Past to Present

Chapter 1: Discovery and Confusion

Lyra Heartstrings, the cyan pony with a white stripe in her hair and a lyre cutie mark on her flank, who everybody knew to be... Strange, was taking a night stroll. She didn't normally take night strolls, in fact, night strolls were extremely rare from her. To her a night stroll was something which could distract her from her ultimate goal: to discover humanity. Not in the literal sense, it was obvious that they didn't exist. After all, why would they be only in history books and not making history at the very moment! They had hands, that gave them a technological ability presumably unrivaled on the planet... God she wanted hands...

Lyra's stroll on this warm night was only caused by her roommate, Bonbon, who refused to admit that any such creature could exist! Why? Lyra didn't know! Perhaps Bonbon was unwilling to believe anything that she said because of her obsession. Perhaps it was to dissuade her from continuing to attempt to... what exactly, Lyra didn't know! For Lyra had no real plans for after the hard evidence of humanity was unearthed... Her real reasons for her human obsession were probably the attraction of hands. How cool are hands, right? You can pick stuff up, and feel things and play instruments and type and eat and drink and... The possibilities of hands were endless! Sure hooves could pick stuff up, those little microscopic flaps outside the hoof could hook onto almost anything you put inside their grasp, but hands. Just... hands! Still, Lyra was frustrated by an argument with Bonbon. She had been trying to explain hands, like she did every night, to her, when Bonbon said that her attentiveness to the subject was unhealthy! UNHEALTHY! As if! So what other option was there than to go out and walk around the outskirts of Ponyville? Aside from almost literally anything else, nothing.

Lyra would not have missed this occasion for anything though, since her world was going to be changed.

Trotting peacefully through the street, humming a little ditty she might put onto paper, she heard something loud-ish. Not very loud, just a bit loud. Enough to catch her attention, basically. A mildly loud, but not that loud, pop was present in the air, coming from, you guessed it! Ghastly Gorge! (You thought I was going to say the "Everfree Forest," didn't you! Don't lie, the Narrator knows ALL.)

Abandoning her beautiful song for the sound of an explosion, Lyra started towards the Gorge in curiosity. Perhaps a pie fell from the sky! A bouquet? OR A HAND! You can never know, you know. So off the young mare set, to investigate the fallen object in the Ghastly Gorge!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-From the Point of Doctor James Underwood-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Doctor Underwood awoke violently from his sleep. He gazed around his ship in a daze, memories fuzzy from the fall. Suddenly, memories came flooding back to him, and an unprecedented rage replaced his confusion.

"THAT... HORSE!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, not realizing that he could not be heard from the outside.

The outside, of course, was a charred mess of what used to be a proud Typhoon fighter. Once with a dart shape, it now had a sort of oblong triangle blob thing shape, reminiscent of many a squashed spider, God rest their souls.

Confused and frightened, the Lieutenant pressed the shiny red button which happened to be the "Eject" control, securing him in a blocky powered exoskeleton provided by his favorite corporation, NTech Industries. The clicks of the armor wrapping around his body confirmed his fate. Less than a second later, the seat of the proud vehicle plowed through the cockpit and into the air. The Lieutenant got a good look of where he was, a large canyon with a settlement nearby. A forest was placed near the far edges of this canyon.

Formulating a plan, he waited for his chute to open. It didn't. And so, the soldier jumped from his seat to lose downward momentum, and crashed ungracefully on the ground. He tried to stay conscious, thrusting his arm towards the sky, for at any moment, an enemy could find him lying there, although they should be distracted by the larger invasion force, he was still a threat, and was still present. His endeavor to stay awake failed quickly, and blackness enveloped him.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-From the Point of Lyra Heartstrings-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Lyra watched in awe as a chair or something similar flew into the sky. She wondered if Pinkie Pie had anything to do with this, seeing as it was just so random that nopony else could have anything to do with it. Then, IT fell from the seat. A form like an ape jumped from the now falling furniture. Lyra's eyes widened with both curiosity and anticipation as it hit the ground several hundred meters from where she stood.

"What? I... What?" She stuttered to herself as she galloped to the fallen form. It reached out to the air and apparently fell asleep. She continued to move towards the creature as fast as she could, and when she arrived, she was shocked to see it covered by a white shell. She couldn't tell if the white was actually its skin or not!

