Over the course of the last four hours the Traveler as it's became known as had regrown right in the pod that it had presumably been killed in. Aster and the rest of the biology team were at a loss, according to her there was no conceivable way either magical or otherwise that this could or should be happening, yet here it was happening right in front of us. Even Twilight Sparkle and the Princesses were at a loss, it seems that in the millennia that they had been around they had never seen anything
quite like this either.
The Traveler, whatever it was, was indeed quite tall, a bit taller then Princess Celestia minus her horn. It seemed to be similar to some ape descendants however as its body took form it took on more a more alien features, bits of metal and augments of unknown material started replacing body parts you would assume would be there, as it came together it definitely started to look more and more masculine but Aster said they couldn't make any assumptions, they still don't know if sexual dimorphism is even a thing for its species. Aster and the rest of her group worked tirelessly, they now had probably the most important job in the entire team, if this thing really came back to life that means whatever questions we had could be asked directly, assuming we found a way to communicate with it, or if it even held the same views as Ponies or indeed anything else on Equus. Lots of ponies were just kinda sitting around watching the pod as the Traveler grew, (was assembled?) myself included, Twilight and the Princesses didn't really care I don't think, I think they were still trying to figure out what to do about the situation. I was sitting with Aster in front of the pod eating lunch, just watching it.
"I wonder if it hurts." I said.
"Hmm?" Aster replied through a mouthful of sandwich.
"I mean, it's body is going through massive and rapid cellular growth, that's got to hurt right?"
"Not necessarily." Aster said. "It's probably unconscious, and probably incredibly sedated, also it's head still isn't entirely formed yet, it probably doesn't have the capacity to perceive pain yet, if at all."
"Still." I mumbled "I wonder if it would have been better off dead, I mean if this thing is alive can it actually be considered the same individual? Would it even hold the same memories or attitudes as it did when it was first killed?"
Aster looked over at me with a look of mild concern. "Well we're not sure, that's a question that's been debated for centuries, though the general consensus seems to be that the mind is a magical construct that is stored and maintained by the brain, as such it may be possible to transfer it to some other kind of magic based storage but as for how you would do that no one knows." She gestured over at the pod. "Maybe its people figured it out."
The hours ticked by as the Traveler became more and more complete. After awhile any obvious external changes seemed to have ceased, what was left was a roughly six and a half foot tall biped with tanned skin that looked like it lacked hair or fur entirely, bits of metal and other augments of unknown material covered various parts of its body particularly its head which had several short metal rods sticking out over then entire top of the head. It was also extremely thin, it looked way too thin to actually stand up, let alone move upright, Minotaur's had extremely muscular legs in order to hold themselves up properly. Speaking of, it's top limbs seem to have graspers similar to a Minotaur's hands at the end. Aster called it grotesque.
Looking around I could everyone was a bit on edge, even the Princesses looked a little unnerved, they never looked phased by anything. They both kept whispering amongst themselves and Twilight Sparkle, they kept leaving the ship and heading off to somewhere else and then coming back. It wasn't inspiring confidence. This time though they came back with the Elements of Harmony in tow. Celestia spoke up.
"Attention my little ponies, if I can please have everyone step back from the pod, we have reason to believe that it could open at anytime."
The team of researchers did as they were told and the girls and I set up in a semi circle around the pod. Each of them was looking around the superstructure of the ship and to the pod in the middle. Rarity was the to speak up.
"My word! That thing is hideous." She said looking at what the researchers have taken to calling the Traveler. "His fashion sense is also just awful."
"Uh, Rarity, that critter isn't wearing clothes, ah think." Applejack retorted.
"What I don't get is why you bothered calling us all the way out here." Rainbow mumbled "All I know is that thing is frozen in there and that we're out here."
"And I'm the sheriff!" Pinkie squealed while jumping in place. We all looked at her.
