CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 2
“We wish to understand, not incite.”
Legion wandered through the rolling plains and hills of the strange new world, external sensors constantly scanning the area for any potential threats to the unit. At the same time, it was receiving a constant feed of information from the transport in orbit, which was still working on completing a highly detailed scan of the planet, from the crust to the core, searching for deposits of Element Zero. It did not have to be much, just enough for the Mass Relay to send the geth to any other Relay, so that it could jump back into geth controlled space and report its findings to the consensus. Already it had tried communicating with them by attaching on to comm buoys, but, curiously, there seemed to be none in the vicinity. However, if this Relay was completely uncharted, it was possible that the unit was simply out of range.
On its travels, Legion had seen limited signs of movement. While it had mostly stayed within the plains to get better views of further off locations, it was walking within a kilometer of a large forest. When it zoomed in with its M-98 Widow, Legion was able to see hints of movement in the foliage. This world was a prime specimen to host life, so it was not impossible for organics to have evolved here. However, the chances of meeting any intelligent or sapient creatures were incredibly slim. Still, Legion was incapable of bias. If there was a chance of intelligent beings inhabiting this world, it would try to seek them out.
Earlier in the day, not long after Legion had arrived, the transport had detected what looked like sources of light. It was very possible that they could simply be thermal vents, given the possible youth of the world, but the apparent organization of the light sources also implied structures, possibly primitive towns. If there was an intelligent species, and it was technologically advanced, they would have detected Legion almost immediately.
Now, as day began to break, beams of sunlight began streaming over the horizon. For hundreds of years, organics had believed their worlds to be the center of the universe, and the sun revolved around them, giving rise to the inaccurate term ‘sunrise’. On this world, that term was perfectly correct. This world being a geocentric system was something that baffled even Legion. None of the 1,183 programs within the unit could come up with any highly likely explanation based on empirical evidence. Everything they suggested was merely conjecture.
Legion continued walking, the motors in its legs incapable of becoming tired. It could walk the length of the entire continent if it had to, and at this rate, if it did not find element zero soon, that was beginning to look more and more likely.
Twilight Sparkle’s eyes slowly cracked open, streams of early morning sunlight piercing her tired retinas. She squinted to adjust to the light, then slowly opened her purple eyes wide as she became more aware. Yawning, the alicorn climbed out of her bed, taking a look around the room. Spike’s small bed was empty, which surprised Twilight. Yesterday when she had gotten up this early, he was still fast asleep… Curiously, Twilight turned her head to the analog clock hung on her wall, and was surprised to find that it was already well into morning. Suddenly becoming much more awake, Twilight darted from her room and sprinted down the stairs, almost running over Spike who was in the middle of the room holding a breakfast platter.
“Twilight, I made break--,” he started.
“No time have to go!” Twilight interrupted, shooting past the baby dragon and out of the door to her home. She sprinted through the streets of Ponyville, narrowly avoiding other ponies going about their morning schedules. Ignoring their annoyed remarks, Twilight continued running until she finally reached Rainbow Dash’s cloud house. When she slowed to a stop, she collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. Her brief respite was interrupted by a hoof grabbing her back.
“You are three hours late, Twilight,” came the voice of Rainbow Dash. “Sheesh, even I’m not that bad…”
“Sorry…” Twilight panted, standing up. “Slept late… tired from… yesterday… ugh…” She nearly collapsed to the ground again, but held her composure. Rainbow Dash stared at the pony, unamused.
“Well then, are you ready to get started?” she asked. Twilight gulped and got her breathing under control, then nodded.
“Okay then,” Dash said. “We’ll start with wing-ups again. We need to keep you on top of those, or you’ll just lose the strength you earned while you’re sleeping. After that, we’ll try hovering again.” Sighing, Twilight lowered herself to the ground, then slowly put her weight on the tips of her wings. Carefully, she lifted her front hooves off of the ground, and paused for a moment, waiting to see if she would fall. While she did lower quite dramatically, Twilight pushed back and held herself firmly on her wing tips. Then, slowly at first, she pushed herself up, causing several pops to ring out as her joints popped. Twilight lowered herself back down, then raised back up, this time somewhat quicker. She repeated this cycle forty-eight more times, each time getting quicker than the last, before she collapsed onto the ground in a tired heap.
“Fifty wing-ups, that’s a new record,” Dash noted happily. “I bet that fancy magic of yours is probably helping you get stronger faster, though.” Twilight chuckled to herself, then stood up.
