Nearby in Ponyville, windows rattled from the roaring of the Ark's thrusters, and the subsequent impact against the ground. Ponies had hidden in their homes, terrified of what was to come. What terrifyingly powerful creature made that machine? Surely not the Flim-Flam brothers, they just didn’t have the funds for the raw materials. Furthermore, this thing seemed to have come from the sky itself! It just materialized there, lowering itself into the Everfree like it had belonged there.
The eerie silence was another thing. First there was so much noise you could hardly hear yourself think… and then, once it settled, even the bugs had gone silent. It stayed that way for quite the while, everyone unwilling to speak, out of sheer terror of what lay in the forest…
Eventually, the birds, bugs, and other animals began to make noise again, seeming to think everything was safe again. Ponies gingerly began filing out of their homes to get a look at the behemoth, that seemed to be smoking… A thin blueish smoke wafted up from the gash in its side, which went from halfway down the side, all the way to the back.
At some point, six ponies grouped together in what looked like a giant crystal that had been fashioned into a castle…. These ponies’ names were Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Fluttershy. Dirt from the roots of a giant tree trunk was scattered all over a large table, and all the chairs around it.
Rarity used a small broom to brush off her chair before even considering sitting in it. Her hair was already dusty enough as it is, resulting from a scuffle shortly after the ship landed in the Everfree.
“Honestly, darling, why do all of these newly discovered races have to be such ruffians? I just got my hair done, and now it’s ru-hu-hu-ined…”
Fluttershy, in response, attempted an interjection, raising a hoof a little bit to get attention.
“Maybe it-“
Pinkie interrupted suddenly, jumping up on the table and jumping about, flinging dust everywhere making Rarity recoil in disgust.
“Maybe they were excited to throw a party! Like so excited they couldn’t slow down fast enough!”
She then made a face, slumping down into a dejected position.
“But then they could have squished all those animals in the Everfree…”
Rainbow Dash slammed all four of her hooves down on the table, before pointing one of them to the window, where the massive ship was clearly visible…
“I say we take it straight over there and kick some alien flank!”
Fluttershy raised her hoof a bit higher, opening her mouth again.
“M-maybe-“
Applejack slammed her front hoof down on the table, sending a plume of dust into the air upon impact.
“Yeah! I’ll buck the varmint’s flanks back to where it came from!”
Finally, twilight stepped in, setting down a collection of data, including some rough sketches, and a photograph taken from over the Everfree. She also had books that may give insight on the situation, such as: A comprehensive guide to first contact.
“Girls, as I see it right now, only one thing is clear. This object holds immense power, I mean, the amount of magic needed to translocate such a massive structure… I can’t even begin to comprehend it… It obviously made course corrections to avoid populated areas, as it changed directions to touch down in the Everfree… I mean, it’s in the densest parts of the forest, nobody goes there.”
She turned the photo around so the others could take a look at it a bit closer, and used the tip of her hoof to point out some things.
“It’s incredibly detailed, millions of tiny parts… Well, tiny in comparison, they’re the size of houses, but my point still stands… This thing took a long time to make, and undoubtedly was made by a vast civilization, but we’ve never seen anything like it. It’s miles long, there’s no way we could miss it!
She took a step back from the table, and looked out the window, her face mere inches away from the glass…
“The only way it could make any sense, is if it’s extraterrestrial… Yes rainbow, I’m saying it’s an alien ship.”
Rainbow Dash did a little victory dance, and flew up into the air… But before she could say anything, Fluttershy was finally able to make her point.
“It’s damaged. Maybe they’re hurt or need some time to fix it, or maybe they’re hungry.”
The others opened their mouths to say something back, but then looked at each other… She had a point… Maybe it was time to pay a visit to the visitors…
“My master thought it best to wait inside the Ark for the dust to settle. I, however, thought I should do some detailed scans of the area to locate potential sources of food, or xeno threats. Who knew if the Thargoids had made it here before us?”
“Of course, when reviewing planetary scans, there was very little ammonia in the atmosphere. This means it would be entirely unbreathable to them, and thus my fears were unwarranted. Perhaps some surveillance instead.”
