//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: MLP: Friendship is Artistically Done // by jidbrony //------------------------------// Chapter 2 "We have arrived at the planet sir." The officer said through the communications module. "I can see that private." said a cold icy voice heading toward the deck. The officer turned around as he saw Grand Admiral Thrawn walking onto the bridge to view the planet in person. "GRAND ADMIRAL ON BRIDGE!" Shouted a officer as he and all the other officers gave him the Imperial salute. Thrawn saluted back. "At ease." Thrawn sad in his calm manner as Captain Pellaeon joined him by his side. "Now, I want a full readout on the planet." "Yes sir." said another officer as he began to scan the planet's surface. "Sir, according to the scanner the planet is mostly rural in nature only a few heavily populated areas and....well." "What." Thrawn said sounding cold and menacing. "Well....There is one city that appears to be in the sky." the officer said sounding a bit perplexed. Thrawn didn't seem to be that interested in this discover, there have been plenty of cities that floated in mid air, Cloud City on the planet of Bespin being a perfect example. Thrawn however deduced that the reason the officer was surprised was because during the briefing, Thrawn had told them about the the primitive technological nature of the planet. "Have you made contact with the probe droids I've sent down to the planet?" he asked. "We are doing that as we speak sir, but it will take some time to locate them especially if there scattered across the plant." The officer responded continuing to scan the planet. Thrawn turned to Pellaeon. "I want any probe you find to immediately be brought back to the ship, the information they carry on planet will be of great value to me. Understand. Also move the ship to insure that we can not be seen by any prying eyes perhaps behind the worlds moon, there technology may be primitive but we cannot risk that means they are stupid." "Yes sir." Pellaeon said. "Anything else." "Yes." Thrawn replied coldly. "If any of the probes scanned any of these species artwork no matter how primitive or not it is to be brought directly to me immediately." With that command Thrawn turned around and walked off the bridge leaving Pellaeon to supervise the recovery operation. "The Grand Admiral always get very serious when it comes to artwork." the communication officer said to Pellaeon. "Indeed." Pellaeon said quietly. "But that's what separates him from the rest of us." With that Pellaeon and the rest of the bridge got back to work carrying out there leaders orders. ******* It was mid-afternoon on a warm sunny day, everypony on town was busy doing their daily routine as on any normal mid-afternoon. Except for Twilight Sparkle who was deep in her bed tired and exhausted for although she had tried to go to sleep last night she couldn't help but spend most of her time up all night trying to search fro that strange anomaly in the sky but to little avail. Slowly Twilight began to awake again and notice that she was no longer on her bed but in the middle of the ground on her hard wooden floor. "Ugh....What happened." Twilight groaned She looked around at her room which was a total and complete mess notes and books are are all over the place, she then looks at her clock and notices the time. "Oh no the picnic." Twilight said suddenly became alert as she began to scuffle around the room making sure her mane was clean and teeth brushed so she would at least look decent for the picnic. "Oh...It hope I won't be late" Twilight said as she quickly excited her home hoping that her friends would not be to displeased with her. Outside in the grassy park outside of Ponyville everyone was setting up for the picnic. Applejack was looking around looking worried. "No sign of Twilight yet." she said sounding concerned. "Don't worry Applejack she's probably just making sure all her books are in the correct order or something, besides Spike said she stayed up a little late last night." Rainbowdash said as she put on her sunglasses and started to get a tan. "I would have woke her up, but I thought it would be best if I let her sleep those late night studies can really take one out of you." Spike said having a gem sandwich "Oh, Oh I see here coming." Pinkie Pie said sounding excited slowly however her smile started diminish. "Oh...She looks terrible." "Sorry guys I slept in." Twilight said her mane disheveled and the bags under her eye rooted deep. "Twilight darling, you look terrible what happened." Rarity asked sounding concerned. "Well....Last night when I was doing my studies for the princess about the constellations of the stars I saw a strange anomaly appear in space." Twilight said. Everyone in the group seemed confused not quite sure what Twilight was even talking about. "An anoma what now." Applejack asked not sure what that word ment. "An anomaly Applejack." Twilight explained. "Something strange up in space.' "Like what a UFO." Rainbowdash said with a tone of sarcasm in her voice. "Well, actually yes." Twilight said much to Rainbowdash surprise. Pinkie Pie then zoomed toward Twilight and started bombarding her with questions. "UFO cool do you think they were from another planet, are they coming here, did it have green glowing lights and...." Twilight stopped her before she could continue to go on with her continuing question. "Actually Pinkie I only saw it for a few seconds before it vanished. I spent most of the night looking for it.....before I passed out." Twilight looked a bit embarrassed by that as everyone else looked at Twilight seeming skeptical. "So what your saying is that you saw something for a couple of seconds in the middle of night and then it was gone." Applejack said not quite sure if she believed Twilight's statement. "Yes," Twilight responded, everyone else continued to remain silent for a brief moment until