//------------------------------// // 32 - We Come in Peace // Story: Fading Suns: A New World // by David Silver //------------------------------// Laud stood as tall and proud as his small fuzzy form allowed. "Your world is in contact with the one I have pledged to watch over." The repetition of his collar in English finally got on his nerves and he flopped to his haunches so he could hoof at the collar, inching it upwards. Starlight saw him working on it and quickly reached over, undoing its latch and plucking it free. "There you go." Laud nodded in thanks. "As I was saying. This world must be treated as if it were another orbiting the same sun." Twilight blinked softly. "That's a curious way to phrase it." She suddenly gasped. "Wait, are you a space traveler?" She was leaning forward, her eyes sparkling. Laud perked an ear at her. "That is precisely what I was, before my vessel crashed on her world." He pointed a hoof at Starlight. His hooves could not move to the left or right very far, forcing him to turn his entire body to accomplish the task. "I--" Applejack cut him off. "--Hold on a moment there. Are ya saying yer a bona fide alien?" Laud tossed his head towards Starlight. "And she is not?" Pinkie giggled airishly. "He has a point there. So, what sorta parties do they throw on your planet?" "That depends on the matter being celebrated, the class of those doing the celebrating, and the wealth of the host." He arched a brow at the pink one. "You clearly have similarities with your equine counterpart. Do you have the same sisters?" She bobbed her head quickly. "Oh for sure. Maud and Limesone and Marble. They're great!" He hadn't met the other two, but at least one... "Is Maud also a 'rocktologist' here?" Pinkie looked confused at that. "She's studying to be a geologist, if that's what you mean?" Sunset put a hand between Laud and Pinkie. "We're getting distracted. What's this about watching over? You're doing what with Equestria?" Starlight put a hand gently on Laud's head. "This little guy lives to serve. He wants to be the protector of Equestria." Sunset's brows raised as one. "Don't we have Twilight and her friends for that?" Laud clopped a small hoof on the ground. "They serve as reasonable guardians for terrestrial threats, but they know nothing of the greater cosmology, or the civilization I come from. No amount of raw magic, frightful as I have seen, will protect their world from direct invasion if it came to it. The losses would be staggering, but Equestria would fall. It is not even a question. It would be--" Rarity rolled a hand. "That sounds like a threat, darling. It doesn't match well with your otherwise-adorable appearance." "I'm not trying to threaten." Laud's ears went to the side a moment on their own. "It is a fact, and I don't want that. Your world, strange as it is, is a good place, with good people. As members of my house, there will be no invasion. You will simply join the greater culture." He left out other issues that would come up, seeing no point in confusing the matter at hand. "House Hawkwood is a good house. We will stand by our people, always." Twilight's fingers danced, their tips bouncing off one another excitedly. "This is just like... Oh wow. There can't be just one house, right? There are... dozens? All angry at each other." Laud blinked at Twilight. "Dozens is perhaps a strong word, unless you count the sub-houses within the major ones. I am a Mountbatten, which is part of House Hawkwood. For most, Hawkwood would be the important part. By what manner do you presume to understand this hierarchy?" Twilight slid from her chair to her knees, lowering to much closer to Laud's level. "I've read plenty of science fiction, and this sounds like one of those. So you say you're the 'good guy' house? There's always one of those." She tapped at her chin. "But wouldn't anyone say their house was the good one?" Laud was not prepared for genre savviness, especially not in a genre he had no experience with. "Excuse me? This is the real world, not some fictional flight of fancy. The threats I speak of will present terms that will not be solved with fiction." Twilight gave a girlish giggle. "Of course, it's just... Wait, is there an emperor?" Laud sank to his haunches. In a quiet voice, he admitted, "yes? How are you aware of that?" "Some kind of powerful religious body?" She pressed. Laud turned his roiling emotions into anger, scowling at Twilight. "Are you using magic to plumb my mind?" Sunset raised a hand. "That's my trick, and I have to touch you. I don't do it without permission if I can help it, promise." Twilight clapped her hands in a rapid series of strikes. "This is simply amazing! Last question. Inter-star travel. Do you have some kind of warp engine, or do you employ some kind of star gate system?" "We have... jump... gates?" Laud sank in place, feeling a little lost. "How? If this is not magic, how?" Twilight glanced around the room before jumping up to her feet and dashing off to grab a book off a shelf. "This is how. We, as in society, have written tons of things, including speculative works on a scientifically advanced future." He was living in their speculative future? The idea was unsettling, but still... "Allow me to return these questions to you. Do you, rather, your people, have the ability to travel to distant stars?" Applejack shook her head. "We done made it to the moon once, that count?" Laud felt confidence returning. However prescient their literature was, he was dealing with a primitive society. He just had to remain calm. "So it remains entirely a speculation." Twilight pointed at Laud. "An uncannily correct one, in your case. Why do you carry a sword then? Oh! It's to get past shields, right?" Laud shuddered involuntarily, a ripple running down his