“Alright now, let’s try hovering again,” the cyan pegasus said. “Remember, don’t flap too hard, or you’ll over-exert yourself. Slow, rhythmic flaps. We’re looking for power, not speed.” Twilight nodded, then began flapping her large purple wings. As the air began to blow beneath them, Twilght slowly felt her hooves leave the ground. Only a moment later and she was airborne. Twilight grinned, excited at her achievement. However, this led to her losing her concentration, and a moment later she crashed into the ground, dazed.
“Well you got up much quicker than yesterday at least,” Dash said. “Once we get your hovering under control, we can work on movement.” Twilight nodded, returning to a stand position, before she began flapping her wings, ready for another attempt.
Princess Celestia entered her private study, holding back a yawn. Her usually flowing mane was hardly even moving this early, and the bags under her eyes were a testament to just how little sleep she had managed to get the previous night. Celestia didn’t know what it was that kept her up; all she could feel was that something wasn’t right. It had struck her only a few minutes after leaving the balcony with her sister. As they walked down the halls, her stomach had suddenly turned, and the princess had a nagging feeling that something was wrong, that something had changed that wasn’t supposed to.
But, rather than pursue the feeling right then and there, Celestia had decided that sleep was much more appropriate for her at the time. So she had gone to bed, and when the princess woke up, the feeling had gone away just a small bit, but was still eating away at the back of her mind. With no way of actually tracing just what was wrong, Princess Celestia had come to her private study to try and lose herself in her work. The Solar Court wasn’t for another two hours, so that gave her plenty of time to read up on the several reports that had accumulated on her desk over the night.
Princess Celestia grabbed the stack of reports, all of which were tied together with a few pieces of string, in her golden telekinesis. She carefully untied the strings, placing each individual piece of parchment on her desk. Starting with the first one on her left, Celestia grabbed both the parchment and a cup of coffee with her magic, then began reading. It was nothing out of the ordinary, just an economic report drafted by her lead economic advisor. Equestria’s stock market was as good as ever, and most companies were up a few points. Trade with Gryphonia and the Zebra Nation was normal, and the addition of several new trade routes the week prior had helped to do nothing but improve it.
Satisfied, and finally beginning to wake up some thanks to the coffee, Celestia set the document to the side, then picked up the next one, a quick report on domestic news. Included in it were summaries of events that had taken place the day before, how they had gone, and how ponies were reacting. Also included were basic crime reports, which, as usual, were incredibly small. Princess Celestia merely skimmed through the next two, deciding to save them for the Solar Court. They dealt with grievances that had been observed (which usually were minor things), and requests for the Equestrian government to consider. These were more appropriate to address during Court, when ponies would be meeting with her to speak with her one-on-one about the things listed in the two documents.
The fifth document was one that she rarely received, and that was border control. Immigration to Equestria was fairly rare, and illegal immigration was almost unheard of. Most of the species inhabiting Equis chose to stay in their country of origin, though occasionally a zebra or griffon would immigrate to Equestria. Cautiously picking up the document, Celestia read the subject of the report. Surprisingly, it did not deal with any immigration troubles. Rather, it dealt with encroachments on pony territory near the western border, towards the badlands. The badlands were host to all sorts of undesirable creatures. Very near the edge lived the diamond dogs, and beyond that, in the rough volcanic mountains lived the dragons. But beyond that was territory almost completely unmapped by any species on the planet. For there, in great underground hives, lived the changelings.
