You stare mystified at the spot that Indigo was just a moment prior. She was there not even a second ago, talking with Ivory before she just…just…vanished. There one moment and then gone the next, if you weren’t right here watching then you might have discounted it as your mind playing tricks on you. But you know what you saw; she disappeared into thin air with zero trace.
Could the little pony aliens have access to teleportation technology? As outrageously farfetched as the idea is, you can’t think of an alternative means of moving that quickly, unless of course it was an innate ability that she possessed. But that seemed to be venturing even further into the realms of impossibility, naturally having the ability to teleport of all things?
You mentally jot down the question on your ever-growing list of what you want to ask when you can find a way around the language barrier. Come to think of that, how are you going to find a way around it?
New languages are always uncertain business, and even a single miscommunication could bring about some serious disaster, especially when dealing with native speakers of said language. In all honesty this might be one arena where you let them try to sort everything out.
Turning your attention back to the colorful group around you, you notice that Lavender has left to go talk with Ivory, Lavender speaking with urgency as well as excitement while Ivory look to be considering Lavender’s words carefully. Eventually Ivory smiles and responds to Lavender in their almost musical sounding speech.
That was the first time you ever heard Ivory speak, her voice is slightly deeper than any others of your "welcoming committee" and much smoother, holding a tone of a mother speaking to her child and had the effect of almost immediately making you feel homesick, despite only being stranded for about an hour.
You shake it off, there's no need being distracted right now, the more important things to be doing other than being upset over nothing.
Lavender gives the larger equine a megawatt smile before producing an old piece of parchment, a quill, and an inkwell from seemingly nowhere, all of them held in a shifting aura matching her coat.
Wait what?
You stare dumbfounded at the anomaly surrounding the trio of objects, and none of the ponies seemed startled or surprised in any sort of way.
First Indigo’s teleportation and now Lavender’s telekinetic manipulation, these couldn't be abilities that they were born with right?
You stop and think to yourself, teleportation isn't unheard of back on Terra but teleportation technology on a personal scale is almost impossible according to experts.
And the levitation, again not unheard of, but really only the top 1% of wealthy people could afford the very pricey neural implant required to have such an ability.
You sigh and add even more questions to your now huge list that you would need to inquire about at some point.
Lavender rushes up, quickly scribbling on the parchment with incredible focus and control of her telekinesis, before she seats herself down back in the middle of her friends and levitates the parchment as well as quill to you, an expectant look on her face.
Warily taking the brown paper and the quill, you take a look at what Lavender had written, feeling a bit of confusion.
On the paper are alien symbols in a row, right above them are groups of dots that seemed to correlate to the symbols right beneath them. Below the symbols and dots are more symbols and dots grouped differently with more symbols that apparently Lavender did not bother to label in any form, along with several more rows that seemed to be missing their end symbols.
What in the world could she mean by this? Perhaps it's some sort of test? Then you realize what it is and feel like slapping yourself.
“Well, I certainly feel stupid..."
The symbols are numbers, and the dots must be the key to what each symbol means. Counting each grouping of dots you see that it goes in order from 1 to 10, and the completed rows of symbols must be examples of basic mathematical questions.
The other ponies try to get a glimpse of the paper, obviously curious as to what Lavender had written on it, so you go back to crouching down so they can see.
Stetson, as you feel like calling the orange one seems confused, as well as the pink one. The rainbow one however snorts and looks like she's trying to hold back laughter while the white unicorn and the shy pegasus both hold looks of comprehension.
Looking back and forth between the examples in the number key, you easily finish the problems, finding them to be basic addition and subtraction.
You even add human numbers to Lavender's number key, just to punctuate that you know what you're doing and that you just didn't solve the sheet by chance.
Handing the parchment back to Lavender, she takes it in her telekinesis once more, a tiny bit of it overlapping your hand, making warning messages about unknown radiation flare to life on your masks HUD.
You glance the flashing text and file it away for later.
Reading over the paper, the purple unicorn’s smile gets larger and larger until she reaches the end, by then her face is stretched in an elated grin. She turns the paper to her friends with some excited chatter, pointing out the problems you had completed and the line of human numbers now across the top of the paper.
Ivory, apparently overhearing her smaller friend, trots over to see what all the fuss is about and catches sight of the paper. The winged unicorn turns her amethyst gaze to you, a small, knowing smile adorning her muzzle.
If you had to hazard a guess you would say that she had an idea of your level of intelligence all along.
A few other equines all wearing lab coats make their way closer to see the paper, all of them gaping with astonishment once they scan over the parchment themselves. It seems what they say is true, that a universal language can always be found in math.
