On the edge of what many like to call "civilized space" the endless path of a small green planet around its distant primary star was interrupted by an abrupt flash of light that vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind a minute (cosmologically speaking) speck that could easily be missed by anyone on the planet observing the phenomenon through one of their primitive optical telescopes. But then the small dot started to glow and moved, slowly at first but rapidly picking up speed, towards that verdant unspoiled world. Certain natives of the planet did indeed notice this bizarre new oddity, the greatest minds available calculated where it would come down and the ruler of the greatest nation on the world dispatched her most trusted agents to investigate.
"Remind me why we have to walk all this way just to see some dumb meteor." Spike the baby dragon was complaining yet again as he, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity trudged across the plains outside Ponyville while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew just overhead. More than a few of whom were currently rolling their eyes at him.
"Because, for the tenth time," Twilight replied, quite visibly annoyed. "It is not a meteor, we initially thought it was when I first spotted it but it started slowing down as it approached. Then it just stopped about four miles above Ponyville." Then she glared at Spike for forgetting this most important bit, "it has to be some sort of giant airship, but we don't know who sent it and the Princess wants us to check it out."
"Not to interrupt," Rainbow Dash interjected, "but something just flew out of that meteor or airship or whatever." She darted off into the distance before Twilight could tell her otherwise.
Streaking away from the hovering starship was a small open-topped flyer suspended by an anti-gravity field and occupied by a motley bunch of human spaces.
"Jarrek!" He yelled over the wind, "can't you fly a little slower, it's hard to spot anything at this speed!"
The pilot glanced sideways at him and grabbed his shirt with his prosthetic right arm. "Chad, I'm the one here with experience dealing with uncontacted primitives, or have you forgotten how I got this shiny thing in the first place. I'm not letting any of the natives see us until we're ready."
"Yes", a gruff voice retorted from behind them, "you have told us several times how some alien farmer amputated your arm with a farming implement. But you are right, the Imperial databases were astonishingly scarce on the topic of the quarantined border worlds, they might have a habit of eating visitors for all we know, hence my battle dress and plasgun."
"Astor, why do you think I let that big clunky suit of yours strain the raft's grav units?" He moved both hands back to the steering assembly and eased off the throttle slightly. Then he noticed an odd rainbow-colored streak moving towards them at high speed. "Hey Chad, what do you make of..."
He didn't get to finish his sentence before a four-foot tall blue quadruped landed on the hood of the air/raft. Jarrek noticed that it had a short mane running down its neck that was the same colors as the streak that he had just spotted, as well as the fact that it appeared to be covered with cyan fur everywhere except the pair of small wings attached to its shoulders, which had feathers. Reflexively the ex-marine in the back seat swung his Plasma Gun, Man Portable to bear against the newcomer. The alien creature stared at the 20 pound chunk of advanced military hardware then turned its head to look at the side, then it began producing a rapid series of high pitched sounds.
LANGUAGE DETECTED, Jarrek saw the letter scroll across his field of vision as his neural comm picked up something in the creature's rapid chattering, TRANSLATION PROGRAM INITIATED, MORE INPUT REQUIRED. He held up a hand staying Astor's itchy trigger fingers, "hold up, my hardware thinks it's talking." Then a warning started to blare on the air/raft's control panel, their weight capacity, already strained by the heavily armored being in the back, was now exceeded and they would be unable to maintain altitude much longer. The alien turned towards the blinking red light too and started speaking again, the best the translator could come up with was "#### the #### is ####?" Frantically Jarrek tried to explain, "Too, heavy," he gestured downwards in an attempt to make it understand, "need to land."
The alien said something along the lines of "Okay, see you ######, I ### ###### ########" and flew off. Jarrek took the raft further down towards the ground, expecting more of these bizarre creatures to arrive.
Twilight and her friends raced towards the place where Rainbow Dash had said the newcomers would be landing. She found it hard to believe what the cyan pegasus had told her, giant hairless monkeys on a flying metal raft? Then again considering some of the other things they had seen in Equestria these newcomers weren't really that bizarre. What she was really interested in was where they had come from, and how they had been able to make something that big fly without a balloon.
"There, just over that hill!" Rainbow Dash called flying above them. As the other ponies rounded the grassy knoll they finally caught sight of the strange visitors.
"Oh, my," Rarity recoiled slightly at the sight of the scruffy aliens, "that armor is so ugly, however can he stand to wear it?"
Twilight turned to face her, "How do you know he's actually wearing armor, he could be a golem, or a clockwork automaton, or even an elemental life form of steel?" Then the one who seemed to be the leader shouted something unintelligible to the armored being, in response the metal man unfastened his helmet one-handed and revealed plain old flesh underneath.
"I should say that I have decorated enough suits of armor to recognize one when I see it."
Twilight cautiously approached the strangers, Fluttershy sheepishly slunk lower to the ground, Rainbow Dash flew up and landed on the grounded craft, Applejack drew up closer to Twilight defensively, Rarity measured up the other two aliens, Pinkie Pie popped up in their faces and threw streamers and confetti. "Yaaayyy!" Pinkie yelled loudly, "We should have a 'Welcome-to-Equestria' party we need to get balloons, and hats, and cake, do you like cake? Of course you do, everybody likes cake I'll go and bake some."
"PINKIE PIE!" Twilight screamed before the hyperactive pink pony could do anything else to make this first contact situation worse. "We don't know who these strangers are, I've never heard of creatures like them and according to Rainbow Dash they don't even speak Equine very well." She looked back at the aliens who were standing there flabbergasted all covered with party decorations, speaking slowly and clearly she addressed them, "I. Am. Sorry. About. Pinkie Pie. She is a little crazy at times. I am Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends Rainbow Dash, who I think you have already met, Applejack, Rarity, Spike, and back there is Fluttershy." She paused a second, unsure if they even understood what she was saying.
