First Contact: From the Mouths of the Ponies
By Zinitrad
Edited by theBSDude
Part 1: Equestria
The air is thin and cold. It is quiet, the soft purr of the atmosphere generators and occasional warp of an arriving cargo ship the only sounds that pervade this place. It is discomforting, for back home, a harbor like this would be filled with hundreds of thousands of people, all rushing from one place to another, searching for transport or unloading ships.
I am standing on the Equestrian skyharbor, titled "Celestial". It is relatively new, minimal operating construction having been completed years ago. Equestria is still not a well- known or well traveled world, making a large skyharbor unnecessary. Looking through the catwalk beneath my feet, I find an unfamiliar green and bumpy landscape, marked unevenly by small numbers of lights. It is very different from the ocean blue sky of my home, or the unending gray and white city scape of Earth. It is very obvious that this world is new to the galaxy, and by extension modern industry.
Equestria is the first member of the H.G.A. to join after the great war. This means they are in a unique position, and can recount their history of contact without it having been blurred or damaged by Hergzine aggression. This is why I have came here, to learn and report, so that the everyday citizens of Sol can learn of the intricacies and aftermaths of a successful first contact.
For those who do not know, Equestria is one of the newest members of our grand and powerful civilization, the H.G.A. They were discovered 54 years ago, and were official members 10 years later. It is a magical world, rich in resources and extremely varied in life. It's dominant species are a race of small, diversely pigmented Equinoids, although they share their world with dozens of other forms of sapient native life.
The system is still largely undeveloped, devoid of sprawling cities, low population, and still being introduced to the uses of modern technology. It is also out of the way and isolated. In order to get here, I had to board a transport from Sol to Lumine, and once there, I had to try 8 times before I found a transport service that had heard of the small world, and was willing to travel the remaining 3800 light years. In total, I am 30000 light years from my home city of Lear, the farthest I have traveled in my 37 years of life.
My journey is not over, however, as I still need to arrange a transport to planetside. While significantly lower than most skyharbors, Celestial is still positioned 12 miles over the planets surface, which is a dizzying height nonetheless. My first step in getting to the planet's surface is exchanging my credits for bits. The Equestrians have not finished restructuring, and so the natives still use their own form of currency: A small gold, silver, or copper coin, called the "bit" featuring the head of Celestia on the gold, the head of Luna on the silver, and the head of the equestrian prime minister on the copper. All copper bits feature the head of the prime minister at the time of minting, so all newly minted copper coins feature the face of Prime Minister Fluttershy Posey.
Looking around the docks, I soon spot an exchange building. It is small and low to the ground, the booths built with the native's size in mind. It was not a very affective height for me however, as my groin was level to the bottom of the window. The clerk was a pony, specifically of the "Earth" variety. She wore a simple blue uniform, with a name tag written in her native language. She had a muddy green coat, a reddish-brown mane, and turquoise eyes.
I placed my money on the table, and requested service.
"Je voudrais à 6000 H.A.G. échange crédits pour les bits Equestres, s'il vous plaît."
She gave me a confused stare, making a noise that sounded like she was nickering.
"Quoi?" I asked.
She looked at me, her confused face being replaced with an awkward stare, and she made noises that sounded like a strange combination of nickers, snorts and whinnies.
It took me about 15 seconds to realize what she was trying to tell me. My translator wasn't working, and not only could I not understand a thing she was saying, but everything I had said had been in my native French, a language she likely had no knowledge of. Excusing myself, I went off to figure out what the problem was.
While they are by no means an exotic piece of magitek, a magical translator is a device that relatively few individuals need to use, and by extension, relatively few know how to use. To work, one must be tuned to the magical signature of the portion of the galaxy you were in. I did not know this, and since the one I had purchased on Lumine was tuned to Lumine, I had believed it was working. I most likely spent hours standing out there, fiddling with the thing before I finally got it to work. Returning to the booth, I tried again.
"Fixed that there thing yet?" For some strange reason, the translator had approximated her for a more "rural" accent. Oh well.
"I would like to exchange 6000 H.G.A. credits for Equestrian bits, please."
"Ooh, gonna' be staying for a while now, are ya'? Let me just ring that up... and... there we go! 7469 bits! I'd imagine yer gonna want ta' make a temporary account planetside so ya' don't have ta' carry it with ya', huh?"
"Yes, I would very much like that." Inside, I sighed, as I knew that with the amount of time wasted on the translator, it would be night before I made it to planetside, and this was only making it worse.
"Well then, just step on up here n' sign these documents and you'll be set!"
