The Mountain Among the Stars

by Johnjohns

III: Where Loyalties Lie

The Everest completed its fourth orbit around the mysterious planet. It had been a couple hours since the ship had arrived in the system, and every passing moment seemed to stretch on indefinitely as Cole and the rest of the ship waited for more information. Finally, Maya spoke up.

“Great news,” she said. “I have completed creating a digital model of the planet.”

“Good,” said Cole. “Lets have it up on the planning table.”

Cole, Fosco, Ramirez, and McMahon all walked over the large, rectangular holographic planning table, situated at the back of the bridge. A perfectly replicated, smaller-than-scale globe of the planet appeared before them. Maya proceeded in stating the facts, without being asked.

“The planet itself is remarkably similar to Earth,” she said. “As you already know, the atmosphere is almost exactly the same, but what you don’t know, is just how similar it truly is.”

“How similar?” McMahon asked.

“The planet is almost exactly the same size, and has roughly the same mass as Earth. The same goes for the moon, which is practically identical to ours, except for the fact that the surface features on both bodies are different. The planet rotates at the same speed as Earth, and thus has a twenty-four hour day.The moon rotates around the planet at the same speed as ours does, and the planet’s gravitational pull is almost exactly like ours, it is almost exactly as far away from its sun as Earth is, the list goes on and on.”

“So basicly what you are saying,” said Fosco. “Is that we just happened to stumble upon a planet that no one has ever has ever put on record, and also just happens to be Earth’s long lost cousin.”

“So it would seem,” said Maya. “Although I highly doubt that the Earth and this planet have anything to do with one another.”

“What are we going to name it?” asked McMahon.

The other three turned to stare at McMahon. He glanced back and forth between the three.

“Well I mean... we discovered it,” he said. “That means that we have to name it. Those are the rules right?”

“Yes,” said Fosco. “I suppose that they are. Well, what are we going to name it?”

“It may already have a name,” said Maya. The four men turned to look at her.

“Please explain yourself, Maya,” Cole said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well, as we were orbiting around the planet, I took these reconnaissance images,” she said.

The giant globe disappeared, and was replaced by several large, two-dimensional images. One of the images was that of which appeared to be a small village, filled with wooden homes. Another showed a large city center, with tall skyscrapers and sprawling industrial facilities. Finally, the third image showed what looked to be a large city with elaborate towers, and and a large building that Cole thought looked like an ancient palace, all of which had been built on the side of a mountain.

Fosco’s mouth dropped, and McMahon gasped. Cole merely expressed his shock by leaning up against the table, and staring intently at the images.

“What am I looking at?” Cole asked.

“You are looking at what appears to be the civilization of an alien race,” Maya replied. “These images are from the region that our vessel is currently situated above, however there are many other cities and towns scattered throughout the various continents, each with different styles of architecture.”

“Covenant?” asked Ramirez.

“No,” said Maya. “The designs of these buildings are nothing like Covenant structures. Plus, this civilization appears to be rather primitive. As far as I can tell, there is no evidence that this planet has space-faring capabilities. No stations, no ships, no satellites.”

“So that also rules out the possibility of it being an innie-stronghold, right?” asked Cole.

“Right,” she said. “There is no possible way that the insurrection could have built all of this. They wouldn’t in the first place. No, this planet is definitely alien.”

The five of them fell into silence, each of them quietly looking over the images. Fosco finally spoke up.

“What are we going to do?” he asked.

“What if they turn out to be hostile?” asked Ramirez. “If we attempt to establish communications, they might attack.”

“We can’t just stay here and do nothing,” said McMahon.

“Give me some time to think things over,” Cole said. “I’m going to go for a walk. When I come back I will know what to do. I just need some quiet time to myself.”

“Why?” asked Ramirez. “If we don’t do something now, we might not ever get a chance.”

“And what exactly is your plan, Chief Warrant-Officer?” Cole asked, folding his arms across his chest.

“We make our presence known,” said Ramirez, putting his hands down on the table. “We go down there, packing heat, and we try to communicate with them. If they are friendly, then so be it, but if we find out that they are hostile then we will know right away, and we will know how to deal with the situation. If we wait and they discover us first, then we are taking a big risk.”

“And then what?” Cole asked. “We invade? We kill those who acted only out of fear? We make the preemptive strike first so that we crush them before we even get to know them? You know, we have a word for those who do that. We call them the Covenant. I don’t know about anyone else, but you are starting to sound just like the enemy who decided to slaughter our people without mercy.”

“You mean the enemy who you chose to run away from?” asked Ramirez, glaring at Cole.

“How dare you!” Cole roared, finally reaching his breaking point. “I have been fighting against the Covenant longer than you have been in the UNSC. I have won every single battle in which I have fought against the Covenant, and yet I still couldn’t stop the genocide of billions of innocent people. The galaxy is much bigger then you are, Corporal, whether you like it or not. What have you done? Huh? Tell me exactly all the things you have done.”

