconquerable soul.” “In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance, My head is bloodied but unbowed.” “Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the horror of the shade. And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.” “It matters not how straight the gate, Nor how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” Your confidence found once more, you start the march to the hatch, not even aware of how your first step outside would shake the whole world. Author's Note Here we have it, my first MLP work. I write other places but I figured I would come here to see if I can appeal to a wider audience. And yes, Anon's suit is more or less the Hacker Suit from Dead Space. Please let me know what you think.
Chapter II (Arc I-Intro)~Canterlot Castle guard barracks, 10:39 PM, Year 1002~ Luna watches as the guards rush to and fro with an urgency she has not seen in a millennia, especially unicorns in solar gold armor that bare a stylized shield insignia on their front rather than the standard star, a team of shielding and barrier specialists if she remembered correctly. The moon deity couldn’t help but frown, If Celestia had whole corps of specialized forces just waiting around as auxiliary then why were the Elements the first to be called in times of crisis? Something’s not right… ”And why would this be different…?” Luna asks herself under her breath, referring to the meteor strike. Luna shakes her head, scattering her nebulous mane about before it reforms an instant later. Celestia had been in charge of Equestria for a thousand years, she knew what she was doing. With a start, Luna realizes all the guards had taken their equipment and already moved out to chariots and carriages set for Ponyville. ”I mustn’t be late…” And with that Luna concentrates a sliver of her vast, ocean-worth of magic into her horn, gently kneading and molding the volatile energy with skill matched only by her sister into a shape more to her desires. In a light hum, the magic seeps out of her horn and runs down her body like an invisible silky oil, saturating her flesh in her own lifeforce, right before Luna seizes control over it once more. Vibrations, ever so slight take grip of her mortal shell, forcing her body to come apart from the seams at their most base level, sending countless billions of atoms, all of them Luna to detach from each other yet still be connected by threads of magic so infinitely thin that some would say they were never there at all. The cloud of atoms shiver, still held imperiously by the mind and soul of Luna before they rush out to the airfields at a fraction of the speed of light, where they would reform into the indigo alicorn, passing through every solid harmlessly along the way. The whole process from start to finish takes roughly a twentieth of a second. An outside observer would have never seen or even understood the intricate and frightening beauty that weaving a teleportation spell with pinpoint control holds, to them, Luna would have been there one second, and gone the next. No kicked up dust, no blur of moment. ~Outside the crash site, 10:47 PM, Year 1002~ ”Girls! Be serious! For all we know this could change Equestria.” ”Rrrrigghhht… Keep telling yourself that egghead…” Twilight lets out a frustrated groan as she, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity steadily made their way to the crash site of the meteor, the dirt clods and bits of upturned earth thrown about telling her that they were getting closer to the hill. ”Really darling,” Begins Rarity “I can’t possibly see how all the hub-bub about a space rock could be worthy of waking me from my beauty sleep.” She finishes distastefully as she pulls hair curlers from her somewhat disheveled mane. Rainbow Dash snorts before elbowing Applejack and not-so-subtly whispering “Yeah, she needs it am I right?” Rarity, who is right in front of them, rounds about, furious “What did you say!?!” Before an argument can break out however, Pinkie pops up between them, her grinning mouth already set to rapid-fire. ”Oh my gosh girls! This is so cool! I bet it’ll look super neeto like a tiny moon! It wasn’t so neeto when it hit the ground and went BOOOOM and woke the whole town... But since everyone is awake we can have a-Omf!” Pinkie is cut off and subsequently forced to take a breath as Applejack plants a hoof in her mouth. ”Ease up Sug’, we’re jus’ here to take a gander at tha rock to make sure there ain’t nothing bad ahoof.” Applejack says with a roll of her eyes. ”Pfft! But that’s kinda boring, OH! What if it’s ALIENS?” Rainbow exclaims with excitement “That would be SO cool!” She says, her voice cracking some at the end. ”I hope it’s not aliens…” Fluttershy says quietly with a shiver, speaking up for the first time. Now it was Twilight’s turn to roll her eyes “Rainbow, be realistic, there is no such thing as aliens.” Rainbow’s jaw drops “What!? Just last week you said that there had to be planets out there with aliens on them.” ”Actually I said there had to be planets somewhere in the universe with LIFE on them. They would need to come here to be considered aliens.” The violet magus replies with a raised eyebrow. ”How come there can’t be aliens here then?” Pinkie asks with a tilt of her head. Twilight sighs and thinks to herself for a moment “For starters they would need some means of space travel. One that could withstand the vacuum of space, resistant to collision of materials floating in empty space, and be fast enough to make the trip between 2 habitable planets without the pilot expiring by some means. The biggest problems lay with the last point, otherworldly life could vary so much that there could be no other habitable planets for a particular species, and to make a trip within a reasonable timeframe would mean that the spacecraft would have to move faster than light, which is an impossibly” Twilight says with certainty. Rainbow just gives Twilight a bemused look “I’ll be honest Twi, I didn’t listen to half of that, just give me the odds of this thing being an alien ship” The unicorn gives her fellow element a glare before putting a hoof to her chin in thought “Well, I would say one in…in…” She blinks “I can’t even think of a number that high” ”Then wh-!!!” Rainbow stops mid sentence, her ears perking up and swiveling around “You girls hear anything funny?” WHOOSH!!! All six mares cringe and almost duck as a carriage pulled by a team of pegasi guards rushes by overhead, much lower to the ground than they usually are. ”What-!” Several more chariots and carriages filled with personnel and unknown cargo fly by, even a large gilded one holding Princesses Celestia and Luna, all of them heading to the destroyed hill. All of them just stare silently as the train of vehicles lower themselves a distance away, the sounds of orders and scrambling hooves breaking the silence not even a moment later. Fluttershy audibly gulps a lump in her throat “Girls? I really don’t like this…” she says in a trembling voice. Silently, all of them share the sentiment. Twilight however snaps out of the spell the unusual sight but over everyone “Come on everypony, this is no time to just stand around! Whatever this is, it must be serious! And we can’t shirk our duty to Equestria, what if the princesses need us? We’ve saved the world twice before and this can’t be that dangerous.” Twilight finishes with a flourish and a face set into determination as she turns to the direction of the crash site. Her words, shining with conviction, rouse her friends from their own thoughts With a collective glace at each other, the five follow their friend and de-facto leader. ~Crash site, 10:55 PM, Year 1002~ The very instant the first transport touches the ground a squad of unicorns, horns already sparking with arcane power, jump out and hop into formation with precision born of hard training. Some don’t even wait for their flying transportation to land, instead opting to make the fall to earth, landing with the thunderous ‘thud’ of their bodies absorbing the shock, and shrugging it off without even a backwards glance. Eight teams of four all stand stoically in front of the metal anomaly, waiting for orders. ”Stallions! Assume dome formation!” a male voice call from behind them. Without a word they all hurry to fulfill the order, running to evenly spaced points around the impact zone, horns lowered and humming with barely restrained magic. The sound of hoof-falls cut through the area as none other than Shining Armor walks calmly up to the circle of guards. Or at least he looks calm on the outside, as confused thoughts swim within the Head Captain’s mind, all of them centered on the odd metal meteor within the crater before him. Why would Princess Celestia be so worried over space junk? Nopony got hurt in it rather violent landing, and despite being somewhat unnerving to look at it seems harmless. Shining sighs and rubs his head with a hoof; it’s not his place to question the crown no matter how much he wants to. Turning his eyes back to his formation of guards, he prepares his instructions “Ready!?” ”Yes sir!” a chorus of voices call out ”Begin standard containment!” Lowering their heads, the horns of the guards spark and crackle with potent, multicolored energy, filling the site with a display of dancing lights. With a sound not unlike arcing electricity, the violent currents of magic bolt up to a central point over the wreckage, evenly yet slowly falling around the meteor in a curtain of green translucent energy. Shining, seeing that the operation is complete, takes a quick look over the dome now around the object and nods his approval. ”Excellent work, now maintain it.” The captain says with a hint of pride. Some of the younger guards preen under the praise, while the others barely even acknowledge it. Shining aims his own horn up and sends out a white, whistling flare into the sky, signaling the science teams and the Princesses that it’s reasonably safe to approach. In a medley of hoof-falls and hurried voices, the lab coat clad spooks from Canterlot University rush onto the scene from the other carriages that landed away from the area, all sorts of different technical equipment held in various colored magic auras. Shining runs his eyes over the hastily set up equipment, hardly knowing what is what and why they would be needed in the first place, but once more, it’s not his place to question a matter such as this. Walking last into the area is Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and a blue unicorn sporting a lab coat who is talking to the alicorns with ease, Crescent Sparkle, the father of both Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, and the head astronomer of Canterlot University. “That’s exactly what I’m trying to say your majesties; even though it seems harmless unknown bacteria could have survived the heat and impact of re-entry, and