Said "documents" resembled a Terran-sized phone book.
"Merde."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finished with the documentation, and satisfied with the knowledge that I would be able to retrieve my money from any major participating bank, I proceeded to have my passport verified by the Equestrian Government.
"Name?" A large white stallion, dressed in a golden armor, was verifying what my ID code would say about me.
"Ian B. Miligaux. Spelled "g-a-u-x", not "g-o-h""
"Alright. System, planet, and city of origin?"
"Sol, Uranian orbit, Lear."
"Reason for traveling?"
"Research."
"Okay, just give us the code and we are good to go." I was surprised at the few number of questions there were. At Lumine I had to verify 3 times as many things.
"Everything checks out, you're ready for transport." He points to a door on the right of the room I am in. "Go through that door and head to teleport chamber C. The operator will arrange for you to be sent to your destination."
Proceeding down the hall, I entered the room. Inside was a tube with a door, a control panel, and behind it, another mare in the blue uniform, this one also an Earth Pony, with an orange coat, yellow mane, and green eyes.
"Hello there! My name is Oxheart Carrot! I will be operating this skyharbor-surface teleporter today! What is your destination?!"
She wore immense grin as she happily shouted her spiel at me from across the room. I thought of the first name on my interview list, and remembered the town in which she resided.
"What station is closest to Ponyville?"
"Ponyville!?" She tapped her chin, apparently deep in thought. "Uummm... Let's see,... Ponyville, that's near Canterlot... I know! The Canterlot Station! That is where you'll want to go! Okay, directions...directions...Ah! You'll want to head to the Canterlot gate, and then you should be able to see Ponyville down in the valley below! You'll probably need to get a taxi or something! Are you ready to go?!"
Still a bit rattled by the shouting, I answered feebly. "Ummm... Yeah, I guess."
"Great, just step into the tube and we will be ready to go!"
I stepped in, and the doors shut. The floor and the ceiling began to glow, and started humming. Eventually the hum grew unbearably loud. I had been on a teleporter before; in fact, I used at least one every time I visited my great-grandmother on Iapetus. However, those teleporters were quality, these were obviously installed for their cheap price. I decided that the mare, Oxheart, must have hearing damage if she operates this without earplugs. It would explain her shouting. Suddenly, there was a flash of light and I was planetside.
Inside the building I had lost track of time, and while it was late, I had no idea just how late it was. Stepping out of the station, I saw that it was nighttime, the skies a dark purple.
From what I had learned, the purple night skies were caused by proximity to the bright galactic core. Similar to, but not as drastic as, Lumine (Often referred to as the system in which it is never night), the relatively short distance from the core causes partial illumination, even after the sun had set. This keeps the planet from ever being truly dark; as what they consider dark, we consider to be just below twilight.
Canterlot is a moderately sized city, at least for one on a planet of this development. If I had to guess, I would say she had a population of 800,000. I noted that the streets were mostly empty. Deciding that it was indeed too late, and that I would need to be up fairly early to make it to Ponyville and meet with my first interview, I decided to search for a place to stay. Coming across a cheap inn, I entered. Though my appearance drew stares from the patrons, I was still offered a place to stay, for what I hoped was a reasonable price.
Entering my room, I settled in, reviewed my notes on their society, and got ready to go to sleep.
Reaching the end of my notes, I found my interview list, and read the first name.
"Dinky Doo, 16 Brightstar Lane, Ponyville."
__________________________________________________________________________________________
AUTHOR'S CORNER
Hello there! My name is Zinitrad, and this is my first real attempt at writing a legitimate fanfic. If you find anything to be confusing about the setting, just ask, or better yet, check out my blog, where I will regularly post background information about the setting that will not often be mentioned in the story.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
If you disliked this story, please tell me why in the comments. I would appreciate constructive criticism.
This story will not be very action filled. The majority of chapters will be written as interviews between Ian and whichever pony/person/sapient organism is the focus of the interview. There will be a semi-dark subplot, and I will update the tags as it occurs. However, for the most part, this is about Ian learning about Equestria's First Contact, (namedrop) from the mouths of the ponies who were there.
If anyone has anything I could use for story art, feel free to present it to me, for I have none. What would be really kick ass is if I could get someone to make a drawing of Ian. If you want to do either, comment me the cover art or PM me for an in depth description of Ian.
xoxoxo - Zinitrad.
Okay, if anyone here knows French, and would like to help, you can help me by telling me if the parts where Ian speaks French are accurate, and if not, what I should replace it with.
