Equestria Trek: First Contact

by MetBoy


A Reawakening and A Reunion

A Reawakening and A Reunion: In which a fate is revealed, and evil moves once more.

---=={***}==---

Wreckage of alloy and composites rests in the depths of untamed forest. Small fires smolder as a creature approaches the bodies there. Smaller pieces, what might have once been furniture, are flipped over, as the creature explores. A groan rises from below what might have been a chair. The creature digs the wounded thing out, and carries it away from the wreckage.

---=={***}==---

Delilah woke up, which was the first surprise.
She attempted a self assessment, and she realized much of her body wasn’t responding to her commands yet, which was the second surprise.
Her right eye, the natural one, still worked, and she took in what looked like... Hmm. Wood structure, from what she could tell of the construction. There were some interesting masks on one wall, shelves with ceramic jars on another, and a great cauldron over a fire pit in the middle. None of the herbs hung from above were moving, so that ruled out a moving vehicle.
The implant that had replaced her left eye reported that it was functioning at normal levels, and that about a day had passed since she had last been awake. It also reported that her eyepiece was missing.
Her empathic senses felt a number of minds around her. Mostly they seemed bright, for animals, but none of the aggressive ones minds were close. In fact, the ‘brightest’ mind was significantly closer, and unique for the area. It was: intelligent, feeling background concern, but mostly confidant. There was something odd about the entity’s thought patterns, niggling at the edge of Delilah’s awareness, but she had no luck understanding what was being thought.
As she took all this in, Delilah also became more aware of her body and immediate surroundings. She was laying on a straw pallet, under a woven blanket, the pallet on a dirt floor. Her uniform had been removed; she spotted its remains beside the pallet, torn and bloody. Counting the bandages on her skin, she surmised that her rescuer had removed her uniform to tend to her wounds. Her left arm had been tied to a stick, and as she examined the surface bruising Delilah realized that a bone had been broken, later set and immobilized.
The third surprise was when Delilah realized that for all the damage her body had taken, she was feeling no pain. This fact was cataloged as being convenient in the short term, and either possibly bad or certainly very bad in the long run. In the best case, her rescuer (and as she contemplated, Delilah became more and more sure that the mind she felt nearby was her rescuer) had been able to medicate her for pain. Without pain she would have to be careful about not hurting herself more, and it was likely she would need to move.
In the worst case, the crash had caused Delilah serious nerve damage.
The fact that her ability to move her body was sluggishly returning pointed towards the first possibility, along with the tactile feedback from her self-examinations using her right hand. Delilah commanded herself to hold her left arm as still as possible against her midsection, trusting in her iron self-control that allowed her to save the day during the attack on the Vega Colony. She used her returning mobility to investigate her surroundings more thoroughly.
Her right hand reached across her body to investigate the remains of her uniform. Her questing fingers gave up after pulling out the shattered remains of her prosthetic’s optic; even if the lens had been intact, it had been snapped off of the interface component that let her implants connect to it. She muttered a brief, but cathartic, epithet, laying flat against the pallet again. She kept a spare eyepiece in her quarters, but without one, or the badge she had given to Rainbow Dash, the odds of her crew tracking her location were slim.
As more of the events leading up to her blackout came back to her, Commander O’Niel became sadly certain that her available resources were severely limited. Against an unknown, possibly hostile wilderness all she had were the ruined remains of her uniform, the boots that remained on her feet, and the blanket that covered her.

Oh, and the kindness of her unknown rescuer.

Her rescuer was approaching. Delilah closed her eyes to ‘listen’ better. She decided that the mind was older, more mature than Rainbow Dash, the only other native of this world that Delilah had a chance to telepathically examine. The unknown was certainly a native speaker of a different language, and she thought with subtly different colors. Oh yes, and Delilah’s bet was female. There was that something else odd about those thoughts, but she couldn’t pin it down yet.
But right then, all Delilah could do was to wait for her rescuer to arrive.

