Nick hopped out of the hoverjet and onto the hard floor of the Atropos docking sector.
Mark shortly followed and gave Nick a light punch on the shoulder before saying, “Yeah, we all thought that you were dead. Promise me that you won’t ever do that again… Oh ya, by the way, when the captain learned that you weren’t dead he wanted to see you as soon as you reboarded the ship. That is as long as you weren’t in critical condition or anything, which you’re not, so I suppose that you go see him as soon as possible.”
“Ok,” replied Nick giving Mark a nod, “I’ll do that. See you around.”
The two cronies parted as Nick made his way to the bridge to report to the captain. Within about ten minutes Nick was at the entrance to the bridge. Taking a deep breath he marched inside. Nick knew that the captain most likely sent for him because he wanted an explanation of what had happened on the planet, and Nick knew that the captain would never believe him when he told him the truth. With that in mind Nick marched up to the captain’s chair and saluted.
“Nick reporting as requested sir!” said Nick confidently as he stood at attention.
The captain turned to face Nick; a smile soon spread across his face, “Ah Nick, good to see that no harm came to you. Please, follow me. We can talk as we walk.”
Nick followed the captain off of the bridge and down a hallway.
“So, Nick, I would like you to give me a very detailed description of what types of life forms you encountered while you were stranded on that planet,” asked the captain coolly as they continued down the hall.
“About that…” answered Nick laughing nervously, “The life forms, they were kinda… well, um… most of them anyway…”
“Spit it out already,” said the captain as they stepped onto an elevator.
“They were ponies…” replied Nick feeling like an idiot.
The captain raised an eyebrow, “Ponies?”
“Well, there was one dragon…” Nick quickly shut his mouth after realizing what he had said; now he wanted to disappear.
“Dragon?” asked the captain looking more interested now as the elevator doors opened and they continued down another hall.
“Well, it was a baby dragon,” replied Nick not really caring anymore. He knew that it probably couldn’t get any more worse than it already was anyway.
“I see,” said the captain smirking a little.
The captain finally stopped in front of a white door and opened it gesturing Nick to enter.
“Did per chance the inhabitants of the planet look a little something like this?” inquired the captain coolly.
Nick’s eyes widened as he peered down through the wall of fiberglass.
“Y-you wouldn’t! This can’t be… are you…” stuttered Nick in surprise.
“Yes,” replied the captain walking up beside Nick and peering down into the room below as well, “This is a life form that we have brought up from the planet for testing. Tomorrow it will be dissected for study.”
“Dissect him! What? You can’t! Have you sent men down to the planet!?” blurted Nick turning to face the captain, “Are you the strange creatures!?”
“Strange creatures?” asked the captain looking at Nick in a funny way, “Nick you’re not making much sence. Are you feeling ok? Did something happen to you down on that planet?”
Before Nick could reply a crewman suddenly burst through the door.
“Sir, we have finally established what the strange energy readings are!” reported the crewman.
“Well, what is it?” inquired the captain intently.
“It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before sir, it can manipulate matter and bend the laws of physics as we know them. We gave the strange energy the nickname magic…”
“Magic?” interrupted Nick suddenly, “So they were right! Twilight wasn’t kidding.”
The captain and the crewman both turned to face Nick giving him an odd look.
“Anyway,” continued the captain turning to face the crewman again, “Is it dangerous? And did you find the source?”
“To the best of our knowledge it is not dangerous, and yes, many sources have been found.”
“How many?”
“Thousands sir…”
“Thousands!?”
“Yes, the energy seems to be emanating from the horns of the horned horses.”
“Interesting,” replied the captain thoughtfully.
“What!?” exclaimed Nick suddenly, “There is no way the Atropos could have gotten a reading that exact. For something that precise you would have had to be down on the planet with a scanner. Tell me captain, did our men over take an alien city down there!?”
“Is that all?” inquired the captain ignoring Nick.
“Yes sir.”
“Then you are dismissed,” said the captain to the crewman as he turned to face Nick once more.
“Sir we need to talk,” said Nick trying to keep his voice under control, “What happened while I was gone? I have some very important information concerning this planet but I need you to tell me what happened while I was gone first.”
The captain stared at Nick sternly for awhile before replying, “Follow me to my quarters, we can talk there.”
Nick followed the captain to the living section of the Atropos and then into his living quarters. The captain then pulled up a chair and insisted that Nick sit down. Nick took a seat and so did the captain.
“Care for a drink?” asked the captain.
Before Nick could answer he had already pulled out two small glasses and filled each about half full with what seemed to be some sort of whiskey.
“Now,” said the captain taking a sip, “I will tell you what happened while you were gone, but then you must tell me about this important information.”
“Yes sir,” replied Nick as he stared into the captain’s cold maroon colored eyes.