we could be faced with an epidemic should this be handled carelessly.” Crescent says carefully. Luna seems aghast at the prospect, but Celestia just nods, her usual aloof expression not changing in the slightest, her single exposed eye focused on the metal construct in the remains of the hill. ”Princess!” A young voice calls out behind the small group. All three turn to see Twilight along with the rest of the Elements running to catch up to them, obviously worried over the recent commotion. Celestia can’t help but feel a minuscule smile creep onto her face at the sight of her lavender hued protégé. Celestia leans her swan-like neck down to nuzzle Twilight, who returns the gesture as she walks up. The rest of the elements give Celestia and Luna short bows, sans Pinkie who didn’t seem to be taking the whole situation seriously. Once done with Celestia, Twilight happily trots up to Crescent and nuzzles him in greeting as well. Backing up to stand with her friends, Twilight takes the initiative on the conversation “So, do we know what we’re dealing with here?” Luna shakes her head “Neigh, all we are aware of is that the object fell to earth with no control.” Celestia bites her lip, wanting to share her theory but not wanting to cause panic. She glances over to the metal abnormality, knowing exactly what it really is, the only question now is how will it’s occupant react to the attention it’s going to get? Meanwhile Crescent walks up past some detection equipment to the line where the barrier is being powered by the guards, pointing his horn at it and running a detection spell…Air is still getting through, and none of it is being filtered...That will not do, not at all. ”Barrier Squad!” barks Crescent “Set yourselves to contain and, or destroy all foreign bacteria and contaminates.” ”Yes sir!” Every one of the unicorn guards holding up the energy dome cry, the glow of their horns intensifying. With a tooth rattling hum of power, the dome around the metal construct goes from a soothing green to light red, making the cool night air around it fizzle angrily. ”Professor Crescent wait!” A portly unicorn in a labcoat urges as he runs up “We can’t destroy the micro-organic samples we could collect from the object! It would be…” his words die in his mouth from the venomous glare Crescent levels him with. ”Don’t. Question. Me. One more time and you’ll be doing intern work until your hooves bleed, got me?” Crescent growls out, making the other unicorn gulp in fear and nod quickly. Watching the overweight pony quickly slink away, Rainbow elbows Twilight and whispers to her “Man, your dad is a hardass.” The young magus turns to her cyan friend, affront written on her face “Rainbow!” She just shrugs “Just saying, I don’t see why the eggheads are so worked up over space germs.” ”We “eggheads” are worked up about this because this has the potential to spiral out of control if we weren’t, who knows what sort of malignant diseases an object from deep space could have? ” Crescent loudly says from his place over by some sensor equipment, having overheard Rainbow. The speedster has the decency to look sheepish, making Twilight and the other elements giggle. ”Professor!” The unicorn stallion sighs and turns to an intern rushing up to him from another sensor array.”What is it this time?” He asks, exasperated. ”Professor Sparkle, we just got the results of the scan we did on the object and well…” the intern looks away nervously. ”And?” The intern gulps and looks back to Crescent “Professor, we detected life signs within it.” The head scientist rolls his yellow eyes “Precisely why the barrier was put up, to keep bacteria in.” ”No no sir! What I mean is…there is a SINGLE something in it…something alive.” …What? Crescent blinks in surprise, before looking at the sweating intern with a skeptical eye, as if daring him to say more ”…Show me.” It seems the intern’s outburst was overheard by others, as Twilight, several other scientists, and even Celestia and Luna make their way to the wire-infested equipment the young unicorn intern lead Crescent to. The poor unicorn just got more flustered by the multitude of heads looking over his shoulder at the sensors, which flashes with different graphs and readings, all centered on the fallen object. ”W-w-well” The unicorn takes a nervous breath “After we managed to get some advanced scanning spells within it, we picked up a disturbing amount of brainwaves and other neural activity, akin to an average pony.” Silence settles over the group, before Celestia breaks it, her voice not betraying her underlying worry in the slightest. ”My little pony, are you sure this just isn’t a malfunction of the scanning array? Or perhaps you scanned a pony nearby by mistake?” The sun goddess asks, her gaze boreing into his skull He shakes so violently that he looks ready to seize at any moment, before Celestia takes her eye off of him after realizing what she was doing. Calming some, the intern returns to the matter at hand “I-I’m sure Your Majesty, I double checked before I went to get the professor.” ”So that means… “ Twilight trails off ”It means that today is going to be a changing day for Equestria.” Luna finishes for her, not bothering to hide the awe in her voice. If Luna were totally honest with herself, the thought of life out beyond her stars, utterly different than what they have on Equis, thrills her to no end. How different would they be? What would they eat? How advanced could they be? Would they be friendly? All of it raced around her head with dizzying speed, the thirst for knowledge not of this world overtaking her. Twilight meanwhile was having a similar train of thought; whatever is in the newly confirmed vessel must be of an advance race, one with so many secrets of the universe to share. Celestia however, was not taking the news of the potential visitor as well as her sister and student. She had lived so long that she had the time to come up with a plan of action for almost everything, Nightmare Moon, Discord, and her plan for Sombra’s eventual escape was shaping up nicely, all of it done to the best interest of her ponies, but this…There are too many variables, too many unknowns; there was no possible way to have a contingency for the encounter of alien life. The ivory alicorn sighs inaudibly, she could just be blowing this whole this out of proportion, but it never hurts to be careful. Turning her head to the formation of guards she issues an order to stand down. ”Guards! Drop the barrier and step away from the object, assume non-threatening stances! That is not a meteor, but an alien craft.” Gasps of fright and amazement, break out in the site as all of the guards look at each other in confusion, as if hoping for an answer on the face of another, before cutting the feed of magic to the fizzling dome and stepping back several paces. The shield fades, the crackle it produced going with it, leaving the area soundless save for the wind whistling through nearby trees. The quiet is not long however before frantic beeps from the intern’s sensors cut through the air. Looking over the new readings, the unicorn’s eyes widen in untold alarm “Professor! Princess! Sudden spike in neural activity!” Crescent pushes him out of the way as he looks over the machine himself, his face going pale under his fur as it dawns on him just what’s going on. ”Dad? What’s wrong?” Twilight asks concededly from behind him. The astronomer just looks at the readings as he mumbles to himself “…It was unconscious before…” All the ponies around him perk their ears up, trying to listen to Crescent. Celestia decides to dig “If you would repeat that Mr. Sparkle, then I would be thankful.” She says, making use of her motherly voice and suggesting form of order. He looks back at them “The old readings we had? That said it had as much brain activity as a normal pony? As it turns out, the alien was unconscious at the time, now that it’s awake, we’ve got an accurate reading on it’s brainpower and it’s boasting impressive numbers…” ”Why’s that a big deal?” Asks Rainbow as she flutters up to the group with the other elements in tow, all of them now interested in the proceedings. Rarity rolls her eyes “It’s of obvious concern Rainbow, although I’m not one for scientific jargon it must mean that our guest is of high intelligence,” ”So…the alien is an egghead?” Rainbow lets her shoulders slump “Lame!” ”Rainbow…that’s not very nice, what if you hurt it’s feelings?” Fluttershy asks, her usual kind nature showing even in the defense of someone she doesn’t know. Celestia just shakes her head at their not realizing just how dangerous an intellectually capable creature such as this is. ”Actually my little ponies, Fluttershy has the correct idea on the matter.” Celestia says looking over all of them. Seeing some confusion directed back at her, the princess elaborates “Girls, this is a situation that must be handled with the utmost tact and care, we cannot afford to offend the visitor for doing so has unknown consequences.” All of the Elements spare a glance at one another. ”An what if the critter turns out to be ornery? What do we do then?” Applejack ask with a distrusting look at the still unmoving ship. ”If all goes as I hope it will then it will not come to that.” Celestia says gently, she opens her mouth to say more but is cut off by a heavy footfall. Another, the sound of a heavy hoof on metal sounds throughout the area. Wait metal? All heads turn to the ship, which the sound is coming from. ”Quickly girls! Come with us!” Celestia urges as she and Luna trot up to the rim of the crater. Although Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash eagerly follow, Applejack and Rarity come only reluctantly, dragging an almost petrified Fluttershy with them. All of them stop a the rim of the crater, in plain sight of a door on the side of the vessel, where loud footsteps grow closer …clang… ”Remember my little ponies…” Celestia begins, her voice as soothing as a lullaby …clang… ”You are about to make history once more…” …Clang… ”Only this time, it will without a doubt be your greatest…” …Clang… Just how grave the situation is begins to settle over them, killing the enthusiasm of the group. Clang… ”But you all are the Elements of Harmony…” Clang… ”Nopony is as suited for this as you six are…” Clang. The tension is growing so thick that Fluttershy has to choke back a gasp. Clang. ”So chin up, show our guest your best… Clang! Everyone’s eyes are glued to the door, even if they don’t want them to be. Clang! ”We are about to experience the greatest change to the world ever seen…” CLANG! ”I know that you girls can do it…” CLANG! ”So prepare yourselves…” … No one can move, hardly even breathe. The door hisses in a shrill keen as the ship depressurizes. Then it slowly swings open… CLANG! Author's Note Second chapter is up. After this my updates are going to slow down to about one a week. and before anyone asks, no, this is not going in a Tyrantlestia direction. Normally I don't reveal anything in a story but I loath Tyrantlestia. Please tell me what you thought.
