//------------------------------// // Interlude on Alastor // Story: The Quest For Iscanter // by eternalsquire //------------------------------// Far away in space lay the ninth planet of the sun, which the Equestrians know as Alastor after the horse of the underworld. The surface was a almost completely smooth sphere composed of solid helium and hydrogen. Somepony even might, if he or she ever touched down upon this forsaken world, consider it even colder than Queen Crysalis's heart. But appearances can be deceiving, for underneath the ice... there were habitats, within which intelligent beings dwellt. Examining more closely, these beings were all uniformly pony-like in appearance, with short cropped manes and diminished tails, also having straight short ears. They were uniformly blue-hided, the manes and the tails uniformly black in color, and not a one of them bore a cutie mark on their flank. Most of them had unmarked flanks. Others had their flanks branded black with either chevron, bar, or other patterns. It was these denizens who formed the advance forces of the would-be conquerors of Equestria, eager to add it to thier interstellar empire at any possible cost... but directed to do so as efficiently as possible. It was like a ripe fruit for the plucking, a pastoral paradise anyequine of the upper class of the Gallopon Empire would be most eager to live in. Especially, if they didn't manage to destroy it first in their efforts to drive out the barbarians currently living there. A portion of Alastor's ice melted, allowing a spacecraft to penetrate the surface and make departure. The spacecraft resembled a beetle of some intimidating species, and was colored the same blue color as the soldiers. In the control room, two Gallopons were in conference. A stallion was obviously in charge. Branded on his flank was a single mark, a pair of crossed unicorn horns. The other one, a mare, had an oak leaf branded on her rump. "It's a shame", the mare began, "that we have only this ship remaining out of the fleet we once had here. We only have our own projection relay satellites to defend the base. We got all of the Equestrians who attacked us, but it was an unconscionably expensive victory. Our Leader will not be pleased with us at all." "At least you gathered some valueable intelligence which we can bring with us.", the stallion replied. "Indeed.", the mare agreed. She pressed a button on a console. "Medical here.", a tinny male voice responded. "Tell us what you discovered regarding Equestrian anatomy.", the mare ordered. The voice on the medical channel switched to female. "Pathology here.", the specialist announced. "We seem to have a clear case of convergent evolution. The general physical structures are all present, but there are differences in our respective morphologies ranging from subtle to major. The subtle difference is that an Equestrian possesses 2 more chromosomes than we do, for a total of 64. These extras have completely undecodeable genetic patterns. The other chromosomes correspond to the Gallopon genome that our culture had thoroughly mapped long since. Autopsy of a large statistical sample of individuals seems to indicate a small percentage either have vestigal wings or horns. As far as we know, such structures exist only in our legends, or, of course, among only the very few Iscanterians remaining. But the Iscanterian body shape is identical to ours. The Equestians are larger, yet more gracile and less robust. We're facing a mystery here, clearly." "I'm intrigued by the horn, tell me how that functions for them.", the stallion ordered. "We've done several scans. It seems both our people and the Equestrians appear to evolved from socialized herd animals, and we can see how the limbic and cerebral systems lay atop the herd brain and spinal cord. The horn is integral to the skull structure at large, we speculate it existed for combat to gain mating rights. However, a complete nervous system in its own right pervades the horn and culminates into a nerve bundle connected into their equivalent to the pineal gland. Some of our most ancient legends existing prior to the split between Iscanterians and Gallopons liken the gland to a "third eye", rumored to possess unknown abilities." "Fascinating.", the mare breathed. "At least we have a live prisoner from whom we can extract more information. We'll bring him to our Leader so his best interrogators can work on him. Where is the prisoner now?" The voice over the console changed to a different male voice. "Security here. He's.... oh, manure... he's escaped confinement, somehow bent the bars all around him till they burst? I see him now. He looks furious. HE'S CRUSHING ME AGAINST THE WALL AND NOT EVEN TOUCHING ME!!!". What next was heard, were prolonged and agonized screams from the various individuals in the medical wing... followed by sickening crunching and squishing noises. The control room was silent for several shocked moments following. "Sound Intruder Alert throughout the ship!", the stallion ordered. Klaxons shrieked over and over in response. "The intruder is an alien stallion, white hided, horn on forehead, and an exotic marking on his rump that is natural, not branded. Use sedation rounds if at all possible! Kill only if necessary! Helmsman, prepare us for Jump! Target, Gallopus! Gunnery, let's give those barbarians on Planet Three something to think about. Fire a multi-menace missile at the largest center of industrial activity remaining Then, we will Jump!" . . . I've escaped my cage, Shining Armor thought. Now, if I were the captain, where would I be?, he wondered. He held a weapon, captured from a jailor he crushed between the wall and his magic shield. He knew in theory it was possible to kill that way, but this was the very first time he felt forced to use it. He wanted to vomit because of what he had to make himself do. This ship will NOT escape my vengeance for the deaths and dissections of all my fellow-ponies!" he swore to himself. I so much wish I were home. I wish I wasn't raised in an orphanage. I wish I could have found love or even had a foal. But none of these things will be possible for me now. I can only do my best to take all these creatures down with me.