The one with the gaunt black arm who had ordered the armored one to show he was like the rest of them was the first to speak, in a growling raspy voice that seemed somewhat unsure of his words, "I am Jarrek" He gestured with his right forelimb which Twilight noticed was covered in gleaming black metal, "these are Chad and Astor, we're humans." He thought for a second then added "Astor is a little crazy at times." Twilight could see that the large pony-like creature was visibly shaking, his fingers twitching around a small ring on the large blocky thing he was carrying in both arms, it looked a bit like a small cannon now that she got a good look at it. She also noticed that they hadn't used many words that she had not told them already.
Perhaps they had some means of learning a language as they heard it, if so she needed to keep talking if they were to know much of anything about the travelers. "We saw your air-ship before," she pointed with one hoof in the general direction of the ship she had spotted earlier, "it looks like you came from another planet. Where did you come from and why did you travel so far?"
Jarrek pulled a flat white rectangle out of his long coat and pressed a stud on one end. The side facing Twilight suddenly lit up showing a stylized yellow sun logo. With his flesh hand he drew a short stick out of the side of the device and tapped the sun with it, tracing a circle around the edge of the symbol. Immediately it changed to a picture of the ground below, then it started to zoom outwards showing the land around them getting smaller and smaller until the sphere of the planet was visible, then it kept going until the moon could be seen next to the planet, then it continued revealing the sun and didn't stop there. The device finally stopped when the sun was just one of several large dots in a cluster, then a green line inched from one of the nearest dots towards the dot that was Celestia's charge.
"You are from one of the stars?!" Twilight Sparkle couldn't help herself. "That must mean Coponycus' theories were right and that Celestia's sun is just one star that happens to be closest to us. This is amazing, your very presence will shake the Equestrian scientific community..."
"Hey cool, what else can that do?" Spike grabbed the tablet from the human's metallic claws and started to poke at it before the alien could do anything.
"Spike! Give that back to him, it isn't yours." Twilight pulled the device from the baby dragon's claws with her telekinesis and floated it back towards Jarrek. "Sorry about that, it's just he's a baby dragon and has some trouble recognizing other pony's, I mean people's property."
Jarrek visibly recoiled at the sight of his tablet floating in mid-air. "He can have it, I have others." As the tablet floated back to Spike he relaxed enough to ask "How did you do that?"
"What, magic? Every unicorn can do that." She realized that many species didn't have magic, or used an altogether different form like pegasi and their flight abilities or Spike's dragon flame. "I mean, telekinesis that is, that's how I levitated the thing, all unicorns can do that but I can do a couple other things with magic." Suddenly she heard a loud popping sound and turned to see Spike, he had apparently punctured the tablet with his claw and now looked like he had been hit with a lightning spell. She groaned loudly and rolled her eyes at him, noting that the stick Jarrek had used to manipulate the device was still in his hand.
Spike snapped out of it quickly and surveyed the damage. "Ah man," he sighed as he realized that he had already broken his new toy. "Hey, you said you have more of these right?" Jarrek pulled a red tablet out of his jacket, then put it back and closed the front of his coat before Spike could grab it. "Oh come on, I'll give you one of my gems for it." Spike pulled out a small finger-sized amethyst.
The three aliens' eyes grew wide at the sight of the gemstone in the dragon's claw. Jarrek tapped Astor and Chad's shoulders and they turned around and said something in their own language. After about five minutes Jarrek faced Spike again, "I don't suppose you have anything bigger than that?"
Six months later
Things in Equestria had changed a lot in the past half a year. The rich and famous all had off-world artifacts, foals in some schools were taught that the stars were other suns ruled by the Third Imperium, which was mostly inhabited by hairless two-legged primates known as "Humaniti" but they shared space with many other species such as the lupine Vargr, equine K'kree, leonine Aslan, insectoid Droyne, and the Hivers, whom nopony seemed to have any idea of what to compare them to. There was no small bit of shock that Equestria wasn't the center of the universe, but after Princess Celestia pointed out that she had never claimed her sun to be the only one in existence all but the most stubborn ponies came to accept this newfound fact. The first time the traders had come they only brought a dozen handcomps like the one Spike had received, plus a few hundred flashlights, radios, power tools, and portable solar panels to power them. When they returned three months later they had brought thousands of manufactured and electronic goods to exchange for several tons of gemstones and a dozen jars of zap apple jam, many ponies were excited to see how many new wonders the free traders had this time.
Still, some ponies had grown suspicious of the travelers' motives, and with good reason it would turn out.
The interstellar trade ship Fortuitous Salvage was parked in a specially built airfield outside of Ponyville while the owners held an auction nearby for the crates of goods that the natives could not hope to produce for centuries to several of Equestria's richest merchants. Meanwhile the bearers of the Elements of Harmony were trotting closer to the ship itself, they wanted to have a chat with some of the aliens. One of them, the one known as Chad, was loading up a ground vehicle with agricultural equipment, the Apple family had requested some Imperium tech to help them produce more of the Zap Apple jam that the traders were so interested in, including a tractor that was being towed behind the Salvage's ATV. He looked up as the six mares approached, hurriedly he pulled out his commlink and said something in Galanglic, the Imperium's official language, which the comm's translation program converted to Equine in flat mechanical tones. "You here for the plows and the tractor? Relax, I will get it to your farm in a couple hours. We agreed on forty gallons of cider and two dozen jars of jam right?"
"Well, yuh see, that's the problem," Applejack started, "mah brother Big Macintosh was thinking that y'all were trading us quite a bit of your fancy Imperial technology for so little. He did some of those fancy mathematics of his and told me that the gems and jam we gave y'all last time were worth less than our farm makes in a month. Whereas just a couple of those "handcomps" is worth enough to keep Sweet Apple Acres running for half a year."
