//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Home // Story: Helljumpers // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// With a thunderous noise, the pelican dropship took off from the plaza square and started gaining altitude at an alarming speed. Scootaloo having a front row seat was gawking at the speed of the metal craft, a few moments earlier it had breached the sound barrier and now she was pretty sure that she was flying faster than Rainbow Dash. The pilot called out from the cockpit to Mack, "Hey Mack! Mind explaining why I'm ferrying two horses up to the Dawn?" Twilight groaning and then calling out to the pilot, "Ponies! not horses!" immediately after which the dropship made a small bump. "Oh! I'm sorry. Mack Why the fuck am I carrying two PONIES that can TALK up to the dawn!" A mix of anger and curiosity in her voice. "Zoey, meet Twilight and Scootaloo." Mack told the pilot grinning widely, "Our residential mythical alien creatures." "Mack, I want an explanation. the quick version." The pilot now clearly in an annoyed state. There were a whole bunch of aliens out to kill humanity so Zoey was understandably a bit apprehensive about taking two live ones onto an active warship. "We found the kid, shot it, the purple one came across us along the way to the objective, we got the purple one to come with us since it wanted the kid, then the purple one saved Lucy by blowing out the brains of a zealot and we headed to the extraction." Taking a deep breath after having said all that Mack added: "No they're not covenant, they're a third party and yes they speak English." The pilot staring blackly at Mack and then the ponies before reacting. "Okay, I'm calling the Dawn, we're going to need to set up a quarantine." The pilot clearly annoyed at the fact that now she would probably be stuck in quarantine for a day activated the comms, "Stalwart Dawn, this is Starfire. Do you copy." Moments later the Dawn reacted to Starfire's hail, "Starfire, this is Stalward Dawn. What's the matter, you're still twenty minutes out Starfire." The radio operator confused to why the pelican would contact the frigate while still being out that far. "Dawn, you need to set up a quarantined zone, the boys brought two aliens from downstairs." after reporting this the radio remained silent for a moment before a new voice sounded over the radio. "Starfire, this is captain Ross. Did you say two aliens?" "Affirmative sir, apparently they're not Covenant." a full minute passed before the captain responded over the radio, "We're readying the medbay for a temporary quarantine, Sergeant if this stunt doesn't pay off I'm court-marshaling you. Dawn out." "Well, that could have gone worse." Tyler looking relieved,"He's only going to court marshal you if this goes south." "Are you going to get into trouble because of us now?" Twilight asked Mack, concerned for the human. "yea, don't worry about me. I've had worse. But I think we should tell you a bit more about our world since you seem completely unaware of our current state of affairs." Mack said, sighing and thinking up a condensed line of events of the war. The mood in the pelican visibly dropping as the other humans already knew what was coming. "27 years ago humanity made first contact with an alien compact made up from several species. Initially, attempts were made at peaceful first contact but the leadership of this covenant deemed us a blight upon the galaxy and started a war of genocide." stopping to look over at the ponies who both had a look of slight disgust but listening attentively, Mack taking a deep breath and continued. "The first strike came from the Covenant at Harvest a human colony dedicated to farming,... It was completely destroyed, surface burned to glass by the plasma weapons of the covenant ships." The Ponies now both had horrified expressions on their faces. "T-they destroyed the entire planet?" Twilight asked her eyes wide and her hooves over her muzzle. "yea, and it wouldn't be the last world to face the same fate. we used to have about nine hundred worlds populated to some degree now we only have a handful left." tears forming in Mack's eyes as memories resurfaced. "N-nine hundred? h-how many-" Scootaloo stammered as she was cut off by Lucy,"18 billion spread out over about 850 worlds." The next minutes were completely silent other than the humming from the ship itself. The ponies in shock at the staggering amount of casualties the humans had led, Equis didn't even have one hundred million sentient creatures living on it, almost two hundred times less than what the humans had lost! Twilight's head reeled at the numbers, gaining a bit of an understanding of why these humans would have no problem killing the aliens, if they wouldn't they would all die. The radio crackling to life as the dropship approached the Frigate, "Starfire, get on board fast. We're detecting a new cluster of covenant ships entering the system." moments later the radio activated