The Conquest of Space

by Marcus Centurian

First Contact

The Conquest of Space: The Saga of Dawn Sparkle

Chapter 3: First Contact

“Captain.”

“Just five more minutes, Mom.”

“Captain Sparkle, your presence is requested on the bridge.”

I groaned, sleepily opened my eyes and unleashed a yawn that could terrify a manticore.

“Alright, Joe. I’ll be right up.”

The intercom clicked off and I let loose another yawn and rolled out of bed with a lack of grace resulting in a tangled mess of sheets and me on the floor of my room. I groaned again and mumbled under my breath as I released myself from the grip of my sheets. Grabbing a manebrush, I styled my mane and got myself presentable; I’m not a vain pony, but I do understand that appearances matter. My vermillion mane seemed to resist taming today as though its defiance would allow me to go back to bed but it was gravely mistaken.

Having gotten ready, I swung by the mess hall. Immediately upon entering the cafeteria, the loud din of the room quieted to hushed whispers. It would seem that the shaming of Royally Bucked yesterday had left a bad impression. The quiet made me uncomfortable, but it wasn’t like I could ask the ponies to start gossiping, tell jokes or carry on. I cantered up to the chef and got a couple of chocolate glazed donuts, my favorite, and ate them greedily. With breakfast settled, I left the hall and, as I expected, the talking resumed to its prior levels, but there is no time to worry about crew morale now; there are more pressing matters on the bridge.

I entered the bridge and surveyed those present. Stardust was happily at work on her console, Valkyrie was engrossed in some readout at hers, Joe stood at the ready and Royal gave me a snappy salute. I was a little put off my Royal’s salute due to my instance on equality on my ship and I knew that he did it purposefully to put me off. I willed myself not to be affected by it and proceeded to ask the nature of the situation.

Joe responded, “We have arrived at the nebula.”

“Please put it on screen.”

The large viewing screen in front of us lit up and the gorgeous nebula graced our vision. I’d read about nebulas in textbooks, but I never saw a picture of one and most certainly not the real thing. I stood there transfixed, as did my crew.

Stardust was the first to speak, “Well…um…captain, we should begin our mission.”

In not one of my more composed moments I responded, “Um…right….mission….um…oh, right. The mission. Yeah. Alright. We are here to analyze and investigate the nebula. We need data on how they are formed, why is it here, why does it glow and we need some samples too. Stardust, form a team and get on it. Talk to Royal and see what you can do about getting some probes into the cloud and maybe retrofit one to collect some samples. Can you do that?”

Royal spoke up, “We should be able to do that, ma’am.”

Stardust was not so stiff in her response, “It’d be my pleasure. This is so exciting!”

“Everypony else not in Stardust’s team,” I added, “Go on and take the rest of the morning off. I’ll page you over the intercom if anything comes up.”

Most of the orderlies and other ponies on the bridge filed out, a few expressing thanks. Joe refused to move, so I walked over to him to see what was up. The poor pony had absolutely bloodshot eyes and his mane and coat were disheveled. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’d pulled an all-nighter.

“What’s going on, Joe? You look awful.”

“I’m just doing my job, Dawn.”

“Well, you look like you haven’t slept a wink.”

“I haven’t. But I’ve got coffee on board and I feel great.”

“You don’t look or sound all that great. Why don’t you rest for a bit. A spot of sleep ought to help you out.”

“I’m good. I need to be here in case something happens.”

“We are on a scouting mission at a harmless natural phenomenon.”

“Well, we were supposed to be here yesterday but we got a major chaotic hiccup.”

“Yes… but you are not at your best. Please, I need my officers functioning fully.”

“I’m at full *yawn* functioning capacity.”

“Sure as Tartarus you are. Go on, grab a nap. I’ve got the bridge.”

“If you *yawn* insist.”

Joe then sleepily walked toward the door of the bridge, nearly tripping over a spot of bare floor. Poor guy. As long as I’ve known Joe wasn’t the sort to be an excessive worry wart. If anything, I was the one to panic and worry, not him. (I learned how to have a debilitating anxiety attack from the best worrywart around: Mom!) It would seem like I need to talk to Joe and Royal sometime later.
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A few hours later, Stardust sat at her station with giant stacks of paper and readouts, going over it all with the glee of a filly who discovered her cutie mark and most everypony else was relaxing or bored. Joe had returned to the bridge with an added spring in his step, a more wakeful alertness and he smelled of sweet citrus. Either he just ate some oranges or he put on cologne. I’d never known him to wear it, but I guess you can always try new things. Hmm. I wonder why he put it on…

A crewman working communications that I never learned the name of pulled my attention away from my thoughts,

“Captain, we may have a situation.”