Chapter III (Arc I-Intro)~Ship wreck, time unknown~ The instant the depressurization is over you give the hatch door a nudge and let it swing outward, letting in a chilled night breeze. With a final look at the HUD on the inside of your mask, displaying your vitals and atmospheric stats, you take a step out of the hatch, falling the several feet to the turned ground at a rate that just seems too slow for you. In a crunch, your feet sink into the dirt almost half an inch, the weak gravity making the ground less dense than it would on Terra. You take a deep breath, your mask making a mechanical rasp as it filtered out most of the oxygen it takes in. *S-squeak!* Shit! Is the local wildlife closing in on you already!? Your head shoots up to the origin of the noise up at the lip of the crater, where you can’t help but stare dumbfounded. Even as a trio of reticules race around your HUD, scanning the curious creatures staring down at you, your mind struggles to grasp what your eyes tell it. Looking down at the crater at you, totally frozen is what seems to be eight quadrupeds, all of them in equine in nature…if nature allowed such garish coat colors to be successful. With a beep, your suit finishes its scan and quickly reports what it finds as text. //Scan complete, 8 unknown, female, carbon based lifeforms detected. 4 subtypes detected. Warning! All specimens emitting unknown radiation. No other information available.// Well that did a lot of good… But you’ll have to make do with what little information you have. You let your eyes wander over the colorful animals, making sure to note everything that seemed extraordinary. All of them have bright coats of fur that differed from their manes and tails, ranging from blue to pink to white and everything in-between, the blue one even has a rainbow striped mane. In addition some have extra appendages, like single spiraled horns, small wings that seemed perfect for the low gravity, or the last two who have nothing at all. Looking at the largest one, you see that she had both wings and a horn…And a golden crown. You blink in confusion, what the hell is up with that? It’s not like they possess the mental capacity to…to…Your eyes are drawn to a picture of an 8 pointed sun on the largest equine’s flank, the mark standing out in stark contrast to her white fur. That’s not natural…the chance of her fur growing in such a specific pattern has to be well and beyond astronomical. You were willing to write off the odd coloration they all possessed as either chance, or simply alien adaptation as either seems likely. But the more you look at them, the more inconsistencies with that thought become apparent. Every one of them possesses a unique, tattoo like marketing emblazoned on their flanks, the meaning of the marks lost on you. The smaller white one possessed a royal purple mane and tail, both of which look carefully stylized into complicated looking curls and in no way looked achievable by natural means. The orange was even wearing a Stetson hat This this didn't make sense… Unless…Could these beings be sentient alien life? The very notion of crashing on the planet owned by an unknown race makes you break out into a cold sweat. Had you angered them? Frightened them? Maybe even hurt one of them in the crash? No matter what, none of this bodes well; none of this bodes well at all. Your eyes gravitate to the large ivory alien and the midsize indigo one, both of whom sport crowns, chest plates, and both wings and a horn. Just from observation you can tell that these two must be a higher breed, and as such were probably made leaders if the regalia they possess are any indication to their status. You move your whole head to look at both of them, praying to whatever higher power there is that you can salvage the situation and avoid offending them at once. Ivory, as you decide to call her locks eyes with you, her amethyst gaze focused on the blue glowing optics of your mask. Here goes nothing… Slowly, you incline your head in a nod to her, doing your best to convey that you recognize her as a form of authority. Lifting your head, the repeat the action for Indigo since you have no idea who is superior. You pull your head back up just in time to see the collective eyes of the whole group widen in surprise. The ball is in their park now, all you can do is wait. Idly, you can't help but wonder what is going through their minds right now. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Applejack has no idea what in the world is going on. When it was announced that the odd metal stone was not actually a stone, but instead an alien craft, she couldn't help but be skeptical. They say seeing is believing, but this almost defies imagination. No matter how much effort she put into convincing herself that this is some sort of dream or hallucination, no matter how hard she clenches her eyes shut and opens them again, the tall, metal clad biped refused to disappear. This is like something out of the comic books that Applebloom would borrow from Spike from time to time. Only this alien is not a green pony with antennas standing at the height of a foal, no that would've been too easy. Even from her position at the lip of the crater Applejack could see that this thing is as tall, if not taller than Princess Celestia and almost twice as broad as Big Mac. The only thing the apple farmer could think of that is larger than this thing would be Discord, and even then the mismatched Mad God lacked the sheer mass, the presence that the bipedal stranger seemed to radiate. And if what all the University workers said is true, then it has considerable brains to go with its brawn. One thing was for sure. Applejack didn’t like this in the least bit. Carefully turning her bottle green eyes to roam over her friends and the princesses, she took in and gauged their expressions. Rarity is frozen in her place, staring down the alien with terror that seemed out of place on the fashionista’s face. Twilight however, in stark contrast to her fellow unicorn is looking down the crater with wide eyes, eyes that burned with rabid curiosity as she forced herself to stand her spot. Moving on, Fluttershy seems almost catatonic on her feet, the poor pegasus frightened stiff by the unnatural happenings right in front of her. Rainbow seemed to be taking everything well, even if her nonchalant stance is obviously forced, but then again she's likely not taking this seriously. Finally Pinkie looks ready to burst in excitement as she normally is when meeting somepony, or in this case, someTHING new. She too is not taking this as seriously as she should. Looking up at the alicorns, Applejack inspects them as well. Princess Luna looked at the creature with open awe, her eyes widened and her mouth slightly open; one could only surmise her thoughts on this matter. Celestia however… The Element of Honesty gulped at the severe expression adorning the sovereign’s face. Eyes narrow, lips set into a thin line, and her ears pulled back as a visible bead of sweat runs down her face, obviously the Sun deity is not having optimistic thoughts. Then, it moves. It wasn't a large movement in any sense of the word; it simply craned his neck to point its face at the princesses. Slowly and deliberately, it nods at Princess Celesta then moves its head ever so slightly to repeat the action with Princess Luna. No words… Did it really recognize the princesses for who they are with just a glance? Silence overtakes the area as everyone stares at it, each of them bearing a different expression from the ponies around them. For almost a minute nothing is said, before Princess Celestia backs up several steps and taps the ground with a gold cupped hoof, staring at the alien the whole time. ~~~~~~~~~~ While you waited for Ivory to make the next move, you busied yourself by going through the functions of your rather haphazardly put together suit. All in all it's a rather bare-bones system, the magnetic barrier, a small 10 TB built-in computer with simplistic AI, an industrial grade PDA on your wrist, holo projectors on the palms of your gloves, and your hazard mask. You aren't really surprised by its underwhelming capabilities, but really you would have been in much worse shape without the suit. If you are trapped on this planet for any considerable length of time, you would definitely see about trying to upgrade it or even just build an entirely new suit. That is if you can come across the resources to manufacture the parts needed, for all you know this planet could be barren in terms of useful elements. You really hope that's not the case, the hex-cell steel of your ship’s hull held up nicely but doubtlessly some necessary internal components were destroyed beyond repair in your cataclysmic landing. Come to think of it, even if you can find everything you need, with this planet's inhabitants let you have it? You glance up at Ivory to see her equine face scrunched up in thought, before the expression eases and she backs up several steps, giving the ground a few light stomps as she looks at you. Perhaps she wants you to come up out of the crater? Seems plausible enough, but you keep in mind that making assumptions is dangerous in situations like these, and immediately run through an escape plan should things go south. That horn of hers looks like it could easily run you through and have enough length to come out your other side if this is a trap... With a nervous sigh you steel yourself and begin the ascent. Slowly you begin to walk up the crater, not taking your eyes off the colorful equines for fear that they would react negatively to your approach. The others follow Ivory’s lead and backup several steps so that they remain in line with her. With a few crunches of dirt underneath your metal boots, you climb out of the hole in the earth and feel your stomach drop once you get a good visual of the surrounding area. Other equines litter the clearing, some wearing coats, others in polished gold armor, and every single one of them has their large eyes trained on you. So not only did you crash on the planet with creatures smart enough to appreciate physical appearance and form leadership, but they also had a form of armed forces. Your prospects seem to get more and more deplorable the longer you look around. Finally you crest the crater and stand several paces away from the welcome party, who all continue to gape at you like they did before. However you simply wait patiently seeing as how there is little you can do. Before any of them can deliberate on what to do next, the lavender colored unicorn? Unicorn seems to fit, steps forward and walks up to you until she stands hardly 2 feet