//------------------------------// // Part 2 // Story: When I see a world untouched by war... // by StreakTheFox //------------------------------// -:|Part 2|:-        Haze.  It was all hazy.          The ghost felt himself coming back to consciousness, but at an achingly slow rate.  His mind couldn’t make up or down, or even decipher what up and down even were yet.  His eyes rolled around under their sockets, focusing on nothing at all through the darkness as they tried to re-establish active connections to the brain.  A few of his muscles twitched, some joints bent just slightly, eliciting small cracks as they loosened up a bit.            His mind made further attempts to wake up, to be able to regularly process the income of information.  It tried to activate its other senses again, but found most blocked from anything out of the ordinary due to the suit still being clung to the body.  He smelled nothing, he felt nothing, he could taste nothing.  Even his eyelids refused to open, stuck in place by the thick crust of sleep and from staying like that for so long.  And yet, the ears were able to work.          He heard something, but it was all hazy still.  It was as if his mind was lost in a flat,  barren field covered with a dense fog, trying to find out where it was.  A sound, a tone, little trinkets of information were fed to the brain by way of its ears.  It tried to process the information, but found it unable due to everything still being conjumbled.  The craft, a porta-potty.  It would still be in that, it reasoned. Hyperdrive, a flash, and then unconsciousness.          More noises.  He’s in a craft, with a console.  A warning, a pending notification noise, perhaps.          No.  The noise was a ding.  A constant, looping ding.  It stopped, then started again at intervals the mind could not understand.  Was it a beep?  Was it from the console?          No.  It was from beyond, it echoed all around.  Plastic.  Like something hard hitting plastic.  The craft... a porta-potty.  Made out of a shell of plastic.  Was something hitting it?          Yes.  Something had to be.  Something was interacting with the craft.  Movement.  It needed to move, to react.  Outside forces were acting upon it, it needed to gather information.          The eyes, still unable to open.  No smell still... the same smell of the suit. Taste was the same, the tongue was not lolling out of the mouth.  It could not feel anything, the body was immobile.          Mobility.  It needed to move, to feel its surroundings.  The muscles twitched, they were responsive.  The nerves still worked, and so it could send messages to them.          Arm.  Raise the arm.  The arm moved, just slightly.  It moved again, more this time, in an unknown direction.  And then the arm fell.         Falling.  Up and down, its surroundings.  The mind was recovering more as it probed its senses to work, and the feeling of up-and down was becoming detectable again.          Move.  The arm moved, as did the other.  They pressed against what the body was against, what it was laying on.  It pressed down, lifting the body up.  Nerves all across the body reacted, and told the brain what it was doing.          Sideways.  The body was sideways, laying against something, something hard.  The craft, was it still inside?  Reach around, feel, try to obtain more information. A lever, something to pull on.  One arm felt it, and the hand reacted.  The fingers, curling around by instinct.  A grip.  Get a grip on the lever, and get a grip on the situation.          Cognizant.  The brain needed to become cognizant of its surroundings.  The dinging sound stopped.  The lever was to the side, not up, not down.  Sideways, like it was.  It needed to know what the lever did.  It pulled, and something released.  A click, it heard a click, and then the woosh of air.          Air.  Outside, was it still space?  It needed to know.  Reasonable thought was not yet reactivated.  It just needed to know, to dispel the fog, to get out of the haze.          Push.  Push the body, use the other arm to push the body to the lever.  The legs, have them help.  They did so.  The lever gave way, allowing the body to move through.          Light.  It saw light, even through the mask and the closed eyes, he noticed its surroundings get brighter.  It shined through the haze and into the workings of the mind, blinding it temporarily.          And then pain, burning pain.  The light was too much, the mind was not ready.  It wanted the light to stop.  It told the muscles to stop, whatever they were doing made light, and it hurt.          Falling.  He feel, he could feel it.  His body slumped over something, its legs still against the hardened feel of the craft.  His face and upper body hit something else, and he no longer felt the light burning as much.  But there was something else.          Soft.  It was something softer than the craft.  It shifted when he hit it, but then it stopped as he stopped.  He moved an arm, it slid against the softer surface.  It crumbled against his touch and gathered around his moving arm.          Dirt.  It was dirt, or at least something like it.  The light. The dirt.  The burning and the pain.  He was alive.  He knew it, and he was somewhere.  He didn’t know where, but he didn’t really care.  His mind was already spent, having exerted too much energy through the haze to try to gather information.  It wanted to rest, to really rest.  It wanted to really recover, instead of being forcefully jerked out of consciousness.  His muscles relaxed.  His mind relaxed.  