Shooting Stars

by Zer0prototype

First Encounter

The creature lunged towards me! The teleportation spell I had ready fizzled out as terror broke my concentration. Stubby tentacles protruding from the ends of its forelegs uncurled, ready to ensnare. Instinctually backing away when the door suddenly opened was the only thing that saved me from being caught. It slammed into the floor where I had, moments ago, been standing with a clatter of armored scales on metal flooring. Groaning, it began to rise up onto all fours but I had already spun about and was racing down the corridor.

I made it to the breach in the wall where I had first teleported in. I gathered the magic and tried to focus on someplace safe. Home! My library was the first place that came to mind but I had used so much magic getting here it was outside my range and my magic just sputtered out. I tried again. This time trying to think of a closer setting.

A flat, featureless face. No mouth, no ears, no snout, no eyes. Just a blue tinted, reflective surface. The creature's face.

I shuddered and tried to focus again but that face was all I could see. Could it have done this? Could it have the power to negate spells? Was that even possible?

There was a loud thunk from the room I had escaped from. Closely followed by the awful sound of retching and several liquidy splats.

I had to hide. Had to get away till I could focus enough to teleport myself to safety. Where? Where? WHERE?

I pranced in place. Looking about as I continued to panic. There was a square panel missing in the floor further down, away from the creature. I galloped over to it and looked inside. It was smaller tunnel.

At the sound of hoofsteps behind me, I jumped down with a clatter of hooves. The tunnel was large enough for a pony but I needed to duck my head down to avoid bumping my horn on the ceiling. Despite the low ceiling, it was surprisingly spacious. Spacious enough to turn around anyway. Good, I didn't want to be trapped with my horn pointed away from that thing if it found me.

An echoing thud ran down the tunnel, followed by another. The creature had entered the hallway. I quickly cast a silencing spell, much easier than teleportation, and silently trotted away as quickly as I could. Maybe It only messed with advanced spells. The glow from my spell lit the way as the echoing thuds grew closer. The low ceiling making it so I had to walk away rather than run like my body was screaming at me to. And then I came across the worst possible thing, other than the creature itself.

A closed door!

I flicked my eyes over the barrier, looking for any detail that might allow me to open it. There were several buttons to my right like every other alien door I'd seen. I had no idea which to push. They looked just like the buttons on all the other doors. right down to the same marking on them.

The thuds were growing louder and I was starting to hyperventilate in the enclosed space. These doors were so frustrating! I had no idea how to open them. They didn't swing on hinges or use a key or even magically disappear. I just tried to touch the light. Then they just... magically moved aside with the push of a button. I immediately pushed the button with the same symbols as before. <Open> Sure enough the door slid aside. And the thuds stopped.

I stood paralyzed as paniced thoughts ran through my head. Had it heard? Of course not! I was still using my silencing spell! But then how could it know I was here. Did it know? Was it just playing with me? Could it be

There was the squeak of hinges from above me. I could hear the creature making muffled noises as it shifted through something. All my attention, except for what kept the silencing spell in place, was focused on the sounds it made. I could make out grumbles that seemed to have the structure of language behind it.

"After living through all that, I just had to come out of cryo and vomit all over the place. I guess that's why the regs say not to go cold while wearing your helmet or on a full stomach. It would suck so much to barf inside your helmet, especially while wearing it." There was another squeak and a faint clatter as a metal door was presumably closed. Then the steps receded. "Oh and there is that lovely hull breach, again, for me to fix. Hello there! I wonder what else has been shot to hell around here? Cause you know it's going to be me who..."

The hiss of the door before me sliding closed again was what finally snapped me out of my paralysis. It didn't seemed to have noticed me at all. More importantly I had just come face to face with what was most likely an Extra Terrestrial being. If this creature could communicate... I could only imagine what I could learn from it. Space travel, advanced construction techniques, Astronomy! My silent prancing was halted when I banged the back of my head on the low ceiling. Re-casting the silencing spell, I sheepishly made my way back to begin my first field observations of an extra terrestrial in it's own environment. Mental checklist being drawn up as I went.

1. Observe and record activities until general behavior is understood. 2. Summarize findings and present to the Diarchy. 3. Prepare for a proper first contact (check sublist for first contact preparations). 4. Initiate a positive first contact. 5. Learn everything! Oh this was going to be so much fun.