away, much to the vocal protest of her friends and numerous others around the clearing. You take a moment to listen to the voices, having never heard them before. You identify a medley of mewls, chirps, squeaks, and snorts mixed in with a flowing, melodic, gibberish that you couldn't even begin to identify, certainly no language you've ever even heard of. Lavender, as you dubbed her, cranes her neck up to stare at you with large, violet eyes filled with almost childlike curiosity. In response you bend your knees and crouch down to her level, hoping to make her more comfortable and to maybe look less threatening. She seems to marvel at the simple act before her returning her attention back to the optics of your mask. Lavender blinks before apparently remembering what she wanted to do. Lifting a single hoof off of the ground, she pokes herself in the chest and says something in her sugary sounding speech, the sound in question beginning with an almost purr and ending with a quietly rolling T. She she repeats her action and words once more, slightly slower this time before she points at you with the same hoof, an expectant look gracing her features . With a start you realize she just tried to tell you her name, and now she wants to know yours. How curious, as a human you understood how having personal names made identification of others much easier than going without, but was such a thing a universal trait of organized societies? Perhaps the equine natives use a similar concept to humans? Whatever, you could find out later, but you’ve been keeping Lavender waiting long enough. Again moving slowly to come off as nonthreatening, you take a single finger and point to yourself before reciting your name. “Anonymous.” You can't help but wince at the rough, mechanical sounding voice that comes through your mask, making Lavender flinch slightly. She bounces back however as a grin comes to her face from her success. For the first time you notice just how cute and almost cuddly Lavender and her fellow equines are in appearance. They’re almost like cartoon characters… Without even realizing what you're doing, you reach an arm out and scratch the unicorn right behind her ear, drawing a chorus of gasps from the onlookers. She stiffens in surprise, before a dopey smile finds its way to her face as she leans into your hand, as if trying to get you to scratch harder. You pull your hand away but remain crouched, mentally berating yourself for taking such a huge step out of your boundaries. ~~~~~~~ Celestia couldn't even begin to describe her relief at how well the whole situation is going. Nopony had been hurt, there’s no mass panic, and the visitor proved it could handle itself in a civil manner and even express light affection. This is nothing like the doomsday scenario that she was almost sure that was going to play out right in front of her eyes. Twilight, bless her heart, had taken the initiative and approached the tall biped, disregarding her own fear in the name of the historical establishment of extending an olive branch to a creature not of this world. Although Celestia knew that there would more than likely be problems down the road, the Sun deity couldn't help but let a smile come to her beautiful face, happy that this crucial moment has gone so well. Now that the stigma around the visitor have been broken by her student, Celestia watches as the other elements and Luna approach Twilight and the space faring biped. Even some of the guards and scientists edge closer, curiosity plain on their faces. Celestia thinks over the last hour and how it's simply the beginning of a change that will rock the whole world to its core. This could be the dawn of a new age for Equestria, or could simply be the calm before the storm. But the way things are looking; the solar Princess can't help but see it as the former. Her smile still in place, Celestia begins the walk to the unlikely group. ~~~~~~~~~ You look around at the colorful group surrounding you, taking in the close visages of the equines. No, equine feels too stale, too catch-all a word for them, really they seem more like ponies than anything else. You grin under your mask, what a silly thought, a whole planet ruled by nothing but ponies, but then again here they are right in front of you. Once more, the rainbow pegasus flutters up right into your face with an inquiring gaze, prompting you to gently push her away. It seems that she, along with Lavender, has a considerable interest in you. Right after you stopped scratching Lavender’s ear, she rushed up with incredible speed chattering excitedly as she did. The only one as enthusiastic as her was the pink one who crossed the gap between her spot by the leader and right in front of you with a single, energetic bound, her mouth run even faster than the rainbow pegasus’. And right after the others followed. The orange one seems suspicious and distrusting of you, but then again you can't really blame her. Once over her fear of you, the white unicorn took to inspecting your clothes along with the bits and pieces of hazard suit placed over them with a hint of disgust. The yellow pegasus still seems horribly afraid of you, but at least she had the nerve to approach. Then finally there is Indigo, who seems content to look you over with sparkling eyes. You couldn't help but run your eyes over her as well, wondering if there is any symbolism with her having both wings and a horn compared to her peers. You are cut off from that train of thought however when Ivory trots her way up to the group, prompting you to stand so you could look her in the eye. She seems the slightest bit intimidated that she has to look up some to meet your gaze, but she immediately and expertly hides it. With a deep breath in and out, she raises it foreleg and holds it out to you. So here we are at last, where you would likely formally acknowledge her as a leader and begin what you hope beyond hope is in agreement to nonviolence. You stare at the outstretched appendage for just a moment before you bring your hand around and grasp her hoof. Up, down. A handshake, the most basic greeting in all of human history. And just like that, your time in Equestria officially began, even if you didn't know it. ~~~Ponyville town hall, 11:41 PM, Year 1002~~~ Luna sighs from her spot in front of the town hall as the citizens of Ponyville gathered in front of it, all of them still awake from the alien’s violent landing. It was the briefest exchange of words between her and her sister, that the citizens needed to know what exactly happened tonight. Personally the Princess of the Night is opposed to the whole notion, knowing how her people usually did not react well to the unknown, but at the same time Celestia argued that they needed to be honest with those that they rule over, and how such a huge event was bound to become known anyway. Luna had a hard time disputing that one. On a more personal note the alicorn wished that her sister was the one to make the announcement instead, as Luna wanted to spend more time at the crash site and maybe learn more of the alien. Seeing as how most of the town had gathered Luna begins, careful to keep her voice loud enough to hear, but not so loud as to deafen the ones closest to her. ”Citizens of Ponyville, I have come to bring you news on the meteor strike that occurred an hour ago.” Murmurs break out amongst the group of ponies, many of them fearful. ”After some investigation” the Princess starts, quieting the townsponies “we made a rather startling discovery.” This time everyone is silent. ”The meteor was not a meteor but was in fact… A crashed alien vessel.” More murmurs, now more disbelieving than fearful, a few even had the gall to chuckle. ”This is no laughing matter!” Luna almost shouts, quieting everyone “For the occupant survived the crash.” Gasps breakout in the crowd as the pressure of what the ruler said begins to set upon them. Luna looks over the crowd still debating the wisdom of Celestia wanting to inform them. Finally she continues. ”My fair ponies, at approximately 11:28 PM... We established first contact with extraterrestrial life…” Author's Note Here we are, chapter 3. To address some issues you may find in this chapter or others, just wait for more to read. Other readers expressed some confusion on a number of things that will be addressed later. Next update should be in a few days, then my speed will drop to about one update a week for real.
Chapter IV (Arc II-Race against time) Chapter IV (Arc II-Race against time) You stare mystified at the spot that Indigo was just a moment prior. She was there not even a second ago, talking with Ivory before she just…just…vanished. There one moment and then gone the next, if you weren’t right here watching then you might have discounted it as your mind playing tricks on you. But you know what you saw; she disappeared into thin air with zero trace. Could the little pony aliens have access to teleportation technology? As outrageously farfetched as the idea is, you can’t think of an alternative means of moving that quickly, unless of course it was an innate ability that she possessed. But that seemed to be venturing even further into the realms of impossibility, naturally having the ability to teleport of all things? You mentally jot down the question on your ever-growing list of what you want to ask when you can find a way around the language barrier. Come to think of that, how are you going to find a way around it? New languages are always uncertain business, and even a single miscommunication could bring about some serious disaster, especially when dealing with native speakers of said language. In all honesty this might be one arena where you let them try to sort everything out. Turning your attention back to the colorful group around you, you notice that Lavender has left to go talk with Ivory, Lavender speaking with urgency as well as excitement while Ivory look to be considering Lavender’s words carefully. Eventually Ivory smiles and responds to Lavender in their almost musical sounding speech. That was the first time you ever heard Ivory speak, her voice is slightly deeper than any others of your "welcoming committee" and much smoother, holding a tone of a mother speaking to her child and had the effect of almost immediately making you feel homesick, despite only being stranded for about an hour. You shake it off, there's no need being distracted right now, the more important things to be doing other than being upset over nothing. Lavender gives the larger equine a megawatt smile before producing an old piece of parchment, a quill, and an inkwell from seemingly nowhere, all of them held in a shifting aura matching her coat. Wait what? You stare dumbfounded at the anomaly surrounding the trio of objects, and none of the ponies seemed startled or surprised in any sort of way. First Indigo’s teleportation