spine. "While that is one use for blades over other weapons, this sword is a family keepsake, passed down to me by my father. One day, I will bequeath it in kind. You know what a shield is then?" "In theory," easily agreed the smiling Twilight. "If swords can get past it, I have to assume it's kinetic based. A bullet would be easily detected and stopped, but tricky enough swordplay can confuse and--" Sunset put a hand over Twilight's face. Pony or not, it seemed that was a shared motion for quiet. "I think you're overwhelming him." Rarity nodded in agreement. "He does look a tad overwhelmed by all this. Would you like a drink, darling?" A drink sounded lovely. "Do you have something hard?" They all looked at him as if he had asked something silly. Sunset laughed nervously. "I have... a little something." The incredulous looks turned to her. "Look, I might be a high schooler, physically, but I'm old enough to handle a drink once in awhile. Wait here." She strode off towards the kitchen. While she was gone, Applejack fixed Twilight with a look. "So yer tellin' me everythin' in those books of yers was right?" Twilight shrugged, her eyes still on Laud. "Only he could answer that." Laud found a new thing to latch onto, and his frazzled psyche jumped at the chance. "What did she mean, 'physically'? Does she have two ages?" Starlight had that answer, and offered it quickly, "She was Princess Celestia's student before running off into this world. She was a young adult at that point, and that was awhile ago, so, yeah, mentally she's pretty adult." Twilight approached Laud quietly, eyeing his sword. "Is that made of steel, or some kind of exotic metal blend?" Laud hopped away from her, coming down facing her. "I would rather speak of something else. No offense, Miss Sparkle, but your knowledge is unnerving." Twilight deflated and Rarity was at her side in a moment, patting her back. "He didn't mean anything by it, darling. Did you?" Laud read the room quickly. "No, I was just surprised. I did not mean you were a bad person, Miss Sparkle. Perhaps you can answer this, if Equestria does not become part of the order, what other options are there?" Twilight frowned with thought, giving a thoughtful mmm. "Well, there's really only a few options. One, they destroy the, you called it a jump gate? Destroy that. Were they built by some ancient race?" Laud tensed at the question, answering it admirably. "Sorry. Either way, if that's removed, then Equestria gets to keep doing what it does. The other option, one I don't see Equestrians doing--" Rainbow suddenly slapped a fist into her opposing palm. "They take the fight and show them who's boss!" Starlight's face twisted in disgust. "I doubt most ponies would be up for that, least of all Celestia." Laud gave a soft nod. "Then there are only four options. Become part of things constructively, be overwhelmed and enslaved, remove yourselves entirely from the greater universal society, possibly permanently, or wage a likely losing war against a far superior force and risk extinction." Sunset returned with a glass of dark amber. "I see we didn't miss the chance to keep on being gloomy around here. Laud, your drink?" Laud sat and reached out his hooves, but they were quite unsuited for the task. Sunset crouched in front of him and held out the glass. After a moment of consideration, he dipped his snout to the glass and began sipping at it while Sunset held it. Twilight shook her head. "Equestria can't be the first alien-filled world you ran into." Laud tensed. "What happened to the others?" she pressed. Starlight hiked a brow. "That is a great question I want to know the answer to, Laud, if you please?" Laud looked from one set of eyes to the next. It seemed there was little for it. "It depended on which species. The more human they were in appearance, the more they could be easily accepted in society. The more aggressive species are fought. Those neither aggressive or human are... usually subjugated." He clenched his teeth a moment. "I would prefer that be avoided." Starlight developed a quick scowl, her hands going to her hips. "Where did the horses you mentioned fall in that line? Did they fight them or 'subjugate' them?" Laud thought of the shantor, of which he vaguely resembled a tiny version of. "They are alive and well." Applejack pointed. "That ain't the whole story. Try again, sugarcube." Was he that bad at falsehoods? He blamed it on his alien body. Half-truths would not do. "They largely dwell on great reservations on their homeworld." Starlight suddenly shoved him over, knocking him off his little hooves. "Is that what you have in mind for Equestria? Just round up everypony and lock them up?" Laud rolled with the force of the shove, coming right back upright in an athletic bounce. "Do you believe that? Do I give that impression?" Twilight raised a hand to her chin. "Was it House Hawkwood that owns the planet these 'shantor' are on?" Laud shook his head. "It is owned by a smaller house, Al-Malik. One of the smallest, but powerful and canny. The conflicts between them and my own are frequent, but we are not in formal war. There are Hawkwood holdings on the planet, but they own it, not us." Starlight crossed her arms. "That's pretty messed up, you have to admit." "I do admit." Laud dipped his head. "But it is also beyond my ability to act on. Equestria, on the other hand, is well within my power to help, and I want to." He looked around at the other girls, and Spike. "Your world will be affected. If it came to violence, they would find your world next, and would not hesitate to come for its resources. As part of a Hawkwood colony, we get to decide when and where such efforts are focused." Spike shook his canine head. "Twilight was right, this does sound like one of her books."