//------------------------------// // A broken seal // Story: My Little Engineer // by Soren Mercer //------------------------------// “I… am at a loss for words.” Celestia announced with a breath as she, her sister and ex-students all touched down with heavy guard at their sides. Even when they were following the massive vessel it was big, but seeing it up close gave the princesses and student the humbling experience of there being something extremely bigger and significantly more advanced beyond the darkness of their limited space. “No kidding! Do you think whatever’s on there is friendly?” Sunset remarked as she gawked at the massive craft. Twilight and Luna were both already circling the craft, curiously looking at everything it could. The most interesting things were the large boxes with cylinders and angled boxed with holes in them that were all over the ship. “I certainly hope so… I really would not want to have a hostile alien creature in league with the planet’s instability trying to kill us.” Celestia admitted with a sigh and sat back on her haunches, her mind already trying to formulate some kind of first contact scenario. “Princess!” Twilight called from the front of the thing, looking at a large angular dome of reflective glass. Both she and Luna were hovering in front of the thing, pressing their muzzles up against the glass to try and pierce through whatever reflective coating was on it preventing them from doing so clearly. “I don’t think there’s anything in there!” “You mean to tell me that there’s nothing piloting the craft?” Celestia raised an eyebrow having been brought out of her mental dealings with herself. Taking wing, both Sunset, in her glow, and Celestia rose to the window to join the other pair. Below, where Celestia and Sunset had been, an outfit of guard were already in the process of either keeping guard or setting up tents to shelter the royalty from the elements. “It would appear that way, sister! We see no living entity in the craft in what looks to be the control center.” Luna reported as Celestia took a turn to peer into the vehicle. “It may be possible that whatever built this vessel may have some way to make it fly itself to a destination!” “You know what this could mean?” Twilight announced with a grin, her mind already in the process of figuring out what it would take to tear the thing down and replicate it. “We could get off the planet before it destroys itself!” “Uhm, Princesses…” Sunset’s voice came from above and drew the attentions of the leadership of Equestria upwards towards the mare. Sunset was hovering above the craft, much higher than necessary to view the thing or even what was on top and was staring off away from the vehicle. “It looks like something was ejected from the craft.” “Really?” Luna ascended to join the orange mare before peering off into the treeline. “Where?” “Over there, Princess.” Sunset reported, pointing a glowing hoof off into the trees. “I saw a reflection from the treeline.” “Take me to it.” Luna requested and took off in the motioned direction with the mare. “I think it would be best to leave the craft alone for the time being. We can’t discern whether it’s not actually piloted yet. Never mind that it may be containing new lethal viruses we have no immunity against.” Celestia announced, drawing gasps from Twilight as she began to frantically clean her face off with every possible option magically available to her. “Regardless, we should rest for whatever remains of the night and return when there’s daylight.” “I understand, Princess.” Twilight conceded reluctantly as her eyes roamed over a hole in the side that could lead the princess of friendship into a treasure trove of new knowledge. Both Celestia and Twilight returned to the ground, some couple hundred meters away from the crashed ship and took up residence in a quad of tents set up for their use. Both Luna and Sunset appeared a few minutes later, carrying a strange case with frosted blue glass and glowing lights in their combined magics. “Sister! Look what we’ve found!” Luna announced triumphantly as the casket was set down nearby. “It was ejected from the craft! I think we should study it and find out what it does!” “Tomorrow, Lulu. We’re going to wait for sunup to continue our investigations and you and Sunset need to hurry to disinfect yourselves. There’s no telling what any of that thing is carrying in terms of diseases.” Celestia announced as she stepped through the flaps of her tent, addressing her sister and friend. “In regards to your find, we’ve decided to leave the vessel alone until we can be certain that it’s unpiloted.” “But, what if we just work on this thing? Maybe it can tell us something about what the pilot is and how to help it?” Luna requested, looking back over her shoulder at the casket. “If there’s nothing too it, then there’s no harm, right?” After a minute of consideration, “Fine, but we’ll have the science teams come set up here. Nothing leaves this forest.” Celestia announced, drawing cheers from not only Luna but also from Twilight who was listening in from her tent, as well as from Sunset nearby. “Tomorrow, remember?” “Of course, princess!” Sunset announced before bolting into her own tent to jump into bed and get a head start on that time skip attributed to sleep. Luna followed after her sister, both mares turning in for the night in their separate tents while the guards took up overwatch positions around the camp. ~~~ The morning came and so did the curious. From Ponyville and Las Pegasus both, given that both cities were the closest, hundreds began to flock towards the still smoking ruins in the forest. Extra guard had been called to set up anti-personnel magic barriers around the ship and scouts had been sent out into the forest to make sure nothing else had been ejected to be found by scavengers. A science team had been brought in from Canterlot initially with extra ponies coming in from every major city in Equestria and were due to arrive in the next couple hours. “So? Can I start?” Twilight demanded as the casket was brought into a much larger and sterile tent and, like Sunset, was outfitted in all kind of anti-disease wards and spells. Twilight would’ve been fine if an Ebola outbreak had occurred at her hooves, if the outbreak even managed to escape her clutches. The Casket rested face up on the ground with all manner of machines hooked up to it, ensuring that it was not likely to cause damage to anything biological. “Can’t you wait until the science team shows up?” Celestia grinned from behind a similar, larger scale anti-everything spell shield, watching as Luna got herself suited up similarly to Twilight and Sunset. Behind Twilight, Sunset was already experimentally prodding at the machine they’d found while all manner of hoof held machines