“What I’m trying to do right now is to put the lives of our crew above all else!” shouted Ramirez. “Something which you clearly have no concern about!”

“No concern?” Cole laughed. “I can assure you, Joseph, that I put the safety of my crew above everything else.”

“Then why aren’t we acting right now?” Ramirez asked. “Why aren’t we going down there and showing them that we aren't a force to be messed with?”

“Because if we go down there, and they attack us out of fear because we have suddenly swooped down in fully armed dropships, and startled them...”

“So what?” asked Ramirez. “They would have started it.”

“Then we would most definitely be putting our men at risk,” said Cole. “And I don’t think...”

“Its a better option than sitting around and waiting to be blown out of the sky.”

“And I don’t think that attacking them would be the best decision if we plan to have peaceful relationships with them.”

“And I’m saying that if we don’t act now, we could all be dead!”

“And I’m saying that blowing their city off the face of the mountain with a MAC surprise will not bode well for diplomacy at all!” Cole roared. “You are out of line, soldier! You need to cool off, and remember just who your enemy is! We don’t need to go around making anymore! We have plenty of extraterrestrial assholes who would love to see us all dead, but for some reason I don’t think that these are the kind of beings who decide to glass planets of helpless civilians.” Cole stopped himself, and glanced around at everyone on the bridge. “Return to your post, all of you. I’m going for a walk. When I return, I will be in a better frame of mind to make a decision. Until then, Everest is to remain in position over this region. Maya, let me know if any of them leave their posts.”

“Yes sir,” said Maya.

Cole quickly strode through the bridge’s bulkhead doors. They slid closed behind him. Outside the doorway he did his best to collect himself, before walking at a much slower pace down the corridor.

I sure hope that I am right.

Tihar walked calmly down the passageway. Flanking him on either side was a Sangheili Honor Guard, both of whom had been instructed to escort Tihar to the Prophet of Regret. The hallway had a streamlined appearance, and boasted a dark purple and blue color scheme, as was the standard appearance of all Covenant vessels. Lights were spaced about every ten meters or so down the length of the corridor. Occasionally the hallway would come to a four-way intersection, but they never did once turn down another hallway. Having commanded several ships himself, Tihar knew the layout of many types of vessels especially cruisers, and by the route they were taking, Tihar assumed that he was being led directly from the main hangar bay, to the bridge.

The trio reached the final intersection before the end of the hallway, but instead of proceeding all of the way to the bridge, the group took a right turn, away from the main passageway. Tihar was slightly surprised but said nothing, not wishing to sound foolish in front of the guards. They took a left turn halfway down the hallway into a much smaller corridor, where they proceeded all of the way to the doorway at the end of the passageway.

“You may not bring your weapon within the Prophet’s chamber,” said one of the guards. “You will leave it here with us. We shall return it to you when you depart.”

Without questioning, Tihar removed his energy sword from his belt, and passed it to the guard. The two guards said nothing, but instead turned around, leaving Tihar to enter the room alone. He took a breath, and strode into the room with confidence.

Inside was a wide, round chamber with a tall ceiling. In the center was a massive holographic image of Sanghelios, projected by an emitter at the very top of the ceiling. Ornate, golden lights were spread out evenly along the circular wall. As Tihar stepped further inside, he noticed two more guards standing next to him, to further prevent any unwanted from entering the chamber. They both held long polearms with wicked metal blades, fashioning the ends. They both stared straight ahead, not moving, most likely for the entire day. Their job was one which took a great deal of discipline, for if they acted improperly they would be punished severely. The Prophet sat on his gravity chair, gazing intently upon the image of Tihar’s home planet.

“It is truly a beautiful world, isn’t it?” asked the Prophet.

“I am honored to be in your presence, aboard you grand flagship, o’ holy one,” said Tihar, immediately lowering himself to the ground.

The Prophet turned around to face him. “You did not answer my question,” he said.

“I have lived on Sanghelios all of my life,” Tihar said. “I was born there, I was raised there, and I trained to become the warrior I am now, there. Sanghelios has been good to me.”

“Implications, complications, condemnations...” the Prophet muttered to himself, and turning around to face away from Tihar. “Do you know the reason for which I have summoned you here?”

“No.”

“Good,” replied Regret, turning back Tihar. “Then the news has not reached your planet yet.”

“What is it, your holiness?” asked the Sangheili.

“We have recently suffered a great defeat at the hands of a human,” said Regret.

Tihar could feel his blood pressure rise. The humans very rarely had any success in battle. Their short-lived, undeserving victories were usually the result of some cowardly trick, or act of foolish desperation. Very rarely had the humans ever won a battle in an honorific way. The were not noble. They were merely an infestation, gradually encroaching on the farthest reaches of space, and thus, they needed to we wiped clean from existence.

“A defeat?” asked Tihar. “May I ask what happened?”

