ExtraEquestrialby RotorixChapters2: Questions3: Introductions4: Q&A5: Solutions6: Discussions8: Events1: Unexpected arrival7: Complications2: QuestionsExtraEquestrial First there was silence at what had just occurred. Then panic. But then the mayor calmed everyone down, Then walked over to Twilight and asked: "What is that thing, Princess", she asked " I've never seen anything like it." "I could say the same thing, Mayor. I have no clue what it is." "Well what do we do? Do you have any ideas?" the mayor asked. "I'm thinking. Well it looks like it needs help, we could take it to the hospital" ,Twilight responded "and after that I could contact Princess Celestia." "Very well, Princess Twilight, I'll send everypony home and then I'll see what I can do about that machine that crashed here." The mayor said, and walked off to start telling everypony to go back home. "OK, girls I'm going to need some help here." Twilight called to her friends. "Sure Twi', so we taking that critter to the hospital?" AppleJack asked "seems strange since we've never seen anthin' like it." "Yea, what if they can't do anything with it", said Rainbow Dash "It's a hospital meant for pony's not weird aliens!" "Well, you have a better idea? Fluttershy can you take care of it? Twilight asked the pony. "Umm I don't think so Twilight, I've never seen any strange animal like that before." Fluttershy answered. "OK then, hospital here we come." Twilight said as she started levitating the creature into the air. After about 30 minutes of long walking and helping each other carry the alien, the hospital came into view. "Finally", said Rainbow Dash "this was taking way too long." "You can say that again" Twilight added. "Oh well, at least we're here gal's" said AppleJack "Now let's see what they can do." They walked into the hospital, the receptionist looked up, saw 6 ponies and a strange alien creature and grew pale. Then said: "Hello and welcome, but can I ask what is that thing, Princess?" she asked. "We don't even know ourselves what it is", Twilight said "but we see that it needs help now." The receptionist grew even more pale: "Very well then." Then she cleared her throat and spoke into a microphone in a very tiny voice: "Doctor Statas please come to operation room 3a, thank you. And can I please get a doctor for a.... patient needing emergency care now please." Then a crew of nurses and a doctor came, stared, and the doctor promptly said: "What is that?" He asked, staring at the alien. "Its a long story all we know is that it needs help now so can you please do that so we can answer that question for ourselves?" Twilight answered. "W-well of course Princess.", the doctor said, after he regained his composure, then turned to his assistants and said: "Alright, this will be quite a learning experience for us." then he turned back to Twilight and said: "We will try to everything we can, Princess." Then he took the creature, and started giving orders to his assistants as he walked away As soon as Twilight got home, she ran to Spike before he even said hello and said: "Spike, take a letter." "Alright twilight, whats the rush?" he said as he took out a piece of paper and a quill. "I'll explain later Spike just write this down. Dear Princess Celestia How are you? I'm fine but I have a very strange matter to tell you about. Today was the "Pony of Ponyvile" award day and while at the ceremony, a strange alien craft crashed into Town hall! It clearly looked more advanced than us, but it was wounded and needed help urgently. We took it to the hospital, where they say their doing everything they can, and strangely enough, seem to be helping. But we still don't know what it is and we need your help. Sincerely your's Princess Twilight Sparkle "Wow Twilight", Spike said after sending the letter "a real alien? what did it look like? Did it shoot lasers from its eyes? Is it-" "No Spike", Twilight interrupted " it simply crashed into the ground and got out from some kind of machine. But it was hurt so we took it to the hospital. We really didn't know what else to do. By the way, what happened to that thing that crashed at town hall?" "I don't know I think its still there, the mayor said she couldn't move it, or something." Spike replied. "Hmm, well alright then, I'll go get a closer look at that machine see you later Spike." Once Twilight made it to the crash site she found it had been closed off and the mayor standing next to it. "Hello Princess", the mayor said, bowing "I figure you're here for a closer look?" "Actually, yes I am. May i get through?" Twilight asked. "Why of course, please just go over the border." Twilight then stepped over the small wall that closed off the area- which was in bad shape since it had been hit by something falling from space. Twilight was most surprised to see that the crashed...vehicle it seemed- and one capable of flying. It clearly looked far more advanced than anything they currently had in terms of technology. It was mainly gold, but had blue wings that faced backwards and had a triangular shaped front and at the back, what appeared to be engines. All of it was beyond what Twilight could comprehend. "If this creature can speak with us....imagine what it could share.. Twilight then realized something. "Why is this still here?" Twilight asked. "Because we can't move it", replied the mayor " when we tried to lift it, or even get closer to it, it would let out a blue field of some sort that prevented us from moving it. After a few tries we gave up there's no way to move it unless that alien can. Speaking of which, how did your trip go?" "I got a message from the hospital", Twilight said, "and they said they had been able to bandage up his wounds but they don't know what else they can do, but for now it seems to be working." "Very well then, I shall take my leave now, Princess. Goodnight." The mayor said as she started walking back to her house. "I guess I better head on back home. There will be more time for questions tomorrow." Twilight thought to herself, then turned around and started down the path back to the library. "When Twilight got back home, she was greeted by Spike, who, as soon as she got home, ran up to her and said: "Twilight, your back. Well I just got a reply from Princess Celestia." He said as he pulled out a scroll and gave it to her. "Thank you Spike." Twilight said. she opened up the letter and began to read. Dear Princess Twilight This is certainly very important news! I can hardly believe we have been visited by a creature from another world. It is simply fascinating! I am also glad that you were able to help the visitor and I hope for the best. I would also like you to know I will be coming to Ponyvile tomorrow to investigate and greet this alien. Princess Celestia Twilight put the letter down. "Well what does it say" Spike asked. "She said shes coming to Ponyvile tomorrow to meet the alien." Twilight responded. "Well you could go check on it, see if its OK?" Spike suggested. "OK I guess i better check up on him before the Princess comes tomorrow." Twilight said as she walked out the door. Twilight had walked to the hospital with Fluttershy, who had been about to go to ask for a book, but instead had decided to go to join her. As they walked in through the doors, the receptionist asked: "Are you here to see somepony, Princess?" "Yes, we're here to see that creature that we brought in earlier today." Twilight answered. "Very well hes in room 4a in the emergency center." The receptionist said after a brief look at her clipboard. "Thank you, nurse." Twilight said as she and Fluttershy began to follow the signs to the room. Twilight was about to enter through the door to the room when the doctor from earlier this day stumbled through. "Oh terribly sorry, Princess." he said as he stepped to the side. "Its alright doctor I'm just here to check on the patient in this room." Twilight said. The doctor's eyes widened as he spoke: "Oh its simply one of the most stunning creatures I've ever seen, albeit strange, but simply fascinating." "Really? How so? Other than the fact than he walks on two legs." Twilight questioned. "Well I guess you can come see for yourself, Princess. Please follow me." He said as he held the door open for them. As they walked in, Twilight noticed that the creature was clearly something unlike anything she had ever seen before. For starters, it was incredibly large and scaled, and its long legs and thick, muscled arms hung off the bed. But maybe the strangest and most shocking thing was its face; it had no mouth, ears, or nose but it did have a strange crest extending from the back of its very large head. "These creatures must be incredibly intelligent." Twilight thought to herself "Imagine what we could learn!" "Wow it looks....scary." Fluttershy commented. She was right. It had.... four claws on each hand("that's the right word ,right?"she thought to herself) that looked very sharp. "Well you wont have to worry, its been unconscious the whole time its been here." The doctor said to Fluttershy. "Its so fascinating isn't it? To see such a strange creature so different from what we'er used to." The doctor said. "You got that right. But how is he coming along, doctor?" Twilight asked. "Oh well he had a nasty cut on his right leg and arm, as well as a concussion, from what I suppose was the incident that happened this morning. But we managed to patch him up and we're currently hoping for him to wake up." The doctor said. "Well I would like to thank you for trying so hard doctor and I would like to tell you that Princess Celestia is coming tomorrow to see this creature for herself. "The doctor's eyes widened "T-the Princess here? Well what an honor. Very well thank you Princess Twilight I'll make sure to be ready tomorrow then." Twilight and Fluttershy both said their thanks to the doctor as they left the hospital. As they were walking back to Ponyvile Twilight turned to Fluttershy and asked: "Isn't it exciting? Imagine all we could learn from it!" "Well uh sure.... its just aren't you scared it looked really big and scary." Fluttershy responded. "I'm sure its nice, I mean, come on we saved its life. It can't be angry with us for that, can it?" "I guess... oh i just don't know Twilight I mean sure we could learn a lot from it but we don't even know what it is." Fluttershy said. "Yes and that's why we're going to ask it some questions tomorrow, Fluttershy. So we can figure out just what it is." "Oh, OK, I see your point. Goodnight Twilight." "Goodnight Fluttershy." Twilight said back "See you tomorrow." As Twilight settled into bed, she couldn't help thinking about the upcoming day. "Oh this is going to be so exciting." she thought to herself "I just can't wait to see what it has to say. Imagine all that we could learn and who knows, maybe there are other kinds of creatures out in space." Her dreams that night were filled with space and the unknown. Darkness then a bright flash of light as Torcannas awoke. He was alone. In a bed. But just where was he? Then his memory came flooding back to him: Attacked. A sudden defeat, and a malfunction. Then speeding towards the surface a unknown planet, certain he was going to die. Well he hadn't, apparently. His armor had been removed but he felt bandages on his wounds, so wherever he was wasn't hostile. Yet. But just what kind of creatures lived here? He supposed he would find out now. But he was too weak to raise himself from the bed, however, and fell back before darkness overtook him. 3: IntroductionsExtraEquestrial Torcannas awoke, yet again, in the hospital room. He waited until he was fully awake and looked around the room. He saw what he guessed was medical equipment, strange and clearly primitive by his standards. But he soon stopped his search when he realized how weak he felt. How long had he been in here? It had been dark when he had lost consciousness but he now saw sunlight streaming through his window. Sunlight. He must have been out of the sun for too long. He forced himself to stand and began his slow trek to the window, where he ripped off the curtains and sat down in the light that was now far more present, strength slowly ebbing back into him. ***** Doctor Stethoscope looked at the room where his newest patient was in. The guards that stood at the front door certainly made an impression. They said they had been sent to guard the room for Princess Celectia's arrival. At least they had gotten rid of the paparazzi that had been coming here. Lucky that none of them got into the room, otherwise some very bad news would be running through Ponyvile right now. The creature was so strange and so intriguing. It was so different from any other creature he had ever seen of, that he couldn't comprehend how they had even been able to help him in the first place. He wondered if it was awake. He turned to enter the room when he heard he heard something behind the door. The guards turned their heads towards the door and the one on the right said: "Do you need us to check inside?" "No that's all right I'll check for myself something probably just fell." The doctor responded as he went through the door. ***** After he had regained some strength, Torcannas decided he'd see what these creatures were that had helped him. But before he got up the door opened and in came An equine? he asked himself. It was strange, unlike the other kinds of equines he had seen on other planets, this one was small, four or five feet maybe, it was white furred and was wearing what appeared to be white lab coat and some kind of mask covering his mouth. Even stranger was a strange symbol on his flank. It appeared to be a strange device that was 'y' shaped. The equine stared back at him just as intensely. ***** How strange. Are it's eyes are glowing? The doctor said to himself. what if it understands my speech? Lets try it then, shall we? He cleared his throat and said: "Hello strange creature. Can you understand me? My name is Doctor Stethoscope." He waited, tried again, then watched as the creature tilted it's head in confusion. "Maybe this will be harder than I thought." ***** Torcannas simply stared as the equine as it tried to speak with him in it's strange language. He thought for a moment, then stood up. The equine was apparently scared and he took a few steps back. Torcannas put up his hands in a gesture of peace, and the creature walked forward a bit. He extended a hoof. Torcannas stretched out his arm to meet the hoof but he stopped and moved his hand straight up into the equine's face, scanning his mind for how to speak this creatures language. He found what he had been looking for and started to learn how to communicate. The equine meanwhile started, it's eyes as wide as it's open mouth. But Torcannas was finished before he could say anything and removed his hand, and mind, from the equine. The Equine stared at him, mouth still agape and silent. "Hello." Torcannas said to the creature. The equine just stared back. "Did it just greet me?" The doctor thought. "H-hello.." The equine responded in a timid voice I am sorry that I dug through your mind like that... I hope you can forgive me. It was the only way I could think of to try and learn your language. My name is Torcannas. What is your's?" Torcannas asked. "M-my name is Stethoscope, Doctor Stethoscope." "Well then, Doctor, I must thank you for possibly saving my life." "Oh it was nothing", the doctor replied "but may I ask, how do you speak without a mouth?" "I "speak" through my mind, Doctor." "Well I must say that you are one of the most fascinating creatures I have ever seen." "Thank you Doctor, and I must say that you are different from other equines I have seen" Torcannas said. The doctor glanced about nervously, possibly searching for an excuse to leave. "Well I suppose I must be off now. Please don't try to exit the room, and if there is anything you need we will check up on you from time to time." The doctor said as he unsteadily exited the room. Once the doctor left, Torcannas proceeded to return to the window and sit in the sunlight. Twilight and her friends stood at the dirt road that served as the landing strip for Princess Celestia's carriage. They had been waiting for about 20 minutes now and thought she might never show up, until a golden flicker in the distance showed that Celestia was close to Ponyvile. When the Princess finally landed and exited the carriage she greeted them. "Ah, Princess Twilight, I'm glad that you and your friends could join me." the Princess said."Well lets be off, then, show me that strange machine that I've heard the alien crashed into Ponyvile in." The group left and walked back to Ponyvile. All the way ponies were stopping and bowing to both the princess that were walking through the town. Then they finally reached their destination. When Celestia saw the strange golden craft, her eyes grew wide and she began to walk around the strange machine, inspecting it, then said to Twilight: "Have you looked at this strange thing?" she asked. "Yes" Twilight responded "it appears to be some kind of vehicle, though I am not completely certain." "Hm, a vehicle you say, I guess we'll have to ask our visitor, speaking of which, you said it was in the hospital?" the princess asked. "Yes" "Very well then, let us go meet the strange creature." They promptly set out for the hospital. When they finally arrived, the group was bowed to by every pony in the hospital. Twilight led the way to the room and saw that guards had been posted by the door. They stepped to the side as the group walked closer to the door. Suddenly, the pony Twilight remembered was the doctor came running down the hall towards them. He bowed before the two princesses then said: "Hello Princess Celestia, I suppose you are here to see the alien." "Yes", responded the princess "Have you spoken to it? Can it speak Equestrian? "Well, when it spoke to me it could understand what I was saying so yes." "Very well, we are going to go see it now." The princess turned and the group followed her through the door. As then they entered. Twilight looked at the alien, seeing that it was in a different position since they last saw it. "Did it wake up?" Twilight asked herself. She looked at the others, then said: "I think its sleeping." "Well lets find out, Dash said as she prodded the creature with her hoof, before Twilight could object, the creature was jolted awake, its eyes....glowing and scooted back in surprise. It simply stared "Hello", Princess Celestia said to the creature "I am Princess Celestia, ruler of this country. I have heard that you crashed into this place two days ago and would like to know how and why you came to this place." The creature responded, its voice coming from everywhere at once: "Greetings, equines. My name is Torcannas. I am a pilot in one of Protoss's grand fleets. You must be wondering how I came to be here? I crashed here because of a malfunction in an unstable new technology. But what I would like to know is where I currently am and when can I be released." "We will allow you to go now but I must ask you to come with me to make sure you are not a threat to us." Torcannas stared back, then said: "Very well, what is it you wish me to do? "All I need you to do is answer some questions. But not here." "I will comply. But I must ask: what have you done with my armor? It could not have been removed by you, not with the technology I have seen you present." "I do not know, you would have to ask those who were here. But I suppose you want it back?" When the affirmative was given, Princess Celestia turned and walked out the door. For many minutes nothing was said by anyone in the room, and then Celestia came back, with Stethoscope and a large box in tow. "Her Highness says that you require your armor? It is inside of this box," he paused to lift the top off the large, metal container, revealing large, golden pieces of armor. "When you came here, we tried to remove it with our hooves and horns, but we were not successful; it wouldn't budge. We had to teleport it off of you, and I assume we can do the same to put it back on you..." The Doctor gave an uncertain look at Celestia, who nodded in return. Her horn began to glow, and the pieces of armor began to glow with her magic. The armor disappeared, vanishing in front of their eyes, and reappeared a few moments later on Torcannas, who in return thanked them, his eyes narrowed, but no questions asked. They said their farewells, the employees bowing to the Princesses, and shrinking away from Torcannas as they made their way through the hospital, And so they left. It was still bright outside and they made a swift pace to Ponyvile. While on the way, Torcannas turned to the ponies and said: "I must ask, I remember not being in a hospital before I lost consciousnesses, who was it that brought me here? "Oh well I believe that it was these six ponies here." The Princess said, and gestured at the group of friends, staring back at Torcannas. "Well, then I am in your debt. I can not thank you enough for what you did." "Oh, please it was nothing." Twilight said to him. "Even so, I can not forget what you did for me if there is anything I can do, do not hesitate to ask." And so they continued their walk to Ponyvile. When they finally reached Ponyvile, it had become quite late and the question finally came to Twilight. "Princess where is he going to stay while he is here." "Well I was hoping he could stay in your home until the questioning tomorrow." "Really?" Twilight said, shocked. "You want me?" "But of course,who else would I pick?" The Princess replied. "I was hoping you could learn something about him before he leaves." As they walked through Ponyvile to Twilight's house, ponies stopped and gawked at the strange, glowing creature passing through their town. When they finally reached Twilight's home, Princess Celestia turned to them and said: "Very well my little ponies this is were I must leave you. I will return tomorrow to ask questions to our guest. Sir Torcannas, I hope yo don't mind staying with Twilight, a minor princess, here until tomorrow?" "It is no problem for me, I am only glad that I can stay somewhere tonight. I Thank you deeply." Torcannas replied. "Very well. Then, I must be off, Farewell my friends." The Princess said as she walked away. "Hm, looks like you get stuck with the weird alien." Rainbow Dash said. "I'll be back to check on you tomorrow, goodnight Twi'." The rest of her friends followed suit and soon it was only Torcannas and Twilight standing outside by the large tree-house. "I suppose we can head inside now?" Twilight asked to Torcannas. He nodded in reply. As they stepped inside, Twilight noticed him looking at all the books in the library. "Do you like to read?" Twilight asked. He was about to reply when Spike entered the room: "Hey Twi- AHHH!" He shouted "What is that thing?" He asked. "Spike!" Twilight scolded "This is our guest for the night, Torcannas, he is the one who crashed into Ponyvile the other day." "Ohhhhh" Spike replied. "So hes staying with us for tonight?" "Yes he is." She turned to Torcannas, "Is there anything you need?" "No, thank you." He replied, surprising Spike with his "voice". "All I need is a place to rest, if there is one." "Why, of course." Twilight said. "Follow me its right this way." It was late at night when everypony was asleep in their beds, and while Twilight reading a book on the creatures of Equestria, that nopony noticed a strange, brown thing falling from the sky. Even though it looked like some kind of meteor, it wasn't. It was, if fact, a living creature. It crashed into the ground, and it left a brown-purple substance over the ground where it landed. In the center of it was a strange, insect-like creature that hovered off the ground. It dug itself into the ground and a strange blue membrane began to stretch itself across the ground. After a few minutes, the membrane burst, and in that moment, a great threat had come to Equestria. The Zerg had come to Equestria. 