WWHHHAAATTTTTT?????

Awesome possum

I like the mission patch.  Reminds me of my own pony space story

>>14295491429549

Shameless advertisment for your own story? ;)

Anyway, Will be exating to see Twilights reports

ALL THE SQUEE!!

Also hmm... Doesn't this sound unfamiliar.

As if one side of the adventure wasn't enough!

Though I'd like to note that, according to canon, they also use base ten. Of course that's for simplicity, and you're taking this the scientific and logical approach. It's really crazy how you do it.

I can't wait to see this continue.

By the way...

Diary Entry:

August 8th, 2257

Dear diary,

You forgot to capitalize "diary" on that entry, like you did with the others.

YES.

Hey, I got a question about the image.  How come Edwards is the only one without his cutie mark on the mission patch?

FAVED WITH THE POWER OF A MILLION SUNS!!!!!!

Interesting concept, will track this.

x1000

I've been waiting for this since you first teased us.

Just one minor thing: We use the Gregorian Calendar, not the Julian.

Great Story! It's great to finally see the other side of the story!  One thing though, I am confused as to why Twilight would use the Julian calendar and not the Gregorian calendar.  Is there something that I missed?   (I know I am reading too much into it, it just kinda seemed odd to me.)   Look forward to reading the rest of the story!

I look forward to seeing how you deal with Twilight trying to teach them english... that sounds tricky

The one complaint I have is, monkeys would probably be a better reference than minotaurs.

I've been waiting for this

Awesome! So much win here I don't even... YES!!!

Seriously, ATC, you're giving us the full behind-the-scenes Director's Cut of this story, and I'm having so much fun reliving these parts of the story from the ponies' perspectives.

In other news, I detected one typo in this chapter:

The single line’s a subtraction sign, and the double lines mean EQUIVILENT!

Should be "EQUIVALENT", but I could understand Twilight misspelling a word out of sheer excitement overload. I know I would.

Anyway, carry on!

I keep throwing money at the screen but nothing's happening!

. . .

. . .

. . .

OH HELL YES!!!!!

And the Feature Box shall tremble.

Fuck yes.

The other side story of Arrow 18 Mission Logs Lone Ranger? Awesome concept! WIl read later.

Heed these words with great care citizen.  For we are much quicker to anger than our sister, and our wrath towards thee wouldst be legendary.  

Holding your power above the heads of your citizens. Spoken like a true monarch

But it would be a strange machine indeed, as it appears to be extremely large.

How does Twilight know how big the machine is? Unless Celestia sent her some notes, or she took sightings to determine how far away it is, then applied some math... But she would need a very good optical telescope, with very fine control of the focus...

VERY YES

But I hope this means you'll slack off more on the other side of the plot MY BOI

But the joints on its body are amazingly symmetrical and evenly spaced in such a manner that it almost seems like it could potentially make use of any part of its body and move in any position.

...What the hell kind of freaky biology does Equestria have if they aren't accustomed to bilateral symmetry?

More! more! more! moar!! moar!! moar!! MOAR!!!

>>14298221429822

Deformed cartoon proportions.

I've wanted something like this since you started writing the fic, it's absolutely awesome

The Twilight reports! I like it.

Yikes...yes your highness! I swear to be nice!

*Squee*

Image: http://scranton.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw7938-tumblr_ma4533UXV01rcjmu8o1_400.gif

Yay! Twilight's thoughts of the visitor! Can't wait for more, but Liking it very soon!

Saw this in the Featured box.

*Insta-fave*

Great getting to see the other point of view!

"Correspondence between Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle

August 25th, 2257"

Is this supposed to be August 5th?

Your comparison of humans to minotaurs was insightful and completely went against the mold. Everyone usually states monkeys, so take a mustache.  

>>14298271429827

Cartoon proportions still display bilateral symmetry, though. At least, most of the time, when Pinkie isn't involved.

Unless you're referring to things like Barbie doll waists and equilateral triangle torsos?

Best HiE fic so far.

A great start to what promises to be a great story.  It's always great to get multiple perspectives on a topic, difficult as it is to "dip into the same inkwell twice."  The only other successful and compelling parallel story series I've read so far would have to be Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow.  While this and it's companion story are not nearly as extensive as those two book series, your chronicles Human-Equestrian first contact have been (and continue to be) most entertaining and enjoyable.  They are well-thought and well-constructed.  They respect the source material, yet build upon it.  Keep up the good work!