and now Lavender’s telekinetic manipulation, these couldn't be abilities that they were born with right? You stop and think to yourself, teleportation isn't unheard of back on Terra but teleportation technology on a personal scale is almost impossible according to experts. And the levitation, again not unheard of, but really only the top 1% of wealthy people could afford the very pricey neural implant required to have such an ability. You sigh and add even more questions to your now huge list that you would need to inquire about at some point. Lavender rushes up, quickly scribbling on the parchment with incredible focus and control of her telekinesis, before she seats herself down back in the middle of her friends and levitates the parchment as well as quill to you, an expectant look on her face. Warily taking the brown paper and the quill, you take a look at what Lavender had written, feeling a bit of confusion. On the paper are alien symbols in a row, right above them are groups of dots that seemed to correlate to the symbols right beneath them. Below the symbols and dots are more symbols and dots grouped differently with more symbols that apparently Lavender did not bother to label in any form, along with several more rows that seemed to be missing their end symbols. What in the world could she mean by this? Perhaps it's some sort of test? Then you realize what it is and feel like slapping yourself. “Well, I certainly feel stupid..." The symbols are numbers, and the dots must be the key to what each symbol means. Counting each grouping of dots you see that it goes in order from 1 to 10, and the completed rows of symbols must be examples of basic mathematical questions. The other ponies try to get a glimpse of the paper, obviously curious as to what Lavender had written on it, so you go back to crouching down so they can see. Stetson, as you feel like calling the orange one seems confused, as well as the pink one. The rainbow one however snorts and looks like she's trying to hold back laughter while the white unicorn and the shy pegasus both hold looks of comprehension. Looking back and forth between the examples in the number key, you easily finish the problems, finding them to be basic addition and subtraction. You even add human numbers to Lavender's number key, just to punctuate that you know what you're doing and that you just didn't solve the sheet by chance. Handing the parchment back to Lavender, she takes it in her telekinesis once more, a tiny bit of it overlapping your hand, making warning messages about unknown radiation flare to life on your masks HUD. You glance the flashing text and file it away for later. Reading over the paper, the purple unicorn’s smile gets larger and larger until she reaches the end, by then her face is stretched in an elated grin. She turns the paper to her friends with some excited chatter, pointing out the problems you had completed and the line of human numbers now across the top of the paper. Ivory, apparently overhearing her smaller friend, trots over to see what all the fuss is about and catches sight of the paper. The winged unicorn turns her amethyst gaze to you, a small, knowing smile adorning her muzzle. If you had to hazard a guess you would say that she had an idea of your level of intelligence all along. A few other equines all wearing lab coats make their way closer to see the paper, all of them gaping with astonishment once they scan over the parchment themselves. It seems what they say is true, that a universal language can always be found in math. In a flurry of activity the purple unicorn flips over the paper and writes down even more equations with the sound of scratching on paper, apparently wanting to know just how far she can push you. She gives it back, her grin still as large as ever. Giving the new symbols a once over you find that she had raised the stakes to multiplication and division. While breezing through the answers with the rather annoying to use quill, you idly wonder why the equines count in base 10 rather than base 4 like you would have expected. Yet another question... For almost half an hour you solved different bits and pieces of math for Lavender, Ivory, the ponies in coats, and a few among Lavender's friends who could stay interested with the proceedings. Stetson had become bored and is apparently rather sleepy as she sat and slowly nodded off, unlike Rainbow who decided to lavish some annoying attention to a pair of gold clad pegasi, trying to get them to break their stoic façade. The stakes quickly escalated as you found yourself doing some trigonometry and calculus before long, it's times like these you are glad you paid attention in high school. Finally she seems to run out of things to throw at you, looking over the out several sheets worth of numbers with some numb surprise, apparently not expecting you to be able to do it all. Looking around you see that a number of the little ponies look almost dead on their feet, obviously tired from all the excitement and spending several hours out by the destroyed hill. You figure this would be a good time to run a quick diagnostic on your crashed ship, least you leave it without knowing what you need to do to it to get it off the ground. Rising back to your full height along with attracting the attention of everyone in the clearing, you turn back to the crater and jump to the open hatch, silently marveling at how you made the almost 9 foot leap effortlessly. Rather than close the door behind you, you leave it open, an invitation to come inside if any of them are brave enough. And apparently they are. Rainbow flies in with extreme swiftness, apparently not willing to let this chance go, Lavender follows shortly after, popping into existence in a flash of light in the doorway. You decide to just quit questioning what they can do until you have some reliable means of communication. Even Ivory decides to venture into your ship, but not without an escort of two armored pegasi, uniform in appearance, who look about the entire area distrustfully. You walk up to the control panel while the others look around, wondering how you're going to power the ship long enough to run a diagnostic. That reminds you of another problem you're inevitably going to have to deal with, how are you going to keep your suit powered? Taking a look at the corner of your HUD, you see that your ragtag suit has enough power to last for approximately one month, after that you will be totally on your own. If you hadn't immunized yourself to the local diseases and the still unsettling radiation that seemed ambient in almost everything here by the time you run out of power, you will likely die. Again you are reminded just how serious the situation is, even if everything has been going swimmingly, you are still stranded on a planet where death could loom around every corner with you totally unaware. You grit your teeth and shake away the negative thoughts plaguing your mind as you remember what you told yourself. “I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul…” Looking back at the control panel you see Rainbow inspecting all the different switches and buttons, the barely restrained urge to flip and press all of them shining in her eyes. “Don't even think about it.” She looks up at you and blinks in confusion. You shake your head in a firm no, hoping the gesture gets across to her, and apparently it does as she crosses her forelegs and flutters off, grumbling. Coming back to your original problem, how are you going to power the ship for diagnostic? Well, you could use the power from your suit to do so, but you're not sure how much it would take or how the suit itself would handle its power being siphoned. But the more you try to think of another way, the more blanks you draw. With a dejected sigh, you unclip a thin cord from the suits power supply located on your lower back and plug it into the control console. Holding up your wrist and scrolling through the options on the PDA as the others look on in curiosity, you come to the option of ‘Connect to unknown port’. You click it and watch the controls light up as the ship's CPU directs power from your suit to itself with a loud buzz, drawing frightened gasps from the equines in the room. Without any warning a pair of weights slam into your back, knocking the breath out of you and pushing you into the controls, where you bang your head and see stars. You turn your head and see the pair of guards glaring at you menacingly, their eyes shifting between you and the noisy control panel. In a pained fueled panic you flip yourself around and push both of them off as hard as you can, sending the surprised guards flying across the cockpit where they crash into the wall with pained grunts. Both Lavender and Rainbow drop their jaws at the display of herculean strength. It must've been the lower gravity, there's not much other explanation for how far they both flew considering they both look as if they should weigh at least 200 pounds each with the armor. Both of them get to their feet and shake off the effects of their unintended flight, glaring at you with even more vehemence than before. Just as they crouch to charge you again, a frightfully loud shout rings out from within the cockpit forcing everyone to wince and stop what they were doing. All eyes turn to Ivory, who despite only wearing a small frown; you could tell she was positively livid. You sigh and bring your hands your head, it looks like this adventure had just come to a premature end, you could only hope it wouldn't be a painful premature end... To your utter surprise however, Ivory does not turn her fury to you but instead to the pair of guards, who gulp and stand rigidly at attention. The snow white ruler looks them both over, her face betraying absolutely nothing, before she says something quietly in an ordering tone that left no room for any argument, making the guards give shaky salutes before they rush back outside. You got the impression that Ivory being quiet was even worse than her raising her voice. Once done with the guards she turns to you, her steely expression melting into one of genuine concern as she walks up to you, craning her head at different angles to inspect you, possibly for injuries. She looks into your masks optics and offers a single sentence in an apologetic tone, clearly sorry for what had just transpired. You smile under your mask; the equines have definitely done something right by appointing Ivory as their leader. You decide then and there that the winged unicorn is definitely going on your favorites list. "Think nothing of it ma'am, I understand why they did it." You finish the sentence with an incline of your head, hoping to convey that you accept the apology over the incident. She gives you a soft smile and nods as she says something else in her motherly voice, which only adds to the