4: Q&AExtraEquestrial Q&A The number of ponies surrounding the procession was staggering to Twilight. What had started out as a small group of just Twilight and her friends, the Princess, Torcannas, and two guards, had quickly grown, until more and more ponies came up to the group, hoping to get a look at the strange alien that had crashed into Ponyville just a few days ago. With Torcannas towering above almost everypony, and that strange, golden armor really did make him hard to miss. Even so, it was a beautiful day outside, and there would have been many things Twilight would have wanted to do on a day like this. But what was happening now was far better than anything she could have asked for. “I just can’t wait! Imagine how much our race could benefit from this creature’s knowledge.....” That was the thought that was currently running through her mind as they made their way through Ponyville to town hall, where the questioning was taking place. By now, almost everypony in Ponyville had crowded around Twilight and the others. After what seemed like an eternity of walking with most of Ponyville following them, they finally reached their destination. As Twilight and Princess Celestia started the short walk up the small flight of stairs to reach the door, a pony burst out. Twilight had never seen this pony in Ponyville, so she assumed it was one of Princess Celestia’s assistants, due to the white coat and small name tag the pony was wearing. “Ah, right on time,” Princess Celestia said as she turned to face Twilight. “Twilight, I’d like you to meet one of my top scientists from Canterlot, Professor Estrellas. He specializes in space research, and is here to record the information that Torcannas gives us.” “Yes, greetings Princess, and thank you for this amazing opportunity.” The professor then saw Torcannas. “And you must be the alien everypony is talking about? Well, I think it will be a great honor if you wish to share your knowledge...” The professor trailed off as all he received from Torcannas was a blank stare. He chuckled nervously, then turned back the entrance of town hall, and walked inside, the Princesses following behind. Torcannas watched as the equines filled into the building. He wasn’t sure what they wanted from him, exactly. Answer a few questions and that was all? He would be allowed to leave? Even further... where was his phoenix? He wouldn’t be able to get off the planet without it.... maybe he would be asking a few questions of his own. The equines themselves.... these “ponies”, as they called themselves, had been strangely.... friendly to him. He had been interested, when rather than being captured, dissected, or experimented on, he had been helped by them. He supposed it would be simple enough to answer these questions. He entered the tall building, following the equines into it. Twilight watched as everypony entered town hall. She saw her friends, standing at the front of the crowd, while others streamed in through the pink double doors. Torcannas came in just around the time the last ponies were entering. They had been seated at a fairly large table on the stage, four chairs at each of the ends. Princess Celestia sat at the end facing the entrance, Twilight to her left, and the Professor to her right. Torcannas took the only open seat, facing Celestia. Once everypony had gotten into town hall, the doors closed, and Celestia began. “Greetings, one and all,” she started “today is a very important day for all of Ponykind. Just a few days ago, most of you had heard that a something had landed in Ponyville. Well, that thing would be the guest sitting across from me. We are here today to find out as much as we can about him before he must leave us”, She then turned to Torcannas. “Today, I shall be asking a series of questions to you in order for us to learn more about your kind. The pony on my right will be recording your answers. Does this seem agreeable to you?” Celestia asked. Torcannas was silent for a few moments, but soon replied with a curt “Yes”, surprising some ponies that he could speak, due to the lack of a mouth. Celestia nodded her head slightly before continuing. “Very well. Only a few ponies know your name, myself included, but can you tell us exactly who, and what, you are?” Torcannas closed his eyes before speaking. “My name is Torcannas. My people are called the Protoss. First born of the gods, the Xel'naga. Currently, I am a Zealot in the Protoss military.” Most of the ponies had confused looks on their faces, but, nevertheless, Torcannas continued. “ I am one of the few surviving defenders of Aiur, granted that I unfortunately did not partake in the.... worst of the battle. Does that answer your question? ” “Worst?”Twilight asked herself. “Who would want to take part in the worst part of any battle?” Princess Celestia had a confused look on her face for a moment, but it quickly disappeared. “Very well, then,” she continued. “Next I would like to ask; how did you come to crash here?” “My people were transporting a powerful and ancient craft to a location where it was needed. However, when we were nearing the destination, we were attacked by another race in that sector of the galaxy.” The Princesshad a slightly worried look on her face before she asked her next question. “A while ago, I spoke to the doctor in charge of you, back in the hospital. He said that, when he first tried to communicate with you, it was met with no success. But a short while after, according to him, you promptly put a hand on his face, and after a few moments, suddenly spoke fluent Equestrian. How did you do this?” “Well, I made contact with him to obtain the knowledge of how to speak your language,” he explained.“Now, most of my kind can simply reach out with our minds and withdraw or give any information we seek.” “So you’re saying that you could just go into our minds and just take any information you want” Celestia asked, worry slightly visible on her face. “Yes, but there would no need for that unless I needed something drastically,” he replied. “You said that you were attacked, and that was the reason why you crashed here. What exactly were you attacked by” Princess Celestia asked. Torcannas’s face changed to a slightly more troubled look as he answered. “We were attacked by a race known as the Zerg. A horrible race of creatures, no, abominations, individual species mutated by the zerg to serve a purpose given to them by their leader, called the “hive mind”. The “Zerg Swarm” as it is called, is one of the most horrible things ever created. They destroy everything in their path by sheer number, overrunning even some of our most heavily defended outposts and colonies. Even...,”his face darkened as he said the end of his phrase, “..even our home planet of Aiur, which is what I meant when I said I was a survivor of Aiur... so many lives were lost, most of them our proud warriors, giving their lives to ensure the escape of the civilians. Some of the dead were even not of our own, another race assisted us during the fall, a race known as the Terrans. This was one of the few times our two races have cooperated, unfortunately it has not always been this way. The sector of the galaxy, the “Koprulu sector” currently is in a state of war between 3 races: my race, the Terran dominion, and the Zerg Swarm.”Torcannas replied. Princess Celestia waited until Torcannas finished before asking: “Wait, if these “Terrans” have assisted you before in fighting the Zerg, why don’t the two races cooperate more in defeating this common enemy?” “Relations with the Terrans have been... problematic. Our first encounter with them wasn’t as peaceful as it could have been. If it had, we might have had a chance to defeat the Zerg together. The way our races first met happened at an unfortunate time. We had learned that one of their colonized worlds, a planet they called Chau Sara, had been infested by the zerg,” Twilight was slightly creeped out by the use of the word “infested”, “there was no way for the terrans to stop this infestation, so my people stepped in... we had no choice, we destroyed the infested planet to stop the spread of the zerg.” Princess Celestia’s mouth hung open, in shock, similar to most of everypony's expressions. “You destroyed an entire planet?!” Twilight said, accidentally, out-loud. “How do you even do that?” The simple thought made Twilight uneasy, how a race such as the Protoss could just decide to destroy an entire planet, killing who knows how many creatures. “Simple, we aimed the beams of several of our capital ships at the surface of the planet until it overheated. Yes, I know, I see how the thought is sickening, but if we had not done what we had, the zerg would have killed everything on the planet anyway, then they would have spread and killed and consumed even more, so you must see that our point was justified. Unfortunately, the terrans did not think so, and ever since it has usually meant battle when our two races meet.” “Very well,” Princess Celestia said. “I suppose that that is enough history for a while. Let us take a break and we can continue in a short time.” After she finished her statement, ponies started to rise and file out the doors. Twilight went to catch up to her friends as she neared them, they each gave a greeting, Twilight responded in kind as they made their way outside. “Wow.... I never thought that space could be so....scary,” Fluttershy said to her friends. “I can’t believe that they actually destroyed an entire planet, these guys must be crazy high-tech”, responded Rainbow. “I’m sure we can ask him more about later”, Twilight said. “Wait, where is he?” ` Torcannas sat, still at the table in Town hall, contemplating. “Why had I told them about Aiur” he asked himself. “There was no need for them to know of what happened... I suppose I will never forget that day”, buthe remembered that day very well, indeed. Aiur Year: 2500 The planet of Aiur was beautiful, covered with lush jungles, and the gleaming cities of the Protoss. A clearing in one such forest contained two protoss, flickering slightly in their armor. Torcannas stood next to his close friend and mentor, Koranos, who had been assisting him learn the ways of the Khala. “Focus, Torcannas, as I have told you before, your mind must be clear if you are to be successful”, Koranos chastised the student. “Yes, master”, Torcannas replied as he readied himself for another attempt at creating a psi-blade. He held out his arm, gauntlet attached, and focused. He harnessed the pool of his psionic energy, and focused his thoughts. A blue blade began to extend out of Torcannas’s gauntlet and grew to a fair length, but swiftly disappeared after several moments. Torcannas lowering his arm after the blade dissipated. “Good,Torcannas, very good. That is progres, I-” , he stopped abruptly as they both saw dark shapes fall towards the surface of Aiur. “Master, what is that” Torcannas asked his mentor. “If it is what I believe it to be... Torcannas we must hurry! To the shuttle, now”, Koranos replied as he began to run swiftly to where they had landed their shuttle, Torcannas following rapidly behind him. As they neared the craft, four serpentine creatures, Hydralisks, began to slither out of the forest towards them, getting closer by the moment. When the hydralisks had gotten close enough, they threw back their heads and a stream of spines flew out, each one hitting them -or would have hit them, if not for their shields and armor. Why his master insisted on them wearing the armor of protoss warriors during training, he would never know, but he was glad on this day they had chosen to do such, it would no doubt save their lives. As the hydralisks prepared another barrage of spines to be launched at them, Koranos’s hands began to glow with a blue light, he spread them and two of the hydralisks...simply exploded, ripped apart by the force of the Temlpar’s attacks. As the other Hydralisks shot their spines at them, again to only be melted by their shields, Torcannas charged at the two monstrosities, his thoughts and focus centering, and a psi-blade jumped from his gauntlet, faster than it had ever before. When he got into range of the zerg, he stabbed the first hydralisk through the mouth, it releasing a horrible screech before its death. Torcannas swiftly removed his blade from the head of the crumpling creature, before swiping it to his left, cutting off the claws that were about to attack him, as well as the head of the creature who they belonged to. “Very impressive, Torcannas. Now we must hurry”, Koranos told him as they continued to the shuttle. As they reached the craft, a platform lowered itself and they- Torcannas? Torcannas? Torcannas! Twilight stared at Torcannas, he had been simply staring into nothingness. “Torcannas? Torcannas?...Torcannas!” Twilight called him. At the third time, Torcannas jolted himself and stared at Twilight. “Yes Twilight Sparkle? I am sorry I was... reliving something unpleasant.” “Oh, it’s fine, it’s just that Princess Celestia wanted to show you something.” Twilight said back. “Come on, we don’t want to keep her waiting”, Twilight continued as she began to head for the door. She saw Torcannas rise and follow her out the door. As they exited town hall, they found that Princess Celestia was waiting for them. “Hello, Twilight, hello Torcannas.” Both of the ones addressed responded back, and Princess Celestia continued. “I thought you might want to take a look at your....spacecraft and see if it is damaged before you go, however if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to know more about the history of what is happening in space, Torcannas.” “Of course, if you may show me to my craft, I will be glad to answer any more you may have concerning the history of the war.” With that, the Princess led them to the crash site. “The reason it is still here, is that whenever we try to get close to it, or move it with magic, a blue orb surrounds it and we can’t do anything”, the Princess stated as Torcannas stepped over the barrier that blocked off the crash site. “That would be the shields of the ship, preventing your interaction with it”, was Torcannas’s reply. Unlike the other ponies, who, when trying to get close to the ship had ran face-first into a searing hot ball of blue, Torcannas simply walked up to the spacecraft, the nose of it lifting up, and he climbed in. Torcannas climbed into the cockpit of his phoenix, amazed that it, apparently, had not been too damaged by the crash. Now for the real test. He walked over to the control seat, connected himself to the craft, and began to power it with his psionic energy. The energy held...that meant the ship was functional. That meant he could get off of this planet. He was about to test how it flew, when he heard screams from outside. He stepped out of the cockpit -Only to be met by the eyes of a hydralisk. 5: SolutionsExtraEquestrial Twilight watched as Torcannas climbed into the front of his ship. She was fascinated at how such a strange thing could possibly fly. Nothing happened for a few moments until the ship suddenly lit up, the blue parts of the ship, once dull, suddenly sprang to life, pulsing with light. Twilight gasped in amazement. “Torcannas did that?” she asked herself. Everything was still for a few short moments. Then it happened. Creatures, horrible, terrifying, snake-looking things slithered through the streets of Ponyville, heading straight towards Torcannas’s ship. Princess Celestia’s guards sprang to action as they rushed to combat the invaders, head-on, swords drawn. They never made it even close to the creatures as, with a horrible screech, one of the two threw its head back and released a brown blur of something, that impaled the guards a moment later, their enchanted armor giving protection, but the projectiles also hit unprotected spots, killing them both. Ponies screamed at the actual death of twoponies. Princess Celestia’s horn flashed and one of the snake-monsters flew back, possibly dead. The other one slithered right up to the craft’s cockpit just as soon as Torcannas stepped out, meeting face-to-face with the protoss. She watched for a tense moment as Torcannas stared at the monstrosity that was even taller than him. The monster threw back its head and screeched, as it prepared to attack Torcannas. Celestia’s horn began to glow, but she wasn’t able to act before Torcannas threw his arm back. As he moved his arm forward, there was a blue flash and the monster’s head was suddenly split in half. Torcannas pulled his arm from the creature's skull, a glowing blue blade on his wrist, and walked over to the remaining monster, and used his blade to cut off it’s head. Twilight was at a loss for words. She had just watched Torcannas single-handedly kill two creatures that had killed a pair of fully armed guards. As he got closer she heard Rainbow Dash ask a question. “Woah”, Rainbow said, a disturbed look on her face, “where did you learn to do that? That was so cool! And also...disturbing.” “Decades of practice,” before he could add more, Princess Celestia arose a question of her own. “What were those...things?!” , she exclaimed, looking more worried than Twilight had ever seen her. “I’ve never seen anything so horrible!” “That” , Torcannas replied, “Was the zerg. More specifically, a strain known as the hydralisk. Princess Celestia, I highly advise you to evacuate this settlement.” “Wait, why can’t you just go and kill everything with that weird blue sword of yours?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Because if I did that, I would surely end up dead, along with this whole planet... I can try to contact my people and see if I can get something sent here to remove the infestation.” “But what if your people show up and just blow up the planet?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her face growing serious. “I can attempt to reason....that is even if I can get a psionic connection to my people. This planet has apparently never been visited by my kind, so I am not certain whether or not my kind will be in range to able to assist us.” “And what if that happens?” Celestia rebutted. “This planet could, most likely, be doomed, and again, I ask you Princess Celestia: you must evacuate this settlement if the zerg can reach it by ground, that is too close. Now, where is the nearest residence?” “That would be Canterlot, the place where my sister and I live.” “We must evacuate to there, then. If you value your citizens lives, I would highly advise you to.” “Very well,” was the reply as Celestia called her only remaining guard to deal with the bodies, as Celestia herself informed the citizens of Ponyville that an evacuation would be necessary. The citizens addressed rapidly turned and began running to their homes to collect their belongings. Twilight watched as Torcannas turned back to his ship and walked inside it, before she, and her friends, went to assist Princess Celestia in her duties. Torcannas walked inside the cockpit of his fighter. He sat down at the control seat and used his psionics to power the ship. He then faced the monitor that would have usually linked him to a commanding officer. He used any available way the ship had to send out a signal for any protoss in range. The only question was if it would reach anyone. Twilight was amazed. The entire town of Ponyville had, somehow, packed up almost everything, and now, stood on the railway platform, however, due to the lack of space, most stood on the ground near it. Princess Celestia had called that more trains were to be directed to Ponyville to evacuate the citizens. Twilight saw as the first train pulled up to the station, its doors opening soon after to allow the plethora of waiting ponies a chance to board. Twilight then began to assist the first few ponies in moving their possessions onto the train. Torcannas had been sitting, waiting, wondering, if anyone would ever respond. He was beginning to lose hope that his message would ever be received. That is, until, a face finally appeared on the monitor. But not just any face, no, this was the face Torcannas least expected to appear. It was none other than Commander Kannas. “En taro Tassadar...-Torcannas?!” Kannas said, his face taking on a surprised look. “I thought you had perished when we were attacked by the zerg.” “En taro Tassadar to you as well. Yes, by some stroke of fate did I survive... but apparently what had awaited me was worse. I have crash-landed on some remote planet, with life on it. -But nevertheless, to the matter of most importance: unfortunately, the planet I have reached has been infested by the zerg.” “This is clearly a matter of importance. I shall locate your position and I we shall cleanse the planet by fire.” “There would be no need for you to remove any of our capital ships from the field of battle. This is a small infestation, and I also believe it to be feral zerg.” Kannas narrowed his eyes before responding. “Very well, I shall send one carrier with troops to remove the infestation, if it is so simple as you say. I shall locate your position and aid should arrive soon. En taro Tassadar, Torcannas.” “En taro Tassadar, Kannas.” And with that, his face vanished from the small screen. Twilight watched as the second-to-last train pulled away, filled with citizens. The last train was for Twilight, her friends, the Princess, and Torcannas. “Wait, where is he?”she thought as their train pulled up. “Princess Celestia,” she called out, “wait a moment, we need to go get Torcannas.” “Very well Twilight,” the response came quickly, “I’ll keep the train here for now, just try to be back quickly, I don’t want to meet those “zerg” again.” Twilight went, along with her friends, to the place where they had last seen Torcannas. They found him emerging from the front of his ship. “So, how did it go?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Well enough. I was able to contact one of my kind. At first he was willing to simply destroy this planet, but I managed to change his plan of action. He said he would be sending troops to remove this infestation.” “Well that’s a relief,” she replied. “So, Torcannas, we are ready to go to Canterlot. How are we going to move your ship?” Twilight asked. “I was planning to simply fly it to the city.” “Oh... right. Well, do you know where Canterlot is? If you have any space, I think we could guide you there.” “I believe that I would have space one of you.” When nopony offered to go, Twilight spoke up.“Ok, I’ll go.” “Twilight Sparkle, you may go in first. Try to find some space inside.” Twilight entered the fairly large, ovalish-shaped space at the front of the ship. The inside was the same as the outside, golden and very beautiful. Above her head was what appeared to be a glass dome. She saw a large chair and a few opaque slabs of what looked like glass, or crystal in front of it. Behind the chair she found a space where she could stand. When she was settled, Torcannas came in, sat in the chair, and sat still. After a couple of moments, the ship lit up inside. The slabs of glass suddenly glowed, images leaping up from them and appearing in front of Torcannas. “Wow...” was all Twilight could say at the advanced technology being used in front of her. “Yes, it is quite impressive isn’t it,”Torcannas said, his head turning to face her. “Do you have space there?” “Yes, I’m all right here, thanks for asking.” After a few moments, the craft seemed to somehow be moving upward. Twilight caught a glance downward at her friends, mouths agape. Then once the craft had made its way up to a fair height, her friends began to move toward the waiting train.”OK Torcannas, just head towards the mountains in the distance there,” she said, pointing at the location of Canterlot. Then, Twilight saw the land below them move forward rapidly. faster than any train Twilight had ever been on, and she was amazed at how it did it, in fact, she was wondering just what was powering this flying-machine. “Hey, Torcannas, what makes this thing fly?” “Partially, power comes from the ship, but mainly, I power this ship by my own means, Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight was confused at how he could be powering this ship by himself. “What do you mean ‘I power this ship’?” “I had not told you? Very well, I shall explain. All of my people have powers -called ‘psionics’. We use these powers to manipulate the universe around us-” “Oh, so like magic?” “...Magic?” He turned to face Twilight for a moment, a confused look on his face. “Yea, magic. It’s what unicorns -ponies with horns, and alicorns -like me and the princess- have and we use it to do many different things.” “...No, I don’t think that what my people are gifted with is anything like what your people use.” “Oh...ok, continue, if you want, though.” Twilight said with a sheepish grin. “Yes, well, psionics -this is a power that comes naturally to all my people, but without proper training, usually can not be used to it’s full ability. Templar -the warriors of my people, of which I am one, are trained to use their powers in combat, and to power machines -like the phoenix we are in. And that power is what I use to create the psi-blades you saw earlier.” “So you’ve been trained? How long did it take you to learn what you did earlier today?” “It took decades of practice, and I hope to train to advance myself further in the coming century.” “Wait, -did you just say century? As in a hundred years?” “Yes, I -oh...I suppose I hadn’t said that my kind can live for many millennia -some of the oldest of my kind have lived to be some seventy-thousand years of age.” “Wow...” Twilight was shocked to hear that Torcannas’s kind could live for so long, and wondered just how old Torcannas was. “Yes, though our long life spans haven’t helped us much in the war... Is this the city?” Twilight hadn’t realized it, but they had already made it to Canterlot in an extremely quick amount of time -faster than Twilight had ever gotten to the city. “This thing must go really fast... Imagine what we could do with something like this...,” she thought to herself. “Twilight, is there anywhere I can land my ship?,” Torcannas questioned, snapping Twilight out of her thoughts. “Umm...yes, I think you could try... there by the train station, we can wait for the others there.” Torcannas began to lower the craft towards the requested area when they were close, Twilight saw that ponies were waiting at the station. Namely, Princess Luna and her guards. As the craft landed silently, the lights in the ship faded, and the front of the ship opened. Twilight climbed out first, followed by Torcannas. Princess Luna spoke first. “Greeting, Twilight, and....greetings to you as well, stranger. You must be the one who fell from the stars a few days ago?” “Hello, Princess Luna. Yes, this is Torcannas, Torcannas, this is Princess Luna.” “It is a pleasure,” he said. Princess Luna’s brows raised at this, believing he could not speak without a mouth. “Princess, I have very, very bad news. Ponyville was attacked by a group of monsters that came from the