//------------------------------// // The Stone // Story: My Little Voyager // by pabrony //------------------------------// It was a beautiful day in Ponyville as all the residents were out and about. Some were working, others were out enjoying the sunshine with their friends or pets. The Ponyville weather team was on hand to scatter any errant clouds that would pop up from time to time. Shortly after lunchtime the peaceful atmosphere was interrupted by the sound of an explosion from the air. Moments later an oddly shaped, light gray object about 15 meters long that glowed blue and red on the sides soared over the small village. Six of the resident ponies and a baby dragon who were enjoying a picnic together decided to go investigate after hearing the boulder crash near The Castle Of The Two Sisters. "What do you think that thing is?" the dragon asked as the seven of them entered the Everfree Forest. "I don't know, Spike," answered the purple alicorn, Twilight Sparkle. "I hope it isn't some scary monster that's come to eat us," the shy yellow pegasus, Fluttershy, said barely above a whisper. "Well what ever it is, I'm sure we'll have no trouble getting rid of it," Rainbow Dash, the brash cyan pegasus, boasted confidentally. About a half hour later they emerged on the far side of the forest. The dust from the crash had settled, however there was still smoke rising from the left side of the object. The group slowly appoached it with caution, hoping it wouldn't stand up and turn on them. "Hey there's writin' on the side of this here thing," shouted the tangerine colored earth pony, Applejack. "Oooh, lemme see," shouted the curly maned pink earth pony, Pinkie Pie. They all gathered around the right side where Applejack found the writing. Twilight Sparkle lifted her right hoof to her chin trying to decipher the writing on the object. "What's it say, darling?" asked Rarity, the ivory unicorn. "I'm not sure. It's in some foreign language that I've never seen before," Twilight Sparkle replied. "The only thing I recognize is the numbers on here. 74656. It doesn't make any sense." "Hey there's something inside there!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she hovered above the object. "Say what?" Applejack responded. "I can't make out what it is but there's windows on the top and I can see something in there," Rainbow Dash reiterated. Fluttershy laid down as flat as she could get to the ground and covered her head with her hoves as she let out a small whimper. Meanwhile, the others circled the object to see if they could find a way in. "Hey, I found something!" Spike hollered. Everypony except Fluttershy, who was still shaking in fear, went around to the rear of the mysterious object. Spike, who was small enough to fit between the object's curved underside and the ground, was pointing to a black panel with small orange and white lights on it. "What do y'all think it's fer?" Applejack asked as she and the others stared at it. "Are they buttons, Spikey?" Pinkie Pie asked. Spike took a closer look at it before responding. "I don't know. It's hard to tell. One of the lights is blinking though. You want me to push it, Twilight?" "I don't know if that would be a good idea," Twilight said. "We don't even know what in Celestia's name this thing is." "What if this is the way in, darling?" Rarity asked her friend. "Please don't push it," they heard Fluttershy say from a distance. "What if there's something that feasts on ponies and poor woodland creatures inside?" "Push it, Spike!" Rainbow Dash urged. "If Fluttershy thinks it's a bad idea then it's gotta be worth doing." Before anypony could bring up any other objections, Spike raised his claw to touch the white blinking light. A loud hiss followed almost immediately afterward followed by part of the object lowering itself to the ground, making a ramp. The ramp made contact with the ground and began lifting the rear of the object off the ground as it continued to open. "Everypony wait here," Twilight Sparkle ordered as she cautiously walked up the ramp leading to the inside.. "I'll let you know if it's safe." Inside Twilight Sparkle found a bed that was twice the length of her own, a closet with wire doors containing odd white clothing, a desk, a small staircase and two benches about the same length of the bed. As she looked around the room, she noticed that there were black panels similar to the one on the outside all over the walls except these didn't have any lights glowing on them. Concluding that there wasn't any imminent danger, Twilight called to her friends to let them know the coast was clear. The group crowded in the 6 by 8 meter room to silently take in the strange sights before Rarity spoke up. "What kind of creatures would wear such hideous clothing?" she said she checked out the clothes hanging in the closet. "Maybe they're through this door," Rainbow Dash said from the top of the stairs. "Wait! Let me go first," Twilight requested. "Relax, Twilight. If there was something dangerous in here, it would have gotten us by now," Rainbow Dash retorted. Rainbow Dash tried to open the door but they seemed to be locked. A pink aura surrounded Twilight's horn as she attempted to force the door open without success. "Rarity, can you help me?" Twilight asked. "Sure dear," Rarity replied. "What do I need to do?" "Well it seems this door is a lot heavier than it looks," Twilight replied. "If you could grab it with your magic along with me, maybe we can open it far enough for Rainbow or Applejack to force it open the rest of the way." As the four ponies worked on forcing the door open, Spike took notice of something else. "Hey did anypony else notice this red glow that keeps blinking?" he asked nervously. Nopony answered the dragon at first as Pinkie Pie was bouncing on the bed and Fluttershy was hiding under it while the door was finally opened. "What red glow?" Twilight Sparkle finally replied, looking in Spike's direction. Pointing to one of the black panels he replied, "Right here along the bottom." "Y'all think it's a warnin'?" Applejack asked. "You mean like, go away?" Fluttershy asked from under the bed. "I don't think so," Twilight told everypony. "There's no writing to go along with it." "Hey guys there's some weird creatures in here," Rainbow Dash yelled from the other room. "It's true, darlings," confirmed Rarity. "I never seen anything like them before. And their clothing is just... deplorable. I swear it's a crime against fashion." The rest of the group made their way into the next room where three creatures without fur or tails and oddly shaped manes were either on the floor or slumped over the desk in front of them. Pinkie Pie crept up to the first creature that was laying on the ground to take a look at it. It had a light peach complexion, blond mane, some kind of objects on its face and left... what ever it was at the end of its foreleg and wearing a burgundy suit that was skin tight. Twilight examined the creature at the front. It had the same complexion as the first creature but it looked to be a different gender than the first. It had a light brown mane and wearing a black suit with red on its shoulders. Rainbow Dash stood on the desk in front of the third creature and looked at it. Unlike the other two creatures, this one had brown skin, black mane, pointed ears and wearing a black suit with yellow shoulders. "What in Celestia are these things?" Spike asked, wide eyed. "I have no clue," Twilight said. "I've studied every book on other cultures in the Canterlot Library and Golden Oaks Library but never seen anything like these in any of the books." "How tall do you think they are?" Fluttershy squeaked. "They look like they're about half a meter taller than us and we're roughly 1.3 meters tall, my guess is about 1.7 to 1.9 meters tall," Twilight replied. The seven friends quietly explored the rest of the 9 by 8 meter room, looking for clues as to what or where this object and its passengers came from. Pinkie Pie found a silver and black curved stick about 11 centimeters long next to the brown skinned creature. She begged Twilight to let her push one of the buttons but the alicorn levitated the odd stick over to her for safe keeping. Fluttershy slowly walked to the center of the room and set down a smooth, gray stone that she found in one of the corners on the floor. "What's that?" Applejack asked. "I don't know. I saw it in the corner and noticed this light blinking on it," she replied as Twilight levitated it closer to inspect it. I was triangular shaped, about 4 centimeters long and 3 centimeters wide and had green and silver section that covered approximately one third of one side of the stone. Suddenly a pink hoof shot up in front of Twilight's face and before Twilight could stop her, Pinkie had made contact with part of the silver and green section. It made a buzzing sound followed by the sudden appearance of a fourth creature. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency," it said.