again, "At least four capital elements, we're bailing we don't have the firepower to deal with a fleet that size." Zoey communicating further with the Dawn as she made her approach, Twilight on the other hoof was a bit shocked at the revelation that they were abandoning the colony, "Mack if you have so few colonies left then why are we just leaving this one for the covenant?" "Like the captain said, we don't have the firepower in the system and we evacuated an as large amount of civilians as possible already. We could stay and fight but that would only delay the inevitable in addition to us dying. None of us like it but in this case, we live to fight another day." The moment the pelican landed in the hangar bay the occupants of the dropship were greeted by humans in white suits, "If everyone could follow us to the medbay, we have a section locked down for quarantine." One of the suited humans said. The medbay was a set of interconnected set of rooms with white walls and machines the ponies didn't recognize, as they entered the doors behind them were locked sealing the group off from the rest of the ship. A female human with her hair in a knot and a white coat walked up to the group, "So sergeant, what type of alien did you take with you? Grunts? Elites? The only thing I've heard is that we were getting a visit from two aliens." "A pegasus and an alicorn." Mack deadpanned, "you know from mythology." "Mack I'm really not in the mood for jo-" she stopped as Twilight and Scootaloo entered the room, an uncomfortable silence falling over the group. "Uhm, hello?" Scootaloo being the first to break the silence, "I'm Scootaloo, what's your name?" holding out her hoof to the doctor. "Wha-, OH. Yes! Hello, I'm Catalina Melton but just call me Cat or Doc." Catalina suddenly overly happy, "And who are you, Uhm miss?" "Twilight Sparkle, Pleasure to meet you! and yes we're both mares." Twilight shaking her hoof with the doctor, "So I take it you want to do some medical studies?" Twilight as eager as ever to do some science with these humans. "Ah yes, please follow me. I want to take a few blood and tissue samples and perform a full body scan on both of you." Both Twilight and Catalina happily moved to a scanner in another room as Scootaloo looked up at Mack, "Should I be worried?" The ODST letting out a hearty laugh,"Yea, you probably should." Ponyville was a disasterzone. When the portal in the library collapsed the resulting Explosion had severely damaged the surrounding buildings. Luckily nopony died in the explosion, a few ponies had been hit with shrapnel and had been stuck in their houses. Spike also got lucky, his dragon physique took most of the beating as his scales are nearly indestructible and fireproof. No, the worst damage was done to the library itself as it was almost completely destroyed, the initial portal destroying the ground floor and the explosion and subsequent fire destroyed nearly the entire tree. But for Rainbow Dash none of that really mattered, She had been searching nearby settlements for any sign of her adoptive sister and best friend. "SCOOTALOO!, TWILIGHT!" Taking passes over portions of the ghastly gorge before heading back to ponyville as she was going to visit Spike the hospital with the other elements after he was knocked unconscious at the library. Coming to a stop at ponyville central hospital's front gate, a place she was all too familiar with and stepped in to be greeted by her four other friends. To her surprise, both princesses were also present. "Hello, Rainbow Dash." princess Celestia greeted, "I take it from the look in your face that the search for your friends has also not turned up with any results?" an unusual sadness coming from her voice. "No, nothing. They must have teleported a long way away." Rainbow said dejected, Twilight and Scootaloo had not shown up in any of the nearby towns. "You might be right, young pegasus." Luna cut in, "We haven't been able to locate my sister's student in the dream world either." "Don't that make sense? Ah, mean they wouldn't be asleep." AJ asked Luna "A common misconception, my little pony. Although when a pony is asleep their mind fully merges with the dream world, a pony that's awake at least still has a presence in the dream world. Twilight Sparkle and Scootaloo Hurricane both completely disappeared." "So, they are so far away that they ain't showing up in the drea-" Applejack suddenly being cut off by Rainbow Dash, "Princess, did you just say Scootaloo 'Hurricane'? As in the commander Hurricane?" "Yes, We have found that her magic signature matches that of the old commander, his descendants always had magic attuned to storm clouds and lightning. But that is irrelevant since its actions that make the pony not their ancestors." The princess lectured, "Now we have a dragon to visit" she added as the group arrived at the room Spike was staying in. Spike immediately brightened as the group entered but turned to a frown as he saw the