Rainbow Dash felt her world crumble around her. Whoever - or rather, whatever - had found her was unlike anything she had ever seen, and was certainly no pony.
Though blurry, she could see a long, beige claw-like thing stretched toward her face. She tried pulling away from it, but she was still too weak to move any significant distance. The claw slowly retracted, perhaps startled by her attempted gesture. The creature to whom it belonged loudly shouted something incoherent, as if calling to something else like it.
Soon, that something appeared.
There's more of them. I'm doomed.
Stooping her head, she let her tears run.
They'll rip me open and eat me, and there's nothing I can do... This is where I die. Nopony will even know...
She felt two sets of claws burn the skin across her face and eyes. Any second now, her life would be...
The tears were wiped from her face, and a claw started gently stroking her chin. It was still painful, but far from the treatment she had expected.
Why am I not dead?
Finally, she dared open her eyes again. Now closer, the creature didn't look all that scary anymore - it even reminded her a little of a pony. It had blue eyes, a long, smooth mane, and a friendly smile on its face. In its own way, it was pretty.
Rainbow, confused, allowed herself to get her hopes up a little and relaxed her tension. As soon as she had done so, though, her stomach started roaring in starvation, and she tensed back up. No wonder she felt so weak. How long had it been since she last ate anything?
The two creatures quietly laughed as they heard. The one that kept caressing Rainbow's face said something unintelligible to the other, who then promptly darted off. The remaining then turned back to her, softly speaking a language that might as well have been song. She couldn't understand the words, but just hearing them filled her with calm.
It didn't last long until the one that had run off came back with a couple of large red apples, which were sliced into small cubes and given to her. She still had no idea what happened, but it seemed she might have been wrong about them.
As she gobbled down the delicious food, she felt strengthened and renewed. For the first time, she could see that she actually was in a hospital bed - whatever these things were, they had been taking care of her all along.
"Thank... You..." she whispered, and drifted back to sleep, no longer fearing for her life.
Christina thought the little thing was cute, especially that sound it had made when it closed its eyes.
"Aww, don't you just want to wub-wub-wub the cute widdle thing?"
She tossed her arms around herself in a hugging motion, substituting the blistered animal with her own body. Her playful gesture was cut short, however, when the visitor bell rung. She left immediately, but two men had already appeared in the doorway, one holding a bloodied handkerchief to his head.
"Oh, dear."
She tossed her eyes towards Tarry, who already had covered up the animal. Turning back to the new patient, she offered some respite.
"Would you like to lie down before you tell us what happened?"
"Yeah, thanks."
The bloodied man dropped like a sack of potatoes into the empty treatment bed. Obviously trying to hide the pegasus, Tarry moved between the beds and started talking to their newfound patient. Christina decided to instead focus on the other man.
"I was told to drive this guy here when I was going past the ALICE entry point. Apparently he was down in the collider, and he slipped. He told me he'd fallen down the stairs." He shifted uncomfortably. "Can I leave now? My department head will be furious if I arrive late..."
Second accident in the collider in two days. Usually, the medical station was a quiet place, but lately there had been little time for research or routine health inspections.
"Alright, you can go."
She fetched a glass of water before returning to Tarry and the patient.
"He had a mild concussion," Terry explained to her. "I told him he can stay here and rest until he feels well enough to go home."
Christina offered her glass of water to the patient, and, as usual for someone with a headwound, he gulped it down with glee.
"You'll need to keep hydrated to speed up your recovery, but you'll be just fine," she told him with a smile. "You know, you're our second - no, third, actually - patient we've treated from the ALICE tunnel since yesterday. What's going on down there?"
The man took a deep breath before answering.
"The experiment blew up. Don't know why, yet. We finally managed to pump out the leaked helium earlier today, but when my team entered entered the tunnel, the water vapor from the air had condensed and frozen, so I slipped in the stairs and hit my head."
He closed his eyes and moaned.
"Wait, third?"
Flora was picked up at the Geneve airport after a daunting six-hour airplane ride. She had been on holiday when she got summoned to Switzerland, supposedly to assist in the treatment of a strange animal discovered at CERN.
She had originally been sceptical to whether or not it was really worth her time, but after she was presented with a recording that detailed the apparent physical aspects of the creature, as reported by a reputable medical scientist, she was intrigued. A hooved, six-limbed mammal with a mass density at bird-level wasn't something you saw every day, and it should be far more interesting than treating the same old dogs and cats all day.
Once she had packed her stuff into the trunk of the car, she fastened herself in the back seat, since it was held open for her.
The woman she had spoken to on the phone had told her they had no theories on what the animal was, where it came from, or how it got there. Flora hoped they hadn't solved that riddle yet - when there were no explanations, she could pretend there was magic at work, and it would be her job to figure out how exactly how that magic worked. Once that had been figured out, it wouldn't be magic anymore, but at least the mystery would have been magical until then.
Her driver had to repeat herself to get her attention, since she was lost in her own thoughts.
"Oh, my apologies... Did you say something?"
"Yes, I did. I asked what brought you here to CERN. It's a place for particle physics research, not animal treatment."