“Cole,” said Regret. “The human admiral named Cole. Two days ago his fleet attacked one of our fleets in the star system the humans call Psi Serpentis. He wiped out nearly all of our ships, and we responded by sending in another fleet of two hundred ships as reinforcements. Soon after, all contact was lost. We have heard nothing from our forces since.”

Cole. Tihar had heard many rumors about the great human shipmaster. Stories of how he had no remorse, and how he would sacrifice the lives of so many of his men in order to achieve victory. Never once had he lost a battle to the Covenant. As much as he hated the human, Tihar had a hidden respect for Cole. He was one of the few who actually fought with honor. Tihar had always dreamt of having the chance to face him in battle someday.

“Your courage, and lethal tacticality in battle is why I have chosen you to search the system for answers,” said Regret, shifting in place. “Although I highly doubt that the human would have been able to defeat five-hundred of our ships, the possibility remains, and losing that many vessels is not something which we can simply ignore. I have personally chosen you to lead the investigation.”

“I... I am gracious for this task, o’ great one,” said Tihar. “I thank you for the chance to prove myself as a worthy adversary to the humans.”

“Good,” said the Prophet. “I have assigned you command over the battlecruiser, Bane of Defiance. You will report to your ship immediately. The members of your bridge crew are already onboard, however they have not been informed of the mission. You will be the one to let them know. Once you are ready, you will depart right away. You are not to return until you know exactly what happened.” he said, cocking his wrinkled head to the side. “Do you accept my request, or do you find that I am being unreasonable?”

“I accept this mission with pride,” said the shipmaster. “I will not fail you.”

“Very good,” said Regret. “Now go, and bring honor to your family name.” he started to turn in his chair, but stopped. “Oh and by the way. Your brother is going with you.”

“My brother?” asked Tihar, surprised. “Hephar?”

“No,” said Regret. “Folve.” he paused for a moment, looking at the shipmaster with a saddened expression. “Shipmaster, there is something that I feel you should know about.”

Space is a cold, unforgiving place. The final frontier, as some used to call it, stretches on for distances far greater than the human mind can fathom. It is full of many perils, and much of it is concealed in utter mystery. Yet among the massive stars, powerful black holes, and barren worlds are a few exceptions. These exceptions are places where life is possible. Places where living, breathing organisms have a chance to prosper. The Everest had discovered one such place. While still shrouded in almost complete mystery, this world provided Cole with a faint hope that maybe, just maybe there might actually be intelligent life, uninterested in mindless things such as war.

The ancient general from the nineteenth century, Robert E. Lee, once said, “It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it.”

This was obviously not the case, for Cole knew of many souls who lived and thrived on the waging of war. Not just the Covenant, but people as well, human beings who only wished to spread more bloodshed. In a time of war it may be an unavoidable necessity, but there were those, who when their quench for blood was not being satisfied, actively searched for it. Whether these people acted out of a sense of revenge for their fallen comrades, or if they had truly reached the point where death was what kept them living, Cole did not know. He did not have the time to wonder about the minds of others, or to judge them accordingly. As a naval commander, Cole had seen more action than most people ever have, and he had killed many people himself, but never did he receive joy by taking someone else’s life. He did his duty to humanity, and nothing more.The most important thing was to constantly be making sure that he, himself, did not become one of those people.

Preston J. Cole had been walking for over an hour. He had walked all the way from the front of the ship, to the end, and was now halfway back to the bridge. It had been a long time since Cole had walked along the corridors of his vessel. It brought a calming sense of nostalgia to wash away his agitated nerves. Young crewmembers engaged in conversation would immediately step to the sides of the hallway, and snap to attention when they saw Cole approach. He would then politely say, “As you were,” and both he and the crewmembers would resume walking to their destinations.

Up until this point, Cole never really payed attention to the sheer number of people who worked on his ship. There were over one thousand people on board, the majority of whom Cole had never met. That however did not make them insignificant. The upkeep of the entire vessel was thanks to the many hardworking men and women aboard. Seemingly small jobs such as mopping the hallways was just as important of a task as monitoring the Everest’s deuterium nuclear reactors. If one person were to not do their duty, then the entire ship could fall into utter chaos. Cole had always found a respect for those who held simple positions, and lived a relatively simple life, as he had always wanted one for himself.

Perhaps I still have that chance.

Cole passed one of the ship’s many mess halls, on his way to the bridge. Inside, Cole could hear the sounds of laughter, and light conversation. Accompanied with those sounds was the smell of food. Cole thought that he could smell roast beef and garlic bread. He was suddenly reminded that he hadn’t eaten much of anything these past two days. He had been relying on caffeine as his only source of sustenance for the entirety of the mission, and he considered quickly getting something to eat, but now was not the time.

Maya’s avatar suddenly appeared in front of him, and judging by her posture, and the sound of her voice, Cole could tell that something was urgent.

“Admiral,” she said. “We need you on the bridge right away. There is something very important which I think you should take a look at.”