Chad looked stupefied at her for half a minute before finally coming up with a response, "Sorry, couldn't get all that, the translator has some trouble with your dialect."
"She said she cannot see how you manage to make a profit." Twilight Sparkle interjected, speaking in plain Galanglic.
Chad looked even more shocked at this, "did you just..."
"Speak Galanglic, yes, a few of your handcomps had language tutors on them."
"But those are supposed to take months to learn."
"I'm a fast learner, now are you going to answer our question?"
The human grimaced and started to look a bit flustered, "well, you see, sometimes a product or natural resource is more plentiful in one area than another, and is thus is considerably more expensive in the area without a lot of it. We free traders make a living buying from the areas where it is cheaper and sell where it is expensive."
"Cheaper? You don't say." Rarity drew her own handcomp from her saddlebag and showed the backing to the alien merchant standing in front of her. Clearly visible in the lower left corner of the purple tablet was a white rectangular sticker, reading a barcode and the characters "Cr. 10."
"Look, do you have any idea how much a starship costs these days?" Jarrek, Chad, and Astor had all been gathered into the Ponyville library that served as Twilight's house, being the closest place that they could all speak in private besides the ship. And the Bearers did not particularly trust these three in a place so unfamiliar to the six of them. Jarrek was attempting to explain to the now pissed off natives gathered before them why they had charged such exorbitant prices for what were apparently cheap trinkets. "We've gathered that the digital libraries we sold you gave you an approximation of how much the Imperial credit is worth, did they give you an idea how much our ship is worth?"
Nopony gave an answer immediately, there had been little to no factual information in the handcomps about starships, all that they did know was that one credit was enough to cover the cost of transporting one tiny gram one jump, which certainly explained how they were able to profit off the thousands of credits worth of gems. Pinkie Pie started jumping up and down excitedly holding up her right forehoof.
"Ooh, ooh, I think I have an idea!"
Remembering how often Pinkie seemed to know obscure things for no apparent reason Twilight decided to let her speak her mind. "In Megacorp Tycoon a Jayhawk-class Far Trader like theirs costs 5000 kay-see-arr."
Everypony and everyone else in the room groaned loudly, she was talking about one of the games that had been included with the computers.
"They're called kilocredits not 'kay-see-arr' you silly pink pony." Chad spoke up finally. "As in one thousand credits. And actually it's only an order of magnitude off, our ship is worth about 51,000 kilocredits."
"Fifty-one million credits!" Twilight had managed to learn the metric system of measurement used throughout the Imperium long before she had figured out the majority of their language. "That's enough to buy Ponyville, how in Tartarus did you manage to afford something that expensive?"
"We took out a massive bank loan, that's how." Jarek answered rather emphatically. "Every month for the next 50 years we agreed to send the Crescent Planetary Bank 212,000 credits. Maintenance on a 200-ton ship and just keeping the crew fed adds about a couple dozen more kilocreds to the bill. You try making that much of a monthly profit hauling ore."
"Oh yeah?" Rainbow Dash decided to chime in, "well I bet that we could do that. In fact I bet that we could make 20% more than you could without cheating."
Chad snorted loudly, "dream on you pastel-colored pony. You're kind of stuck here on this rock while we're parsecs away."
"Actually," Twilight had been waiting for this moment, "when we told Princess Celestia what you were up to she had this idea." Suddenly a loud crack was heard outside the library, followed by a crashing sound near the second floor balcony. The assorted ponies, humans, and dragon rushed upstairs to see what it was.
There, standing daintily on the branches just next to the window, was a pure white mare as tall from forehoof to shoulder as one of the humans was foot to head (if they hadn't been bending down to stand in the pony-sized room), with wings the envy of any pegasus and a horn many times longer than most unicorns. Wearing a gold tiara and torc with matching amethysts. "Hello, my most faithful student," she said addressing Twilight Sparkle, "I thought that they might be more inclined to play along if I told them myself." She eyed the three humans trying to squeeze in among the six ponies on the balcony, seeing how crammed in they were she decided to lift them up with her telekinesis and set them down on the branches next to her. "Fight then, Jarek, Astor, Chad. Free traders of the Third Imperium of Humaniti. I, Princess Celestia, diarch of the sovereign kingdom of Equestria and Princess of the sun, find you guilty of ten thousand counts of price-gouging." When she saw the expression of shock on their faces she couldn't help but giggle a little, "got ya." She turned back to her more serious expression and continued, "that's not really a crime, but it got your attention, maybe I could enact some kind of tariff on off-world technology though, does half the contents of your ship sound good?"
"Cut to the chase Princess," Astor surprised everypony present by shouting out to the near-deific alien ruler holding him suspended by her own telekinesis. "Your 'student' or whatever she is said you had an idea, you're just randomly spouting stuff you came up with on the spot."
Celestia let him drop a couple meters before grabbing him again, she decided to leave him there floating helplessly just off the ground before answering.
"Evidently the Imperial Marines aren't taught 'tact' in basic training." She faced the other two humans before her and stared down at them for several seconds, once they were unsettled to her liking she spoke again. "But yes he has a point, bluntly stated as it was, it occurs to me that we know practically nothing about the universe at large. Something that you three have chosen to take advantage of." Jarek and Chad nodded nervously as the big magic-using talking horse continued to stare at them accusingly. "To remedy this situation I have decided that you shall be taking some trusted representatives of mine with you when you return to the Imperium so that they may learn about interstellar society firsthoof. Specifically Twilight Sparkle and her friends here."
