//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 A New Beginning // Story: The Phoenix Project // by Cydon //------------------------------// Chapter 3 A New Beginning Official Log, Lead Scientist James Mcreedy, May 11, 2132 "Analysis of the debris indicates that it was in fact a Nova Bomb that was detonated one week ago today. We have learned that it was designed to be an endgame weapon. Five hours after the blast all European countries declared Martial law and sent their civilians to fallout shelters. Twenty four hours after the blast the radioactive cloud reached Asia. As of 6:34 A.M. radiation levels outside the bunker reached high enough levels to cause unprotected biologicals to cook in their skins. At the current rate the bunker will only protect us until the end of December, then we too will die of exposure. It is recommended that all available manpower be put into Project Phoenix if we can finish in time we may just make it through to see the sun once more. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> I open my eyes and look around. I was in a barn and it was still very dark, My memories of the previous day came back and I decided to go for a walk. The barn looked relatively new not more than a few years old the red paint glistening in the moonlight. Various farm equipment was scattered around with barrels full of apples and a few bales of hay like the one I awoke on. I journey to the door and push it open, the well oiled hinges don't give so much as a squeak. I glance towards the farmhouse, no lights come from its windows. 'Braeburn must be asleep.' I glance over to the orchard and take in the moonlit night. I continue to watch as the moon slowly rises to it's apex. I look out over to where the town of Appleloosa lay. 'Well it can't hurt to look can it?' I walk down a small path, before long I come upon a small hill at the edge of the orchard near the town. Atop the hill resided a great apple tree it was easily the biggest tree in the entire orchard. I reach out and put my hand on its trunk, the bark was rough and obviously old. 'But not as old as I am now are you?' I chuckled lightly and looked to the town the clock tower chimed once. 'Now I can fix my watch.' I press the buttons to adjust the time, when I finish the watch gives off a disturbingly loud beep. I wince at the sudden noise. 'Good thing i'm alone up here.' "Hello?" 'Or not.' I quickly glance around for the source of the voice hoping to spot them first so I could run the other way, after seeing no one and no pony I sigh. 'Must be my imagination.' I hear a rustling in the branches above and look up, In the dim light I can see the still form of a pony its magenta eyes looking back down at me. I stare back and quickly realize those eyes were filled with fear, before I can say anything the pony sucks in a deep breath preparing to scream. As quick as I can I grab the pony pulling it down from the tree as safely as possible and using my other hand to clamp its mouth shut. The scream comes out but is heavily muffled and is too quiet to be heard from town, the pony continues for nearly a minute before exhausting itself. I turn its head to look me in the eyes again the magenta orbs are wide and dart about wildly. "Will you please stop screaming and let me talk? If you can do that I'll let you go." The pony looks at me with its big magenta eyes and nods. "Good." I remove my hand from the ponies muzzle as it moves a hoof to rub it. The pony backs up to the tree and sits down on its rump. "Please don't hurt me." The voice was soft and quiet but clearly feminine and still containing fear. I move a few feet away and sit down trying to be as non threateningly as possible. "I'm not going to hurt you." She looks at me skeptically. "What..what are you?" Her voice quavers a little as she speaks. "Nothing for a pony like yourself to be scared of." I say finishing with a chuckle and a smile. She seems to relax a little, but remains tense. I quickly look her over, the pony's coat is a faded yellow and her mane is blue with streaks of a lighter blue. I then notice she has wings folded against her sides. She notices me looking her over and frowns. "What?" She says folding her forehooves in front of herself. "You have wings, can you fly?" "Of course I can I am a pegasus after all." She says with a look that screams 'Duh!'