"We stand now at the turning point between two eras. Behind us is a past to which we can never return…" – Arthur C. Clarke

Edward was standing in a desolate expanse. He looked up towards the sky. It was dark and empty. Neither the sun nor moon were visible. The stars washed out in the blue-grey glow. Looking down towards the horizon, he saw only a flat unbroken line stretching out to infinity. He glanced around, looking for anything other than himself.

His gaze spied a disruption to the horizon. What was it? Whatever it was, it seemed more interesting than the featureless surface he currently found himself on. He took a few steps towards it.

"Wait!" he shouted into the desolation.

"Where am I and how did I get here?" Ed stood motionless in thought. He strained at his memory. Where had I been before now?

Time stood still for him as he searched for what had happened in his recent past. The Tianma, our mission. His memories rushed back. The Xenon, we were going to crash. With this realization he looked at his hands. Counting his ten fingers as they became distinct and tangible from the haze of his surroundings.

"This is a dream," he mumbled to no one. My friends need me; I must awaken,

He watched the world as it faded into darkness. A dull pain was felt throughout his body. What happened to me and how long was I asleep? He attempted to query the computer that had been interfaced into his mind long ago. There was no response.

This is a very bad sign He attempted to communicate with the machine again. There was no response. He struggled to communicate with it for a third time. The final attempt ended as the earlier two. It seems as if my implants were destroyed or were somehow rendered completely inoperable. How could that have happened?

His attention turned to his senses. He tried to hear what was going on around him. The dull hum of machinery that he had known was gone replaced with a strange silence.

Next his mind turned to his sense of smell. This place smelled wrong. It was not the smell he remembered for the past two years; the odor of living in recycled air was gone. Nor did it possess the odor of a new habitat; the smell of newly awakened machines and freshly unpacked supplies.

It smelled like he was back on Earth. The scent of pollen and dust that may have been ignored or described as an irritant by someone who had always lived there would have brought great joy to someone who had been in space as long as Ed. But it didn't bring him joy, only confusion.

What? Where am I? I couldn't be on Earth, Edward frantically thought.

A sinister thought had entered his mind, What if I am dead?

He opened his eyes desperate to see his surroundings. He stared in shock at what he saw. This was not a medical room or a crew cabin. He was in some kind of bedroom furnished by someone of great opulence. It seemed he had been placed in a canopy bed. What appeared to be a wooden desk blocked his view of the room. The small portion of the wall he could see seemed to be made from carved stone.

His mind questioned, Is this some kind of a trick?

No, it couldn't be. Tolya wouldn't play a prank on someone in a coma or allow someone else to do so, he answered to himself.

I should pull myself up to get a better look around then, Ed decided. He tried to sit up, but there was something wrong with his arms.

Did I get some kind of nerve damage in the crash? He finally managed to lift his head high enough to get a look around.

Ed had completely frozen at what he saw. There was another living thing in the room with him.

His mind questioned, What is that? He attempted to process what he saw.

There was some kind of hexapodal ungulate-like animal looking out a window. It had not noticed him, so he took a minute to observe it. It was standing on what appeared to be four hoofed toes. With the other two limbs being some kind of vestigial wings. A single long horn was projected from its head. The creature was wearing what appeared to be gold jewelry on its neck, head and hooves.

It had what appeared to be white fur on its body excepting the mane, tail and its haunch. The mane and tail had multiple horizontal bands of color that appeared to move. Ed hypothesized that it could be made of a nano fog. The creature's haunch had a yellow circle, placed concentrically in a larger orange circle with eight darker orange undulated flame-like symbols extending from the larger circle. In all it appeared to be a stylized symbol depicting the sun.

It could be real or it could be just a trick. After all it looks like something Tolya would get his daughter for her birthday, Ed thought about the seemingly ludicrous situation he found himself in.

I should check if it is intelligent or just a cleverly disguised machine, he thought while looking for something to write with.

I just need a pen and paper to draw a right triangle, he thought looking at the desk. It had books and paper on it, but no pen.

Origami it has to be then, he through reaching out to the desk.

Ed screamed at what he saw, collapsing back onto the bed.

His heart pounded and he felt faint. His arm was not his own. It had been replaced with some kind of animal leg.

This must be a dream, his fearful mind tried to reason.

But if it is one; why can't I awaken? What if I am dead and this is some kind of afterlife? his panicked mind thought as his felt his heart pounding the blood through his ears.

The white unicorn turned to face him.

"You have finally awakened," it said to him in English.

Ed's mind raced to try to figure out what was happening. "What is going on?" Ed stammered, unsure of how it could speak.

"You have been in a coma," it replied.

"What happened to me? How are you able to speak English? Who are you? Where are we and how did I get here?" Ed yelled with fear in his voice.

"My name is Princess Celestia and I would like to welcome you to Equestria," she said, speaking the words like they had been rehearsed many times.

"Where is this Equestria?" Ed replied, curiosity replacing the fear in his voice.

"If I understand this correctly, we are at the place you call Geb," she answered him.

"If this is Geb then why the sun symbol? There shouldn't be a visible sun on Geb?" his mind questioned.

"Wait, if this is Geb, how did I get here?" he inquired as he pulled his body up once again.

"You arrived in metal cone, which fell from the sky. I think it is called a sky capsule," she replied seemingly unsure of what she was saying.

