//------------------------------// // Equestria // Story: First Contact: From the Mouths of the Ponies // by Scoo //------------------------------// First Contact: From the Mouths of the Ponies By Zinitrad Edited by theBSDude Part 1: Equestria The air is thin and cold. It is quiet, the soft purr of the atmosphere generators and occasional warp of an arriving cargo ship the only sounds that pervade this place. It is discomforting, for back home, a harbor like this would be filled with hundreds of thousands of people, all rushing from one place to another, searching for transport or unloading ships. I am standing on the Equestrian skyharbor, titled "Celestial". It is relatively new, minimal operating construction having been completed years ago. Equestria is still not a well- known or well traveled world, making a large skyharbor unnecessary. Looking through the catwalk beneath my feet, I find an unfamiliar green and bumpy landscape, marked unevenly by small numbers of lights. It is very different from the ocean blue sky of my home, or the unending gray and white city scape of Earth. It is very obvious that this world is new to the galaxy, and by extension modern industry. Equestria is the first member of the H.G.A. to join after the great war. This means they are in a unique position, and can recount their history of contact without it having been blurred or damaged by Hergzine aggression. This is why I have came here, to learn and report, so that the everyday citizens of Sol can learn of the intricacies and aftermaths of a successful first contact. For those who do not know, Equestria is one of the newest members of our grand and powerful civilization, the H.G.A. They were discovered 54 years ago, and were official members 10 years later. It is a magical world, rich in resources and extremely varied in life. It's dominant species are a race of small, diversely pigmented Equinoids, although they share their world with dozens of other forms of sapient native life. The system is still largely undeveloped, devoid of sprawling cities, low population, and still being introduced to the uses of modern technology. It is also out of the way and isolated. In order to get here, I had to board a transport from Sol to Lumine, and once there, I had to try 8 times before I found a transport service that had heard of the small world, and was willing to travel the remaining 3800 light years. In total, I am 30000 light years from my home city of Lear, the farthest I have traveled in my 37 years of life. My journey is not over, however, as I still need to arrange a transport to planetside. While significantly lower than most skyharbors, Celestial is still positioned 12 miles over the planets surface, which is a dizzying height nonetheless. My first step in getting to the planet's surface is exchanging my credits for bits. The Equestrians have not finished restructuring, and so the natives still use their own form of currency: A small gold, silver, or copper coin, called the "bit" featuring the head of Celestia on the gold, the head of Luna on the silver, and the head of the equestrian prime minister on the copper. All copper bits feature the head of the prime minister at the time of minting, so all newly minted copper coins feature the face of Prime Minister Fluttershy Posey. Looking around the docks, I soon spot an exchange building. It is small and low to the ground, the booths built with the native's size in mind. It was not a very affective height for me however, as my groin was level to the bottom of the window. The clerk was a pony, specifically of the "Earth" variety. She wore a simple blue uniform, with a name tag written in her native language. She had a muddy green coat, a reddish-brown mane, and turquoise eyes. I placed my money on the table, and requested service. "Je voudrais à 6000 H.A.G. échange crédits pour les bits Equestres, s'il vous plaît." She gave me a confused stare, making a noise that sounded like she was nickering. "Quoi?" I asked. She looked at me, her confused face being replaced with an awkward stare, and she made noises that sounded like a strange combination of nickers, snorts and whinnies. It took me about 15 seconds to realize what she was trying to tell me. My translator wasn't working, and not only could I not understand a thing she was saying, but everything I had said had been in my native French, a language she likely had no knowledge of. Excusing myself, I went off to figure out what the problem was. While they are by no means an exotic piece of magitek, a magical translator is a device that relatively few individuals need to use, and by extension, relatively few know how to use. To work, one must be tuned to the magical signature of the portion of the galaxy you were in. I did not know this, and since the one I had purchased on Lumine was tuned to Lumine, I had believed it was working. I most likely spent hours standing out there, fiddling with the thing before I finally got it to work. Returning to the booth, I tried again. "Fixed that there thing yet?" For some strange reason, the translator had approximated her for a more "rural" accent. Oh well. "I would like to exchange 6000 H.G.A. credits for Equestrian bits, please." "Ooh, gonna' be staying for a while now, are ya'? Let me just ring that up... and... there we go! 7469 bits! I'd imagine yer gonna want ta' make a temporary account planetside so ya' don't have ta' carry it with ya', huh?" "Yes, I would very much like that." Inside, I sighed, as I knew that with the amount of time wasted on the translator, it would be night before I made it to planetside, and this was only making it worse. "Well then, just step on up here n' sign these documents and you'll be set!" Said "documents" resembled a Terran-sized phone book. "Merde." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Finished with the documentation, and satisfied with the knowledge that I would be able to retrieve my money from any major participating bank, I proceeded to have my passport verified by the Equestrian Government. "Name?" A large white stallion, dressed in a golden armor, was verifying what my ID code would say about me. "Ian B. Miligaux. Spelled "g-a-u-x", not "g-o-h"" "Alright. System, planet, and city of origin?" "Sol, Uranian orbit, Lear." "Reason for traveling?" "Research." "Okay, just give us the code and we are good to go." I was surprised at the few number of questions there were. At Lumine I had to verify 3 times as many things. "Everything checks out, you're ready for transport." He points to a door on the right of the room I am in. "Go through that door and head to teleport chamber C. The operator will arrange for you to be sent to your destination." Proceeding down the hall, I entered the room. Inside was a tube with a door, a control panel, and behind it, another mare in the blue uniform, this one also an Earth Pony, with an orange coat, yellow mane, and green eyes. "Hello there! My name is Oxheart Carrot! I will be operating this skyharbor-surface teleporter today! What is your destination?!" She wore immense grin as she happily shouted her spiel at me from across the room. I thought of the first name on my interview list, and remembered the town in which she resided. "What station is closest to Ponyville?" "Ponyville!?" She tapped her chin, apparently deep in thought. "Uummm... Let's see,... Ponyville, that's near Canterlot... I know! The Canterlot Station! That is where you'll want to go! Okay, directions...directions...Ah! You'll want to head to the Canterlot gate, and then you should be able to see Ponyville down in the valley below! You'll probably need to get a taxi or something! Are you ready to go?!" Still a bit rattled by the shouting, I answered feebly. "Ummm... Yeah, I guess." "Great, just step into the tube and we will be ready to go!" I stepped in, and the doors shut. The floor and the ceiling began to glow, and started humming. Eventually the hum grew unbearably loud. I had been on a teleporter before; in fact, I used at least one every time I visited my great-grandmother on Iapetus. However, those teleporters were quality, these were obviously installed for their cheap price. I decided that the mare, Oxheart, must have hearing damage if she operates this without earplugs. It would explain her shouting. Suddenly, there was a flash of light and I was planetside. Inside the building I had lost track of time, and while it was late, I had no idea just how late it was. Stepping out of the station, I saw that it was nighttime, the skies a dark purple. From what I had learned, the purple night skies were caused by proximity to the bright galactic core. Similar to, but not as drastic as, Lumine (Often referred to as the system in which it is never night), the relatively short distance from the core causes partial illumination, even after the sun had set. This keeps the planet from ever being truly dark; as what they consider dark, we consider to be just below twilight. Canterlot is a moderately sized city, at least for one on a planet of this development. If I had to guess, I would say she had a population of 800,000. I noted that the streets were mostly empty. Deciding that it was indeed too late, and that I would need to be up fairly early to make it to Ponyville and meet with my first interview, I decided to search for a place to stay. Coming across a cheap inn, I entered. Though my appearance drew stares from the patrons, I was still offered a place to stay, for what I hoped was a reasonable price. Entering my room, I settled in, reviewed my notes on their society, and got ready to go to sleep. Reaching the end of my notes, I found my interview list, and read the first name. "Dinky Doo, 16 Brightstar Lane, Ponyville." __________________________________________________________________________________________ AUTHOR'S CORNER Hello there! My name is Zinitrad, and this is my first real attempt at writing a legitimate fanfic. If you find anything to be confusing about the setting, just ask, or better yet, check out my blog, where I will regularly post background information about the setting that will not often be mentioned in the story. Anyway, thanks for reading! If you disliked this story, please tell me why in the comments. I would appreciate constructive criticism. This story will not be very action filled. The majority of chapters will be written as interviews between Ian and whichever pony/person/sapient organism is the focus of the interview. There will be a semi-dark subplot, and I will update the tags as it occurs. However, for the most part, this is about Ian learning about Equestria's First Contact, (namedrop) from the mouths of the ponies who were there. If anyone has anything I could use for story art, feel free to present it to me, for I have none. What would be really kick ass is if I could get someone to make a drawing of Ian. If you want to do either, comment me the cover art or PM me for an in depth description of Ian. xoxoxo - Zinitrad.