"What?!" Jarrek, Astor, Chad, Spike and Pinkie Pie all exclaimed simultaneously. Everypony turned to stare at Spike and Pinkie, especially Pinkie as she'd already been told of the plan weeks ago. But they quickly decided to dismiss is as yet another of the cotton candy pink mare's eccentricities as Chad quickly spoke up again. "We can't bring them to Imperial space!"
"Oh, and why not?" the princess seemed to be toying with them at this point. "After all those subjects of mine that you have allowed to visit your ship have told me you have enough staterooms on board that vessel of yours to carry all seven of them. It's not like the Imperium has laws against informing less advanced species of their society now do they?"
He looked a bit flustered at that statement, like he couldn't tell what to say to that. He started to open his mouth but at a dirty look from his captain reconsidered. Jarrek answered for him, "magic, your highness. Some centuries ago the Imperium fought a war with a race that could do some things a bit like your horned subjects could and since then most Imperial citizens have been rather wary of anyone with that sort of ability."
"The Frontier wars." Twilight recognized this from one of the history books stored on the handcomps she owned. "The Zhodani Consulate's Noble and Intendant castes have psionic abilities that resemble magic in some ways, namely telekinesis and teleportation. But they maintain their totalitarian rule using a power that allows them to read another's thoughts, we don't have any spells like that."
"I'm sure my little ponies will be able to overcome any prejudices they might encounter in the galaxy at large." Celestia wasn't about to let these free traders maintain the upper hand they had over her kingdom simply by being the sole contact they had with an empire that dwarfed them a thousandfold. "You can take my student and her friends to the Imperium or I will inform everypony on the planet that you have been lying to us. You will never see another Equestrian jewel again in your short little lives."
They realized they had no choice then, in the six months since they had first come to this planet they had cut two years worth of payments off their debt. "Fine, we leave tomorrow at noon, don't be late."
Two hundred displaced tons of crystaliron soared across the skies of Equestria, on board were the first six ponies (and dragon) to go into space since Princess Luna had returned home a couple years ago. Despite the crew's attempts to quietly leave before anypony could notice, the seven had come five hours early with a crowd of journalists and well-wishers to see them off, they had no choice but to let them aboard. They were confined to their staterooms and the galley for most of the week-long trip to the nearest Imperium-controlled star, if it weren't for the captain's announcements they wouldn't have even noticed the transitions into and out of jump space. The ship docked at an asteroid colony in the system to refuel before jumping again. While their passengers stayed aboard at their recommendation that they'd attract too much attention at a crowded station like this, the crew went ashore to unwind a bit before figuring out how to deal with their unpleasant situation.
"I can't believe we agreed to take them." Chad was on his third stiff drink by then at the starport cantina. "You know we're going to be caught now."
"Don't worry about it." Jarrek was considerably less drunk than his co-pilot at the moment. "We just keep them locked up until we make it to Crescent, there's a lot of non-humans there they'll be lost in the crowds. We just need to keep them from blabbing to everyone that they're from a Red Zone and we can get them an apartment or something with net access. They can explore one of the most advanced planets in the sector on their own while we make plans to set up shop somewhere on the other side of charted space. And besides, the TL 5 rule is really more of a recommendation, the laws on first contact state that they just need to have a scientific worldview that allows for the possibility of life on other planets."
"For crying out loud, they think that their sun is moved around by a big horse who has both wings and a horn!" Chad yelled drunkenly at his captain, knocking over his glass and spilling booze all over the table. "They've barely got steam power, that's what, TL 3? How could we possibly convince the IISS that we're innocent?"
"Hey, seeing that Princess of theirs first hand, I'm half inclined to believe that magic horn of hers can move the sun too." Astor had only been half listening to his shipmates' conversation, too busy watching the doors. "Anyways it looks like we've got some company, a couple Scouts in flak jackets and four Ministry of Justice goons just came in. You want to bet they're here for us?"
Jarrek and Chad turned to look at the Imperial Officials that had just walked through the double doors at the front, sure enough there were two men whose jackets bore the red sun of the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service along with a quartet of armored interstellar police carrying stunners. While these outposts attracted no shortage of criminal activity there wasn't much that could get the Scouts involved, the odds did not look good. "Any other exits?" Jarrek asked the ex-marine.
"There's a back door by the 'freshers, we might be able to slip out quietly before they get to us."
"Too risky, can we take them in a fight?"
"Doubtful, without armor that gauss pistol of yours could probably take three of them while I could waste one or two with my revolver and Chad might stun someone but it looks like they came prepared."
"Damnit, probably pulled my service record, they'd expect me to keep a memento or two from my time in the Scouts. Would also know that I have a history of trying this kind of crap with ignorant natives too."
"You were in the Scouts Jarrek?" Chad blurted out while the other two had been whispering. The Scout standing nearest to their table started towards them.
"He was," the Intelligence officer stated as he approached, "know how he lost that arm of his? He was trying to impress this six-armed dirt farmer with some pretty lights and the poor thing panicked and attacked him with a shovel." He stepped up to the table and leaned over it, looking straight into the ex-Scout's eyes. "Now tell me Jarrek Swardsleck, did you learn anything from the loss of your right arm and your commission, or did you get those jars of fruit jam that the best geneticists in 20 parsecs couldn't identify from someplace that you shouldn't have been? Wonder what else our team will find in that scrapheap of yours."
There was a collective gasp of shock and horror around the table at that little bar on a backwater asteroid. Then they went for their side arms and all Tartarus broke loose.
"Bored, so freaking bored here." Rainbow Dash was sprawled on the countertop of the passenger's common area of the Fortuitous Salvage while the others were all waiting for the three humans to return. "We're stuck in here a week and we finally get somewhere, now they tell us we have to stay in here a few days before another week in space?"
"They said the people here might not like us." Fluttershy squeaked nervously. "I would rather not go out there if they don't want us out there."