dejected faces and a distinct lack of purple. "Where is Twilight?" worry evident in his voice. "Spike darling, Twil-" Rarity getting cut off by Spike, "Where, is Twilight!" he shouted. "We have no idea Spike, we don't even know if she's alive." Celestia admitted "I-I need some paper ink and a quill." Spike said getting some confused looks from the elements in the room. "Spike darling, I know you're upset but what good is that going to do?" Rarity asked Spike "I can send her a letter, I don't need to know where she is she just needs to be alive to receive it." spike explained, "It's not like I know exactly where Princess Celestia is every time I send her a letter." "That's, actually a good Idea, If you would allow it I would like to send a letter to my student and fellow princess." Celestia said. "Uhm, Spike? is it okay if I write a letter to Scootaloo?" Rainbow asked without her usual bravado, "I'd really like to make sure she is okay." A few minutes later Rainbow and Princess Celestia finished their letters and handed them to Spike, "Moment of truth, I hope you're well." Spike said as he blew fire onto the paper which promptly incinerated itself into black smoke, "YES! She's still alive!" he shouted as everyone except Dash let out a sigh of relief,"Now for Scootaloo" taking another deep breath as he let out another flame also incinerating the scroll, another wave of relief came over the ponies as the scroll flew away to it's intended recipient. "Princess, did you ever teach Twilight how to send messages to me?" spike asked Celestia whose face turned into a scowl, "No, she still has to gain more alicorn magic to emulate dragon magic. So we essentially only have one-way communication." "At least we know that they're still alive." Rainbow said, missing her honorary sister. They had set up this wicked training schedule to try and get her to fly, but that all would have to wait now. She just hoped both her and Twilight would be okay. Twilight and the doctor had been performing medical experiments for almost an hour now as the Dawn had entered slipspace en route to the planet Reach. Scootaloo had also been dragged through a set of tests and scans, of which the results and images were now starting to return. Most of the tests were to see if either species posed a medical hazard to the other but some of the scans were just to satisfy Cat's curiosity, Needles to say Twilight and Catalina were both ecstatic about doing science. Scootaloo, on the other hoof, had been hanging out with the ODST's who seemed bored out of their minds being stuck with two eggheads. They had introduced her to a game they called poker, and she was losing badly. "OH COME ON!, How did you know I was bluffing?" She shouted as she lost another few chips from her ever-decreasing stash, "You guys are way to good at this!" The group of ODST's laughing at the orange pegasus of which they had already grown quite fond off, "You might want to stop twitching your wings every time you bluff." Lucy told Scoots with a grin. "Ahhh, come on Lucy we haven't even got all her chips yet." Tyler mock pouted as he started dealing a new set of cards, but Twilight and Catalina entered the room before they could start another round. "We've got the lab results!" Twilight practically squealed. "So are we going to die from space-flu or can we finally get out of this medbay?" Tyler asked getting a chuckle from everyone else around the poker table. after an eye roll, Twilight answered, "No, you're not and neither are me and Scootaloo." "Good, Doc can you release the quarantine so we can get some grub in the mess hall?" Mack asked Catalina, "The rest of the crew should be in the freezer now so we shouldn't have to explain to everyone why we're walking around with mythological creatures." Before the Doc could answer, Twilight inquired about something she had noticed before, "Mack, you've been calling Scoots and me mythological creatures, how much do humans know about my species?" "I'm probably not the person to talk to about this stuff, but we have some stories about horned and winged horses." "Mmh, Interesting because we also have myths about humans in Equestria." Twilight stated getting confused looks from the humans around her. "Wait, so there are myths about humans in Equestria? That can't be a coincidence." Mack replied, "How old are those myths?" "About 1300 year, Discord was running rampant at the time so dates get a bit wonky." "Discord? Who the hell is that?" Tyler asked to which Scootaloo answered quicker than Twilight, "The self-proclaimed god of chaos." Twilight looking over at the filly with confusion not thinking that the small filly would know much about him at which Scootaloo just shrugged. "I had to write an essay about the idiot after we accidentally released him. I know my stuff regarding him." "Anyway, about 1000 years ago as the renaissance started myths like that started dying out, some mythical creatures were still featured in artwork but that's about