Her driver was very matter-of-factly about it. Flora supposed she shouldn't be surprised, since she was at the heart of nerd territory.
"So you weren't told? There's a wonderful, unidentified animal here who's badly hurt, and I'm here to take a look at it."
"Unidentified animal? At CERN? Why wouldn't they just send it off to the hospital, then? Why would they pay for a plane ticket from across the globe just to get you here?"
The driver sounded surprised.
"Well... I don't like to brag, but I'm pretty good at handling new species. I've classified over twenty myself, and I guess they're afraid a new species would cause panic if too many people knew."
Realizing what she just told a complete stranger, she added:
"Oh, please promise me you won't tell anyone about it!"
"Don't worry, I have no wish to see harm come to the animal," the driver responded.
It was still before dawn, but Flora hoped she could be let in as soon as she arrived. She didn't want to have to wait to meet a member of this new species.
I do have a wish to limit the expenses those secretive doctors cause, though.
Fauna kept that last part to herself.
I think you mean a six-limbed animal, not a six-legged.
543869
Thanks, that certainly works better than appendaged.
She doesn't know specifically that the two on the middle are wings, but I guess she wouldn't call them legs either.
543881
So the Doc didn't get specifics then... not a problem Tobbzn, I've dealt with six-limbed fuzzy critters before. And the Enterprise doesn't get blown up by space dust despite traveling at FTL in normal space because of the deflector shield
543929
:)
I like to call this one the AwesomeScience Story, where the AwesomeSauce is actually Science!
Since your little fiction of awesome is gonna contain ludicrous amounts of actual !!science!!, why not go the whole way in sci-fi hardness and make Rainbow Dash alien in origin, perhaps with no genetic relationship with our tree (no common ancestor within our tree), or even better, a set of different nucleobase and an alternate nucleic acid structure/chemistry
546270
Because if so, she would most likely die from starvation or asphyxiation here on earth, despite Twilight's wrap. I can only pull the "Magic!" card so far ;)
547078 Berate me if I'm wrong but, if Dash were to be (hypothetically) a carbon based lifeform (using carbon to bond with other ions), has demonstrated to breathe (cellular respiration), and forest exist in her homeworld (photosynthesis), wouldn't using glucose as an energy source not be too far fetched? And if so, would that not rectify your little conundrum?
547208
Well, based on those facts, does the idea that the nucleobase and nucleic acid are the same seem too far-fetched?
Considering, as you said, there are trees, they eat sucrose (Sugarcube corner), there are rabbits, eagles, and many other facets that are similar to our world, saying "Nope, all those features have a different gene system and just look and work like they're the same" seems like asking for too much suspension of disbelief. I would rather handle those similarities in a different way.
Or, since I haven't explicitly stated that there was a genetic match in any of the tests, you could make the argument that Christina's reaction simply was due to the similarities of the phenotypes.
547296 Keyword, similar. Natural selection tends to veer towards positive traits and given a similar environment to evolve in, similar traits rather than completely alien ones are somewhat to be expected (i.e. A species that photosynthesis would tend to evolve towards maximizing surface area unless other factors prohibits them from doing so [The cold, dry weather favoring needle like leaves in coniferous tress]).
Also, I would gladly put the tag of "starfish aliens" on many of the creatures on the show (Such as creatures with the apparent head of a bird; body of a reptile with bat like wings [cockatrice], or a giant 4 headed dinosaur like creature [hydra], maybe even flying; fire breathing reptiles that only grow their wings in their adolescence [dragon]. Maybe you could even give an explanation to Dash's world's similarity to greek mythology though suggestion of an equestrian visit some two thousand years ago.
As the show loves to stylize their animals, it could also be argued that the difference in proportions in the animals can make them look alien to a human observer.
Not to mention, a difference in structure and nucleobase has already been observed in nature, mainly the difference between DNA (double helix; AGCT[T= thymine]; tertiary structure [B-DNA; Z-DNA]; some extremophiles substituting phosphorus with arsenic in arsenic rich environments.) and RNA ([mostly] single helix; AGCU[U= Uracil]). A carbon based organism with a different set of nucleobase could hypothetically react similarly (Compared to our not so alien domestic organisms.) to most organic compounds, of course some of them nutrients won't work on said organism (Mainly the proteins and amino acids found naturally on earth.) and said organism would likely be reliably immune to viruses and most bacteria despite a lack of an immune system against those single celled buggers (Which is a good thing considering the... um... relatively short lifespan of an animal without a working immune system.).
Alternatively, you could always add a little "alternate universe" tag to your story and turn Dash's world into one that's truly alien to the reader (In a way, "alternate universe" may be accurate in more ways than one.).
I would like to apologize in advance if my short rant reads like its imposing on your creativity, I just want to see a rather rare, potentially very hard sci-fi fic (One containing ludicrous amounts of legit science.) scratch metaphorical diamonds.