Everfree-” “This is clearly bad news, but my sister had sent me a letter slightly explaining what happened, and she said she would tell me more when she arrived. Where is she, anyway?” “Well, that is what I was about to tell you about. The creatures that attack Ponyville are not from this planet. Torcannas told us that they were an extremely dangerous race of aliens. Torcannas also told us that he contacted his kind and that they said they would be sending something to help us get rid of the ‘zerg’ as they are called.” Princess Luna looked worried now. “Really? Is my sister all right? Did anypony get hurt?...What happened in Ponyville, anyway?” “Well, we were attacked by these big scary...things. They...killed two ponies but Torcannas killed the monsters before they harmed anything else. After that, Princess Celestia moved everypony out of Ponyville so nopony would get hurt later. They’re on their way here on trains.” “Oh... well then, I suppose I should thank you for risking yourself to kill those monsters that Twilight was talking about,” Princess Luna said, turning to Torcannas. “There is no need to thank me. It was what I was trained to do,” he replied. Suddenly, in the distance, trains were moving across the rails. “Those are the trains Princess Celestia and the rest of Ponyville are in.” Twilight said, for there would never be so many trains going to one destination. The group waited until the trains finally reached Canterlot’s train station. The doors opened up and Celestia, as well as many other ponies, burst from them. Twilight saw her friends walk out of the same train and, once they saw her, began to walk towards her. “Hey, Twilight. How was the flight?” Rainbow Dash asked looking at Twilight then Torcannas’s ship. “Oh, it was really interesting. Torcannas told me that his people all have powers...like magic, and that they use them for many different things...and he also said his kind live to be thousands of years old.” Before anyone could respond, Princess Celestia -she had been talking with Princess Luna and Torcannas for the moment- motioned them to come to her. Twilight and her friends walked towards the trio. “Hello, Twilight and friends”, Princess Celestia said. The other two members of the group turned to regard the approaching mares. “Hello, Princess Celestia”, the ponies said. “Torcannas, my sister, and I were just speaking of the current... situation”, Celestia said. “Torcannas thinks that the... infestation is not a major threat-” “At least not a major threat compared to some other times we have encountered the zerg. I believe that they are not unified under one single control. They are feral; no leader to guide them, so they will attack each other as often as us. But, nevertheless, they still are dangerous to any living thing. Are there any cities between, here and... Ponyville?” he asked, turning his last question to Princess Celestia. “No, but why would you ask?” the Princess responded. “Because, if there were any settlements, the zerg would head for them. And they would kill everything in their way.” “Well, how do you know that the zerg would be moving beyond the Everfree anymore?” Princess Celestia asked. “I am not sure, myself. Due to the fact there is no one controlling this zerg brood, we can not predict their movements or expect where they would go.” “Very well, I shall post guards to patrol during the day and night, in case we do get attacked. I have also asked the high figures in our military to join in a meeting tomorrow. Twilight, Luna, I will need you to be present. Torcannas, your knowledge of the zerg could help us. May I ask if you would be so kind to assist us tomorrow?” “Thank you”, Celestia turned to Twilight. “Twilight, I have asked for your brother and his wife to also come to Canterlot. They shall arrive by tomorrow as well.” “Really? I can’t wait!” Twilight exclaimed in response. The sun had begun to set. Princess Celestia spoke, “I suppose we can head our separate ways now. Would you like to be shown to your rooms?” The group nodded their agreement, and Princess Celestia began to walk with them to the castle. Princess Luna began to walk off in a different direction, most likely to raise the moon. As they walked, Twilight couldn’t help but wonder if the zerg would come to Canterlot. And what would happen if they did find their way here, for Twilight had seen what only two of the monsters had done, how unprepared they had been. And she could feeling that this “zerg” could get much, much worse. 6: DiscussionsExtraEquestrial Twilight woke with a jolt. The sound of armored hooves hitting the tiled floor of the castle rang throughout her room. "What's going on out there?" Twilight rose groggily from her bed and, cautiously, walked towards the door that connected her room to the rest of the huge residence of the princesses. Slowly, she reached out and opened the door. Guard ponies could be seen running down the hall past, weapons being carried along with them. Twilight walked into the hallway. She followed the guardsponies down the hallway that they were all running down. As she went further down, walking past pillars and stained glass windows, she began to see bodies. A few of them were bodies of guards, but most of them were ones that resembled the monsters that had attacked Ponyville. Twilight continued walking until she reached a balcony. She recognized it instantly. It was the balcony that she had been crowned on, but instead of a cheering crowd below, she saw the gold of the guard, mashed together with a mass of moving brown. The mass of monster-looking creatures Twilight could only guess in horror were the zerg, were in such numbers Twilight couldn't even imagine the guards winning. "But where is Princess Celestia?" Twilight could only ask herself. She ran as fast as she could to the first place she could guess the matriarch could be. After a few minutes, she approached the throne room of the two princesses. The grand doors before her opened as she reached them, and, as Twilight walked inside, she noticed the lack of guards in this important room. The two princesses sat on their respective thrones. As she approached, Princess Celestia spoke. "Greetings, Twilight Sparkle," she said, with a calm that Twilight couldn't believe she could posses at this moment. "What is happening, Princess?" Twilight asked. "We are under attack Twilight," Princess Celestia said too calmly, "by the zerg. The guards are doing everything they can." "I guessed that, but why aren't you doing anything?!" Twilight exclaimed. Before Princess Celestia responded, a loud bang filled the room. And again. And then the door burst open and the most horrifying things Twilight had ever seen burst out- Twilight sprang out of bed, for real this time. "It was all a dream..?" Twilight asked herself quietly. She heard a knock on the door, and she went to open it. There was no sound of armored guards running to their imminent deaths as she pulled the door open. She expected one of the Princesses, her friends, and maybe even Torcannas. But who she saw was even more unexpected. "Shining!" she squealed. She didn't think he would have arrived so early! "Hey, Twiliy," Shining Armor said, chuckling. "I didn't expect you to be here so soon!" "Yea, well, Princess Celestia told us to get here as soon as possible. I made sure to get here as fast as we could, after what I heard happened in Ponyville... those poor guys. I heard that the monsters from the Everfree were stopped by that alien that crashed there a few days ago." "Yea, he sure did stop them. Wait, where's everyone else?" Twilight asked her brother. "Oh, the others are waiting for us in the dining hall. You hadn't showed up yet, so I said I'd find you and give you a little surprise visit. They also told me to get someone named 'Torcannas', you know who that is?" "Yes, he's the one who killed the monsters in Ponnyville. You haven't met him yet?" "No, I haven't even seen him." "Well, then, come on. I saw what room he had last night so we can go get him." After that, Twilight and her brother began to walk to the room Torcannas had been given. He had asked Princess Celestia for a room with big windows, and that room was a fair ways away from the others. After a few minutes of walking, they reached their destination. Twilight reached up and knocked on the door. A few seconds later, the door opened, and Torcannas's face appeared. His appearance was so shocking to Shining, that he jumped back a few inches, along with a quiet yelp. Twilight, strangely enough, began to laugh at Shining's reaction. She saw Shining blush, and he also began to laugh. Twilight saw Torcannas's eyes half-close and she... she felt what she guessed was Torcannas's laughter as well. "Oh... I'm sorry that I was taken aback by you... It's just that you look so different from anything I've ever seen before," Shining said after his laughter subsided. "I can understand that, there is no need to apologize," Torcannas replied. "Well, Torcannas, we're having breakfast now, and I was wondering if you would like to join Twilight and I going down there to meet everyone else." "... Very well, I shall join you at this 'breakfast', Torcannas replied after a moment, and stepped out of the room to join them in their "journey" across the castle. They certainly made a strange sight. As they passed through the halls, guards bowed to Shining and Twilight, but kept their mostly-confused eyes on Torcannas. While en route to their destination, Shining turned to Torcannas. "I wanted to tell you thank you for killing those monsters in Ponyville. And saving my sister and other ponies." Torcannas's eyes widened slightly at the message, but his reply was brisk enough. "I appreciate your thanks, but it is my duty as a Templar to defend the innocent. Even though this applies to my kind, I could not let your unprepared people die. As well, I still needed to kill the zerg threat. I could not let them live." "Zerg? What are zerg?" Shining asked. Torcannas was about to reply, but they had already arrived at their destination. The sizable doors to the grand dining hall opened and Twilight saw her friends at the tables. "Well, it took you guys long enough!" Rainbow Dash called at them. "Good morning Twilight, Torcannas. It is good to see you awake," Princess Celestia said to the two, and the others present gave their greetings. Twilight then noticed a pink alicorn rise from her seat and start walking toward Twilight. "Candace!" Twilight called and closed the distance between them. When the finally got close to each other, they did their usual greeting. After, Candace stood back and looked at the creature that stood next to her husband. "So you must be the alien that crashed into Ponyville a few days ago. I think it's an honor to meet you, after all, you saved many lives yesterday. Thank you," Candace said to Torcannas. "Your thanks are appreciated Princess." "You know I'm a princess?" Candace asked. "Well, it is obvious enough," Torcannas said. "It appears that all of the... alicorns are called 'princesses'. And even stranger is that how there are only a few of you from what I have seen." "There are not many of us. Now there are only four alicorn princesses," Princess Celestia explained. "We each are different. I control the sun, my sister controls the moon, Candace is princess of love, and Twilight is our most recent addition to the royal line; princess of friendship." "You said 'control the sun' and your sister controls the moon? What you mean by this?" Torcannas seemed confused by this notion of something the others found so simple. "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna guide the sun and moon, respectively, across the sky," Twilight told Torcannas. "Is that not how it works on other planets?" Twilight instantly regretted asking that question as she realized how stupid it must sound. "No, not on any planet my kind have knowledge of. It is most interesting. Is there any way you could demonstrate that?" "Yes," Celestia said, chuckling. "Yes, I believe I could sometime. But, now, we still haven't eaten! We can't go to a meeting all hungry can we? Torcannas, is there anything you will need?" "No, my kind do not eat as we, obviously, have no mouths with which to eat with." Torcannas said. "All right, you may still join us if you wish." Princess Celestia said, and with that, one of the most amazing breakfasts Twilight had ever had was served, and eaten. Everfree Forest The queen of the changelings, Queen Chrysalis, walked through the Everfree Forest, searching for something anything. Ever since the failure at Canterlot, changelings had begun to die in large numbers. With their supply of love running low, the attack would help them replenish their numbers, but when it failed, Chrysalis was unable to do anything but watch her children die from the lack of nourishment. Chrysalis would do anything to get back at the ponies, Princess Celestia, Candace, and Shining Armor, to make them pay for every life that was lost. But, unfortunately, she could do nothing, as changelings were not a predatory race, and she alone could do nothing. Nowadays she usually walked through the forest, looking for any food source, anything she could use to keep the remaining changelings alive. Some kind of creature; anything they could find. Their numbers were so low, that even she decided she would help the scouts in their search. The numbers would grow, but only if Chrysalis could find enough nutrients to be able to make more changelings. By now, she had been searching for most of the day and nothing had been found. By her at least; maybe one of the scouts had found something of use. She blundered through the forest for what might have been hours, until she stumbled though a bush... and set eyes on the strangest, and most disturbing thing... or things she had ever seen. Brown, four-legged creatures, small but horrifying, screeched and rushed at her. A blast of magic turned them into living projectiles that slammed into... she wasn't sure what it was. A large, slightly pyramid-shaped purple mass with five giant spikes on the sides and five small ones at the top. Chrysalis had no idea what she was looking at, so she took a step closer... And stepped on some purple goo that covered the ground. When she touched it, she realized she felt something. The feeling felt similar to her connection to her hive, and she noticed that the place where, in her place, would be a controlling presence, but there was nothing to control these creatures. She was flooded with information, and it soon began to make her head hurt. She began to take notice that the way these creatures were controlled was not with magic, or how she kept track of her hive, but it was different. While on the strange substance, everything stopped, none of the creatures moved. After a few moments of wonder and horror, she reached out with her mind and put her thoughts into one of the small winged, things that seemed to be the workers of this place. It took some getting used to, but she eventually made it move. She practiced on controlling the other creatures here, and then, she attempted to put her mind into the large purple... construct, she supposed. When she did, however, a thought entered her mind, "Greetings, Broodmother. the strange thing said. Twilight, Torcannas, the princesses Celestia, Luna, and captain Shining Armor all sat in the "war room", as it had been named. This room was where the most important figures in the military met to discuss plans during war times, but had not been used for a for some time, due to the lack of... well, wars. Armored guards stood, for no apparent reason, vigilant on both sides of the doors. Joining the group of important ponies and the protoss, were 3 ponies. One was a brown-coated, orange-maned earth pony, large and muscular, even for an earth pony, General Stronghoof, commander of the earth pony forces in the military. Next to him sat a blue-coated, white-maned pegasus pony, General Cirrus, commander of the armed peagasus ponies. And the third pony was, obviously, a unicorn. General Iona, one of the few high-ranking mares in the military. All eyes were on Princess Celestia as she declared her opening statement. "Greetings. I know that I have called you here on such short notice, and I apologize. But I am sure that you have heard what happened in Ponyville. We currently have a problem on our hands that we have not faced before. The threat of an extremely hostile alien race that we can not reason with." "I have reports that say two guards were killed and the creatures were in turn killed by..." Stronghoof said, gesturing to Torcannas. "Yes, he did. This is Torcannas, and he has already found a way to defeat this enemy," Celestia said to the earth pony. "And just what is his plan, Princess?" Iona asked to the Princess, while looking at Torcannas. "He has managed to contact his kind and he said that they will be bringing forces to defeat this 'zerg' as it is called." "I see. I've seen the thing he came here on, your people must be very advanced." Iona said to Torcannas, possibly guessing that he could speak. "Yes, my people are ancient and have spent thousands of years developing advanced technologies. I have the utmost confidence that my people will be able to remove the infestation, as there is, presumably, no one controlling it." "Wait," General Cirrus said, "you said 'controlling'. Do you mean to say that something could take control of these creatures and use them against us?" "That would be highly improbable, as only zerg can take control of other zerg. And as long as the zerg here are not being controlled, they will kill each other as often as anything else, as well they usually wander freely, and would be a small threat to anything here." "When is it that your kind can even get here to deal with this... infestation?" Stronghoof asked. "When I spoke with my commanding officer, he said reinforcements would reach here as soon as they locate this planet. It should not take much longer." I sure hope it doesn't, Twilight thought to herself, as conversations started around her. Space The gleaming and massive protoss carrier floated in space, the crew preparing for a warp jump to the location of a newly discovered zerg infestation. The crew had just finished imputing the coordinates for the warp jump, and the carrier was about to preform the jump, when one of the crew members thought. "Commander, I am seeing zerg signatures closing in." "Do we have enough time to preform the warp jump?" the commander asked, using words for the benefit of the few Nezarim protoss on board. "At the current rate they are moving? No, I have calculated it, we will have to deal with them ourselves," the crew member thought back. "So be it. Prepare for combat." The zerg flyers attacked the carrier, and swarms of intercepters, and even scouts and phoenix met them. After much combat, and a few lost lives, the remaining zerg either were defeated, or fled. The carrier was not horribly damaged, the engineers on the craft could repair the damage, but it would take time and until then, the carrier would not be able to travel to the planet. It seemed it would take longer than they thought. "There," General Iona said. "Now that we have the basics down about what you plan to do, what are these 'zerg' exactly?" Torcannas thought for a moment. "They are genetically modified creatures that were forced into the swarm -the collection of all zerg- for a certain purpose. Usually to make it more deadly. All of them are dangerous, but individually they are weak." "Individually?" cried Stronghoof. "Those things killed two fully armored guards." "Because your soldiers were obviously not prepared for the zerg. If anything worse comes... I doubt your soldiers would have a chance." "Oh yeah? These things can get worse?" "Of course. They have multiple strains of deadly flying creatures and even a monstrosity that I hope is not unleashed -a strain called 'ultralisk'. Something so large, you would have little hope of defeating it." The talk continued, Torcannas began explaining the weaknesses of the zerg, and what improvements would have to be made to the military to help them survive zerg attacks. "I noticed how, when they were attacked, your guards' armor was not penetrated by the hydralisk's spines. They are fired at a very fast speed, and can kill even those who are in more advanced armor," Torcannas said to Princess Celestia. "That would be because the armor is enchanted with magic." "I see, Twilight Sparkle told of this ability your kind posses. It seems most interesting." "Twilight told me that your kind also have a special power," Princess Celestia said. "Yes, it is called 'psionics'. My kind use it from power to creating things like my blade," Torcannas raised his left arm, and a blue blade appeared. Now that Twilight looked at it, it looked like it was made out of some kind of... gas, but it also looked solid. "This blade is created by my mental energy, and it can cut through almost anything." "Interesting. Maybe we can find some way to improve our magic in combat," Iona said after the blade disappeared. "I doubt it would be needed. I am confident that my kind will come and remove the zerg. I also think it will be unlikely that the zerg could find this city." Everfree Forest -Zerg infestation site By now, Chrysalis had gotten used to commanding her new brood around. She had learned much from the "lair", as she had found out it was called. She had found that these creatures were very complex, and even so, she had been able to lightly grasp how to "spawn" more of these strange monsters. She was finding out more and more about this strange species, and now she even had a small force of ferocious beasts. And she knew just were to send them. 8: EventsExtraEquestrial Twilight was not sure why she was nervous. But for Torcannas to meet them? She wasn’t sure how her parents would react to him, they had always been enthusiastic in her accomplishments. Maybe a bit too much, Twilight thought. Even though nopony was out on the row of the large townhomes that were on this street,she felt slightly awkward standing next to Torcannas at her parent’s door, possibly more so with the six guards standing on the street behind her. She had gotten used to the odd stare - what with being a princess and all - it only seemed odd for her to be known as a friend of an alien, and one so violent as Torcannas had shown himself to be. Even if he had used lethal force to save dozens of ponies. But Twilight had began to hear rumors that he was too dangerous; that he had unnecessarily killed zerg that had been doing nothing but searching for food, that there had been no need to kill them. It pained Twilight when she heard these things. Unfortunately, Celestia and Luna had made any information they had learned from Torcannas to be classified, and any memory of the zerg specifically attacking ponies - like what had happened only a few days ago - to be erased. I suppose times call for drastic measures, Twilight thought. “For our subjects to know that one of the most dangerous races in the galaxy is being controlled by one of our recent enemies - that could induce more panic than we need, Twilight,” Celestia had explained to her when Twilight had questioned Celestia on the need for secrecy. “Believe me twilight, while some our past enemies may not be as dangerous as these monstrosities, they still have caused problems similar to this in the past. This best thing to do, my most faithful student, trust our judgement. The less that they know, the less afraid they will be.” Twilight’s thoughts snapped back to the present as she saw the door open and reveal the faces of her parents. “Twilight!” her parents said, almost in unison. “Honey, we’re glad to see you!” Their smiles faded for a moment as they noticed Torcannas standing next to her. “O-oh my…” Twilight Velvet stammered slightly. “Well, Twilight, I see you brought a guest.” Twilight nodded. “The girls couldn’t make it - they’re currently with their families, so I thought I should give you a visit, and bring along my newest friend. Torcannas - these are my parents. They-” “Oh, Twilight,” her father butted in. “We can make introductions later.” He turned to Torcannas. “Though I’m sure you’ve heard this a thousand times by now-” “Yes, I know.” Torcannas spoke.“You wish to thank me for risking my life to save the citizens of Ponyville” Twilight thought she heard sarcasm in the last sentence. And for him to be so rude!