"I'll go get some food and water, you sure you'll be okay by yourself with this... what was its name again?" Big Mac asked.
"Its name is Falco, and I think its a he," Twilight replied, glancing back toward their new friend. "Right?"
The young starship pilot was not amused. "Yeah," he snipped.
"Yes, I'll be okay." Twilight added as Mac left the barn.
Twilight marveled at the device in Falco's hand and he held it up to her.
"This device..." She began, taking it in her magic. It was quite bulky looking, and seemed quite a bit heavier than she expected. "This produces magic?"
"It's not magic, it shoots lasers." Falco said.
"Lasers?" She repeated, not taking her eyes off the weapon, examining its every inch. "What are those?"
"Uhm..." Falco began. This was a question more suited for Slippy. "It's like... light, that's really hot, and it burns through stuff."
"Fascinating..." She whispered. "And your kind created this 'laser'?"
"Well, not my race but... somebody out there did." Again, he was well out of his depth.
Twilight instantly dropped the weapon from her grasp, her curiosity piqued by Falco's choice of words. Unfortunately it landed quite heavily on his groin.
"Your race? There are other alien races?!" She asked, her eyes positively shining with interest.
Falco finished coughing, the nausea slowly subsiding as he holstered his pistol. "Yes..." He replied through gritted beak.
"How many more?" She asked excitedly.
"I dunno... couple hundred maybe?"
"Couple... hundred..." Twilight muttered weakly as her knees grew weak. With little grace, she collapsed in a heap beside Falco's makeshift bed.
"Hey, hey!" he snapped, trying to rouse her.
Seeing no movement other than her steady breathing, he fell back onto his bed, putting his uninjured hand over his face. If the Galactic Council (GC) ever found out he spilled the beans about galactic civilization to an underdeveloped planet, he was certain they'd shoot him into a star.
"Alright, alright, enough complaining!" Wolf shouted over his team, firing his pistol into the air for effect. "I know those corporate scumbags have us by the tail, but the sooner we recover the drive, the sooner we can get paid and be on our way."
For the time being, that seemed to silence the dissent as they dispersed back to their rooms aboard the Black Wolf.
Wolf turned back to the bridge of his starship, looking out over the armada of ships outside his window. He and his crew only had a standard galactic week to find and recover the drive, or have their contracts terminated. Not only would that put a black mark on the Star Wolf team's record, but it would also hurt there future prospects. After all, why hire a mercenary team if they can't get the job done?
The radio on the bridge crackled to life. "Bravo Whisky 117 you are cleared to depart Altimont battlespace."
"On the move." Wolf replied, entering the coordinates for the last known location of his rival mercenary team. The Black Wolf's engines hummed to life as the ship accelerated to interplanetary speed. I would be a week or more before they arrived, as wolf set the course and gave flight direction over to the autopilot. He had thankfully negotiated that time to find the item he was tasked to deliver, but he new Altimont would be right behind him.
'Those amateurs better still have that device,' he thought angrily.
Agent Bentgrass followed his escort to the center of Ponyville, stopping outside of an innocuous government building.
"This is it?" he asked skeptically.
"Yes, sir. Our ad hoc headquarters for the time being." his escort replied.
"This is the post office." He admitted dryly.
"With our budget cuts, we've had to make do where we can sir,"
Upon entering the building, his initial assessment seemed correct. Inside, postponies went about their jobs sorting, processing and delivering mail to the citizens of Ponyville and beyond. Bentgrass cut his eyes at his escort.
Feeling his gaze, the suited pony motioned for him to follow. Down a narrow hall sat a door with a piece of paper taped onto it, the hoof-written letters spelling the acronym A.F.E.D.
Bentgrass' stomach fell, but only for a moment. An anger rose in the back of his mind that he was doing everything in his power to suppress. Was he being punished? Pranked, perhaps? Was it really a crime not to have taken a vacation day in five years in service of their majesties?
He took a deep breath and motioned for the stallion to open the door. In what could only be called a medium sized closet, two stallions and a mare each sat at a small desk, each facing a wall. Each looked up from their work as they heard them enter.
Bentgrass surveyed each of his new 'colleagues'. One seemed barely out of colthood, his rather tasteful spectacles sitting just a little too far up his nose, magnifying his eyes only slightly noticeably. The mare seemed to be of middle age, her blue mane held in a tight bun atop her head, her lab coat embroidered with the name 'Stargazer, PhD' on the breast. The last stallion was a square jawed type, in seemingly decent shape, save for the swollen lip and black eye.
"Agent, Bentgrass, this is the Agency For Extra-terrestrial Discovery." His escort announced.
