//------------------------------//
// Chapter Three 
// Story: The Sixth Race 
// by Firefinder 
//------------------------------//

Ch 3

Eric’s return to consciousness was fast and painful, caused by an electric shock from the control chair he was in.

“Ow! What was that for and where are we?” Eric asked as he remembered what happened.

“You were out for four hours after that device sent us to another galaxy and I am picking up a distress signal in another language. Also, there is another one of those devices, but it is inactive.”

“And since you said it was a call for help you must have translated it. So since we’re stuck in this galaxy for the time being, and there is a standing order from all SGC for personal to find allies, I have two questions. Where and how long?”

“Fifty light years away and about a five second jump to hyperspace, shorter if we use the star to recharge first via a slingshot maneuver, for the origin is on the other side of this star. ”

“Do it,” Eric said as he restituted himself in the chair for the upcoming battle.

----------------Back at the Ponyville--------------------

“Shields are at twenty percent and dropping.” Gilda shouted as sparks flew around the bridge.

“Tell me some good news Applejack,” Twilight said as she used her magic to fix a busted pipe.

“Wish Ah could sugarcube, but Ah got none,” Applejack said over the radio.

“Hangar bay to bridge, the last fighter just punched its teleportation charge and the pilot is back O.K. in the bay. It’s Lt. Derby.”

“Roger that hangar bay. That is at least some good news,” Twilight said. She was thankful that the pony who invented the teleportation charge did, for what it did was basically teleport the pilot back to a predetermined location when the charge was activated.

“Captain I’m picking up a hyperspace window opening four hundred kilometers to the rear. The signature is... unknown,” Rarity said from her sensor station.

That one sentence got everyponies’ attention, for every hyperdrive had a unique subspace signature that could be used to identify the ship class before it appeared, so an unknown signature jumping into battle was a scary thing. It could be an ally come to the rescue or an enemy coming to wipe them out.

“Check it agai....” the order died in Twilight’s throat as the vessel came into view. As it flew over them and planted itself between the Ponyville and the baseships.


Even though it was half the size of a baseship it seemed to let off an aura that said fuck with me at your own risk. Add to that the massive power readings that they were getting from it made it that much more frightening.

The baseships, sensing a new threat, unleashed a withering barrage of weapons fire that would have destroyed any other ship, but which was stopped cold by a shield that sprang into existence a few seconds after it settled into position between the Ponyville and the baseships. It took the barrage from the baseships for a few minutes before returning the favor. It took its sweet time as it maneuvered its bow so that it was pointing straight at at the baseships. As soon as it was done with that, a green beam of energy shot out of the bow of the ship, slicing both baseships in half.

Twilight took a look at the sensor records to see if she could find out anything about their savoir. Her jaw dropped at what the sensors said about the shields. They didn’t drop in efficiency a bit while it was under fire, but she did note that the power levels dropped as the shields took hits. She was wondering what type of magic this could be when Trixie elbowed her in the ribs. When she looked up to see what she wanted, her jaw dropped for the second time that hour.

For a biped being was standing on the front of the bridge looking at them with a look she knew mirrored her own, a look of surprise and shock. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Gilda raise her pistol at the being. That shocked it back to reality.

“That weapon will have zero effect on me and might put a hole in your ship’s hull, because this is a hologram,” the being said in perfect Equestrian. “Besides, is that anyway to greet someone who just saved all your lives?”

“How do you know Equestrian, how are you doing this, and what are you?” Trixie asked suspiciously.

“Translation program, Tau'ri more commonly known as a human, and tech we got from some old allies, don’t ask how it works, cause I only use it,” the now identified Tau’ri answered.

“But humans are a myth! An old mares’ tale,” Lyra said in a disbelieving tone.

“Says the sea-green talking unicorn with a griffin standing beside you with a pistol thing still pointed at a harmless hologram,” the Tau’ri said with a mocking tone glaring at Gilda, who sheepishly lowered her pistol.

“Well this is going to to be one of the weirdest first contacts in the books,” the Tau’ri said in a barely audible voice. Twilight could have sworn that it was lower than Fluttershy’s. “Anyways, I am Chief Warrant Officer Two Eric Migzaiz, Commander of the mobile defense platform the Firestorm of the Tau’ri Fleet from another galaxy,” the Warrant Officer said in a louder voice. “My vessel was pulled from my home galaxy to this one by a device of Ancient origin and would like assistance in turn for powerful allies willing to help protect your worlds if need be.”