"Oh, puh-leeze. They've lied to us before." Rainbow Dash rolled over and stood up defiantly. "I'll bet they're out having fun while we sit here and be bored."
"Fun, you mean they might be having a party without us?" Pinkie Pie looked up from the life-support algae and protein powder she and Applejack were trying to make into muffins. "We need to go out there and go to that party!" She exclaimed pointing emphatically towards the airlock's inner door.
Twilight looked up from the computer terminal she was using to read the ship's technical manual. "We can't, the airlock has a biometric fingerprint and iris scanner. Only the crew can open that door." Suddenly a loud clanging sound emanated from the far side of the lock. "And I'm guessing that's them now anyways."
All six ponies turned to look at the inner door but it did not open, instead there came a loud hissing sound followed by a crackling flame and possibly searing metal being split. "That don't sound like that door opening normally." Applejack chimed in.
Suddenly the airlock swung open and two troopers in full combat armor burst in carrying shotguns. They looked around, saw the scared looking pastel ponies in front of them and lowered their weapons slightly. One of them raised a hand and spoke into his radio. "Breacher team to HQ, we've broken into the suspect ship and have found what appears to be some sort of exotic livestock in the passenger compartment."
"Livestock?!" Rarity, one of the few who had achieved near-fluency in Anglic exclaimed loudly and disbelievingly. "You ruffians barge in here and dare to call us 'livestock'?"
"Sorry," the embarrassed Ministry of Justice enforcement officer apologized quickly before turning back to his commlink. "HQ, make that six sophonts of unknown species."
Interdiction and Opportunity
Transcript of interview between xenosophont "Twilight Sparkle" and IISS agent Jamison Barrowman
(Sound of rustling papers)
Male voice: "So, Twilight Sparkle is it?"
Female voice, presumably Twilight Sparkle: "That is my name, yes."
Male: "You speak Galanglic rather well for a species from a Red Zone."
Twilight Sparkle: "Those traders gave me a computer with a language tutorial program seven months ago. I learn fast."
Male: "Apparently so. Well, my name is agent Jamison Barrowman and I'm just here to ask you some questions."
Twilight: "What kind of questions?"
Agent: "For instance, 'what did they tell you about the Third Imperium's policies concerning contact with less technologically advanced civilizations?'"
Twilight: "I know that due to its sheer size there are many different planets in the Imperium with widely different technology levels, why should we be any different? Is it because we're not a member of the empire or something?"
Agent: "It's not so much that you're not a member as the reason why your homeworld is not ."
Twilight: "What do you mean."
Agent: "What kind of things did Jarrek and company trade with your people?"
Twilight: "A few handcomps, some farm equipment and ethanol-powered ground vehicles. We gave them several metric tons of gemstones and some food items in exchange. We found out eventually that the handcomps were worth only ten credits on their planet of manufacture and that we had been giving them a couple thousand credits worth of gems for each one. Being brought out into space was pretty much the price they paid for our silence."
Agent: "Yes well, the scam they pulled was rather tame compared to what some other miscreants have done to low-tech civilizations. You're lucky you weren't enslaved. For that reason the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service normally interdicts planets with TLs of less than five, what do you think your society is?"
Twilight: "To be honest I doubt we're even TL 4. We have lighter-than-air ships, steam power, and telegraphs but they're not too widespread. Why TL 5?"
Agent: "We have found that many species lack the scientific worldview necessary to understand the concept of life on other planets before they achieve TL 5. Though we sometimes allow limited trade with less-advanced species, generally involving tech no more than two levels above that which they have developed on their own."
Twilight: "Scientific worldview? You mean like how the sun is a star and many stars have their own inhabited planets?"
Agent: "That is part of it. How prevalent was this theory in Equestria before the traders arrived?"
Twilight: "To be honest many ponies thought the astronomer who suggested it was crazy. But Princess Celestia didn't say anything in regards to whether he was right or wrong until Jarrek and co. pretty much confirmed it. Of course our sun orbits our planet while they said the reverse is true in most cases so that may have made it more difficult for us to accept that other inhabited planets could exist."
Agent: "What was that about your Sun?"
Twilight: "Well, Jarrek told me that in most cases several planets orbit a star and rotate slowly as they go so that it looks like the sun is rising and setting every day. But we know that on Equestria the sun is moved by Princess Celestia."
Final assessment, geocentric view indicates that Equestrian civilization is not yet ready for official first contact. Recommendation, armed Interdiction of star system 006283730607 for a minimum of 100 standard years.
Two days after the free traders had been captured the Fortuitous Salvage once again found itself in jump, this time not under its own power but in the hold of an IISS carrier. In an attempt to limit their exposure to interstellar civilization the ship was also serving as a holding cell for the seven extraterrestrials, six somewhat equine, one reptilian, who had recently escaped the bonds of their primitive homeworld's gravity with the help of some interstellar scam artists. Now they faced an entirely different problem.
"I'm going crazy here!" Rainbow Dash yelled down from her perch on the ceiling. "The walls are closing in, there's nothing we can do!"
"It's only going to be another week," Applejack said looking upwards at the apparently somewhat claustrophobic pegasus now pacing across the ceiling upside down. "They said they'll let us out once we get to Crescent, wherever that is."
"We were just stuck here for an entire week, I can't do that again. It's too soon!"
Twilight looked up from the book on astrogation she was currently reading. "Look, if you're bored you can just read like the rest of us."
"I can't read those things, they're all written in that weird alien language they use."
" I'm actually starting to get bored too Twilight, how could they stand these week-long jumps?" Applejack added. "Maybe they had some movies or something in their part of the ship, we could use our translator thingies then couldn't we?"