Bentgrass had heard of this department. A fringe department ponies only read about in small articles and false alarms. A department deemed so non-essential to the greater state apparatus that whenever a budgetary belt needs tightening, their budget was usually first on the chopping block. In fact, Bentgrass was surprised it was even still an agency at all. He was sure they would have been shut down years ago, with the propensity of larger threats constantly looming in Equestria. It would certainly explain the skeleton crew before him.
"Agent Gemeni," The young colt with the glasses said, extending a hoof. "I've heard all about your exploits sir, it's an honor to meet you!"
"Glad to make your acquaintance," Bentgrass smiled before moving on.
"Doctor Stargazer," The mare said in sequence. Bentgrass repeated the motion and smile.
"Agent Orion, sir," The stallion with the facial injuries said softly.
"Good to meet you agent," Bentgrass met his eyes, only to have him look away. "If you don't mind my asking, what happened to your face, son?"
The stallion nervously brushed his blonde mane out of his face before explaining. "Well, sir, the confiscation of the citizens camera for evidence didn't go as smoothly as I thought."
Bentgrass raised an eyebrow. "You were assaulted?" He turned to his escort. "Assault on an agent of the crown is a very serious crime!"
His escort's expression flattened. "Allow him to continue, sir."
Agrostis returned to the stallion. "What happened?"
"I confronted them, and asked for the camera in the name of her majesties. They refused, and so I told them who I worked for, and they didn't believe me."
So far he had heard nothing that didn't warrant a prison term for his assailants.
"I was going to show them my badge, but then I realized I left it at the hotel... I was told I had to recover the evidence without fail!" he added quickly. "It just... got a bit rougher than I thought."
Bentgrass let out a small sigh.
'Some crack squad I've got here' he thought.
"But you did recover the evidence?" Bentgrass asked.
Orion's expression brightened. "Yes sir!"
"And the owners of the camera?"
"We confiscated the film and gave them back the camera. Dr. Stargazer administered an erasure spell and they were sent on their way." His escort answered.
"A category three spell?" He turned to the mare in the lab coat. "There are only eight agents in the world with category three authorization."
"You're looking at number eight." Stargazer replied proudly. "Passed the qualifications course with flying colors."
"And you," Bentgrass said, turning to his mysterious handler. "What was your name?"
He smiled. "I am your liaison to the headquarters in Canterlot, but you can call me Echo."
Fox's scan complete, he was confident this was where Falco ended up. Turning his ship back to the Great Fox, he had time to think about the potential situations Falco might find himself in. This planet had oceans, and although the Arwing had multiple survival platforms, huge bodies of liquids were the last place you'd want to crash, assuming you survived.
The questions weighing on his mind at the moment were grim. Was this to be a search and rescue, or a salvage operation? If the Great Fox was even spotted in this sector by a GC patrol, everyone on board would be implicated, and due for some extremely strict punishment.
"What's the story, Fox?" Slippy asked over the radio as he began his final approach for landing.
He was positive the rest of the crew was waiting on the bridge listening. They all knew there was a chance the planet Falco crashed into could have been uninhabitable, or a Jovian giant, or any number of cosmic terrors.
"Good news is the planet is habitable." Fox began. "The bad news is, the solar wind from their star pretty much wiped out the rest of his ion trail. Do you think we can ping his communicator if we get close enough?"
Silence filled the cockpit as he was certain Slippy was attempting to figure out a way to do just that.
"Well... we can, but you're not going to like how," he replied.
Fox was almost hesitant to ask. "How?"
"We'll need to get closer to the planet."
"How close?"
"Clooooooose." Slippy replied seriously.
He thought about it for a moment, even though he already made up his mind. "Well, in for one credit, in for a thousand," Fox answered, touching down in the docking bay of the Great Fox and beginning the shutdown sequence for his space fighter.
"Hey. Seriously, erm..." Falco thought for a second, "Twilight! You gotta wake up! If your friends come back and find you like this they'll think—"
A gasp drew his attention as the horse in the hat stood in the doorway, wearing a first aid bag across her barrel.
"What in tarnation!" She snapped, angrily striding towards him. He had to think fast.
"Hang on, she just fainted!" he said, realizing his words were figuratively falling on deaf ears. Luckily for him, Twilight had fainted with the translator sticking out of the ear not pinned to the floor of the barn.
Falco pointed desperately to his translator, then to the one in Twilight's ear, then to her. Hopefully his wild gesturing with his unbroken arm was enough to overcome the language barrier.
Applejack glanced down at the device in Twilight's ear, then back at Falco.