Applejack spoke again. "Twi, are you weren't just seeing things." This was not the response that Twilight had expected from her friends but then again, this did bring something that he hadn't thought to mind. "Perhaps....But It seemed to real." "Maybe it was just a shooting star." Pinkie Pie said. "No, no, because it stood very still when I first saw it." Twilight said remembering exactly what had happened last night. "Maybe it a ship that moves very fast." "How can a ship move fast without water." Rainbowdash asked still sounding skeptical about the whole ordeal, it wasn't as if she though Twilight was lying but she had never heard of a ship that traveled in space. "I'm sure it was nothing Twilight now relax and enjoy this delightful picnic." Rarity said. Twilight still wanted to convince her friends of what she saw but in the end she knew that right now she didn't have the evidence to convince them. "Oh...Okay, your right." She then sat down on the picnic mat and joined in the festivities and fun with her friends still thinking in the back of her mind of what she saw in space. ***** "All right Cutie Mark Crusaders today were going to get our cutie mark in plant collecting." Applebloom said sounding confidant that today her and her friends Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo will finally complete there mission of getting there cutie marks. "Yay! Plan collecting." Sweetiebelle squeaked, then a though crossed her mind. "Um...What plants are we collecting." Applebloom then pulled out a book from her saddle bag and showed it to her. "All of them. I found this book in Twilight's library when I was there with Applejack a few days ago, It has all these pictures of cool plants from all over equestria." Applebloom showed her friends the pictures that were inside the book. "Then Applejack told me about when she was a filly she used to collect leaves and put them in a book. Maybe we could do that with these plants." "Cool." Scootaloo said sounding enthusiastic about the idea. "I bet the Everfree Forest has all sort of cool plants in there." "But were not allowed to go in the Everfree forest." Sweetiebelle said sounding concerned. "When has that stopped us before." Scootaloo pointed out. "True." Sweetiebelle said agreeing with her friends logic. "Alright Cutie Mark Crusaders lets start crusading." Applebloom said as she led the way into the Everfree forest hoping they will find what they are looking for. The Everfree forest a dark and dangerous place filled with several monsters and mysteries that no Pony could understand let alone a young filly, so obviously that meant it was the favorite place for these three little fillies to explore all the time. The Cutie Mark Crusaders traveled through these woods looking around and the flora and fauna that covered the area. "So what kind of plants are we looking for." Scootaloo asked becoming a bit board of walking throw nothing but forest or what only was around 20 minutes."Hope were not looking for a hearts desire again, remember what happened when you tried that. "No, no, trust me I learned my lesson." Applebloom said looking in the book trying to find the planet she and the others were looking for. "Were looking for.....this." Applebloom showed them a picture of the first plan they'll be looking for, the plant was blue its vines thin and spider like while it head was round and circular. "It's called a spider plant according to the book it can be found in this part of the forest." she said. "Looks kinda of creepy." Sweetiebelle commented looking uneasy at the creature. "I think it looks cool." Scootaloo said her eyes widening as she looked the picture in the book. "Well come on then crusaders lets get looking." Applebloom said The three little fillies began to cover all areas of the forest covering every tree looking over every rock and bush searching for the spider plan, there search went on for seemed like hours with each passing moment boardum began to consume these small ponies until finally it took hold. "This stinks." Scootaloo said as she laid down on the ground he body aching from all the searching they've been doing."We can't even find our first plan." "There goes are Plan searching cutie marks." Applebloom said with a look of disappointment on her face. Sweetiebelle too looked disappointed as she sat down on one of the rocks in the woods, however the minute she sat down she felt the rocks seemed odd, it had a cold metal exterior to it. Then all of a sudden a bunch of bleeps and humming began to come from the rock. Sweetiebelle immediate got up to see what was going on. Suddenly to her surprise the rock began to rise in the air and sprout Spider like legs. "Guys come here!" she shouted looking amazed. Scootaloo and Applebloom ran toward her looking concerned. "Whats wrong?" Scootaloo asked sounding concerned. She saw Sweetiebelle pointing her hoof into the air, she turned to see what she was pointing at as she too noticed the strange thing floating in the air. "Applebloom is that the Spider plant?" she asked Applebloom began fumbling through the book. "Hmm....Well, it looks like it, but this book doesn't mention it floats." "Hey look!" Scootaloo said pointing at the strange thing and noticing that it had sprouted what looked like a camera on its head. "Is it....Is it filming us....ARE WE ON TV!" Scootaloo said sounding excited and flexing her muscles. "I hope Rainbowdash can see me and see my awesome moves." Applebloom and Sweetiebelle with concern just looked at the strange thing wondering were it came from. Then all of a sudden the strange creature sprouted what looked like a antenna on its head and started beeping. Slowly it began to drift higher into the sky, only for Scootaloo to grab onto it. "Hey...I'm not done showing you my moves yet." Scootaloo said sounding annoyed as she was stopping the strange thing from floating in the air. However it seamed the device was stronger than a