“Forgive me-” Torcannas began, but Twilight’s mother cut him off, this time. “Oh, no need to apologize!” she said, smiling knowingly at Torcannas. “It’s obvious that the stress of all this fighting has gotten to you. But you’re so well known among us, that we couldn’t help but offer our gratitude for your actions,” her mother said with a friendly smile. Torcannas said nothing as her parents led them inside, the guards outside as stoic as ever. Everfree Forest Chrysalis received the notification only seconds after she woke. What her zerg had found surprised her. Within a few moments, she had arrived at the discovery: an abandoned diamond dog mine - with gems aplenty. It was an even better discovery than the strange collections of harvestable gases found in the swamp not far from her location. Chrysalis was fascinated to have found such a large deposit of minerals so close to their hive. After so much searching for a suitable pool of resources to build an army to crush Celestia, she thought she would never find it. And with all the time she had wasted not realizing that she could have simply used her mind to communicate with the zerg - she had gotten better at it - much better than when she had started, anyway. With her newfound ability and such a large amount of resources at her feet, she would finally achieve that goal. Even if it caused so much destruction to the environment around her. She sent her commands to her zerg, and waited. Canterlot “Bye Dad, bye Mom,” Twilight said as she waved goodbye to her parents. The sun had reached its fullest height when Twilight stepped out the door of her family's home. As she and Torcannas walked down the short flight of stairs to the street, the guards still in their positions saluted her and Torcannas and quickly formed two semicircles of three each on both sides of Twilight. While Twilight was glad that they were here, she saw no reason for it. Nowadays, she rarely traveled to the city limits, and even if she did there was, yet again, increased security; the need for guards was overdoing it, or at least in Twilight’s mind it was. Twilight had been promised that her friends would only be checking up on their friends and family today, so she decided to go see if they were done by now. If not, she could always see her brother or the Princesses. As they walked, Twilight remembered the question she had stored away to ask Torcannas. Well, now seemed like a better time than any other. Turning to face him, she asked, “Torcannas, when my father wanted to thank you, why did you cut him off like that? All he wanted to do was simply-” “I understand, Twilight Sparkle. But that is the problem. Allof your kindwishes to thank me,” he said, stressing the work thank. “It had gotten extremely irritating to hear it from so many ponies wherever I roam the streets. I simply wish to not be recognized in such by such a large quantity for killing a few dozen zerg!” “Oh. Well, ponies always appreciate help, and violence the likes of what we’ve seen over the past week hasn’t been seen in centuries!” “I understand that, Twilight Sparkle. But it is simply wearing me thin to be awarded such high praise when what I have done is something so paltry with what others of my kind have accomplished.” Twilight was going to respond, but multiple voices cut her off. They had reached their destination. “Hey Twilight! Torcannas!” she heard Dash call, amid other greetings from her friends as they walked up to the double-semicircle shape that the guards had formed around them. As the friends exchanged pleasantries, Twilight noticed the guards turned and bowed to their right. Turning in the same direction, Twilight watched as Princess Celestia approached them, her own guards in tow.The six of them following the example of the guards, Torcannas standing, Princess Celestia finally reached the group, and motioned for them to rise. While doing so, Twilight asked, “Hello, my little ponies,” she said with a smile. Turning to Torcannas, “Torcannas, you must come with me at once,” she commanded. Obliging, he said farewell to Twilight and her friends, turned, and followed Celestia towards Canterlot Castle, the guards forming their ever-specific formations around them. Torcannas walked alongside Princess Celestia, not asking any questions, and Celestia not seeking answers. It was obvious that Celestia was formidable. If she could apparently control the sun with her magic, he wondered why she herself did not go to eradicate the zerg. But he supposed he would ask questions later, in relative safety of not being overheard. It was a long while before they entered through the massive gates of the castle. As they walked through the elegant yet empty hallways, Torcannas noticed that the path they were following was a familiar one: they were walking to the war room. And, unsurprisingly, his prediction was correct. They entered the room and the faces of the three pony commanders and Luna greeted them. Torcannas took his seat across from the ponies. “Greetings to all,” Celestia began. “You all know what we are meeting here for. The ever-growing zerg problem.” “I believe it's more than a problem, Princess,” Iona said. Celestia glanced at her before continuing. “Be that as it may, we still need a solution. Today. By tomorrow, I want to know that our citizens are safe yet again from the menace that Chrysalis has supposedly wrought on us. The three of you, generals all, and you, Torcannas, with your knowledge of the zerg, as well as Luna and myself hope to finally end this,” as Celestia went silent, discussion erupted around the room. Everfree Forest Chrysalis was finally ready. It amazed her how fast these zerg spread and multiplied. Before her was the army that she had created: more zerg than she knew the ponies would be able to handle, even if the brief glimpses through the eyes of her zerg a few days ago had been correct and they did have some kind of powerful alien it would not save them. Spread throughout the collection of zerglings and hydralisks were the creatures that had come from the latest DNA bank - or so she understood it. The roache’s armor would undoubtedly be useful against the ponies without magic, and the mutalisks were sure to shred any pegasus to pieces. And then, towering over them all, was the one thing that she knew that not even Celestia could defeat. It was too big to fail. The ultralisk, she knew it would be stopped by nopony and that she would finally have her victory. With the sun overhead, she sent her orders to the zerg, and watched as they moved towards the direction of Canterlot. Where Celestia would finally fall. Canterlot The sun had begun to dip below the horizon, coloring everything a lighter shade of blue from the moon’s light. After more pointless arguments than Torcannas could bear, he spoke up. “Why do neither of you Celestia, or Luna, with your so-powerful magic go and eliminate the zerg?” “Because we cannot,” Luna said simply.“We do not have an infinite amount of magic to draw from, Torcannas. If the zerg spread as fast as you said they do, then we would have to bring more than just the two of us to destroy it all. As well as after defeating whatever zerg Chrysalis has positioned at the main colony.” “But still believe that you cannot intervene in any way?” “Of course we can, and will,” Celestia responded. “When the time comes we will fight alongside you and our soldiers, Torcannas. Now, what strategies do you have for fighting the zerg strains we have yet to encounter?” Canterlot, Outer wall Hawkeye had always liked being a guard. It had been his dream to wear the golden armor of the royal guard, and protect the ponies of Equestria from harm. Months after becoming a guard, however, he thought slightly differently. All he did was stand in place here, stand in place there, put on some kind of routine with other guards. While it wasn’t exciting, it wasn’t what he had imagined, either. Now that they were in a war with some extremely deadly alien race, he was finally living his dream - in a place he’d rather not be. While the view from the outer wall was pretty, it didn’t make up for the fact there was nothing to do there. He thought he had once seen some bloodstains on the floor below them, but he dismissed it; none of the other ponies seemed to notice. But then again, it was his talent to see things nopony noticed. It was why he had become a lookout. As he watched over the plains in front of him, the moonlight making everything a dull blue-gray, he thought he saw something by the slope that led access to the main road. He rubbed his eyes, then looked again. No, it was not lack of sleep, but it was actually something real. He called the other guards over; they were as tired as he was, with sleep cut short for extra watchponies. He pointed in the direction of the disturbance, but his hoof dropped as he saw what he had seen before was now a massive amount of what he supposed were zerg. And they were heading right for the main gate. Alerted, the pegasi took off to warn the Princesses and guards, as the others blew into alarm horns or readied themselves for battle. Hawkeye gulped - this was going to be something, all right. Canterlot Torcannas was frustrated - he could see they were making little progress, and the constant outbursts from all the ponies in the room were not helping- The arguments and discussions stopped as a distant sound rang throughout the room. A guard burst through the door. “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, the zerg are attacking with a larger force than what we’ve ever seen before.” Celestia looked around the room. “It is time,” she said. Turning to the guard, she asked, “are the soldiers prepared?” “Yes,” the guard responded. “They are already positioned at the main gate, the zerg have almost reached us.” “And the Elements of Harmony?” Celestia asked “They are prepared in the need arises for them to participate, Princess.” “Very well. You all know what you must do,” Celestia said. And with that, the ponies rose and sprinted out of the room. Torcannas followed moments later, easily catching up with the ponies, and racing toward the balcony where he had landed his vessel. Reaching it in moments, he opened the cockpit, became airborne, and took off at full speed to the main gate, where the fate of these ponies, and his newfound friends hung in the balance. 1: Unexpected arrivalExtraEquestrial The pilot of a Protoss fighter, named Torcannas, watched from his ship as their fleet flew among the stars in one huge golden mass. Their star ships was impressive, and clearly showed advanced technology. The sizes of the ships ranged from small fighters to massive crafts capable of destroying entire planets. Even more important that the ships was what they were protecting; In the very center, guarded by the whole fleet flew a true behemoth, the size of a small city. Capable of bending space and time to its will, it was one of the most powerful vessel ever created: the mothership. A giant disk-like spacecraft with a giant crystal at its center was one of the most ancient and powerful things ever made, and there were so few of them left. Everything was going fine to protect the Mothership, it was only a few more days of travel to get to the destination ....and then they were attacked. The attackers were strange, terrifying, insect-like monsters that swarmed the fleet in massive numbers. Even so, with their numbers in the thousands, the monsters were held at bay. Even though they had so many, they were no match for the Protoss and their advanced technology. However; the enemy just kept coming, It was becoming too much of a force to defend against. The battle lasted for hours and it seemed to be leaning towards the enemy; the Protoss could not hold out mush longer. Torcannas could only continue to fight his hardest for his kind knowing that this could only end one way. That was, until a face appeared on his ship's monitor, that he recognized it as commander Kannas of the fleet. "En taro Tassadar, pilot Torcannas", said the commander. "En taro Tassadar, commander Kannas", replied Torcannas. "Is there matter of great importance?" he asked "I am currently out of combat but i must return quickly." "That is what I am trying to contact you about, Torcannas. You must prepare your ship for a wormhole jump." "But that technology is highly unstable." Torcannas said with a sense of dread in him. "Yes", replied the commander "but it is our only hope that we can get the mothership and the rest of the fleet out of this catastrophe." Torcannas hesitated before replying: "....very well I shall start the procedures immediately." "I shall notify you when we shall make the jump. Be ready", said Kannas, then, with a small flash, he disappeared from the small screen. With the commander gone, Torcannas started to press small buttons and flip switches, readying his ship for the warp jump; a new and fairly unstable devise that would allow them to travel great distances in an instant. Suddenly, the commander appeared on his screen again: "Are you prepared for the transit?", asked the commander "Yes I am commander. Simply tell me when to initiate the system", was the reply. After a few seconds a countdown commenced: "5....4....3...." counted a robotic voice from a speaker in his ship "2....1....0, prepare for jump...." Then a massive flash of light came from all around him. Then darkness. Then again there was a flash of light and suddenly, he was back in space. It took him a while to adjust but once he did he realized a few things at once. He was alone, no one from the fleet was around him. His ship was out of control, he couldn't slow down. And that he was heading straight for a planet at full speed. He was going to die. 1 hour before, in Ponyvile.. Twilight couldn't be happier, she had become a princess! After her coronation, she decided she would stay in Ponyvile. Life after she had become a princess had been a bit hard to adjust but she had gotten used to it. It had been 3 weeks since then and life had almost returned to normal. Today was the day they gave out the "Pony of Ponyvile" award and they were about to start declaring who got the award. This years award was going to be given out after dark for some reason but Twilight couldn't wait to see who won. After about 5 minutes, the mayor got up onto the stage of town hall and said: "Citizens of Ponyvile, today we honor a pony who has truly deserved this award...." Meanwhile in the upper atmosphere.... Torcannas knew that his ship wouldn't burn up as it entered the atmosphere, due to the shields that the ship had been built with, but he knew the impact would most likely kill him but he still had hope....his shields had continued to recharge and he might have a small chance of surviving if he didn't crash into something too hard but he saw, as he was falling, a town. So this planet had life? Even though he couldn't slow down, he overloaded the ships warp field through his inertia drive and encased himself in a small ball of light, slowing down the ship.....it wasn't enough. He was still going too fast. Back in Ponyvile The mayor was starting to get to the end of her speech: "...and so it is with great pleasure that i give this award to.....Princess Twilight Sparkle." Twilight was shocked, she hadn't imagined for herself to get the award. She walked up to the stage and took the trophy from the smiling mayor. "Thank you", said Twilight, as a picture was taken. Almost as soon as the words had left her mouth, Twilight saw a bright flash in the sky. "A shooting star?" Twilight asked herself. It began to get brighter and brighter until everypony was looking up.Then Twilight realized: "That's not a shooting star-that's a meteor! Even though it wasn't looking like it was flying too fast (in fact it seemed to slow down somewhat) it was still heading straight towards them. It also was falling at a very flat angle. ***** Torcannas had managed to slow down the ship even more, but he knew he couldn't do it again. He was going to crash. He reached down and checked on the small shield of energy that would protect his craft from any damage it was at 25%. He might just survive...He just wasn't so sure about whatever was on the ground. he was getting closer.....closer. He braced himself for impact. "Not the most noble of deaths", he thought to himself. ***** Twilight watched with growing horror and fascination as the meteor slowed down yet again and deiced it probably wasn't just a rock. Finally after watching for 2 minutes the meteor smashed into the spire on the top of town hall and crashed into the open field next to it. There was a blue pulse that shimmed around the meteor as it crashed and a large amount of dust and dirt made a cloud around it. As it cleared Twilight was shocked, as were here other friends, that it wasn't a rock. It was a golden....machine of some sort. "Well What is that?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I don't know" Twilight responded She didn't know what it was it looked like some kind of gold and blue machine with wings that faced backwards and pulsed blue lights, it also had a window in the front that was very dark and she couldn't see through it. It looked very advanced but what was it? Suddenly there was a soft, hissing noise and the front of the strange thing began to move forward. Then one of the strangest creatures she had ever seen stepped, or rather limped out leaving a dark trail, when it fell to its knees and said in a voice that came from many places at once something unintelligible before it collapsed to the ground and lay still. 7: ComplicationsExtraEquestrial Torcannas had been told that the city that he was currently in was one of the oldest in the entire country. Over the better part of half a day, he had been wandering through it, alone, as his new found "friends" were busy with other matters. Compared to the cities of his kind, this -supposedly grand- city faltered much in that regard. Ignoring the city, he was surprised at how the populous reacted to him. Rather than, when he had first been among them, they had been showing a large amount of awe and as well, fear, they now seemed to have heard tell of him and his deeds, for they no longer seemed to be as afraid of him. On the contrary, many came up to him to thank him for what he had done in... Ponyville, was the name. He hardly thought that a deed of such repeated thanks -he had started to become slightly annoyed with it, by now. By the end of his exploration, he found himself at what he supposed was the main entrance to the city. It had obviously been built during times of strife, thick and tall and obviously designed to withstand attacks. As he walked up to the large gates, ponies making way for him, he noticed a group of ten soldiers spread out upon the battlements of the wall. "Princess Celestia must have increased their numbers," he thought to himself. As he made it to the entrance to the city, the amount of ponies began to decline, and the sun had set, giving way to a starry sky. As he turned to head back to the castle, he noticed a movement on the dark, unlit road that led to the city, that could not have belonged to a pony. Torcannas knew it would be hard to see for the guards, but he knew what it was, or rather what they were -zerg. He walked inside the city and looked up at the guards stationed on the walls. "You must come down -I believe zerg are approaching the city ," he said to the group of soldiers. "Are you sure, sir? I don't see anything over there," one of the soldiers replied. Then followed a slicing sound and a scream from one of the guards. After that eight soldiers descended the wall and ran to Torcannas. As they did, ten zerglings and ten hydralisks ran and slithered, respectively, to a stop at the entrance to the city, the gates behind them. As the few civilians that had remained there fled, one of the guards spoke. "What do we do?" the guard asked. "You've fought these things before, right? How do you kill them?" "The small creature are zerglings, do not let them overwhelm you. The larger threats are tall hydralisks, they will launch projectiles - "We saw," said another soldier. "One of them attacked us from the ground. It injured one of us, another stayed with him." As they spoke, the zerg remained still. "Strange activity for zerg," Torcannas observed to himself. As soon as he had thought that, the zerg began advancing. "Do you need a weapon?" one of the guards asked Torcannas. In answer, he raised his arms and summoned two psi-blades. The guards' eyes widened at the sight. "Wish I could do that," he said. "You will not be able to dodge the hydralisk's spines, block them with your armor, Torcannas said as he ran forward. He heard the guards follow him. Three zerglings ran at him and two hydralisks followed suit. Torcannas slew the zerglings easily, and rolled to avoid some of the spines launched at him, and raised his blades to his head. The spines that hit were disintegrated by them. He swiftly stood and, leaping at the nearest hydralisk, decapitated it, his blades passing through it easily. He ducked as the second hydralisk swung its claws at him. He lunged forward and stabbed it in the neck, his blade sticking out the other side. He turned to see where the other zerg and soldiers were. He saw six zerglings and three hydralisks dead. Likewise he saw one soldier dead, and another was sprawled on the ground, wounded, but apparently alive. The remaining guards and zerg were fighting viciously, but he noticed that there were mistakes that the zerg made, as if they were being controlled -and by a incapable leader, at that. He ran forward to aid the remaining guards. Two were fighting a zergling and two hydralisks. He swiftly killed the zergling, then turned and dispatched one of the hydralisks. The soldiers finally killed the remaining hydralisk. The soldiers thanked him for the assist. He looked away, and saw that the remaining four guards had killed most of the zerg. Torcannas saw the last of the zerg moving for him; four hydralisks. He saw the guards start to run forward to help him. He charged at the hydralisks, and as the fired the spikes, he dropped down and slid up to the hydralisks. Two swung at him with their tails and claws, but he dodged and sliced, and efficiently killed them. The remaining two zerg fell swiftly after. The guards had reached him by now, and one of them ran up to the wall and the other went to the injured one lying on the ground. One of the soldiers turned to Torcannas. "You sure can fight... those things were terrifying. You've fought them before?" "Yes, unfortunately, I have, many times," Torcannas replied. It was then that a large group of guards entered the plaza where the gate was located. From the group of soldiers, came Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, and Twilight Sparkle. "What happened?" Celestia asked. Next to her, Twilight Sparkle stood with her mouth agape at the disturbing scene before her. "We were attacked by a group of zerg, if that is not obvious enough!" Torcannas said. "How many were there?" Shining asked them. "I counted twenty, sir," one of the soldiers who had fought said. "Mr. Torcannas here most likely saved all of us here. We do have two who were injured during the fighting, however... and one dead," he added gravely. "How... how did they come all the way here?" Twilight asked, looking specifically at Torcannas. "Of that, I am not sure. I do have a few speculations. I will have to ask later." "I suppose we all have questions to ask, Torcannas," Princess Celestia said. They called in ponies to deal with the cleaning, as well as keeping the public away from the area, and they retreated back to the castle. An hour later, Twilight, the princesses, the three generals, and Torcannas met in the war room. "So... let's start at the begging, shall we?" Celestia asked Torcannas. "Please describe exactly what happened. We know you had chosen to wander about the city while we were preforming our duties, so please start after that." Torcannas spoke of his battle, explaining everything from his arrival at the gates, to the first strike, to the actual battle, sparring no details. After he finished, he looked at Twilight, then Celestia. "What I found strange, Princess Celestia was that the zerg made certain... mistakes and they behaved unlike even feral zerg. And as well, the zerg are too far away to happen upon by accident. I believe they are being controlled ." "You're saying that these creatures have gotten something to lead them,now?" General Stronghoof asked. "Yes... but I do not think that it is zerg." "How are the zerg controlled, Torcannas?" Iona asked him. "Through a psionic mental link." Princess Celestia's eyes widened. "I... I think I know who is behind this. But I have to be sure," she turned to Twilight. "You've done research on Changelings before, haven't you, Twilight?" "Yes... you think it's her?" "I believe so, yes." "Who do you think it, Princess?" Iona asked. "Do you think it is the Changeling queen?" "Yes, I think it is." "Who is this "Changeling Queen", Celestia? Torcannas questioned. "She leads a race of creatures called changelings, who can replicate anypony they choose. From the limited knowledge we have of them, we know that they are led by their queen through mental communication. It could be possible that she has found this zerg colony and taken control over it. She attempted to take over Canterlot a short time ago, and it seems she will try to do that again, but this time it seems she has a new weapon against us." "A weapon, yes, but it seems she still has yet to master using it," Torcannas said. "Then let us hope that this fact can be the cause of her defeat." Chrysalis was surprised. She hadn't expected her force to be defeated so easily. It seemed that while these zerg had strength in numbers, she still hadn't expected that to happen. That golden creature had been terribly strong. It seems that she would have to work hard on killing it if she was to win. Nevertheless, she still had to improve on her controlling of the zerg. The current resource locations had recently been depleted. She would have to search for more, and the task was daunting, to say the least. She did not want to start destroying the forest to obtain the resources, but if it came to that, then she would. She ordered a few overloads to scout for them. She would also send drones to search caves and such for mineral deposits. It would be difficult, but she could manage. Once she had them, she wanted to see what strains were in this swarm. The "ultralisk" sounded very interesting.
