//------------------------------// // The Discovery of a Pod // Story: Land of Giant Ponies // by Hereward //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle started at a sudden sound. With this interruption in her studies she looked out the window to find that there was nothing in the sky that was new, which was unusual since every time she heard such a sound before a rainbow would always follow. She mused. "What makes a noise like a sonic rainboom but doesn't produce a rainbow?" Struggling to deduce what it could be she put aside her current reading material and sought out a book on anything, even something mythical, that could explain what she heard but didn't see. Of course such a boom didn't go unnoticed by other ponies. Applejack was just performing a quality check on her apple crop when she heard it, causing her to look into the sky too. "What in...?" She exclaimed. "Hey, Rainbow Dash! You don' need t'go showin' auf yer rainboom jus' whenever yer feel!" Just then she noticed the absence of a rainbow. "Wait a minute. If thar's no rainbow then..." She stood still, putting a hoof to her head as she tried to fathom what was happening. "Do ah drop ev'ythin' an' go lookin' for the cause o' tha' sound or shall ah jus' carry on 'til Twiligh' or somepony else comes t'ge' meh?" Speaking of Rainbow Dash, she was just shifting a few clouds when the boom reached her ears, making her look round for the source. "Okay!" She declared. "Who's stealin' my best trick?" What made Rainbow Dash's experience significantly different from Twilight's and Applejack's was she caught sight of something in the distance when she looked towards Whitetail Wood; one moment she saw a silhouette the next it glinted in the sunlight. Even from so far away she could tell it wasn't a pegasus because it was too long and short to be any kind of pony. Her first instinct was to go and investigate but was interrupted by a query from another pegasus regarding a raincloud. Pinkie Pie and Rarity actually remained none the wiser at this point. Rarity was so wrapped up in her work and was at a fairly substantial distance to actually register the sound and Pinkie Pie was making too much of her own noise to hear it. However Fluttershy, in spite of being reasonably far away, heard it at a level similar to Twilight. "Oh!" She peeped. "Rainbow Dash? Was that you?" She looked out of her window towards Sweet Apple Acres but could see nothing out of place, no streak of colour across the sky. "H...hello? Is... anypony out there?" She rested her forehoofs on the windowsill looking to and fro. Twilight browsed through a book on the subject of supersonic speeds, having already given up on a tome of little-seen animals; she could identify matters on the effects of breaking the sound barrier and how sonic rainbooms were limited to pegasi but nothing she could find explained hearing the boom unaccompanied by a rainbow. With no other option available she decided on field research; she would go out and comb the area around Ponyville for anything out of the ordinary, with the possible exception of the Everfree Forest. --- "Mayday, mayday!" Harry Brann called over the radio. "Can anyone read me?" The pod he and Angela had took didn't land particularly steady, indeed she had been knocked unconscious for a few minutes and was only just coming round. Harry tried a few more frequencies as she found her bearings. "W..where...? What happened?" Angela Shane asked her surroundings. "It doesn't make sense." Harry remarked. "There's no white noise and no cross-transmissions no matter what frequency I use." "Oh, yeah." She groaned. "That #*€¬/^£ fancy spaceship went and crashed on a planet. Them $*>>/^` scientists and their bloomin' new-fangled fancy-schmansy thingamijigs." "It's no use moaning about it." Harry interrupted. "What's most important is we try and contact someone." Angela then sat down on a seat that hadn't been dislodged by the impact as he continued with his 'mayday' call. "I guess," He said after a couple more minutes, "That the radio broke when we landed." "So," Angela remarked, "Shall we have a look out?" "Only through the window." He answered. "There should be an emergency beacon that'll help people find this pod and I don't know if it's safe to breathe this planet's air." "What of it?" She retorted. "There's plant life out there, the sky's blue. That means breathable air, right?" "Even so," He returned, "This might actually be a new planet, the first Earth-like planet beyond our solar system, so I don't want to risk catching an alien disease." --- James Benson was the first to recover from the shock of the impact, he noticed Laura