//------------------------------// // the hero from beyond the stars // Story: A Tale Of Three Worlds // by Sornos //------------------------------// 24 hours ago, in the Everfree Forest A crater was formed from a recent crash by ship from space. Fires have also started up from the ship’s fiery entry. Inside the ship, just waking up was a strange being in strange armor. “Ugh, did someone get the name of that Krogan that rammed me?” It moaned as it held its head for a second. “I better check the air to be sure it’s safe to breathe the air.” It started to mess with something orange on its arm. “So earth normal air? Alright i won’t need my air supply. But just to be safe, for now I'll keep my helmet on.” Suddenly, his motion tracker started beeping and showed a few blips coming from the South, according to the planet’s directional orientation. “Need to hide for now.” He actives his tac cloak and finds a place to hide. “Likely natives coming to examine the wreck.” A few minutes after he hid, three equines appeared and began speaking in a harmonious, yet unknown language. One of the equines had a horn and did the most talking, using telekinesis on a notepad and pen. The other two had wings and seemed exact opposites in terms of personality. One seemed to have an arrogant air about it while the other seemed scared and flinched at every noise made. ‘great so I'm on a planet where equines are the dominant form of life?’ he thought staying as quiet as possible, while his omni tool was quite yet hard at work, try to translate the words they were saying. During the observation, the horned equine seemed to be examining the wreck in detail, while the winged ones looked for danger, one fearfully and the other in boredom. The bored equine seemed to complain to the horned one, but was ignored. The fearful one took notice of some footprints and followed them. After a short while she was near his hiding spot, speaking in soothing tones. ‘What do i do? If I reveal myself it's a risk, but its a risk i have to take due to limited food supplies. Please tell me the program is done!’ he thought looking at his omni tool. *translation program ready* it said. He decides to reveal himself. “Sorry had to hide until I could get my way to understand you to work.” He explained. “What brings you to the wreck of my ship?” The reactions from the equines weren’t exactly what he was expecting at first. The fearfully shy equine yelped in fright; the arrogant one flew up into the air and pounded her hooves together, ready for a fight. The horned one, however, seemed to freak out, but more academically rather than in fear or anger. “Slow down miss? Let’s start with giving names at least first.” He said. “My name is Torrin Jo’gon. You may simply call me torrin for short.” “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and these are two of my friends. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.” The horned equine said, pointing to the different ponies as she introduced them. “I’ll be honest with you, the only reason I revealed myself was due to my limited food supply and unique food needs.” He explained. “It better not be ponies!” Rainbow Dash said. “If it is, I’ll give you a beating faster than you can say, ‘Sonic Rainboom!’” “No, its not ponies. Say Twilight do you know what a amino acid is? It will be easier to explain if you do.” He said. Just when she was about to explain, Fluttershy spoke up. “Amino acids are a type of bodily chemical that is found in protein rich foods, such as beans and meats.” Rainbow and Twilight looked at Fluttershy in confusion. “I take care of animals. I have to know these things to keep them healthy.” “You also forgot that each being is made up of them. The thing is, your kind like most are levio based amino acids. Mine however are based on dextro acids. If I try to eat your food at best it will not give me energy. At worst it could kill me.” He said. “I only have a month's worth of rations.” “Hmm...if I could examine a small piece of your rations and you are willing to wait, I could do some research and see if I could find a suitable substitute or make what you need.” Twilight offered “I would be grateful. To be fair though I would like to come back with you as I can’t let you do that alone. Do we have a deal?” He asked. “Sounds fair enough. *SQUEE* I can’t believe that I’m actually interacting with an Extra-Equestrian!” She said in excitement. “So this is the first time you have seen someone not of this world?” He asked. “Uhh, duh!” Rainbow said. “I don’t see any more of...whatever you are. So...” “Just being sure. For the record, my kind are called Turians.” He explained. “What does a Turian look like?” Fluttershy asked. “I don’t think your face is just armor...no offence.” “None taken.” He decides to take off his helmet and reveal his scale like face plating that was partially covered in some sort of blue face paint. “Our homeworld of Plaven has a weaker atmosphere so most life their including us Turians have evolved an exoskeleton of sorts to protect from solar radiation.” “Fascinating!” Twilight exclaimed, but her face of amazement changed to that of confused. “Is something wrong Twilight?” He asked noticing the look change. “Well, wouldn’t the Turian in charge of raising your sun just keep said radiation from even entering your planet’s atmosphere?” She asked. “Our sun and moon moves on its own. We don’t have the power to move the sun or moon. Can you ponies?” He asked. “I...but...bwah!?” Twilight stuttered out. Rainbow then answered for her. