Chapter 3: Arrival
As I began going in and out of sleep as I normally do while traveling through space, my mind once again drifted back to the events of Alpha 1.
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I tried to pull myself closer to my ship as Pikkon approached, but it was no use. My body was just too physically exhausted from the thrashing I had just received for me to pull myself even an inch farther. I quickly looked towards my ship. It was only about 5 yards away. Seeing how close I was, I felt some adrenaline kick in, giving me a slight energy boost, one large enough for me to try one last thing. In one last desperate attempt at survival, I slowly raised my hand and began to focus my energy. To my joy, a small blue ball of energy began to form in my palm. I quickly fired the ki blast at the approaching figure. I wasn't expecting it to kill him, I was just hoping it would distract him long enough for me to try to escape. The ball flew closer and closer to him. Unfortunately, when it was only a few inches away from him, he swatted the ball away. The ki blast went sailing to his right and made contact with one of the crater walls. My outstretched arm collapsed as hopelessness flooded over me. I was doomed, and I knew it.
He continued to walk slowly towards me. As he walked, my life began to flash before my eyes. I saw the destruction, mayhem, and fear that I spread whenever I began to exterminate a planet. I also felt something that I had suppressed after every mission. I felt guilt.
Finally, he reached me. He was only a few feet away from me. He slowly extended his hand, his palm facing me. I knew this was it; he would hit me with a ki blast. I knew I couldn't take one more hit, not after the beating I just took. So this is the end, I thought. I closed my eyes tightly.
"Do it," I whispered, "end this."
I sat there, waiting for my demise. As the seconds went by, my heart began beating faster.... faster....faster as I waited for my end.
"No," Pikkon finally said, breaking the seemingly eternal silence.
I opened my eyes to see him lowering his arm, turning, and walking away. I was confused. Finally, my curiosity got the better of me.
"Wait!" I yelled.
Pikkon stopped and turned back to look at me.
"Why didn't you kill me? You know what I was planning on doing to your planet. Hell, I would've killed you if the rolls were reversed!"
"Simple" he said, "I'm sparing your life so that you can question your way of life. I am doing this in the hopes that you will change your ways."
With that, he turned away and began to ascend into the air. He paused for a second, and turned to face me one last time.
"Leave this planet, and never return, otherwise I won't be as forgiving."
With that, he turned back and flew out of the crater. I quickly shook off the shock and slowly crawled back to my pod. I opened the door and slowly hoisted myself inside.
The door quickly shut behind me and the pod lifted off the ground as I began hitting buttons. I looked out the window to see Pikkon looking at me as I lifted away, a slightly less serious look was on his face. I looked away and began to think about what he said as tiny robotic arms began to lower from different places in the pod. The arms began to work on my wounds as I finally gave into the cold grasp of unconsciousness.
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I woke up with a jolt as I drifted back to reality.
"Maybe Pikkon is right, maybe what I'm doing for Frieza is wrong," I whispered, thinking about what he had told me.
"I'll talk to Doc about it when I get home, maybe he can help me think this through."
With that, I began to relax. It felt like a weight was taken off my shoulders knowing that I had a plan. Feeling this new freedom, I drifted into a deep sleep.
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Twilight stood in the front of what appeared to be a lecture hall. She looked up at the four unicorns in the back of the room: the ones who are responsible for her future, in Twilight's eyes at least. The four unicorns consisted of the instructor who led the Sparkles into this room, a light brown mare with a brown mane, a blue colt with a white mane, and a yellow mare with a light purple mane. All of the examiners wore suits and carried clipboards, with pencils prone, ready to assess, in the grip of their magic.
Twilight began to panic. Maybe I'm not ready for this, she thought, shaking with nervousness. She looked over to her parents to her right, by the door. Both Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle motioned for their daughter to smile. They both knew she could do it, she just needs to be confident. Twilight quickly sighed, then turned back to the instructors, nervously smiling to signal that she was ready.
As if knowing the moment had come, the doors on the opposite side of the room opened, revealing a small cart being pushed by an earth pony. The pony pushed the cart in, and then quickly walked out. The most interesting thing was what lay on top of the cart: a strange purple egg with dark purple dots on it. Twilight recognized that it was a dragon egg from what she read about them. There was a sign on the side of the cart that stated what needed to be done, which was pretty obvious. Twilight needed to hatch this dragon egg.
Twilight began to panic again. She had read about eggs, but had never learned how to hatch one! She had never thought that was a skill she would need to use.
Her thoughts of panic were interrupted by one of the instructors.
"Well Ms. Sparkle?" the yellow mare asked, impatience dominating her voice.