"Anyway." I said, getting the conversation back on track. "To answer your question Rainbow, we have no idea what that thing is capable of, it fell from the sky and regrew itself from a pile of goo! Princess Celestia feels that we should be prepared for it to be a danger to Equestria." I looked over at Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, you the animal expert what do you make of it?" Fluttershy looked around nervously before stepping forward.
"W-well, I don't know girls." She said softly. "I think this is outside my field of expertise, I don't know how it even can live going off how it looks. It is alive isn't it?"
"That's the working theory, yes." I replied, it looked like that just made her more concerned. "What do you mean it looks like it can't be alive?" I asked.
"Well, with it's muscle definition it's too tall to actually stand, it would probably have a hard time breathing, let alone functioning. But judging by the placement of its eyes it is, or at least was some type of predator." This immediately set everyone on edge. This caused Fluttershy to flinch and back away. "T-though I'm sure in it's current state it wouldn't put up much of a fight, uh what did you say it was called?"
"Ah, well we don't have a name, though the team that's been working here has taken to calling it the Traveler."
"Why call it that?" Rainbow asked.
"Were you guys not briefed on your way here?" I said, a bit astonished. The girls all looked at me and shook their heads. I sighed. "Horsefeathers." I groaned. "Well all of this." I said, swooping a foreleg around me. "Didn't just fall from the sky, it came from beyond the Moon." They all looked at me for a second, before Rainbow Dash burst out laughing.
"Ah come on Twi!" She said in between fits of laughter. "Do you honestly expect us to buy that? Even foals know there can't be anything beyond the moon, it's a part of the sky." The other girls nodded in agreement. I looked at them for a bit kinda stunned.
"Have you girls not been paying attention to the updated curriculum that's been coming out of Canterlot?" They all shook their heads and gave various negatives. I groaned. "So you're telling me that the stuff we're teaching foals now is completely different to what was taught to the last generation and we're not actually getting the general public up to date? They all stared before Pinkie spoke up.
"Yeppers! That's what it looks like!" I put my face in my hooves, great, another thing to worry about once this is all done.
"Alight, well since Luna has come back she has updated us on things they we've been getting wrong all these years." I started. "Firstly the moon is not part of the sky." I said, my sight directed at Rainbow. "It's a large object that hangs above the planet and spins around it, and secondly there is a massive void surrounding Equus, the Moon and the Sun. It's so large that not even Luna knows how big it is, it may very well go on forever. And this thing." I said pointing at the pod. "Came from beyond there, so we have no idea what it is, where it came from or what its intentions are.So we're going to stay here, we're going to watch over it, and we're going to keep Equestria safe! Sound good?"
I got affirmatives all around. I took a deep breath and calmed myself. We all sat down in the dirt and just watched the pod. After about five minutes Rainbow piped up. "I'm bored Twilight." Right when I was about to strangle her and hide the body there was a hissing noise, we all looked over to the pod, there was a cloud of vapor escaping from the sides, we all sat there wide eyed as the front of the lid came off and was raised upwards. At that point we managed to regain our wits and stood at the ready. The Traveler lay there in the pod for a few seconds before its eyesopened, it looked over us and took a shaky step forward, we all took one step back as it did so, it then took another step forward, and promptly fell flat on its face.
We all stared at it, blinking for a few seconds. It could be heard groaning on the ground. Fluttershy was the first to approach it, kneeling down next to it she said.
"U-um, a-are you okay there?" It pushed itself off the ground and looked up at her. Then in perfect if a bit raspy High Equestrian it spoke.
"Uhhhh, take me to your leader?
I was currently sitting cross legged on a cushion sitting across from the princess known as Celestia, judging how all the other ponies defer to her as the de facto ruler there may be some power dynamics with her sister I'm not aware of, I'll have to thread carefully. It was very clear however that my appearance unnerved them, the various heat pipes and transmitters sticking out of my skull especially all of the eyes in the room constantly glanced at them, I tried to tell [ship] to keep that in mind but with all the genemods and augment grafts I would need to bleed waste heat pretty bad. Not my fault, I need every advantage I can get at this point. I wasn't used to this body design and the artificial muscles it uses will take some getting used to, I made a fool of myself in front of what I guess was meant to be a failsafe in case they decided I wasn't friendly. I guess now would be the time I get interrogated, I'm sure they have a million questions for me.