The burning faded away.          And so he slept. -:|~|:-          Quiet.  Cool.  A slight breeze... these were the things Twilight Sparkle enjoyed most about the night as she sat on her balcony.  The moon and stars were out, illuminating the town of Ponyville enough for her to make out the shapes of all the buildings in the quiet town.  She sighed, a long pleasant sigh.  There were few things she liked more than sitting outside on her balcony at night, enjoying its pleasantries while reading a good book.          It wasn’t a research book at all, however.  It was a story, a work of fiction by another pony.  She was outside to relax her mind, to let it delve into the tales of another’s life.  And so her mind was at ease, simply enjoying its surroundings while soaking in the words on the pages before her.  Yes, tonight is a good night.          She took the time to savor that moment, looking up into the sky while breathing deeply.  It was all so perfect to her.  As she gazed up at the sky the world seemed so calm, so peaceful, everything being at rest save for the little twinkling of the one bright star...          ...That was also moving.          Twilight Sparkle blinked, her vision focusing on the slightly moving light in the sky.  The glowing got brighter, and it began to move further across the sky at a slow, yet steadily increasing pace.  Her eyes stayed focused to it, an eyebrow raising up as she thought about the star.  She was just looking up at the sky a minute ago, surely she would have noticed a shooting star flying around.  And why was it moving faster as it went?          That was when she noticed it getting brighter, and still moving faster.  Her eyes widened at the prospect of it actually being a meteor that was entering the atmosphere.  And as it got bigger, she thought about the possibility of it impacting on the ground.  She hoped it wouldn’t land anywhere near civilization if it did, but it would be such a wondrous thing for her to research.  She began thinking about all the new, exotic types of minerals and metals the space rock would contain.  She expected some zinc, and also iron, or perhaps some cobalt or copper.          But she didn’t expect the object to take a turn, and head straight for her.          The star was no longer a star, but instead a small, moving object, rapidly approaching her.  She stood up, caught off guard by its sudden change.  Before she could react she saw the object fly overhead, barely grazing the top of her home with its re-entry fires.  And for a brief moment, right when it was directly above her, she caught the briefest glimpse of the meteor, a single thought stuck into her mind.          Is that an out-house? A loud whine was heard from the meteor as it passed overhead, followed by a crash as it undoubtedly impacted the ground somewhere.  She turned around, bringing a hoof up to her gaping mouth.  A meteor - now meteorite - had just impacted somewhere in or near Ponyville.  All around her lights began to shine through the windows of many of the homes in the town.  Some distant voices could be heard, along with the sounds of opening and closing doors.  Ponies all around the town had heard the noise, and many were out and about trying to figure out what it was.  In the end, it wasn’t really hard to decipher the cause of the sound, if the smoke and fire in the distance was anything to go by.          A meteorite had landed nearby, and Twilight Sparkle was going to be the first to examine it... even if it did appear to look like an out-house. :~:          Twilight Sparkle ran as fast as she could through the town, her saddlebags accompanying her.  Off in the distance was smoke rising from a source of light, no doubt where the object landed.  As she passed the last few homes at the edge of town, she realized that it landed just at the edge of Applejack’s farm.  Making a mental note of that fact, she proceeded on until she reached the edge of the crater.          She paused, looking at the skid mark on the ground that led up to the object’s final resting spot.  The trail was at least twenty meters long, and actually knocked over a tree on its way there.  She peered over the crater, seeing the fires from impact dieing down rapidly.  Only a few flames remained in the blackened dirt while the object itself appeared intact.  And, to her surprise, it was exactly what she thought it was.          An outhouse.  An interstellar outhouse had fallen from the sky and landed in Applejack’s orchard.  Surely, this had to be some sort of prank.  Twilight sighed loudly, but then perked up as she remembered one crucial detail.  How could an outhouse survive such a crash like that? she thought as she took a few steps into the crater.  She was careful with her steps, making sure that the ground wasn’t smoldering hot before she put weight on her hoof.  Maneuvering around a few stray flames she approached the little structure designed for toiletry purposes.  She levitated a magnifying glass out of her bag and began to examine the outside of the structure.          This thing doesn’t even have a scratch on it... and it’s in one piece!  What sort of engineering would allow it withstand the intense stress of hurling to the ground on fire and then impacting to make a crater?! Twilight couldn’t fathom just how in the world something could do this.  Clearly, there was some sort of magic at play.  Her horn lit up as she examined the outhouse, yet did not find any trace of magical influence.  She raised both her eyebrows at this, genuinely surprised at how it could have no scratch on it.          