One thing I must say, however: Don't fall into the Season 3 Trap.  By that, I mean don't let the new developments in Season 3 stymy or skew your story if they conflict with what you've already written.  This is fan-fiction after all, so you are entitled to some liberties.  Stick to your original vision.

I just finished reading Arrow 18 last night... and this shows up in the alert box first thing this morning.

So very pleased. =D

I can't believe word of this didn't reach me sooner, given how intensely I've been following this story's parallel. I didn't even have to read it to know it would be an insta-fave. Having actually read it, all I have to say is my suspicions were correct.

"Something about it suggests something far more dangerous"

Who needs ambush when you can kill something from an extremely long distance?

Also, SQUEE! I can't wait for the actual story, or the Sparkle's Notes to update!

Words cannot express the awesome.

20% cooler to the 20'th  power.

"Base ten?  Wow, compared to equestrian two-hoof and four-hoof math, that’s a lot of symbols to memorize."

You, sir, deserve another medal detailing your greatness for this line alone.

With minor changes this was the warning that preceded Equestrian video rentals.

Oh god yes.

Twilight getting excited about Math! is so wonderful.

My only response, good sir:

/)^ 3 ^(\

the object in question can be found in the constellation Lauralfost almost directly overhead

the constellation Lauralfost

Lauralfost

I see what you did there. Clever!

Oh wow, it escaped the blogs. Remember you can PM me anything you have trouble Lunafying.

>>14301091430109

ROFL

Its here!

YES!

YESSSSS!!!!!!!

yessssssssssssssss

Twilight if you fuck up your suffering will be legendary

See this? This whole 'here's an alien we have to figure out' bit?

This is part of what inspired me to write my story. Thumbs up for that alone.

"We have to use...MATH!"

Nice.

I'm enjoying how this side story feels like an episode of the series compared to the interesting but human perspective of Randy. I about daww'd myself to death at the slumber party planning, it was so full of adorable

The worst thing about this story is that there's not more of it.

So darn fascinating, so freakin' neat. MOAR.

You have only confirmed my vision of an orange vest/suit wearing Slenderman watching Ponyville from a nearby hill.

>>14298151429815

Look at It's About Time again. Surely one of those telescopes is like that, and they couldn't just materialize out of nowhere... also, fuck Twilight being alicorn-level in magic, I doubt she would be able to use conjuration for all of them and have them work that well in her state of mind.

Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Twilight_crazy.png

: MONITOR. EVERYTHING!

*reads first couple paragraphs*

omg i'm getting goosebumps already...!

*finishes reading*

my money

take it

take all of it

i... it...

all of it

just...

MOAR please for the love of Celestia!

This is just too awesome!!!!!!!!

Something about it suggests something far more dangerous.

Apparently persistence hunting is more dangerous than ambush hunting...?

I'm pretty sure that's not what you meant, but that's still what my mind came up with.

For once, Celestia is worried.

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a tiara."

************

I suspect there's some magic in Twilight's telescopes.

Magically adaptive optics? Light amplification? Stabilization and tracking? Zoom?

***********

It will be years until the Poni have a Blockbusters.

They'll skip tape and DVDs and use enchanted crystals as if they were SD cards.

"Don't eat that! It's a rental!"

It's interesting to see the Arrow 18 mission from Twilights perspective.

Yes, I want moar!

What a difference a different perspective makes.

Take note, aspiring writers.

Hmmm. YOU MUST CONTINUE! I DEMAND IT!

Seriously though, good story, keep it up!

The other side of the coin. Excellent. I eagerly await the next installment for either fic.

Holy hell, this is absolutely brilliant!!

Fav'd before I looked at a single page. I love "Arrow 18," so it makes sense I mark this as a favorite as well.

I also love the last line of that description. Randy and Twilight as one of the best science bros. (Dr. Banter and Dr. Stark from The Avengers are also on this list.)

>>14300761430076

Reading that I wonder if Celestia intuited that humans are cursorial predators?  The idea of something running you into the ground would scare the crap out of a herd based alien.

And astral curvature mathematics, I presume are when Randy went to Calculus?

Now this is proving interesting. I think I'll keep an eye on it.

Oh, and a piece of advice: DO NOT try to modify your story to take into account new canon introduced after it was started. Attempting to do so will only cause your story to suffer. Pick a hard limit on a point in canon after which you will no longer acknowledge retcons.