Twilight walked closer to the egg, looked at it, then looked back up at the examiners, letting out a nervous laugh. The examiners responded by raising their clipboards with their magic and writing furiously, making Twilight even more nervous.
Ok, Twilight thought, taking in a deep breath, I can do this. She took a couple of steps backward, planting her hoofs firmly in the ground. She took in a deep breath, lowered her head, and clenched her eyes shut in concentration. She began grunting with effort as she attempted to tap into her magic, but for some reason, it would not work. After a few seconds, she let out her breath, and looked up at the egg in worry.
Come on, I have to do this! Everything is riding on this moment! she thought, panic quickly rising in her mind.
She quickly began to try again, only to meet the same results. The silence of the room was interrupted by a loud yawn from one of the instructors. This was greeted by a glare from Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle, which was ignored.
Another instructor looked at her watch and quickly said, "We don't have all day!"
With that, Twilight began to jump around the cart, hoping that maybe a new angle or position would cause the egg to hatch.
After failing time and time again, Twilight placed herself in her original position.
All right, this is it, one last try, she thought, then gulped, here goes nothing!
She closed her eyes and concentrated as hard as she could. A tiny ball of magic began to form on her horn.
Almost...there..! She thought, trying even harder. She leaned closer and closer toward the egg, until she lost her balance, and fell on her face.
After a few seconds she sat up, hunching over in shame. She looked over to the instructors, trying to hold back the floodgates of tears.
"I'm sorry for wasting your time," Twilight whispered. The admittance of defeat almost caused the tears to flow freely, but she held back so that the instructors would not know how hurt she was. Her only response as she lowered her head was the sound of rapid writing from the four unicorns.
Suddenly, there was a loud boom outside. This caught everyone in the room off guard, but no one more than Twilight. In response to the noise, Twilight, to even her own surprise, fired a magic beam from her horn. The beam made contact with the egg, caused it to float in the air. The egg then split, launching shards of the shell across the room to reveal a baby purple dragon with green spikes, still surrounded by the magenta aura of Twilight's magic. Twilight then close her eyes and screamed. When she opened them, her eyes were glowing white.
After that, she lost complete control of her magic. Magic beams shot everywhere. One of these beams hit the instructors, causing them to float in the air, unable to escape this powerful magic. Another beam hit Twilights parents, turning them both into plants. A third beam flew over and hit the new baby dragon.
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A lone white pony walked through the garden of Canterlot palace. A lot had been going through her mind, but that was now a common thing for her. A lot of the thoughts were from work, or something pertaining to it, but the main thoughts that troubled this mare were on a personal level. They would deal with her sister and the choices that she made many years ago. The mare would walk in the garden just to escape these thoughts, but only for a little bit. The thought would always come back. As she was walking, she heard a large boom and was extremely surprised to see a giant purple dragon's head popping straight out of one of the towers. Seeing this, the mare ran toward the tower. After all, it is the job of the princess of Equestria to investigate something like this.
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Twilight began floating in the air, but then she felt something. She looked and saw a hoof on her shoulder. She turned around fully to see the mare from the garden.
She was tall, taller the average pony. She had a white coat and a mane that was rainbow colored. The most interesting part of the mane and tail was that they flowed, as though blown by an invisible breeze. She had a cutie mark that looked like the sun. Unlike everyone else, she wore a crown on her head and had both a horn and wings, showing she was an alicorn. She was Princess Celestia.
Twilight looked into the princess's face, and calmed down instantly. Her eyes returned to normal, and all of her magic wore off at once. There was a loud thump as the instructors fell to the ground. Twilight's parents looked shocked once they were turned back, but they quickly regained their composure. The baby dragon then turned back to normal, and began sucking on the end of its tail.
The princess then spoke:
"Twilight Sparkle!"
Twilight, seeing that she was in trouble, quickly said, "oh, I am so sorry! I didn't-"
"You have a very special gift," interrupted Princess Celestia, "I don't think I've ever come across a unicorn with your raw abilities"
Twilight was dumbstruck, all she could saw was "Huh!?"
"But you need to learn to tame these abilities through focus study"
"Huh!?"
"Twilight Sparkle, I'd like to make you my own personal protégé here at the school"
"HUH!?" was all Twilight could say.
"Well?" Celestia asked, waiting for an answer.
Twilight turned to her parents, who were grinning and nodding with enthusiasm.
"YESS!" screamed Twilight, unable to contain her excitement.
Celestia interrupted her celebration though.
"One other thing, Twilight" Celestia said, holding up a hoof.
"More?!" Twilight asked, as she fell over.