That was when more ponies began to show up, all of them gather at the edge of the crater to see just what exactly interrupted their sleep.  Some of them, however, were less than pleased at what they found.          “An outhouse?  Seriously!?” Rainbow Dash yelled out in as she floated above Twilight, staring at the fallen object.  “That’s what caused all this noise and woke me up?  What the hay!?”          Some murmurs of agreement and general unamusement were heard throughout the rapidly growing crowd of ponies.          “It’s so boldly interrupted my beauty sleep!” Rarity cried out.          “It woke up the babies!’ Carrot cake exclaimed as he and his wife cradled their crying babies in their hooves.          “It rustled my jimmies!” the jelly pony yelled, still covered with several blobs of jelly.          “My muffin got scared!” Derpy complained.          “It knocked over on’a mah apple trees!” Applejack yelled, infuriated.          “It kept me from saving 15% or more on my car insurance by switching to Geico!” Lyra gasped out overdramatically, followed by being slapped in the back of the head by Bonbon’s hoof.  “Ow!” “Would everypony please calm down?” Twilight asked with a raised voice so they could hear her.  “There’s a reasonable explanation for an outhouse to fall out of the sky like this.”  As she said this, a though her mind.  Hmph, I wonder if it’s currently occupied.  As if to humor herself, she looked over to the side of the outhouse, seeing a door.  To her surprise, the little color insignia below the handle was red words in black reading “‘Occupied’.  “What?”         She paused, and then shook her head.  There’s no way there’s actually somepony in there! But still, she thought back to how the door had actually been marked occupied, and wondered if there actually was one.  She walked up to the door and tried to open it, but came to discover that it actually would not budge.  She tried again, this time with magic, but the door simply didn’t move.          She sighed, and then turned around to face the crowd.  “Everypony, I suggest you all go back home.  There’s really nothing to see here other than what appears to be some elaborate prank.”  In truth, she really was curious as to how the outhouse had landed without a scratch.  But then she realized that her words were probably more true than expected, perhaps it was all a prank.  As the group gave voiced their own forms of disgruntlement, Twilight thought about how the prank could have been pulled off.          Perhaps somepony could have magicked up an image if a falling outhouse, then have the crater already preset with the outhouse inside, and from there just make the sounds and fire.  Easy.  To Twilight, it seemed like a plausible conclusion to solve the mystery.  So, with that, she gave another sigh and turned around, her mind deciding she had had enough for one night.  “I’m tired, it’s time for bed.” :~:         “This is it Granny,” Applejack claimed as she pointed her hoof at the offending outhouse.  “This is the thing that tore apart our field, and knocked over our apple tree!”          Applejack, Applebloom, Big Macintosh, and Granny Smith were all gathered at the side of the crater, looking in on the outhouse that lay inside.  It was midday with the sun high in the sky.  Applebloom approached it, poking at the side of it with her hoof.          “What the hay is an outhouse doing in a crater?  Did it fall from th’sky or somethin?”          “...Eeyup.”          “Ah don’t care where it came from, it attacked our farm!”  Applejack exclaimed.  “Why, when ah met mah hooves on th’one who did this...”          “But, who in their right minds would throw an outhouse at us?” Granny Smith asked as she put her glasses on to get a better look.          “I dunno, but this thing feels weird,” Applebloom said as she continued poking at it.  “It ain’t made’a wood!"     “Applebloom, y’all get back here,” Applejack ordered.  “Me’an yer brother will deal with the offending outhouse."  “Eeyup,” Big Mac said as he began to approach it.          Applebloom stopped poking and stepped back as her brother approached.  Big Mac circled around to the top of the outhouse, intent on lifting it to an upright position before trying to move it.  But before he got his hooves on it, he heard a click come from it.  He paused and took a couple steps back, wondering if there was somepony inside.  He looked to his family members, seeing their expressions to a more surprised one, letting him know they were wondering the same thing.   Suddenly the door shifted slightly, releasing a puff of smoke from its edges as a whooshing sound was heard.  The family stared wide-eyed at the outhouse that had perhaps just become something else entirely.  Their eyes shifted to one another, silently wondering if they had a clue as to what it was.  A few more seconds later the door of he outhouse opened, revealing something they would have never expected.          “A-AN ALIEN!” Applebloom shouted as she watched something with metallic arms and a metal body halfway crawl out of the porta-potty.  She turned away instantly, screaming at the top of her lungs.          Applejack followed close behind, carrying Granny Smith on her back.  “C-c’mon Granny!  Time to get the heck outta Dodge!”          “...Nope!” Big Macintosh backed up a few steps, staring wide-eyed at the monstrosity before turning tail as well and racing after the rest of his family.          What they failed to see was the creature dropping limp on the ground, falling asleep just moments later.