“What kind of situation?”

“I’m not sure yet, but it sounds important.”

I said, slightly annoyed, “Would you stop playing guessing games and tell me what’s going on?”

The pony was slightly taken aback before answering, “We are receiving a hailing frequency. Should we answer it?”

I grimaced. Parts of Discord’s poem ran through my mind as I thought of the potential danger. It implicated an alien threat and here one might be. I decided that not answering it may very well cause the prophesy to come true so I decided on a cautious answer.

“Royal?”

“Yes ma’am?”

“Prepare the EMP torpedoes for launch.”

“Of course, but why, may I ask?”

“Just in case things turn sour. On my signal, I want you to fire them, even in the middle of conversation. If you see my indication to you to fire, even without explicitly asking you, do it.”

“OK. I understand and will carry out those orders, ma’am.”

Royal was still pushing protocol to the letter. I really need to have a talk when this was all said and done. I pointed to the pony at communications,

“Go ahead and answer the call and put it on the main screen.”

“Aye-aye”

The main screen hummed to life as the previous view of the nebula was replaced by dark screen.

“Is the screen on?”

A female voice from the screen answered, “The comlink is established. It is our custom to greet new races without them seeing our faces and form.”

I responded inquisitively, “Really? That seems a bit strange to me.”

“You are not of our culture, so of course it doesn’t make sense to you. Tell me, are you like mutant ponies or something?”

“I am not a mutant. This is the form of our race.”

“So I see. You seem friendly enough. Fleet of Foot, turn on the lights.”

The lights were turned on and I beheld the aliens for the first time. They seemed birdlike with a set of wings and two sets of claws. Based on their anatomy I could only assume they are bipedal and they relied heavily on their claws to manipulate things, as their beaks would be ill suited. All of the bird creatures before me were predatory and the raven-like bird who sat on a raised dais I could only assume to be their leader. My inferences were confirmed when she spoke,

“I am Swift of Thought, captain of the Avian ship, the Saber.”

“I am Dawn Sparkle, captain of the Equestrian ship, the Magic.”

“I have a few questions, Equestrian.”

“Fire away.”

At that moment I realized I’d picked the absolute wrong choice of words. Quick as thought, Royal pushed on his console and I knew that two torpedoes were inbound.

“Brace yourselves, Avians! Incoming!”

“Wait….What?”

The screen became all static-y and fizzled out.

“Somepony put their ship on screen!”

The alien ship swiftly appeared on the screen. The ship seemed to be drifting, recoiling from twin torpedo strikes with sparks of electricity randomly discharging along the hull.

“Bed-o-win! Bring us as close as you can to that ship.”

“Yes ma’am. Sorry ma’am”

“Stardust!”

“Yes?”

“Can you get a power coupling between us and that ship? I want it back online as soon as possible.”

“Of course, but may I ask why?”

“Showing a little kindness might help salvage this situation and getting their ship working will help to that end, don’t you agree?”

“Yes. That sounds logical. Valkyrie,” She looks up at the pegasus, “Come with me. I need your help.”

At that the two fliers galloped out of the bridge and down the hall.

“If it’s any consolation, ma’am, it was unintentional,” Royal offered.

“Royal,” I said as calmly as I could, “You followed orders to the letter and I commend you. I will take the blame for this for you acted on my directions.”

At this Royal’s worried face slightly abated, but he and all members present on the bridge looked at me with varying degrees of stress. I was having trouble controlling my own.

At that moment the view screen came to life as the alien captain came into view.

“…You cited four hours just a minute ago, how are the systems coming back online?” Swift of Thought interrogated.

“I don’t know ma’am,” the Avian eagle next to her said.

“You know what, it’s not important. Just get me in contact with that ship and find out what happened and what that weapon was.”

“It would appear the commlink has already been established and….oh.”

“Dawn Sparkle of the Magic. What happened?” she said with a great deal of anger she had trouble hiding.

“I accidentally ordered an electromagnetic pulse to be fired on your vessel.”

“I fail to understand why. We did not provoke you.”

“No, you did not provoke us. This is all a misunderstanding.”

“I’ve been around sentient creatures enough to know that there was a more subtle reason. Weapons do not get accidentally fired.”

“We have had a prophesy that…”

She cut me off, “Wait! You had a prophesy. A prophesy told you to do this?”

“Not directly, but from what I can tell from it…”

She interrupted again, this time with mirth in her voice, “So, you creatures still believe in prophesies and gods and religion after all this time? That is hilarious!”