Celestia then walked over to Twilight and pointed at her flank. Twilight followed Celestia's hoof to where it pointed. She saw that there was something on her formally blank flank. It was a pink star with five white smaller stars around it. Twilight gasped with excitement on realizing what it was.
"My cutie mark!" Twilight shouted with excitement, "YES YES YES YES YES YES!!"
After a few seconds, Twilight calmed down and hugged her parents. Celestia smiled at this.
"Come" she said, "let me give you a tour of your new school."
With that, Celestia left the room, followed closely by the Sparkle family, who were beaming with pride. As they walked out of the room, none of the ponies noticed the broken window where a beam of Twilight's out of control magic had gone through, and was now currently moving through space.
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As the beam of unstable magic flew through the window, it began to pick up speed. It flew through the air, breaking through the atmosphere before continuously moving through space. By the time the runaway magic reached space, Celestia had calmed Twilight. However, since the magic had not connected fully with anything, technically it had not taken effect and consequently did not dissipate. Instead, it was left free to travel onwards. As it continued on, it increased in intensity and velocity, going faster and faster until finally it made contact with its ultimate target - a pod with a sleeping humanoid alien inside. Once hit by this magic, the pod began to glow with Twilight's magenta aura. The pod grew brighter and brighter until it disappeared, breaking through time and space in the process. As Twilight’s powerful magic bent the time/space continuum, the pod was catapulted off its course and hurled through the darkness. It would be many years before the pod would reappear, but it only felt like a few seconds to its inhabitant.
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I heard a large *thud* as something unknown hit the pod, forcefully removing me from my light slumber.
Probably just a small asteroid, I thought, before drifting back to sleep. At least, that's what I tried to do.
Suddenly, I was jolted awake to the sound of alarms.
"What is going on?" I asked myself, adrenaline now coursing through my veins.
I look out the window to see a large planet before me. But something didn't seem right, it seemed a little too close. That's when it hit me.
"I have to put in the landing coordinates!" I shouted, then began pressing buttons, trying to set where the pod should land. One set of bad coordinates could send me straight into the ocean, so that is probably what I need to avoid the most.
I began to type in the coordinates of what appeared to be a small, open field in the outskirts of a forest when more lights began to flash.
I turned to my left to see the screen flashing up a warning. I couldn't see it well with my scouter on, so I took it off and placed into a compartment in the ship. When I finally got a good look at the screen my heart began to sink. It read:
Warning! Pod's landing guidance offline. Shields offline. Manual landing required.
I could deal with one or the other being offline, but BOTH!? With the guidance offline, the pod could not land in its normal style, where it crashes into the ground, like a meteorite would, leaving a massive crater. With guidance offline, I would have to land manually. That would be ok if that were the only problem because all of Freiza's men have been taught to land pods in case of emergency. With the shields offline though, even if I have to land the ship, I cannot take it down in the usual meteorite-like landing because the ship, and me, would be torn apart on contact. The only solution would be if I went down at a 45 or less degree angle, treating it as if I was skipping a rock on water. It's risky, but I prefer some chance to no chance at all.
Ok, I thought, grabbing the controls, here goes everything!
I began steering the ship into the planet's atmosphere, and got ready for one bumpy landing.
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Twilight sat outside her house, looking up at the stars with five of her friends. It had been many years since her entrance exam and now she is a young adult mare.
"Twilight, when's the meteor shower gonna be?" asked Rainbow Dash, sounding a little bored. “I mean, the skies are clear so you should be able to see everything!”
"Just a few more minutes, Rainbow," Twilight responded to her friend, who groans and shifts uncomfortably in the grass.
"Yah said that ten minutes ago, sugar cube," retorted Applejack, a little impatience in her voice.
"Darling, you know that even Twilight can't predict when exactly these showers are going to be, so please be patient," sighed Rarity.
“Ah'm trying' to, but it's gettin' late, an' Ah gotta lotta apple buckin' to do tomorr-.”
"Look!" Pinkie interrupted, pointing at the sky.
As if on cue, the sky began to fill with shooting stars as the meteor shower began. The girls sat there, closely watching the beauty of this event.
"This is so beautiful!" commented Fluttershy in her quiet voice.
As the girls watched, they noticed a shooting star get bigger and bigger.
"Look at that one, its huge!" commented Rainbow.
The girls stared with joy on their faces at the large star, but Twilight's face soon distorted into one of terror.
"Watch out!" She screamed.
The girls quickly ran out of the way. They looked up to see a ball enwrapped in flames come flying above their heads. Twilight followed its path with her eyes until it finally made contact with the tree tops, then finally crashed in the Everfree Forest. She quickly turned to the girls.
"Come on girls! We have to go see if anypony was hurt!"
"Uhm, I don't think that would be a good idea," Fluttershy quietly said.