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna do their magic mumbo stuff to do that to the sun and moon. And to translate Twilight’s Egghead speak, she said, ‘How is that possible?” “Magic? Magic is simply a myth. I will admit that the fact you are flying without proper sized wings makes me think perhaps the myth is true here. To answer how the sun and moon move on their own, it’s the gravity of the planet that moves the moon, and the sun doesn’t move at all.” He explained. “We don’t have magic of any kind.” “That makes sense,” Rainbow said. “I’ve read my fair share of science-fiction books to think that magic isn’t going to used everywhere.” Twilight then recovered from her broken brain. “You got that from science fiction books?! But those aren’t true!” “What is not true for some could possibly be true for others don’t you think twilight?” He said. “We don’t possess magic, and its seen as a fairy tail. I will admit its likely magic exists here but the closest thing to magic the rest of my galaxy has is biotics.” “Biotics?” “A rare ability that some that exposed to a rare elements dust form can use with training. I am once such person.” He explains. “It's very complicated to explain how they work. However I could give a demonstration of at least one such skill within biotics.” “Sounds cool,” Rainbow said. “What is it?” “It’s a skill biotics call warp. It allows one to literally affect the target on the microscopic level.” He starts to glow blue a for second the aims it at the ship’s door. “Try to just tap down the door.” Rainbow tapped the door and it simply broke as if it was glass. “Well? Is that enough of a demo? A lot of biotic skills are a bit over the top and meant more for combat as far as has been discovered.” He explained. “Is your culture all about fighting?” Fluttershy asked. “Not exactly. You see it’s more about owning up to your actions and doing your part for the community. While it is mandatory for all Turians that turn 15 to go through at least one year of military service, you don’t have to stay in there.” He explains. “We tend to be very organized to the point that even if half our chain of leadership dies, we have a idea of who is next in line. You have to understand the galaxy back home is not as peaceful as your planet seems to be. In fact we just came out of a galaxy wide war against an ancient race of sentient machines that wanted nothing but to kill us all.” He sighed. “That’s horrible!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “Who would make such machines to do something so heartless?!” “Its their methods of fighting that is even worse. Those that are of weak stomach might want to leave the ship now.” Torrin said. “It was a massacre, for everyone that we downed, 12 more took its place. How do you fight a foe that every time you lose a friend, ally, even a lover, they gain a soldier.” He started to tear up a little bit. “I lost my whole team to them.” The three ponies teared up as well, however, just as they were going to try to comfort him, he was snared by a lasso and was pulled from the ship. “WHAT THE!? BY THE SPIRITS!?” He exclaimed. Before he could comprehend more, he was hogtied and an orange pony in a strange hat ran past him towards the three he had been conversing with. “Twi! Dash! Shy! When I heard from Spike that you rushed out here after...whatever this thing is, I came as soon as I could. Why did you let yourself get cornered by that lizard-bird thing?” She scolded. “Applejack, you’re overreacting,” Twilight explained. “He’s just an alien that crash landed here after surviving a long conflict.” Applejack went to verbally retaliate, but held her tongue when her gut told her that Twilight was speaking the truth...at least as far as what she said. She turned towards Torrin and gave him a glare. “Is what she said true and are you even thinking of hurting us?!” “I got enough of that from my own people, so can you PLEASE stop that!” He exclaimed. “I would only ever fight in self defense or on orders which i have none, on the spirits of my house I vow i will not ever hurt you without good reason.” He replied. “What your friends don’t know is I could have chosen to kill them, but i chose not to due to not wanting to kill if peaceful means can get the job done.” Applejack’s