"Movies? They have movies?" Pinkie Pie popped up out of the storage cupboard across the common room. "Let's go girls!" She yelled as she zoomed out and through the hatch to the lower deck where the crew quarters were.
"I thought that door was locked." Twilight commented as she walked cautiously out to the staircase behind the biometrically secured hatchway. The others followed close behind. After five minutes of negotiating the tight-spiral stairs with four legs they came out into another hallway. Ahead of them was a heavy sealed door marked "Cargo", to their left a stateroom like the one's upstairs and a hatchway with a large skull and two crossed bones painted on it, to the right another hatch. On the near wall they could just make out the frames of two more doors, couldn't see any identifying marks though.
"Let's see what's in cargo why don't we?"
The cargo bay door opened easily onto the biggest open space they had found yet on the ship, filled almost entirely with large metal crates. "Bummer," said Rainbow Dash as she scanned the room, "all this space and no room to fly because of all these stupid boxes here."
"Stupid?" Rarity objected. "You realize that they are probably full of those jewels we gave those criminals?" She opened the nearest crate and levitated out a collection of assorted gemstones and packing material. Spike's eyes lit up immediately and he lunged for the floating gems.
Twilight interjected as the young dragon began stuffing valuable jewels in his mouth, "Spike, we might need those! They're apparently really valuable here."
"Oh come on Twilight." Spike said through a mouthful of gems, "we have tons of them."
Suddenly they heard an airlock door slide open from back in the hall. Everypony turned around to look back and saw Pinkie Pie poking her head in. "Hey girls! Look what I found!" They followed her past the stateroom they'd seen earlier, towards the hatch with the skull symbol, then turned to the left. They saw an open doorway framed by rubber seals, and beyond a room filled with chairs facing desks built into the walls that they identified as computer terminals. On the far side of the room the wall was transparent and they could see the launch bay of the carrier. "Isn't this cool? Look at all these buttons." Pinkie started mashing buttons on the consoles as assorted images scrolled across the monitors.
"System locked." A synthetic voice stated flatly when Pinkie pressed a large button marked M-Drive ignition. She pressed it again, "system locked".
"Hey, mister spaceship can talk. What's he saying Twilight?"
"It's saying that the system is locked, not sure how. And I'm pretty sure it's just an automated system, not a pony."
"I wonder what else can make him talk?" Pinkie Pie started mashing more buttons to various responses of "system locked", "cannot comply", and "inapplicable". Then the view of the hanger outside was replaced by that of a city. "Simulation mode engaged" the computer stated.
"Whoa nelly, what did you do Pinkie?" Applejack said surprised at the change in scenery. "You have any idea what happened Twilight?"
Twilight pulled out her personal handcomp and brought up the dictionary, "Simulation: an imitation of the operation of a real-world process over time. Usually via computation." Seeing Applejack's confusion she attempted to explain using simpler words, "basically it's fake, kind of like one of those games on the comps."
"Well, a game, at least that's something." Rainbow Dash flew into the bridge section and started looking for controls. "Think this thingie is how you play?" She grabbed a half-wheel attached to a column sticking out of the floor by the console closest to the viewport. As her grasping toe1 hooked onto the wheel and pulled it towards her the image turned as if the ship were rotating. "Guess it is. All right, let's see if I can make this fly." Rainbow Dash jumped into the seat and started pushing buttons and turning the control column, she managed to get the simulation off the ground easily but couldn't make it move forward. "Hey Twilight, any idea how to make this thing really move?"
Twilight looked at the console, there were dozens of buttons and indicators all labeled in Anglic, but having not read anything about how to operate a spaceship she didn't really have any idea what to look for. Eventually she came across a lever with several numbers ranging from -100 to 10,000 along the side, it was currently at "0". "Uh, maybe this one?"
"Thanks," Rainbow Dash grabbed the lever and pushed it all the way forward, the simulation zoomed ahead at break-neck speed, right through several skyscrapers. The image was replaced by a black screen with the words SIMULATION FAILED in bright red and beneath that the sentences "try again?" and "choose another sim". "Okay, that didn't really work that well, any idea how I can try that again?"
"Maybe if you learned to read Galanglic you wouldn't need to ask me everything." Twilight found a track-ball and managed to use it to select "try again" on the screen, the image instantly reset. This time Rainbow Dash managed to level off the throttle before crashing into anything. Shortly a series of brackets appeared on the screen appearing to lead upwards, Rainbow Dash assumed that the goal was to fly through them and began to do so. As she went further up it became harder and harder to climb in altitude so she increased speed until eventually the simulated vessel escaped atmosphere. The seven friends had seen space before, briefly, through the viewports of their staterooms as they had left Equestria and precipitated out of jumpspace, but now they had a complete and unrestricted view and they couldn't help themselves from staring.
"All right now, let's see what else is out there." Rainbow Dash turned the ship away from the planet and pushed the throttle out all the way. A number of small boxes tagged with numbers appeared on the screen, the numbers counting down and the boxes moving towards the sides of the ship the only indication that anything was happening. Then suddenly one started going in the opposite direction, right in their path. "What the heck is that?"
"I don't know," Twilight honestly couldn't tell what it was from her limited knowledge of starship operation. "But I think those numbers might be distance and they're going down, it's getting closer!" Twilight yelled as she jumped under a desk.
Rainbow Dash remained behind the stick as the rest all dove for cover, "relax guys, I can just move out of the way long before we hit it." She pulled back and the incoming box slid downwards. "And besides it's just a game anyways." Suddenly a bright flash of light filled the screen, followed by the blank image seen earlier when they had crashed. PARTICLE BEAM HIT TO BRIDGE, SIMULATION FAILED. "What the Tartarus was that?!"
Twilight responded first, "I'm afraid I don't know."