"But Fluttershy," Twilight said, "what if somepony or animal was hurt, they may need he-"
She was interrupted by Fluttershy quickly flying past her, headed as fast as she could towards the crash sight. The girls looked at each other for a second, then ran after Fluttershy as fast as they could.
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I had just flown over a small hill when my target came into sight, a forest. If I can find a clearing, I can finally land this thing, I thought, becoming a little more confident about my odds. The pod's condition, however, still caused me to worry. Due to the lack of shielding, the entry through the atmosphere had damaged my pod more than I expected. This damage is now making the pod almost impossible to control. I see the last hill before the forest. As I fly over, I saw a flash of color on the ground, but it disappears quickly due to the pods speed. As I reach the forest, I begin to drop in altitude a little quicker than I expected. I looked at the flashing screen to see another horrible message. Apparently, the damage the pod had sustained on entry had finally caught up to it. The message stated that the manual guidance was now offline.
"Can I catch a break?" I cursed.
A second later, the pod made contact with one of the tops of the many trees, causing to begin to spin. As I rolled around and around in the pod, I was flung straight into the door, hitting the open button in the process.
In less than a second, I was sent flying from the pod. As I began falling, I heard the crash of the pod, which came down farther in the forest. I tried to react as gravity began to pull me towards the ground. I began to spin in the air, trying to catch myself, but the speed from the pod was too much. I could only look in horror as I flew headfirst towards a line of trees. I made contact with a loud crunch as I flew through a few of them, feeling pain from all over my body, and my armor cracking. I then slid across the ground of a clearing, creating a small crater, which finally stopped me. I opened my eyes only to see blurry colors of the trees and dirt around me before finally passing out from the pain.
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Twilight and her friends had been looking for the meteorite for almost an hour. Finally, when the search party was just about to give up, Twilight heard a shout. It was Rainbow Dash who had flown up in the sky and could now see the crash site in its entirely.
"Hey guys! It looks like something big crashed in a clearing just ahead!" Rainbow Dash reported. “There’s a bunch of knocked down trees and what looks like part of a crater!”
The girls ran as fast as they could. Upon reaching the clearing, the girls were greeted with the sight of broken treetops, torn up ground, and fallen trees. As the girls followed the destroyed trees, they noticed something was lying in the small crater. It looked like an ape, but with no hair except on its head. It also seemed to be wearing some soft of armor, but none of the girls had ever seen anything like it.
"What in tarnation is that?" Applejack asked.
As if on cue, the group looked at Fluttershy for identification. She could only shake her head. "I've never seen a creature like that before," she said quietly, with concern and awe in her voice.
Twilight carefully approached the creature. As she did, she looked more carefully at this being that crashed from the sky. It doesn’t look so scary, and it’s definitely hurt, she thought, noticing the blood that caked the exposed skin of it's body.
Twilight tenderly placed her hoof on its throat to check its vital signs. Her face quickly distorted in terror and she quickly reported back to her friends, "It has no pulse!"
Terrified now more for the creature’s safety than her own, she urged her friends to help her take action. She knew that the only hope this being had to live was in their hooves. Without their help, it surely would not survive. "Come on girls, we gotta get this creature to a hospital!"
The girls looked at one another with doubt in their eyes but as soon as they turned back and saw the pleading look on Twilight’s face, they knew they had no choice. They ran over to the creature and began devise a plan to carry him out of the forest.
Applejack was the first to jump in - “Come on y’all. Let’s giddy up and help Twilight. She can’t carry it all by herself.”
Immediately, Rainbow Dash pushed Applejack aside and began ordering the girls into action. “Applejack’s right. Ok, everyone, let’s work together to get it out of here. I’ll dash ahead and find help.”
Together, the ponies began to move the creature slowly, and carefully out of the forest and began to make their way to safety.
“Ah have no ideah how Ah’m gonna explain this to Granny Smith,” complained Applejack. “Ah hope this doesn’t come back to bite us!”
“Shhh, it’ll hear you!” whispered Fluttershy.
“Aw, it’s out like a light…he can’t hear a thing!” said Pinkie. “And if we’re not careful this could turn into an enormously huge entire-town-in-total-chaos Princess-has-to-come-and-save-the-day problem. This is an unknown creature we’ve got here, ponies!”
Applejack interrupted “Uh, beg pardon but, could we maybe move things along? This here creature’s a mite heavy and we’re too far down the road to be hollering at one anuther over this ideah.”
It was true that they had no idea who they were helping, or why other than somehow Twilight seemed to be intent on making this happen.
"Hold on" Twilight whispered to the unconscious Saiyan, "you'll get help soon."