Twilight was, needless, taken back. Here was a race of beings far more advance than her own, apparently made up of creatures from age old myths, asking for help and willing to give help in return! “My name is Captain Twilight Sparkle of the United Eponian Nations ship Ponyville, thanks for the save. That request is unable to be accepted by me alone, only one of the Princesses can grant that. I do have a strong friendship with with them and I will put in a good word for you. Though I am wondering why you can’t just use the device that brought you here to return home?”

“That device appears to use a transmitter/receiver set up like the stargates and the transmitter on this end is nonfunctional, so I’m stuck here for the time being. Besides I picked up your distress call. That was enough for us to meet even if the transmitter was working. All ships, hell all personnel in the Tau’ri military, have standing orders to seek out new alli...” Eric stopped mid-sentence with a panicked look on his face. Taking a crystal like device of his chest, he said something in what was most likely his native language that sounded urgent. Twilight looked at Rarity first, who shook her head, answering the unasked question that there was nothing on sensors that could cause worry. A quick glance to Lyra showed that they were recording what he was saying for their own translation program spells, to well translate.  Just as she was about to ask what was wrong, the Warrant Officer shoved the crystal device back on his chest.
“How resistant are your kind to radiation?” he asked in a panicked tone.
“Umm, probably about as good as you are, maybe a little better. Why?” Lyra asked as she searched for any radiation strong enough to pierce the Ponyville’s hull. 
“I’m picking up a radiation spike in an area where I’m guessing is engineering. If these readings are right then a reactor has sprung a major leak,” he answered as he looked at something in the distance. 
“Applejack report!” Twilight all but shouted into the comlink.
“Jezzz, Captain no need to shout, Ah’m in the middle of replacing several delicate crystals for the hyperdrive, as soon as Ah do we can head for a shipyard for a complete overhaul,” 
“Applejack the commander of the ship that saved us says that the reactor is leaking radiation, can you confirm,”
“WHAT! Give me a second... Crap! The shielding on reactor two is shot to Tartarus and back! It’s leaking radiation at an increasing rate. EVERYPONY OUT NOW! That hit must of did more damage than Ah thought,” Applejack said as she locked down the only entrance to engineering to seal the radiation from the reactor in the room, since the engineering space was shielded for such an event. “When it rains it pours, cause reactor one was shut down for repairs to some damaged power couples that could of cause an overload, and number two will be shutting down in a minute as soon as the safety system reboots, but the reactor will still be putting out radiation at lethal levels even with the suits, and the drive isn’t fixed. Even if it was, we won’t have enough power to use it anyway.” 
“So we’re basically dead in space. Scratch how are the comms?” 
“Well our new two legged friend’s way of talking to us without using our equipment aside, we lost long range transmitters three seconds before his ship showed up. We don’t have anyway to get in touch with command.”
They heard someone clear their throat. “Maybe I could help with that. My ships has powerful communications gear. I’m positive that it should be more than powerful enough to get in contact with anyone you need to. Heck, when you do, I could tow you to where you need to go. Kill two birds with one stone,” Eric said as he pointed to his ship. It moved so that the the stern was pointed towards the Ponyville. “At full power the Firestorm’s hyperdrive is powerful enough to cross galaxies in minutes!” He said with pride in his ship. “Though towing other vessels does slow it down a bit... Oh now what,” he said as he looked at something almost as soon as alarms started to sound on the bridge. 
“Containment failure! Heavy radiation detected on all levels, evacuate immediately!” 
“How did that happen?! Everyone to the escape pods. Warrant Officer do you mind if  we send our escape pods to your ship?”
“I can do one better. I can beam your entire crew onto my ship.”
“Uh... Beam?” Gilda asked confused.
“Ummm, Teleport.”
“That will be great,” Twilight said, slightly wondering how he could do that.
“Good. Tell your crew to quickly finish doing whatever they’re doing and prepare to teleport. See you in person in about ten minutes,” he said as the holograms disappeared.

“Hope this turns out okay,’ Twilight said as she got her ship ready for evacuation.

“Things are going to change aren’t they, Twilight?” Trixie asked.