sincerity of her actions. Without any warning Rainbow flies up into your vision, chattering away excitedly as she boxes the air with her forelegs, apparently impressed with how you dealt with the guards. Lavender seems distressed over the recent flurry of activity, her mane and tail slightly ruffled as she looked between you and the door where the guards stood outside, abashed. At least everything turned out… With a start, you realize you left your suit plug into the ship this whole time, where it was steadily losing power. “Shit!” All of your temporary guests jump as you turn and tear the cord out of the control panel in a hurry, hoping you just didn't doom yourself. With a nervous gulp, you watching the corner of your HUD as the suit recalibrates itself. The results aren't good. A full 25% of your battery was lost just letting the ship’s CPU idle, meaning you had just shaved a full seven days off of your life support. This is bad, no this isn't bad, this is horrible! You lost so much time over a little mistake. To make matters worse, you didn't even get to find out what is wrong with your ship, and now you only had about 23 days to fix this mess or else…You put your head in your hands, feeling almost ready to cry in frustration. Feeling a nudge in your side you look down to see Lavender, Rainbow and Ivory staring at you with obvious concern in their large, shining eyes. At least you aren't doing this totally alone… But how do you convey to them what is going wrong? Is it even possible without some sort of direct speech? Apparently Ivory thought so as she approaches you, the tip of her horn glowing a dull gold in the dark interior of the ship. You look warily at the marble sized ball of energy, it doesn't take a genius to deduce that the unknown radiation of the planet is closely associated with the special abilities of its natives. And that ball looks awful concentrated… But still, if she had wanted to hurt you, she would not have ordered her guards to stand down and leave the ship. Walking close, she gently taps the forehead of your mask with the tip of her long spiraled horn, where the ball disappears…What happens no-!!! The weirdest sensation tickles you in the back of the head, as curiosity not your own pokes at your brain several times. You blink and look at the white furred ruler, who has her eyes closed in concentration. Could psychic abilities really be within the realms of possibility for a being like these equines? Deciding to take the plunge, you poke back at the tendril of thought in the back of your mind with curiosity of your own. It, who you assume is Ivory, stops then radiates concern, an image of yourself holding your head flashing through your mind. Really you don't know how to respond, you doubt that anything as sophisticated as a specialized life-support system has an equivalent here, but you try anyway. At first you try words but quickly find out that they hold no meaning a mental conversation You send her an image of the suits power supply and the pony number 25 crossed out to her, only to get confusion in return. Again you try, this time trying to explain the idea of what your suit does and how you need it to her, only for an even bigger wave of confusion to wash over you. This is going nowhere in a hurry, she has no equivalent to compare any of your equipment to, you need some sort of direct speech if you're going to get any help. Wait, that's it! This time you think of the sky, and the Sun and the Moon rapidly rising and setting 23 times, on the 23rd day you send her an image of yourself, on the ground and unmoving. The very implication that this could very well be an unavoidable fate makes you shiver, just imagining it makes it feel all that more inescapable. A surge of alarm not your own comes from her, you even see her real face screw itself up in fright. An urgent inquiring feeling comes from her, obviously telling you that she wants to know how to prevent this. So you tell her, you send an image of yourself and a pony speaking in the same language with speech bubbles, then you show her the power supply though your suit in your speech bubble. It doesn't even take her a second to understand, she breaks a mental connection and turns to Lavender and Rainbow, quickly explaining the situation, making both of them gasp and look at you. Lavender pops out the ship in a flash of light and Rainbow follows out in a quick streak of color. Before she leaves, Ivory turns to you and to your immense surprise, gives you a nuzzle as she whispers nonsensical words filled with reassurance, her voice immediately making you homesick again. Pulling back, she offers you a smile before she leaves out the hatch, leaving you to your lonesome. Taking a deep breath, you sit in the beat-up leather seat of the cockpit and lean back, finally letting your both your mental and bodily fatigue get the better of you as you pass out almost instantly, sleep taking you. ~~~Outside with the Elements~~~ ”Girls it's terrible!” Twilight cries with horror as she re-materializes outside, almost on the verge of tears. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie immediately rush to her, wanting to know what had upset her so. ”Twai?! What jus’ went on in there!? We saw the guards come out, but they didn' tell us anythin’” Applejack asks in a hurry Twilight shakes her head “It’s A-anon! He's dying!” She says, stumbling over the name some. Every one of them gasps. ”What! How? What can we do to help the poor thing?!” Fluttershy jumps in, her voice the loudest they had all heard in some time. Rarity puts her two cents in as well ”Yes what can we do? If there is anything at all then we MUST do it, no matter what.” She says firmly. Rainbow interjects from overhead “According to the Princess, the big guy needs to learn Equestrian before he can tell us what's wrong, something about weird alien technology not working right.” ”Rainbow’s got it.” Twilight says, calming down some “But we've only got 23 days to do it, or else…” She neglects to finish, just leaving the implication in open-air, turning the atmosphere grim. Pulling piece of parchment that hadn't been used to test Anon to her, Twilight begins to write down an outline of a plan ”Ok girls, here's what were going to do…” ~~~The next morning~~~ Laying in the grass after you woke up and walked outside, you doze lightly in the sun seeing as you have nothing else to do at the moment. Besides, the sleepless night before had made you rather tired. If you had the schedule that Lavender has graciously shown you before memorized correctly…then the rainbow one would be the one watching you today, and a faint ‘woosh’ overhead confirms the thought. You feel the pegasus land lightly on your back before she shuffles about some, trying to find a comfortable position. She’s certainly bold; the others would probably never try to touch you, at least not before not getting to know you more. You had noted that the small ponies seem more tactile than humans, but how far did that extend however? They had all the facial expressiveness of a human, yet you noticed that affectionate gestures and contact were by no means in short supply despite it being less hassle to convey emotion otherwise. Curious creatures these aliens are. Finally Rainbow as you call her, settles on your back with a content sigh. Even though she’s more likely interested in the body heat she could extract from you than anything else, you can’t help but smile slightly at the inadvertent display of trust she had shown by willingly resting this close to you. Or maybe Rainbow is just naïve? Either way it’s still sort of nice. You look back at her, seeing large, magenta eyes looking back with all the silent questions they held the night prior. “I’m going to guess you have no idea how to tweak an A.I. to decrypt an unknown dialect do you?” She tilts her head with a raised eyebrow, her expression akin to “Dude what?” “I thought as much…” You and her simply lie there for almost an hour, dozing in the sunlight before you decide to do something productive. Bringing your PDA to bear, you look to the various folders stored within it until you find the AI files and others associated with it. Opening them up you try to recall what you learned about programming back in college, and how all languages followed a specific algorithm as you learned in English. Rainbow looks over your shoulder at the glowing blue screen of the wrist mounted device, blinking with curiosity. You scroll through almost all the files, not finding anything related to the AI learning on its own, scanning through one more time you still find nothing. “Wonderful…” It looks like you're going to have to make one from scratch, which is going to be pretty hard considering you had never even touched on AIs throughout any of your old classes or in your career. Best get started though. You hold one hand up and fire up the holo-projector on your palm, making a large screen filled with a large amount of data flare to life. In half an instant Rainbow is off of your back and lying down in front of you, her eyes, alight with interest, trained on the large glowing window now hovering above your hand. For almost an hour you and the multihued pony sit there, you trying to write up an AI assistance program with no basis to go off of and she simply watching. After some time she looks up at the sun, seeing that the position had moved and rises to her feet. With some verbal coaxing and a few gestures, she urges you to get up as well as she trots off in the direction that the others had left last night. Did she want you to come to their settlement? Only one way to find out. Getting up on your feet, you dust off the dirt and grass that accumulated on your front as well as taking a good stretch before following Rainbow into the unknown. Author's Note Chapter 4 done. Some minor corrections were made from the source, which I will fix soon as well. The Intro Arc is over and now the story begins to take off. It will seem slow until the language barrier is broken sometime from now, but I assure you it's needed for the story.