The changelings were horrid creatures. Their anatomy was not dissimilar to that of a pony, however there were some clear differences. For example, the changeling possessed a rough, chitinous exoskeleton that was a very dark shade of gray. This exoskeleton was occasionally marked with circular holes that went all the way through the changeling, leaving large gaps in their bodies. The biggest difference between changelings and ponies, however, was the inherent ability of a changeling to, as its name implied, change shape. Just one year prior, the changelings had staged an invasion of Canterlot, and, had it not been for the young Princess Cadance, they would have succeeded. Nopony had seen anything of the changelings since their defeat, and it was widely believed that they had simply not been able to restore themselves after the battle. But if there were incursions on the western border…
Celestia read further into the report, nervously taking in every word, her expression grave. There were no solid reports on exactly who was responsible for the incursions. Celestia’s Defense Ministry believed the most likely candidate were the diamond dogs, due to their inherently aggressive nature. Plus, it was reported that prisoners had been taken, which was not uncommon for a diamond dog. However, diamond dogs were careless. They rushed into a fight without thinking tactically, and considering that the western frontier towns had fair contingents of guards, it was very unlikely that all of them would have been able to escape after their assault without being caught. For this reason, Celestia was greatly worried that the true instigators of these assaults were the changelings. They could disguise themselves as ponies and attack without warning. They could move almost unseen under the cover of night. And, after their defeat one year ago, it was not unlikely that they would be hungry for revenge…
Celestia quickly grabbed a small sheet of parchment from her desk, then scribbled a note on it to dispatch elite units to the western frontier settlements. Princess Luna’s ‘Nighthawks’ would be sufficient, she decided. Celestia set the note aside, along with the report, before grabbing the final report, written by her Chief Medical Officer. These reports were much more common than border control ones, and typically they were a fair bit less alarming. Mostly just reports of large outbreaks of diseases, though they typically were no more severe than the common cold. However, it seemed that this day just was not in favor of the princess. Written in urgent handwriting on the report was a date and time for Celestia to meet with her Chief Medical Officer, with a note scribbled beneath it:
‘Need to meet. Potential new virus. Must contain.’
The date above the note put a meeting time at right after Solar Court. Given the apparent urgency of the note, Celestia was somewhat surprised that her medical officer hadn’t scheduled it immediately. It must not be that bad, Celestia thought to herself, trying to calm her nerves. After all, even if it was a new virus, ponies had mastered the art of eliminating them long ago. Because their magic could permeate any form of matter, regardless of size, bacterial and viral epidemics were rare. Really the only serious illness that magic could not yet heal were genetic-borne ones. Yes, Celestia thought. Everything is fine.
Checking the large analog clock above the door to her study, Celestia found that the time had passed much quicker than she believed. Solar Court was in only fifteen minutes; by now, her subjects would probably be arriving to meet with her. Celestia downed the remainder of her coffee, which was not much, then stood from her desk, making her way to the door. She pushed it open, offering a polite nod to the guard outside, then continued down the hallway to the throne room.
Legion stealthily crept through the forest it had come across only a few hours before, attempting to document the incredibly diverse plant life. While all garden worlds did have plants, very few of them had this many species. Surprisingly, the geth had also caught movement in the trees, which seemed could only be linked to the presence of animal life as well. The current wind was very weak, not nearly enough to rustle the bushes, so therefore, animals were the only logical explanation. However, they had evaded the machine thus far, and it had gotten no clear visual of them.
Legion was interrupted from scanning a small blue flower by an odd chittering sound. Cautiously, the geth hefted its M-98 Widow, then quickly spun around to face the source of the noise. After a moment of scanning the area, Legion lowered its weapon when it found the noise’s owner. Very curiously, a small white rabbit was standing just ahead the unit. Legion found this very odd. Rabbits were native to planet Earth, home of the humans. That an animal from a world thousands of light-years away was present here was troubling.
Carefully, Legion reached out to attempt to scan the creature. However, just before the three long fingers were about to wrap around the rabbit, it ran off, teeth still chittering. Legion quickly gave pursuit, not wanting to let the first sign of animal life on this alien planet get away. Legion was a very fast machine; as an independent unit, it had to be agile in order to ensure long-term survivability. This rabbit, however, had it beat. While Legion was able to keep up, the was always just a few feet ahead of the machine, as though it was leading it somewhere.
This proved to be the case when Legion emerged from the woods, and found itself in a large clearing. The clearing was not vacant, however, as in the center sat a large tree-shaped cottage. Behind it was a fence-enclosed garden area fully stocked with fruits and vegetables. Behind this was a set of chicken coops, as well as other pieces of housing equipment for other primitive animals. Curious, Legion held its rifle closely, scanning the region for any intelligent beings that could be responsible for the construction. Oddly enough, just a few hundred meters away, at the end of a long dirt road, there sat even more homes. And beyond them, even more. Based on the layout, Legion deduced that they were part of a larger village, perhaps even a town.