. "Well what's your name little miss pegasus?" With that I earn a small giggle and a smile from the mare. "My name is Sky Dasher. But you still haven't answered my question, what are you?" "Sky, I like it. You can call me Cydon and I am a human." "A human huh? I've never seen one you before. Hey what's that on your hat?" She points a hoof at my hat so I take it off. "Oh this?" I say pulling the feather out. "It's just a feather I found on the ground." "Huh. It looks like one of mine." "Do you want it back?" "No you can keep it." She waves her hoof dismissively. "Thanks." I put the feather back in my hat. "I think it looks good in there." Sky giggles and gives me another smile. "So what are you doing out here?" I scratch my head to think about it but come up blank. "I could ask the same of you Sky. Don't you have someplace to be?" The mare's smile fades and she hangs her head low. "I..I don't have anywhere, I've been alone for so long now. My...my parents, I was nine when they...when they..." Her eyes had begun to water when she started then on to crying and now she was sobbing. I can't help but feel sorry for this mare, one who lost her parents just like I lost everyone I ever knew. I reach out to the still sobbing mare and put my hand on her shoulder she shudders at my touch but doesn't shy away so I do the only thing I know to do when someone is sad. I give her a hug, her coat is smooth and soft its almost like hugging a giant teddy bear but with muscles and bones and it can hug back. The sobbing mare wraps her hooves around me and hugs back with tears still flowing freely she says "Thank you." I just squeeze her tighter in response. "If you want you can stay with me in Braeburn's barn I'm sure he won't mind." Sky looks up at me with her big magenta eyes and nods. She is no longer crying but doesn't release me from the hug either. So I scoop her up in my arms earning another giggle from my new yellow friend as I carry her through the orchard to the barn. It wasn't a very long trip nor was she that heavy maybe around fiftyish pounds. After arriving I push open the door with my foot and go inside. I set her down on the bed I made out of a hay bale and promptly lay down next to her. Sky curls up next to me putting her head on my lap. 'Well not even my second day and I've already met some natives made a friend and no..pony was hurt in the process.' I close my eyes as Sky falls asleep with me gently stroking her mane. 'I promise you Sky you will never have to be alone again.' ___________________________________________________________________________ I wake up to the sound of hoofsteps approaching the barn, as the doors slowly open I look down at Sky. She was still asleep with her head on my lap although her legs and wings would twitch occasionally. 'Must be flying.' I look up, Braeburn is looking at us with a confused look on his face. I put a finger to my lips and pointed outside. He seemed to get the message and he left the barn. I carefully get up gently placing Sky's head on the soft hay and make my way outside. "Cydon, who is that? And why are they sleeping with you in my barn?" He sounded genuinely curious so I tell him the truth. "I woke up last night around one in the morning and went for a walk to help me get back to sleep. I found a hill overlooking town with a great big apple tree on it and decided to see what I could see from up there. I found her in the tree alone and terrified of the big scary alien. After I convinced her I wasn't going to hurt her we talked a bit and I learned she didn't have a place to stay so I kinda offered to let her stay in your barn with me." Braeburn stared me down trying to make sure I was telling the truth, after a few seconds of a disconcerting glare he sighed. "Alright, I can see your tellin the truth just try not to hurt anypony. Ah! I almost forgot, you can eat breakfast at the table with us ponies just uh take it slow alright. Don't want any misunderstandings, and bring your new friend too, I'm sure she would enjoy a home cooked meal." I nod and grunt an affirmative. "Her name is Sky Dasher by the way." Braeburn nods and heads for the house. With breakfast at stake I turn and walk back into the barn. I look over and Sky is still asleep, so with a mischievous grin I grab some hay from the floor. 'Lets see if Sky is ticklish.' I try wiggling the hay in front of her muzzle but she just snorts and rolls over. Next I try her stomach no reaction at all, hooves the same. 'Hmm, well I tried everywhere else so why not?' I try tickling her wings. As soon as the hay touches her wing she bolts wide awake she fixes me with a menacing glare before laughing so hard MY sides start to hurt so I begin laughing too. The sound of our laughter stretches far and wide, Braeburn just looks out a window towards the barn and grins while the ponies in town pause their morning routines to listen in on this odd event. Suddenly Sky stops laughing and she once again glares at me. 