//------------------------------// // Part 6 // Story: Sins of New Eden // by Hivemind //------------------------------// Sorry for the horrendously long wait. In between school and life I've been goofing off on the SiSi server (for those who play EVE). This chapter makes up for all five (and a half :3) chapters that you guys have gone through without any pony. So with that, have some pony! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Oh my stars!” said Rarity with wide eyes and an unusually large grin spread across her face, “Celestia gave that to you, and as a gift?” Rarity brought her face closer to the gleaming necklace around Twilight’s neck. “That looks amazing Twilight. How did you get it? If um... that’s ok for um... me to ask...” said Fluttershy as she hid most of her face behind her mane. “That there looks mighty fine on you Twi’.” said Applejack. “...meh” said Rainbow Dash, clearly not interested. “Well...” said Twilight with a sheepish grin, “Yes, she did. But I have had this thing for years.” Twilight’s horn began to glow, a veil of magic wrapping around the necklace and bringing it up into the air. Rarity brought her face even closer to elegant piece of jewelery, her other friends following suite. “Celestia gave it to me as a present for when I graduated from Advanced Astronomy.” Twilight pointed a hoof towards the large purple jewel embedded in the necklace, “This jewel in the necklace was enchanted with magic by Celestia herself. The magic in the jewel allows me to identify and locate the position of any constellation in the sky, day or night.” Twilight levitated the necklace over head and slowly brought it down around her neck, “I haven’t worn this thing in years, since I already know the locations of the constellations and whatnot, but it is still a lovely gift.” Twilight and her friends continued their stroll through the streets of Canterlot, occasionally stopping at different stores to gaze at the many assortments of jewels and fine clothing. The group stopped by a local cafe to have a quick lunch. After they finished eating, they continued their enjoyable evening. Twilight gazed up at the blue sky, mostly up at Celestia’s sun. She liked it as to how it looked like a yellow, flattened beacon of light, it’s position in the sky determining the usual time...the time?...the time! Twilight gasped at the sudden realization of the time. It was starting to get late, and they have been in Canterlot for hours, “Ohmygoodness!” her friends turned to her with confused eyes, “We’ve been in Canterlot for much longer than I had thought! The chariot that is supposed to take us back to Ponyville must have been waiting for hours by now!” Her friends took a look at the sky aswell, worried frowns taking hold on their faces. “C’mon girls, I know the way-” Twilight was cut off when a bright flash of white light flared up in the corner of her eye, followed by a loud pop. Twilight’s eyes grew wide with fear. She looked to her friends for help, only to find that they had their backs arched and their heads to the floor in a bowing position. That could only mean one thing... “Princess Celestia!” Twilight spun around to greet her royal teacher, “W-w-we were just about t-to head back to the carriage but-” Twilight stammered as she spoke to her teacher, trying to find an excuse for she and her friend’s on-hold departure. Celestia raised one of her golden-clad hoofs up in the air, making Twilight clamp her mouth shut. “I have no mind for your excuse Twilight, but the chariot will have to wait...” the princess turned to the other girls, who stood upright at the nod of her head, “I need all of you to come with me to the Canterlot observatory immediately. There is something that I think you all must see. I will answer any questions you may have later.” “O-oh, ok...I suppose...” said Fluttershy “Well, we can’t wrong with you princess. I’d be happy to go...to an observatory...yea.” Applejack stated while trying to look amused. “Great! When do we leave? Do we need to bring anythi-...hey...” Twilight halted her flowing stream of questions when she noticed that a certain blob of pink pony was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s Pinkie Pie? She was just here a minute...ago...” Her friends turned their heads left and right in search of the suddenly missing party pony, “Did anypony see her? She was just here a minute or two ag-OH!” Twilight was suddenly tackled from behind. This could mean one of two things. Either a professional wrestler decided to practice for their next match by tackling the nearest pony, or maybe it was... “Pinkie!” Twilight shouted, the ever-random pink ball of hyperactivity pinning her to the ground in a playful manner. “Hey there Twilight! Sorry I’m late, but I just had to try one of these cherry-filled chocolate covered chocolate marshmallows...” Pinkie brought the chocolate-lover’s confection up to her face, “... or maaaybe two.” Pinkie brought out another one of the chocolatey treats, where upon she immediately forced both of them into her mouth and devoured them with a single gulp, letting out a quiet burp afterward. She licked her lips to try and catch any remaining trace of