Charlie has spent the last few minutes staring out the small window by his seat. He noticed that the landscape appeared very lush and almost untouched. He saw roads and the occasional house or two, but mostly just green. Suddenly, he felt the Osprey lurch forward and he felt the vehicle slowing.
“We’re here?” He asked the Captain.
“Nearly. We’re slowing because we’re approaching Ponyville.” The Captain responded.
Charlie looked out the window and could see the outskirts of the town but he could only see a few houses due to the angle of the Osprey.
“Why are we slowing then? Aren’t we high enough to clear any towers they have down there?” Charlie asked.
“We need to slow down in case there are any pegasi flying in Ponyville airspace. Don’t want to have an unsuspecting Pegasus meeting our rotor blades.” Vasquez replied as more of the town came into Charlie’s view.
“Approaching LZ!” The Co-Pilot shouted back to the group.
Charlie continued to survey the town below him. Captain Swanson was right; it wasn’t very large at all. Just a little larger than a typical village back on Earth. He saw many houses, all had a fairly old fashioned look to them. Very colourful as well, he noticed. He spotted what seemed to be a town hall and a few shops near the town centre. He also saw many market stands lined down the edges of some of the streets. He could see many ponies going about their business, but he couldn’t make out any details from that height.
“Looking forward to your welcome party?” Vasquez said, looking over at Charlie and nudging him in his rib.
“Oh I bet you think you’re so funny, huh? You know that I struggle with meeting new people.” Charlie said, turning back from the window. “Considering all that’s going to happen, I’m more worried about that party than anything else.”
“Yeah, but you won’t be meeting new ‘People’.” Vasquez said, smiling.
“No difference.” He said glumly.
“I disagree. You did fine with those other 6, didn’t you?” She said, tilting her head slightly.
He was still wondering why that was. “Perhaps, it was the excitement of being in a strange new world that rubbed off? If that’s the case, I’ll be in trouble when that wears off.” He thought to himself.
Charlie was about to respond, but the Osprey suddenly leaned back and slowed into a hover. He felt that they were starting to descend. About half a minute later, he felt the Osprey make contact with the ground. They had landed.
“We’re here. Let’s get you introduced to where you’ll be staying and working, Corporal.” Captain Swanson said, unfastening his seat belt. Charlie, Vasquez and Peter did the same and all stood up as the unloading ramp opened slowly.
The group walked down the ramp and Charlie got his first glimpse of the facility. The first thing he noticed was that they were about one third the way up a small mountain overlooking Ponyville. He saw a moderately sized central building with solar panels on the angled roof. It had thick industrial windows and a small mechanical sliding door. Next to it, he saw what appeared to be a garage. He saw several smaller cylindrical buildings a little further away, which had no windows or doors. He saw a couple of small wind turbines built into the rock a little further up the mountain. He could see that the tips of the blades were painted bright orange and were turning slowly. Looking around, he could see various construction workers all hard at work. He also saw Lieutenant Vasquez organising her security team with the Captain.
Peter walked up beside Charlie. “Right then, let me explain what’s what. Power is generated from both the solar panels and the turbines you see up there. The weather ponies have informed us that there is pretty much constant wind against this mountain, so you should be good for renewable energy. Still, if something goes wrong, we have set up some large battery gems in the power regulation building over there.” he said as he pointed over to one of the small windowless buildings.
“Gems?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah, gems can be charged with magic to perform various functions. Very useful. I’ve been leading a team of researchers back home to see how we humans can use it on Earth.”
“Seems like a very expensive method, if I’m honest. What’s the other one for?” Charlie asked, pointing at the other small building.
“Waste management.”
“Ah, umm...am I going to need to know how that works? Cos I didn’t bring a HAZMAT suit.” Charlie said.
“Actually, I don’t think so. The ponies mainly took over construction of that building. They used special gems which convert bio-waste into non-toxic gases. As long as they’re charged every once in a while, they’ll just do their thing. Shouldn’t need to get involved at all, so I’m told.” Peter replied. “Apparently, any unicorn can charge the gems. Perhaps you can ask Twilight or Rarity to help you on that one?”
“I don’t think Rarity will take it very well if I asked her to charge my poop gems.”
Peter laughed. “No, I guess not! Anyway, most of the working parts of the facility are underground. Except for the broadcast tower, which is all the way up there.” Peter pointed up the mountain.
Charlie squinted his eyes from the sun, but could barely see a large communication tower on the peak of the mountain. “That’s what I’ll be using to connect Ponyville to the other nearby towns and cities?”
