//------------------------------// // 1 - Lily // Story: Stasys // by RowanSkie //------------------------------// June 04, 2142. New Exodus Division Base 33-01, Somewhere hidden in California. “Intruder Alert,” the intercom blared as screams rang through the halls. Jonathan Xavia blinked, looking down from his seat toward a monitor. As soon as he found out who the intruders were, he gulped. He had known this would come soon. He’d tried to warn his co-workers about the incoming storm, but they never believed him. Fearing for his life and his daughter’s, he quickly ran toward the main control panel and activated the launch protocol. However, as he was about to head toward the console chambers, which were the only safe place, he discovered the intruders were killing all the NED members on the base, one by one, destroying every room as they moved. It was a slaughter. He then realized something else deeper much to his horror. Other than the people in the stasis chambers, he was the only New Exodus Division member left alive at this location. He ran. It would only be a few minutes before they destroyed everything. They were probably going to shoot down and destroy everything the NED had. He noticed they hadn’t cut the power. His mouth widened into a grin. He set about ordering a lockdown to the stasis room, and through this he safely got into the main stasis lobby, which was still free of the intruders. “Jonathan? Jonathan! Buy yourself some time! Hurry! I’m sending the stasis room into space! Get into a pod, now! Hurry–” A scream immediately replaced by static followed after hearing the voice of another seemingly-alive employee in the building. He figured somebody had gotten to the console first and redirected him towards the stasis room. He began to wonder who it was. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts before continuing to run until he felt searing pain from his leg. Glancing to find a bullet wound, he pulled out an adrenaline shot from his uniform and stabbed himself. Limping to the doors, he saw the stasis room’s emergency doors closing. “Oh, crap.” He saw a handgun lying on the floor beside a bloodied security guard and took it. Afterward, he looked back and randomly shot at one of the intruders, who reacted with a yelp as the round narrowly missed its neck. His vision blurring, he scuttled over to the doors before they had closed shut. He knew there wasn’t enough time for him to get himself into a stasis pod and felt horrible about what would happen to his little girl. Sighing in defeat, he went to lay his back on one of the pods as the adrenaline washed away and the handgun on his hand felt light, very light, as it seemed. Suddenly, he realized it was a wand, his wand from his days as a sorcerer, with the ability to conduct a powerful séance. He chuckled, remembering how those were the best days he’d had since his time as a young boy. Feeling the coldness, he broke the wand and began to speak. Once he had finished, he threw the wand towards his young girl’s pod which had reassembled on itself, and, before long, he breathed his last. … A young girl in a blue jumpsuit woke up. Her first reaction was to push away the pod covering to stretch herself and immediately call out to her father. Nobody came. She tried to call her father again, but, to her continued dismay, the silence continued until she spotted an 11-inch stick of silver on the stasis bed where she had woken up. Picking it up, she felt like her father was behind her, and, on one sudden turn, like a ballerina, she saw a kitten that playfully meowed back. Lily, having a fascination with kittens, picked the tomcat up, and snuggled him until she spotted her father’s necklace. “Oh. Heheh…” Lily didn’t recognize the necklace and decided to carry it to her open pod and let her legs rest as she sat on the edge of it. “Cute kitty. I think I’ll call you… um… Jj!” Jj meowed in approval as Jonathan, who was now the kitten, couldn’t help but feel happier for his daughter. Lily felt like hugging the kitten until she heard her stomach grumble. She giggled, figuring she must’ve slept too long and was hungry. Jj also agreed and hopped out and began to sniff out some food. Lily jumped to her feet and followed the kitten until they found themselves in one corner of the room, where a girl and two boys were eating a can of sardines. Lily recognized them as her friends. “Hey, it’s you!” Lily called. The girl, whose hair was black as the night like her headband, which gave her cat ears, waved back. “Hi, Lily! You’re awake! Yay!” “Yay!” Lily went to hug the girl before her stomach grumbled again, making her awkwardly back off. “That’s alright,” one of the boys, a blonde, assured her. “Blake, mind getting us another can of meat? And… apples! Yeah, fruits.” “Then what?” Blake, the girl, placed her hands at her sides. “Why don’t you get your own apples, John?” The second boy, who looked like a young Nicholas Cage, frowned. “You know what? I’ll get it myself.” He stood up and walked off away from them. “Thanks, Carl!” both John and Blake called before locking their eyes. “You’re so lazy!” they shouted at each other. “Hey, I’m a girl!” Blake explained. Lily sighed in relief. At least she wasn’t alone and wouldn’t be hungry. After they had eaten, John had the window open, and everybody looked at the little girl with interest. The air was flowing somewhere, and Lily had decided to investigate. Her brown hair rested gently on her shoulders as she leaned toward the window. “Ponies!” Lily squealed in delight as she looked out the window. “They’re so cute! Eeeeeee!” “They don’t look like regular horses,” John commented, taking a look and immediately backing off, “and I don’t want to look again.” “What? Too girly?” Blake teased. Carl looked over at his friend whose face had turned red like the skin of a ripe, red, American apple and chuckled. “I want to touch the purple one!” Lily wailed. The kitten suddenly screeched, which activated a small panel, closing the window, leaving them in the dark, the only source of light being a few ever-working LEDs. It made Lily feel a little sad, but she was immediately cheered up when she began to walk around. For a daughter of a sorcerer who wasn't aware of the fact, it seemed like walking is a good replacement. ‘Maybe that’s why dad always takes me for a walk: it makes me feel happy,’ she idly thought as she found herself walking towards the stick. ‘What is this thing anyway?’ She took the stick and immediately returned to the others, who had the window opened again and were watching the outsiders firmly. Lily blinked as she heard something from the other side. Walking closer, she began to listen to what were unmistakably English words. “...I understand. Where are your parents?” the voice asked. ‘Parents?’ Lily thought. “Guys, what’s going in?” “On,” John corrected. “It looks like the tall unicorn pegasus with a… vest knows English, so we went to talk with her.” “Unicorn?” Lily asked. “What are those?” Blake looked at her with a stink eye. “You don’t know unicorns?” Lily shook her head. “How about pegasus, you know what that is?” “Pegasuses are those horses with wings,” Lily stated. “I like them.” “Huh, doesn’t know unicorns but knows pegasi,” Blake mumbled. “Cool. I like unicorns more. And it’s also called pegasi, not pegasuses.” “Hey, pegasi are cool…” John whispered. Blake and Carl looked to each then screamed back at John, saying, “They are not!” It had taken a few moments before they all descended into generous laughter as the other side of the window wondered what had just happened and why they were laughing. Princess Celestia quickly assured the other ponies who were listening in that humans laugh because she knew what laughter could do to humans, and it caused her to hide a soft snicker. The window was beside the main door, and something was leaking in. “When are we gonna go out? I wanna meet the ponies…” Lily whispered as they prepared themselves for the night. John, who had been a scout, had set up four tents after pushing aside dozens of surprisingly light stasis pods. Carl helped by tying them to the ground within the uneven flooring and Blake helped by ripping off blankets from the pods. Lily, being the youngest, tried to help by placing the sheets within the tents. She also helped when she spotted their items in a medium box beside the eating corner and distributed what was theirs, making John blush when Lily pulled out a ribbon since it was his, and making Blake laugh when Lily pulled out a small orb plushie. Once they were ready, Lily decided to sing a little before they drifted off to sleep. A Few Hours Ago “What the?” a rainbow-maned cyan pegasus mumbled as she inspected the shooting star that had crashed right on the backyard of her princess friend’s castle. It was the most peculiar thing she had ever seen. “What the hay is this?” Said princess pony friend was thinking the same thing, although she seemed more curious than ludicrous. “It’s made of metal and heat insulation materials,” she noticed. “It’s not made by a pony, pretty obvious, but it doesn’t look like it was made by anyone on the planet! It’s amazing! It’s fascinating, considering that it’s not made by a natural formation…” “Pfft,” Rainbow snorted. “Only you would look at a weird mess of rocks and call it impressive.” “Rainbow, it’s not a weird mess of rocks. It’s something too artificial to be a weird mess of rocks,” Twilight explained. “And, besides, my scanning spells don’t work on it. Weird. Unless it’s enchanted, but then it would take a long time to find a hole in this enchantment, and it looks like this is built to last for years, generations, maybe.” “How long, exactly?” Rainbow wondered. “All I understood is that this weird mess of rocks is made by something with a spell that makes it stay good for… years?” “Probably even two-thousand, according to how old it is,” Twilight replied. “It’s… awesome!” “Only you, Twi.” Rainbow let out a sigh which sounded like she was more amused than before. “Oh, hey, Spike. How’s the egghead’s letter about this mess?” “All done and sent Rainbow Dash!” Spike reported. “And I also took the liberty of asking Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts about ‘large iron rocks falling out the sky’ and what to do when somepony reports about it.” “That’s an excellent idea, Spike. I was about to send one myself about these rocks,” Rainbow praised the baby dragon, assistant of the lavender alicorn pony. “So… what now, Twi? We wait for Princess Celestia?” “If we need to, since she’s actually right behind you, RD,” Twilight pointed out. “Pfft, hahahah!” Celestia laughed as she watched Rainbow Dash sputter and nearly hyperventilate after the pegasus turned around. “Good one, Twilight. I suppose some ponies never change.” “So… I guess you can explain why you have to call me from a jungle exploration with my sister towards this…” Celestia gaped at the sight of the object in front of them. “Sweet stars, even after they killed themselves, they still give me surprises. Twilight, when did you say that this crashed here?” “Uh, six hours ago. Why?” Twilight was amazed she had never seen Princess Celestia being informal, currently wearing an explorer vest, jungle cap, and boots. Princess Celestia frowned. “Six hours ago? Why didn’t you tell me then? With this state, you would’ve missed what it contains!” she explained. “Wait, it’s a container?” Rainbow Dash guessed. “Does it have aliens?” “Aliens? There’s no such thing as aliens!” Twilight opposed Rainbow’s guess. “Probably some intelligent apes, but aliens?” Before they could descend into a fight and before Princess Celestia could correct them, there were sounds of air escaping the craft as a window opened. They could hear something from the other side, and Princess Celestia leaned in to listen to the sounds, sounds she could understand due to her… first contact with them. The first thing they heard was something squeeing. “Oh. Sensitives.” Celestia looked at Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. “I suggest you return to your business. This is going to be a long talk. Don’t tell anypony.”