In a flurry of activity the purple unicorn flips over the paper and writes down even more equations with the sound of scratching on paper, apparently wanting to know just how far she can push you.
She gives it back, her grin still as large as ever.
Giving the new symbols a once over you find that she had raised the stakes to multiplication and division. While breezing through the answers with the rather annoying to use quill, you idly wonder why the equines count in base 10 rather than base 4 like you would have expected.
Yet another question...
For almost half an hour you solved different bits and pieces of math for Lavender, Ivory, the ponies in coats, and a few among Lavender's friends who could stay interested with the proceedings.
Stetson had become bored and is apparently rather sleepy as she sat and slowly nodded off, unlike Rainbow who decided to lavish some annoying attention to a pair of gold clad pegasi, trying to get them to break their stoic façade.
The stakes quickly escalated as you found yourself doing some trigonometry and calculus before long, it's times like these you are glad you paid attention in high school.
Finally she seems to run out of things to throw at you, looking over the out several sheets worth of numbers with some numb surprise, apparently not expecting you to be able to do it all.
Looking around you see that a number of the little ponies look almost dead on their feet, obviously tired from all the excitement and spending several hours out by the destroyed hill. You figure this would be a good time to run a quick diagnostic on your crashed ship, least you leave it without knowing what you need to do to it to get it off the ground.
Rising back to your full height along with attracting the attention of everyone in the clearing, you turn back to the crater and jump to the open hatch, silently marveling at how you made the almost 9 foot leap effortlessly. Rather than close the door behind you, you leave it open, an invitation to come inside if any of them are brave enough.
And apparently they are.
Rainbow flies in with extreme swiftness, apparently not willing to let this chance go, Lavender follows shortly after, popping into existence in a flash of light in the doorway.
You decide to just quit questioning what they can do until you have some reliable means of communication.
Even Ivory decides to venture into your ship, but not without an escort of two armored pegasi, uniform in appearance, who look about the entire area distrustfully.
You walk up to the control panel while the others look around, wondering how you're going to power the ship long enough to run a diagnostic. That reminds you of another problem you're inevitably going to have to deal with, how are you going to keep your suit powered?
Taking a look at the corner of your HUD, you see that your ragtag suit has enough power to last for approximately one month, after that you will be totally on your own.
If you hadn't immunized yourself to the local diseases and the still unsettling radiation that seemed ambient in almost everything here by the time you run out of power, you will likely die. Again you are reminded just how serious the situation is, even if everything has been going swimmingly, you are still stranded on a planet where death could loom around every corner with you totally unaware.
You grit your teeth and shake away the negative thoughts plaguing your mind as you remember what you told yourself.
“I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul…”
Looking back at the control panel you see Rainbow inspecting all the different switches and buttons, the barely restrained urge to flip and press all of them shining in her eyes.
“Don't even think about it.”
She looks up at you and blinks in confusion.
You shake your head in a firm no, hoping the gesture gets across to her, and apparently it does as she crosses her forelegs and flutters off, grumbling.
Coming back to your original problem, how are you going to power the ship for diagnostic? Well, you could use the power from your suit to do so, but you're not sure how much it would take or how the suit itself would handle its power being siphoned. But the more you try to think of another way, the more blanks you draw.
With a dejected sigh, you unclip a thin cord from the suits power supply located on your lower back and plug it into the control console. Holding up your wrist and scrolling through the options on the PDA as the others look on in curiosity, you come to the option of ‘Connect to unknown port’.
You click it and watch the controls light up as the ship's CPU directs power from your suit to itself with a loud buzz, drawing frightened gasps from the equines in the room.
Without any warning a pair of weights slam into your back, knocking the breath out of you and pushing you into the controls, where you bang your head and see stars. You turn your head and see the pair of guards glaring at you menacingly, their eyes shifting between you and the noisy control panel.
In a pained fueled panic you flip yourself around and push both of them off as hard as you can, sending the surprised guards flying across the cockpit where they crash into the wall with pained grunts.
Both Lavender and Rainbow drop their jaws at the display of herculean strength.
It must've been the lower gravity, there's not much other explanation for how far they both flew considering they both look as if they should weigh at least 200 pounds each with the armor.
Both of them get to their feet and shake off the effects of their unintended flight, glaring at you with even more vehemence than before.
Just as they crouch to charge you again, a frightfully loud shout rings out from within the cockpit forcing everyone to wince and stop what they were doing.
All eyes turn to Ivory, who despite only wearing a small frown; you could tell she was positively livid.