2: QuestionsExtraEquestrial First there was silence at what had just occurred. Then panic. But then the mayor calmed everyone down, Then walked over to Twilight and asked: "What is that thing, Princess", she asked " I've never seen anything like it." "I could say the same thing, Mayor. I have no clue what it is." "Well what do we do? Do you have any ideas?" the mayor asked. "I'm thinking. Well it looks like it needs help, we could take it to the hospital" ,Twilight responded "and after that I could contact Princess Celestia." "Very well, Princess Twilight, I'll send everypony home and then I'll see what I can do about that machine that crashed here." The mayor said, and walked off to start telling everypony to go back home. "OK, girls I'm going to need some help here." Twilight called to her friends. "Sure Twi', so we taking that critter to the hospital?" AppleJack asked "seems strange since we've never seen anthin' like it." "Yea, what if they can't do anything with it", said Rainbow Dash "It's a hospital meant for pony's not weird aliens!" "Well, you have a better idea? Fluttershy can you take care of it? Twilight asked the pony. "Umm I don't think so Twilight, I've never seen any strange animal like that before." Fluttershy answered. "OK then, hospital here we come." Twilight said as she started levitating the creature into the air. After about 30 minutes of long walking and helping each other carry the alien, the hospital came into view. "Finally", said Rainbow Dash "this was taking way too long." "You can say that again" Twilight added. "Oh well, at least we're here gal's" said AppleJack "Now let's see what they can do." They walked into the hospital, the receptionist looked up, saw 6 ponies and a strange alien creature and grew pale. Then said: "Hello and welcome, but can I ask what is that thing, Princess?" she asked. "We don't even know ourselves what it is", Twilight said "but we see that it needs help now." The receptionist grew even more pale: "Very well then." Then she cleared her throat and spoke into a microphone in a very tiny voice: "Doctor Statas please come to operation room 3a, thank you. And can I please get a doctor for a.... patient needing emergency care now please." Then a crew of nurses and a doctor came, stared, and the doctor promptly said: "What is that?" He asked, staring at the alien. "Its a long story all we know is that it needs help now so can you please do that so we can answer that question for ourselves?" Twilight answered. "W-well of course Princess.", the doctor said, after he regained his composure, then turned to his assistants and said: "Alright, this will be quite a learning experience for us." then he turned back to Twilight and said: "We will try to everything we can, Princess." Then he took the creature, and started giving orders to his assistants as he walked away As soon as Twilight got home, she ran to Spike before he even said hello and said: "Spike, take a letter." "Alright twilight, whats the rush?" he said as he took out a piece of paper and a quill. "I'll explain later Spike just write this down. Dear Princess Celestia How are you? I'm fine but I have a very strange matter to tell you about. Today was the "Pony of Ponyvile" award day and while at the ceremony, a strange alien craft crashed into Town hall! It clearly looked more advanced than us, but it was wounded and needed help urgently. We took it to the hospital, where they say their doing everything they can, and strangely enough, seem to be helping. But we still don't know what it is and we need your help. Sincerely your's Princess Twilight Sparkle "Wow Twilight", Spike said after sending the letter "a real alien? what did it look like? Did it shoot lasers from its eyes? Is it-" "No Spike", Twilight interrupted " it simply crashed into the ground and got out from some kind of machine. But it was hurt so we took it to the hospital. We really didn't know what else to do. By the way, what happened to that thing that crashed at town hall?" "I don't know I think its still there, the mayor said she couldn't move it, or something." Spike replied. "Hmm, well alright then, I'll go get a closer look at that machine see you later Spike." Once Twilight made it to the crash site she found it had been closed off and the mayor standing next to it. "Hello Princess", the mayor said, bowing "I figure you're here for a closer look?" "Actually, yes I am. May i get through?" Twilight asked. "Why of course, please just go over the border." Twilight then stepped over the small wall that closed off the area- which was in bad shape since it had been hit by something falling from space. Twilight was most surprised to see that the crashed...vehicle it seemed- and one capable of flying. It clearly looked far more advanced than anything they currently had in terms of technology. It was mainly gold, but had blue wings that faced backwards and had a triangular shaped front and at the back, what appeared to be engines. All of it was beyond what Twilight could comprehend. "If this creature can speak with us....imagine what it could share.. Twilight then realized something. "Why is this still here?" Twilight asked. "Because we can't move it", replied the mayor " when we tried to lift it, or even get closer to it, it would let out a blue field of some sort that prevented us from moving it. After a few tries we gave up there's no way to move it unless that alien can. Speaking of which, how did your trip go?" "I got a message from the hospital", Twilight said, "and they said they had been able to bandage up his wounds but they don't know what else they can do, but for now it seems to be working." "Very well then, I shall take my leave now, Princess. Goodnight." The mayor said as she started walking back to her house. "I guess I better head on back home. There will be more time for questions tomorrow." Twilight thought to herself, then turned around and started down the path back to the library. "When Twilight got back home, she was greeted by Spike, who, as soon as she got home, ran up to her and said: "Twilight, your back. Well I just got a reply from Princess Celestia." He said as he pulled out a scroll and gave it to her. "Thank you Spike." Twilight said. she opened up the letter and began to read. Dear Princess Twilight This is certainly very important news! I can hardly believe we have been visited by a creature from another world. It is simply fascinating! I am also glad that you were able to help the visitor and I hope for the best. I would also like you to know I will be coming to Ponyvile tomorrow to investigate and greet this alien. Princess Celestia Twilight put the letter down. "Well what does it say" Spike asked. "She said shes coming to Ponyvile tomorrow to meet the alien." Twilight responded. "Well you could go check on it, see if its OK?" Spike suggested. "OK I guess i better check up on him before the Princess comes tomorrow." Twilight said as she walked out the door. Twilight had walked to the hospital with Fluttershy, who had been about to go to ask for a book, but instead had decided to go to join her. As they walked in through the doors, the receptionist asked: "Are you here to see somepony, Princess?" "Yes, we're here to see that creature that we brought in earlier today." Twilight answered. "Very well hes in room 4a in the emergency center." The receptionist said after a brief look at her clipboard. "Thank you, nurse." Twilight said as she and Fluttershy began to follow the signs to the room. Twilight was about to enter through the door to the room when the doctor from earlier this day stumbled through. "Oh terribly sorry, Princess." he said as he stepped to the side. "Its alright doctor I'm just here to check on the patient in this room." Twilight said. The doctor's eyes widened as he spoke: "Oh its simply one of the most stunning creatures I've ever seen, albeit strange, but simply fascinating." "Really? How so? Other than the fact than he walks on two legs." Twilight questioned. "Well I guess you can come see for yourself, Princess. Please follow me." He said as he held the door open for them. As they walked in, Twilight noticed that the creature was clearly something unlike anything she had ever seen before. For starters, it was incredibly large and scaled, and its long legs and thick, muscled arms hung off the bed. But maybe the strangest and most shocking thing was its face; it had no mouth, ears, or nose but it did have a strange crest extending from the back of its very large head. "These creatures must be incredibly intelligent." Twilight thought to herself "Imagine what we could learn!" "Wow it looks....scary." Fluttershy commented. She was right. It had.... four claws on each hand("that's the right word ,right?"she thought to herself) that looked very sharp. "Well you wont have to worry, its been unconscious the whole time its been here." The doctor said to Fluttershy. "Its so fascinating isn't it? To see such a strange creature so different from what we'er used to." The doctor said. "You got that right. But how is he coming along, doctor?" Twilight asked. "Oh well he had a nasty cut on his right leg and arm, as well as a concussion, from what I suppose was the incident that happened this morning. But we managed to patch him up and we're currently hoping for him to wake up." The doctor said. "Well I would like to thank you for trying so hard doctor and I would like to tell you that Princess Celestia is coming tomorrow to see this creature for herself. "The doctor's eyes widened "T-the Princess here? Well what an honor. Very well thank you Princess Twilight I'll make sure to be ready tomorrow then." Twilight and Fluttershy both said their thanks to the doctor as they left the hospital. As they were walking back to Ponyvile Twilight turned to Fluttershy and asked: "Isn't it exciting? Imagine all we could learn from it!" "Well uh sure.... its just aren't you scared it looked really big and scary." Fluttershy responded. "I'm sure its nice, I mean, come on we saved its life. It can't be angry with us for that, can it?" "I guess... oh i just don't know Twilight I mean sure we could learn a lot from it but we don't even know what it is." Fluttershy said. "Yes and that's why we're going to ask it some questions tomorrow, Fluttershy. So we can figure out just what it is." "Oh, OK, I see your point. Goodnight Twilight." "Goodnight Fluttershy." Twilight said back "See you tomorrow." As Twilight settled into bed, she couldn't help thinking about the upcoming day. "Oh this is going to be so exciting." she thought to herself "I just can't wait to see what it has to say. Imagine all that we could learn and who knows, maybe there are other kinds of creatures out in space." Her dreams that night were filled with space and the unknown. Darkness then a bright flash of light as Torcannas awoke. He was alone. In a bed. But just where was he? Then his memory came flooding back to him: Attacked. A sudden defeat, and a malfunction. Then speeding towards the surface a unknown planet, certain he was going to die. Well he hadn't, apparently. His armor had been removed but he felt bandages on his wounds, so wherever he was wasn't hostile. Yet. But just what kind of creatures lived here? He supposed he would find out now. But he was too weak to raise himself from the bed, however, and fell back before darkness overtook him.
3: IntroductionsExtraEquestrial Torcannas awoke, yet again, in the hospital room. He waited until he was fully awake and looked around the room. He saw what he guessed was medical equipment, strange and clearly primitive by his standards. But he soon stopped his search when he realized how weak he felt. How long had he been in here? It had been dark when he had lost consciousness but he now saw sunlight streaming through his window. Sunlight. He must have been out of the sun for too long. He forced himself to stand and began his slow trek to the window, where he ripped off the curtains and sat down in the light that was now far more present, strength slowly ebbing back into him. ***** Doctor Stethoscope looked at the room where his newest patient was in. The guards that stood at the front door certainly made an impression. They said they had been sent to guard the room for Princess Celectia's arrival. At least they had gotten rid of the paparazzi that had been coming here. Lucky that none of them got into the room, otherwise some very bad news would be running through Ponyvile right now. The creature was so strange and so intriguing. It was so different from any other creature he had ever seen of, that he couldn't comprehend how they had even been able to help him in the first place. He wondered if it was awake. He turned to enter the room when he heard he heard something behind the door. The guards turned their heads towards the door and the one on the right said: "Do you need us to check inside?" "No that's all right I'll check for myself something probably just fell." The doctor responded as he went through the door. ***** After he had regained some strength, Torcannas decided he'd see what these creatures were that had helped him. But before he got up the door opened and in came An equine? he asked himself. It was strange, unlike the other kinds of equines he had seen on other planets, this one was small, four or five feet maybe, it was white furred and was wearing what appeared to be white lab coat and some kind of mask covering his mouth. Even stranger was a strange symbol on his flank. It appeared to be a strange device that was 'y' shaped. The equine stared back at him just as intensely. ***** How strange. Are it's eyes are glowing? The doctor said to himself. what if it understands my speech? Lets try it then, shall we? He cleared his throat and said: "Hello strange creature. Can you understand me? My name is Doctor Stethoscope." He waited, tried again, then watched as the creature tilted it's head in confusion. "Maybe this will be harder than I thought." ***** Torcannas simply stared as the equine as it tried to speak with him in it's strange language. He thought for a moment, then stood up. The equine was apparently scared and he took a few steps back. Torcannas put up his hands in a gesture of peace, and the creature walked forward a bit. He extended a hoof. Torcannas stretched out his arm to meet the hoof but he stopped and moved his hand straight up into the equine's face, scanning his mind for how to speak this creatures language. He found what he had been looking for and started to learn how to communicate. The equine meanwhile started, it's eyes as wide as it's open mouth. But Torcannas was finished before he could say anything and removed his hand, and mind, from the equine. The Equine stared at him, mouth still agape and silent. "Hello." Torcannas said to the creature. The equine just stared back. "Did it just greet me?" The doctor thought. "H-hello.." The equine responded in a timid voice I am sorry that I dug through your mind like that... I hope you can forgive me. It was the only way I could think of to try and learn your language. My name is Torcannas. What is your's?" Torcannas asked. "M-my name is Stethoscope, Doctor Stethoscope." "Well then, Doctor, I must thank you for possibly saving my life." "Oh it was nothing", the doctor replied "but may I ask, how do you speak without a mouth?" "I "speak" through my mind, Doctor." "Well I must say that you are one of the most fascinating creatures I have ever seen." "Thank you Doctor, and I must say that you are different from other equines I have seen" Torcannas said. The doctor glanced about nervously, possibly searching for an excuse to leave. "Well I suppose I must be off now. Please don't try to exit the room, and if there is anything you need we will check up on you from time to time." The doctor said as he unsteadily exited the room. Once the doctor left, Torcannas proceeded to return to the window and sit in the sunlight. Twilight and her friends stood at the dirt road that served as the landing strip for Princess Celestia's carriage. They had been waiting for about 20 minutes now and thought she might never show up, until a golden flicker in the distance showed that Celestia was close to Ponyvile. When the Princess finally landed and exited the carriage she greeted them. "Ah, Princess Twilight, I'm glad that you and your friends could join me." the Princess said."Well lets be off, then, show me that strange machine that I've heard the alien crashed into Ponyvile in." The group left and walked back to Ponyvile. All the way ponies were stopping and bowing to both the princess that were walking through the town. Then they finally reached their destination. When Celestia saw the strange golden craft, her eyes grew wide and she began to walk around the strange machine, inspecting it, then said to Twilight: "Have you looked at this strange thing?" she asked. "Yes" Twilight responded "it appears to be some kind of vehicle, though I am not completely certain." "Hm, a vehicle you say, I guess we'll have to ask our visitor, speaking of which, you said it was in the hospital?" the princess asked. "Yes" "Very well then, let us go meet the strange creature." They promptly set out for the hospital. When they finally arrived, the group was bowed to by every pony in the hospital. Twilight led the way to the room and saw that guards had been posted by the door. They stepped to the side as the group walked closer to the door. Suddenly, the pony Twilight remembered was the doctor came running down the hall towards them. He bowed before the two princesses then said: "Hello Princess Celestia, I suppose you are here to see the alien." "Yes", responded the princess "Have you spoken to it? Can it speak Equestrian? "Well, when it spoke to me it could understand what I was saying so yes." "Very well, we are going to go see it now." The princess turned and the group followed her through the door. As then they entered. Twilight looked at the alien, seeing that it was in a different position since they last saw it. "Did it wake up?" Twilight asked herself. She looked at the others, then said: "I think its sleeping." "Well lets find out, Dash said as she prodded the creature with her hoof, before Twilight could object, the creature was jolted awake, its eyes....glowing and scooted back in surprise. It simply stared "Hello", Princess Celestia said to the creature "I am Princess Celestia, ruler of this country. I have heard that you crashed into this place two days ago and would like to know how and why you came to this place." The creature responded, its voice coming from everywhere at once: "Greetings, equines. My name is Torcannas. I am a pilot in one of Protoss's grand fleets. You must be wondering how I came to be here? I crashed here because of a malfunction in an unstable new technology. But what I would like to know is where I currently am and when can I be released." "We will allow you to go now but I must ask you to come with me to make sure you are not a threat to us." Torcannas stared back, then said: "Very well, what is it you wish me to do? "All I need you to do is answer some questions. But not here." "I will comply. But I must ask: what have you done with my armor? It could not have been removed by you, not with the technology I have seen you present." "I do not know, you would have to ask those who were here. But I suppose you want it back?" When the affirmative was given, Princess Celestia turned and walked out the door. For many minutes nothing was said by anyone in the room, and then Celestia came back, with Stethoscope and a large box in tow. "Her Highness says that you require your armor? It is inside of this box," he paused to lift the top off the large, metal container, revealing large, golden pieces of armor. "When you came here, we tried to remove it with our hooves and horns, but we were not successful; it wouldn't budge. We had to teleport it off of you, and I assume we can do the same to put it back on you..." The Doctor gave an uncertain look at Celestia, who nodded in return. Her horn began to glow, and the pieces of armor began to glow with her magic. The armor disappeared, vanishing in front of their eyes, and reappeared a few moments later on Torcannas, who in return thanked them, his eyes narrowed, but no questions asked. They said their farewells, the employees bowing to the Princesses, and shrinking away from Torcannas as they made their way through the hospital, And so they left. It was still bright outside and they made a swift pace to Ponyvile. While on the way, Torcannas turned to the ponies and said: "I must ask, I remember not being in a hospital before I lost consciousnesses, who was it that brought me here? "Oh well I believe that it was these six ponies here." The Princess said, and gestured at the group of friends, staring back at Torcannas. "Well, then I am in your debt. I can not thank you enough for what you did." "Oh, please it was nothing." Twilight said to him. "Even so, I can not forget what you did for me if there is anything I can do, do not hesitate to ask." And so they continued their walk to Ponyvile. When they finally reached Ponyvile, it had become quite late and the question finally came to Twilight. "Princess where is he going to stay while he is here." "Well I was hoping he could stay in your home until the questioning tomorrow." "Really?" Twilight said, shocked. "You want me?" "But of course,who else would I pick?" The Princess replied. "I was hoping you could learn something about him before he leaves." As they walked through Ponyvile to Twilight's house, ponies stopped and gawked at the strange, glowing creature passing through their town. When they finally reached Twilight's home, Princess Celestia turned to them and said: "Very well my little ponies this is were I must leave you. I will return tomorrow to ask questions to our guest. Sir Torcannas, I hope yo don't mind staying with Twilight, a minor princess, here until tomorrow?" "It is no problem for me, I am only glad that I can stay somewhere tonight. I Thank you deeply." Torcannas replied. "Very well. Then, I must be off, Farewell my friends." The Princess said as she walked away. "Hm, looks like you get stuck with the weird alien." Rainbow Dash said. "I'll be back to check on you tomorrow, goodnight Twi'." The rest of her friends followed suit and soon it was only Torcannas and Twilight standing outside by the large tree-house. "I suppose we can head inside now?" Twilight asked to Torcannas. He nodded in reply. As they stepped inside, Twilight noticed him looking at all the books in the library. "Do you like to read?" Twilight asked. He was about to reply when Spike entered the room: "Hey Twi- AHHH!" He shouted "What is that thing?" He asked. "Spike!" Twilight scolded "This is our guest for the night, Torcannas, he is the one who crashed into Ponyvile the other day." "Ohhhhh" Spike replied. "So hes staying with us for tonight?" "Yes he is." She turned to Torcannas, "Is there anything you need?" "No, thank you." He replied, surprising Spike with his "voice". "All I need is a place to rest, if there is one." "Why, of course." Twilight said. "Follow me its right this way." It was late at night when everypony was asleep in their beds, and while Twilight reading a book on the creatures of Equestria, that nopony noticed a strange, brown thing falling from the sky. Even though it looked like some kind of meteor, it wasn't. It was, if fact, a living creature. It crashed into the ground, and it left a brown-purple substance over the ground where it landed. In the center of it was a strange, insect-like creature that hovered off the ground. It dug itself into the ground and a strange blue membrane began to stretch itself across the ground. After a few minutes, the membrane burst, and in that moment, a great threat had come to Equestria. The Zerg had come to Equestria.