'Uh oh i'm in for it now.' I turn to run but don't even finish turning when I am tackled by a yellow blur "REVENGE" She yells returning the favor with interest. After several minutes of excruciating tickle hoof torture, we walk towards the house ready for some food. Being a gentleman I hold the door open for Sky, earning a giggle and a thank you. Once she was inside I look back to the barn and then down the path to my pod. 'I need to get back to my pod at some point, this place isn't a warzone.' Hearing voices inside I turn back to the door and duck below the frame as I step inside. At the table were three ponies, Sky and two new ponies. Both new ponies had a silver coat and a black mane, the only difference between them were their eyes. One had shiny silver eyes and the other had faded sky blue eyes. They both had brown stetsons and when I entered they turned to look at me. The strangest part was that they did not look surprised or scared, just a small disapproving frown as they stared me down. With nothing else to do I stared back at them sporting a small frown of my own for good measure. "Silver, Dutch this is who I was telling you about." Braeburn said as he walked through the kitchen door a tray of coffee cups balanced on his back. "So this is the human eh? Kinda scrawny, what do you think Dutch?" Said the one with silver eyes. "I dunno are humans supposed to look like that?" Said the one with blue eyes. "Hey I'm right here ya'know." The two ponies look to one another then to Braeburn then back to each other and shrugged. "Name's Sunny Silver Pie but everypony just calls me Silver." Said the one with silver eyes. "And I'm Dutch Apple Pie." Said the one with blue eyes. "Nice to meet you, as Braeburn may have already told you my name is Cydon." The two ponies stand up and walk over to me I stretch out my hand and they took turns shaking my hand in a hand/hoof shake. "So what do you ponies do out here anyway?" They go back to their seats as Braeburn goes back through the door. "Me an Silver here help out around the farm bucking apples and doing various chores." "Ok, farmhands and Braeburn owns the farm then?" I say looking over at the door Braeburn went through just as he comes back through this time with trays of food balanced on his back. "Well not completely, the bank owns more of it than I do but that will change soon enough." As he sets down the trays I take a closer look at the food. "Is that? IT IS! You guys have pancakes! Yes!" I fist pumped and was about to do my signature 'We got Pancakes dance.' when I glance over to the ponies and noticed them staring, Silver and Dutch with a confused look while Braeburn and Sky just looked at me with a small grin. "Eh heh heh sorry I just got excited I haven't had pancakes in a really long time." "S'all right these here pancakes are something you should be excited about. Their a Granny Smith Special, Zap Apple Pancakes." "Zap apple?" I question. "Zap apple." They all confirm. "...." With no explanation forthcoming I decided to try some. The others set the table as I sat down. Braeburn passed the pancake tray around after getting his own pancakes, I sat at the other end of the table from Braeburn next to Dutch. After he got his pancakes he passed it to me. I looked at his hooves as he held the tray and quickly wondered. 'HOW DO THEY DO THAT WITHOUT FINGERS?!' I take the tray and help myself to the Zap Apple Pancakes. I look at the table again and notice that they do in fact have forks, and they were holding them with their hooves just as I would my hands. 'Seriously? How the Hell do they do that?' I grab my own fork and stab my pancakes, tearing off a piece I inspect it closely. It looked like a normal enough pancake except for the bits of rainbow colored apple. Dutch pokes me in the side and says. "Are ya gonna stare at it all day or are ya gonna eat it?" With that I take a bite, after the small explosion of deliciousness hit my tongue I look at Braeburn who was still wearing a smile although it was a little bigger now as he looked at me, gauging my reaction. I gave him a huge smile and tore into the rest of my pancakes with gusto. I could hear some chuckling but I didn't care these pancakes were just too good. My pancake shoveling was interrupted by a knock on the door. Braeburn got up from the table and answered the door, I peeked around Braeburn and saw Professor Bones standing in the doorway he looked a little disheveled and he had on a pair of saddlebags. Braeburn and the Professor were quietly conversing in the doorway and I couldn't make out what they were saying so I went back to my pancakes. "Cydon we need to talk." Professor Bones said as he trot into the room a determined look on his face his horn glowing and a- 'QUILL AND PARCHMENT FLOATING RIGHT NEXT TO HIM!' "GAH!" I Shout as I nearly fall out of the chair. "How are you doing that?" I point to his quill and parchment still floating by his side, he glanced to where I was pointing. "Do what? Magic? I'm afraid you would have to ask somepony else that, I'm just an archaeologist. I only know the basics of how magic works." "Wuh? Magic, really? If you say so. Huh, first unicorns then pegasi, next you'll be telling me some other mythical creatures from my world like griffins exist here too." I finish with a chuckle. "Oh but they do." The others flinch from the loud smack of my hand meeting my face at high speed. "Griffins too." I groan. 