---=={***}==---

It didn’t take long for the native to return. Delilah made no major movements yet, aside from lifting up her head slightly to get a better look. Her discretion was not helping her stealth; her seeing eye was looking into the green eyes of a pony. Her focus spread out, seeing a white coat with distinct black stripes, and a hairdo best described as a mohawk. The body lacked either wings like Rainbow Dash, or the horn that the pegasus said unicorns had; so this was possibly an ‘earth pony’. A spiral surrounded by a polar array of triangles formed the stylized sun on her flank that was her Cutie Mark. Gold rings adorned one foreleg and neck, with a gold hoop in one ear. Where Rainbow Dash’s tail had been hidden under long hairs, this one’s longer tail was revealed, with a plume of hairs at the end.
I see you have awoken, I had feared your body be broken.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand you, but thank you for helping me,” Delilah replied. Without the combadge she had given to Rainbow Dash, she didn’t have a universal translator.
I cannot comprehend your speech, perhaps a compromise we might reach?
“I don’t think that’s the same language as before,” Delilah replied, shifting to the Betazoid language, “So I think you are also willing to work towards understanding.”
I’m going to examine your head, given the gibberish you’ve said.
From the way her new friend had been shifting languages, Delilah had become sure the stripy native was very intelligent. The next set of actions only made that conclusion firmer, as the pony picked up a lamp, and moved the flame close past Delilah’s eyes, watching for dilatation behavior. A hoof tapping at the left side of Delilah’s head, next to the data port, indicated that the false eye had been noticed. While the surface of the implant that had replaced her left eye seemed normal at a casual glance, a close look would reveal that it was artificial. The right eye didn’t track with the left, which is why Delilah considered the adhesive she used to hold it closed part of her makeup.
I worry that this eye has fallen to wound, or some odd disease may be found.
“It’s a false eye, don’t worry,” Delilah’s working hand made a dismissing motion. There was something about the native’s words that Delilah caught, but she couldn’t isolate it.
The native seemed skeptical, but from what Delilah’s telepathic sense could tell, the message was getting across, at least partly. She made no complaint when Delilah sat up, aside from glancing at the immobilized arm as the blanket fell away. With her good arm, Delilah first pointed into her open mouth, then rubbed her belly. Her host nodded, saying a few words as she prepared a bowl filled from the cauldron in the middle of the room.
As she gratefully ate Delilah considered her goals, and how to achieve them with the resources at hand. Being Betazoid didn’t mean she could instantly understand the thoughts of others, and it would be extremely rude to try and project her thoughts in a case like this. Given Delilah’s talents, about all she could be sure of was her host’s mood, and if her message was getting across. Her eye flickered across her host’s flank. Cutie marks... Maybe. After all, most communication was trading symbols of shared meaning.
Delilah took a wooden spoon, and found a clear section of the dirt floor. Using the narrow end of the spoon, she sketched first a cloud, with a lightning bolt divided into three along its length. Rainbow Dash’s Cutie Mark, and was rewarded with a flash of affectionate recognition, mixed with worry.
What happened to those taken in Cloudsdale has been nebulous, can you shed light on the fate of the pegasus?” she asked.
Then Delilah sketched the chevron that was the Starfleet logo, then pointing at herself. Once her host nodded, tentatively taking the sketch to represent her guest, Delilah took a deep breath, before sketching a set of pictures to tell the story so far.

Rainbow Dash in a cloud. A circle with two hooks attached, like a “6” and “9” overlapped, the logo of the new Orion Syndicate, throwing dots at the cloud.
Rainbow Dash in a cage. The cage in a boat, formed from a flat line, over a curved one, with a triangle sail, with the circle with the two hooks. A second ship, with the chevron, throwing dots at the first.
A boat, with Rainbow Dash, no longer in the cage, and the chevron. A third boat, with the three-fanged circle of the Klingon Empire, throwing dots at the boat with the chevron.
The boat with the chevron, crashing in flames, with Rainbow Dash leaving.