4: Q&AExtraEquestrial Q&A The number of ponies surrounding the procession was staggering to Twilight. What had started out as a small group of just Twilight and her friends, the Princess, Torcannas, and two guards, had quickly grown, until more and more ponies came up to the group, hoping to get a look at the strange alien that had crashed into Ponyville just a few days ago. With Torcannas towering above almost everypony, and that strange, golden armor really did make him hard to miss. Even so, it was a beautiful day outside, and there would have been many things Twilight would have wanted to do on a day like this. But what was happening now was far better than anything she could have asked for. “I just can’t wait! Imagine how much our race could benefit from this creature’s knowledge.....” That was the thought that was currently running through her mind as they made their way through Ponyville to town hall, where the questioning was taking place. By now, almost everypony in Ponyville had crowded around Twilight and the others. After what seemed like an eternity of walking with most of Ponyville following them, they finally reached their destination. As Twilight and Princess Celestia started the short walk up the small flight of stairs to reach the door, a pony burst out. Twilight had never seen this pony in Ponyville, so she assumed it was one of Princess Celestia’s assistants, due to the white coat and small name tag the pony was wearing. “Ah, right on time,” Princess Celestia said as she turned to face Twilight. “Twilight, I’d like you to meet one of my top scientists from Canterlot, Professor Estrellas. He specializes in space research, and is here to record the information that Torcannas gives us.” “Yes, greetings Princess, and thank you for this amazing opportunity.” The professor then saw Torcannas. “And you must be the alien everypony is talking about? Well, I think it will be a great honor if you wish to share your knowledge...” The professor trailed off as all he received from Torcannas was a blank stare. He chuckled nervously, then turned back the entrance of town hall, and walked inside, the Princesses following behind. Torcannas watched as the equines filled into the building. He wasn’t sure what they wanted from him, exactly. Answer a few questions and that was all? He would be allowed to leave? Even further... where was his phoenix? He wouldn’t be able to get off the planet without it.... maybe he would be asking a few questions of his own. The equines themselves.... these “ponies”, as they called themselves, had been strangely.... friendly to him. He had been interested, when rather than being captured, dissected, or experimented on, he had been helped by them. He supposed it would be simple enough to answer these questions. He entered the tall building, following the equines into it. Twilight watched as everypony entered town hall. She saw her friends, standing at the front of the crowd, while others streamed in through the pink double doors. Torcannas came in just around the time the last ponies were entering. They had been seated at a fairly large table on the stage, four chairs at each of the ends. Princess Celestia sat at the end facing the entrance, Twilight to her left, and the Professor to her right. Torcannas took the only open seat, facing Celestia. Once everypony had gotten into town hall, the doors closed, and Celestia began. “Greetings, one and all,” she started “today is a very important day for all of Ponykind. Just a few days ago, most of you had heard that a something had landed in Ponyville. Well, that thing would be the guest sitting across from me. We are here today to find out as much as we can about him before he must leave us”, She then turned to Torcannas. “Today, I shall be asking a series of questions to you in order for us to learn more about your kind. The pony on my right will be recording your answers. Does this seem agreeable to you?” Celestia asked. Torcannas was silent for a few moments, but soon replied with a curt “Yes”, surprising some ponies that he could speak, due to the lack of a mouth. Celestia nodded her head slightly before continuing. “Very well. Only a few ponies know your name, myself included, but can you tell us exactly who, and what, you are?” Torcannas closed his eyes before speaking. “My name is Torcannas. My people are called the Protoss. First born of the gods, the Xel'naga. Currently, I am a Zealot in the Protoss military.” Most of the ponies had confused looks on their faces, but, nevertheless, Torcannas continued. “ I am one of the few surviving defenders of Aiur, granted that I unfortunately did not partake in the.... worst of the battle. Does that answer your question? ” “Worst?”Twilight asked herself. “Who would want to take part in the worst part of any battle?” Princess Celestia had a confused look on her face for a moment, but it quickly disappeared. “Very well, then,” she continued. “Next I would like to ask; how did you come to crash here?” “My people were transporting a powerful and ancient craft to a location where it was needed. However, when we were nearing the destination, we were attacked by another race in that sector of the galaxy.” The Princesshad a slightly worried look on her face before she asked her next question. “A while ago, I spoke to the doctor in charge of you, back in the hospital. He said that, when he first tried to communicate with you, it was met with no success. But a short while after, according to him, you promptly put a hand on his face, and after a few moments, suddenly spoke fluent Equestrian. How did you do this?” “Well, I made contact with him to obtain the knowledge of how to speak your language,” he explained.“Now, most of my kind can simply reach out with our minds and withdraw or give any information we seek.” “So you’re saying that you could just go into our minds and just take any information you want” Celestia asked, worry slightly visible on her face. “Yes, but there would no need for that unless I needed something drastically,” he replied. “You said that you were attacked, and that was the reason why you crashed here. What exactly were you attacked by” Princess Celestia asked. Torcannas’s face changed to a slightly more troubled look as he answered. “We were attacked by a race known as the Zerg. A horrible race of creatures, no, abominations, individual species mutated by the zerg to serve a purpose given to them by their leader, called the “hive mind”. The “Zerg Swarm” as it is called, is one of the most horrible things ever created. They destroy everything in their path by sheer number, overrunning even some of our most heavily defended outposts and colonies. Even...,”his face darkened as he said the end of his phrase, “..even our home planet of Aiur, which is what I meant when I said I was a survivor of Aiur... so many lives were lost, most of them our proud warriors, giving their lives to ensure the escape of the civilians. Some of the dead were even not of our own, another race assisted us during the fall, a race known as the Terrans. This was one of the few times our two races have cooperated, unfortunately it has not always been this way. The sector of the galaxy, the “Koprulu sector” currently is in a state of war between 3 races: my race, the Terran dominion, and the Zerg Swarm.”Torcannas replied. Princess Celestia waited until Torcannas finished before asking: “Wait, if these “Terrans” have assisted you before in fighting the Zerg, why don’t the two races cooperate more in defeating this common enemy?” “Relations with the Terrans have been... problematic. Our first encounter with them wasn’t as peaceful as it could have been. If it had, we might have had a chance to defeat the Zerg together. The way our races first met happened at an unfortunate time. We had learned that one of their colonized worlds, a planet they called Chau Sara, had been infested by the zerg,” Twilight was slightly creeped out by the use of the word “infested”, “there was no way for the terrans to stop this infestation, so my people stepped in... we had no choice, we destroyed the infested planet to stop the spread of the zerg.” Princess Celestia’s mouth hung open, in shock, similar to most of everypony's expressions. “You destroyed an entire planet?!” Twilight said, accidentally, out-loud. “How do you even do that?” The simple thought made Twilight uneasy, how a race such as the Protoss could just decide to destroy an entire planet, killing who knows how many creatures. “Simple, we aimed the beams of several of our capital ships at the surface of the planet until it overheated. Yes, I know, I see how the thought is sickening, but if we had not done what we had, the zerg would have killed everything on the planet anyway, then they would have spread and killed and consumed even more, so you must see that our point was justified. Unfortunately, the terrans did not think so, and ever since it has usually meant battle when our two races meet.” “Very well,” Princess Celestia said. “I suppose that that is enough history for a while. Let us take a break and we can continue in a short time.” After she finished her statement, ponies started to rise and file out the doors. Twilight went to catch up to her friends as she neared them, they each gave a greeting, Twilight responded in kind as they made their way outside. “Wow.... I never thought that space could be so....scary,” Fluttershy said to her friends. “I can’t believe that they actually destroyed an entire planet, these guys must be crazy high-tech”, responded Rainbow. “I’m sure we can ask him more about later”, Twilight said. “Wait, where is he?” ` Torcannas sat, still at the table in Town hall, contemplating. “Why had I told them about Aiur” he asked himself. “There was no need for them to know of what happened... I suppose I will never forget that day”, buthe remembered that day very well, indeed. Aiur Year: 2500 The planet of Aiur was beautiful, covered with lush jungles, and the gleaming cities of the Protoss. A clearing in one such forest contained two protoss, flickering slightly in their armor. Torcannas stood next to his close friend and mentor, Koranos, who had been assisting him learn the ways of the Khala. “Focus, Torcannas, as I have told you before, your mind must be clear if you are to be successful”, Koranos chastised the student. “Yes, master”, Torcannas replied as he readied himself for another attempt at creating a psi-blade. He held out his arm, gauntlet attached, and focused. He harnessed the pool of his psionic energy, and focused his thoughts. A blue blade began to extend out of Torcannas’s gauntlet and grew to a fair length, but swiftly disappeared after several moments. Torcannas lowering his arm after the blade dissipated. “Good,Torcannas, very good. That is progres, I-” , he stopped abruptly as they both saw dark shapes fall towards the surface of Aiur. “Master, what is that” Torcannas asked his mentor. “If it is what I believe it to be... Torcannas we must hurry! To the shuttle, now”, Koranos replied as he began to run swiftly to where they had landed their shuttle, Torcannas following rapidly behind him. As they neared the craft, four serpentine creatures, Hydralisks, began to slither out of the forest towards them, getting closer by the moment. When the hydralisks had gotten close enough, they threw back their heads and a stream of spines flew out, each one hitting them -or would have hit them, if not for their shields and armor. Why his master insisted on them wearing the armor of protoss warriors during training, he would never know, but he was glad on this day they had chosen to do such, it would no doubt save their lives. As the hydralisks prepared another barrage of spines to be launched at them, Koranos’s hands began to glow with a blue light, he spread them and two of the hydralisks...simply exploded, ripped apart by the force of the Temlpar’s attacks. As the other Hydralisks shot their spines at them, again to only be melted by their shields, Torcannas charged at the two monstrosities, his thoughts and focus centering, and a psi-blade jumped from his gauntlet, faster than it had ever before. When he got into range of the zerg, he stabbed the first hydralisk through the mouth, it releasing a horrible screech before its death. Torcannas swiftly removed his blade from the head of the crumpling creature, before swiping it to his left, cutting off the claws that were about to attack him, as well as the head of the creature who they belonged to. “Very impressive, Torcannas. Now we must hurry”, Koranos told him as they continued to the shuttle. As they reached the craft, a platform lowered itself and they- Torcannas? Torcannas? Torcannas! Twilight stared at Torcannas, he had been simply staring into nothingness. “Torcannas? Torcannas?...Torcannas!” Twilight called him. At the third time, Torcannas jolted himself and stared at Twilight. “Yes Twilight Sparkle? I am sorry I was... reliving something unpleasant.” “Oh, it’s fine, it’s just that Princess Celestia wanted to show you something.” Twilight said back. “Come on, we don’t want to keep her waiting”, Twilight continued as she began to head for the door. She saw Torcannas rise and follow her out the door. As they exited town hall, they found that Princess Celestia was waiting for them. “Hello, Twilight, hello Torcannas.” Both of the ones addressed responded back, and Princess Celestia continued. “I thought you might want to take a look at your....spacecraft and see if it is damaged before you go, however if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to know more about the history of what is happening in space, Torcannas.” “Of course, if you may show me to my craft, I will be glad to answer any more you may have concerning the history of the war.” With that, the Princess led them to the crash site. “The reason it is still here, is that whenever we try to get close to it, or move it with magic, a blue orb surrounds it and we can’t do anything”, the Princess stated as Torcannas stepped over the barrier that blocked off the crash site. “That would be the shields of the ship, preventing your interaction with it”, was Torcannas’s reply. Unlike the other ponies, who, when trying to get close to the ship had ran face-first into a searing hot ball of blue, Torcannas simply walked up to the spacecraft, the nose of it lifting up, and he climbed in. Torcannas climbed into the cockpit of his phoenix, amazed that it, apparently, had not been too damaged by the crash. Now for the real test. He walked over to the control seat, connected himself to the craft, and began to power it with his psionic energy. The energy held...that meant the ship was functional. That meant he could get off of this planet. He was about to test how it flew, when he heard screams from outside. He stepped out of the cockpit -Only to be met by the eyes of a hydralisk.
5: SolutionsExtraEquestrial Twilight watched as Torcannas climbed into the front of his ship. She was fascinated at how such a strange thing could possibly fly. Nothing happened for a few moments until the ship suddenly lit up, the blue parts of the ship, once dull, suddenly sprang to life, pulsing with light. Twilight gasped in amazement. “Torcannas did that?” she asked herself. Everything was still for a few short moments. Then it happened. Creatures, horrible, terrifying, snake-looking things slithered through the streets of Ponyville, heading straight towards Torcannas’s ship. Princess Celestia’s guards sprang to action as they rushed to combat the invaders, head-on, swords drawn. They never made it even close to the creatures as, with a horrible screech, one of the two threw its head back and released a brown blur of something, that impaled the guards a moment later, their enchanted armor giving protection, but the projectiles also hit unprotected spots, killing them both. Ponies screamed at the actual death of twoponies. Princess Celestia’s horn flashed and one of the snake-monsters flew back, possibly dead. The other one slithered right up to the craft’s cockpit just as soon as Torcannas stepped out, meeting face-to-face with the protoss. She watched for a tense moment as Torcannas stared at the monstrosity that was even taller than him. The monster threw back its head and screeched, as it prepared to attack Torcannas. Celestia’s horn began to glow, but she wasn’t able to act before Torcannas threw his arm back. As he moved his arm forward, there was a blue flash and the monster’s head was suddenly split in half. Torcannas pulled his arm from the creature's skull, a glowing blue blade on his wrist, and walked over to the remaining monster, and used his blade to cut off it’s head. Twilight was at a loss for words. She had just watched Torcannas single-handedly kill two creatures that had killed a pair of fully armed guards. As he got closer she heard Rainbow Dash ask a question. “Woah”, Rainbow said, a disturbed look on her face, “where did you learn to do that? That was so cool! And also...disturbing.” “Decades of practice,” before he could add more, Princess Celestia arose a question of her own. “What were those...things?!” , she exclaimed, looking more worried than Twilight had ever seen her. “I’ve never seen anything so horrible!” “That” , Torcannas replied, “Was the zerg. More specifically, a strain known as the hydralisk. Princess Celestia, I highly advise you to evacuate this settlement.” “Wait, why can’t you just go and kill everything with that weird blue sword of yours?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Because if I did that, I would surely end up dead, along with this whole planet... I can try to contact my people and see if I can get something sent here to remove the infestation.” “But what if your people show up and just blow up the planet?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her face growing serious. “I can attempt to reason....that is even if I can get a psionic connection to my people. This planet has apparently never been visited by my kind, so I am not certain whether or not my kind will be in range to able to assist us.” “And what if that happens?” Celestia rebutted. “This planet could, most likely, be doomed, and again, I ask you Princess Celestia: you must evacuate this settlement if the zerg can reach it by ground, that is too close. Now, where is the nearest residence?” “That would be Canterlot, the place where my sister and I live.” “We must evacuate to there, then. If you value your citizens lives, I would highly advise you to.” “Very well,” was the reply as Celestia called her only remaining guard to deal with the bodies, as Celestia herself informed the citizens of Ponyville that an evacuation would be necessary. The citizens addressed rapidly turned and began running to their homes to collect their belongings. Twilight watched as Torcannas turned back to his ship and walked inside it, before she, and her friends, went to assist Princess Celestia in her duties. Torcannas walked inside the cockpit of his fighter. He sat down at the control seat and used his psionics to power the ship. He then faced the monitor that would have usually linked him to a commanding officer. He used any available way the ship had to send out a signal for any protoss in range. The only question was if it would reach anyone. Twilight was amazed. The entire town of Ponyville had, somehow, packed up almost everything, and now, stood on the railway platform, however, due to the lack of space, most stood on the ground near it. Princess Celestia had called that more trains were to be directed to Ponyville to evacuate the citizens. Twilight saw as the first train pulled up to the station, its doors opening soon after to allow the plethora of waiting ponies a chance to board. Twilight then began to assist the first few ponies in moving their possessions onto the train. Torcannas had been sitting, waiting, wondering, if anyone would ever respond. He was beginning to lose hope that his message would ever be received. That is, until, a face finally appeared on the monitor. But not just any face, no, this was the face Torcannas least expected to appear. It was none other than Commander Kannas. “En taro Tassadar...-Torcannas?!” Kannas said, his face taking on a surprised look. “I thought you had perished when we were attacked by the zerg.” “En taro Tassadar to you as well. Yes, by some stroke of fate did I survive... but apparently what had awaited me was worse. I have crash-landed on some remote planet, with life on it. -But nevertheless, to the matter of most importance: unfortunately, the planet I have reached has been infested by the zerg.” “This is clearly a matter of importance. I shall locate your position and I we shall cleanse the planet by fire.” “There would be no need for you to remove any of our capital ships from the field of battle. This is a small infestation, and I also believe it to be feral zerg.” Kannas narrowed his eyes before responding. “Very well, I shall send one carrier with troops to remove the infestation, if it is so simple as you say. I shall locate your position and aid should arrive soon. En taro Tassadar, Torcannas.” “En taro Tassadar, Kannas.” And with that, his face vanished from the small screen. Twilight watched as the second-to-last train pulled away, filled with citizens. The last train was for Twilight, her friends, the Princess, and Torcannas. “Wait, where is he?”she thought as their train pulled up. “Princess Celestia,” she called out, “wait a moment, we need to go get Torcannas.” “Very well Twilight,” the response came quickly, “I’ll keep the train here for now, just try to be back quickly, I don’t want to meet those “zerg” again.” Twilight went, along with her friends, to the place where they had last seen Torcannas. They found him emerging from the front of his ship. “So, how did it go?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Well enough. I was able to contact one of my kind. At first he was willing to simply destroy this planet, but I managed to change his plan of action. He said he would be sending troops to remove this infestation.” “Well that’s a relief,” she replied. “So, Torcannas, we are ready to go to Canterlot. How are we going to move your ship?” Twilight asked. “I was planning to simply fly it to the city.” “Oh... right. Well, do you know where Canterlot is? If you have any space, I think we could guide you there.” “I believe that I would have space one of you.” When nopony offered to go, Twilight spoke up.“Ok, I’ll go.” “Twilight Sparkle, you may go in first. Try to find some space inside.” Twilight entered the fairly large, ovalish-shaped space at the front of the ship. The inside was the same as the outside, golden and very beautiful. Above her head was what appeared to be a glass dome. She saw a large chair and a few opaque slabs of what looked like glass, or crystal in front of it. Behind the chair she found a space where she could stand. When she was settled, Torcannas came in, sat in the chair, and sat still. After a couple of moments, the ship lit up inside. The slabs of glass suddenly glowed, images leaping up from them and appearing in front of Torcannas. “Wow...” was all Twilight could say at the advanced technology being used in front of her. “Yes, it is quite impressive isn’t it,”Torcannas said, his head turning to face her. “Do you have space there?” “Yes, I’m all right here, thanks for asking.” After a few moments, the craft seemed to somehow be moving upward. Twilight caught a glance downward at her friends, mouths agape. Then once the craft had made its way up to a fair height, her friends began to move toward the waiting train.”OK Torcannas, just head towards the mountains in the distance there,” she said, pointing at the location of Canterlot. Then, Twilight saw the land below them move forward rapidly. faster than any train Twilight had ever been on, and she was amazed at how it did it, in fact, she was wondering just what was powering this flying-machine. “Hey, Torcannas, what makes this thing fly?” “Partially, power comes from the ship, but mainly, I power this ship by my own means, Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight was confused at how he could be powering this ship by himself. “What do you mean ‘I power this ship’?” “I had not told you? Very well, I shall explain. All of my people have powers -called ‘psionics’. We use these powers to manipulate the universe around us-” “Oh, so like magic?” “...Magic?” He turned to face Twilight for a moment, a confused look on his face. “Yea, magic. It’s what unicorns -ponies with horns, and alicorns -like me and the princess- have and we use it to do many different things.” “...No, I don’t think that what my people are gifted with is anything like what your people use.” “Oh...ok, continue, if you want, though.” Twilight said with a sheepish grin. “Yes, well, psionics -this is a power that comes naturally to all my people, but without proper training, usually can not be used to it’s full ability. Templar -the warriors of my people, of which I am one, are trained to use their powers in combat, and to power machines -like the phoenix we are in. And that power is what I use to create the psi-blades you saw earlier.” “So you’ve been trained? How long did it take you to learn what you did earlier today?” “It took decades of practice, and I hope to train to advance myself further in the coming century.” “Wait, -did you just say century? As in a hundred years?” “Yes, I -oh...I suppose I hadn’t said that my kind can live for many millennia -some of the oldest of my kind have lived to be some seventy-thousand years of age.” “Wow...” Twilight was shocked to hear that Torcannas’s kind could live for so long, and wondered just how old Torcannas was. “Yes, though our long life spans haven’t helped us much in the war... Is this the city?” Twilight hadn’t realized it, but they had already made it to Canterlot in an extremely quick amount of time -faster than Twilight had ever gotten to the city. “This thing must go really fast... Imagine what we could do with something like this...,” she thought to herself. “Twilight, is there anywhere I can land my ship?,” Torcannas questioned, snapping Twilight out of her thoughts. “Umm...yes, I think you could try... there by the train station, we can wait for the others there.” Torcannas began to lower the craft towards the requested area when they were close, Twilight saw that ponies were waiting at the station. Namely, Princess Luna and her guards. As the craft landed silently, the lights in the ship faded, and the front of the ship opened. Twilight climbed out first, followed by Torcannas. Princess Luna spoke first. “Greeting, Twilight, and....greetings to you as well, stranger. You must be the one who fell from the stars a few days ago?” “Hello, Princess Luna. Yes, this is Torcannas, Torcannas, this is Princess Luna.” “It is a pleasure,” he said. Princess Luna’s brows raised at this, believing he could not speak without a mouth. “Princess, I have very, very bad news. Ponyville was attacked by a group of monsters that came from the Everfree-” “This is clearly bad news, but my sister had sent me a letter slightly explaining what happened, and she said she would tell me more when she arrived. Where is she, anyway?” “Well, that is what I was about to tell you about. The creatures that attack Ponyville are not from this planet. Torcannas told us that they were an extremely dangerous race of aliens. Torcannas also told us that he contacted his kind and that they said they would be sending something to help us get rid of the ‘zerg’ as they are called.” Princess Luna looked worried now. “Really? Is my sister all right? Did anypony get hurt?...What happened in Ponyville, anyway?” “Well, we were attacked by these big scary...things. They...killed two ponies but Torcannas killed the monsters before they harmed anything else. After that, Princess Celestia moved everypony out of Ponyville so nopony would get hurt later. They’re on their way here on trains.” “Oh... well then, I suppose I should thank you for risking yourself to kill those monsters that Twilight was talking about,” Princess Luna said, turning to Torcannas. “There is no need to thank me. It was what I was trained to do,” he replied. Suddenly, in the distance, trains were moving across the rails. “Those are the trains Princess Celestia and the rest of Ponyville are in.” Twilight said, for there would never be so many trains going to one destination. The group waited until the trains finally reached Canterlot’s train station. The doors opened up and Celestia, as well as many other ponies, burst from them. Twilight saw her friends walk out of the same train and, once they saw her, began to walk towards her. “Hey, Twilight. How was the flight?” Rainbow Dash asked looking at Twilight then Torcannas’s ship. “Oh, it was really interesting. Torcannas told me that his people all have powers...like magic, and that they use them for many different things...and he also said his kind live to be thousands of years old.” Before anyone could respond, Princess Celestia -she had been talking with Princess Luna and Torcannas for the moment- motioned them to come to her. Twilight and her friends walked towards the trio. “Hello, Twilight and friends”, Princess Celestia said. The other two members of the group turned to regard the approaching mares. “Hello, Princess Celestia”, the ponies said. “Torcannas, my sister, and I were just speaking of the current... situation”, Celestia said. “Torcannas thinks that the... infestation is not a major threat-” “At least not a major threat compared to some other times we have encountered the zerg. I believe that they are not unified under one single control. They are feral; no leader to guide them, so they will attack each other as often as us. But, nevertheless, they still are dangerous to any living thing. Are there any cities between, here and... Ponyville?” he asked, turning his last question to Princess Celestia. “No, but why would you ask?” the Princess responded. “Because, if there were any settlements, the zerg would head for them. And they would kill everything in their way.” “Well, how do you know that the zerg would be moving beyond the Everfree anymore?” Princess Celestia asked. “I am not sure, myself. Due to the fact there is no one controlling this zerg brood, we can not predict their movements or expect where they would go.” “Very well, I shall post guards to patrol during the day and night, in case we do get attacked. I have also asked the high figures in our military to join in a meeting tomorrow. Twilight, Luna, I will need you to be present. Torcannas, your knowledge of the zerg could help us. May I ask if you would be so kind to assist us tomorrow?” “Thank you”, Celestia turned to Twilight. “Twilight, I have asked for your brother and his wife to also come to Canterlot. They shall arrive by tomorrow as well.” “Really? I can’t wait!” Twilight exclaimed in response. The sun had begun to set. Princess Celestia spoke, “I suppose we can head our separate ways now. Would you like to be shown to your rooms?” The group nodded their agreement, and Princess Celestia began to walk with them to the castle. Princess Luna began to walk off in a different direction, most likely to raise the moon. As they walked, Twilight couldn’t help but wonder if the zerg would come to Canterlot. And what would happen if they did find their way here, for Twilight had seen what only two of the monsters had done, how unprepared they had been. And she could feeling that this “zerg” could get much, much worse.