547577
Not at all, I appreciate the feedback and discussion, especially with someone who appears to know his science. For the record, the story is already tagged alternate universe, and I think you're already reading quite a bit into the future of my story ;)
I would love to do what you've suggested, but the thing is, I'm not a biochemist by profession, I'm a physics student, and if I were to "invent" an alternate genetic system for the ponies that isn't DNA, I would have to go into specifics on a molecular level which I'm not sure I'm equipped to handle.
I could use the other systems found on earth. However, considering the many mammalian traits the magical ponies exhibit, then classifying them with the genetic system of viruses or extremophiles seems even less likely than DNA.
The existence of what you classify as "Starfish aliens" I would explain with the fact that some creatures would take advantage of magic while evolving, and so you get unicorns, firebreathing dragons, regenerating hydras and phoenixes, et cetera.
I won't comment too much on your "earlier visit from equestria" part, but I'll leave you with something to think about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHEe00mBXkc
547673 I'm not a biochemist either (I'm an IT student yay!), so I can't help you "invent" alien genetic systems without getting my "invention" shot right through Tartarus by any half-serious peer review. You could always collaborate with someone more qualified though, I'm fairly confident an actual biochemist can at least forge a plausible unconventional genetic model. Failing that, just hinting that Dash's genetic structure, chemistry, bla bla bla is unconventional/unique from our tree of life without going into detail might work too (Some sci-fi writers like to do this.), and although this does tend to decrease the level of sci-fi hardness dramatically if it is presented wrongly (a.k.a.The ignorance about the subject becomes so blatantly obvious it burns.), it beats just flipping the magic card.
Playing with the concept of alternate and parallel universes could also provide the audience with a fictitious explanation to the seemingly magical biological compatibility between life from Dash's world and ours... I assume, but I guess I might be basing this on shaky ground due to a lack of data to work with (Having Dash not react violently to Lorazepam and big red juicy apples is just not enough to form any conclusive statements either than perhaps "Those two things didn't cause her to die a horrible, instant death." The fact that the blanket{?} covering her smelled bad and burns her skin may be the result of her second degree burns, or that not all chemicals that work on a human is compatible with her, perhaps the non-newtonian gas still surrounding her, or maybe I'm reading too much into this and the burning is just the result of an ethanol sterilized blanket over said burns. ). Where was I... Oh, I could already imagine a world in which its inhabitants has evolved almost parallel to our world but not quite.
On to magic! Isn't magic just insufficiently understood science? And if the magic in Dash's world is consistent and repeatable, wouldn't that make it the physics of her world? To quote the webcomic Girl Genius "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!"
On a less related note, I love how you placed a language barrier between the humans and Dash, not many writers and tv shows do that (Take english speaking; life sucking aliens from another galaxy in Stargate: Atlantis for example.).
After watching the video... huh, french haute couture, the last visit was much more recent than I thought.
548376
If I was writing a standalone science fiction book, I would love to collaborate with a biochemist (And a linguist and an engineer, for that matter), and scratch metaphorical diamonds, as it were. As it stands, it's "just" a fanfiction of copyrighted work, and I'll have to devise a different explanation. I do have a little something in mind, though, and it's not just yelping "Magic!" - It'll be based on postulates that you'd have to be working at CERN to refute (And indeed will be established there in my story), so hopefully I won't be breaking anyone's immersion with it.
As to the video: I was more thinking of the fact that the Orion constellation is visible both from Equestria and Earth. The "French" part I assume just refers to place where people speak in Fancy! After all, I'm not letting the pony language be English.
As to the magic/science: I agree completely. Some facets of magic will be explained later on via scientific inquiry.
As to the antibiotic blanket: I don't know if you've ever had antibiotics be poured on a burn wound to sterilize it, but it smells awful and feels even worse, so you can't really read anything out from it other than the fact that Rainbow can feel pain, so she has a nervous system.
As to the language compliment: Thanks! Since the story is set on contemporary Earth, I can't play with the Universal Communicator from Star Trek or similar things, and if I hadn't placed a language barrier there, even I wouldn't have been able to take it seriously.
Edit: And the Lorazepam was never administered to Rainbow Dash, there wasn't enough time.
548555 Orion constellation, how could I have missed that. It could mean Dash's world (Equestria is a country on a planet, not the whole planet [The planet's name was never reveled].) and earth is pretty close astronomical wise though. It would have been fun (but [reasonably] cruel) to have Dash react negatively, maybe even violently to the Lorazepam (Sort of like an allergic reaction.), It'll create some drama for the doctors at the hospital and makes them more cautious around prescribing drugs to a currently unknown physiology, six-limb, non-newtonian gas emitting alien.
Edit: Never mind about Equestria and Earth being very close astronomical wise, I'm betting their in the same spot, just in different realities.
Different languages? Different languages! ALL THE INTERNET TO YOU!
Yay, another story in which the pony language is not English! Makes things more interesting.
Also, Flora is in charge of fauna. Seems legit.
850957 dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Lyra.png
Flora and Fauna, ah just got it. This is an amazing story so far. I love how you actually go into the science!
Now if we can get Commander Shepard through there, this will be awesome.
885945
Hah! I didn't even catch that until I read your comment about it.
Flora hmmm wonder if she's like fluttershy but human