The manager of the Imparja television station was going slightly crazy. The small regional station had a local news service that only very rarely contributed anything to its national affiliate, the Nine Network. He had almost not sent out a team to cover the strange phenomenon on the southern edge of the township, but when more and more people had called in enquiring about it, he had decided it was sufficiently newsworthy. Now he was tearing his hair out trying to arrange a hook-up to the network’s Brisbane office in an effort to convince them that an Earth-shaking event was happening right then in the middle of the Outback. While he was doing that, he was also keeping one ear and one eye on the mind-boggling events coming from the field. The strange blue winged creature was still speaking in an impossibly loud voice.
“We, the peoples of Equestria, come seeking trade with other worlds which we find through the use of the portal you see behind Trixie. We offer goods, art, knowledge, and magic.” The alicorn gestured dramatically and her horn flared.
To gasps of amazement from the gathered witnesses, a huge holographic image of a magnificent city perched on the side of a mountain appeared behind the visitors.
“Our capital city, Canterlot, is the political and cultural center of our nation, and we are ready to receive your delegations. Undoubtedly, both our worlds stand to gain from what one has in plenty but the other does not.”
The mare gestured again and the scene changed to that of what was obviously a manufacturing complex, and yet oddly attractive in design, fitting into landscaped gardens.
“Our factories are able to rapidly scale up production to supply your needs in exchange for goods and services unique to your world.”
Another flare of her horn changed the illusion once more to a glamor shot of a crystal palace towering into the sky with snow-capped mountains in the background. Colorful decorations filled the streets of the city in the foreground.
“When formal relations have been established, we will also welcome tourists and cultural exchanges. To this end, the Lady Smolder to my left is our designated ambassador to your world. She will deal with all the formalities that you will require for fair and legal dealings between us. To my right is my husband, Prince Mark Wells, who not only is focused on the economic growth of our nation but also seeks ties of friendship between all species.”
One more change of scene displayed some kind of festival with a huge crowd of attendees of a multitude of races. There were more of the equine-like species, some with horns but no wings, some with wings but no horn, and others with neither. The sheer variety of colors that they came in was amazing. There even appeared to be zebras and some with insect-like wings. There were more of the beaked winged creatures with feline back quarters also in a multitude of colors. Two-legged beings with bovine heads towered over them, as did bipedal cats. Even more species wove among the crowd.
“Equestria hopes that you will join us in joy and Harmony. For now, Princess Trixie bids you farewell.”
The mare turned with a theatrical swirl of her cape and stepped back through the portal as the illusion faded. The green stallion stepped forward.
“I will now take some questions,” he said with a smile.
Mark Wells was very happy with how everything was proceeding so far. As Trixie was making her speech, he had been carefully observing the crowd. He was fairly certain that several of the people holding up their smartphones were streaming the event to friends, just as Ken was doing so for those back in Canterlot. The more the better; he didn’t want people in authority trying to put their spin on the First Contact. With multiple streams going onto the internet, the truth of the event would be undeniable. Now though, it was time to disseminate some popular facts about Equestria and its races. Not only would this whet the curiosity of an entire world, it would help to stymie what could possibly be their biggest hurdle. And it was not a world government or special-interest group. No, it was one young and vindictive woman named Ivana Kalchik. The former friend of his business partners’ daughter knew too much about Equestria, but if he told these eager listeners enough about his world, she would not be believed if she claimed foreknowledge of their existence. Her father might, but that was a problem for another time.
Mark looked at the police officers who were trying to hold back the crowd in concern for their welfare. “Please allow everyone to approach us. No harm will come to them. The shield is for their protection as well as ours. We will reduce its size to allow a closer look and easier conversing.”
Shining Armor took the cue to decrease the shield’s diameter so that the humans could approach to about a meter and a half before being stopped by the near-invisible wall.
Mark was amused that the first question that was blurted out by a teenage boy who had beaten the rest to the front was addressed to Smolder instead of him.
“Are you really a dragon?” he asked excitedly.
Smolder smiled enough to show her fangs. “I am.”
“Can you fly and breathe fire?”
Rather than reply, the dragoness spread her wings, flapped enough to rise about two meters, threw her head back, and belched a great gout of fire before settling back to the ground. Smolder had not flown high enough to touch the shield and Shining Armor had adjusted it to allow her breath to exit. She dropped to the ground, furled her wings, and grinned toothily. “Does that satisfy your question?”
“Oh, wow! Yeah!”