Delilah leaned back against the wall, giving her host time to puzzle out the story she had put into the drawings. At the same time, the Commander could think about what she should try and do. She called up the last visual images her optic had recorded, looking at the bridge display of the planet they were crashing towards. At a guess this hut wasn’t too far from Sweet Apple Acres, and thus not too far from Ponyville, which is where Rainbow Dash said she lived, so it might be practical to walk there, hopefully with her host as guide. That the native seemed to know Rainbow Dash was evidence in support of this.
But should Delilah make for Ponyville? This native seemed to believe her, and Rainbow Dash would be in Starfleet’s corner, but the facts were that the people of this planet had been attacked by hostile aliens. There was no telling how they would react to more aliens, particularly a group of them that had been rendered helpless. Worst case, even with Rainbow Dash to speak for them, the ponies might come at them with blood in their eyes. In which case, her safest course of action would be to hide here until another Starfleet ship came to investigate.
But playing it safe with her life could very well preclude her best opportunities to make friendly contact with the natives, and would mean abandoning the rest of the crew of U.S.S. Judges to the ponies, for good or for ill.

I believe your story, and think I can trust you; but now what should you do?
Her host’s voice drew Delilah out of her contemplations, and she met the native’s eyes again. Looking into those green eyes, and feeling the trust behind them, Delilah found that her decision had made itself.
Commander O’Niel nodded, and picked up the spoon again.

The chevron and a spiral sun, in a house. A long arrow takes the two to a house containing Rainbow Dash.
A sundial with a circle sun, the shadow shown to move only a small angle.

The native’s eyes narrowed as she realized Delilah’s meaning, pointing her hoof at Delilah’s bandages.
In return, Delilah pointed firmly at the sundial.
Delilah was counting on Rainbow Dash being able to keep her alive long enough to talk to the natives, and she was confidant in her ability to convince them of her good intentions once given the chance.

But that mattered less than the fact that Delilah couldn’t leave her crew hanging.

---=={***}==---

Once the message that time was of the essence was gotten across, Delilah and her host turned their efforts to preparation. With her boots intact, and what remained of her uniform and her blanket, Delilah was able to jury-rig enough protective clothing for her legs and good arm, and at least enough left over for her chest. A bamboo walking stick was found for her right hand, her legs still a little weak with bruises.
Delilah was quietly astonished at the degree of manipulative dexterity her host showed, able to move things easily using neck, tail, shoulders, hooves, and mouth to substitute for the hands she lacked, picking up a second pole for herself, along with a cloak and two small, mysterious pouches.
The passage through the forest was interesting, but not too eventful. Delilah’s new friend clearly had a native’s knowledge of both the area and the hazards therein. Few words were spoken, for fear of alerting those hazards, but Delilah’s psychic senses were ideally suited to this sort of challenge, giving her early warning of the many dangerous predators that lived in the temperate jungle. Her guide was able to indicate what unthinking hazards she should avoid, including a patch of bright blue flowers. Her implant told Delilah that it should be daytime, but the lush plant life formed a canopy that made the path they followed anywhere from ‘shadowed’ to ‘dim.’
They had taken a detour to where Zecora had found Delilah, but only long enough for the Commander to confirm that the majority of the ship had landed elsewhere; this was likely only the bridge. Eventually, the forest thinned out, dappled sunlight illuminating their footsteps. Reaching the edge of the forest their path turned into a more formal thing, paved with flat stones and a bridge helping it hop a stream on the way to a thriving town, overhanging branches falling behind to reveal the splendor of the blue sky. At their arrival that blue was graced with a spectrum-spanning blur, slowly getting larger, mirroring Delilah’s spreading smile as her gambles started paying off.