“That’s right. Other similar towers have been constructed next to the other towns and cities. If the service coverage is to be expanded in the future, and it almost certainly will be, then we can use them as broadcast relays to the new towers we’ll have to build.” Peter said looking up.
“So I guess no satellite network?” Charlie asked.
Peter chuckled. “No, not yet. We don’t know nearly enough about this world to be able to send one of those up. Although, we believe magic may be able to help us on that front as well. It may involve the direct help of one of the princesses.”
Charlie spotted the carriage make a landing a little further away. The door opened and the 6 mares stepped out. Twilight trotted over to take a closer look at the solar panels, while Pinkie Pie was transfixed with the spinning blades of the wind turbines. She had her focus set on one blade in particular and Charlie watched as her head made large circular motions as it turned. The others just sat where they were, glancing around whist talking amongst themselves.
“C’mon, i’ll show you the inside.” Peter said.
As they made their way over towards the large central building, Charlie called to Twilight. “Hey Twilight! We’re going inside, wanna come see?”
She looked over to her friends and saw them keeping their distance, just talking. She saw Pinkie still gazing at the turbine with a big smile on her face. She looked back to Charlie and made her way over.
“Are your friends coming?” He asked.
“They’ll be okay out here. I don’t think they’re all that interested.” She replied.
The three of them made it to the door and Peter spoke up. “Now then, this door uses biometric security. Corporal, please place your hand on the pad.” Charlie looked at his hand and then placed it on the security pad next to the door. A pair of bright blue horizontal and vertical lines crossed the area of the pad, scanning Charlie’s hand. The pad made a beep and the pad turned green. Charlie removed his hand and the door opened.
“Now I know why I had my fingerprints taken when I signed up.” Charlie said.
“Well, one of the reasons. Shall we?” Peter said, extending his arm towards the door.
Charlie walked in and made a light gasp. All around him were various machines and computers. A series of monitors and keyboards lined the wall by the windows. There were three more doors on the opposite side. Various workers were sat at some of the computers.
“Wow. Now this is cool! Not seen hardware like this before!” Charlie said excitedly.
“Latest tech, as I said earlier. You can control everything from this room. Power, communications, hardware control and everything in between.” Peter said. “Those doors over there lead to your kitchen, bedroom and basement. You have an en suite bathroom.”
“What will I find down in the basement?” Charlie asked.
“Server racks mostly. Other critical machines are also down there. Those are pretty much as advanced as they’re gonna get, so we haven’t needed to develop them further. You should be fairly familiar with them from your past experience.” Peter replied.
Charlie looked over to Twilight, who was surprisingly quiet. Her eyes were wide and he could see a very slight hint of a smile on her face.
“You alright, Twilight?” He asked.
She snapped out of her zoned out expression and shook her head before turning her attention back to Charlie. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. We have machines and all, but these are so different!” She said excitedly.
“Well, Ponyville should benefit from this place. Let’s hope the process goes smoothly.” Charlie said plainly.
Twilight nodded quickly before Peter spoke up.
“Well, that’s pretty much it. Here.” Peter handed Charlie a small memory stick. “This’ll help you setup the software security. There are manuals on that stick that’ll help you setup the security procedures you want in place for these systems. Once they’re in place, please forward the report to me and i’ll archive it back at base. The stick will purge itself once the security systems are online.”
“Understood, sir.” Charlie rubbed his hands together. “This is gonna be awesome!”
“Corporal! Manuals first. Play solitaire later.” Peter said sternly. “You’ll find system manuals once you’re successfully logged in. They’ll explain how all the software and systems work.”
Charlie groaned. “Lots of tedious reading.”
“Lucky you!” Peter said sarcastically. “Right, I need to oversee the conclusion of the final testing phase. They should be pretty much done by now anyway.”
Peter walked away towards one of the workers at a computer, leaving Charlie with Twilight.
“Don’t like reading?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
“I don’t think anyone in the world likes reading instruction manuals. My world or yours, I bet.” Charlie replied.
“Ah, I must admit, I’m not overly fond of them myself. And I love reading!” Twilight said happily.
“Yeah? You do appear quite studious. Especially concerning magic.”
Twilight’s face lit up. “It’s my talent! See?” Twilight nodded to her flank. “That’s my cutie mark.”
Charlie scrunched his face as he focused on her strange tattoo. “You mean that star thing on your butt? What’s it mean?”
“It represents our special talent. Everypony has one. Since my special talent is magic, my mark shows this star.” She said factually.
“I did see the others with strange little pictures as well. Applejack had some apples on her if I recall, so her special talent is growing apples?” Charlie asked.