“I’m on my way,” said Cole, breaking into a fast walk.

He weaved in and out of corridors, trying to get to the bridge as soon as possible. He knew almost all of the hallways, and thus he knew the fastest shortcuts to get where he needed to go. It was still not a short trip. For a cruiser, the Everest was quite big, being substantially larger than her Halcyon and Marathon-class counterparts. The ship was over fifteen-hundred meters in length and was rather difficult to traverse quickly, especially for a man over seventy years of age.

Damn. I’m seventy-four years old, and I’ve been in the UNSC for fifty-five years of that time. That’s almost my entire life. Have I ever really know anything besides being in the military?

He passed a group of marines, each carrying a metal supply crate, down the hallway. They put down their cargo to salute, but Cole only had enough time to give them a polite nod, before turning down another passageway. He reached an area which was only illuminated by work lights, mounted on red, metal stands. The overhead lights had been shut off, and a group of maintenance workers had opened up a few panels on the ceiling, and and few on the floor. One worker was working on an electrical conduit inside of a hole in the floor. He was using a heavy soldering gun to connect a few cables to a terminal. He looked up and noticed Cole.

“Admiral on Deck!” he said, quickly jumping to his feet, along with the other workers. “Sorry about the mess, sir.”

“As you were,” said Cole. “Is this passageway safe?”

“Yes sir,” said the technician. “But if you are trying to get to the bridge via the main thoroughfare, you are going to have to go down three more corridors, and make a right. A section of this passageway has been sealed off, and artificial gravity has been turned off for some maintenance on the inner deck.”

“Hull maintenance?” asked Cole. “Is there a problem?”

“No problem, sir,” said the worker. “Just a faulty power line or something. This section of the ship has been having strange power fluctuations. We sent in two electricians, to see what the problem is. The only way to get to the cable is to crawl through a panel, and travel about fifty meters between the two bulkheads until they reach where we think the problem is. Due to safety precautions we had to shut down the power to this entire section of A-deck.”

“Alright,” said Cole. “So I make a right, three corridors from now, and then what?”

“Then you will follow that until you reach a left elbow, follow that for two intersections, then make another left, and you will be back on the main thoroughfare,” he said. “Either that, or you could take this maintenance ladder here up a level, and then follow the main B-deck corridor all the down to the end, and climb right back down outside the bridge.”

I’m too old for ladders.

“ I think I’ll walk,” Cole said. “Thank you for the help.”

“Anytime, sir.”

Cole resumed his fast walk to the bridge. The slight detour would only slow him a little bit, and whatever was so important could probably wait a few more minutes. Cole followed the directions, and made his way down each of the dimly-lit passageways. Soon enough Cole made it out of the dark zone, and back onto the brightly-lit main pathway. He followed it all of the way down, and the doors to the bridge slid open before him. Cole tried to hide being slightly out-of-breath, and walked up to the planning table. Fosco, McMahon, and Ramirez stood around the circular holographic projector, waiting. Cole walked up, and all of them looked up from the table to acknowledge him. Ramirez gave an angry glance at the admiral, before looking back down. Cole gave one questioning look to Fosco, and pointed to Ramirez. Fosco merely shrugged his shoulders, and shook his head. Cole shrugged as well, and turned to the board.

“Alright,” said Cole. “What’s the news?”

Maya’s avatar appeared above the table.

“I believe we have made another important discovery,” she said. “I have sent in a couple of recon drones into the lower atmosphere, in order to get a better view of the ground. Let’s just say that what they saw was... unusual.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it was impossible to tell before,” she said. “But now I think I have found out what the species responsible for building these population centers, looks like.”

Cole took a deep breath. “Well then, lets see them,” he said.

The image that appeared before Cole nearly caused his mouth to drop. The other three weren’t able to contain their surprise either. Floating before him, was an image of what appeared to be a small, blue horse. The image was slightly blurry, but Cole could see well enough.

“What is that?” asked Fosco in disbelief.

“That is what I believe is the dominant sentient species on this planet,” said Maya. “They seem to be quadrupedal organisms, with very vivid colors of fur. They closely resemble certain breeds of ponies back on Earth, having both what appears to be a tail, and a mane. Some of them have a single horn on their forehead. I couldn’t get great images because I didn’t want to risk flying the drones too low, and alerting them to our presence, but these are a few good ones that I could get.”

Multiple images flashed in front of Cole’s face. One picture showed a group of these beings standing in what appeared to be a marketplace, inside the mountain-city. Another image showed one at work on top of a roof, while another showed what appeared to be a soldier, patrolling an outer wall of the city, wielding a bladed polearm.

“So they are not entirely peaceful,” muttered Ramirez. Cole ignored the comment.

“I also discovered this,” said Maya. “At first I thought it was a glitch in the video feed, but when I sent in the drones, I found out that I was entirely wrong.”