glare softened and she undid the ropes on him. “Sorry about that.” “Its ok, I have suffered worse. Next time though, I'm a Turian, not a lizard bird thing.” He said with a laugh. “To be completely honest, you do have minor similarities to both animals. No offence,” Fluttershy said with a slight giggle. “Its fine. You can keep a eye on me miss if you feel you don’t trust me.” He conceded. “As I told them, I am a soldier. One scarred to the soul, but a soldier.” He said. “So if you don’t trust me due to the fact I have had to kill before, then tell me now please.” “It makes me a mite uneasy, but I’ll just keep an eye on you,” Applejack answered. “Heck, if we can get your ship thingamabob to my orchard’s barn, you could stay there and it’ll be easier on my eyes to keep them focused.” “Really? You mean it?” He said. “Well, unless you have some way to lift something that weighs over 10 ton, then moving it is out of the question.” Torrin suddenly felt a bit of weight on his shoulders and heard an excitable voice say, “Of course we have a method to move something that heavy! The story wouldn’t move forward without it!” He looked over his shoulder and saw sky blue eyes surrounded by pink. “Hi!” “By the spirits, what the heck!?” He exclaimed, falling onto his rear. “Is that normal for this pony?” “Yeah, best not to question her,” Twilight said. “I tried questioning her methods and such, but it resulted in me getting more injuries than I should have been able to take and literally bursting into flames in rage.” “Duly noted. Now then you seem to have more questions for me?” He said. “Yes, but for now, let’s get your ship to one of Applejack’s barn. I think you’ve had enough for now. Plus, I’m trying to not be overly academic,” she said with a shudder. “I have questions!” Pinkie exclaimed before launching into a series of questions. While she was asking those, Twilight began preparing to move the ship. Some time later “Sorry pinkie pie. Unless you have access to dextro food. A party is a no go, as much as i would want to have it.” He said back to her questions about the food. “Not like you can pull some dextro chocolate out of a hat?” In response, Pinkie pulled a hat out from behind an apple tree and then pulled a hand (or hoof) wrapped...dextro chocolate!? “Ok, then it's official, you are a miracle worker you silly mare!” he takes the chocolate and takes a sniff to be sure it it dextro. “Yup this is dextro alright.” After munching on the chocolate, a question came to mind. “Why the heck did you have something you couldn’t even eat!?” He asked confused. “Party planner rule number 42: Always be ready to serve food for whoever may be at parties, regardless if you can or can’t eat it as well.” “Ok one thing I have to ask. How much dextro based food you got?” He asked. “You see I only have one months worth of rations, and anything I can do to stretch that would make my life so much easier.” “Well, I only have...three or four kilos of the stuff left...and that chocolate bar took about...150 millograms of it. So…” “You have 2 whole years worth of dextro food just laying around!?” He exclaimed in shock. “Please tell me none of it spoiled.” “Well, I did have about twenty kilos when I first found the stuff, but experimentation and stuff took quite a bit out of it...and that was a month or two back.” “This will help a lot pinkie. Twilight you can take your time on the project.” He said with what appeared to be a smile, but was hard to tell due to his mandibles. “Thanks,” Twilight strained to say as she was finishing hauling Torrin’s ship to an isolated barn “Twilight are you ok?” He asked in worry. The ship came down hard and Twilight began breathing deep. “Sorry. Last time I had to lift that much, it was an Ursa Minor...and comparing that to your ship, it’s like comparing a stick to a cinder block “I see. Take it easy Twilight. There is no rush to do anything else.” He said. “Twilight!” Shouted a male adolescent voice. Torrin and the group turned to the road saw a purple dragon, Spike, and a white unicorn, Rarity, hurrying up the path to Sweet Apple Acres “So it that the last pony in your group?” Torrin asked. “You must either be good at guessing or something in what we said or did gave it away,” Applejack commented. “Well when seeing details can save your life, you tend to pick up on things like how just from one look at her, she seems to fill a role the rest of you lack if that makes sense.” He explained. “It makes perfect sense!” Pinkie exclaimed as she popped out of Applejack’s hat, giving Torrin a fright. “The six of us are bearers of what are called the Elements of Harmony.” “Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic,” Fluttershy listed off. “Let me guess, your kindness, Pinkie Pie is generosity?” He guessed. “No, I’m Laughter, silly!” Pinkie said with a snort and giggle. “I’m not able to tell perfectly just yet.” He replied. “What are the