Chapter V (Arc II-Race against time) Chapter V (Arc II-Race against time) ~~~Ponyville, 11:09 AM, Year 1002~~~ ”Alright! Here’s what we’re going to do girls,” begins Twilight, looking at her friends around the kitchen table of the library sans Rainbow. All of them look back, each of them listening intently. “The Princesses have gone back to Cantorlot and left us to care for Anani…Anyo…Anon until further notice.” Twilight says, again stumbling over the foreign name some. ”Twilight, I don't mean to sound rude, but how exactly are we going to go about this?" Asks Rarity with a delicately raised eyebrow. ”I was just getting to that." Twilight says as she levitates over a stack of books and numerous sheets of parchment. ”I was thinking we would go with a two-pronged approach, every day Anon would come here and I could teach him Equestrian the traditional way from the ground up." She says, indicating the books “After we finish for the day, one of us would take him out into town and let him immerse himself in Equestrian in a more practical manner." Twilight finishes with a smile. Fluttershy speaks up, ”um Twilight, I don't mean to stamp on your plans or anything, but wouldn't it be easier to use some sort of translation spell?" The butter colored pegasus asks. ”Yeah, that does seem like it would be way faster than trying to teach the big guy with books,” Pinkie chips in. Twilight’s jaw drops at the suggestion “WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT?!” She almost screams. Rarity turns her blue eyes to rest on her friends ”Girls, although that would seem like a marvelous solution to this little conundrum, a translation spell would likely just make things even more confusing.” All eyes turn to her, each one reflecting considerable confusion. ”Think about it, doesn't our guest’s speech sound greatly different when compared to Equestrian, or even any other language?” The alabaster unicorn asks. Everyone turns to Twilight, expecting the brainy unicorn to shed light on the tidbit of info. ”Well, Yes…” Rarity nods "Exactly, so the way he speaks must be structured differently than any known language here in Equestria, meaning a translation spell would only make a horrific mess of any attempts to talk.” The unicorn blinks at the incredulous expressions she sees on the faces of her fellow elements. ”What? Any fashionista worth her silk simply MUST have an eye for detail, or in this case an ear.” Rarity huffs. The lavender magus bites her lip as she thinks. “Well now that I think about it…Anon’s sentence syntax could, and most likely is different from ours, which would mean he would know the words but have no idea what order to put them in and us talking to him with just be confusing gibberish.” Pinkie’s face drops “Awww…That means we can't ask him what sort of party an alien would like…” The others can't help but smile at their friend’s kind, if single-minded outward musings. ”Well, we gots our plan ready now right? So what now?” Applejack asks. "Actually you girls can leave for now if you want." Twilight says, glancing upward thoughtfully. "Rainbow should be bringing him here anytime now." ~Ponyville, 11:43 AM, Year 1002, 22 days until life support failure~ You walk with the sky blue Pegasus in a companionable silence as you do a quick recap of the last 12 or so hours in your mind. Crash on unknown planet. Meet the sapient and apparently intelligent locals. Establish rudimentary communications. Find out that your suit only has a month worth of power, a week of which was wasted. And finally the current moment, which is you following Rainbow to some unknown form of civilization, supposedly her home where she would help you learn her language. All of that still leaves an uncomfortable amount of problems still not solved, or even close to being answered. You need to find a way to give yourself immunity to any bacteria and toxins in the air, least you fall over and die as a melting pot of disease. If you found a way around that gruesome fate, you still have the problem of dealing with muscle atrophy, which you are likely to suffer in the low gravity of this planet. The idea of being nothing but skin and bones is not appealing to you in the slightest bit. You gulp, so much of this could go wrong in a split second, and there would likely be nothing you can do about it. Now you think about it, this is all being going far, far better than anyone else in your situation could have ever hoped. Maybe you aren't being led into civilization to be taught how to speak like the equines after all; it could all be a ruse to lure you away from any forested area so you can't escape later on… You shake your head, that couldn't be it, they had so many opportunities to harm you before and yet here you are still in one piece and alive. Silently, you hope that your trust in them is not as misplaced as you believe it to be. Back to your most prevalent problem however, you have heard of people making themselves highly resistant, or even out right immune to diseases and venoms by carefully administering small amounts to themselves, perhaps the same would work with the air here? Taking a look at your HUD, you see the filter settings for your mask are set at 100%, meaning absolutely nothing but carefully controlled air is let inside. Here goes nothing… Scrolling through the settings for your suit on your PDA, you find the different settings for the mask, and lower the filter percentage down to 99.5%. This is going to be a very slow process, but if done correctly you would be able to live without the magnetic barrier of your suit and without your mask, in theory that is. It would likely be almost a year before you could breathe without some sort of mechanical assistance, assuming that you survive that long or don't find a way off the planet before then. Even with such a small drop in the filter strength, you faintly smell just how fresh the air is on this planet, the ever so faint, and vaguely familiar scents of grass and foliage. Curious that such a sweet smelling atmosphere could hold microbes that wouldn't hesitate to tear you apart from the inside out, just one of the subtle terrors that evolution can hold you suppose. Realizing that you had slowed and that Rainbow had not bothered to do so as well, you catch up with her in a brisk walk, making her look back at you as you remain careful not to kick off the ground too hard. Again you find yourself at peace even though you should be panicking over your current predicament, but something about this place simply takes the edge off of you. Rainbow stops abruptly, making you stop as well, least you knock her over. Then you see why she stopped. In the distance stood a quaint and almost old nordic looking village, all the stone and thatch buildings painted and decorated in bright pastel colors that would seem more in place in a child's coloring book. A shiver runs down your spine, the whole town seems almost humanlike from the distance, yet another uncanny similarity these little ponies seem to share with your race…It all seems out of place, surreal even. It's as if the longer you look, the further you march forward, the more knowledge you seek, the further down the rabbit hole you go… “Your hometown I take it?” Rainbow turns and makes an eager chirp, signaling you to walk with her down into the town with a wave of her foreleg. You follow, silently muttering a prayer under your breath. The trip is far shorter than you would've expected, and before long you and Rainbow are at the edge of the small hamlet. Before you can go any further, a pony walks out of a nearby house, looking at Rainbow with the foreleg raised in what you guess is a greeting, right before its eyes turn to you, making it totally freeze. With the same shaking hoof, it points to you, stuttering out a fearful string of words. Rainbow just nods and replies back, her speech rather fiery, you even catch your name mentioned even if it's noticeably butchered. The other pony gulps and steps out of the way, prompting your winged escort to start walking again with you following along. It’s the same reaction for every single one that you meet, freezing in place, stuttering, and then you were given a wide berth. All of them hold the same expressions of either fear, confusion, disbelief, and even in a relatively small fraction, hatred. But they aren't running for the hills, which you guess you can count as a small victory. The only exception seems to be with the youngest of them, tiny equines who barely reach your knee try to peer around their older kin wearing expressions of amazement, who try to shield them from you, in an effort to get a good eyeful. The walk through town is almost suffocating with the amount of eyes you feel on your back, as none of them want to stare you in the face. Rainbow is either ignorant or simply ignoring the drama bringing you into the small town has caused as she just keeps trotting forward without a care in the world. You pan your eyes around, hoping to find something to distract you from the claustrophobic feeling creeping up on you. Looking up, you see guards with wings standing on clouds? Yes, they’re standing on the clouds, clouds that should be vapor, and they looking down at you with steely expressions while they’re at it. Your head is beginning to hurt from the amount of absurdity you're finding with every turn, so you bring your attention back to the town itself. Just as you saw before entering town, many of the houses and buildings are made of different types of stone with thatched roofs, others are made purely from wood and other materials that you can't name with certainty. All of this is beginning to look like some sort of fairytale, a bright, clean, town filled with inhabitants that should be given mythological status. The next thing you know, Ivory and Indigo are actually princesses… Another few minutes of walking are spent in painstaking silence, until you are led to what seems to be a large tree with windows and a door set into its front. How in the world was this accomplished? The windows and door imply that the tree has been hollowed out to be lived in, yet it's still alive, its branches filled with green. The sky blue pegasus walks up and simply flings the door open as if she owned the tree, hollering inside before waving at you to follow. Rainbow must want you to come inside. Ducking under the low doorway, you find yourself within the tree was just inches to spare above your head, letting you stand at your full height. The walls are lined with wooden bookshelves, all of them filled to bursting with tomes of all shapes and sizes, along with a desk at the back of the room A number of small tables and chairs are scattered about within the front, one of which is where none other than Lavender is sitting, her attention held raptly by a telekinetically held book in front of her face. Rainbow clears her throat, catching the attention of her friend who puts down her book to greet you both with a smile. She beckons you over with a wave of a floating quill as she pulls several books from the shelves behind her as well as a sheet of parchment from a stack next to her. Rainbow grumbles something under her breath as you both walk and sit down at the table across from the violet unicorn. You squirm some in the tiny chair, which squeaks perilously under your weight. If Lavender was concerned about her furniture, then she hid it well as she scribbled out a long line of symbols on a piece of parchment, before turning it around and showing it to you. 29, individual, rune like shapes stare back at you from the brown paper, all of them holding a subtle difference from the ones on either side of them. You