Coming to a crouch to observe from afar, Legion put the scope of the rifle in front of its large blue optic, then began to scan the area. No more animals had revealed themselves, and the geth could hear nothing indicating life. All was still, and all was quiet. That was, until Legion was interrupted by a quiet yelp from behind it. Legion whirled around, holding the sniper rifle ready, and settled its gaze upon a small yellow pony. Legion found it very strange that now two Earth-native creatures had been discovered on this planet. Even stranger was the fact that this one had a set of wings, indicating that it was a pegasus, a creature from human mythology. The pony’s large blue eyes quivered in fear at the sight of the massive geth, who stood unmoving, still holding the sniper rifle ready.
After waiting for a few moments, with neither creature moving, Legion decided that it was not a threat. It slowly lowered the sniper rifle, though that did nothing to quell the fear of the pony. It still stood incredibly rigid just a few meters from the geth, eyes unblinking as it stared on in fear. Legion took a few cautious steps forward, prompting the pony to yelp once more. Ignoring the obvious fear, Legion continued walking forward until it was just a few inches from the pony. It extended its left arm, and an orange cylinder formed over its forearm and hand. The pony fell back in fear, and Legion lowered its arm to compensate for the space between the two.
A flat rectangular hologram of a screen emitted from the top of the omni-tool as several beams of light danced over the pony, scanning the creature and making very basic observations. Data from the observations began flowing on the rectangular screen, and Legion read every bit of it. It was four feet tall, had a wingspan of six feet, and, based on scans of hormone emissions, was female. The more basic scans complete, Legion deactivated the omni-tool, then stepped back from the creature. It spun and reentered the forest, calling for its ship to land at the original insertion zone. The computer onboard the ship was much more capable of processing the information from the scans, and if anything were to happen to Legion, it wanted the data safe. It disappeared into the brush, and began to run for the insertion site.
“Come on, Twi, you’re almost there!” Rainbow Dash cheered on as Twilight lifted herself further into the air, then slowly began to angle forward to enable actual flight. It had taken hours to get to this point, but, as Dash had pointed out earlier, Twilight was a fast learner. That and her alicorn magic seemed to make flight a bit easier. Slowly, Twilight began to edge forward.
“Stick your legs out, it’ll make you more aerodynamic,” Dash suggested. Twilight did as instructed, and found that it helped increase her speed by a small amount. As she began to grow more comfortable with the prospect of flight, she leaned further forward and began to flap her wings faster, soon starting to build up speed.
“I’m doing it!” Twilight shouted, excited.
“Keep going, Twi!” Dash cheered on. Suddenly, Twilight’s concentration was broken by a voice shouting from in the distance.
“TWILIGHT!” it shouted, seemingly in great distress. The distraction was enough to totally shatter Twilight’s concentration, and the next thing she knew she was on the ground, face-first in the dirt. The shouting kept growing louder, until Fluttershy came into view, flying at a speed that was on par with Rainbow Dash.
“Twilight!” Fluttershy shouted again, now panting for air as she lowered herself to the ground. Twilight slowly picked herself up, wiping a hoof across her face to clean the dirt off. She examined the dirt on her hoof, then shot an annoyed glare at the yellow pegasus.
“What!?” Twilight shouted, a little bit too angrily. The pegasus recoiled back, shivering in fear. Immediately Twilight realized her mistake, and she ran to her friend.
“Oh, Fluttershy, I’m sorry!” the alicorn said, apologizing profusely. “What’s the matter?” Slowly, Fluttershy picked herself up, still panting from her flight over. She was shaking as well, but it seemed that something more than Twilight’s outburst had startled the pony.
“I… I…” she struggled. Dash floated over as well, softly landing in the grass and approaching Fluttershy.
“What’s up, ‘Shy?” she asked. “You can tell us.”
“I saw a monster!” Fluttershy quickly blurted before covering her face with her hooves. Twilight and Rainbow exchanged confused glances, then they both continued to stare at the frightened pegasus.
“What do you mean you ‘saw a monster’?” Twilight asked.
“It… it came… it came from the Everfree…” Fluttershy continued, shaking with fear.
“So?” Dash asked. “You deal with critters from the Everfree all the time!”
“This one…” Fluttershy said. “This one was different… I… I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it…”
“Can you describe it to us?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy nodded, then stood up to her full height.
“It was… it was around two meters tall, I think,” the pegasus said in her usual quiet speaking voice. “It was a dark gray color, and it looked like it was made of metal… It had a single blue glowing eye, and a long rod-like object…”
“What else?” Twilight pressed on.
“It… it walked up to me…” she continued, slowly becoming more afraid as she recounted the details. “It held out an arm… then it glowed orange, and it shot beams of light at me… Then it just… left…” Twilight and Dash looked at one another, not convinced.