“That’s right! Some cutie marks might not seem so obvious at first, but once you get to know the pony a bit more it starts to make sense.”
Charlie looked up thoughtfully. “I wonder what Earth would be like if every human had a small picture of their special talent stuck to their butt.”
Charlie’s attention was brought back as the Captain entered the room. “Corporal, we’re about ready to leave. I have a few final points to go over with you.”
“Yes, sir?”
“We’ve stashed some basic food supplies down below. Non-perishable stuff, so pretty basic. We’ll supply you periodically with more in the future, although we know the food here is safe to eat so feel free to partake in local cuisine. After knowing what we’ve put down there for you, I know what I’d rather eat.”
“You explained their currency system before we came. Won’t I need money to eat down in the town?” Charlie asked.
“You’ll be receiving a monthly stipend from Princess Celestia to cover your living costs. Materials and other payments will be covered by us.” The Captain replied. “Things like clothes, toiletries and other things more specifically for humans will be supplied by us. Make sure to keep your end of communications open at all times. I’d like to keep confusion to a minimum.”
“Yes, sir.”
“All good here, Captain!” Peter called from across the room.
“Understood, pack up and get your team to the Osprey. The lieutenant and her team are already waiting.” The Captain called back. Peter rallied his team together and they all filed out the main door one by one.
The Captain looked back to Charlie. “Well that’s it. You’ve got everything you need. And it looks like you’re in good hoofs.” He said glancing down to Twilight.
“I’m looking forward to working with him, Captain. I think we’ll both learn a lot from each other!” She said smiling.
“Agreed.” Charlie nodded.
“We’ll be off then. I think your friends are still outside Twilight.” The Captain said, making his way towards the door.
Charlie and Twilight followed the Captain outside where the Osprey was starting up its engines. Twilight looked over to her friends. They were all saying their farewells to Peter and Lieutenant Vasquez, except for Pinkie who was on her back with her hoofs in the air still spinning her head in large circles.
“I better go see if she’s OK.” Twilight said.
As she trotted off, Charlie heard the Lieutenant shout over the now whirring engines. “We’re ready to go, Captain!”
Captain Swanson turned back to Charlie. “We’ll be in touch. Good luck Corporal.”
“Thank you, sir. I’ll do my best.” Charlie saluted. The Captain saluted back and turned toward the Osprey. The rest of the workers security team were already on board.
Charlie covered his eyes from the dust being picked up from the rush of air by the Osprey’s engines. He could just about see the Captain making his way up the ramp. Charlie saw Vasquez looking out to him giving him a thumbs up while Peter simply smiled. The ramp slowly closed shut as the Osprey’s engines slowly lifted the vehicle into the air. Charlie brought his arm to his face to shield him from the mass of dust thrown at him. When the dust came to settle, he watched as the Osprey flew slowly into the distance.
Before he knew it, they were gone and all was quiet.
“Quite a contraption y’all got there.” Applejack said, now standing next to him.
“It gets us from A to B.” Charlie responded nonchalantly.
“Pinkie’s fine. Well as fine as Pinkie usually is anyway.” Twilight said walking towards Applejack and Charlie.
“Ah shoot, sugarcube! We checked on her.” Applejack said. She looked up to Charlie. “She seemed to be enjoyin’ those fancy windmills y’all got.” Applejack said
“Well, she’s seen nothing yet.” Charlie said smiling.
Rainbow, Fluttershy and Rarity made their way over. “So Charlie, what are you going to do now? Would you like us to show you around Ponyville?” Rarity asked.
“Uhh, if it’s alright with all of you, I’d like to get myself settled in here first.” Charlie replied. “Perhaps tomorrow, though?”
“Sure thing!” Rainbow said enthusiastically. “I have tomorrow off so I can come get ya!”
“Sounds good Rainbow. I’ll see you then. I have a lot of work to do tonight but I should be done by tomorrow.”
Twilight looked over to Pinkie who was slowly getting to her hoofs. “Well I think we better get Pinkie home. I’m sure she’s eager to get Charlie’s party planned.”
“Oh Christ”
“If you need me Charlie, I live at the Ponyvillie Library. There are signposts to it around town so you can’t miss it.” Twilight said.
“Got it, thanks Twilight. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” Charlie said smiling.
Everyone said their goodbyes. Even Fluttershy gave Charlie a small smile as she followed the others toward a now standing Pinkie Pie.
Charlie turned and walked over to the edge looking over the vast landscape. He could see the slowly setting sun on one side of the sky and the slowly rising moon on the other.
“Well Equestria, what have you got in store for me?”