“Well let me see,” said the captain as he gathered his thoughts, “This is what happened while you were gone…”
“…It all started when your patrol returned without you. Of course we sent out a search party but you were nowhere to be found. After that we all assumed that you were dead. Your patrol reported that there was no humanoid life on the planet and that it was mostly just horse-like creatures. They did, however, find many cities and towns. This puzzled me a lot because the only planets that humans have ever discovered with life forms intelligent enough to build cities and machines were ones with humanoids on them. After long consideration I supposed that there used to be a past civilization of human type life on this planet but for some reason the alien race became extinct leaving nothing but its cities. To investigate I sent down five armored hoverjets with scientists and a few troops, just in case protection was needed, to one of the cities. They all, of course, wore protective suits to protect themselves from the strange energy that we now call magic. Because at the time we still didn’t know if it was harmful or not…”
“That city must be Las Pegasus,” thought Nick as the captain continued.
“…upon entering the city the investigators were attacked by an unknown force. Fighting for their lives they fought back. They soon realized that the attackers were the horse like creatures that inhabited most of the planet. Because they were attacked first and because the attackers were an inferior life form the party that I had sent down fought back and over took the city. The battle was close at first but my group called in for reinforcements, which I provided, and soon it was all over. Immediately after over taking the city we put it under quarantine and began three major projects: One, study the horse-like inhabitants of the planet and find out as much about them as possible; two, try to find out what happened to the past humanoid civilization; and three, find out what the strange energy was. As you can see we have already accomplished number three. We have found no information or past documents regarding number two, and number one is pretty much successful so far. We have learned that the horses…”
“Ponies!” interrupted Nick suddenly.
“Ahem, ponies,” corrected the captain.
“…have higher intelligence than what we had first expected. They are able to speak and are smart enough to be able to build and invent. This led us to the conclusion that there may not have been an ancient civilization of humanoids after all. Of course, we humans are far more intelligent and civilized than those animals down there. Their technological state seems to be mixed with the 14th century and the early 20th. Not to mention that they are also savage, and will attack any other type of life. Thus, if this planet does end up having sufficient recourses on it we would be able to just push these ponies aside and take whatever we wanted without breaking any intergalactic laws.”
“That’s where you’re wrong sir! I was down on that planet and those ponies are not savage like you say they are! And yes, although their technological state may be far behind ours they still have feelings and there is no reason why they shouldn’t be treated like us!” spat Nick as he raised his voice uncontrollably.
“Like us? Feelings? Don’t make me laugh!” laughed the captain coldly, “They are nothing more that smart animals. Think about it Nick, an ape is smart, but is that enough to make it be treated as an equal? No!”
“But this is different…” countered Nick.
“Enough!” ordered the captain slamming his glass onto the table, “I’ll do what I wish! You’re not even an officer, why should I listen to you? Now tell me this important information before I lose my temper.”
Nick bowed his head in defeat, “It was pertaining to the intelligence of the ponies’ sir, which you seem to not care about.”
“Right you are Nick,” replied the captain taking one final swig and emptying his glass.
Suddenly a crewman burst into the captain’s quarters breathing heavily, “Sir, you really need to come take a look at this! It’s about the magic!”
Both the captain and Nick got up out of their seats and followed the crewman to the bridge were he finally stopped. The crewman then backed away as one of the many scientists aboard the ship stepped forwards to meet the captain; she was holding a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other.
“Sir, we’ve found something incredible,” she said smiling, “As our current scientists down there were exploring a library they came across a book about these things called the “Elements of Harmony”. Apparently they are legend, among the horse folk, to contain very strong and powerful magic.”
“And what makes them so important?” asked the captain.
“Well, after a complete examination of the planet, we found that there was a massive energy reading coming from here,” the scientist pointed to a dot on a map which was on the bridge’s main screen.
“That’s Canterlot! The capital of Equestria,” thought Nick, “I remember Spike showing it to me on a map back at Twilight’s house.”
“How big is massive?” inquired that captain sounding a little interested.
“Well, the book said that there were six elements; so by dividing the energy reading by six each element would have enough energy to power this starship for about three years!” replied the scientist.
The captain’s eyes lit up as he began to grin, “Do you know what this could mean for mankind?”
“Wait there’s more,” interrupted the scientist, “The reading keeps slowing growing bigger, which means that the elements charge energy when they’re not being used.”
The captain actually seemed to be happy for once.
He turned to face the first officer, who was on the bridge, and shouted, “I want you to go down to that planet with as many troops as you need and bring me back those elements no matter the cost!”
“Yes sir!” responded the first officer with a salute.
“Oh no!” thought Nick anxiously, “I’ve got to somehow get off of this ship and warn everybody before it’s too late!”