Mark thought it would also encourage any person seeing this demonstration to think twice before messing with Smolder. “Next question, please.”
Mark, and occasionally Smolder, spent some time answering lots of queries, sometimes more than once for latecomers. While he was happy to tell the people about virtually any aspect of the world of Equus and the nation of Equestria, he particularly wanted to disseminate knowledge of everything that Ivana had learned about in her brief visit to their world. If it seemed a subject would not come up, he led the questioning until he had an excuse to talk about it. He and all the others who had spent time with her in Equestria had carefully put together a list of subjects that could not be dismissed as a teenager’s fantasies. Once those were all covered, Mark drew the questions to a close, finishing with one of his own.
“We did not know what time of day we would arrive. It’s obviously nighttime but could someone tell me the actual hour?”
Upon being given the time, he nodded. “It would be best if we continue further talks at an hour more suited to both of us. We will return in approximately fourteen of your hours.” Mark lifted a short staff that he had brought with him. It had a large ruby clasped in one end and he plunged the other firmly into the ground before activating its enchantments. The gem began glowing brightly. “This is a beacon for our portal to link to so that we can return to this exact same spot. Do not try to interfere with it, please.”
The two beacons that he and Ken had hidden earlier in the day had been surreptitiously retrieved by Shining Armor while all the humans were distracted. There would be no evidence that the Equestrians had been here previously.
With that completed, Mark and Smolder turned and stepped through the portal, closely followed by Gallus and Shining. Then the portal disappeared.
“Well done, everyone,” Mark said with a grin. He stepped up to a computer monitor that was showing Ken Hayashi’s stream. “Come over when you’re ready, Ken,” he said into the microphone as he looked at the view of the night now lit only by phones and the camera crew’s light.
“Will do, Mark.”
The alicorn then addressed the mare and changeling seated behind the bench where three other monitors had several websites displayed. “What’s the verdict, ladies?”
The unicorn and her bond Companion both grinned hugely. “The internet is exploding!” Allura replied. “The daytime side of the planet especially.”
Lacewing completed the thought. “By the time you return to Earth, there won’t be many humans who won’t know about this event.”
“That’s exactly what we’re counting on.”
“When do you think the Americans are going to respond?” Gallus asked.
Mark laughed. “I’d be highly surprised if the spooks over at Pine Gap aren’t already being stirred up.” The U.S. radar station eighteen kilometers southwest of Alice Springs undoubtedly had CIA operatives among the personnel there. “However, I believe that the Australian Prime Minister will be our first official political visitor. I hope he hadn’t gone to bed yet.”
The Prime Minister had a very busy job, so he appreciated being able to go to bed at a reasonable time. He was very much irked to be woken a couple of hours later. That rapidly changed when he learned the reason why, even if it was the middle of the night. The hour-and-a-half difference in time zones between Alice Springs and The Lodge in Canberra couldn’t be helped.
After making several arrangements including an RAAF flight first thing in the morning to the Outback town, he went back to bed.
“What was that all about?” his wife asked, woken by the disturbance.
“How’d you like to meet some fair dinkum aliens, love?” he replied.
“Are you sure this isn’t a hoax?” the President of the United States of America asked with a frown.
“Too many corroborating witnesses,” the Secretary of Defense replied. “Besides, there’s the artifact that they left behind.” He showed a photo of the staff with the glowing gem upon it.
“So what? Hollywood makes that kind of crap all the time.”
“Yes, but they can’t put an invisible force field around it so nobody can touch it.”
The president scowled. “Why the hell would aliens make First Contact in the middle of nowhere? And why do most look like they belong in a zoo?”
“We have people going over every minute of every recording we can get our hands on trying to answer those and many other questions. The only answer we have right now is from a question put by one of the bystanders. She asked why they had come to Alice Springs and the one named Mark Wells didn’t reveal exactly how the portal worked, but said that opening one into a new dimension was pretty random, and they then had to focus on the nearest indication of civilization.”
“Sounds like a load of hooey to me, but if this isn’t the first dimension they’ve visited, it could explain why there are so many different species.”
“Yes sir, and why some of them are unicorns and dragons.”
Ivana Kalchik’s jaw dropped and eyes widened at the feed on her socials. Then fury started to boil her blood. “DAD!” she screamed as she tore out of her room. This time, she was going to be believed and vindicated!
# # # # # # # # #
Gavourments all over the world be like:
Military and their expectations:
Meanwhile the world population towards the landing place of the aliens:
You know, with Ivana's dad now knowing she was speaking the truth, wouldn't they be absolutely pissed at her for throwing away an obvious in with Equestria's royalty, all for the sake of a quick buck?