'My face hurts now.' "Indeed, I wonder what other mythical creatures from your world are real here? And how your people came to know about them of course." "So what kind of magic can you do Professor?" "Me? Well I can levitate objects as you can clearly see but I can also use my magic in my work by finding and cleaning bones and artifacts." He said puffing out his chest obviously quite proud of his talent. "That's pretty cool." "Indeed it is, but now we must begin our Q and A if you don't mind." "Um yeah sure I've finished breakfast but you have to answer any questions I have as well." "I would expect nothing less. But we should sit, this will take a while." The professor made his way to the living room and sat on a couch I sat down on the one across from it and Sky joined me. Braeburn and the Pie's said they needed to get to work and left, leaving us alone in the house. "Before we begin who is this lovely lady?" Sky giggles at the compliment. "This is my friend Sky Dasher we met last night." "Ah it is a pleasure to meet you Sky. I am Professor Bones." "It's good to meet you Professor." "Now let's begin, first off I want to know a little more about your world." "Okay, We humans called our planet Terra, it was estimated to be over two hundred something billion years old. The planets surface is 75% water and we have several large oceans. One day and night cycle is twenty four hours and the planet orbits our sun called Sol once every 365 days." "Who raises the sun and the moon?" "No one it does it by itself." "Fascinating." He was furiously scribbling notes now. "Now tell me about the humans." "We humans evolved from primates about thirteen million years ago. Everything that happened previous to recorded history is mostly speculation, about 2133 years before I left we began recording our history on stone then paper and nowadays on electronics. We are also the only sentient species on the planet." "What are electronics?" "Pieces of metal with wires that perform a function, They are powered by electricity." "Ah okay, What can you tell me about the last few hundred years of human history?" "Well so much happened that it would take historians weeks to talk about and I'm not a historian." Professor Bones looked a little disheartened. "But my pods computer should still be working, how about we have it print you a few books or something?" "You could do that? Oh that would be fantastic thank you. But before I go gallivanting off in pursuit of knowledge how about I answer some of your questions." "Yes please, now you said someone-" "Somepony." He corrected me. "Right somepony raises the sun and moon?" "Indeed, Princess Celestia raises the sun and her sister Princess Luna the moon." "Amazing and they do that with magic?" "Yes, but no unicorn would be able to replicate it. " "Why not?" "Because they are not unicorns they are alicorns." "An alicorn what's that? What do they look like?" "Princess Celestia is white with a flowing multi colored mane and Luna is a dark blue with a mane like the night sky. Being alicorns they have the traits of the three pony races. The strength of the earth ponies the magic of the unicorns and the wings of the pegasi." "They must be very powerful then. how long have they ruled?" "I do not know how many years they have ruled as we have no records pertaining to the era before Nightmare moon but I can safely say they have ruled over Equestria for over one thousand years." "Their over one thousand years old! How is that possible?" "Many speculate that the love they receive from their citizens sustains them, others that alicorns are nigh immortal but they have lived a long time yes." "You said Nightmare Moon who was that?" Begin explanation of first two seasons of MLP FIM 'What? If you need me to tell you this than Brony I am disappoint. Go watch it' "So the elements of Harmony defeated Discord and freed Luna from the Nightmare?" "Long story short, yes." "So who are the elements? I have to meet them sometime." "They asked for their privacy and Princess Celestia allowed it but I do know they live in Ponyville." "I'll have to visit Ponyville sometime then." Sky puts a hoof on my arm. "Can I go with you Cydon?" "I was about to ask you that. Of course you can Sky but first I think a visit to the Princesses in Canterlot