The entire crew of the alien ship started laughing in various degrees of strength with only a stoic Avian owl in the background not sharing in their mirth. I was very put off by their disregard of our inherent magic that made goddesses and gods a living, tangible thing. You try telling one of the princesses that she doesn’t exist. You’ll earn yourself a one way ticket to the moon.

I forced myself to use restraint, but some of my crew members were not so kind.

“How dare you talk about my mother that way!” Royally Bucked blurted out, “She is the goddess of Love and I am living tangible proof that she exists!”

Another pony piped up, “Celestia and Luna are our immortal, divine leaders. They are tangible, living goddesess who rule with a fair and even hoof!”

At these outbursts the entire Avian crew rolled over with laughter. As much as I wanted to scream the praises of the goddesses of Equestria, I knew that such things would only fuel their mirth and I just needed to be patient and wait for them to finish.

After a few minutes the Avians recovered and captain Swift-of-thought spoke, “So then, Captain Dawn Sparkle, what of this…hehe…prophesy? What does it predict?”

“It claims that a group of aliens will attack our homeworld and leave death and destruction in its wake.”

“Sounds like a pretty standard apocalypse. I hear it all the time, but it doesn’t come to pass.”

“I have my doubts about it as well due to its somewhat….unreliable source.”

“Hmm, there may be hope for you yet. You are not completely sold on the idea of religion then.”

“Who said anything about religion? We do have divines on Equestria that we can talk and touch and everything. They raise the sun and moon and handle affairs of love among other things.”

“If you gods are so ‘real’ (she accented with air quotes) then where are they?”

“Back home in Equestria. Space travel is difficult for them.”

“And you know that….how?”

“Because Celestia herself told me as such.”

“That is ridiculous! Your entire race must be drug addicts or something. How do you justify their divinity?”

“Magic.”

“Magic! Magic!” She laughed some more, but only for a few seconds, “Seriously you cannot come up with a better explanation than magic?”

“That is how they work. All ponies have inherent magic. How it manifests itself depends on the tribe of pony.”

“So then, Dawn Sparkle, show me some of this ‘magic’ since you must be imbued with it too since ‘all ponies’ have it, yourself included.”

I sighed. “Alright. But I hope you have shuttlecraft as this will be pretty draining on my arcana.”

“We do. Show me your…hehe…magic.”

My horn began to glow with a light orange glow and I willed myself to teleport to the alien vessel’s bridge. I began to float in the air as I continued to concentrate on the spell at hoof. White light enveloped the room as I teleported and dematerialized in a flash from the bridge of the Magic.

Seconds or hours past. I could not tell you which since time loses all meaning during a teleport. Suddenly things came into focus as the light abated. I came to my hooves and looked around, a little disoriented. Strange panels and noises told me I must be on the Avian ship, but a look up at the shocked face of captain Swift-of-Thought spoke volumes and confirmed my location. I grinned and said somewhat groggily,

“That’s how you do a teleport.”

Swift of Thought continued to stare at me then responded, “So I see. I…” She paused for a minute while she gathered her thoughts and I took the time to gather my strength and my thoughts.

Swift of Thought continued, “I’m sorry for lambasting your magic. I didn’t believe it, but now that I see it, the evidence is refutable. With magic like this, your rulers either are divine or nearly so which means… gods exist…. At least on Equestria. Wow.”

“I’m guessing by your verbal attack on magic and goddesses, you must not have them on your world.”

“Only in stories from our past. Everybird now is a firm believer in science and technology.”

“Fascinating. I’d love to hear more about your thoughts on….ooh. Ouch!” At that moment an arcana headache decided to hit. Unicorns get them when they overexert their arcana reserves. They hurt like Tartarus and there doesn’t seem to be a painkiller strong enough to handle it. This was one of the times that I thanked Celestia and any other divine in range for being the daughter of Twilight Sparkle. Due to my birthright, I have a larger than average arcana pool meaning that I can recover in a few hours as opposed to a few days that a teleport like the sort I just pulled would impose on a normal unicorn.

I collapsed and grit my teeth so I wouldn’t scream. The migraine got worse and worse until, finally, I blacked out. Anyway I looked at this situation, the only conclusion I could draw was that this was going to be a rough night.

Comments

[terrycloth]

Fire away!

Ayup.

...

At least this is a comedy. And they were apparently using non-lethal weapons.

[Marcus Centurian]

2035451
I figured letal weapons didn't jive with Equestrian ideals but as for other alien races.....

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Seriously Cadance, naming your kid that. And Royal, flirting your cousin is a no no.