Climbing back out of the square hole into the main hallway had been a bit of a challenge but a flap of my wings had given me the extra push I needed to get over the lip. Now I was creeping towards the room where I had first discovered the creature. (Though alien is probably a more accurate description.) Light was being cast into the hallway now. There were also noises that indicated that the creature, I mean alien, was moving about. I could also make out what sounded like shifting sand.

My thirst for knowledge was being overridden by my self preservation as I moved closer and closer to the door. I had no idea if the alien would do me harm. While it didn't seem to have given chase, it could still be dangerous. Which is why I wasn't going to let it see me. But I had to learn what it knew. Maybe it would be okay if I was just really, really careful.

Very cautiously, I poked my head around the edge of the door and was thankful that the alien was mostly facing away from me. It was on all fours again. That wasn't quite accurate though. It was on three of it's four legs, using those tentacles to grasp a box of a sandy material that it was pouring onto whatever mess it had made. It placed the box down and I got a better look at what was on the end of it's forelimbs. They would be best compared to the hands of a minotaur or the paws of a monkey. There were four digits and a thumb which gave the 'hand' such a distinctive shape. I felt a little silly for thinking of them as tentacles before. To be fair I hadn't gotten a very good look before when it almost fell on me.

The alien picked up a boxy object with a mouth grip in it's hand and did something with it's thumb that caused the object to whir faintly. The object began to suck up all the sand along with the mess. My first observation of extra terrestrial technology at work and I didn't have a camera or even a notepad. I was at least commiting to memory every detail I could about the alien for later.

I would have compared it to an ape. If apes were covered in grey, armored scales. There was a blue stripe running from the right shoulder down as far as I could see. Front as well as back. The hind legs were completely different too. From the way it was jointed, the creature looked to be on it's knees with the rest of the leg protruding along the floor behind it, ending in an elongated hoof. My eyes tracked back up to it's head and was momentarily confused by its face. It wasn't the face of the monster that initially terrified me. It had more in common with a pony face than differences. There was a short brown mane, shell like ears, and a relatively flat face. The snout was nearly non-existant, still the only significant protrusion on it's face. There was a small mouth below the nose. It didn't seem to have much fur on its face, instead light tannish skin was visible. The eyes were small like the rest of its facial features but also bright.

My nose began to itch. Before I could stop myself, I sneezed. My silencing spell kept it quiet but my broken focus meant the spell was broken too. Some of that powdery substance it had sprinkled liberally onto the mess must have been kicked up by whatever device it was using to suck up the powder and mess.

And then I sneezed again.

The alien's head whipped around and the two of us just stared at each other for a long moment.

Oh Celestia, this was it. First contact! Technically second but I don't think the first one counted. Regardless, I wasn't ready for step four! My carefully laid plan was falling apart. I had planned to observe the alien for a few weeks at least before setting up such an important meeting. Learned how to introduce myself and the Princesses (preferably in it's own language), figured out what kind of food it preferred, AND had back up hidden out of sight in case it WAS dangerous.

Despite my fears it smiled, turned off the device, and very slowly set it down and gave me a little wave. Without any better idea at the moment, I forced a smile and waved back. It's smile grew bigger, which unnerved me for reason. It turned to face me fully before it said something in a rich voice, one might associate with a stallion but rarely a mare.

"Hello there."

Taking that as encouragement, I looked about the room again. Nothing had changed from before but for the overhead lights being on, the small pile of powder in the middle and what was apparently the helmet that had scared me earlier. It was just lying off to the side, rather harmless looking now.

I lit my horn again (just in case), took a deep breath and entered. I hoped for the best and began to recite the first encounter speech I hadn't had a chance to make note cards for yet, or even revise at all. I was practically winging it.

"Greetings. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria and the Element of Magic. I hope we can become friends and engage in peaceful relations. I am sure there is a great deal we can learn from each other and I would like to start right away."

The creature just nodded politely and held out it's left foreleg, palm up. Pleased with my success, I reached out to hoof bump the offered limb. A little informal but I'd take it. Something about its outstretched leg caught my attention and I paused. This limb didn't look like the other. While its body looked like it was covered in armor, possibly the literal kind since it had taken off its helmet, this limb didn't look like it was covered in metal, it looked like it was metal.