---=={***}==---

“Delilah! Zecora!” The six-limbed creature greeted the bipedal one with a hug, using her forelegs to wrap around the subject’s neck.
“Gently!” Delilah admonished Rainbow Dash, “I’ve got at least one broken bone, and don’t need more.” Her words were scolding, but her tone was filled with warmth.
“Sorry,” Dash replied, shifting the hug to Zecora, “But when you were listed unaccounted, we were all worried for you, and you too Zecora, when we realized some of the ship had landed in Everfree.”
The native pony replied, “I see you know my guest. While she has explained some of what happened, I hoped you might tell me the rest.”
“It’s... a long story,” Dash answered, one hoof scratching the back of her head.
“And the story isn’t even over yet,” Delilah added.
“Alternate communication we had to seek, so why is it Equine that you speak?”
“The short answer is that,” Delilah said, pointing at the com-badge that Rainbow Dash still had, but now secured to a red sash that ran around her neck and right shoulder. “It functions to translate speech.”
With a mumbled, “Oh yeah,” Dash began to remove the sash.
“And now that we can understand each others’ words,” Delilah said, her voice shifting into something slightly more formal as she turned to face Zecora, “I would like to thank you, Zecora, is that your name?” at the native’s nod she continued, “Thank you for pulling me from the wreck, seeing to my wounds, and guiding me here.”
Zecora bent her forelegs, making a sweeping bow. “Your thanks I need not, but I do accept, gladdened that my hoof of friendship was offered to good effect. Yet my task is not complete; we should get you to a place of rest, off this busy street.”
Then it hit Delilah, now that she could understand her savior’s speech. Zecora always spoke in rhyme- no, she was THINKING in rhyming thoughts. Delilah was momentarily stunned at the level of mental discipline required for that feat.
The Starfleet officer shook the fascinating thought off; she had other, urgent priorities right now. She turned back to the pegasus, who had removed the sash holding the com-badge. “Rainbow Dash, what happened with my people? Did...”
“We helped them get out of the wreck before it sank into the bog,” Rainbow Dash replied, joy at seeing her new friend again replaced by serious business of giving that friend good news. “Siatt is in charge of the group camped at Ponyville’s fairgrounds, and he said that the Egghead is in charge of the group up with our search party. Here,” Dash tossed the sash to Delilah using her mouth, the Betazoid catching it on the bamboo pole. “Syoosi said you’d need that back.”
“Don’t call Raat that behind his back,” Delilah said, “to his face, sure, but not behind his back.”
“Heh, sorry,” Dash apologized, then blinked, looking at Delilah’s face. “Wait a tic. Your eyepiece is gone, and your right eye...”
“Acts funny, I know,” Delilah said.
“I was going to say that your eyes look like Ditzy Doo’s,” Rainbow Dash said, chuckling.
With that little fact filed under ‘later,’ Delilah lifted the badge, squeezing it to activate it. “Lieutenant Onehli, this is Commander O’Niel. I’m heading for the Ponyville camp, make room in medical.”

---=={***}==---

Passing through town with Zecora and Rainbow Dash, Delilah got a closer look at the activity she had seen earlier. This seemed to be more than what could be called normal; in addition to the ponies at the stalls that made up the open-air market in the middle of town, there seemed to be a number of new buildings going up. Delilah paid as much attention as she could to the local architecture, noticing the mix of stonework and wood frame walls, and the mix of thatched, slate, and even a few tiled roofs. The only consistent among the existing structures was the attention to decorative details, as if a madmare with a fretsaw had savaged the town in the past.
“I have never seen Ponyville to have such activity, with ponies of all types moving about so busily,” Zecora commented, confirming Delilah’s guess. The new buildings were going up wherever there was a free lot, and seemed to mostly be wood framed.
Even as Delilah observed, she was also being observed, ponies staring at them as they moved through Ponyville, but none came up to stop them yet.
As the three passed through an intersection, Delilah saw, for the first time, the city of Cloudsdale, hanging in the distance, and saw it well enough to realize what she was seeing: a city. Built. Of. Clouds.
The stages of shock, disbelief, and confirmation were put on hold as a familiar voice hailed her.
“Commander O’Niel!”
“Zecora, darling, so good to see you! And is this the missing Delilah that Rainbow has been telling us about?”
“Ensign Tarah,” Delilah replied to her security officer, turning to the white unicorn with the Andorian. “And yes, I am, but I fear I don’t know your name m’lady,” she confirmed, adapting her speech based on what she felt of the purple-haired native.
“I,” the unicorn briefly paused for effect, “am Rarity, and I have the honor of being Equestria’s liaison to the members of Starfleet visiting us here in Ponyville.” She smiled, “I am doing what I can to make the stay of your people as pleasant as we can; but I digress. Commander Delilah O’Niel, allow me to welcome you to Ponyville. Allow me to lead you to your people.”
The enlarged party resumed their journey, Delilah’s attention diverted from the surroundings by conversation.
“So, what do you think of the town so far?” Rarity asked, a little fear behind the question, which Delilah guessed was from her suspicion that the visitor had surely seen more impressive places.
Delilah chuckled softly, “So far, all I can say is that I haven’t seen this many naked people at once since the Fifth House of Betazed gathered for Aunt Deanna’s wedding to William Riker.”
“Naked? For a wedding?” Rarity’s tone and emotions revealed her disbelief that any such occasion would happen. After all, opertunities-
“It’s an old Betazoid custom, asking all participants and guests to remove all physical and symbolic defenses, as two lives prepare to join as one,” Delilah explained. “We use events with less personal meaning to show off our good taste in clothing.”
“Which reminds me of something I was hesitant to bring up,” Rarity said, her voice holding her disgust at the prospect of seeming so gauche, but also her distaste for the faux pass in question.
“I’m wearing rags that used to be a custom uniform,” Delilah said, cutting to the core of the issue.
“Yes dear,” Rarity replied. “If you’d like, I could see if I can salvage it; I am Ponyville’s most accomplished dressmaker.”
Delilah thought for a moment. “I’ll take you up on that,” she decided, stopping in the middle of the street to take off those rags, leaving her bare except for her boots and bandages.
As she handed the bundle to Rarity, the unicorn taking it with her telekinesis, Ensign Tarah quietly spoke into her communicator. “The captain’s coming in naked again,” she warned.
The party resumed their journey, Tarah working up the courage to ask a question of her own. “I didn’t realize that you were related to the famous Troi family; she’s really your aunt?”
“Well, second cousin once removed,” Delilah clarified, “Mine is a cadet branch of the family. Anyway, Aunt Lwaxana was determined that her only daughter would be married in proper style. She put the weight of her diplomatic experience, and noble connections to the job, and by the time she was done, the ceremony had turned into the planetary social event of the decade.”
As the anecdote finished, they arrived at the campground.