“It just… left?” Twilight asked, confused. “Why?”
“I don’t know…” Fluttershy said. “But it was big, and it was scary…” Twilight smiled in an effort to comfort her friend, then put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “It was probably just as scared of you as you were of it. That’s why it ran off.”
“But… what if it comes back? It didn’t look very scared…” Fluttershy’s fear seemed only to be growing, despite Twilight’s attempts at comforting her.
“Don’t worry,” the alicorn said. “Rainbow Dash and I will take a look around, and we’ll make sure it’s safe.”
“We will?” Dash asked, raising an eyebrow. Twilight glared at the pegasus, frowning. “Oh, I mean, uh… Of course we will! You’ve got nothing to fear, Fluttershy.” Slowly, Fluttershy’s trembling began to subside, and she looked away sheepishly.
“O-okay…” she whispered. “Thank you…” Twilight motioned for Fluttershy to lead the way, and followed behind her as the yellow pony set off. Rainbow Dash slowly sidled up next to Twilight, frowning.
“Twi… what are we doing?” she asked quietly, trying not to alert Fluttershy.
“Look, something obviously terrified her,” Twilight began. “Now maybe it was a big metal monster, or maybe it was something else. Let’s just look around and give her some peace of mind.
“But her description was ridiculous!” Dash said, a bit louder. “I mean, ‘it had a big rod-like object’? That’s—“
“Here we are,” Fluttershy interrupted, apparently ignorant of the conversation going on behind her. “The monster was… right there.” She pointed off to the side of her cottage, near the edge of the Everfree. Twilight advanced toward the forest, Rainbow Dash close behind her. Fluttershy elected to remain by her house, too fearful to come any closer.
“Alright, just look around for any disturbed terrain,” Twilight said. “Tracks, broken sticks, things like that.” Rainbow Dash sighed as she began looking around, closely examining the ground.
“Look, I found a leaf that is bent,” she said, unamused. “It must be a sign.” Twilight groaned, and shot Dash a glare.
“I know you want to keep teaching me to fly, but Fluttershy is our friend, and if she saw something, then we should help.”
“Fine, fine… Sorry.” Rainbow Dash was quiet for the remainder of the search, as was Twilight. The two ponies scoured the area around Fluttershy’s cottage, looking for any signs of a large creature. Yet no matter how hard they searched, they found nothing. No strange tracks, no disturbed terrain at all. And after half an hour, they returned to their friend.
“I think you’re in the clear, Fluttershy,” Twilight reported with a smile. “But if you see anything else, come and find us. We’re always happy to help. Right, Rainbow?” Rainbow Dash forced a smile, and nodded.
“Of course,” she said. Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief, and grinned.
“Thank you for looking around,” she said. “Do you want to come inside for something to drink? Some tea, maybe? Anything for your trouble.” Twilight was about to reply, before Rainbow Dash quickly covered her mouth with her hoof.
“Thanks for the offer, but we’ve got to get going,” she replied quickly, pulling Twilight away with her. “Have a good one, ‘Shy!” Wrapping her hooves around Twilight, Rainbow Dash picked up the alicorn and began flying away from the small cottage.
“Is this really necessary?” Twilight sighed.
“Yes,” Rainbow Dash answered. “This way we won’t run into anypony else who needs help.” After a few minutes of flying, the pair landed beneath Dash’s cloud home. Twilight freed herself from the pegasus’s grip, and stretched out her wings.
“Alright,” Dash said. “Now, where were we?”
Princess Celestia navigated through the halls of Canterlot Castle, walking the memorized route to one of her private meeting rooms, where she would be meeting with her Chief Medical Officer, a unicorn mare by the name of Healthy Heart. Compared to the larger ones that were fit for dozens of ponies, her private meeting room was small and secluded, only meant for a few ponies to be in at any one time. As she approached the door to the room, she noticed a lunar guard standing vigilantly outside. Curiously, Celestia stepped up to the door, and the guard swung it open with his telekinesis, revealing the stark room beyond.
