First Contact
(Followed by First Headache.)
Mount Aris was quite nearly silent other than the sound of feathers twitching from hundreds of hippogriffs entranced by the sight above them. The huge ship descending out of the sky was nearly as quiet, with only the faint sound of rushing wind as it approached the ground, carrying what the local hippogriffs recognized as a red Yeti Honeybee fighter in a faint blue glow beneath it. There was a faint thump as the smaller craft was placed down on the short-cut grass, then the far larger ship drifted slightly to one side and settled down just as gracefully.
There was almost a rush of worried parents to the bright red craft since their children had vanished into the sky hours ago. The search had grown to encompass even the passing pegasus city of Cloudsdale, which floated within a short distance of the hippogriff mountain. The parental rush was stopped almost at once, both by Celestia’s cautioning raised wing and the sight of the happy children inside the small craft waving through the transparent canopy.
Ever so slowly, three odd creatures emerged from the large craft, one deliberate step at a time, and approached Princess Celestia and Luna. They each raised a hand with fingers divided in a peculiar way while the first one nodded briefly at the Royal Sisters.
“Live long and prosper,” said the tall creature. “I am Soval. You do not understand us, but on behalf of the planet Vulcan, we welcome you to the company of other races such as yours who have matured enough to develop warp drive and explore beyond your small planet.”
“Thank you for bringing back our errant subjects,” said Celestia, who gave up trying to divide the feathers on her wings to duplicate the odd gesture of friendship. “And welcome to Equestria. I am Princess Celestia and this is my sister, Princess Luna. If you would care to stay for tea, we would be glad to discuss the events that brought you here.”
“You speak our language?” asked Soval, apparently slightly set back.
“Translation spell,” said Luna. “Although we have no spell as powerful as the one that makes your vessel fly.”
“Puzzling.” The vulcan turned to look at the small craft and the four children inside, making faces through the canopy and gesturing as if it had gotten stuck. “But your spacefaring vessel passed ours several times before it stopped. They waved.”
“A detail of which we must ask the children when they are extracted,” said Luna.
“Children?” This time, the vulcan was obviously confused. “You send children into space?”
“Generally, we try to keep them from doing dangerous things such as this. Apparently, this was an attempt at skywriting that went slightly awry. Excuse me for a moment.” Celestia produced a crowbar and pried on the canopy for a few moments until it made a popping noise and slid free. Four spacesuit-clad children came tumbling out, not quite as enthusiastic as they could have been with the Royal Sisters towering over them, but both ponies exchanged a high-hoof before falling behind the two young hippogriffs, and the four of them waited impatiently for their chance to talk.
“Children, this is Soval of the planet Vulcan. Soval, this young hippogriff is Skyswirler, from what I understand the captain of the vessel. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to describe her as the ringleader.”
Skyswirler had just about begun to talk, but quickly shut her beak with a snap despite the obvious flood of words that was waiting to be unleashed the moment she got the opportunity.
“And her young companion, Chance,” continued Celestia as she pointed to the next spacesuit-clad hippogriff. “The pilot, if I am not mistaken.” Large violet eyes turned to the small spacecraft and the shortened wing on the far side. “Not a perfect pilot, but given the situation, they were in good claws.”
“Cloudsdale wasn’t supposed to be there. The schedule in the paper was wrong,” said Skyswirler in a quick burst of words, although she silenced herself immediately afterward.
“And this young lady is Eclair,” said Celestia without a pause. “A very talented earth pony, as the local fireponies made sure to tell me. Twice.”
“The explosion when you dropped part of the rocket was quite impressive,” said Luna despite the quelling glance that her sister turned on her. “Filled with all the colors of the rainbow. We would very much like to see it again. Sometime later,” she added when Celestia cleared her throat.
“And last but not least is this talented young unicorn, Boom Boom,” said Celestia.
“Yeah!” said the snow-white colt, punching the sky with one hoof. “This day is epic! We gotta try this again, if I can duplicate the accident.”
“Accident?” asked Soval.
“It was the Wub Drive,” explained Skyswirler in a rush. “It shorted out when we punched it to the limit to avoid Cloudsdale whichshouldn’thavebeenthereanyway—”
“Do not shout at the youth,” chastised a younger female vulcan who moved up beside him. “I am T’Pau. My apologies for my subordinate’s unruly outburst, Princess Celestia. He obviously did not hear the child correctly.”
“Naa, we didn’t know for sure what’d happen when the amp overloaded,” said Boom Boom, hopping from one hoof to another as he talked. “Cross-wired the bass register with the tweeters to give us more dynamic range and loaded up a rockin’ guitar solo for power when it looked like we were going to crash.”
“And whooom!” said Chance, exchanging a high hoof/claw with his fellow teenage technical terror. “When we make it work again, we can make it better! I bet we can get more than twice the power out of the thaumic boosters if we hot-link them together with my dad’s stereo and run the amp until it glows.”
“Cube root, dude. Eight Ex!” Boom Boom lit up his horn and began inscribing glowing formula on the air in front of him. “Sixteen if we use dimensional folding. We could take off from the ground! Provided there’s nothing really flammable around.”
“The engines’d melt really fast like the stove when I make my cupcakes,” said Eclair. “You need a thermal paste for a heat sink, like frosting. Granny has a big cake mixer that never has worked right since my last exploding flan. We could turn it into—”
“Hold,” said the female Vulcan with an outstretched hand. “You can’t possibly use an audio replication device and cooking equipment to—”
Celestia held a cautioning wing in front of the Vulcan’s hand, which really was not needed. The children were paying her no attention at all, and had gathered together for a close conference for their next attempt.
“Are all of your young this… exuberant?” asked T’Pal as if she were speaking a terrible obscenity.
“No,” admitted Celestia.
“Thankfully,” added Luna. “Although there are exceptions.”
“Very few,” said Celestia. “T’Pal, perhaps you and your crew would like to discuss more calming things over a cup of tea. I assure you, there will be no explosions.”
“And our guards will prevent the children from exploring your starfaring vessel,” added Luna with just the slightest emphasis on the qualifier.
“That would be… acceptable,” said the vulcan female. She moved forward with two other crewmembers, but stopped to look at Skyswirler, who had not moved to join the intense discussion the other three were having. “Child, are you troubled by your emotional experience?”
“No,” said Skyswirler. “Not really. I’m thinking.”
If T’Pal had more experience with illogical Equestrians than simply running down an errant spacecraft and returning it to the point of origin, she would not have asked the next obvious question.
“So what are you thinking about, child?”
“Starwriting,” said Skyswirler with a far-off expression. “So cool.”