“Yes they are Trixie, yes they are.”
----------

“How many beings are there on that ship, Max? Eric asked as he checked a console making sure that the life-support was running at maximum efficiency. 
“I’m detecting about seven hundred life signs. Are you sure that this is a good idea?” responded Max.
“For the last time, yes I am sure. We can’t leave them on that ship. Is the hangar bay clear?” 
“Yes it is. So that is where we are sending them?”
“For the most part. Any wounded are going to medbay, while me and their commander are going to compare notes.”
“You do know that those creatures that they were fighting are a lot like the Wraith, heck accounting to the sensors they have a similar feeding organ.”
“I knew. That why I used the main weapon; it destroyed both of them so that they couldn’t get off a telepathic message to warn how powerful the new guy on the block is.”
“Point, and the ten minutes are about up,”
“Send them a warning and beam up the ones closest to the radiation first and work your way out. I’m heading down to the hangar bay to meet them.” As he got in the transporter booth it finally hit him. 
‘Holy shit. I just was talking to a UNICORN  who was a captain of a ship, whose crew include griffins that I’m beaming over. And apparently they know of humans too in the same way we of them, by myths. Why do I have a feeling that the Ancients had something to do with that?’
______---------_____
Twilight took a quick look around to reorient  herself. She was in what she guessed was an empty hangar bay. She watched with a smile as the last of her crew showed up in flashes of light with a confused look on their faces. Her smile soon turned to a frown as she tried to sense the magic that caused it, only to find none. Then she realized that the entire ship was without magic at all. ‘Now how is that possible? A species that accomplished all of this without any magic? It shouldn’t be possible!’ Twilight was jolted out of her musings by a door opening to the right of her as Eric walked out.
“I’m the commander of this vessel. I’d like to welcome you all aboard the Firestorm. If anyone is hurt I’d like you to tell me so that I can have you beamed to the medbay for treatment.  This ship is controlled by a very advanced A.I. that will answer most of your questions,” he said after he had everyponies’ attention.
Twilight got up from where she was sitting and walked over to him. “Chief Warrant Officer Migzaiz?” at his nod she continued, “I’m Captain Sparkle. I’d like to thank you for doing this. We’d probably have been stuck in this system for a while, if we weren’t destroyed by the Senris first.”
“The Senris, huh? From what I’ve seen of them, they kind of remind of the Wraith, a species that sucks the life out of you with the palm of their hand. Tough suckers to kill since they heal almost instantly every time you shoot them. If they feed recently it takes up to fifty plus rounds to kill them! We lost some battles, but are on our way to winning the war.  Huh, I still can’t believe that I’m talking to a purple unicorn, though I really shouldn’t be surprised with all the weird stuff that happens in this job, no-offense meant.”
“None taken. To tell you the truth, I probably would have reacted the same way,” Twilight said as she got a good look at him.  He was a good head taller than her. One of the things that she noticed was his lack of a tail. Most of the biped creatures that she had seen had a tail to help keep balance. Humans, it seemed, could walk just fine without one. She idly wondered what evolution path caused that. He was wearing a camouflage uniform that had a digital scheme to it. On his left shoulder was a patch that depicted a  pegasus looking creature with symbols written over it while on the other side was a diamond shaped patch, with four ivy leaves at each corner with the stems leading to a circle in the middle. Above that patch was a flag with a blue square in the corner dotted with stars with the rest cover in red and white strips. 