Picking up on my focus, the alien glanced down at it's metal hand. Slowly, the proffered limb was lowered and it's other one raised instead. Hand raised to eye level, palm facing me, he used his metal one to remove the armored shoe covering it to expose flesh the same color as its face. It held this appendage out to me instead. Again I reached out to bump it but before I could the hand reached out, closed around my hoof, and gave a firm pump up and down. It did this twice before letting go. A much more formal version of a hoofshake than the enthusiastic one Applejack had first given me.

Wow. My first diplomatic mission as a Princess. I had expected it to go as badly as with the Buffalo. As in minor skirmishes, before erupting into full on pie warfare. I'm still not entirely convinced Discord wasn't involved somehow, even if he had been a lawn ornament at the time.

My feeling of triumph was crushed when the alien reached out with it's unarmored hand and patted me on the head.

"Good girl."

I was speechless. Princess title or not, this being had just patted me on the head like a foal. I had been furious when Discord had first done it and I was furious now. The alien's attention was already elsewhere though so my glare went ignored. It sat on its haunches and began to speak to the ceiling. Then I remembered it probably couldn't understand me anymore than I could understand it and just let out a frustrated sigh.

"Sassi? Sassi, you there?"

When nothing happened it made low grumbling sounds.

"Powers probably too low. She must have fallen asleep. Hopefully that's all it is."

It then got to all fours again and finished cleaning up the floor. Once finished it picked up both the device and the box of powder in its hands and put one of its extended hooves on the floor beneath it and pushed up.

My eyes followed it as it went up, and up, till it finally toward over me. Standing on only it's rear legs.

"Excuse me."

It then just walked past me into the hallway.

Listening to it walk down the hall again, it became clear that before the alien had been walking bipedally as well. I quickly followed at a slight distance. Now that it towered over me, it seemed a lot more intimidating than before. And it had been plenty intimidating before I saw it was almost as tall as Princess Celestia. It was also holding its metal hand out before it. From which a beam of light pierced the dim surroundings. The lights may have illuminated our hooves but most everything else was cast in a dim red light.

I followed the alien back past the gap in the wall. Beyond the hole I had jumped into to hide and came to a stop about where I had encountered the doorway below. Here the creature stopped and hooked one of its fingers into a depression in the wall. It pulled outwards and a door swung open. Inside was a cavity into which it returned the cleaning supplies. I could see the seams for the door but the panel didn't look any different from any of the other panels I could see.

After shutting the door, the alien moved on to the end of the hall where there was a large double door, unlike all the others I had seen so far. Instead of touching any of the buttons beside the door, the highest and lowest of which were arrows pointing in their respective directions, the alien shown its light over the wall to the left. After a moment, it opened another panel to the left of the door to reveal a ladder. Using its long limbs, it easily began to lower itself down the shaft.

When it was on eye level with me, it stopped and held one of its arms out to me. It made several sweeping gestures which caused the lite it was emitting to flash across my face repeatedly. It looked like it was making a beckoning motion.

"Well, you coming or what?"

I took a few steps back. My magic was somewhat replenished now and this being didn't seem quite as scary as when it had nearly fallen on me. Still I was not about to let a strange creature I had nearly no behavioral knowledge of hold me, especially not inside such an enclosed space.

The alien shrugged and continued to climb up. After a moment there was a squeak from another panel opening. Following the alien with my eyes, I could see it had opened a door one floor above on the opposite wall. The shaft was too narrow for me to spread my wings fully, that that I fould have flown up there anyway. So I teleported across the gap. It was a little tricky as I couldn't actually see where I was going. But I managed, appearing about a dozen centimeters above the floor.

The alien hadn't made it far. At the sound of my teleportation and clatter of my hooves hitting the floor, it turned to shine the light directly into my face, forcing me to squint. It lowered the light to the floor and gave me what would be an inquisitive look. If it had been on a pony's face anyway. That the ears seemed to be stationary and the complete lack of tail made its body language stiff and difficult to read. Of course being an alien, it was entirely plausible, even probable that I wasn't reading its body language correctly at all.

"Now how did you get from there," it pointed in the direction it has last seen me, "to here?" It then pointed at where I was presently standing. The alien used its right hand which I was grateful for. That light was really bright when shone directly into my eyes.

It wasn't hard to read this. It was curious how I had traveled over the obstacle it didn't believe me capable of overcoming. Like with Applejack, I tried to explain the complex magical theory to it. There was no change of expression to indicate understanding. Just a smile as one of its hands reached for me again.