---=={***}==---

To Zecora’s annoyance, Delilah insisted that all natives be outside while she received medical attention, but for operational security, not because of the Prime Directive. While the nurse saw to her broken arm, and inspected her other wounds, Delilah received a report on what had happened from Siatt Onehli. The report covered the status of the crew, what the natives had been up to, and what resources and plans they had already begun.
“So for the moment, our people in the mountains are helping with the search, but not flaunting their advanced technology. Around here in Ponyville there isn’t as much to do; most of our people are trying to gather information on the natives’ technological and social progress.”
Delilah gave Siatt a level look, and he chuckled.
“We’re far too late to try and impose ‘zero contact,’ given that we’ve spoken with one of this nation’s two monarchs, one Princess Luna,” he explained. “We explained the limits of the prime directive, and we’re limiting what we tell them, but we’re asking lots of questions. We got a chance to look at their math that led to the experiment we saw when we arrived. They’re close, very close, to developing a warp drive system, and with their ‘magic’ the engineering won’t hold them back for long.”
“Lovely,” Delilah sighed, closing her eyes. “While that has advantages for my career, it may spell trouble.”
“Commander?”
“Continue; what are the rest of the crew doing?”
“The biggest effort at the moment is to recover the shuttle from the U.S.S. Judges. The core recorder revealed that the ship’s boat is in working order, and the shuttle bay is accessible from the outside. Tarah rigged up a personal shield as a diving suit, and one of the ponies, Twilight Sparkle, says she can help open a channel into the depths of the swamp long enough to get it out.”
“And that’s a Type 8 shuttle, capable of getting, at least, to Starbase 114,” Delilah commented. “I’d like to see this magic in action. But if the natives are so willing to help us, can we help them in turn?”
The Bolian chuckled. “I thought you might ask that, so I asked Tarah; it would be easy to rig up a personal shield generator for a pony. A Type 2 Phaser pistol would take a little more work to be jaw operable, but they do show amazing manipulative dexterity.”
“And just in case-”
“Is just in case.”
The two former lovers grinned at each other, as their thoughts aligned.
“Anything else I need to know, Lieutenant?”
“Only that Ensign Maya reports that she caught Raat laughing.”
The Betazoid blinked. “I’m not sure if I believe that,” she admitted.
“Bindalla confirmed the report. Apparently making people laugh and smile is the special talent of one Pinkie Pie.”
Delilah chuckled. “If they can do that...” she trailed off.
Siatt nodded, knowing where his Commander’s thoughts might be going.
The nurse, having finished fusing Delilah’s shattered arm bones back together, looked from one officer to the other, confused.
“But anyway,” Commander O’Niel shook off the thought to get back to the present, “The short of it is that even if we can’t send a message, a ship will come looking for us soon enough, and the natives are friendly. Either way, provided that the Orions don’t cause any more trouble, we can just sit tight and wait for the rescue mission.”