While most of the castle maintained a grandiose aesthetic style, the private meeting room was quite the opposite. It had no windows, as it was situated closer to the middle of the castle, was surrounded by plain white walls, and was lit by a few candles interspersed along them. The candles offered meager light to see by, illuminating only the small round table in the center, leaving the corners of the room shrouded in darkness. Celestia stepped into the room and saw two mares already there. One was, as she had been expecting, Healthy Heart. The pale blue mare sat at the meeting table, keeping quiet. The other pony present was, to her surprise, Princess Luna. That explains the guard outside, Celestia thought. As she stepped inside, the door slammed shut behind her. Celestia approached the table, drawing the attention of both other ponies.
“Sister,” she said, looking to Luna. “I was not expecting you to join us.”
“I was not expecting to join you either,” Luna replied. “But Ms. Healthy Heart insisted that I be present. She said it could be incredibly important.”
“That’s how your note made it sound,” Celestia said, turning to the unicorn in question. “Tell me, Ms. Heart, what kind of disease are we talking about?”
“We’re still not entirely sure, your highness,” Healthy Heart replied, pulling a stack of papers out from under the table and throwing them on top. “It’s so new that we haven’t yet determined just what it is.”
“Then why are we so worked up about it?” Luna questioned. “For all we know it could just be another virus.”
“Yes, your highness, I’m aware of that,” Heart said. “However, the main reason that this calls for alarm is the rapidity and ease with which it spreads. Once we determined who Patient Zero was, we were able to track down ponies with whom he came into contact… every single one was infected.”
“Your report neglected to mention, Ms. Heart,” Celestia said. “Just where did this illness first strike?”
“One of the frontier settlements, to the west,” Heart said. “A small town, only about a hundred ponies, called ‘Westrock’. Of the one hundred inhabitants… we know of eighty-seven confirmed cases.”
“Eighty-seven…” Luna repeated. “And this only was discovered yesterday?”
“Yes, your highness,” the Chief Medical Officer replied. “Which is why I became so alarmed.”
“What do you recommend?” Celestia asked.
“A full quarantine of the town, for starters,” Heart suggested. “Along with a few medical teams with protective equipment and magical wards around them, just to be safe.”
“It shall be done,” Celestia said. Heart smiled gratefully.
“It could just be nothing,” she said. “But better safe than sorry, I suppose.”
“Indeed,” Luna said. “Now, is that all?”
“That is all, your highness,” Heart replied.
“Then I take my leave.” With that, Luna turned and exited the room, the door slamming shut behind her. Celestia nodded farewell to the unicorn mare, then left the room herself. As soon as the door closed, she began trotting after her sister, who had not made it far down the hall with her guard. She fell into stride with Luna, walking down the hall right beside her. After a brief and awkward pause, Luna spoke.
“Can I help you, sister?” she said. Celestia paused for a moment.
“Leave us,” she finally said, directed to the guard. He saluted, then turned down the next hallway, leaving the two sisters alone to walk.
“I am glad that you came out of your room, Luna,” Celestia said. “If even for a little bit.”
“It sounded important, so I figured I should appear,” Luna replied flatly. Celestia trotted to get ahead of her sister, then cut her off as they approached a stairwell.
“Luna--,” Celestia began.
“’Tia,” Luna interrupted. “You have made it perfectly clear that you wish for me to come down more often, and to socialize. I understand, and I am happy that you care for my well-being, but I am fine.”
“No, Luna, you’re not,” Celestia interjected. “It has been three years! Three! And still you insist on staying up in your room all day and night, only coming out to eat or tend to the moon!”
“The other ponies don’t want me to come out, why should I?” Luna said, snarling.
“Luna, that is not true!” Celestia said. “You must give them a chance!”
“The last time I did that I made a fool of myself…” Luna replied. Celestia remembered back to the first night Luna had ever tried returning to the public scene. She had taken a trip to Ponyville during Nightmare Night, and ended up terrifying the population because they believed her to be Nightmare Moon.
“Sister,” Celestia said soothingly. “I know it has not all gone perfectly, but you cannot let one attempt discourage you so!” She put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “Luna, I’m going to Ponyville in a few days for a small celebration for Twilight Sparkle becoming a princess. Perhaps you should join me?”
“Yes, that sounds great…” Luna said sarcastically. “Return to the place where I was humiliated…”
“Oh, I doubt anypony remembers that!” Celestia comforted. “At least give it a try. Please?” Luna averted her gaze for a moment, before finally she once again looked Celestia in the eye.
“… Fine…” she grunted. The princess pushed past Celestia and continued up the stairwell that lead to her room at the top of one of the several towers in the palace. Celestia turned to watch her go, satisfied at a victory.