floated within reach. “No! When they show up, they’ll just punt me out and completely take over!” Twilight stamped her hoof on the sterilized grass furiously. “I will not be left out of the single greatest scientific discovery for our planet!” “So then when they show up, why don’t we just establish your leadership in the project? They can’t possibly decline the order from three different Princesses.” Luna remarked as she crossed the magical barrier, the barrier activating all her wards and spells upon doing so. “Besides, I too wish to be involved in this.” “See? You have nothing to fear from waiting for waiting for the rest of the team.” Celestia remarked as Sunset’s hoof hit something sensitive and a surprising hiss of steam and air erupted from the broken seals of the casket. “Uhm, I think I opened it!” Sunset announced, drawing the slack jaws from Luna and Twilight while Celestia immediately began barking orders at the Guard to establish a well-armed perimeter. The older princess was the first to see inside the casket, with the other mares in the room soon identifying the object inside as definitively biological in nature. “There’s something in there!” Twilight squealed and began grabbing as many objects in her magic as possible to begin her poking and prodding before Luna halted all of Twilight’s motion with a protective sheath of blue and dragged both her and Sunset away from the thing. “But…” “It’s there’s something biological in there, then it’s most certainly intelligent if at least considering what it showed up in.” Luna remarked as she kept her eyes on the creature with the strange flat face. “What if it’s dead? You heard that hiss of air, there wasn’t any oxygen in there!” Twilight insisted before retrieving the leads to her personal Electrocardiogram and tried to begin sticking them on the creature’s body. “Let me try to connect with it’s mind first. If I can establish brain activity, then we’re done here. If not, then… you may begin your tests.” Luna remarked before letting her horn glow white. A small string of light floated from the tip of her horn and connected to the forehead of the creature, Luna closed her eyes to begin the connection. A minute that lasted way too long for Twilight’s liking soon ended and Luna opened her eyes once more, with them filled with concern. “It’s alive, but barely. There’s barely any trace of brain activity and I could just barely feel a heartbeat.” she reported loud enough for everyone around to hear, as well as for some of the newsponies outside to get the first positive information of live aliens on Equestria. “Maybe by opening it’s machine, we put it’s life at risk?” Sunset suggested through fearfully wide eyes. If it was alive and healthy up until she’d touched it, she’d may have just killed the first intelligent lifeform from space before it’d even gotten a chance to be met. “I think we should try and close it up again, see if it’ll help restore its chances at survival.” “I agree. If it does survive and wakes on its own, I think it shouldn’t be under the microscope and invasive prodding from Twilight.” Celestia announced. Sunset nodded and stepped up to the vessel to try and remember what button she’d pressed to open it. Examining the shell, she soon found it and gave it a firm click with her magic, hesitating to actually touch it any further. To her relief, the large curved glass tube face began to drop back down and covered the creature. With a hiss equalling when it was opened, the tank began to pressurize and everything went still. “Well, that’s that.” Celestia announced with the steady release of a breath. “We have established that there is intelligent life originating from the ship.” she announced to the amusement of the onlookers behind the barriers. “I wonder how it’s remaining active?” Twilight seemed to buzz with energy as she circled around the capsule with the words Sage Industries scrolled on the side. She couldn’t read it, it looked like a bunch of blocky scribbles to her but it interested her all the same. “Maybe there’s some kind of power storage inside it? What about oxygen? How does it breath shut in like that?” “I am announcing that all scientific endeavors on the ship as well as on that pod will cease immediately!” Celestia announced with a softer version of her own Royal Voice to address everypony nearby. “It will be returned to it’s ship and we will wait to see what happens!” “What?” Twilight screeched, enraged. “I am not letting go of this thing! Who knows what we can learn from it!” “We also don’t know what will happen if it wakes up, Twilight! What if it’s hostile!” Sunset remarked, placing a hoof on the back of her friend and mentor. “It’s not like us! It’s probably not all about friendship and getting along! What if those box things on the ship are weapons?” “I…” Twilight began, pausing to consider the idea. “I hadn’t thought of that… Maybe some kind of… magical projectile weapon? Oh, idea!” “No!” Luna shouted, startling everypony around her. “If there is one thing we will not be learning from it, it’s how to make weapons!” “I agree, which is why we are returning it to it’s ship!” Celestia nodded before enveloping the capsule in her magic. With Luna’s assistance, both Alicorns pushed the machine from the tent to the flashes of camera bulbs and shouted questions. Setting the capsule down on the ground near to the ship, both alicorns returned to the basecamp and stepped next to Twilight and Sunset, both of which were going through the details of what had just happened. “As of this moment, it will be punishable by life imprisonment to be found with any unknown technology!” Luna announce firmly and without her Royal Voice. “If you find any such technology, you must notify the Guard immediately to have it collected and returned to the crash site!” “Princess, are you worried that the creature that arrived in that vessel may be hostile? Is there any threat to the safety of the ponies around it?” a reporter pony demanded with a notebook in wing and a pencil behind her ear. “There is certainly a very real threat that the creature in that pod is hostile. We are also certain that there may be more of the creature’s race hidden away in that crashed vessel. Our preliminary findings suggested that there were more of those pods inside.” Celestia remarked as the sound of hissing, for the third time in an hour, alerted to goings on behind the Princesses. Something that looked like a door appeared to open in the blackened skin of the craft before a large mechanical arm unfolded and retrieved the pod, pulling it back into the craft through the large sparking hole in the side. Celestia briefly wondered if the craft itself was sentient, but pushed that thought out of her mind with a smile. Intelligent machines, what kind of idiot race would ever think of that?