"I arrived in the Xenon, a space capsule. Okay, then what happened to me?" he said in disbelief.

Celestia attempted to explain as well as she could, "You were injured by the crash and I could not heal your injuries. You would have died. I copied your mind. I repaired it, as best as I was able. I then transferred it into a new body."

"So I am a copy of the original, Edward Smith?" Ed desperately asked.

"Yes," she answered.

Edward's mind was in shock. I did die. I was not myself, but a copy. There was still hope for my friends. However there was a more important problem, which I must make sure Celestia understood. The capsule's containment had been broken, exposing Geb's biosphere to contamination.

He knew what he must tell her. "Celestia, this is important. When you opened the capsule's door, you exposed your planet's biosphere to contamination with pathogens from Earth. Do you understand this?" Ed asked urgently.

"I do not understand," she spoke.

Ed exhaled and wrinkled his brow, thinking how to better state the danger. "There is a danger to Equestria. Possible illness has been let into Equestria. Do you understand now?" Ed explained again.

"I understand now. What should we do about this danger?" Celestia replied.

Ed had been watching her face, he couldn't tell for sure most of the expressions were. But this one he knew well and it filled him with dread, fear. She hadn't known about the danger of forward contamination until I told her. That meant I was the first person from Earth to speak to her.

Am I alone? Are my friends dead? I must contact Earth The final thought filled him with a new drive.

We must contact Earth his mind yelled. But first he had more questions.

"I need to ask you some questions first to determine the best course of action," Ed stated.

Ed started his next question, "Are my fri—". He stopped himself, Friendship may be an alien concept to the alien.

He rephrased the question and asked, "What happened to the others I was traveling with?"

"Both of the others are dead. They were in worse condition than yourself. It was not within my abilities to repair them," she said to him.

Ed had never felt this alone before. He was trapped. His friends were dead. This world may be doomed. In his despair he wondered, "Was this my fault?"

My only hope lay in contacting Earth. I had to get to the base soon, but not before finding out what was going on.

"Okay, can you tell me how you learned to speak my language, English?" Ed asked.

Celestia's brow furrowed and she glanced away.

She did not know how to explain it using a language they could both understand He tried to find something to help her explain. He remembered something from earlier and asked, "You said earlier that you copied and repaired my mind. Do your language skills come from that?"

Celestia thought for a moment more before she seemed to understand. Finally answering, "I think so. Your mind was so alien, but similar. I attempted to perceive your memories. They were too strange for me to understand completely, but I tried. From what I understand, this is how I learned about your language."

Ed was intrigued by this reply. Silently thinking, "How could an alien mind be not completely alien?" He devised another question.

He asked, "Did you learn anything else about myself or my home?"

An uneasiness crept through her as she tried to recall what she learned. "You came from a place called Earth. There is only one intelligent kind of creature from that world. You are in the military of a world that has mostly know mostly peace for years. You have machines that allow you to travel very quickly," she replied, unsure of her accuracy.

"Wait, do you mean that there is more than one intelligent species here?" Ed yelled in excitement. This was something completely unexpected, I had to know.

"Yes, there are different nations composed of different species," Celestia easily replied.

Ed was amazed. Simultaneous evolution of multiple species of an intelligence capable of forming civilizations was something that I thought could never appear in nature. But this also had a darker side, I was placed on a side of what could possibly be an extremely dangerous conflict. Celestia had placed me on the side of these horses before I could learn the truth about every side for myself. She biased me and in turn humanity into helping her and her species. I had to make sure to avoid falling into this trap.

Ed believed he knew enough about the situation to try to explain how he could go about improving it. He spoke, "Okay, I think I understand the situation enough to be able to help you. I need to use machines in the research base we placed here before I arrived. Can you take me there?"

Celestia seemed to almost smile before speaking, "I will be able to bring someone to help you tomorrow. He will be able to help you travel to this base you speak of."

Ed satisfied for now replied, "Thank you, is there anything else you wanted to tell me?"

"I almost forgot; I was distracted by your awakening. I prepared these books for you to help you understand this place," she said as she gestured to the stack on the table with her head.

"Thank you, may tomorrow bring a better day," Ed said. He attempted to extend his hand in a handshake. Before he saw he no longer had hands and retracted it.

I won't get use to this soon Silently hoping for it to be true.

"I have other duties and must leave now. I will return tomorrow with assistance for you," she said as she turned for the door. The door opened and closed without her making contact with it.

"Who puts an automatic door in a bedroom?" Ed mumbled to himself.

Time to look at these books He managed to awkwardly pick up the book from the top of the stack and drop it next to him on the bed.

He was about to open it when he remembered something. This may be a trap. She may have designed these books to brainwash me into betraying my duty to humanity

He knew that his curiosity will get the better of him eventually, no matter what he did now. He would have to mentally reinforce his loyalty. "You are human, Earth is your home, protect your home," Ed silently repeated to himself.

He opened the book. The first page had his name written on the top. Bellow his name something else was written, but in a strange script. He couldn't understand it. He turned to the next page. This page had English sentences and what he assumed to be a translation into Equestrian below it. Turning the page again, he found a diagram. It seemed to be describing the sounds used in Equestrian speech.

This will take weeks, even months to understand Not that he was deterred. He continued to study the book.

Author's Note

Hopefully I got the mixture of curiosity, fear and confusion down right. Any comments or concerns?