look them over, figuring that Lavender must be showing you her people’s alphabet, and your thoughts are confirmed when she points to the first one with her quill and slowly sounds it out, the letter sounding similar to a short O. You mimic her as best as you can, and end up chewing the letter into something almost incomprehensible. She winces and tries again, repeating it several times at different speeds, putting emphasis on the movement of her lips. That’s not going to help much but you try again anyway, this time sounding much better than before, but if you learned this language entirely than you would without a doubt have a heavy and unique accent. She smiles and moves on to the next one, this one the faintly rolling T that she used at the end of her name when she first introduced herself. Half way through a sheet of work that lavender had given you, you swear that you feel eyes on you even from within the tree. You glance at the windows, only to find nothing. Looking at the doorway of a room connected to the one you are in you see a small purple form with green eyes rush away the instant you make eye contact with it. Does the unicorn have children perhaps? Much of the day passes in this manner, the unicorn teaching about her language as much as she could from the ground up as you slowly picked up on it, along with the small, green eyed form trying, and failing to watch inconspicuously from a distance. Lavender apparently felt that you had hit some sort of milestone, as she gives you some parchment and a quill with an expectant look on her face. She slowly recites several letters then indicates the paper, wanting you to write them out apparently. You do so with a grimace, knowing that you are going to miss a considerable amount. Once you are done, you hand her the paper and she looks over at and marks several of them with X’s. Apparently you hadn't done as horrible as you expected as she smiles and turns the paper to you, showing that you had missed only about half. Meanwhile Rainbow could only watch with bored, unfocused eyes, apparently she is not one for linguistics or anything of the like. Eventually she gets up and trots off, returning with a book of her own to read, the cover depicting a beige pegasus with the mark of a compass rose stamped onto its flank. Several hours tick by, all of it filled with you trying to cram as much of this new language as you could into your skull and make it stick. By the time Lavender is finished with you, you have a limited grasp of the alphabet and several simple one or two word phrases and greetings under your belt, nothing useful but it's certainly progress. You are really surprised by how simplistic their language is, but then again you are going to have to get used to the awkward noun and verb placements as well as practice speaking since they use more sounds than a human does to talk. Maybe you can use some right here? You think through the handful of words you had memorized, or at least you hope you had them memorized right. “T-thaaank youuu.” You belt in the pony tongue Agh, that sounded awful. Lavender thought otherwise apparently as she smiles bright and says “You’** *******! *’* happy ** help.” cheerfully. You can't help but smile yourself, even if you really didn't catch most of that, you got the feeling that it was along the lines of ‘You’re welcome’ Rainbow, seeing that the lesson is over, hops up and put her book back before rushing to the door in a blur of color, impatiently tapping her hoof on the floor “***** **!” She exclaims irritably. You stand and stretch, working the kinks out of your muscles from sitting for so long, before giving Lavender a wave and turning to follow the pegasus. Once outside, you see the sun has started its descent as a number of ponies walkabout the various stands and shops situated throughout the small town, all of them likely looking for last-minute necessities. Again you draw an enormous amount of attention, and by that you mean everyone within sight stops what they are doing to stare and gawk. The self-consciousness from earlier immediately rushes back to you, as you fight back the urge to turn away from all the prying eyes. Rather than lead you back to your crashed ship, Rainbow plops herself down on grassy spot in front of the library and motions for you to do the same. “*** **** ****, we’** ** ** ****.” She says rather unhelpfully. What in the world is gotten into her? You don't see a need for sitting around and looking like a sideshow. You try and coax her into getting up and leading you back, but she just shakes her head and points the spot next to her, saying something about listening to someone else, At least you think that's what she's saying. You sigh and take a seat next to her, idly noting that while sitting you are the same height as her. Slowly but surely, most of the locals take their attention off of you, and go back to doing what they were before. What does the colorful equine want you to do exactly? You had caught the pony word for ‘listen’ a few times but that doesn't tell you what she wants. Spacing out some, you focus on what seems to be an off white female with a rose mark haggling with a male over some produce at a stand. You catch almost nothing of what they're saying, but you deduce that the male is trying to rip off the female. Then it hits you, this is why Rainbow wanted you to sit outside with her, to listen to other ponies as they talk to each other. It’s genius, the combination of theory work with exposure to real life situations where the skill learned in theory can be honed. You really have to hand it to them, this was obviously well-planned or at least a lucky break. Sitting there for about a half an hour, you pick up on numerous different conversations and do your best to guess what they are about while trying to pull new words using the context of the few you know. All and all... You get maybe one or two new words, but it's one or two that you didn't have before. Seeing as her objective is complete, Rainbow rises and motions for you to follow her back to the crash site. The trip back is quiet as the trip into town, but this time not every pony you and your winged friend come across looks like a deer in the headlights before they jump out of the way. A few even trail behind you for short distances, their curiosity overpowering their fear. You shake your head, this whole species seems too kind even in inaction. This is nothing like the riot you were half expecting this morning. Taking a final look around at the town before you left its limits, you take note of all the things that seem familiar, yet out of place, adding it's all to your list of questions. Once back of the ship, Rainbow calls out to you before she leaves. With a smirk she says something that you can't really follow before she flutters up to your height and gives you a light, playful punch on the shoulder. You smile under your mask and return the favor, lightly tapping her on the wither. She smiles before turning and rocketing away with impressive speed, leaving a streak of color in her wake. Now left to your lonesome with the exception of a pair of guards who think they're stealthy up on a cloud above you, you hop the gap between the rim of the crater your ship made and into the side hatch that you close behind you. Walking up to the cockpit, you open up a small storage cubby under the center console and dig around some, hoping that you have something useful You pull out a clear plastic case filled with tiny identical canisters. Air purifiers, made to be used in the event of an emergency or in smog filled cities, it's a good thing that you can consider this an emergency. You flip the case over and read the instructions... It looks like this is a pack of 10 and they operate by pressing the button on the top and letting the canister release sanitizers into the air. You're not surprised to find that the sanitizers are toxic. Cranking your mask filter back up to 100% and making sure the hatch was sealed, you pull out one of the canisters and place it on the floor before pressing the button and standing back. With a loud hiss, a white vapor is released from the top where it diffuses into the cockpit air. Once you are sure the canister is empty, you pull off your hazard mask with a sigh and wipe a hand down your sweaty face. You only have 9 more and they only last so long, better make them count. But for tonight, you just want a comfortable night’s sleep without all this heavy gear on you. Slipping off the hazard suit and letting it’s bits and pieces fall to the floor, you sit back in the leather seat and drift off, dreams of ponies dancing within your mind ~Canterlot Castle, 10:13 PM, Year 1002~ ”So sister, how should we deal with the unrest that our visitor's arrival has caused?” Luna asks her sister as they both stand outside in the gardens, admiring the twinkling stars above. Celestia thinks to herself for a moment “We should deal with this as we would with any other problem, remain honest, think of what's best for the masses, and do our best to remain fair as we let the news of Anonymous’ arrival spread.” She says, watching a star shoot across the sky. Luna turns to look at her sister “And what of our neighboring countries? The peace treaty states that we are not allowed to hide events of this magnitude from other participants in the treaty, and the landing of the alien is sure to cause a storm of political intrigue.” ”Anonymous, Luna, he has a name” Celestia gently chides “And I am well aware that he will be the fulcrum of much debate in the coming months.” Celestia smirks lightly “Also, you apparently did not read the treaty close enough, for there was an agreement that emergency situations take precedence over obligations to treaty participants, meaning we have several months before we can be called out on this whole situation.” The Princess of the Night gives her sibling a sideways look “Sometimes you plan so far ahead that it frightens me sister.” The sun deity lets a small grin come to her muzzle “It looks like everything is going according to plan then…” ”Tia!” Celestia giggles before sobering “We will need to eventually call a Summit with all the nations, but for now we have plenty of time so there is nothing to be worried over.” As her sister takes flight back to her room, Luna can’t help but mutter under her breath ”We may not have problems from outside our borders…but I am more worried about problems that may arise WITHIN them.” She looks up into her stars. “Anon, for good or for ill, I can only hope that we all come out of this better than we were before, we are all going to face some extreme changes…” The princess spreads her powerful wings and takes off into the air with no sound, flying into the night gloom like a specter where she disappears. Author's Note Chapter V is done, now the story is truly beginning to pick up.