Pollard slumped over a spare seat and daylight shining through a small window. He stood shakily and considered his position. He had three real options. Stay with Laura and wait for a rescue party, leave the pod to get help for Laura or to abandon her and go find some civilisation. It didn't take him long to decide that Laura wasn't his concern. He reached for the hatch and released the seal, but it took him another three minutes to open the hatch. He had just jumped out when Laura came to. It surprised him to find that there was a lot of tall green grass around him, not one blade less than 10 feet, but he wasn't duanted as he believed that it was Earth except that he was in a wilderness. Convinced that he could either find civilisation or a helpful tribe he pushed on into the 'thicket'. Once Laura found her bearings she looked all round her as the pieces of her memory slipped back together. She soon realised what happened to James when she saw that the hatch was opened and decided that she'd be better off waiting for someone to find the pod, at least she could formulate a story to give her the most benefit. She sat and looked out at the jungle-esque expanse wondering where she was. Was it Earth or had they found an Earth-like planet? --- "Ookayy," Twilight mused as she stood in the town square, "That boom came from a Southward direction, I think." After going over the layout of Ponyville and the surrounding countryside in her head to determine the best place to start a seach she trotted off to Sweet Apple Acres. "Hey! Twilight!" A blue flash passed in front of her eyes before Rainbow Dash came to a stop at her side. "Did you hear that?" "If you mean the sonic boom, then yes." She answered with a hint of bother in her voice. "Yeah, I couldn't figure it out either." Rainbow Dash babbled out. "I mean, not only was there no rainbow, but some silhouette was moving off in the distance." "Really?" Twilight was most intrigued by this piece of information. "Where did you see that?" Rainbow Dash hesitated. "Err... I can't really remember. I had to help somepony with a raincloud and by the time I got a chance to get a better look it was gone." Twilight gave her a quizzical look. "But I think it was off in that direction." "It's not much," Twilight muttered, "But it's a start." "Hey there!" Pinkie Pie suddenly greeted as she popped out of nowhere; even after all the times she did this it still startled Twilight. "Pinkie Pie?" She queried. "What are you doing here?" "Well," She replied as she sat in front of the two, "You see..." Just then she started shaking all over. "Oh." Twilight remarked in understanding. "There's a doozy afoot." "Oh, no." Pinkie answered. "It's not a foot. All I can figure is..." She was interrupted by the shivers again, "It's gonna be at Sweet Apple Acres." Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked at one another in a serious manner before they galloped off to make sure nothing was wrong with Applejack. "Hey!" Pinkie called after them. "Wait up!" --- Angela was getting restless. She had been stuck in the pod with Harry for, what he determined to be, half an hour but she was sure it was much longer. There was blue sky outside, in the distance lush flora swayed in the breeze. As far as she was concerned it was perfectly okay to open the hatch, breathe in natural air and stretch her legs. Just then a strange sound resonated through the pod. At first it seemed like thunder but no dark clouds hung in the sky outside and all instruments were set to a resting state. The perculiar low-pitched sound seemed to be getting stronger and was occurring in regular bursts. "What the $*£(**% ^£(( is that?!?" She remarked. Harry was tired of her loose use of language but he began to make a deduction based on the most logical solution. "Earth tremors, I'd say." He answered. "We could be in an area of high seismic activity." "Thank you, professor." She remarked. "Thing is how many earthquakes occur like that?" Harry wondered why she didn't seem too bothered about their situation but he realised that, for once, she had actually made a good observation. An earthquake or tremor always has a continuous rumble and thunder never repeats as quickly as this. By this time they could feel the vibrations attributed to the sound. "Sounds like my brother coming downstairs." --- "Whatever it is," Twilight remarked once they reached Sweet Apple Acres, "There's nothing to indicate a doozy just yet." "Hey!" Pinkie cried. "Therrrre's Applejaaack!" Sure enough they had come far enough to see Applejack checking over the apple trees. "Well," Rainbow Dash figured, "She must have some role in this. Come on, let's say hi!" "Hey, Applejack!" She turned to the newcomers with a feeling of slight surprise. "Hi gals. What brings y'all here?" "Pinkie Pie's got the shivers." Twilight answered. "And you remember the last time Pinkie got the shivers?" "You sayin' we're gettin' a doozy round these parts?" Twilight nodded firmly. "Whoa!