“I shall let my student know to expect you as well!” she shouted up after Luna.
“That would be good,” Luna yelled back, emotionless, before she disappeared at the top of the stairs. Deciding it best to return to her Solar Court, Celestia turned around and walked back down the hall, heading for the throne room.
Twilight Sparkle closed the door to her home as she walked inside, then slumped down against the wall, completely out of breath. With the exception of the excursion to Fluttershy’s cottage, it had been yet another day of almost constant flying practice, and Twilight was pleased with her progress. Thanks to her alicorn magic, her ability to adapt to flight was much greater than that of an average pegasus. Even so, Rainbow Dash was still convinced that she needed a lot of work, and Twilight agreed. While Twilight was now able to move forward, and turn to some degree, it was not for a prolonged period of time. Her current physical shape did not help her at all, and Twilight slowly plodded into the kitchen to get some ice for her burning wings.
When she entered, Twilight was surprised to find her assistant, Spike, working busily at one of the counters. She had been so tired that, when she first entered her home, she had totally missed the delicious smell emanating from a pot on the stove. Spike stood over the pot, ladle in claw, stirring the brew within. Twilight allowed the scent to permeate her nostrils as she approached the freezer and withdrew two ice packs.
“Hello, Spike,” she said, tired. The dragon turned around to face Twilight.
“Hey, Twilight,” he said. “How was flying practice?”
“I made some good progress today,” Twilight replied happily. “What are you making?”
“A recipe I got from Pinkie earlier today,” Spike explained. “I know she’s well known for her baked goods, but man, she can cook anything!” Twilight giggled to herself as she sat down in a chair by the kitchen table, resting the ice packs on her wings with her magic. As she sat down, her attention shifted to a scroll sitting rolled up on the table.
“What’s that?” she asked, reaching for it with her telekinesis.
“Oh yeah, almost forgot,” Spike said. “That came for you earlier. I didn’t read it, but it has Princess Celestia’s seal on it, so I assume it’s from her.” Twilight unfurled the scroll, then held it in front of her. Her eyes scanned over the words, and slowly a smile formed on her face. Satisfied, Twilight put down the scroll.
“Princess Luna is going to be joining Celestia at the party in a couple of days!” she said happily.
“Really?” Spike asked. “After what happened the last time she was in Ponyville?”
“Spike…” Twilight said, glaring daggers at the dragon. “That was two years ago… She was still learning how to get around after being gone for a thousand years…”
“Yeah, but hasn’t she basically been hiding away in Canterlot pretty much since she was unbanished?”
“’Unbanished’ isn’t a word, Spike,” Twilight said, getting an eye-roll from the dragon. “And that’s just because ponies haven’t been very accepting of her since she got back. This will be good for her!”
“Alright…” Spike conceded. Twilight stood up from the table, taking her ice packs with her.
“Let me know when dinner’s ready,” she said. “I’m going to go read.”
Legion stepped out of the thick forest and back into the clearing where it had first landed, folding the M-98 Widow back up and storing it on its back. A moment later, there was a roar as the small geth transport swooped down and came to a stop, landing on the surface. The hatch on the side opened, granting Legion entry into the craft. Immediately, Legion navigated to the cockpit, stepping up to the main computer once it got inside. Activating its omni-tool, Legion accessed the main computer and began a direct transfer of all the data that it had collected.
A moment later the transfer was complete, and the computer began sifting through the new data, storing it once it was done. Its task complete, Legion exited the craft, instructing it to once again take off and continue surface scans. So far, no deposits of element zero had been found, but it was a rare element. It was also difficult to track, especially on smaller ships with less-advanced planetary scanning equipment, so proper scans could take a while. Legion also had to consider the possibility of subaquatic deposits forming, which left a massive ocean to scan as well. All in all, scans could take months. Legion knew it did not have that kind of time, however. An attack by the quarians could happen at any moment, and the Reapers were not far off either.
However, the existence of an intelligent species on this planet seemed almost certain. The structures it had observed could not occur naturally, and even though they were fairly primitive in comparison to the other species of the galaxy, they would no doubt have some knowledge of this world, including possible knowledge of element zero deposits. Deciding that it was important to return to the buildings it had seen before, Legion reequipped its Widow, then spun around and sprinted back into the thick forest. At top speeds, the geth could reach the structures once again in just under eight hours. Already the moon was beginning to rise, so it would arrive very early in the morning. That was a prime time to begin scouting operations, when the inhabitants would most likely be asleep. That was, unless they were nocturnal. Nocturnal or diurnal, it did not matter. Either way, Legion needed to make peaceful contact. The security and future of the geth was depending on it.
