Chapter 2
“Spike! Wake up!” a lavender hoof roughly poked him in the side.
The baby dragon merely mumbled something about Rarity and rolled over to his other side.
“Spike, come on!” Twilight poked the dragon a bit rougher this time.
It was a tad to rough as it ended up pushing Spike off the other side of the basket. Causing it to comically to cover up the now dazed dragon and once again cover him in darkness.
Both Rainbow and Twilight waited for the dragon to appear from underneath but were disappointed as the dragon persisted in his slumber.
“I got this Twilight,” Rainbow said confidently as she stepped up next to the bundle of blankets.
“WAKE UP SPIKE!” her voice rumbled into the night.
The dragon immediately started scrambling on the ground. Eventually the poor drake managed to free himself from the web of blankets and basket and stood up blearily on his feet.
A big yawn escaped from his mouth and he finally gathered his wits to speak,
“Oh, hey Rainbow Dash. What are you doing here in the middle of the night?”
“Twilight needs you to send a letter,” Rainbow replied.
“Whats the problem?” he asked turning to the unicorn next to Rainbow.
Twilight paused for a moment trying to figure out how to describe what exactly she and Rainbow saw.
“Ummm… well we saw lights.”
“Well duh,” Spike replied cheekily.
Twilight stomped a hoof,
“It was alot of lights Spike!”
The dragon just stared blankly at her.
“There was a big red one too Spike!”
The dragon let out an annoyed sigh, “Yea my blanket misses me at the moment soooo…”
He made a move to flip his basket back over but Twilight stopped him, after shooting him a quick glare he rolled his eyes.
“Okay fine, I’ll go get some paper and a quill. happy now?”
Twilight smiled and nodded her head as the grumbling dragon stalked off.
Rainbow turned to her,
“So do you think Princess Luna knows what that thing was?”
Twilight paused for a moment, “If anypony does its her. But if she doesn’t, I’m pretty sure nopony does.”
“What do you think that was?”
“To be honest Rainbow, i probably don’t have any better ideas than you do.”
Rainbow scratched her chin with a hoof.
“What if its aliens?”
Twilight looked at her like she grew two heads,
“There are no such things as aliens Rainbow Dash, come on do you realize how insane you sounded right there?”
Rainbow glared at her,
“Do you realize how insane that thing was?”
Twilight was officially silenced. She was saved when the grumbling Spike returned with a quill in one hand and dragging a piece of paper in the other.
“Ok lets get this over with so I can get back to bed,” the dragon sat down at his writing desk.
Twilight cleared her throat and began to narrate.
Dear Princess Luna,
I recently purchased a new telescope and decided to try it out tonight. The sky was cloudy but fortunately Rainbow Dash helped me with that problem. I also wanted to compliment you on your beautiful sky, you really do out do yourself.
But onto the matter at hoof. While I was observing Hayleighs comet Rainbow pointed out a few strange blinking lights . After removing my eye from the telescope I started watching the weird lights with Rainbow.
They were moving extremely fast, i didn’t get the chance to do calculations but its safe to assume they could cause significant damage if they hit something. The strangest thign was when more lights appeared, I counted somewhere around 30. They were in roughly a circle formation and slowed down as they approached the center.
I re-positioned my telescope at approximately where the center was, and what we saw was….”
Twilight paused trying to figure out the right word,
She turned to Rainbow, “Do you have any ideas?”
Rainbow thought for a second, “an enigma?”
Twilight’s eyes opened wide with the advanced vocabulary,
“Rainbow where did you learn that word? I’m impressed.”
“You used it one day and I thought it sounded cool so I remembered it," Rainbow responded with a slight blush.
Twilight beamed, “I’ll have to think of more cool for words for you to learn then.”
“That’d be cool,” Rainbow said quietly.
“Write that in Spike,” Twilight cleared her throat again before continuing.
We wondered if you spotted this anomaly as well. If you did we were wondering if you have any idea of what exactly it was. You are welcome to come to Ponyville to use my telescope as it is already trained on the location that i observed the object on.
Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle
The scratching of Spike’s quill faded as he ended the letter.
“I assume you want me to send this to Luna and not Celestia?” he asked.
“If that's not to much trouble.”
“nah its easy!” Spike said while puffing up his chest.
“Get on with it Spike.” grumbled Rainbow.
“Fine fine” The dragon flipped the scroll in the air and instead of breathing out the familiar green flame, a dark blue one came out instead. The scroll was consumed by the flame and sent on its way to Canterlot.
“So how long do you think its going to take her to respond?” Rainbow asked Twilight.
“Knowing Princess Luna I wouldn’t think that long,” Twilight responded.
Sure enough, only a few minutes of killed time later Spike burped out a reply.
Twilight unrolled it with her magic and read aloud.
Greetings Twilight Sparkle.
I rejoice that thou enjoys my night. It is not common for our ponies to regale us with compliments for our night. It is most refreshing indeed.