6: DiscussionsExtraEquestrial Twilight woke with a jolt. The sound of armored hooves hitting the tiled floor of the castle rang throughout her room. "What's going on out there?" Twilight rose groggily from her bed and, cautiously, walked towards the door that connected her room to the rest of the huge residence of the princesses. Slowly, she reached out and opened the door. Guard ponies could be seen running down the hall past, weapons being carried along with them. Twilight walked into the hallway. She followed the guardsponies down the hallway that they were all running down. As she went further down, walking past pillars and stained glass windows, she began to see bodies. A few of them were bodies of guards, but most of them were ones that resembled the monsters that had attacked Ponyville. Twilight continued walking until she reached a balcony. She recognized it instantly. It was the balcony that she had been crowned on, but instead of a cheering crowd below, she saw the gold of the guard, mashed together with a mass of moving brown. The mass of monster-looking creatures Twilight could only guess in horror were the zerg, were in such numbers Twilight couldn't even imagine the guards winning. "But where is Princess Celestia?" Twilight could only ask herself. She ran as fast as she could to the first place she could guess the matriarch could be. After a few minutes, she approached the throne room of the two princesses. The grand doors before her opened as she reached them, and, as Twilight walked inside, she noticed the lack of guards in this important room. The two princesses sat on their respective thrones. As she approached, Princess Celestia spoke. "Greetings, Twilight Sparkle," she said, with a calm that Twilight couldn't believe she could posses at this moment. "What is happening, Princess?" Twilight asked. "We are under attack Twilight," Princess Celestia said too calmly, "by the zerg. The guards are doing everything they can." "I guessed that, but why aren't you doing anything?!" Twilight exclaimed. Before Princess Celestia responded, a loud bang filled the room. And again. And then the door burst open and the most horrifying things Twilight had ever seen burst out- Twilight sprang out of bed, for real this time. "It was all a dream..?" Twilight asked herself quietly. She heard a knock on the door, and she went to open it. There was no sound of armored guards running to their imminent deaths as she pulled the door open. She expected one of the Princesses, her friends, and maybe even Torcannas. But who she saw was even more unexpected. "Shining!" she squealed. She didn't think he would have arrived so early! "Hey, Twiliy," Shining Armor said, chuckling. "I didn't expect you to be here so soon!" "Yea, well, Princess Celestia told us to get here as soon as possible. I made sure to get here as fast as we could, after what I heard happened in Ponyville... those poor guys. I heard that the monsters from the Everfree were stopped by that alien that crashed there a few days ago." "Yea, he sure did stop them. Wait, where's everyone else?" Twilight asked her brother. "Oh, the others are waiting for us in the dining hall. You hadn't showed up yet, so I said I'd find you and give you a little surprise visit. They also told me to get someone named 'Torcannas', you know who that is?" "Yes, he's the one who killed the monsters in Ponnyville. You haven't met him yet?" "No, I haven't even seen him." "Well, then, come on. I saw what room he had last night so we can go get him." After that, Twilight and her brother began to walk to the room Torcannas had been given. He had asked Princess Celestia for a room with big windows, and that room was a fair ways away from the others. After a few minutes of walking, they reached their destination. Twilight reached up and knocked on the door. A few seconds later, the door opened, and Torcannas's face appeared. His appearance was so shocking to Shining, that he jumped back a few inches, along with a quiet yelp. Twilight, strangely enough, began to laugh at Shining's reaction. She saw Shining blush, and he also began to laugh. Twilight saw Torcannas's eyes half-close and she... she felt what she guessed was Torcannas's laughter as well. "Oh... I'm sorry that I was taken aback by you... It's just that you look so different from anything I've ever seen before," Shining said after his laughter subsided. "I can understand that, there is no need to apologize," Torcannas replied. "Well, Torcannas, we're having breakfast now, and I was wondering if you would like to join Twilight and I going down there to meet everyone else." "... Very well, I shall join you at this 'breakfast', Torcannas replied after a moment, and stepped out of the room to join them in their "journey" across the castle. They certainly made a strange sight. As they passed through the halls, guards bowed to Shining and Twilight, but kept their mostly-confused eyes on Torcannas. While en route to their destination, Shining turned to Torcannas. "I wanted to tell you thank you for killing those monsters in Ponyville. And saving my sister and other ponies." Torcannas's eyes widened slightly at the message, but his reply was brisk enough. "I appreciate your thanks, but it is my duty as a Templar to defend the innocent. Even though this applies to my kind, I could not let your unprepared people die. As well, I still needed to kill the zerg threat. I could not let them live." "Zerg? What are zerg?" Shining asked. Torcannas was about to reply, but they had already arrived at their destination. The sizable doors to the grand dining hall opened and Twilight saw her friends at the tables. "Well, it took you guys long enough!" Rainbow Dash called at them. "Good morning Twilight, Torcannas. It is good to see you awake," Princess Celestia said to the two, and the others present gave their greetings. Twilight then noticed a pink alicorn rise from her seat and start walking toward Twilight. "Candace!" Twilight called and closed the distance between them. When the finally got close to each other, they did their usual greeting. After, Candace stood back and looked at the creature that stood next to her husband. "So you must be the alien that crashed into Ponyville a few days ago. I think it's an honor to meet you, after all, you saved many lives yesterday. Thank you," Candace said to Torcannas. "Your thanks are appreciated Princess." "You know I'm a princess?" Candace asked. "Well, it is obvious enough," Torcannas said. "It appears that all of the... alicorns are called 'princesses'. And even stranger is that how there are only a few of you from what I have seen." "There are not many of us. Now there are only four alicorn princesses," Princess Celestia explained. "We each are different. I control the sun, my sister controls the moon, Candace is princess of love, and Twilight is our most recent addition to the royal line; princess of friendship." "You said 'control the sun' and your sister controls the moon? What you mean by this?" Torcannas seemed confused by this notion of something the others found so simple. "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna guide the sun and moon, respectively, across the sky," Twilight told Torcannas. "Is that not how it works on other planets?" Twilight instantly regretted asking that question as she realized how stupid it must sound. "No, not on any planet my kind have knowledge of. It is most interesting. Is there any way you could demonstrate that?" "Yes," Celestia said, chuckling. "Yes, I believe I could sometime. But, now, we still haven't eaten! We can't go to a meeting all hungry can we? Torcannas, is there anything you will need?" "No, my kind do not eat as we, obviously, have no mouths with which to eat with." Torcannas said. "All right, you may still join us if you wish." Princess Celestia said, and with that, one of the most amazing breakfasts Twilight had ever had was served, and eaten. Everfree Forest The queen of the changelings, Queen Chrysalis, walked through the Everfree Forest, searching for something anything. Ever since the failure at Canterlot, changelings had begun to die in large numbers. With their supply of love running low, the attack would help them replenish their numbers, but when it failed, Chrysalis was unable to do anything but watch her children die from the lack of nourishment. Chrysalis would do anything to get back at the ponies, Princess Celestia, Candace, and Shining Armor, to make them pay for every life that was lost. But, unfortunately, she could do nothing, as changelings were not a predatory race, and she alone could do nothing. Nowadays she usually walked through the forest, looking for any food source, anything she could use to keep the remaining changelings alive. Some kind of creature; anything they could find. Their numbers were so low, that even she decided she would help the scouts in their search. The numbers would grow, but only if Chrysalis could find enough nutrients to be able to make more changelings. By now, she had been searching for most of the day and nothing had been found. By her at least; maybe one of the scouts had found something of use. She blundered through the forest for what might have been hours, until she stumbled though a bush... and set eyes on the strangest, and most disturbing thing... or things she had ever seen. Brown, four-legged creatures, small but horrifying, screeched and rushed at her. A blast of magic turned them into living projectiles that slammed into... she wasn't sure what it was. A large, slightly pyramid-shaped purple mass with five giant spikes on the sides and five small ones at the top. Chrysalis had no idea what she was looking at, so she took a step closer... And stepped on some purple goo that covered the ground. When she touched it, she realized she felt something. The feeling felt similar to her connection to her hive, and she noticed that the place where, in her place, would be a controlling presence, but there was nothing to control these creatures. She was flooded with information, and it soon began to make her head hurt. She began to take notice that the way these creatures were controlled was not with magic, or how she kept track of her hive, but it was different. While on the strange substance, everything stopped, none of the creatures moved. After a few moments of wonder and horror, she reached out with her mind and put her thoughts into one of the small winged, things that seemed to be the workers of this place. It took some getting used to, but she eventually made it move. She practiced on controlling the other creatures here, and then, she attempted to put her mind into the large purple... construct, she supposed. When she did, however, a thought entered her mind, "Greetings, Broodmother. the strange thing said. Twilight, Torcannas, the princesses Celestia, Luna, and captain Shining Armor all sat in the "war room", as it had been named. This room was where the most important figures in the military met to discuss plans during war times, but had not been used for a for some time, due to the lack of... well, wars. Armored guards stood, for no apparent reason, vigilant on both sides of the doors. Joining the group of important ponies and the protoss, were 3 ponies. One was a brown-coated, orange-maned earth pony, large and muscular, even for an earth pony, General Stronghoof, commander of the earth pony forces in the military. Next to him sat a blue-coated, white-maned pegasus pony, General Cirrus, commander of the armed peagasus ponies. And the third pony was, obviously, a unicorn. General Iona, one of the few high-ranking mares in the military. All eyes were on Princess Celestia as she declared her opening statement. "Greetings. I know that I have called you here on such short notice, and I apologize. But I am sure that you have heard what happened in Ponyville. We currently have a problem on our hands that we have not faced before. The threat of an extremely hostile alien race that we can not reason with." "I have reports that say two guards were killed and the creatures were in turn killed by..." Stronghoof said, gesturing to Torcannas. "Yes, he did. This is Torcannas, and he has already found a way to defeat this enemy," Celestia said to the earth pony. "And just what is his plan, Princess?" Iona asked to the Princess, while looking at Torcannas. "He has managed to contact his kind and he said that they will be bringing forces to defeat this 'zerg' as it is called." "I see. I've seen the thing he came here on, your people must be very advanced." Iona said to Torcannas, possibly guessing that he could speak. "Yes, my people are ancient and have spent thousands of years developing advanced technologies. I have the utmost confidence that my people will be able to remove the infestation, as there is, presumably, no one controlling it." "Wait," General Cirrus said, "you said 'controlling'. Do you mean to say that something could take control of these creatures and use them against us?" "That would be highly improbable, as only zerg can take control of other zerg. And as long as the zerg here are not being controlled, they will kill each other as often as anything else, as well they usually wander freely, and would be a small threat to anything here." "When is it that your kind can even get here to deal with this... infestation?" Stronghoof asked. "When I spoke with my commanding officer, he said reinforcements would reach here as soon as they locate this planet. It should not take much longer." I sure hope it doesn't, Twilight thought to herself, as conversations started around her. Space The gleaming and massive protoss carrier floated in space, the crew preparing for a warp jump to the location of a newly discovered zerg infestation. The crew had just finished imputing the coordinates for the warp jump, and the carrier was about to preform the jump, when one of the crew members thought. "Commander, I am seeing zerg signatures closing in." "Do we have enough time to preform the warp jump?" the commander asked, using words for the benefit of the few Nezarim protoss on board. "At the current rate they are moving? No, I have calculated it, we will have to deal with them ourselves," the crew member thought back. "So be it. Prepare for combat." The zerg flyers attacked the carrier, and swarms of intercepters, and even scouts and phoenix met them. After much combat, and a few lost lives, the remaining zerg either were defeated, or fled. The carrier was not horribly damaged, the engineers on the craft could repair the damage, but it would take time and until then, the carrier would not be able to travel to the planet. It seemed it would take longer than they thought. "There," General Iona said. "Now that we have the basics down about what you plan to do, what are these 'zerg' exactly?" Torcannas thought for a moment. "They are genetically modified creatures that were forced into the swarm -the collection of all zerg- for a certain purpose. Usually to make it more deadly. All of them are dangerous, but individually they are weak." "Individually?" cried Stronghoof. "Those things killed two fully armored guards." "Because your soldiers were obviously not prepared for the zerg. If anything worse comes... I doubt your soldiers would have a chance." "Oh yeah? These things can get worse?" "Of course. They have multiple strains of deadly flying creatures and even a monstrosity that I hope is not unleashed -a strain called 'ultralisk'. Something so large, you would have little hope of defeating it." The talk continued, Torcannas began explaining the weaknesses of the zerg, and what improvements would have to be made to the military to help them survive zerg attacks. "I noticed how, when they were attacked, your guards' armor was not penetrated by the hydralisk's spines. They are fired at a very fast speed, and can kill even those who are in more advanced armor," Torcannas said to Princess Celestia. "That would be because the armor is enchanted with magic." "I see, Twilight Sparkle told of this ability your kind posses. It seems most interesting." "Twilight told me that your kind also have a special power," Princess Celestia said. "Yes, it is called 'psionics'. My kind use it from power to creating things like my blade," Torcannas raised his left arm, and a blue blade appeared. Now that Twilight looked at it, it looked like it was made out of some kind of... gas, but it also looked solid. "This blade is created by my mental energy, and it can cut through almost anything." "Interesting. Maybe we can find some way to improve our magic in combat," Iona said after the blade disappeared. "I doubt it would be needed. I am confident that my kind will come and remove the zerg. I also think it will be unlikely that the zerg could find this city." Everfree Forest -Zerg infestation site By now, Chrysalis had gotten used to commanding her new brood around. She had learned much from the "lair", as she had found out it was called. She had found that these creatures were very complex, and even so, she had been able to lightly grasp how to "spawn" more of these strange monsters. She was finding out more and more about this strange species, and now she even had a small force of ferocious beasts. And she knew just were to send them.