How much to tell them though? I don't want to terrify them, I had read that first contact with species that are made aware of the full scope of Terragen civilization are usually weary of actually accepting contact. It was then that Celestia, who had since been just staring at me, probably sizing me up or as an intimidation tactic started talking.
"Greetings Traveller, I am Princess Celestia, Herald of the Sun and monarch of Equestria."
I responded "Greetings Princess, I am Vissar 3, citizen of the New Fuchsia orbital, though you can call me Vis if you'd like. I decided to be as truthful as possible without outright terrifying them. Celestia continued.
"Well then, Vis it is then, as you can probably guess, we have some questions for you regarding your intentions here in Equestria.
"Yeah, I'm sure you probably do." I chuckled.
"The first and foremost is how you actually possess knowledge of High Equestrian seeing as you don't come from anywhere near here I presume?"
"Hmmm, is that what you call it?" I replied, I decided to side step the whole your world was seeded by an unbelievably vast entity from my civilization part and just explain how I learned it. "Well you see I kinda learned it while you were investigating my craft." It seemed that stunned her a bit.
"You... learned it? While you were dead? In only a few days?" She replied.
"Correct." I said. "You see I wasn't really dead, sure my body had been destroyed upon impact but the ship is basically an extension of my mind, the moments before impact it pulled my mind from my body and stored it within itself in a sense. The entire time your researchers I assume that's what they were were working on my ship I was watching and listening and learning."
"But still, you learned fluency in only a few days?" She repeated.
"A few hours actually, as you can probably tell my kind found ways to augment and improve ourselves using technology." I said glancing down at my body. "This includes the mind, I had the ships mind, which can process vast quantities information that yours or even mine can't take the vast majority of the data collected on your speech and do all the heavy lifting to brute force your language and then implant the desired knowledge directly into my brain." Celestia stared at me for a few moments, the rest of the tent was also stunned, finally she spoke up.
"I don't believe that, I can't believe that."
"And yet here we are, having a conversation." I said.
"But how is that even possible? I mean, to pull a mind from a body and directly implant knowledge, that sounds too good to be true." She said
"Well the actual specifics would probably take me several hours to explain, as well as the fact, and I mean no disrespect when I say this, the technology and societal level your nation is currently at is primitive at best, I'm not so sure you would even understand what I was telling you." She looked pretty irritated at that, and the wording wasn't the best but I wasn't sure how best to explain the problem of understanding they actually face. Celestia looked at me for a few more seconds and the other
researchers and guards were giving me death glares. Looks like they have a strong national identity. She looked at me for a few second, I assume deliberating before she spoke again.
"Elaborate."
I obliged. "Well the basic mechanics rely on technologies and ideas that you as a species haven't actually discovered I don't think. Incredibly basic stuff like computing and genetics. You like to be at the beginning of what we would call in industrial revolution. A period of time where the mass production of goods and services starts leading to a higher quality
of life for the average citizen and more job specialization, sound familiar? Celestia began nodding slightly.
"Yes, that has been the trend we've started noticing the past few years. Are you saying that this development would lead to the ability of achieve these basic ideas that you speak of?"
"You are correct, but the actual implementation to allow the kinds of things that I was talking about will not happen anytime soon, even if you were to possess said basics. What I was talking about is the result of literally thousands of years of incremental improvements and discoveries on the part of my civilization."
"And what of your civilization?" Celestia said. "What are they like? Where do you come from?" Oh boy, this was the big one, I had to be careful about how I approach this, reveal too much and I don't think they would be able to trust me, too little and they would know I was hiding something. Still, even just knowing there's something else out there that was a five housand year head start might cause them to distrust me. And I would need their help in the coming years if I'm to get of world. Here goes nothing.
"Well you see..."