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as her eyes wandered about the orchard. "AJ, some of your apple trees sure do make some weird-lookin' apples." "I beg yer pardon?!?" She replied, the annoyance in her voice notwithstanding. "Well, have you ever seen an apple like that before?" All four of them looked at the 'apple' in question. Its shape was almost exactly like an apple but the skin was a dark grey and there were unusual little protrusions just noticeable here and there, also a few spots glinted in the sunlight like tiny crystals. "I... don't think that's really an apple." Twilight remarked. --- The vibrations seemed to have stopped. Harry was feeling smug about the idea that it was just earth tremors and Angela was getting rather bitter, viewing him as a smart alec and also desiring a stiff drink for the peculiarity and inconvenience of the whole situation was provoking her into stress. After a couple of minutes the vibrations returned, stronger and more frequent than they had been; they grew stronger and stronger until they suddenly stopped again. It didn't seem like twenty seconds when the earlier ones had gone on for a few minutes. They barely had time to figure on these latest shockwaves when the whole pod shook, causing them to tumble about. Once everything had settled, although they seemed to be off centre, they did what they could to stand when the sunlight was suddenly blocked. Looking out one window they could see grass in bright sunshine and, looking up, clear blue sky could be seen through gaps in the tree canopy. Angela was the first to look towards the opposite window. Angela stood staring for a couple of seconds and then briefly screamed in surprise and alarm. When Harry looked he became transfixed as his instincts said he should be terrified while a separate part of his brain reminded him that there was no escape at this time and still another said that what he was seeing was impossible. There, completely filling the window, was an enormous sky-blue eye staring back at them. --- Almost as soon as Twilight had identified that what they were looking at wasn't an apple Pinkie suddenly got this major jolt before settling down. After checking herself over her eyes locked on the object lying on the grass. "That's it!" She declared. "That's the doozy!" Before any of the others could respond she cantered over to the object in question and scooped it up in her hoof. Twilight walked forward with Applejack and Rainbow Dash following cautiously; well Applejack was being cautious, Rainbow Dash was being constantly pushed back slightly with one of her hoofs as a non-verbal reminder not to get overeager. "Ooooh." Their pink companion practically squealed as she held it up to her eye. "Pinkie," Twilight asked, "Could you please restrain yourself now and again?" "You ponies have just gotta see this." She declared, not registering Twilight's words. Curiosity getting the better of her Twilight came closer to get a good look at the... 'sphere', for want of a better word. Applejack held back for now while Rainbow Dash took to the air and hovered almost directly over the sphere, not getting too close for the sake of Twilight's rather 'slow, steady' way of checking things out. "It's... very interesting, Pinkie." Twilight commented. "I would like to investigate further but, why has it got you so excited?" "Look closer, Twilight." She answered, holding it towards one of her shiny mauve eyes. "Look real close at a glinty part." Twilight couldn't fathom what Pinkie was going on about. Had this happened some months earlier she'd have dismissed it as Pinkie's wild excitability but, what with the parasprites and 'Pinkie sense' she had witnessed, she decided to buy it anyway. She looked hard at a 'glinty part', almost as though she was looking through a telescope, and gasped. There, inside the sphere, were two tiny bipeds. They were close to the 'window', Twilight now identified, cowering as they kept looking out the window opposite. From her position she could only see one of Pinkie's shoulders, which told her that Pinkie's own scrutinising had terrified them stiff. Twilight now realised a multitude of things as she observed the occupants of the sphere: What she had to do now. What these creatures were. So many things now filled her mind as she slowly withdrew her head.