it." Tyler continued "Huh, that might explain the connection. Discord was imprisoned about a thousand years ago, so he might have connected our worlds in some capacity. Maby they still are." Twilight theorized. "Things to figure out another time but now I think we can all use some food, Cat are we free to go?" Mack asked the doctor. "Actually no, Captain wanted to keep you two mostly restricted to the medbay until we arrive at Reach and the five of you have been assigned to guard duty so you also have to stay." "So, we're stuck here for the foreseeable future." Mack surmized "great, do we at least have some food here?" Catalina pointing over to another room where a temporary dining room had been set up, "There was some brought over just in case we had to have a prolonged quarantine." Scootaloo, Twilight and the ODST's digging into the food supplies as they hadn't had any food since they got off planet. Scootaloo somehow managed to wolf down her meal the fastest and stole a package from Lucy's rations, "HEY! Tha-... Uhm Scootaloo?" Scootaloo having already opened the package and taken a bite now was a bit confused as to why the ODST's were staring at her. "Uhm, what did I do wrong?" Scootaloo now self-conscious of the fact that she probably did something wrong. "Nothing." "Have at it." "Do you like it?" "Just Tell her, you, twats" Lucy glaring at her squadmates, "You're eating chicken, Scootaloo." Scootaloo's eyes widening as she looked at the package in her hooves, only for her to take another bite from the chicken moments later. "SCOOTALOO!" Twilight shouted as all the ODST's were now crying with laughter as the filly finished eating the chicken and reacted to Twilight with a full mouth, "What? It's Tasty." Twilight looking at Scootaloo with a blank expression, "I'm going to the lab, there's too much insanity in this room!" she shouted as she walked out back to Catalina who was examining Scootaloo's full-body scan. "Want to try beef the next time?" Tyler asked Scootaloo with a grin, to which the filly nodded prompting another fit of laughter from the ODST's. As the Laughter died down a bit Twilight called out to Scoots, "Scootaloo! I think you should have a look at this!" Everyone at the dining table exchanging curious glances and deciding to join in as they didn't have anything better to do anyway, as they walked into the lab a projection of Scootaloo's full-body scan was projected from a holotable. "Cat, can you zoom in on the tissue between the wings?" Cat nodding and magnifying the projection, "And can you put my body scan next to it?" Twilight's body scan promptly appearing next to the one of Scootaloo. "Now, can anyone tell me the difference between these two scans?" Twilight asked the group who started comparing the two scans, after a few moments, Zoey found a discrepancy between the two holograms. "Are those black spots tissue attached to the base of Scoots her wings?" "Indeed! but that's not the strange part! The tissue looks exactly like cornu obstructionum, or horn block. A rare unicorn disorder, as in one in a hundred thousand kind of rare, that stops horn growth and mana pool creation!" Twilight squealed. "So the reason I cant fly is because a rare unicorn disorder is affecting my wings?" Scootaloo asked with curiosity that Twilight might have figured out why she couldn't fly, "Can it be fixed?" she asked with a hopeful smile. "Yes and Yes, when the tissue is removed in a unicorn it usually leads to rapid horn growth and increased mana pool creation! so assuming it works the same for pegasi your wings should grow and magic increase!" Twilight in her mind already formulating the procedure. "Now hold on Twilight, we cant just operate on Scootaloo. Both human and pony leadership would have to give their approval for a procedure like that. Other than that there also is the fact that we also have to figure out what drugs we can safely use on you ponies!" Catalina stopping Twilight's train of thought. "Well, the pony leadership is already taken care of." Scootaloo said with a grin, "Isn't it Princess Twilight Sparkle." "Whoa, Twilight?" "WHAT!" "No bloody way!" "Seriously?" All the humans now staring at the purple pony that immediately started having a Fluttershy episode and clopping her hooves together, "Uhm you see, normally I don't really have any authority other than that I'm technically a Princess but without a direct communications line to Equestria my word has the same authority as Celestia's." "So you only have to figure out the other two things!" Scootaloo happily said, "Let's not keep the eggheads from doing their job guys, I still need to win a round of poker!" starting to trot off to the side room where the game was set up only to be stopped by a cloud of black smoke that seemingly appeared out of nowhere and spit out a scroll. Looking over at Twilight she could see that she too also had a letter painstakingly levitating in front of her and tearing up a little. "It's from Celestia."