03-12-116 YC
Conundrum Star System
Low Orbit around Planet-1
The brilliant red flare of a cynosural field blazed high above the blue and green planet, its baleful light danced across the battered hull of the Legion class Strategic Cruiser. Air bled from gaping wounds and smoke billowed into space. The war beaten ship didn’t have much time left.
If anyone could peer through the technology and the hydrostatic fluid protecting the Legion pilot, they would see the faint outlines of a smile as he watched his remaining crew work frantically to save their ship. “Little lives with tiny goals,” the Capsuleer mused as his cameras recorded their pointless struggle.
The Capsuleer relaxed in his hydrostatic pod and marveled at the beautiful contradiction set before him. A pristine world, completely untouched by malady or disaster, was overlaid by the red flame of his cynosural field. He would give a fair amount of his fortune to see the looks on the inhabitants’ faces when the real fireworks begin, but that wasn’t going to happen.
Panicked pleas from his tactical officer snapped his attention back to the scanner. The looming grey bulk of the Caldari blockade fleet had finally caught up with them. Even with flames erupting from his hull, he celebrated his victory. He could almost taste their fear and hatred as the Caldari targeted his ship, desperate to stop the inevitable.
“Too slow and too late!” the Capsuleer laughed as he sent the final jump command to his waiting fleet.
The hull shook from the impact of a volley of torpedoes as the twenty Raven class Battleships fired upon the stricken Legion. Just as the screech of the hull breach alarm sounded, hundreds of spider webs composed of expanding red lightning exploded around the Legion’s cynosural field.
He watched with sick pleasure as fire engulfed his engine room, silencing the screams of the last of his crew. The legion exploded as its warp core lost containment, leaving only the hardy pod protecting the Capsuleer intact. As the flames and wreckage dispersed, he saw that the Caldari Ravens were surrounded by several hundred battleships and capital ships of the Amarr Imperial Navy.
In a final act of vengeance, one of the Ravens unleashed a volley of torpedoes upon his pod. The missiles streaked through space, seeming to take hours as the laser equipped Amarr fleet open fired upon the outgunned Caldari. The Capsuleer smiled as he watched the Ravens shatter before the might of the Imperial Navy.
“It’s good to be immortal,” he chuckled to himself as the torpedoes finally found their target.
2 Months Earlier…
Twilight groaned as her mind edged toward consciousness, acutely aware of the shaft of light battering against her eyes. Celestia’s sun bore down on the helpless unicorn as the early morning light streamed through the open window. She roughly pulled the comforter over her head, desperate to get a few more minutes of sleep.
“Come on, Twilight,” demanded an irritated Spike as he shook the lazy unicorn awake. “Even though you were up all night giggling to yourself in the lab, you still need to open the library on time. The new Daring Do book came in yesterday and I know at least one pony who’s camped out to get it.”
Twilight peered through the open window and caught sight of a low flying cloud with a familiar multicolored tail hovering close to the library. She squinted from the bright sunlight and could just make out two magenta eyes staring at her through the window.
“Ughhhh… Fine,” Twilight moaned as she rolled out of bed and unleashed a titanic yawn. She really wasn’t in the mood to face the day, but she knew if the book in question were an old tome of Celestia’s forbidden spells then she would probably be as excited as Dash was.
After a quick shower, Twilight finally lit the lamp that announced the opening of the library. She had just opened the door a crack when Rainbow Dash slammed into it and crashed into a bookcase, spilling the entire Enclyclopedia Equestria reference series on top of herself.
Twilight sighed at the pile of books and blue feathers. “Well good morning to you too Rainbow. I’m guessing you’re here to read up on landing techniques?” Twilight unleashed the only wit available to a half-conscious unicorn, sarcasm.
“No way, I aced that class back in Cloudsdale,” the cyan pegasus answered with pride as she dug her disheveled self out of the pile of books, “But I’ll take the new Daring Do novel if you have it… and if we can find it.”
Rainbow began to reshelf the encyclopedia while Twilight and Spike gave each other an exasperated look.