There was a rumble from overhead, the crash of metal abusing the sound barrier. Delilah closed her eyes in a wince as her sharp mind put things together.

Ensign Tarah stuck her head in the door. “That was a trio of Orion Slaver-class small craft, traveling away from the capital, and towards the mountains where First Officer Raat and the others are,” she reported.

Delilah sighed. “I know narrative causality is a fallacy, but I need to say it. ‘Me and my big mouth.’”

---=={***}==---

There was an open area in the Ponyville Fairground, by the official entrance, where no tents had been erected.
Lining the Ponyville side was a herd of ponies, including Zecora, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle.
Across the open space was a cluster of thirty-five bipeds, forming about half the Starfleet crew rescued from the crash of the U.S.S. Judges. Standing ahead of them, but not in the focus of the scene, were Ensign Tarah and Lieutenant Siatt Onehli.
In mirroring flanking positions was a white pegasus, in the golden armor of the Royal Guard, and Princess Luna, her hair flowing from her head like a star field.
The focus of the scene was on the two leaders in the center.
Commander Delilah O’Niel had found time to put on a standard uniform, the three squares of her rank at her neck, comm-badge on her chest, and a replacement optic over her left eye. She stood stiffly, and despite the fact that her short stature meant she had to look up to meet the eyes of the other, she managed to surrender none of her own dignity or authoritative presence, but given who she was facing, that took great effort to maintain.
Princess Celestia, Co-Ruler of Equestria, Monarch of the Sun, Chief of the Greater Alicorns, and She Who Brought The Dawn, looked back at the Betazoid that had come to her world.
“Canterlot has been attacked by a force of griffin bandits and Orion raiders. Because Shining Armor had been able to shield the city against their transporters they came in using three Slaver shuttles. They used those shuttles’ weapons, as well as personal weapons, to capture as many ponies, and steal as much treasure as they could. Against any who resisted they shot to kill, and they turned the shuttle weapons against the Royal Vault. The Vault held, but they were able to take two great treasures, the Elements of Kindness and Loyalty. This time they were not targeting only adults for capture, but foals as well. Counts are still being made, but at least fifty of my people have been taken, and casualties are at least a dozen.”
There was a groan from the assembled ponies as the shock of the news hit.
“I now ask you, as a head of state to the highest ranking representative of the Federation, for your help to rescue my people.”
There was a pause, before Delilah spoke.
“You are asking us to intervene in the internal affairs of this world,” she stated. “to act against not simply invaders but against other people native to this planet. “
“The Griffin City-States have supplied me with official, written assurances that the griffins are not acting on behalf of any government, or recognized resistance movement. Further, they have offered their own aid, in intelligence and personnel, to combating this menace, realizing that it may be only a matter of time before they are attacked in turn, but their help will mean little if our people are taken from this solar system.”
“This is not our fight. We have no pressing need to attack the Orion raiders, either their camp or their ship. We wouldn’t have been attacked if we hadn’t come to this system. We wouldn’t have already lost people of our own, dead. So tell me why we should put ourselves, our lives, at further risk for you?”
There was a gasp from both sides as Delilah bluntly put the argument for self-preservation on the table.

Celestia looked into Delilah’s eyes, letting the silence draw out.
“All we, I, can offer you for your help is our friendship.”

It was Delilah’s turn to draw out the silence.
“You’ll have our answer shortly,” she said, turning to head to the big tent. “Lieutenant! Ensign!” her voice snapped out, “Set up a teleconference with the department heads!”