is in order, and before we can do that we still need to introduce me to Appleloosa." "Yes, Quite. It will be very interesting to see most the town screaming and fleeing at the sight of you." Professor Bones says with a chuckle. "Thanks for the vote of confidence Professor. I do have one last question right now though then we can make a stop at my pod before heading into town." "What is it?" "All of the ponies I've met so far have a tattoo on their flank what is that all about?" "I don't know what a tattoo is but these marks on our flanks are called cutie marks they represent a ponies special talent, they appear on their own when you find your talent. Don't humans have cutie marks?" "No, the only thing we have are tattoos and those are nothing like cutie marks. So Sky whats your cutie mark mean?" With the attention now on Sky she rose and stretched her wings revealing her cutie mark. A blue lightning bolt with yellow wings. "When I was a filly sometimes my parents would take me up above the clouds to watch the weather team work. One time there was a mistake and the storm scheduled for that day grew out of control. We tried to go home but the wind was too strong and I lost sight of my Mom and Dad." Tears formed in her eyes as she thought about her parents. "I decided the best thing to do would be to land and find shelter, on my way down lightning started shooting in all directions, I was terrified but I had to reach the ground to be safe. All of a sudden my coat hairs stood up and I could feel the electricity in the air, I knew I had to move or I would be hit but I was too slow. It hurt... a lot, but then it didn't and just like that I could feel a burst of strength I had never felt before. I flew faster than I've ever flown before, I looked behind me and saw that I left a yellow light in my wake. I flew to the ground but I couldn't stop and crashed, I woke up in the hospital a few days later and saw this on my flank." "Wow Sky that's amazing, You're amazing." "Thank you." Sky said giggling. "Okay then, I guess it's off to the pod then?" Professor Bones asked. "Yeah lets get out of here." The walk to my pod was uneventful with nothing more than idle chatter breaking the silence. When we arrived at the pod I realized the ramp did not deploy so I hopped up and grabbed the door frame, pulling myself inside with relative ease. The pod had not changed since I left yesterday afternoon except for some fresh dust blown in on the wind. "Tara?" "Yes Captain?" "I'm going to put you back into the pod computer, can you help me find the information for the Professor?" "Of course Captain." Tara's chip ejected from my backpack and I put it into the pods AI slot. "The pods datacore is intact although parts of its memory have been corrupted." "Nothing too important I hope?" "The files containing information on the Phoenix Project are among them." "Guess that means I'll have to tell them about that. Can you print all this off onto paper or something?" "This pod is not equipped with a printer but I can download all the information onto a datapad, collect one from storage and place it on the port." I grabbed a datapad and placed it onto the port. I turned around and walked into Sky who had flown inside. "Whoa! Hey Sky, welcome to my pod." "Did you live here?" "No no no I didn't live here this is just where all of my stuff is. For the last couple hundred thousand years though I was asleep in that stasis chamber over by the wall." "hundred..thousand..years...but but how?" "Cryostasis, an advanced human technology that allows the user to sleep for a very long time without feeling the effects of time." "Download complete." "Perfect timing. Now I just need to give this to the Professor." A buzzing noise slowly began building up in volume getting louder and louder until it abruptly stopped. That's when the screams started, the sheer terror of the ponies in town could be heard from inside my pod it continued while Sky and I rushed outside. I quickly grabbed Tara and the datapad on the way out, from our vantage point in the pod we could see the peaceful town of Appleloosa was burning. Dozens of colorful blobs darting about and something else too, dozens of black blobs were buzzing around the town leaving fire in their wake. "Changelings! Cydon, you said you were a soldier right? Can you stop them?" "Changelings? The black bugs that crashed the wedding?" Sky nodded "Well alrighty then I guess I get to go squash a few bugs under my boots, can't be too hard can it? I mean what was the point of all that Ranger training if I don't get to use it to protect the innocent." "Ranger training?" "I'll tell you later I've got a town to save." I leaped from the pod and charged towards town. 'Lets see what these bugs can do.'