“Hey are you alright?” Rainbow asked, noticing the dark circles under Twilights eyes, “You’re always awake way before sunrise, what gives? And what’s with the scorch marks?” Twilight chuckled a bit when she saw Rainbow suddenly gawk at the thick black rings on the floor.
“She had a sneezing fit yesterday and nearly burned the library to the ground,” Spike grumbled as he started to clean up.
“Wow. That’s a heck of a sneeze you got there Twi! We need to make sure you never get a cold or we could lose the whole town.” Both Rainbow and Spike had a good laugh at this, leaving Twilight rather annoyed.
“Do you want the book or not?” Twilight growled and tossed the Daring Do novel to Rainbow using her magic. “And for the record, I had a magic flare up… it happens occasionally.” She let her head sag a bit as she remembered the chaos she had unleashed the day before.
“Aww Twi, don’t feel bad,” Rainbow said in a sympathetic tone, resting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “You know the world won’t end if you keep the library closed for a day if you’re feeling that bad.”
Twilight’s face suddenly lit up as she recalled the reason she was so tired. “OH, I almost forgot,” she blurted out while trotting in place from her excitement. “I need to show you something. I need somepony to verify whether I’m crazy or not.” She wheeled around and headed for her laboratory, humming all the way.
“Ooh, that’s not creepy at all Twi. I’ll see whatever it is you want to show me; but if you come near me with a needle I’m bucking you in the head, calling Nurse Red Cross, and telling her you fell down the stairs.” She stated as she followed the enthusiastic unicorn into her dungeon of science.
The acrid smell of chemicals wafted through the air as the two descended the stairs. Seeing her friend’s apprehension at being in the lab, Twilight gently ushered Rainbow toward a table in the back where the object of her curiosity was surrounded by scientific instruments.
The pegasus stared at a melon-sized machine which had a cracked, circular glass disk imbedded in a cylindrical metallic housing. The outside of the machine sported four fins, each spaced equidistant around the glass disk. Rainbow’s mouth hung wide as she took in the sight.
“I think I summoned this thing accidently when my magic ran amok yesterday,” Twilight stated as she checked at her scientific instruments.
“This thing is WICKED!” Dash gushed, gesturing wildly at the machine. “Whatdoesitdo? Wherediditcomefrom? Whatsthatredlightinthecenter? Howdid…” Rainbow asked in one amazingly long breath.
“To answer all those questions,” Twilight interrupted, “I have absolutely no idea. As I said, I think I may have summoned it during my flare up, but I can’t be sure since it’s a chaotic event… Wait, what do you mean ‘red light’ Rainbow?” Twilight asked as she stared at the machine, a bit stunned.
“Oh the obsessive compulsive scientist somehow missed the dull, red light in the glass thingamajig,” Rainbow taunted as she poked the glass with her hoof.
Twilight slapped Rainbow’s hoof away from the machine and glared at the offending pony. “What are you, CRAZY? I don’t even know what it is and you decide to touch the bucking thing!”
“ALKERU! ALKERU!” The two ponies stumbled backwards in response to the loud, metallic, monotone voice that emanated from the machine. The red light pulsed and grew in intensity as the metallic housing of the machine began to rattle on the table.
The two friends scrambled to get away from the monstrous machine, but in their haste Twilight’s legs were snared by the mess of wires and power cords strewn about the laboratory. Rainbow Dash worked furiously to free Twilight from her binds, but when she caught the look of fear in her friend’s eyes she turned around to see that the red light had stopped blinking and the machine had swiveled around to look directly at them. Silently the machine rose off of the table and floated toward the two cowering ponies, still covered in wires.
Fear turned into determination as both ponies readied themselves for a fight; but a different, softer spoken voice originated from the machine. “I have to apologize to you Ms. Sparkle. I didn’t think that the camera drone’s startup sequence would have that kind of effect on you,” the voice said with a bit of a chuckle. “I’m actually astounded that Ms. Dash was able to trip the startup sequence in the first place, and with just a touch of her hoof no less… I wonder if it has something to do with the ambient 'magical' field.” The machine rotated to look above them as if it were searching for an answer.