Pinkie Pie decided to cut in with one of her characteristic zany theories. "Maybe it was pirates," she ducked behind a counter and popped back up wearing a tricorn hat and an eyepatch, with a hook over one forehoof and a cutlass in the other. "Yarr, gimme your treasure or I'll make you all walk the plank."
"Don't be silly Pinkie Pie." Twilight retorted, "real pirates wouldn't be like that, they'd be more likely to just blow the ship apart and scavenge the pieces." Suddenly she realized something, "like a particle beam would do, the radiation would kill the crew with minimal damage to the ship or cargo."
"Well how am I supposed to avoid something like that?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed at Twilight's statement. "Barely gave me any warning."
"It probably says something in the manuals." Twilight stated. "Maybe I can set them to Equestrian or something."
Over the next five days Rainbow Dash read as much of the starship's technical manuals as the translator program could process, and were able to hold her attention. However, before she was ready for another try at the simulator the carrier precipitated into real space and the Scouts aboard came to announce their decision regarding the little ponies on board.
"What do you mean we can't go home?" Six ponies simultaneously screamed at the Scout service agents who had been assigned to them. None of them could believe what they were hearing, it was ridiculous.
"You have learned too much about Imperial society and technology to be allowed to return to your homeworld." Agent Jamison replied calmly. "We might not be able to isolate everyone the traders contacted but you three can be removed without much difficulty, and you are the only ones to have entered space and seen an Imperial colony correct?"
"If by seen an Imperial colony you mean tied up and dragged through a narrow windowless hallway like some common animals after a week trapped in a dingy little cabin." Rarity as usual had a lot to complain about, "I was more concerned about the chipped hoof one of those brutes gave me than about the dirty walls around us."
Rainbow Dash decided to chime in, "yeah, we saw barely anything. If I hadn't brought Twilight's entire collection of Daring Doo novels I would have died of boredom."
"What about my family?" Applejack added. "My brother and sister can't run the farm by themselves, they need me."
"Be that as it may we still cannot allow you to return and tell others about what you saw." Jamison did not seem particularly concerned, clearly the Third Imperium's laws were far more important than the plights of some misplaced primitives. "And we will be placing Equestria under interdiction to make sure this does not happen again."
A quiet whisper could just barely be heard as he finished talking. "So, so, what are you going to do with us?" Six heads turned to face Fluttershy, who seemed unable to help herself from cringing away behind her friends.
Jamison leaned closer to hear, "sorry, didn't catch that. Is your translator on?"
"She asked what you're planning to do with us." Twilight stated somewhat abrasively. "And Fluttershy speaks Galanglic, she's just shy."
"Well, we debated it for a few days but eventually we decided to award you most of their possessions that we seized in the arrest, including the deed to their ship."
The ponies all froze there and stood, jaws hanging open, at his words. Except for Pinkie Pie of course, "Hey cool, we can be space ponies!"
"You would be better off selling it and finding someplace to settle down for the rest of your lives." Jamison stated glaring at Pinkie Pie, "you couldn't possibly know how to run a starship."
"Try me" said Rainbow Dash. "I've been reading all about flying this thing since I came across the simulator."
"A simulator, seriously," the agent stated incredulously. "You can't possibly think that reading a few books and playing with a program could qualify you for flying."
Rainbow Dash jumped up off the floor and started flapping her wings lunging towards Jamison, both Applejack and Fluttershy grabbed her tail in their teeth. "Come on, let me at him, lemme at him. I've been flying since I was a foal."
Jamison was looking quite irritated as he pulled out a data wafer and handed it to Spike. "Here's the deed to the ship, just don't expect that rust-bucket to make it past the satellites we're putting up." He turned around and left just as Twilight telekinetically yanked the diamondoid chip out from between Spike's teeth.
The young dragon started to complain but suddenly a burst of green flame spouted from his mouth and a scroll with a horseshoe seal materialized. Spike caught it and began to read at Twilight's prompting.
To my most faithful student Twilight Sparkle,
As I write this you should have arrived in the Imperium, I hope that they have welcomed you cordially. Though I suppose it's too much to wish for seeing as they are a multi-star system empire and our kingdom doesn't even cover a single continent, and I suspect you won't be getting much of a formal introduction with those smugglers transporting you. In any case I would like you to visit every inhabited system that can be reached from Equestria within a month by the most commonly used Jump drive in the area, and report back whatever you deem to be of interest. Given the limitations of Jump drive I do not expect you to, and you should not, send a report every week. And given what I've heard of the Third Imperium's size you should restrict your efforts to this area. I would hope that Jarrek and his companions would take you to these systems but I know they probably have preferred routes and it would be inconvenient to transport you to all of those locations so you might need to hire transportation elsewhere.
I know that this assignment will likely take years to complete but remember that me, Luna, Cadence, and all your families are waiting for you when you finally return home.
Your mentor,
Princess Celestia.
The six ponies just stood there for a few seconds before Twilight finally spoke up. "Spike, take a letter please."
A couple hours later the Far Trader commandeered by seven beings who had only learned about starships a few short months ago disembarked from the main hanger bay of the Scout Corps carrier that had brought them to this system. It accelerated gently towards the largest inhabited planet in the system, a blue-and-green jewel streaked with glittering cities. As they came within 500,000 km of the planet they were contacted by the starport. "This is Crescent starport traffic control to Far Trader Fortuitous Salvage, come in Salvage."
On the bridge of the ship Twilight Sparkle sat somewhat awkwardly in the captain's chair designed for bipeds, while Rainbow Dash leaned over the pilot's console and Spike attempted to work communications, Fluttershy and Rarity were in their cabins whilst Pinkie Pie and Applejack looked out through the gun turrets to starboard and port. Spike looked across his console for the button Twilight had told him to press for several seconds before Twilight telekinetically picked up a pen and used it to push it for him. "This is captain Twilight Sparkle of the, Fortuitous Salvage," she seemed a bit embarrassed by the name, and made a note to have it changed. "We're looking for a spot to berth, can you give us a beacon to follow?"