"My, you're a talkative one aren't you?"

The hand came down to pat me again but I was having none of it. With a flash, I teleported behind it and gave it my best glare.

There was a moment's hesitation in its movements as the alien tried to figure out what had happened to me. It looked from side to side. Up and down. Even waving it's hands around in the space I had just been to check if I was invisible. It lifted its left arm, the metal one, and started manipulating something that was now giving off multi-colored light from the top. It scratched it's mane and glanced behind it, only to encounter my glare.

Seeing that look of surprise cross its face and the way it jumped away from me with a startled exclamation that I didn't quite catch (I think it started with a 'Fu' sound), was immensely satisfying after it had nearly scared the living daylights out of me earlier. When it landed though its posture was completely different. The limbs weren't flailing. They were set and ready, in a slight crouch. The right hand was on its hip grasping something attached to the armor. The light was pointed directly at me, again. It was nearly impossible to tell through the glare but the metal arm seemed different. Like its shape had changed. I wasn't sure. What I was sure of though was that the face didn't have any of the emotions it had possessed previously. It was blank and even more emotionless as before, just like looking at the mask it had worn when it awoke just not nearly as literal.

There was a long pause. Nothing moved. Fear was worming into what had been my calm mind. A calm fractured by anxiety. My horn began to glow and wings started to unfurl. It was like facing down a predator. My body was getting ready to react as soon as it made a sudden move without making any myself. And then it blinked and slowly the ready stance relaxed. The mask fell away into that curious look I had seen before. The creature crouched down and began speaking to me again. Mercifully, redirecting the light towards the floor again.

"Well isn't that an interesting adaptation. Useful too! Predators would have to rely on surprise or extremely good tracking if their prey can simply warp away. I wonder what other life is on this planet. I might have to investigate when my ship is repaired. Too bad that gaping hole is where the science lab used to be. Oh and let's not forget that it seems like everyone else abandoned ship, including anyone who knew how to work the tech in there. Mustn't forget that." With that it began walking towards wherever its destination was. Leaving me mildly confused at this alien reaction to being surprised. Startling it was probably not a good idea.

---

We didn't have very far to go. We were already in a large room. It was too dark to make out much. The alien was keeping its light trained on one of two structures on either side of the room, in the back. I considered lighting my own horn to cast a light spell myself but I was more than a little afraid of making the alien freak out again. It was even worse than a dragon stare, mostly because I knew what a dragon would do.

We approached the structures and I got a better look at one. I had never seen anything like them before, they reminded me of some of that 'modern art' that Pinkie found so fascinating and that Rariy so despised. These looked like large teapots made up of panels, with large tubes connecting them to the walls.

The alien went to the left one and grasped a handle on top before giving it a twist with its metal hand. The handle turned, causing the section to pull away from the rest. There was a groan from the alien as a grey orb, about as large as a mature melon, slid into veiw. The light flashed over the orb, exposing a large crack running through it.

"Gah. I can't believe the crystal's gone. This ship won't escape orbit, let alone jump, without both. Hopefully the other survived.

On the other side of the room, the alien repeated the process. Twisting another handle and exposing another orb. This one was not broken however, which seemed to relieve the alien. Instead this one seemed to hold the faintest glow, just visible in the darkness.

With a laugh the alien began removing the armor covering its chest. With the piece removed, I could see it wore a fitted outfit underneath. Once that had been opened to expose the alien's chest, it paused. A look was cast my way. It seemed to be deliberating something while I took in every new detail.

I could see it did indeed have hair over its exposed skin. It was so sparse I would not think to call it a coat of any kind. Could it be sick? Or possibly a side effect of that cold room I found it in? There was also what appeared to be nipples upon its flat chest. Which would imply she was female.

The point where her metal arm met the rest of her body was also visible now. It wasn't just the arm but part of her chest that was also metal, just the area around the shoulder. I had never seen a limb like this before. The closest comparison I had seen were prosthetic limbs for ponies that were in accidents and had been badly hurt. But those had been carved wood. Even the best could only flex with the help of a unicorn's magic. Few unicorns even bothered since every moment had to be done with the owner's magic since there was no spell to allow the mind to control the limb directly. Earth ponies and pegasi didn't even have that option. And yet this creature's arm seemed to be able to do just that. Where did the energy to move the arm come from? Could it be derived directly from the owner's body?