After all, if she hadn't, not only would they have the pearl, but also strong connections to equestria which can easily lead to being one of the first in line for close cooperation, way more valuable overall.
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Yuuuup. But that’ll probably be overshadowed by his outrage at being frozen out of the opportunity as a personal affront by the Equestrians against him… assuming the tree is very near where the apple fell.
Why did they land in the back end of nowhere?
If you have to ask that question, you sure as hay wouldnt like the correct answer.
Ack.. forgot something. Theres an obscure piece of tech used in US, UK cities/ Police have a vehicle with a mobile Xray Backscatter scanner in it for weapons scanning? Industrial things are far bulkier and not in the Police compound?
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Fair point, and I doubt she told him the reason this happened was because of attempted theft. Depending on how much awareness they have, that might be the eventual end point of that arc, the father finding out why they got frozennout of that opportunity, that being his daughter's actions, rather than being intended as any sort of insult.
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Yep and the future money they could have made with a little patience would have been a ton. But entitled children often have no sense of patience and worst their parents encourage them in this.
This is going to be a spectacular story. Looking forward to the next chapter!
Ivana is going to get into LOTS of trouble at home once her father realizes the rest of the story. Kicked out of the house, maybe?
I would LOVE to meet some fair dinkum aliens.
YAAAAY
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Ivana is going to try and tell people that the Equestrians have been to Earth before. That they 'arrived' in the Australian Outback because they knew that showing up anywhere else would likely have them being shot at by either a drunk idiot or a soldier.
Ivana will likely get a visit from some government agents. Or some 'government agents'.
(50/50 on Chrysalis going to see Ivana and make Ivana realize that she totally blew the biggest chance she ever had to actually be anything other than a cautionary tale about greed.)
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So will other that try to profit from the situations.
'I got obducted by them and experimented on' probably will be under the top 5 claims that get laid by people towards them.
Though it's very likely that the company that Mark help build up get soon very closely observed.
Ivana has a chance to throw some shade on them with details she know, like Seaquestria and their magic pearl, Mark better mentioned them by accident when they return in 13 hours.
By covering all Ivana learned in these two days her chances to be taken seriously is very unlikely.
Than again some told be things are as like as me seeing the character from the Harry Potter series to smile.
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This just in, by unanimous decision alicorns are forbidden from Earth from everyone for the forseeable future. Details remain sketchy as to why, but we are assured there have been issues, especially in regard, and we quote one represenative "that valentines display tart."
Meanwhile across monkeyburg
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Just good the are parodies videos and oneshot stories and not real stories on Fimfiction, they might blow our collective mind otherwise 👍
Next chapter will be very big since the reaction in the internet will explode. In the story and here on Fimfiction:
camo.fimfiction.net/qkSBaoSVNNtE8xgnvYbe1ggUPkLkEVeDR1_7R_BsEqs?url=https%3A%2F%2Fencrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%3AANd9GcTOEmk8UmkWx2AKF7nfWMW_p93VwYGbIux3UYx5EeYFuJTGdR7C
Working multi partner families will be interesting to see some people chewing on alone will be entertaining.
Different species, different culture and common sense and most importantly:
While humanity is constantly in war with one another, this shows that peace is not just a archivment that can be reached, but become a lifestyle norm.
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Also world powers be like
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This is absolutely hilarious!
O my God, thanks for the laughter 👍
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For you pony, a war is a noteable event, the worst time of your lives.
For us, its taco tuesday
And now for something completely different. I'd watch out right now. Forget Discord, Sgt Murphy is soon gonna have his fifteen minutes of Anarchy in the next chapter while humans are probably gonna go ape $hit all over this!
And Yes a certain spoiled brat will try to have her way, but very much doubt that her or her father will have much hope unless for petty revenge go after his friends or their business. Still can't wait for the next chapter.
Navigation of the Earth politician landscape and trying to make a sense of it:
Happy celebrating days to come and have a great slide into the next year.
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I see you are a man of culture. HLC for the win!
The upside to Mark selecting Oz is if the powers that be (US, Russia, China, North Korea, India, Pakistan, Iran) all get pissed and the diplomacy goes South (I can neither confirm nor deny any pun was intended), the Outback just becomes a big glass-coated parking lot--so, no biggie.
It's already just a sandy parking lot.
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Or, having a definite target to defend they can bounce everything aimed at. But, then NewZeeland would be better