You sigh and bring your hands your head, it looks like this adventure had just come to a premature end, you could only hope it wouldn't be a painful premature end...
To your utter surprise however, Ivory does not turn her fury to you but instead to the pair of guards, who gulp and stand rigidly at attention.
The snow white ruler looks them both over, her face betraying absolutely nothing, before she says something quietly in an ordering tone that left no room for any argument, making the guards give shaky salutes before they rush back outside.
You got the impression that Ivory being quiet was even worse than her raising her voice.
Once done with the guards she turns to you, her steely expression melting into one of genuine concern as she walks up to you, craning her head at different angles to inspect you, possibly for injuries. She looks into your masks optics and offers a single sentence in an apologetic tone, clearly sorry for what had just transpired.
You smile under your mask; the equines have definitely done something right by appointing Ivory as their leader. You decide then and there that the winged unicorn is definitely going on your favorites list.
"Think nothing of it ma'am, I understand why they did it."
You finish the sentence with an incline of your head, hoping to convey that you accept the apology over the incident.
She gives you a soft smile and nods as she says something else in her motherly voice, which only adds to the sincerity of her actions.
Without any warning Rainbow flies up into your vision, chattering away excitedly as she boxes the air with her forelegs, apparently impressed with how you dealt with the guards.
Lavender seems distressed over the recent flurry of activity, her mane and tail slightly ruffled as she looked between you and the door where the guards stood outside, abashed.
At least everything turned out…
With a start, you realize you left your suit plug into the ship this whole time, where it was steadily losing power.
“Shit!”
All of your temporary guests jump as you turn and tear the cord out of the control panel in a hurry, hoping you just didn't doom yourself. With a nervous gulp, you watching the corner of your HUD as the suit recalibrates itself. The results aren't good.
A full 25% of your battery was lost just letting the ship’s CPU idle, meaning you had just shaved a full seven days off of your life support.
This is bad, no this isn't bad, this is horrible! You lost so much time over a little mistake.
To make matters worse, you didn't even get to find out what is wrong with your ship, and now you only had about 23 days to fix this mess or else…You put your head in your hands, feeling almost ready to cry in frustration.
Feeling a nudge in your side you look down to see Lavender, Rainbow and Ivory staring at you with obvious concern in their large, shining eyes.
At least you aren't doing this totally alone…
But how do you convey to them what is going wrong? Is it even possible without some sort of direct speech? Apparently Ivory thought so as she approaches you, the tip of her horn glowing a dull gold in the dark interior of the ship.
You look warily at the marble sized ball of energy, it doesn't take a genius to deduce that the unknown radiation of the planet is closely associated with the special abilities of its natives. And that ball looks awful concentrated…
But still, if she had wanted to hurt you, she would not have ordered her guards to stand down and leave the ship.
Walking close, she gently taps the forehead of your mask with the tip of her long spiraled horn, where the ball disappears…What happens no-!!!
The weirdest sensation tickles you in the back of the head, as curiosity not your own pokes at your brain several times.
You blink and look at the white furred ruler, who has her eyes closed in concentration. Could psychic abilities really be within the realms of possibility for a being like these equines? Deciding to take the plunge, you poke back at the tendril of thought in the back of your mind with curiosity of your own.
It, who you assume is Ivory, stops then radiates concern, an image of yourself holding your head flashing through your mind.
Really you don't know how to respond, you doubt that anything as sophisticated as a specialized life-support system has an equivalent here, but you try anyway.
At first you try words but quickly find out that they hold no meaning a mental conversation You send her an image of the suits power supply and the pony number 25 crossed out to her, only to get confusion in return.
Again you try, this time trying to explain the idea of what your suit does and how you need it to her, only for an even bigger wave of confusion to wash over you.
This is going nowhere in a hurry, she has no equivalent to compare any of your equipment to, you need some sort of direct speech if you're going to get any help.
Wait, that's it! This time you think of the sky, and the Sun and the Moon rapidly rising and setting 23 times, on the 23rd day you send her an image of yourself, on the ground and unmoving.
The very implication that this could very well be an unavoidable fate makes you shiver, just imagining it makes it feel all that more inescapable.
A surge of alarm not your own comes from her, you even see her real face screw itself up in fright. An urgent inquiring feeling comes from her, obviously telling you that she wants to know how to prevent this.
So you tell her, you send an image of yourself and a pony speaking in the same language with speech bubbles, then you show her the power supply though your suit in your speech bubble. It doesn't even take her a second to understand, she breaks a mental connection and turns to Lavender and Rainbow, quickly explaining the situation, making both of them gasp and look at you.