"I'll bet this is some sorta alien trick!" She said, taking another threatening step towards Falco. "You probably sucked out her brain with that thing, and now you're looking for mine!"
"You've got to be kidding me!" Falco snapped back, exasperated. "If wanted anyone on this primitive rocks brain, I promise it isn't yours!" Angry outburst aside, he had to convince her to use the translator before things got out of hand. He had no idea when Twilight would come to, so he went with the method that generally seemed to work in his experience.
Applejack froze as she looked down the barrel of his laser pistol. Falco's sidearm in his good arm, he kept it trained on her as he reached over to take the translator out of Twilight's ear. The simple act of grasping it was terribly painful as he clenched his beak to keep from wincing.
He held out the translator in his unsteady palm.
Applejack was still petrified by his weapon when a shout startled her from her daze.
"Take it!"
It was all he could do to keep from walking over and putting it in her ear himself.
With great trepidation, she took it in her mouth of all things, laid it on the bed and slowly lowered her head down to it until it fit snugly in her ear and activated. Falco would have thought that he'd just asked her to pull the pin on a live grenade.
He lowered his pistol.
"Can you understand me?" He asked, relieved to have his injured arm by his side again.
"Ah... wow, Ah can!" Applejack replied, just as amazed as Twilight before her.
"Okay, now let me explain," Falco began, trying to sound as calm, and more importantly as believable as possible. "Your friend here fainted."
"How come?" She asked, still eyeing him with suspicion. as though in the next second he'd use his otherworldly alien powers to do the same to her.
"Because I told her that there are other alien races out there than just my kind."
"Oh, is that why?" For the first time since they'd encountered each other, he saw her smile. "Yeah, she gets that way when she gets into something scientific."
"Huh," Falco replied. "Well, listen, before anyone else faints, that thing in your ear isn't going to suck out your brain, it's a translator." He pointed to his ear. "I have one, and whoever I need to talk to has the other one, but this is the only set I have."
"Wow... so it's true what Twilight said?" Applejack asked. "You're from outer space?"
She approached him and opened the first aid bag she wore, tensions now defused.
"Yeah." He replied, sitting up with his back against the barn wall. "Sorry about earlier, I just didn't want you to think I hurt your friend."
"Well..." Applejack began. "Ah'm sorry for jumping to conclusions. Just cause you ain't from around here doesn't mean you're dangerous."
She unfolded the pack and set it out next to him. "So, what hurts?"
After a quick explanation, she set to work on a makeshift sling for his injured arm, and wrapped his head in a bandage. He seemed to have quite the knot on the back of his head, though whether or not it was normal was beyond her.
"That oughta hold for now, just don't go running any marathons," Applejack said, admiring her work.
"Thanks..." Falco said, still ignoring the dull but ever-present pain. "Is she gonna be okay?" He asked, referring to Twilight.
"Yeah, I got the cure for that," Applejack said, rummaging through the kit until she found a small vial. She placed it on the ground in front of Twilight's nose and stomped on it. The smell it released woke her right up.
"Huh... What..." She raised up on her haunches as her eyes focused on Falco.
"It wasn't a dream, you're really here!" She gasped.
Just as she had regained consciousness, Mac entered the barn with food and a jug of water. "I managed to find some leftovers from the other night," He said, sliding the plate covered in some kind of foil off his back and towards Falco.
He certainly couldn't ignore the fact that his stomach was running on fumes, since all he'd eaten since crashing was an apple or two. He silently prayed that it wasn't a plate of hay or an assortment of yard waste.
Falco opened the foil to reveal what appeared to be a slice of apple pie, a bit of apple cobbler, and an apple tart. He wasn't thrilled about another round of eating apples, but he was thrilled to eat.
"So, what other kinds of aliens are there? How does your spaceship work? What other beings move their stars and moons?" Twilight asked, picking up right where she left off.
Before Falco could answer, Applejack saved him the trouble. "Ah think we should give him some time to eat, C'mon y'all." She motioned for the door, practically dragging Twilight behind her. "We'll keep the barn door shut, nobody should bother you in here."
"Thanks." Falco replied.
"We'll knock before we come in, that way you'll know it's one of us." Applejack said as she closed the barn door.
Alone at long last, and somehow still breathing after an encounter with wildlife that could apparently use magic, he had some time to think. He needed to do something about his ship, and he also needed to find a way to signal the rest of his team that he was alive down here. On top of that tall order, if they even managed to find him, they'd have to sneak out of this sector without being spotted by what he was sure were multiple entities looking for him and his team.
After finishing his meal, he rerouted the last bit of opiate in his suit to his injured arm so he could get some sleep. It would hurt like hell in the morning, but that was at least eight hours away.