What he should say If translated from French to English:
(At the booth)
"I would like to exchange 6000 H.G.A. (Human Galactic Alliance) credits for Equestrian bits."
(In response to the nicker)
"What?"
(In reaction to the paper work)
"Damnit"
I translated this on Google Translate, so I know it is likely not accurate.
Also, to those who care, Dinky's interview should be arriving by 6 AM on the 26th, at the latest. (that's site time, I live about 6 hours behind it, so that would be midnight on Saturday for me.)
Also, you guys better see what I did there with the name Oxheart Carrot.
Eh, need more to see where going... pretty good start though
GL.
Instead if "Fichu" you should use "Merde", more people say it in french...
This could be very interesting. It's pretty clear that some citizens of the HGA thinks that Equestria needs to 'adjust' to their more technological way of life. It might be possible that the Equestrians think that the HGA is the one that needs to adjust. It should be very intersting to see what the natives of Ponyville have to say on the matter. I would also like to see how M. Miligeux adjusts to Equestria's food and general social pace.
The glitch with the universal translator was funny. I always wished that they would have used that plot device more often in Star Trek as it would be hilarious to have everyone in the scene talking different languages and suddenly realise that they have to switch to Standard.
FLUTTERSHY IS THE PRIME-MINISTER?!? Wow! Talk about "beware of the quiet ones"!
I am a little sad that most likely the Mane 6 is dead or really old by the time this story takes place. I'd rather have the story interacting with them in the present, instead of getting it through a recount. While it would be intresting to learn the "history" through others eyes, we wouldn't be able to tell exactly what each individual character was thinking at the time of the event. But it is an intresting setting none the less.
1141483
While a large portion of the group is dead (from old age), at least 2 of them are going to be interviewed in person by Ian.
I raised my eyebrow at the description. You have my attention.
1141452
I'm glad you picked up on the adjustment thing!
While the H.G.A. means well, and wouldn't do anything to purposefully harm the Equestrian's, they do kind of have a tendency to view cultures that are less technologically advanced as inferior. Perhaps a better term for the way they see them would be as "incomplete". But I am glad someone noticed that!
Additionally, he won't have a problem with the food (he's just not eating hay). However, while he will remain professional during interviews, he is very uncomfortable with the perceived emptiness of the world around him. Even the city of Manehattan is considered extremely small by Galactic standards. Basically, you won't see it in the interviews, but he is going to be really upset with his surroundings whenever there are bonus chapters.
This seems interesting, I'll be tracking.
Interesting. I'll be tracking.
Good start to an interesting premise.
Aussi, j'ai besoin d'un francophone.
1141986
Bro, I don't speak French, the character does.
I have no idea what you just said.
1142358
basically, "Also, I have need of a French speaking person"
1142405
Oh. Okay.
1142410
Read a lot of sci-fi by chance?
1142989
Not really, surprisingly, considering this is a sci-fi story.
bonus information related to story
http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/59873
I have no problems with the story. Well, I am distinctly annoyed that equestria's prime minister is an introverted, shy, submissive former veterinarian! She has no skills in leadership what so ever, worse, she is a pleaser and enabler. The only way she knows how to be agressive is with the stare (mindrape) and something tells me other civilizations might not take kindly to their dignitaries being brainwashed anytime Equestria's PM has a breakdown. I know with the princesses she probably doesn't do much but meet with minor officials and things too trivial for the princess, especially cause most of the laws are likely made in each individual town. I would say Twilight Sparkle would make the better PM, but she is likely doing important work at a magical school somewhere, where her knowledge of magic and skill at organization would do more good.
Overall I think even an OC would've done the part of the PM and no one would notice. There is no need to stick a reference of the mane six in any and every important position. (and yes I hate fluttershy. why? cause of the stare and her personality.)
1149433
I will admit that looking back, it was a silly decision on my apart.
However, I will defend it by saying this: Its been 65 years since the show began, and 8 since she was elected to that position. People (and ponies) change over time. While she still does not very much enjoy the concept of meeting new individuals, she has lost most of her submissive streak over time.
Basically, I am saying you are correct, but since I have already mentioned it in the story, am planning one of the interviews to be with her, and actually have reasons beyond "herp-derp insert Fluttershy" (reasons that will be mentioned later), her position stays.
Thanks for the feedback though, and I am glad you are enjoying the rest of the story.
1149675 if the char has the same name but a different, albeit slightly similar traits, it is a reference to be used in passing. Im trying to say dont be afraid to use OCs of your own design. <-celestia, cause I love that smile.