The two ponies sat in the tangle of wires, shocked beyond words. “Well since this is first contact between alien species, I think introductions are in order. My name is Uesi Osmon and you may call me Uesi, Mr. Osmon, or the crazy talking red light if you prefer.”
“Twilight… I don’t really know what’s going on, but this thing has a quirky sense of humor.” Rainbow stated with an incredulous expression.
“So… wait,” Twilight interjected, finally free of the wires, “I somehow summoned a floating camera during my magic flare? I’ve heard of odd things happening during flares, but I think this takes the cake.”
“Hah! That was a really interesting event. I’ve got petabytes of data to sift through after that little doozy. But to answer your question; no, you didn’t summon this drone from a magical ether,” the machine continued its lecture as it paced back and forth in the air in front of the two ponies, “The raw power output from your little episode disrupted the anti-gravity unit and experimental cloak on this camera drone. The resulting fall caused minor damage to the controlling AI, forcing the unit to shut down and enter repair mode.” Uesi’s drone bobbed up and down in the air, happy with his own assessment.
Twilight’s attention was fixated on the hovering camera drone, but Rainbow Dash was already growing bored of the exposition coming from the flying red light.
“So… Mr. Osmium…” Dash interjected, trying to stave off another lecture.
“Rainbow, how do you even know about that chemical element?” Twilight interrupted, amazed at her friend’s knowledge of the transition metal.
“We still had to take chemistry at flight school, just as you did in magic school. Just because you live in a library doesn’t mean you’re the only one who knows stuff, Twi,” Dash poked Twilight as she scolded the egghead.
“So… Mr. Osmosis,” Rainbow continued, ignoring the frustrated sigh from Twilight.
“Osmon, Ms. Dash. Uesi Osmon”
“Yeah, Youeasy… So you claim that you were following Twilight and she accidently hurt your… whatever this thing is.”
“Camera drone”
“Right. So… why exactly did you follow her in the first place?”
The camera drone stopped bobbing in the air and seemed to slink back a bit when she finished her question, turning left and right to look at the ponies in turn.“Ahh well…You see… I really hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but there was no other means available to gather the information needed to translate your language. Direct examination of certain individuals and correlation of their actions was the easiest and quickest way to translate a completely alien language.”
“Well that answers my question as to why you’re able to speak our language,” Twilight said as she stared uneasily at the camera.
“Wait, what?” The pegasus queried, her eyes locked on the suspicious red light.
The camera drone focused on Rainbow. “What Twilight means is that I am only able to communicate with you since I have been watching you for some time; attempting to learn your language, mannerisms, and culture.”
Twilight was getting really anxious, but she facehoofed when she realized she might have made the same choice if the shoe was on the other hoof.
“So you’re saying that you’ve been spying on us for a while, and this is a good thing?” Rainbow growled at Uesi, who was busy backing away from the fuming pegasus.
Twilight tried to hold her angry friend back. “Rainbow, what he says makes a lot of sense. He’s from a completely different culture, he…”
Rainbow, now whipped into a tizzy, wasn’t about to listen to anyone. “No Twilight. Spying is ALWAYS wrong,” She snarled at the camera drone, “You make all your camera drones visible right now or you’ll just prove you have evil intentions. AND I MEAN RIGHT NOW!” she screamed, her eyes alight with fury.
The drone panned from Dash to Twilight and then back before two other drones decloaked above the ponies.
“Done, though there might be a problem,” an annoyed tone leaked through the drone.
“Wha… What do you mean?” Rainbow whispered, staring at the three red lights hovering above her.
“In less than a minute I’ve lost 23 camera drones. The nobles are running in a panic in the center of Canterlot. Luna has destroyed the audio processors in hers with a powerful acoustic wave. Celestia has shattered a tea cup... And apparently I’ve been invited to a party.”
“Uhh Twi, you might want to send the Princess a letter,” Dash said sheepishly, trying to evade Twilight’s scowling gaze.
“That would probably be wise… 25…26…” Uesi sighed.
Author's Note
This story is a crossover of MLP:FIM and the Eve Online Universe. I’m going to leave the dry and complicated definitions of eve tech out of the Author’s notes and let the story fill in the gaps as much as possible.
Hope you enjoy the story!