An all-new image appeared, but it was not of one of the aliens. The image was that of a massive cloud formation, and what looked to be a city built on top of it. Flying around the city were more of the aliens, except this variety had wings. Massive rainbows streaked down from the floating structure, to the surface below. It was unlike anything Cole had ever seen.

“What the hell is that?” asked Fosco.

“That,” said Maya. “That... Well to be honest I don’t know what that is. It appears to be a city. Built on top of clouds. What you are looking at is an impossibility. It goes against the very fundamental laws of physics, but yet here it is. A floating city in the sky. And just wait until you see what’s on the rest of the planet.”

“So perhaps they are more advanced than we thought,” said Cole. “Do you think they have any form of long-distance communications?”

“Well,” said Maya. “The whole time we have been here I have been monitoring for radio signals, and so far I have detected nothing beyond occasional bursts of static.”

“Have you been able to track the signals?”

“Yes,” she said. “But they do not originate from any place in particular. There seems to be very small, random energy, and signal bursts all across the surface. So far I have been unable to determine what is causing these disturbances.”

“Do think that it is at all possible that we we can send a signal to them?” asked Fosco.

“I doubt it,” said Maya. “But there is certainly a possibility.”

Fosco turned to Cole. “Do you want to give it a try?” he asked.

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Ramirez finally spoke up. “If there are any hostile forces in the system, then we could alert them to our presence if we send out a signal. It would lead them right to us.”

“I highly doubt that that will happen,” said Maya. “If there were indeed Covenant or Insurrectionist forces in the area, then they would have noticed us by now, and made their presence known. I have detected no signs of any human, or Covenant activity, and I have scanned the planet many times now.”

“She’s right,” said McMahon. “We can’t just stay up here and do nothing. We have to try to communicate with them somehow, so we might as well try to send a message. What do you think, admiral?”

Cole stared intently at the image of the cloud city. Pegasi. That is what they were. Flying ponies. Ponies on the ground with horns. Unicorns. They were mythological creatures envisioned by ancient man, nothing more than stories. They should not exist, but yet they did. Given they were much smaller, and less majestic than the ones envisioned long ago, but they were still real.

“Admiral?” asked Fosco. Cole broke out of his train of thought.

“Let’s give it a try,” he said.

“Seriously?” asked Ramirez. “Even if they do have communications, its not like they will speak English. Hate to break it to you sir, but there tend to be language barriers between species that live light years apart.”

The other three once again ignored Ramirez, causing him to shoot dirty looks at all of them.

“It is worth a shot,” said Fosco. “There isn’t much else we can do besides go down there.”

“Ready when you are, sir,” said Maya.

Cole said nothing for a few seconds, trying his best to prepare himself for whatever would respond back, if anything. He then opened his mouth to speak.

“This is Vice Admiral Preston Jeremiah Cole of the UNSC Everest, over,” he said, and then waited. There was no response.

“I repeat, this is Vice Admiral Preston J. Cole of the UNSC Everest. Does anyone copy, over?”

Cole waited a few more moments, and was about to call it off, when a long burst of static came through the speakers on the bridge.

“I’m getting something,” said Maya. “Trying to trace the signal now.”

The static continued for a couple seconds, and then finally a voice came through.

“We read you Everest, over.”

Nobody on the bridge moved. As if they mysterious voice was watching them as well, the entire crew had frozen in place. Ramirez cast an angry glance at Maya. Whoever had replied spoke English, and that might not be a good thing. The pause lasted over a minute before finally Cole spoke up.

“Speaker, please identify yourself, over,” ordered Cole.

There was a long pause on the other end.

“This is sergeant-major Greystone of the Equestrian Royal Guard, over.”

Sergeant-Major Greystone of the Equestrian Royal Army. What in the the hell is Equestria?

Cole didn’t know how to reply to that response at first. Royal army. Royal meant monarchy, and there hadn’t been a monarchy in human history since the late twenty-third century. Cole could come up with no explanation for that answer.

“Are you a friend, or a foe of the UNSC?” Cole asked, putting out the most important question right away.

There was another long pause at the other end of the signal, but then the mysterious Greystone replied.

“What is the UNSC?”

The cool nighttime breeze wove itself through the many violet fibers of hair, which when looked at under a microscope resembled nothing more than tall, slender stalks of plant life, but when viewed from a normal perspective, all of those purple, and magenta-color follicles, which individually have seemingly no significance, combine to create Twilight Sparkle’s own, beautifully unique mane. The same principle goes for far distant planets. When viewed from afar, a world can seem like nothing more than a pinprick of light, amongst a million others, all competing for an individual’s attention. But when one lucky, heavenly object is looked upon through a telescope by a stargazing pony such as Twilight, everything changes, albeit in a completely different, and far grander scale than that of a strand of hair. One lonely, lifeless planet can instantly change in character when suddenly scrutinized through a series of glass lenses. You can see the swirling atmosphere of a gas planet, and the fine, fuzzy ring which may wrap around its equator. If you look even closer you can see the molten rivers of a planet, burning due to close proximity to its sun, or the thousands of tiny meteorite craters, which dot the grey landscape of a barren moon. Perhaps if one individual is lucky, they might even see a planet filled with life. Lush, green forests, and vast, dry deserts covering entire continents, while massive glaciers, miles in length, carve those continents in half, during their long journeys to the oceans, whose waters wrap around the land, seeking to fill in all available spaces with liquid. A beautiful thing. However, sometimes the most beautiful things in life can be the most mysterious, and the unknown can be very frightening. As Twilight Sparkle rested in her hammock, on the roof of her home, she couldn't help but wonder if somepony else was looking right at her, across the great expanses of time and space. It was a very humbling feeling, but an ominous one as well.

