ExtraEquestrial

ExtraEquestrial

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.