On his chest was a patch that had two black squares above each other. She could just make out a rectangle outline on it. On each side were two patches with writing on them with the crystal device under one of them. She made a note to ask about the meaning of those patches especially the one on his left shoulder. She then noticee that his eyes were jumping between her and her crew, ‘probably doing the same thing, scoping out the other beings and taking stock of what’s what and compiling questions for later,’ she thought. She then noticed that he was lingering on all the ponies’ cutie marks. She thought of way to start the conversation with a smile.
“You know humans are mythical creatures on my planet, and from what you said to Lyra and Gilda, my science officer and tactical officer respectfully, unicorns and griffins are in yours,” Twilight said. “Though that patch on your left shoulder says that your kind know about pegasi.”
“You’re right unicorns, griffins, and pegasi are considered mythical creatures on my planet.” Eric said shaking his head. “I know several people, me included, that would love to know how two cultures in two different galaxies knew of each other in such a way that one culture was the other’s myths. We should probably trade information on each other's histories. You never know, a useless piece of information to one person can be a key to someone else, and trust me that has saved several of our teams before. Also if it’s not some kind of taboo or something, what are those marks on all of beings that have your body type?”
Twilight smirked at the clever ploy to get information.  While it was see through it was effective considering the logic behind it, both showing what each side knows, allowing trust to grow. It also served to show the kind of people you are dealing with. “I can do that, but our home world would be censored out,” she replied. “ And those marks are know as cutie marks. They represent our special talent, each one is linked to our soul and mind, making them unique to each pony. Though some look very similar, each one has minute differences in the fine details.”
“That’s agreeable, understandable, and interesting. Some things would be censored out on my side, too.”
All of a sudden, a disembodied voice spoke out, causing half of the rescued crew to jump. “Chief Migzaiz, I have several ships matching the profile of the two that we destroyed enroute on long range sensors,” it said.
“How many are there Max? That’s the A.I. that I was talking about earlier,” Eric said to a slightly confused Twilight.
“Four of the bigger ones and several smaller destroyer type vessels.” 
“We can take them on easily, but your ship will most likely be destroyed in the process.” Eric said in thought. “And that is unacceptable. Is their ship in position?”
“Yes it is.”
“Good, jump to hyperspace on the course that we set earlier.”
She responded with the deck shuddering as they jumped to hyperspace with the Ponyville in tow.
“Thanks for that. The Ponyville is my first command with a hoof picked crew. I really didn’t feel like filling out all the forms that would come with her destruction,” Twilight said in relief. She liked paperwork, but even she had her limits.
“No problem. So about that data, I’ll take you to a station that you can use for the hour that we’re in hyperspace. Ain’t much else to do as this ship flies itself.” Eric said.
“Why will we be in hyperspace so long? You said that this ship is fast enough to cross the galaxy in minutes,” Twilight said slightly confused.
“I don’t like to push the hyperdrive hard when we’re towing something. So I had Max cut the speed to reduce the strain,” the Chief explained.
“Ah that makes sense. Lead the way. I have a data chip that has some of the more important events in our history that you can use. It’s not the whole thing, but it should fit your purpose just fine, my friend,” She said with a smile, as they walked off after they left Gilda in command and got Applejack to help with any compatibility issues.
------_____-----
“Well... that was more painful than I thought it would be.” Eric said to himself as he remembered the last fifty minutes. It consisted of a pink thing that calls itself Pinkie Pie. She had come to him asking a thousand and two questions about him, his kind, and, surprisingly, parties. 
She pounced right when they finished coming up with a device to make pony tech, as he put it, compatible with Tau’ri (read Ancient, but he didn’t feel like letting them know that nugget of information yet) tech. It was surprisingly easy. He just needed to use the molecular constitution device to make a device to translate the weird energy that was used to power it. He chuckled as he remembered their faces when they saw the machine construct it atom by atom.
Right before the attack of the pink, as he started to call it, he had Max go through and  mark anything of interest so he could get to the good parts fast. 
‘That was a great idea in hindsight, cause with my speed reading skills, I can have at least have some idea what I’m getting into in advance,’ he thought with a smile as he sat down in the control chair.
“Eric, I think you should see this,” Max said before he even sat down, sounding unsure of herself and setting him on edge.
“What is it?” he asked worrying he had sided with a race that was a giant menace. Those worries were replaced with confusion as she showed him a picture of a younger Captain Twilight Sparkle and several of the ship’s command staff without their uniforms, standing outside of a rustic town.

“Yeah, I know that’s the captain of the ship that we saved with several of her crew. What about it?” 
“This was taken about a thousand years ago.”
“So what? These are most likely their ancestors and they look like them. Hell one of my highschool friends said that when I’m wearing a German army helmet, I look like Heinrich Himmler!”
“I ran recognition tests on their cutie marks and the ones in this picture and several others. They came back a ninety-nine point nine nine percent match and they have the same names,” she said. “I found similar matches with other equine members of the crew with others of the same era. Same result for all Eric.” She then listed all the ones she could with a picture of then and now. Lyra, Trixie, Vinyl Scratch, Spitfire, Soarin, Derpy, Thunderlane, Colgate, and, of course, the main six, as it would seem they are. Each one with its accompanying pair of pictures hammer away any doubt of a trick or descendents.”
Eric’s mind went into overdrive as he thought this over. “...each one is linked to our soul and mind making them unique to each pony. Though some look very similar, each one has minute differences in the fine details.” went through his head as he thought about this new information.
“What happened to them?” he asked shakily as if he didn’t want to know.
Max responded with a newspaper article translated to english.
“Today the country of Equestria is in mourning. The Spirit of Chaos Discord has escaped and was taken over by the being known as Nightmare. The resenting being, Death, laid waste to the land,” Eric read aloud softly. “The Elements of Harmony along with Princesses Celestia and Luna, with help from an unidentified midnight black Alicorn with a shield cutie mark, attempted to subdue the monster. Their combined might managed to partly free Discord of the Nightmare corruption but not without deaths,” Eric swallowed hard at that sentence. “Horrified at what he caused, Discord sacrificed himself to destroy the Nightmare for good. Today is named The Day of Harmony in remembrance of the mares that gave their lives to save their friends. The Elements of Harmony, Fluttershy the Element of Kindness, Applejack the Element of Honesty, Pinkie Pie the Element of Laughter, Rarity thr Element of Generosity, Rainbow Dash the Element of Loyalty, and Twilight Sparkle the Element of Magic gave it all to stop Death. May their names never be forgotten.”