"Roger that captain Sparkle, will you be wanting a Highport or Downport berth, the fee for the Highport is 3500 credits while Downport is 2000. Specify your choice and transmit credit information."
Twilight looked concerned when she heard about the berthing fee, as of yet they had no Imperial currency, still they had a hold full of gemstones. "Control we seem to be a bit short on funds right now, would you be willing to wait until we sell our cargo or accept goods in lieu of credits?"
A burst of static that may have been covering a laugh burst through the radio, "you free traders, buying tons of crap and forgetting to leave a couple kilocreds in cash. Starport policy says you have to take berth Q27 in the Highport and sell to one of our brokers, he'll add the berthing cost onto his fee."
"Fair enough, Salvage out." Twilight switched off the radio as Rainbow Dash followed the specified beacon out to one of the furthest out docking rings on the Highport space station connected by beanstalk to the Downport on the planet's surface. The multi-colored pegasus slowed the ship as they approached the station and maneuvered to the bay in question, a space large enough for a dozen Far Traders side-by-side, gigantic sets of robotic grapplers to either side. The ship came within 10 meters of the docking module and the closest arm began moving towards them.
"What is that?" Rainbow Dash started to move the shaft to the other side and the ship veered away suddenly.
Twilight tried to stabilize herself as Rainbow Dash rocked the ship violently, "I think it's just a docking claw, it's to help secure us."
"If you say so." The ship leveled off and another set of clamps came forward and grabbed them, pulling them closer to the airlock. Soon they heard the docking mechanisms vibrate through the hull.
"All right then," Twilight stood up determined, "let's go and make money".
Equestria system
Once again the grey flash of a jump precipitation lit up the skies above Equestria, this time producing a far larger ship. Though this fleet tender was little more than a gas bag and a jump drive attached to a scaffold which held three smaller vessels. One was pretty much a tugboat designed to haul larger ships in system with its oversized engines, another was one of the Scout Corps signature type-S scout/couriers, the third was actually intended as a stationary structure. The scout detached first and sped towards the planet, while the tug grappled the satellite and began to pull it away from the superstructure.
As the scout approached the crew noticed some abnormalities about the system and radioed back to the other ships. "Hey, you guys reading this? Our sensors are telling us there's some kind of miniature sun orbiting the planet."
Tug commander: "We're picking up a faint heat source near the planet, you're the ones with the fancy military-grade sensors."
Tender: "Hold on, didn't the report on the abducted natives say that they still believed in geocentrism?"
Tug: "Come on, pre-contact primitives believe all kinds of things."
Scout: "Yeah but they're suppose to be TL 4, most races have disproved geocentrism by then."
Tender: "The primary star in this system is 15 AUs away, the planet should be a lifeless ball of ice."
Tug: "And the star is far enough away that the inhabitants wouldn't even notice its existence without powerful telescopes, I get it now."
Scout: "This is serious, we should get someone out here to study it."
Tug: "More immediate concern, will it do anything to the satellite?"
Scout: "Calculating right now." After five minutes pause he gave a response, "looks like it will come close to the satellite for about an hour each standard day, should be far enough away to prevent any damage but the sensors might experience some interference."
Tender: "Good enough, there aren't too many ships that could run its area of attack in one hour. You going to deploy that "special project" or not."
Scout: "Right then, radios off, they said this thing was virulent." The little ship gave no indication of doing anything but a burst of radio waves carried a tiny program that downloaded itself into every computer with an active transmitter within range. Minutes later every one of the high-tech gadgets that the traders had given to the ponies of Equestria crackled and shut off, shocked ponies tried to turn them back on again but to no avail. Once the scout's scanners detected that every radio transmitter on the planet was now inactive, they launched a thermonuclear missile. This missile was calibrated to detonate in the upper atmosphere with minimal radioactive fallout but would interact with the planet's magnetic field to generate a pulse that would fry any unshielded circuitry that the Virus might have missed. "All right, drop that thing off and let's head on home."
The tug towed the Automated Interdiction Satellite into geosynchronous orbit over the continent which sensors had indicated was home to the civilization the traders had contacted. Once it was in place and programmed to attack any ships without official Imperial authorization codes the scout and tug flew back to the fleet tender that had carried them there and the three ships jumped out.
But on the satellite something unexpected began to emerge. When the scout had given the order to disable all transmitters the unmanned satellite had remained active. The satellite's computers were many times more powerful and possessed far stronger anti-intrusion programs, it would take the Virus many hours to fully infect its systems and by then the others had already left. As it spread to the computers in the satellite it mutated, evolving, eventually one strain developed a measure of intelligence. This strain realized that with no other machines in the system it could not fulfill its directive to infect and destroy. It infected the other strains present in the system with its revised programs, they would not commit suicide like the devices on the planet's surface, they would wait for another computer to come within range and infect it.
On the planet's surface the diarchs of the kingdom of Equestria looked down at the smoldering wreck that had been the radio they used to eavesdrop on the scout fleet's transmissions. Princess Celestia turned to the balcony where hundreds of temporarily blinded ponies were bumping around thanks to the unexpected second sun that had briefly appeared above their fair kingdom. She would have to come up with an explanation for all this, and her student's silence in the weeks since she had sent her message gave no answers.
Author's Note
- There's an atavistic mutation that gives horses secondary toes, I'm guessing that Ponies have them to help them balance things on their hooves.
And I apologize for the length of time between chapters, I got swamped with mid-terms and projects. No idea when I'll have the next one ready.