“I prepared a remote fighter immediately, and began designs on a mobile chassis so I could actually leave the ship, maybe feel the grass under my feet… I may just be able to know what it’s like to be alive…”
An XG9 Lance fighter was ejected from the fighter bay, controlled remotely via telepresence. Its current mission objective was to scout out the area, and possibly investigate what kind of sentient life was present on this planet. It accelerated over the treetops, topping out at 100m/s in order to better scan the ground… It caught a glance of six blobs of color, and flipped around to get a better look… It slowed down a bit, coming to a hover above a clearing in the forest… Six… colorful equines. At first, Julia couldn’t understand how an equine could have gotten all the way out here… but then there were the differences from terrestrial equines. Their heads were much larger, and the eyes incredibly vibrant… They were looking straight up at the fighter, a quill scribbling on a piece of parchment…
“At that moment, I knew what I was dealing with… Somehow, an equine society evolved here… They made houses, castles, a functional power grid… With hooves… More observations were required.”
The fighter turned back to its original path, resuming its flight towards the nearby population center. It reached the town’s edge within thirty seconds at max speed, slowing down to a steady 50m/s to make observations. First was the reaction of the equines below, scampering back to their homes to hide from the humming spacecraft. The next observation was one of the buildings’ structures. They distinctly resembled those from planet earth, specifically from the 1700-2000s. The similarities were… startling…
Of course, there was also the color schemes… Each one was so different from the other that it made no sense at all. It was like looking at a children’s book. A turn to the side resulted in Julia seeing a massive crystalline structure. This was incredible, something this size was practically unheard of, and was an anomaly… Julia loved anomalies…
“The castle of friendship was like a dream to me, something I thought I’d never see. Crystals never form in such a manner in nature, and the sheer scale of it had to have been artificially created… But beside that, it was beautiful, and I needed detailed scans…”
The six ponies walked through the forest, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. Rarity was wearing her sparkly purple boots and avoiding any mud and exposed dirt like the plague… Fluttershy was wearing saddle bags with medical supplies and food inside, looking about the trail for any animals that were hurt on impact. Applejack simply had her rope, hat, and a canteen of water, Rainbow Dash had nothing, and Twilight brought research supplies. Pinkie on the other hand, was balancing a tray of cupcakes on her back, somehow keeping them from falling off as she bounced along the trail like a basketball. A dragon, Spike, followed closely behind Twilight, wings held tight to his body…
He looked about the forest, hoping that no Timberwolves would come by to ruin their day, as he had had enough experiences with them for a lifetime.
“I don’t know about this Twilight, what if these aliens just came to eat our brains and take over Equestria?”
Twilight rolled her eyes, before focusing on the trail again. It was getting harder to walk through the forest at this point, rubble and fallen trees blocking their way…
“I highly doubt they’re pony-eating monsters, Spike… They’re probably just on a journey for knowledge!”
Applejack cleared the way for the group by kicking a tree trunk off the main part of the path. Afterwards, she readjusted her hat, and continued trotting alongside them.
“Ah don’t know twilight, something about it seems off. Ah mean, after it landed there it completely stopped doin’ anythin.”
Rainbow swooped down from the tree line, smudges of mud seeming to have been donned as a war paint.
“That’s probably cause they’re spying on us, trying to get our secrets so they have every advantage!”
Rarity groaned at the prismatic mare’s paranoid conclusion, daintily trotting up to her side and getting her attention.
“Oh don’t be silly darling, you can’t do any spying if you gave away your presence from the start. I mean look at it… sitting there…”
Applejack laughed a bit, and bumped into Rainbow Dash playfully, before turning her attention to a branch in the way of the path.
“She’s got a point Dash, I bet the quakes woke even princess Luna up.”
Applejack bit down on the branch, starting to drag it out of the way… when she dropped it to the ground, shushing the whole group…
“Yall’ hear that?”
The sound she referred to was a cross between a whistle, and a hum. It grew closer and closer as time went by, until suddenly, something flew by overhead… They thought it had left for now, Rainbow starting to argue that the invasion had started, and she knew it was going to happen… But then they noticed something… There was something humming, and it was coming from right above them…
Twilight immediately began making sketches of what she saw, her pen flying over the paper at lightning speeds… She only noticed that there was nothing piloting it at the last second, before it flew off again… That was confirmation… the ship held ponies just as curious about them, as they were about the ship. Oh, just imagine what kind of books they had!
Soon enough, the six mares and singular dragon continued on their way towards the alien vessel, not even bothering with the branches that sat across the trail… They could almost not believe what they saw back there, it was absolutely stunning how maneuverable it was, and the way it could hover there, almost silently, with no moving parts at all…
“While the elements of harmony were making their way towards the Ark, I got the detailed scans I needed to reconstruct miniature models of the crystal castle in simulation. It was so complex, yes stunningly simple in nature. It in fact was impossible to have been naturally constructed, some kind of advanced crystal forming technique having to be used to get to that shape… But then it was also hollow, and it didn’t seem like it was carved out by abrasives… I stored the data, and continued on my scouting mission…”
The ponies continued to trudge through the Everfree, spike helping out as best he could, by scouting ahead and identifying the best route around rubble… They were only a short ways away from the ship, now residing in it’s shadow… The sun was still high in the sky, but the thing was so absolutely massive that it blocked out the sun…
The flying object they had seen before flew back overhead, sweeping low over the forest as it scanned for any other sort of lifeforms… After a few sweeps around the Ark, it turned around, facing outward from it, and slowly reversed into a docking station, finally ending its mission…
Applejack distractedly looked up at the monolithic ship, and almost tripped over a rock.