Spike’s question had stuck with her the entire night. While she had indeed studied astronomy to a great extent during her life, and knew almost everything that was known about the universe, she had never in all of her life asked herself that one question. That “What if?” question. What if she discovered extraterrestrial intelligence? What if they discovered her? Would she be prepared for a discovery of that magnitude? The truthful answer was that she didn’t know, and to Twilight, not knowing something was the worst feeling of them all. It frustrated her when she finally realized that she had never come up with a plan should such an event ever occur. If contact with other beings were to be made, she wouldn’t know what to say, or how to act, or what to do. She would be at a complete loss of intelligence, and most likely would do nothing until they acted first. Most likely, but not certainly. No matter how hard she tried to push the thought out of her head, it would always find a way back into the realm of her conscious thought. She tried to overpower the feeling with reason, remembering for a short time how silly such a thought really is. After all, the odds of ever establishing contact with another race were so small, that any logical pony should be able to simply brush off such an extreme suggestion, just like a pony with high integrity would be able to brush off an insult, or rude remark. Science has no place for foolish emotion, as one might say. Yet science is larged based upon ideas, once thought to have been foolish.

Am I a fool, or is what I am feeling, normal?

Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted by a repeating thudding sound, gradually increasing in volume until the source of the beat reached the crest of the wooden stairs, and caused the balcony to vibrate. Twilight turned her head over her shoulder to see Spike staring up at the stars.

“What’s up, Spike?” she asked. The young dragon seemed to almost jump out of his scales when he heard her voice.

“Whoa, Twilight,” he said, whipping his head around to face her. “Don’t do that next time.”

“Sorry.” she giggled. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t scare me,” he stated, while stamping his clawed foot. “You just caught me by surprise, that’s all.”

“Whatever you say, Spike,” she said, turning her head back to look up at the sky. “You didn’t answer my question, by the way.”

“Oh, uh, is it alright if I stay up here with you?” he asked while kicking his clawed foot against the wooden boards.

Twilight smiled. She didn’t like lying on the roof all by herself, and Spike’s presence would be comforting.

“Sure thing, Spike,” she said. “Come over here, and lie down in your hammock.”

“Cool,” he said. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” she said. “It’s not like I’m not going to let you hang out up here, after I offered.”

The purple dragon trotted over to his hammock, on the left side of Twilight’s. He bent his knees, and jumped up, planting his body halfway on the rope-bed, and then used his arms to grab hold, and pull himself the rest of the way up. Twilight struggled to not laugh at the sight. He finally righted himself, so that he faced the night sky, and let out a deep breath of relaxation.

"Wow," he whispered.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, however she didn't utter a single word. Spike's comment had no need for a reply. It was true, it was sincere, it was real. If she were to make an attempt at starting a conversation, it would fail. While Spike would likely not be able to see through the falsehood of her words, she would. She knew that it wouldn't be honest, and the idea of corrupting such an innocent comment, remarkable in its simplicity, made her feel guilty. While it was true that she appreciated the beauty of the stars, she also recognized the stars for what they were, and the dangers they may hide, so if she was to second Spike's comment with her own, she would be telling nothing more than a lie. Lack of knowledge frightened her, and there was much that she didn’t know about the universe.

Thankfully, she was never forced to start the conversation.

"What do they mean," asked Spike. He spoke in a soft voice, and his eyes swayed back and forth, flying across the night sky at incredible speeds, but remaining calm, and content at the same time.

"Hmm?" asked Twilight. The question surprised her, and confused her all at once. "What do you mean?"

"The stars," he said. "What do they mean?"

"The stars?" Twilight asked. She too looked up at the sky, as if gazing out into space would give her a sense of clarity, as if she would suddenly be able to understand his question. "They are just stars. They don't necessarily mean anything."

"What I mean is that..." he paused. "You always used to talk about how when you look at the stars in a certain way, that you could see images, and shapes within them."

"The stellar constellations?" she asked. Spike nodded. "Well, yeah, the night sky is filled with constellations. You need to have an open mind in order to notice them, otherwise the only thing that you will see is a bunch of white dots."

"Show me one," he said in a relaxed tone.

Twilight hesitated. "Well, if you look over there." she gestured with her hoof. "Do you see that one really bright star?"