Elements of Harmony?” “Short Definition: they are magical gems that rely on the bearer’s friendship and best adherence on the six virtues that Fluttershy listed,” Twilight answered. “Thank you for telling me but what do they do?” Torrin asked. Before Rainbow could say anything, the group heard Rarity gasp as Spike rushed to Twilight with an envelop and a scroll. “Oh my stars, Darling!” She exclaimed. “Whatever are you wearing? It looks atrocious, like it has been through a fire!” her question directed at Torrin. “You mean my armor? Well seeing as I just crashed my ship. Kind of hard not to get some burn marks.” He sighed. Rarity tisked. “That certainly won’t do. I must certainly-” “WHAT?!” the group heard Twilight yell. “He didn’t bother to tell me until practically the day of his wedding to tell me he was getting married!?” “That does sound strange.” Torrin said. “Even i could see that and marshmallow? You try to get me to take off this armor it won’t be pretty. There are more ways than violence to do that don’t you worry.” “Oh, perish the thought,” Rarity said. “I was merely thinking of getting it repaired and cleaned up. I could possibly even see if there could be a way to have variations made so you aren't restricted to just one set and style.” “No offense but you likely don’t have the material its made of, and to set in the tech involved in this armor takes a long time. Thanks for the offer though.” He said. “Pinkie and the food was one thing, but for you to have high grade plasteel is pushing it.” “Girls and guys,” Twilight interupted. “I hate interupting such good conversation about biology and technology, but we need to get to Canterlot to help at the wedding (and give my brother a piece of my mind).” “Alright, but since I’m not invited I’ll use the time to look over this “Canterlot” just in case.” Torrin said. “Sounds fair, but until we can have a reliably private meeting with one or all of the Princesses, see if you keep hidden,” Twilight said with a worried look on her face. “My friends occasionally say I go all “Frankenstallion” when I don’t understand something, but the scientists under Royal Commission...they could be worse than what my friends say about me. “They will never see me unless I want them to Twilight. I have a tactical cloak program in my omni tool for just such times.” He said with a smirk before activating it in demonstration. Time and Location Skip As Torrin watched the strange cat or khajiit, after a moment or two, he seemed to notice that his ears seemed to twitch in time with his own heartbeat. The khajiit then opened his eyes. “There are times when Qa’taro hates his sometimes overactive senses,” he said aloud as he sat up on his cot. “And this one isn’t criticizing your stealth skills, whoever’s heartbeat is being heard. Khajiit is merely hating being on alert. If you simply reveal yourself, I swear on my devotion to Akatosh and my...craving of cheese...I won’t harm you, immediately.” Thinking that there is no harm in it, he turns off his tactical cloak. “How the heck are you able to hear heartbeats without any aid?” “This one has learned how to sleep light when on alert. Khajiit blames the city’s “lockdown” that is in effect due to a threat to it’s lands. More alert means harder sleep,” Qa’taro said. “Impressive to be honest, that’s equal to top tier training. I’m glad we are not attacking each other.” Torrin said. “Same here, and training can only take one so far. As distant cousin used to say, ‘Why do soldiers bother with target practice. One learns best by hitting real people.” “Now then you need to keep my existence on the down low if you understand what I mean. Can you promise me that?” Torrin asked nervously. “Relax, this one is used to hiding from vampires, Imperials, and the general law. Hiding one’s existence is easy compared to those three,” he answered. “If anything, you are more likely to reveal yourself, than me exposing you. “Alright i got to go, picking up movement on my motion tracker.” Torrin cloaks once more and wanders off. Before he got too far, the sound of glass shattering, followed by insect buzzing was heard from outside. Peering through a window, he saw large pink shards falling from the sky, followed by a small number of green meteors and slower moving black swarm of some kind. Heading back to the khajiit for a second he uncloaks. “Say care to give me a hand? I’ll break you free if you say yes.” “Qa’taro would gladly help, but you just need to stand back. Three words will get khajiit out.” Torrin took a few steps back and watched. Qa’taro’s eyes seemed to briefly glow red before he shouted, “Yol! Toor! Shul!!!” And flames seemed to leap from his mouth and melt the entire cell wall and door into slag. “Ok, that is something that is just plain amazing!” Torrin admitted. “Now come on, we have bug things to fight!” “Armor and weapons first. Follow khajiit, he won’t steer you wrong.”