The alien seemed to have come to a decision because she broke me from my revere by crouched down to my eye level and spoke sternly.

"Now listen. You can't tell anybody about this, understand. What you're about to see is super classified tech. Even more so than everything else you're likely to see on this prototype ship. Do you understand?"

She began to nod her head, her extended finger doing the same just in front of my nose. Her left hand was wearing that armored sock again. She must have put it back on before we went up the metal shaft.

Not knowing what she wanted because she seemed to want me to do something, I mimicked the action. Nodding my head along with hers.

Another laugh. "Of course you don't. Your just some indiginous lifeform that has been following me around since I came out of cryo. Now just sit there and look cute and purple while I try to jump start this engine."

She stood up again and did something to the metal around her shoulder, on the front of her chest. There was a hiss and light began to seep from under the edge of a panel. It opened to reveal a circular hole with bright, white light shining forth. A whir and more metal folded back, opening like the petals of a flower. The light was so bright that it lite up the room like a tiny sun, or star. The alien turned back to the orb. The metal petals constricted and a beam of light passed from the hole in her chest to the intact orb.

A moment later it was over, and I was left trying to rub the after images from my eyes. The light from the alien's chest had dimmed to just a faint pulsing. To the point that I could see another one of those orbs embedded in the metal. This one was much small than the other two. Maybe the size of an orange. Quickly, I scanned it with my magic. It felt almost like magic but it definitely wasn't magic. At least not like any magic I had ever encountered.

Before I could learn anything more about the small orb it was obscured. The petals folded in over it and the metal plate closed over the whole thing, sealing it shut with a hiss. I couldn't even feel the orb anymore.

I scanned the, now glowing, larger one. It wasn't much brighter. Just enough that I was sure it was glowing and not just my imagination. I felt that same feeling of magic that wasn't quite magic. Of course, the alien closed the orb's housing before I could determine anything else. I glared over at her. She just smiled down at me.

"Don't look at me like that. With any luck this will get her started."

Then she turned the handle.

There was a soft whir, then a louder one below us. Lights began to flicker on about the room. Between the two teapots, there was a table covered in buttons with a black mirror right above it that had white alien text being written on it without a pencil or quill. The overhead lights came on letting me see even more details of the room I was in.

I was trying to take it all in when there was a beep from right beside me. I jumped away as a little blue figure flashed into existence on a pedestal I had been standing beside but hadn't noticed until now. It smiled and waved at me. Then it spoke in a much higher pitched voice than the alien.

"Hi there, pretty purple pony. Thanks for your help earlier. I'm SASSI. What's your name?"

Author's Note:

Hopefully there are less grammar mistakes than the first chapter. I put a lot more effort into proofing than I did previously. I also didn't write this chapter on a tablet so there is that too.

Comments

[Sir Top Hat]

So, the alien can't understand her but she can.

[Zer0prototype]

4745682
Neither of them do. Twilight has recognized the alien's intelligence while the alien thinks Twilight is just an animal. Twilight is trying to read body language, which is similar and so far she has guessed mostly right.

If too many people come to the same conclusion as you I might need to completely rework this chapter so it's clear they can't understand each other. At least not with words.

The blue writing also denotes alien text and language that can't be understood by Twilight. So the audience understands but Twilight does not. I thought I put enough context clues to make that apparent. Might need to make that more obvious when I do anther proof of chapter 1.

[Advent Link]

Interesting so far.

We. . .

. . . Will be watching.*cue dramatic shadows*

No seriously, keep going. I want to see how this turns out!

[Zer0prototype]

4746172
Looks like I'll have to rethink my explanation for teleportation. Maybe I'll use the Flash's reasoning of why he can phase through matter.

Thanks for the grammar checks. I guess I'll fix those before ch.3.

[Shpoople96]

The snout was nearly non-existantm

Existant.

Learned how to introduce myself and the Princesses (preferably in it's own language), figured out what kind of food it preferred, ? had back up hidden out of sight in case it WAS dangerous.

I think you're missing an and there somewhere...

Other began to recite the first encounter speech I hadn't had a chance to make note cards for yet, or even revise at all.

You missed... Something here.

possibly the literal kind since it has taken off its helmet

Had.

The alien went to the left one and grasped a handle on top before she gave it a twist with its metal hand

She assigned a gender before she had any clues.