"Yeah."

"That's actually not a star," she said. "That's Cobalt. Its one of the three gas giants in our solar system. Her sister is Amber and her brother is Touchstone, both of which are on either side of Cobalt. If you look closely, you can just barely see Amber with the naked eye, on the right side of Cobalt. Touchstone is too far away to see."

"Oh yeah," he said, the excitement evident in his voice. "I can see it!"

"Alright," she said. "Now look just above Cobalt. There is a series of three stars in a horizontal pattern above the planet. Do you see them?"

"I think so. Yeah."

"Ok, look at the farthest star to the left," she said, pointing with her hoof. "If you notice, there are two more stars, one to the left and up a bit from the left star, and the other directly above it."

"Ok," he said.

"Now imagine that those three stars were connected by lines; they would then form a triangle, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, now imagine that that triangle is the head of a snake, and that the other two stars are part of the body. That's Psi the serpent."

Spike looked at her. "Who was he?" he asked.

"He was a legendary beast of ancient times,” she replied. “Ponies have told stories about him for thousands of years. Legends says that he was a terrible being, who sought only power, and riches. At a point he became so powerful that he threatened to destroy the ancient country of Foalontine. He invaded the land, and left a trail of destruction and despair wherever he went. Anypony who opposed him was gobbled up in his massive, fanged, maw. Eventually he reached the capital city, and with his army of evil, laid siege to it. Now, Psi was no coward, and he never turned away from a direct challenge, no matter how small the opponent. He had far too much pride and arrogance. During the battle, one brave pony stood up to Psi, directly insulting him, and then dashing away. The pony lured the ignorant serpent to the nearby mountain, and into the large tunnel that cut right through the rock, and led to the great ocean on the other side. Psi slithered through the tunnel in pursuit of the pony, but he had no idea that he had been led into a trap. At the last second, just before he was about to be devoured, the pony yelled out as loud as he could, giving the order to destroy the tunnel. The fuse was lit, the explosive charges detonated, and the entire mountain came crashing down upon Psi, burying him in the rock."

"Well... was he ok? The pony?" Spike asked.

"Now that is where the story begins to split," she explained. "Almost everypony thought that he had perished along with the serpent, but the are those who believe that the hero had escaped the destruction of the tunnel by the use of a secret passageway."

"Hmm," said Spike, turning away from Twilight. "I like the second ending better."

"Me too," she said. "Happy endings are infinitely superior to sad ones."

"It’s not because its a happy ending," he said. "I like it because it leaves room for you to continue the story with your own imagination. It makes you wonder where he went, and what he did after he escaped. The whole mysteriousness of it all, you know?"

Twilight turned and smiled at the dragon, and he smiled back.

"You know Spike," she said. "You've been surprising me a lot lately. You aren't the same dragon that you used to be. You really have grown up over the past year, and its... its a little frightening, but I'm... I'm really proud of you."

He blushed, but still remained smiling. "Thanks, Twi," he said.

Suddenly Twilight noticed movement out of the corner of her eye, and she turned to face the object. "Spike look! It's a shooting star!"

"Where?" he asked, sitting up faster than a bolt of lightning.

"Right there!" she said, raising a hoof. "Look where I'm pointing!"

"Where, I don't see... oh wow!" he exclaimed.

"See it?" asked Twilight.

"Yeah!"

The the bolt of light shot across the sky for another half a second before disappearing into the dark void.

"Where did it go?" he asked.

"It burned up," she said. "It's nothing more than ash now.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well you see, Spike," she said. "Shooting stars are actually just falling pieces of rock. It entered our atmosphere and due to it's intense speed, burned up from the extreme friction of the particles colliding with it in the atmosphere."

"Oh," he mumbled. "Well that's boring."

"No it's not," she countered. "I happen to find it quite interesting."

"Hmm, I guess," he said, rolling back over to face the sky. Twilight did the same.

For a second, Twilight wished that the shooting star was still around. Spike was right, a chunk of falling space rock that bursts into flames is depressingly boring compared to if stars literally shot across the expanses of the universe.

Spike suddenly gestured with his clawed hand toward the sky. "Hey Twi, what's that?"

Twilight attempted to spy what Spike was pointing at, but ended up seeing nothing. "What is it? What do you see?" she asked.

"That light right there, it’s moving,” he said.

“It’s probably just another meteorite,” she said, lying back down.

“I don’t know,” said Spike, rubbing his chin. “It’s moving awfully slow.”

This got Twilight’s attention, and she sat back up. “How slow?” she asked.

“Well, slow enough to be just barely noticeable from the rest of the stars,” he replied.

Twilight scanned the area of the night sky when Spike was pointing. After about thirty seconds of intense searching she began to believe that Spike hadn’t really seen anything.