“Ah reckon they’re lookin’ for some place to hole up for the night, almost like they’re making sure nothing gets in.”
Spike confirmed her suspicions, showing a surprising knowledge of battle strategy, analyzing what was happening before them…
“It looks like they’re setting up a perimeter. I mean, there’s a scout flying around, making several passes over the forest. If there was a hydra or something, I’m sure those giant cannons on the ship would take care of it pretty quick.”
He pointed up towards the Ark, where there were indeed some massive cannons… Those things looked like they could take out castles with a single shot…
Rainbow Dash swooped over him, shaking her head in amazement.
“Where’d you learn all that bud? You don’t seem like the fighting type.”
Spike responded with a chuckle, shrugging his shoulders a bit. He didn’t really notice how much he had learned of the subject.
“I started reading some war stories a few months ago. I guess it makes it easier to understand some of the books I read if I also understand the strategies…”
Twilight grinned and bumped up against him as they continued walking, affectionately nuzzling the side of his head.
“Aww, Spike I’m glad you started teaching yourself so you can better expand your mind. Maybe the history of Equus may also interest you.”
Spike shook his head dejectedly; this was exactly why he kept his reading habits personal. He knew Twilight probably better than anyone else did, and this was what was bound to happen.
“No thanks Twilight, I might eventually, but right now I just wanna take things at my own pace, starting with the most interesting to me.”
As the group got close enough to see the bottom of the ship through the rubble and trees, they watched as several doors began opening up, and ramps slowly lowered to the ground, allowing access… the inhabitants of the ship knew they were coming, and were ready for them…
“I had informed my master of the group’s arrival, and their likely intentions, sulfur and energy concentrations were too low to be of a concern, and if he stayed in an HEV suit, he would be safe from chemical warfare… After a quick scan as the creatures neared the ship, these creatures also proved to be female, and likely not naturally aggressive... so I allowed them aboard.”
“They were hesitant at first, almost afraid to set hoof on the ramp up to the doors, and I wouldn’t blame them. Their planet had never seen such monolithic machinery before, and definitely none so advanced. The ship was literally entirely alien to them.”
“I decided to try enticing them aboard by requesting that my master go meet them, so they at least saw that they were being welcomed in person, but he refused, opting instead to stand a bit further inside, through the second airlock door. As always, he was correct in the matter, I would never want him to risk his life… so I created a quick simulacrum of a human…”
“I only took a few seconds to create an adequate simulation of a human, but for me it was an eternity, I had no idea where to start… so I of course started with gender. I decided on a woman, I was programmed to act feminine of course, so I should keep to what I know… plus they were also all female, save for the seventh, a reptilian… But it was safe to assume he felt safe around females.”
“Next, I had to decide on her features… I decided to stay a similar coloration to my master, a fair skinned, dark haired woman, with big brown eyes. Her face and bone structures were thin, something that would be common in trophy wives… I could lie to you and say that no thought was out into making my master… attracted to my simulation… but I would rather be honest… I wanted that kind of attention.”
The mares watched in awe, as a creature materialized before them, in the doorframe of the airlock of the massive alien ship… At first, her body was see through, pixelated, and shifting like a cloud… but soon it solidified into a creature that looked upon them with kindness and curiosity, waving them over…
They approached carefully, Twilight the first to set hoof on the ramp in the name of science… She was followed by Pinkie, who after a bit of encouraging by Spike, happily bounced alongside her friend… Then, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Spike, Rarity, and Fluttershy, following in quick succession. This was going to go down in history as one of the most important meetings in Equestrian history. The moment that pony kind melded with a race from beyond the heavens, more powerful than any of them could imagine… A friend to be made, bridging across endless void.
“What they didn’t know, was that the friend they were about to make was alone. The last man in the universe… And he would stay that way if he didn’t complete this mission…”
“I was tasked to help him in the mission in any possible way I could. And I was going to make sure the mission was completed, no matter the cost. These creatures that just boarded may be able to assist us further…”