Lavender pops out the ship in a flash of light and Rainbow follows out in a quick streak of color.
Before she leaves, Ivory turns to you and to your immense surprise, gives you a nuzzle as she whispers nonsensical words filled with reassurance, her voice immediately making you homesick again. Pulling back, she offers you a smile before she leaves out the hatch, leaving you to your lonesome.
Taking a deep breath, you sit in the beat-up leather seat of the cockpit and lean back, finally letting your both your mental and bodily fatigue get the better of you as you pass out almost instantly, sleep taking you.
~~~Outside with the Elements~~~
”Girls it's terrible!” Twilight cries with horror as she re-materializes outside, almost on the verge of tears.
Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie immediately rush to her, wanting to know what had upset her so.
”Twai?! What jus’ went on in there!? We saw the guards come out, but they didn' tell us anythin’” Applejack asks in a hurry
Twilight shakes her head “It’s A-anon! He's dying!” She says, stumbling over the name some.
Every one of them gasps.
”What! How? What can we do to help the poor thing?!” Fluttershy jumps in, her voice the loudest they had all heard in some time.
Rarity puts her two cents in as well ”Yes what can we do? If there is anything at all then we MUST do it, no matter what.” She says firmly.
Rainbow interjects from overhead “According to the Princess, the big guy needs to learn Equestrian before he can tell us what's wrong, something about weird alien technology not working right.”
”Rainbow’s got it.” Twilight says, calming down some “But we've only got 23 days to do it, or else…” She neglects to finish, just leaving the implication in open-air, turning the atmosphere grim.
Pulling piece of parchment that hadn't been used to test Anon to her, Twilight begins to write down an outline of a plan
”Ok girls, here's what were going to do…”
~~~The next morning~~~
Laying in the grass after you woke up and walked outside, you doze lightly in the sun seeing as you have nothing else to do at the moment. Besides, the sleepless night before had made you rather tired.
If you had the schedule that Lavender has graciously shown you before memorized correctly…then the rainbow one would be the one watching you today, and a faint ‘woosh’ overhead confirms the thought.
You feel the pegasus land lightly on your back before she shuffles about some, trying to find a comfortable position.
She’s certainly bold; the others would probably never try to touch you, at least not before not getting to know you more. You had noted that the small ponies seem more tactile than humans, but how far did that extend however?
They had all the facial expressiveness of a human, yet you noticed that affectionate gestures and contact were by no means in short supply despite it being less hassle to convey emotion otherwise.
Curious creatures these aliens are.
Finally Rainbow as you call her, settles on your back with a content sigh.
Even though she’s more likely interested in the body heat she could extract from you than anything else, you can’t help but smile slightly at the inadvertent display of trust she had shown by willingly resting this close to you. Or maybe Rainbow is just naïve? Either way it’s still sort of nice.
You look back at her, seeing large, magenta eyes looking back with all the silent questions they held the night prior.
“I’m going to guess you have no idea how to tweak an A.I. to decrypt an unknown dialect do you?”
She tilts her head with a raised eyebrow, her expression akin to “Dude what?”
“I thought as much…”
You and her simply lie there for almost an hour, dozing in the sunlight before you decide to do something productive.
Bringing your PDA to bear, you look to the various folders stored within it until you find the AI files and others associated with it. Opening them up you try to recall what you learned about programming back in college, and how all languages followed a specific algorithm as you learned in English.
Rainbow looks over your shoulder at the glowing blue screen of the wrist mounted device, blinking with curiosity.
You scroll through almost all the files, not finding anything related to the AI learning on its own, scanning through one more time you still find nothing.
“Wonderful…”
It looks like you're going to have to make one from scratch, which is going to be pretty hard considering you had never even touched on AIs throughout any of your old classes or in your career.
Best get started though.
You hold one hand up and fire up the holo-projector on your palm, making a large screen filled with a large amount of data flare to life.
In half an instant Rainbow is off of your back and lying down in front of you, her eyes, alight with interest, trained on the large glowing window now hovering above your hand. For almost an hour you and the multihued pony sit there, you trying to write up an AI assistance program with no basis to go off of and she simply watching.
After some time she looks up at the sun, seeing that the position had moved and rises to her feet. With some verbal coaxing and a few gestures, she urges you to get up as well as she trots off in the direction that the others had left last night.
Did she want you to come to their settlement? Only one way to find out.
Getting up on your feet, you dust off the dirt and grass that accumulated on your front as well as taking a good stretch before following Rainbow into the unknown.