It looked like it had a large compound eye in place of its head, and it had plates all over the body. Altogether, it looked like a cyclops had a child with an insect. What really intrigued Lyra though, was the presence of hands on it. It had HANDS! Monkeys had hands, but this was new to her! A white animal, presumably an alien of sorts, with hands! This excited her like nothing else did.

"Guuuuuuuugh... Auuuuh..." Groaned the creature as it slowly regained consciousness, to the cyan pony's shock.

"It's... Alive?" She exclaimed.

The creature gazed up at the young mare, with no sign of shock. This puzzled Lyra, but also frightened her. How could an alien know what she was, or expect her species to be present when it was... Alien?

"What.... State your serial number..." The creature asked in perfect Equestrian.

"I... I'm sorry, you speak?"

"Well of course I speak! I'm surprised YOU'RE speaking back to me like that! I'll ask you one more time, what is your serial number?" It yelled at her.

"I... I don't have a serial number. What are you?" The creature cocked its head at this statement and gazed at her flank.

"You're a unicorn, yet you have a flank mark of a lyre... What division are you stationed in? Are you NUSA or GAPHE?" He asked her, perplexed.

"My cutie mark? What? Division? New saw? Gaffe? I'm not familiar with what you're saying, mister."

"Cutie... Mark? What is this nonsense? Lead me to your squad commander!"

"What are you?" Lyra asked once again.

"Alright, since you're clearly suffering from a genetic malfunction, I am First Lieutenant James Underwood, pinnacle member of the Equus Nova project, and former Director of Research in NTech Industries. Now tell me what your serial number is!" He stared at her through his helmet as if he expected her to know what he meant.

"I meant species. What species are you? Are you an alien? What are you doing in Equestria?"

Dumbfounded, the creature sat there not saying anything. Something that she said seemed to confuse him enough that he wouldn't respond to her question. Maybe it didn't understand what I said! she thought and began to recite the question slowly and simply.

"What... Sort... Of... Creature... Are... You?" She said.

"Dear God, you must be malfunctioning. I am a human being, and your creator. By default, you answer to me and obey my orders." He said firmly.

"A... Human?"

"Yes, human. Is that something special to you? What division are you, anyway! Unicorns were developed for combat, what's with the lyre flank mark?"

"A real human?"

"Do I need to prove myself or something?" He asked as he removed his helmet, blond hair sweeping out of his round accessory, revealing his face.

Lyra stood dumbfounded as her dream was realized. A human. A real, live human. Right in front of her. She was speaking to a human being. But she was perplexed, he mentioned a project called "Equus Nova." She recognized the first as the name of her planet, but the last, she had never heard of a "nova" except when her teacher told her class about stars. Were the humans there trying to destroy the ponies? Could it be that her dreams of finding humans were really dreams of finding those who would exterminate her race?

"What is the... Equus Nova project?" She asked, all her courage built up into that one question, making her feel like Fluttershy.

"You don't know what the Equus Nova project is? Bloody hell, you must not have even been taught anything at all! Are you an escapee?" He asked, his voice sounding different outside the helmet than it did inside.

"Hey! You speak like Rarity! That's awesome, I didn't know humans sounded like that!"

"Does anybody know you're outside a facility?" He asked, ignoring her comment.

"Anypony."

"Excuse me?"

"You said 'anybody,' I think you're trying to say anypony."

The soldier stood there with a look of puzzlement on his face. He could not comprehend what was going on. She must have escaped the holding facilities after cloning.

"Waitaminute! You're a HUMAN!" She suddenly exclaimed. "You have HANDS! And fingers! I've noticed the tools we use in ponyville aren't exactly meant for hooves if you know what I mean! Fingers grip so much, why, even my lyre is difficult to play without hands! You must have been some sort of cultural... Inspirer, for lack of a better word, right?"

"Listen. I don't think you understand what I've been saying this whole time. You are a result of the Equus Nova project which I worked on. We--"

"I wanna take you to Ponyville! Don't worry, I've been talking about humans since I was a little filly! Think of it! I was right all along, but nobody believed me! Ha! Bonbon was just arguing with me about human existence! Wait until she sees YOU! Just standing there all... Human-y..."

"Ponyville? You have been given a town? Is that your nickname for your camp?" Confused and irate at her ignoring him, the poor human found himself levitated by the filly's magic and moving towards the town he saw earlier.