Onto the “anomaly” as thou says it.
We hast observed the strange lights thou hast mentioned, but our telescope hast been involved in an unfortunate banana accident with our sister. I welcome the chance to visit Ponyville and our new friends again. We shalt arrive momentarily
With regards,
Princess Luna
P.s We would ask thee to refer to us as “Luna”, as a symbol of our friendship.
“Momentarily?” Rainbow repeated. “Does that mea--”
She was interrupted by a sudden flash of blue light.coming through the window.
Both Rainbow and Twilight immediately ran outside. They leaned over the balcony and were greeted by the regal sight the the princess looking up at them.
“Greetings friends. May we enter thine abode?”
“We givest thou our permission.” Rainbow responded in half-sarcasm.
Twilight bopped her on the back of the head,
“Yes! fly on up here!”
Rainbow gave Twilight a death glare while rubbing the back of her head.
“Did I hit the awesome Rainbow Dash to hard?” Twilight asked in mock concern.
Rainbow opened her mouth to make a snarky reply but closed it When Princess Luna landed next to her.
“Hast thou injured thy head Rainbow Dash?” She looked concerned.
“Nah, I’m fine,” Rainbow Dash mumbled. Twilight snickered.
Twilight looked up at the sky.
“QUICK PRINCESS LOOK! “ Twilight shouted as she noticed the lights again. This time the started at the larger reddish dot and expanded outwards.
Luna immediately bolted to the telescope and looked into it. Her jaw immediately fell open.
Both Rainbow and Twilight watched them arc off into the night before disappearing into the blackness.
Eventually, after many long moments, Luna turned to the two ponies.
Rainbow Dash spoke up first, “So Luna? do you know what that thing is?”
Her formality forgotten the Princess spoke, “I have not the slightest idea.”
****
Keyan woke up without fanfare, greeted by the graceful golden arches of his private quarters. He didn’t move for a long while, but he eventually managed to pull himself up and sit off the side of his bed.
“Greetings Captain” came the synthesized voice of Aura.
“Status report Aura.”
Immediately a stream of data was fed into his mind. He quickly stuffed most of the scans of the other planets out of his head. He pulled up the information on the one he was currently orbiting.
“Tell me about this planet Aura”
The A.I began,
“Well, firstly sir my predictions were correct. This planet supports a complex and thriving ecosystem across multiple continents. The atmosphere is breathable by you without a respirator and gravity is the 1g galactic standard for space stations.”
“Sentient life?” he asked knowing the answer already.
“According to my data sir, that is a 97% probability.”
The capsuleer froze, “What?”
“If you look out your port window you could observe sir.”
Keyan immediately stood on his feet and rushed to the window. He pressed the “open” button and with a hiss the shutter began to rise.
The rays of this systems sun pierced the window first, bathing the bedroom in a golden glow.
The side of the planet below him was cloaked in darkness.
“Aura how long until the sun can't hit us anymore?
“At current orbit speed, 5 minutes sir.”
Keyan gazed down at the planet below him. Painting some of the surface below him was the unmistakable pattern of cities.
“Aura mark this in the log”
“Mark what sir?”
“I am the first capsuleer to discover sentient life in the galaxy.”
“Done Sir.”
The capsuleer immediately began running scenarios in his mind. Should he contact them? Should he just leave? If he contacted then, could it help their society? could it hurt? Could he make billions, no trillions of isk off of this? The possibilities were endless.
“What info do you have on them?”
“Who’s “them” sir?”
“The people down there. or whatever they are.”
“We appear to be in geosynchronous orbit around a small settlement. A much larger settlement is located 134 kilometers up a canyon, its population is probably in the 100s of thousands. On the coast, there appears to be even larger ones. There populations will most likely be over 1 million. I will be able to obtain more data with the on board cameras once the planet revolves into its day cycle.”
“Technology?”
“They appear to have some form of electricity. I detect no nuclear or other fissionable materials present in any significant amount. They appear to be in some sort of limbo between classical renaissance, and early digital age technology levels.”
“So they have no chance of hurting us?”
“No sir.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“Since the odds of the natives spotting us are negligible, I believe maintaining orbit and conducting surface scans with on board sensors and cameras is the most profitable outcome.”
“What do you think about making first contact?”
“Highly inadvisable in the current future, I suggest at least 2 week data gathering period, and then a thorough investigation into all possible outcomes.”
“Lets do that. Gather what data you can for now, I’m going to go into a combat simulator. Unplug me if the need arises.”
“Very well sir”
Keyan then stood up and marched down the hallway to his pod. After climbing inside and making sure all the links were securely connected, he initiated the program.
Outside the ship an external camera circled around and zoomed in on the town below.
*****
Pinkie Pie woke up with a start, she narrowed her eyes suspiciously out her open window,
“Somepony is watching me”