chocolate syrup or cherry filling leftover from the marshmallows. After throughly licking her lips clean, she looked over at her unamused friends. “Hi girls! Whatcha up to?” said Pinkie while beaming at her friends. “Uhh Pinkie...” Rainbow Dash to Pinkie while face-hoofing herself. “Yeeees Dashie?” Rainbow Dash pointed the hoof she was facehoofing herself with at Princess Celestia, keeping her head low and her eyes closed. Pinkie followed Rainbow’s hoof leading up to princess. Upon her eyes reaching the off-white coat of the princess, Pinkie gasped loudly, her eyes going wide and her ever cheerful mood turning to that of embarrassment. “Oh... hehe... h-hi princess. Sorry for um... acting weird in front of you... hehe...” said Pinkie while she rubbed the back of her head with one of her front hooves, a hint of blush forming above her nose. The princess didn’t laugh, but she did crack a smile at Pinkie’s occasional antics, “It is quite alright Pinkie Pie, but I’m afraid that joking around will have to wait.” Celestia turned to face the other elements again, “Now, as I said before, all of you must come with me to the Canterlot Observatory immediately. Everything will be explained soon.” The prrincess stepped forward and bowed her head, “Now, everypony get close to me. The observatory is a rather long walk away, yet we must get there as soon as possible.” Twilight and her friends stepped closer to Celestia at her word. “I know that most of you have not experienced the feel of being teleported, but this is by far the fastest way there...” Celestia’s horn began to glow a bright white as her horn musterred up enough energy to perform a teleportation spell large enough to teleport them all to the observatory. While staring at Celestia’s glowing horn, Applejack began to worry a bit. “I-is this gonna hurt at all?” “...possibly...” “Wait hu-?” Applejack couldn’t finish her words as she and her friends were wrapped in a glowing visage of light, disappearing with a flash of white light, a loud pop following afterward. ~~~~~ …*ARES CONTROL SYSTEMS RESTORED*... *LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS FUNCTIONING* *STATUS OF ONBOARD CONTROLS: NOMINAL* *LOCATION OF SPACE CORE: IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-ERROR* *ION PROPULSION SYSTEMS OFFLINE. REACTIVATING...* The cockpit of the interceptor shook violently as the ship’s computer attempted to reactivate the crippled propulsion systems. A small steel canister sitting on a nearby exposed shelf compartment was knocked over by the violent shaking of the ship. It slowly rolled over to the near edge of the uncovered shelf, the risk of it falling off coming closer with each second. “Huh...wha?...” Canderous was starting to come to by the violent shakedown. He lay flat on the cold metal floor of his badly damaged craft, sparks of electricity shooting out of damaged and exposed cables that used to be hidden behind protective metal plates. The air was cold and the lights were out. “Where...where da hell eesh...?” just as Canderous was about to finish his question to himself, the canister rolled off the edge of the metal shelf and rapidly fell towards the floor, and towards Canderous. Canderous had heard the canister roll on the shelf for a few seconds and then drop off the edge above his head. “Oh hell, that can’t be good...” Canderous wanted to move away, but he was bruised and badly bloodied. His legs were weak and his arms felt like jelly. After a few seconds of free fall, the canister landed hard on the back of Canderous’s head, knocking him out cold. ~~~~~ Luna brought her eye closer to the eyepiece of the giant telescope. She gazed out far into the celestial void, trying at her best to piece together the cause of recent events. She buried her thoughts deep in the receses of her mind, keeping the same questionable thoughts tucked away in her royal brain. ‘Where are you?! I know you were there just yesterday! You can’t just disappear like that! There has to be an explanation...’ Luna thought to herself as she continued staring down the spot where the magnetic storm cloud used to be. With a single eye, she scanned every nook and cranny of the area, finding nothing but a single grey dot in the midst of blackness. ‘Could it be magic?... nonono it can’t be magic, it just can’t be magic! The elements, not even Tia could have just removed something of such colossal size and power with magic! Do you know how much energy that would take? It’s mind-boggling just to think about it!’ Luna moved her eye away from the eyepiece, allowing a waiting astronomer to look through it. She turned to walk off the pedestal. She eyed all the anxious and hard-working astronomers on the main floor. Star charts, graphs, and other assorted maps were laid out on several tables scattered around the room. Several astronomers were talking and arguing with one another, some of them pointing out a rather interesting patch of blankness on a star chart while others were angrily shaking their hooves at one another and shouting out indecipherable answers to any questions their colleagues threw at one another. Luna walked up to the front door and prepared to open it, yet before she could do so, she noticed a bright white flash that shone from underneath the door, followed by a muffled popping noise. Luna backed away from the door, allowing whoever was on the other side to come in. The astronomers stopped their work and ceased their obsessive arguing to turn and look at the door, which slowly began to open. The door continued to open at snail’s pace, until a bright pink ball of hyperactive pony burst through the door. Luna immediately recognized the pink pony as Pinkie Pie from the Nightmare Night she had previously attended. Pinkie did nothing but stare around the room with eyes wide, ooing and awing at everypony in the room, until she spotted the giant silver telescope in the middle of the large room. Like a raccoon spotting a piece of shiny metal, Pinkie jumped up into the air and started to bounce over to the telescope, only to have her tail get caught in the mouth of an annoyed Rainbow Dash, whereupon she was pulled backwards like a rubber band and forced to the floor. Rainbow Dash slowly dragged Pinkie’s vibrating body back over to Princess Celestia and her friends. Pinkie looked up and smiled at her friendly captor. “Hi there Dashie!” “Do I even have to say it Pinkie?” said Rainbow Dash as she facehoofed herself again at Pinkie’s usual antics. “Idunno. If you want to I guess!” Pinkie said while giggling. “Sister!” Luna perked up. She trotted over to Celestia and her friends with a smile on her face. “Princess Luna!” said Twilight while all of her friends bowed before the royal sister. “Hello there Luna.” Celestia motioned the girls to rise before continuing, “Have you come to any conclusions as to why the storm cloud suddenly decided to vanish in a single day?” “Wait, what?!” Twilight said with shock. “No Tia. Me and the astronomers have been working at it for hours now, and we still haven’t found any evidence as to the cloud’s disappearance. All we know is, is that it is definitely not magic.” Luna turned around and began walking back to the telescope, Celestia, an eager Twilight and her friends following close behind. Upon reaching the telescope, an astronomer that currently occupied the podium backed away to allow the princess’s to use it. “Look for yourself Twilight. Can you think of any plausible explanation to this mystery?” said Celestia while pro-offering the telescope’s eyepiece to her student. Twilight wasted no time in walking up to the pedestal and looking through the small eyepiece of the giant telescope. She remembered the exact location of the dust cloud, since she has been studying it for so long. Right in between Ursa’s Major and Minor. She used her magic to adjust the focusing power of the eyepiece, being careful as not to apply too much power and break it. Twilight’s eyes went wide at the sight of the missing dust cloud. ‘I know it was right here! It couldn’t have just gotten up and walked away! Not on it’s own at least...’ Twilight thought to herself while adjusting the eyepiece even further. ‘Wait a minute...what’s tha-?’ Twilight was about to finish her thought before Rainbow Dash perked up. “Uh girls? Sorry to interrupt... whatever this is, but what do me and everypony else here have to do with some strange cloud in space?” “I... was just getting to that. Upon further inspection of the location, I have discovered that while the dust cloud that I had been studying for the past few weeks has somehow disappeared, of which I am still trying to figure out why, the object that was hidden inside the cloud has not, making it much more visible. But the object... is not alone...” Twilight’s horn started to glow as she began to project a smaller version of the same star map hologram she had used the previous day in her presentation to the astronomers, the only noticable difference being the missing dust cloud. She used magic to highlight the object’s location with a ping-pong ball sized bright ball of light. She then used her magic to highlight another spot on the hologram, this spot being much smaller than the one adjacent to it. Luna brought her smiling face closer to the highlighted points, the other girls doing the same. Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrows and scratched the back of her head in confusion. “I... still don’t get it. How do we fit into this again?” “Ah’ was bout to ask the same thing. I’m not much of an astrology-” “Astronomy” Twilight corrected her friend. “Applejack paused for a moment before continuing, “I’m not much of an astronomy girl, but I still don’t know why we had to come here just to look at a bunch of glowing dots...” “Because that large dot is emitting the same twisted and strange magical energies that the Everfree Forest emits.” Luna rushed out. She clearly wanted to explain it to somepony badly. “Think of the Everfree Forest, but in space, and in astronomical terms, much closer than you think.” “It is slowly amplifying the energies of the Everfree Forest from within. A simple spell that me and Luna already casted earlier prevented the energy from spreading any further.” Celestia stated. Rainbow Dash tapped a hoof on the ground while rolling her eyes in doubt. “Ok, I might be able to understand that, but