“Spike, I don’t think that...” she paused. All of the sudden, she spotted a slight movement among the white, immobile stars. Spike was right, there was indeed an object moving very slowly across the night sky. It was nothing more than dot of light, slightly larger than that of the stars which stood silently in the background. Whatever it was, it was close. “Wha...” she began. “Hey, Spike. Mind keeping an eye on that for me?”

“No,” he said. “I guess not.”

“Thanks,” she said, jumping down from the hammock, and galloping over to the golden telescope, which stood mounted upon a gleaming tripod. Ever since Twilight had enchanted the device to allow for a slightly increased magnification, the polished brass surface seemed to sparkle with an increased vigor, even at night.

“Spike,” she called. “Do you still see it?”

“Yeah.”

She grabbed hold of the telescope and turned it to point towards where the object was. She blinked several times in order to eliminate the moisture in her eyes, caused by the cool evening air. When her eyes adjusted, she reacquired sight the the anomaly, and pressed her right eye up against the viewfinder. What she saw was nothing more than a blurry mess of blended light, so she turned a small knob until the stars, and the object came into focus. What she saw made her mouth drop.

It was a large, grey object which appeared to be made up of several segments. On one end, the segment was rather thick, but each section appeared smaller and smaller than the last, until coming down to a final, slender point. It was too distant to make out any details, but it definitely was producing its own light, as there were several white illuminated areas on the side, and the rear. Twilight thought that she saw what looked to be large, white scratches on the side, but she couldn't tell for certain. Whatever it was, it was foreign, and such an object definitely had never been documented in the past.

Twilight slowly pulled away from the telescope as a wave of goosebumps spread throughout her nervous system. She had to focus in order to keep from shaking. Whether she was feeling excitement, or fear, or a mix of the two, she wasn't about to waste any time doing nothing. Hesitation only leads to failure, and failure can bring serious consequences for herself, and everypony around her. “Spike,” she said. “Get a letter ready.”

“Why?” he asked, hopping down from his hammock. “What was it? What did you see?”

“Just do it,” she commanded sternly, turning around to look Spike in the eye.

“Uhh... ok,” he replied hesitantly, but obeying nonetheless. He turned around, but stubbed his toe on a slightly elevated butt of one of the deck boards. He yelped, and cursed under his breath as he hopped up and down on his one good foot for a couple seconds before saying, “I’m good. I’m good,” and stumbling in the direction of a large, waterproof chest, which sat up against the far railing.

Twilight turned away to stare back up at the mysterious planetary satellite, still continuing to cut across the darkness as it continued to orbit. She could hear Spike rummaging through the chest for a piece of paper, and a quill. Ever since she had first started writing her friendship reports to Princess Celestia, she had strategically placed stashes of parchment and writing feathers throughout her home in case she suddenly received inspiration, and didn't have time to get to her desk. "Ready yet, Spike?" she asked.

There was a rushed shuffle of papers, followed by something that sounded like glass being dropped. Spike muttered something inaudible before responding to Twilight, "One second. Ok, ready!"

"Good," she said. "Now write down everything that I say, exactly as I say it," She cleared her throat. "Dear Princess Celestia. I am writing to you regarding a matter of the utmost importance, and I humbly urge you to look into the subject, and respond to me as soon as possible. Just recently, I have discovered an unknown object, which is currently in orbit around our planet, at an estimated speed of about eighteen-hundred to two thousand kilometers per hour. I am not able to get a perfect look at the object using the instruments I have in my possession, but I can be sure that nothing like this has ever been documented before, and it does not look to be that of something naturally formed. Now, I am not making any assumptions to what the object may be, or where it may have come from, but I do have my concerns. I estimate that the object is over fifteen-hundred meters in length, and an object of such size can pose a serious danger to ponies on the ground, should it enter our atmosphere, and impact the earth at its current speed. If it were to strike anywhere near any major population center, we would be looking at tens of thousands of casualties, not to mention the serious, long-lasting ecological harm it may bring to the natural environment. It may just stay in orbit indefinitely, or get slingshotted out of our gravitational pull eventually, but I don't want to take any unnecessary risks. Whatever the outcome may be, I ask that you make a decision to a plan if action quickly. I suggest that we begin stockpiling food, water, and other essential needs in safe locations, and prepare emergency evacuation routes to said safe sites, should it become necessary to begin the evacuation of a specific city or region. Please respond to me as soon as possible with information of what you plan to do, and how I, and the other elements may be of assistance. Sincerely, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight could hear Spike rapidly scribbling down the last few words of the rushed notification document.

“Done,” said Spike. “Is that everything?”

Twilight sighed, turning to face him. “I hope so Spike. Send it.”

Spike inhaled a deep breath, then exhaled a vapor of green fire, which engulfed the paper within its expanding tendrils for a split second, before disappearing along with the letter. Twilight stared down sadly at the deck.

“Wh-what do we do now?” asked the dragon.

She looked back up, brushing her mane out of her eyes with one hoof, “We act. Come on.” she said, turning around to head inside. “Let’s go round up the other elements.”