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Very good! I hope the next chapter is as good as this one!
Hmmm, wonder if pinkie might the first pony legion would speak to.
Next chapter needs more legion and more frontal conversastion then just waching. Good story o far but it shouldnt drag on with legion only collecting a census of the ponies
You should do so that in the next chapters you don't skip the character details. Like, on the chief medical. You didn't say Anything on how she looks like. You just skipped it, When making a story you will have to talk about how characters look like so we can knowledge the appearance of the character. Right now, I have no idea how she looks like, She could even be Slendermare for what I know. Also since I have No Clue about What legion is or what Geth and a relay is or the zero stuff then it will be hard for me to recognize characters if u don't give any info then the name or rank. Also needs more Socializing with the Ponies and Legion.
Sorry guys, I didn't see that likes were at 69 till just after I clicked it :[
This is written really well.
... I'm not sure what to think. The CMO calls up a meeting with a princess to talk about a disease outbreak with no mention of symptoms, incubation time or fatality.
So far, so good. There are some issues but this has my interest.
Corn: typos and other miscellaneous gripes.
Crusta: grammatical errors.
Crimson: homophone substitution and spelling errors.
De York: corrections.
PROLOGUE:
banished
Any conceivable point earlier than that, perhaps? The only logical reason for Celestia to leave it that late would be if she knew that only through shared adversity would Twilight ever make friends. Honestly, it’s probably best to just drop that line altogether.
intentions… Intentions (cull the double space)
CHAPTER 1:
rifle
The blueshifting is due to the Doppler effect, it has nothing to do with eezo beyond the fact that eezo makes it possible for speeds where the Doppler effect can be observed on light.
CHAPTER 2:
The amount of eezo a relay needs would be ridiculous. They make it feasible for dreadnoughts to travel interstellar distances nigh instantaneously. Even accounting for the differing scales Legion will almost certainly need at least as much eezo as the physical size of his ship, and that’s really, really low‐balling it. If Legion wants a travelling time measured in anything less than decades it’s going to be far more. It’s exceedingly unlikely for there to be enough on a single planet, even one so close to a destroyed relay — the sun would suck up most of it, after all.
Equus (If you’re naming it after the species.)
that different (Indifference is an emotion, or lack thereof, not a general purpose comparative.)
Is your Twilight retarded, or did she somehow forget the events of Lesson Zero?
“But—” (use em dashes to indicate abrupt interruptions, don’t including any extra terminating punctuation)
“Luna—”
your use of this word is in error.
5744699
Agreed. For that phrasing structure and vocabulary level, I'd suggest "not dissimilar" instead.
I believe you meant: "Their anatomy was not 'all that' different to a pony"
The way you wrote it, makes it a contradictory statement.
The way Twilight just assumes that Fluttershy only dreamed about the "strange creature" and brushes her concerns away like they were nothing felt really OOC for me.
5949611 I have to agree. I couldn't help but say out loud, "What a dick!" during that scene.
Characters are flat, and everyone feels horribly OOC. Twilight wouldn't be brushing Fluttershy aside like that, and Dash is coming across as just plain rude and not at all loyal. Luna is coming across as a rude, short tempered bitch, which we know isn't true at all.
This is a trainwreck.
5186661 geese no need to rush, that's a problem with most stories. You want action from chapter 1 instead of any world building and setting up the crisis. We already have missing ponies and a virus, any faster and it would be redic.
7413080 this is a mass effect crossover, omni-tools are a tool in mass effect.
7554537 He was so sure of himself
7413080
SOMA..... such a good game i must say.. did you see the walkthrough?
You don't say?
It's going really good. Loving the setup
8949673
Damn straight. It may not have gotten everything right, but it made me think, and that's the best I can hope for.
Damn fine story so far... when will the other shoe drop?
The stage is being set, the players show their cards. This is gonna be good.
Rather surprising that Legion is alone, just as his chest hole shows one should always have a backup ready.
His experimental platform has already payed off in success, so Geth not making more of it would be surprising.
11560252
Good for some, bad for others... mutually beneficial is rare.
Time to see who loses and who wins his coins.