that still doesn’t explain why we’re here.” “I... was just getting to that also. This second dot next to the big dot, even though they really aren’t dots, was never there when we first observed the insides of the cloud. While this second do-... object... doesn’t emit the same energies as the larger object, we have no idea what it is. But there is more...” “Mind if I say this next part Twilight? I’ve just been itching to tell!” Said Luna with a giddy smile. Twilight could only smile at the royal sister’s eagerness, “Sure Princess Luna. Go ahead.” Luna quietly cleared her throat before speaking, “The second object... moves on it’s own. No magic, wings if there was ever such a thing as wings for space, or any other forms of propulsion that we can think of. Not to mention that within a few hours after the cloud’s disappearance, we have detected small energy spikes coming from the approximate location of the second object.” “Is there some sort of point to all of this?” Applejack spoke up before Rainbow could. “Of course Applejack.” said Luna. … “Uh... Princess Luna?” said Applejack while the two royal sisters moved their eyes to the ground. Luna moved her eyes back up to meet the gazes of the ponies. “Aliens.” Everypony except for Celestia, Luna and Twilight just sat there, looks of doubt and confusion on their faces. “A-aliens?” said a fearful Fluttershy as she hid her frightened face behind her mane. “Aliens? Your kiddin’ me right?” said Applejack was her eyebrows furrowed downward in unamusment. “Aliens? Ooooh! Aliens sound like fun! I wonder if we can meet them and say hi? Maybe if they come to Equestria and don’t attack us, I can throw them a ‘Welcome to Equestria’ party!” said a giggling Pinkie Pie. “I agree with Applejack.” said an equally unamused Rainbow Dash, “I have a pretty big patch of doubt that aliens can just randomly spawn out of some random cloud in space in just a few days...” “We are not entirely sure as to whether or not it is aliens Rainbow Dash,” Princess Celestia responded to Rainbow’s denial, “but it is much better to be safe than sorry. I have brought you all here for protection. If the object in space is of alien origin and poses any threat to us, the elements of harmony must be kept safe. You all must be kept safe. Not to mention that if the object is of alien origin, and decides to invade or attack Equestria, we can use the magic of the elements to combat it.” “So why bring us all here now?” said Rarity, “Exactly how far off is this object? For a place as big as space it must be pretty far away right?” “Well...” Luna started, “In normal terms, it is a few hundred thousand miles away from our moon. It can’t be seen by the naked eye, so we use the telescope to see it. Now that may sound like it’s really far away, but for an object that moves on it’s own and is of possible alien origin, we can’t take any chances.” “So until the object has either moved further away from the planet or until we have verified that it is of no threat to us, you may stay at Canterlot Castle. It is for your own protection that you remain here under our watch.” Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and all other of Twilight’s friends smiled at the idea of staying at the castle. “I will arrange for proper accommodations for all of you at the castle. You can all write letters to those you know in Ponyville to tell them of your staying here." “Oh good. I simply can’t allow Sweetie Bell to stay alone at the store. I’ll tell my parents to come pick her up for the time being.” said Rarity. “And I have to let Applebloom and Big Mac know that I’ma be outta town for a few days. Hope Big Mac doesn’t mind a few more apple trees to work with.” said Applejack, ending off her last sentence with a giggle. “There will be a chariot waiting for you outside that will take you to the castle. I will join you there shortly.” said Celestia as she motioned the girls to the door. Twilight and the rest of girls filed out through the observatory door one by one. As Celestia watched them walk away, she turned to her sister who was currently staring into the eyepiece of the telescope again, keeping one eye shut and keeping the other eye comically focusing into the eyepiece. “Are you coming with me Luna?” Celestia asked. “No thank you Tia. I’m going to stay here for another hour or two more and speak with the astronomers, just to see if they have any new data to report or if I have to move around any stars for them.” said Luna while she brought her eyes away from the telescope eyepiece and over to a nearby star chart. “Ok Luna, just don’t take too long.” Celestia turned and walked out through the observatory. Luna turned back to the telescope with a star chart hovering over her head. She glanced through the telescope’s eyepiece once more, then turned back to the star chart. She levitated a nearby red marker over to the star chart and marked a spot with a circle in between the constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. “Well, might as well get some work done...” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Jonsey to you: Meow Thanks for reading! Spy any problems with the story? You do?...*arms Doomsday*