>>14298271429827 this makes me happy

Hasn't anybody pointed out about that OBVIOUS 'Big bang theory' reference? I AM surprised.

Was it too obvious for mentioning?

Needed some time for it to occur to me though.

PS. Registered here and insta faved both of this. Keep up the good work!

...After reading this, I half expected a footnote from Princess Celestia, something along the lines of, "In other words, my little ponies, DO NOT PLAGARIZE MY STUDENT'S WORK. Or else Luna will send you to the moon.". Or a translation on the following page.

Just to clarify, it's basically the standard disclaimer, correct? Or is this one of those "By reading this classified document, you are agreeing to the following:"  government-y disclaimers?

More. There needs to be way more of this. You can put the main part of Arrow 18 on hold if you keep doing these. Mooooooore.

Yes! Yes! Yes!...Loving this story. I shall track it, and fave, just like I said. Take all the time you need, and thank you for such a nice writing style!

*Manly scream*

I have no thoughts to add at this time.

I cannot put my excitement to words. I shall watch with great anticipation.

all my YEEEEEEESSSSSS

>>14303351430335>>14305271430527

Humans aren't curosrial hunters.  We are persistence hunters, following our chosen prey for hours or days.  Don't even need a knife, just keep following it until it dies of exhaustion.

Sure, the ponies could sprint faster than a human, but they don't have the endurance to keep running for hours on end.  Remember, humans are excellent trackers and hunt in packs

I mean, if it’s BRIGHT ORANGE like Applejack said, how exactly could it sneak around?

Maybe he was taught by a ninja.  

>>14308361430836

Cursorial hunting, also called endurance hunting, is a hunting strategy practiced by animals that are much slower over short distances than their quarry but have superior endurance over long distances.

The hunters will pursue at a relatively measured pace a targeted quarry which in response will make short but high energy sprints to escape. Eventually the relentless pursuit will exhaust the quarry allowing it to be brought down by its pursuers.

Wolves, African wild dogs, hyenas, lungless spiders and humans are all animals that are well adapted to using this hunting strategy.

- Wikipedia

Read: Synonym

And I even wrote "persistence hunting" in my comment.

Why was your comment directed at us?

Awesome

Loving this view/side!

Oh hell YES. This is AWESOME.

Seeing Twilight freak out about math and everything it implies is really well done (I was freaking here too).  

Image: http://i3.kym-cdn.com/profiles/icons/tiny/000/061/135/130821196638.png

Also, it impresses me how the writing is different from the other half of the story : on one side we have logs and "official" reports to hierarchy, and on the other side we have letters, almost informal, between two closely related ponies. It's really really really well done.

Will this story go on and catch up to the other story, and then both will progress at the same time ? Or will both story be updated independantly ?

>>14308731430873

Because it's late, and I've been working with a critter design system that distinguishes between several different hunting styles.  

Correspondence between Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle

August 25th, 2257

Considering the context, I think you meant this to be August 5th.

This is an acceptable substitute for A18: A Lone Ranger updates.

(I like it.)

Didn't even read.

Favorited and liked.

Dis gun' be gud.

"By the tides"

I'm using that now. There's nothing you can do about it.

This is amazing, please continue good sir

Starswurl the Bearded's cutie mark was a galaxy. (Probably. Swirled Stars = spiral galaxy?)

Twilight should know what that is.

StB invented calculus? He was the Poni Newton?

>>14298071429807

Sensitive documents on a previously unknown alien race probably would be something to keep a tight leash on...

Long live the king Princess.

Let them eat cake alfalfa.

Carry On

HOLY FLYING HELL

I FUCKING LOVE THIS

This... deserves watching! I'll be keeping an eye on it! Personally I like the use of letters and Twilight's diary. A nice touch.

My mind was blown so much that i almost forgot to fave and like it...

Very happy to see first contact from the other side!

New AdmiralTigerclaw omfg A18ML from Twilight's perspective I think I'm going to have a heart attack.

SALUTE MEN, YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF A RANKING OFFICER

But I do not believe this was ever an ambush predator.  Something about it suggests something far more dangerous.

Hehehe.

You sneak up on the animal. Before it can react, you lob your spear at it, wounding it! The animal flees. It's faster than you, but it can't keep it up very long, especially with its injury, and you're built for endurance running...

*Que Chorus of Angels.*