8: EventsExtraEquestrial Twilight was not sure why she was nervous. But for Torcannas to meet them? She wasn’t sure how her parents would react to him, they had always been enthusiastic in her accomplishments. Maybe a bit too much, Twilight thought. Even though nopony was out on the row of the large townhomes that were on this street,she felt slightly awkward standing next to Torcannas at her parent’s door, possibly more so with the six guards standing on the street behind her. She had gotten used to the odd stare - what with being a princess and all - it only seemed odd for her to be known as a friend of an alien, and one so violent as Torcannas had shown himself to be. Even if he had used lethal force to save dozens of ponies. But Twilight had began to hear rumors that he was too dangerous; that he had unnecessarily killed zerg that had been doing nothing but searching for food, that there had been no need to kill them. It pained Twilight when she heard these things. Unfortunately, Celestia and Luna had made any information they had learned from Torcannas to be classified, and any memory of the zerg specifically attacking ponies - like what had happened only a few days ago - to be erased. I suppose times call for drastic measures, Twilight thought. “For our subjects to know that one of the most dangerous races in the galaxy is being controlled by one of our recent enemies - that could induce more panic than we need, Twilight,” Celestia had explained to her when Twilight had questioned Celestia on the need for secrecy. “Believe me twilight, while some our past enemies may not be as dangerous as these monstrosities, they still have caused problems similar to this in the past. This best thing to do, my most faithful student, trust our judgement. The less that they know, the less afraid they will be.” Twilight’s thoughts snapped back to the present as she saw the door open and reveal the faces of her parents. “Twilight!” her parents said, almost in unison. “Honey, we’re glad to see you!” Their smiles faded for a moment as they noticed Torcannas standing next to her. “O-oh my…” Twilight Velvet stammered slightly. “Well, Twilight, I see you brought a guest.” Twilight nodded. “The girls couldn’t make it - they’re currently with their families, so I thought I should give you a visit, and bring along my newest friend. Torcannas - these are my parents. They-” “Oh, Twilight,” her father butted in. “We can make introductions later.” He turned to Torcannas. “Though I’m sure you’ve heard this a thousand times by now-” “Yes, I know.” Torcannas spoke.“You wish to thank me for risking my life to save the citizens of Ponyville” Twilight thought she heard sarcasm in the last sentence. And for him to be so rude!“Forgive me-” Torcannas began, but Twilight’s mother cut him off, this time. “Oh, no need to apologize!” she said, smiling knowingly at Torcannas. “It’s obvious that the stress of all this fighting has gotten to you. But you’re so well known among us, that we couldn’t help but offer our gratitude for your actions,” her mother said with a friendly smile. Torcannas said nothing as her parents led them inside, the guards outside as stoic as ever. Everfree Forest Chrysalis received the notification only seconds after she woke. What her zerg had found surprised her. Within a few moments, she had arrived at the discovery: an abandoned diamond dog mine - with gems aplenty. It was an even better discovery than the strange collections of harvestable gases found in the swamp not far from her location. Chrysalis was fascinated to have found such a large deposit of minerals so close to their hive. After so much searching for a suitable pool of resources to build an army to crush Celestia, she thought she would never find it. And with all the time she had wasted not realizing that she could have simply used her mind to communicate with the zerg - she had gotten better at it - much better than when she had started, anyway. With her newfound ability and such a large amount of resources at her feet, she would finally achieve that goal. Even if it caused so much destruction to the environment around her. She sent her commands to her zerg, and waited. Canterlot “Bye Dad, bye Mom,” Twilight said as she waved goodbye to her parents. The sun had reached its fullest height when Twilight stepped out the door of her family's home. As she and Torcannas walked down the short flight of stairs to the street, the guards still in their positions saluted her and Torcannas and quickly formed two semicircles of three each on both sides of Twilight. While Twilight was glad that they were here, she saw no reason for it. Nowadays, she rarely traveled to the city limits, and even if she did there was, yet again, increased security; the need for guards was overdoing it, or at least in Twilight’s mind it was. Twilight had been promised that her friends would only be checking up on their friends and family today, so she decided to go see if they were done by now. If not, she could always see her brother or the Princesses. As they walked, Twilight remembered the question she had stored away to ask Torcannas. Well, now seemed like a better time than any other. Turning to face him, she asked, “Torcannas, when my father wanted to thank you, why did you cut him off like that? All he wanted to do was simply-” “I understand, Twilight Sparkle. But that is the problem. Allof your kindwishes to thank me,” he said, stressing the work thank. “It had gotten extremely irritating to hear it from so many ponies wherever I roam the streets. I simply wish to not be recognized in such by such a large quantity for killing a few dozen zerg!” “Oh. Well, ponies always appreciate help, and violence the likes of what we’ve seen over the past week hasn’t been seen in centuries!” “I understand that, Twilight Sparkle. But it is simply wearing me thin to be awarded such high praise when what I have done is something so paltry with what others of my kind have accomplished.” Twilight was going to respond, but multiple voices cut her off. They had reached their destination. “Hey Twilight! Torcannas!” she heard Dash call, amid other greetings from her friends as they walked up to the double-semicircle shape that the guards had formed around them. As the friends exchanged pleasantries, Twilight noticed the guards turned and bowed to their right. Turning in the same direction, Twilight watched as Princess Celestia approached them, her own guards in tow.The six of them following the example of the guards, Torcannas standing, Princess Celestia finally reached the group, and motioned for them to rise. While doing so, Twilight asked, “Hello, my little ponies,” she said with a smile. Turning to Torcannas, “Torcannas, you must come with me at once,” she commanded. Obliging, he said farewell to Twilight and her friends, turned, and followed Celestia towards Canterlot Castle, the guards forming their ever-specific formations around them. Torcannas walked alongside Princess Celestia, not asking any questions, and Celestia not seeking answers. It was obvious that Celestia was formidable. If she could apparently control the sun with her magic, he wondered why she herself did not go to eradicate the zerg. But he supposed he would ask questions later, in relative safety of not being overheard. It was a long while before they entered through the massive gates of the castle. As they walked through the elegant yet empty hallways, Torcannas noticed that the path they were following was a familiar one: they were walking to the war room. And, unsurprisingly, his prediction was correct. They entered the room and the faces of the three pony commanders and Luna greeted them. Torcannas took his seat across from the ponies. “Greetings to all,” Celestia began. “You all know what we are meeting here for. The ever-growing zerg problem.” “I believe it's more than a problem, Princess,” Iona said. Celestia glanced at her before continuing. “Be that as it may, we still need a solution. Today. By tomorrow, I want to know that our citizens are safe yet again from the menace that Chrysalis has supposedly wrought on us. The three of you, generals all, and you, Torcannas, with your knowledge of the zerg, as well as Luna and myself hope to finally end this,” as Celestia went silent, discussion erupted around the room. Everfree Forest Chrysalis was finally ready. It amazed her how fast these zerg spread and multiplied. Before her was the army that she had created: more zerg than she knew the ponies would be able to handle, even if the brief glimpses through the eyes of her zerg a few days ago had been correct and they did have some kind of powerful alien it would not save them. Spread throughout the collection of zerglings and hydralisks were the creatures that had come from the latest DNA bank - or so she understood it. The roache’s armor would undoubtedly be useful against the ponies without magic, and the mutalisks were sure to shred any pegasus to pieces. And then, towering over them all, was the one thing that she knew that not even Celestia could defeat. It was too big to fail. The ultralisk, she knew it would be stopped by nopony and that she would finally have her victory. With the sun overhead, she sent her orders to the zerg, and watched as they moved towards the direction of Canterlot. Where Celestia would finally fall. Canterlot The sun had begun to dip below the horizon, coloring everything a lighter shade of blue from the moon’s light. After more pointless arguments than Torcannas could bear, he spoke up. “Why do neither of you Celestia, or Luna, with your so-powerful magic go and eliminate the zerg?” “Because we cannot,” Luna said simply.“We do not have an infinite amount of magic to draw from, Torcannas. If the zerg spread as fast as you said they do, then we would have to bring more than just the two of us to destroy it all. As well as after defeating whatever zerg Chrysalis has positioned at the main colony.” “But still believe that you cannot intervene in any way?” “Of course we can, and will,” Celestia responded. “When the time comes we will fight alongside you and our soldiers, Torcannas. Now, what strategies do you have for fighting the zerg strains we have yet to encounter?” Canterlot, Outer wall Hawkeye had always liked being a guard. It had been his dream to wear the golden armor of the royal guard, and protect the ponies of Equestria from harm. Months after becoming a guard, however, he thought slightly differently. All he did was stand in place here, stand in place there, put on some kind of routine with other guards. While it wasn’t exciting, it wasn’t what he had imagined, either. Now that they were in a war with some extremely deadly alien race, he was finally living his dream - in a place he’d rather not be. While the view from the outer wall was pretty, it didn’t make up for the fact there was nothing to do there. He thought he had once seen some bloodstains on the floor below them, but he dismissed it; none of the other ponies seemed to notice. But then again, it was his talent to see things nopony noticed. It was why he had become a lookout. As he watched over the plains in front of him, the moonlight making everything a dull blue-gray, he thought he saw something by the slope that led access to the main road. He rubbed his eyes, then looked again. No, it was not lack of sleep, but it was actually something real. He called the other guards over; they were as tired as he was, with sleep cut short for extra watchponies. He pointed in the direction of the disturbance, but his hoof dropped as he saw what he had seen before was now a massive amount of what he supposed were zerg. And they were heading right for the main gate. Alerted, the pegasi took off to warn the Princesses and guards, as the others blew into alarm horns or readied themselves for battle. Hawkeye gulped - this was going to be something, all right. Canterlot Torcannas was frustrated - he could see they were making little progress, and the constant outbursts from all the ponies in the room were not helping- The arguments and discussions stopped as a distant sound rang throughout the room. A guard burst through the door. “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, the zerg are attacking with a larger force than what we’ve ever seen before.” Celestia looked around the room. “It is time,” she said. Turning to the guard, she asked, “are the soldiers prepared?” “Yes,” the guard responded. “They are already positioned at the main gate, the zerg have almost reached us.” “And the Elements of Harmony?” Celestia asked “They are prepared in the need arises for them to participate, Princess.” “Very well. You all know what you must do,” Celestia said. And with that, the ponies rose and sprinted out of the room. Torcannas followed moments later, easily catching up with the ponies, and racing toward the balcony where he had landed his vessel. Reaching it in moments, he opened the cockpit, became airborne, and took off at full speed to the main gate, where the fate of these ponies, and his newfound friends hung in the balance.
1: Unexpected arrivalExtraEquestrial The pilot of a Protoss fighter, named Torcannas, watched from his ship as their fleet flew among the stars in one huge golden mass. Their star ships was impressive, and clearly showed advanced technology. The sizes of the ships ranged from small fighters to massive crafts capable of destroying entire planets. Even more important that the ships was what they were protecting; In the very center, guarded by the whole fleet flew a true behemoth, the size of a small city. Capable of bending space and time to its will, it was one of the most powerful vessel ever created: the mothership. A giant disk-like spacecraft with a giant crystal at its center was one of the most ancient and powerful things ever made, and there were so few of them left. Everything was going fine to protect the Mothership, it was only a few more days of travel to get to the destination ....and then they were attacked. The attackers were strange, terrifying, insect-like monsters that swarmed the fleet in massive numbers. Even so, with their numbers in the thousands, the monsters were held at bay. Even though they had so many, they were no match for the Protoss and their advanced technology. However; the enemy just kept coming, It was becoming too much of a force to defend against. The battle lasted for hours and it seemed to be leaning towards the enemy; the Protoss could not hold out mush longer. Torcannas could only continue to fight his hardest for his kind knowing that this could only end one way. That was, until a face appeared on his ship's monitor, that he recognized it as commander Kannas of the fleet. "En taro Tassadar, pilot Torcannas", said the commander. "En taro Tassadar, commander Kannas", replied Torcannas. "Is there matter of great importance?" he asked "I am currently out of combat but i must return quickly." "That is what I am trying to contact you about, Torcannas. You must prepare your ship for a wormhole jump." "But that technology is highly unstable." Torcannas said with a sense of dread in him. "Yes", replied the commander "but it is our only hope that we can get the mothership and the rest of the fleet out of this catastrophe." Torcannas hesitated before replying: "....very well I shall start the procedures immediately." "I shall notify you when we shall make the jump. Be ready", said Kannas, then, with a small flash, he disappeared from the small screen. With the commander gone, Torcannas started to press small buttons and flip switches, readying his ship for the warp jump; a new and fairly unstable devise that would allow them to travel great distances in an instant. Suddenly, the commander appeared on his screen again: "Are you prepared for the transit?", asked the commander "Yes I am commander. Simply tell me when to initiate the system", was the reply. After a few seconds a countdown commenced: "5....4....3...." counted a robotic voice from a speaker in his ship "2....1....0, prepare for jump...." Then a massive flash of light came from all around him. Then darkness. Then again there was a flash of light and suddenly, he was back in space. It took him a while to adjust but once he did he realized a few things at once. He was alone, no one from the fleet was around him. His ship was out of control, he couldn't slow down. And that he was heading straight for a planet at full speed. He was going to die. 1 hour before, in Ponyvile.. Twilight couldn't be happier, she had become a princess! After her coronation, she decided she would stay in Ponyvile. Life after she had become a princess had been a bit hard to adjust but she had gotten used to it. It had been 3 weeks since then and life had almost returned to normal. Today was the day they gave out the "Pony of Ponyvile" award and they were about to start declaring who got the award. This years award was going to be given out after dark for some reason but Twilight couldn't wait to see who won. After about 5 minutes, the mayor got up onto the stage of town hall and said: "Citizens of Ponyvile, today we honor a pony who has truly deserved this award...." Meanwhile in the upper atmosphere.... Torcannas knew that his ship wouldn't burn up as it entered the atmosphere, due to the shields that the ship had been built with, but he knew the impact would most likely kill him but he still had hope....his shields had continued to recharge and he might have a small chance of surviving if he didn't crash into something too hard but he saw, as he was falling, a town. So this planet had life? Even though he couldn't slow down, he overloaded the ships warp field through his inertia drive and encased himself in a small ball of light, slowing down the ship.....it wasn't enough. He was still going too fast. Back in Ponyvile The mayor was starting to get to the end of her speech: "...and so it is with great pleasure that i give this award to.....Princess Twilight Sparkle." Twilight was shocked, she hadn't imagined for herself to get the award. She walked up to the stage and took the trophy from the smiling mayor. "Thank you", said Twilight, as a picture was taken. Almost as soon as the words had left her mouth, Twilight saw a bright flash in the sky. "A shooting star?" Twilight asked herself. It began to get brighter and brighter until everypony was looking up.Then Twilight realized: "That's not a shooting star-that's a meteor! Even though it wasn't looking like it was flying too fast (in fact it seemed to slow down somewhat) it was still heading straight towards them. It also was falling at a very flat angle. ***** Torcannas had managed to slow down the ship even more, but he knew he couldn't do it again. He was going to crash. He reached down and checked on the small shield of energy that would protect his craft from any damage it was at 25%. He might just survive...He just wasn't so sure about whatever was on the ground. he was getting closer.....closer. He braced himself for impact. "Not the most noble of deaths", he thought to himself. ***** Twilight watched with growing horror and fascination as the meteor slowed down yet again and deiced it probably wasn't just a rock. Finally after watching for 2 minutes the meteor smashed into the spire on the top of town hall and crashed into the open field next to it. There was a blue pulse that shimmed around the meteor as it crashed and a large amount of dust and dirt made a cloud around it. As it cleared Twilight was shocked, as were here other friends, that it wasn't a rock. It was a golden....machine of some sort. "Well What is that?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I don't know" Twilight responded She didn't know what it was it looked like some kind of gold and blue machine with wings that faced backwards and pulsed blue lights, it also had a window in the front that was very dark and she couldn't see through it. It looked very advanced but what was it? Suddenly there was a soft, hissing noise and the front of the strange thing began to move forward. Then one of the strangest creatures she had ever seen stepped, or rather limped out leaving a dark trail, when it fell to its knees and said in a voice that came from many places at once something unintelligible before it collapsed to the ground and lay still.
7: ComplicationsExtraEquestrial Torcannas had been told that the city that he was currently in was one of the oldest in the entire country. Over the better part of half a day, he had been wandering through it, alone, as his new found "friends" were busy with other matters. Compared to the cities of his kind, this -supposedly grand- city faltered much in that regard. Ignoring the city, he was surprised at how the populous reacted to him. Rather than, when he had first been among them, they had been showing a large amount of awe and as well, fear, they now seemed to have heard tell of him and his deeds, for they no longer seemed to be as afraid of him. On the contrary, many came up to him to thank him for what he had done in... Ponyville, was the name. He hardly thought that a deed of such repeated thanks -he had started to become slightly annoyed with it, by now. By the end of his exploration, he found himself at what he supposed was the main entrance to the city. It had obviously been built during times of strife, thick and tall and obviously designed to withstand attacks. As he walked up to the large gates, ponies making way for him, he noticed a group of ten soldiers spread out upon the battlements of the wall. "Princess Celestia must have increased their numbers," he thought to himself. As he made it to the entrance to the city, the amount of ponies began to decline, and the sun had set, giving way to a starry sky. As he turned to head back to the castle, he noticed a movement on the dark, unlit road that led to the city, that could not have belonged to a pony. Torcannas knew it would be hard to see for the guards, but he knew what it was, or rather what they were -zerg. He walked inside the city and looked up at the guards stationed on the walls. "You must come down -I believe zerg are approaching the city ," he said to the group of soldiers. "Are you sure, sir? I don't see anything over there," one of the soldiers replied. Then followed a slicing sound and a scream from one of the guards. After that eight soldiers descended the wall and ran to Torcannas. As they did, ten zerglings and ten hydralisks ran and slithered, respectively, to a stop at the entrance to the city, the gates behind them. As the few civilians that had remained there fled, one of the guards spoke. "What do we do?" the guard asked. "You've fought these things before, right? How do you kill them?" "The small creature are zerglings, do not let them overwhelm you. The larger threats are tall hydralisks, they will launch projectiles - "We saw," said another soldier. "One of them attacked us from the ground. It injured one of us, another stayed with him." As they spoke, the zerg remained still. "Strange activity for zerg," Torcannas observed to himself. As soon as he had thought that, the zerg began advancing. "Do you need a weapon?" one of the guards asked Torcannas. In answer, he raised his arms and summoned two psi-blades. The guards' eyes widened at the sight. "Wish I could do that," he said. "You will not be able to dodge the hydralisk's spines, block them with your armor, Torcannas said as he ran forward. He heard the guards follow him. Three zerglings ran at him and two hydralisks followed suit. Torcannas slew the zerglings easily, and rolled to avoid some of the spines launched at him, and raised his blades to his head. The spines that hit were disintegrated by them. He swiftly stood and, leaping at the nearest hydralisk, decapitated it, his blades passing through it easily. He ducked as the second hydralisk swung its claws at him. He lunged forward and stabbed it in the neck, his blade sticking out the other side. He turned to see where the other zerg and soldiers were. He saw six zerglings and three hydralisks dead. Likewise he saw one soldier dead, and another was sprawled on the ground, wounded, but apparently alive. The remaining guards and zerg were fighting viciously, but he noticed that there were mistakes that the zerg made, as if they were being controlled -and by a incapable leader, at that. He ran forward to aid the remaining guards. Two were fighting a zergling and two hydralisks. He swiftly killed the zergling, then turned and dispatched one of the hydralisks. The soldiers finally killed the remaining hydralisk. The soldiers thanked him for the assist. He looked away, and saw that the remaining four guards had killed most of the zerg. Torcannas saw the last of the zerg moving for him; four hydralisks. He saw the guards start to run forward to help him. He charged at the hydralisks, and as the fired the spikes, he dropped down and slid up to the hydralisks. Two swung at him with their tails and claws, but he dodged and sliced, and efficiently killed them. The remaining two zerg fell swiftly after. The guards had reached him by now, and one of them ran up to the wall and the other went to the injured one lying on the ground. One of the soldiers turned to Torcannas. "You sure can fight... those things were terrifying. You've fought them before?" "Yes, unfortunately, I have, many times," Torcannas replied. It was then that a large group of guards entered the plaza where the gate was located. From the group of soldiers, came Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, and Twilight Sparkle. "What happened?" Celestia asked. Next to her, Twilight Sparkle stood with her mouth agape at the disturbing scene before her. "We were attacked by a group of zerg, if that is not obvious enough!" Torcannas said. "How many were there?" Shining asked them. "I counted twenty, sir," one of the soldiers who had fought said. "Mr. Torcannas here most likely saved all of us here. We do have two who were injured during the fighting, however... and one dead," he added gravely. "How... how did they come all the way here?" Twilight asked, looking specifically at Torcannas. "Of that, I am not sure. I do have a few speculations. I will have to ask later." "I suppose we all have questions to ask, Torcannas," Princess Celestia said. They called in ponies to deal with the cleaning, as well as keeping the public away from the area, and they retreated back to the castle. An hour later, Twilight, the princesses, the three generals, and Torcannas met in the war room. "So... let's start at the begging, shall we?" Celestia asked Torcannas. "Please describe exactly what happened. We know you had chosen to wander about the city while we were preforming our duties, so please start after that." Torcannas spoke of his battle, explaining everything from his arrival at the gates, to the first strike, to the actual battle, sparring no details. After he finished, he looked at Twilight, then Celestia. "What I found strange, Princess Celestia was that the zerg made certain... mistakes and they behaved unlike even feral zerg. And as well, the zerg are too far away to happen upon by accident. I believe they are being controlled ." "You're saying that these creatures have gotten something to lead them,now?" General Stronghoof asked. "Yes... but I do not think that it is zerg." "How are the zerg controlled, Torcannas?" Iona asked him. "Through a psionic mental link." Princess Celestia's eyes widened. "I... I think I know who is behind this. But I have to be sure," she turned to Twilight. "You've done research on Changelings before, haven't you, Twilight?" "Yes... you think it's her?" "I believe so, yes." "Who do you think it, Princess?" Iona asked. "Do you think it is the Changeling queen?" "Yes, I think it is." "Who is this "Changeling Queen", Celestia? Torcannas questioned. "She leads a race of creatures called changelings, who can replicate anypony they choose. From the limited knowledge we have of them, we know that they are led by their queen through mental communication. It could be possible that she has found this zerg colony and taken control over it. She attempted to take over Canterlot a short time ago, and it seems she will try to do that again, but this time it seems she has a new weapon against us." "A weapon, yes, but it seems she still has yet to master using it," Torcannas said. "Then let us hope that this fact can be the cause of her defeat." Chrysalis was surprised. She hadn't expected her force to be defeated so easily. It seemed that while these zerg had strength in numbers, she still hadn't expected that to happen. That golden creature had been terribly strong. It seems that she would have to work hard on killing it if she was to win. Nevertheless, she still had to improve on her controlling of the zerg. The current resource locations had recently been depleted. She would have to search for more, and the task was daunting, to say the least. She did not want to start destroying the forest to obtain the resources, but if it came to that, then she would. She ordered a few overloads to scout for them. She would also send drones to search caves and such for mineral deposits. It would be difficult, but she could manage. Once she had them, she wanted to see what strains were in this swarm. The "ultralisk" sounded very interesting.