young filly as it began to take Scootaloo into the sky. Applebloom and Sweetiebelle grabbed on to there friends and caused the device to be at a standstill. "Scootaloo let go." Sweetiebelle pleaded. "No, I have to show it my moves so it can record me." Scootaloo retorted. Applebloom rolled her eyes. "You don't even know if it is a camera!" The three fillies continue to hang on to the strange device hoping that the wouldn't float up into space because of it. ***** On the bridge of the Chimera Captain Pellaeon continued to supervise the recover of the probe droids. So far most of the probe droids the Grand Admiral had sent have returned to the chimera and there databanks being downloaded on the ships main data banks. Then all of a sudden a light beeping sound came from one of the communication modules."What's wrong" Pellaeon asked the communications officer. "Sir, apparently we are having difficulty getting one of the probe droids onto the ship, it's having trouble leaving the planet." the officer said sounding nervous. Pellaeon seemed perplexed they haven't had any trouble getting any of the other probes back on the ship. Pellaeon thought for a moment trying to come with a solution. "Were is it it." "In the forest near that small town sir." the communication officer said. "Our scanners are reporting three individuals near the probe, perhaps some birds sir." "Perhaps, have the probe fire it's blaster on them." Pellaeon ordered. "Delay that ordered!" said a harsh cold voice. Pellaeon turned around to see Thrawn entering the room his eyes cold and menacing. "Connect with the probes visual scanners and put it on screen." he ordered with a sense of urgency. The communication officer began to make contact with the probe trying to link it's visual scanners to the ships main computer screen. After a few moments the link was connected and the screen displayed what the probe was seeing to Pellaeon shocked he saw what looked like horses, three little horses grabbing on to the probe struggling bring it down to the grown he looked at Thrawn who merely starred at them examining each and every detail carefully. "There horses sir." Pellaeon said, to Thrawn. "No captain, Ponies, fillies to be exact by the look of there size." Thrawn responded calmly as he continued to watch them play tug of war with the probe droid. Then to Pellaeon's even greater amazement he heard one of the fillies, the yellow one to be exact, speak. "Scootaloo let go, your going to go off into space." "No, I just want to show...it ...some ...of my ...moves." said the one called Scootaloo. Pellaeon looked up at Thrawn who slowly began to have a intrigued look on his face. "Lieutenant, stop of the recall of this probe droid." "Yes sir." Replied the communication officer as he began to abort the recall. On screen Thrawn saw the picture lower as the three little fillies fell down to the grown and tumbled over. Thrawn continued to watch as he saw the three fillies get back up and clean there manes up. Then the yellow Pony spoke. "Come on ya'll maybe we should leave this thing alone." "I agree Applebloom." said the white pony with the pink mane. The one called Scootaloo however seemed a little defiant at first but in the end agreed to go with her two friends "Have the probe follow them." Thrawn ordered the communication officer Pellaeon looked stunned. "Sir, don't you think we should keep the element of surprise." Captain Pellaeon asked Thrawn merely smiled. "Technically as long they don't know of our plan we do have the element surprise, Besides I want to see if these three children can help me in a social experiment." ******* The Cutie Mark Crusaders began heading out the EverFree forest, however they as they continued walking they heard a faint humming sound coming from behind them. All three turn around and see the strange looking device following them as they leave the forest. "Uh, girls, I think it's following us." Applebloom whipsered sounding nervous as she stared at the device. Sweetiebelle as well seemed nervous by this thought but Scootaloo seemed more excited then scared. "I say we take it to Rainbowdash so she and I can be filmed on TV together." Scootaloo slowly began to drift into the deep wonders of her mind the thought began to expand. "Me and Rainbowdash on TV." she said in a dreamy like state. "Well, Rarity was going to be with Rainbowdash at a picnic with the rest of our friends maybe Twilight will know what it is." Sweetebelle said Applebloom seemed to agree with her. "Okay. Scootaloo. SCOOTALOO!" Applebloom shouted out snapping her friend out her fantasy. "Who, what were, Rainbowdash!" she said frantically as she started to come back to attention, she then noticed her two friends heading off without. "Hey! Wait for me!" she ran off joining her friends as the probe droid followed behind them hoovering along . ***** On the Chimera Thrawn, Pellaeon and the rest of the crew were watching this little spectral play out. Thrawn gave a light chuckle as he watched. "Ah, children and curiosity, I always knew that one day those two would help in my efforts." Pellaeon still didn't understand what Thrawn's strategy was. "Sir, I don't fully understand why are we revealing ourselves now." "Simple Pellaeon." Thrawn said his voice becoming harsher."I sent those probes to learn about the planet, but probes can only be so useful, direct contact with the species is far better a learning tool then anything else, and by having these three innocent fillies help in our introductions to the adult ponies, we will have a better chance to learn and study them." Captain Pellaeon nodded his head as he continued to run through Thrawn's plan in his brain over and over. Thrawn on the other hand continued to watch the screen his eyes narrowing and voice becoming sinister. "Then....once i have learned everything about this species and what that power was.... then I will strike an no one will stand in my way."