//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Twilight makes first contact // by Immanuel //------------------------------// The president of the United States stepped down to the tarmac of Peterson Air Force Base from the massive frame of the newly instated Air Force One. She smiled crookedly at the marine in dress uniform saluting her at the bottom of the stairs. There always was one, no matter where the aircraft landed. Even if a helicopter were to deliver her in the middle of a desert, they would somehow manage to get a snappily dressed marine there to welcome her. She sometimes wondered how much the military liked playing games like that. A military man she recognized as one of the Senior Advisors to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was waiting to welcome her. "Ma'am president," the man said with a smart salute and an offer of handshake, "Sergeant Major Battaglia. Admiral Winnefeld is waiting in the Air Force Space Command with the rest of the Joint Chiefs in attendance either in flesh or virtually." "I take it since we're not heading for the Mountain there's nothing immediately threatening?" she asked casually. In truth, she had been getting continual updates while in-flight, but the situation was mind-boggling enough for her not to succeed in thinking up anything immediately pertinent. Showing a cool, collected and in-control exterior to observers while completely confused on the inside was a skill most politicians developed early on in their careers. "The situation remains largely unchanged, ma'am president," the Sergeant Major confirmed. The middle-aged marine officer was a bear of a man with rough features, but something about him made the president want to cuddle him. There was something intensely huggable about the man. "We're monitoring the anomaly constantly." "Mmm," hummed the president, pursing her lips. "And the foreign powers?" "I haven't heard the report from the intelligence officer yet, ma'am," the Sergeant Major said. "I believe they're monitoring communications." They rode the short distance to the Hartinger building in a staff car and, flanked by their entourage of Secret Service men and adjutants silently communicating with their tablets, walked briskly up the stairs and through the halls to a reinforced room full of computer screens and a single long table at which were sat several four-star generals and admirals and a few civilian experts. Young adjutants sat at the sidelines, constantly listening and reading to reports and summarizing them for quick ingestion for the Joint Chiefs or occasionally relaying communications to their rightful addressees. The brass rose to acknowledge the arrival of the president, who dismissed them quickly with a wave of her hand. "All right," she said firmly, "brief me. James?" The admiral currently serving as the chairman for the Joint Chiefs cleared his throat. "At 1632 hours, a commercial aircraft en route from New York reported an anomaly to the traffic control in El Paso, describing it as a 'flash of light' and 'a golden spire'. "The anomaly was verified at 1650 hours by both a National Guard aircraft on patrol in the area, and a remote surveillance drone launched from Sheppard Air Force Base. This is the first footage of the anomaly," admiral Winnefeld said, directing their gaze towards a large projection screen where several high quality photos from a distance showed a mostly transparent dome rising to a considerable height in the middle of what many called the 'horse country'. The dome was only visible by odd, golden diffraction patterns on its surface that according to the pictures seemed to shift constantly, but it looked like it rose to a height of the tallest skyscrapers in the world and covered square miles under its glow. "The size of the anomaly was estimated and later verified at approximately 2500 feet at its base and height," the admiral continued and coughed gently. "The scientists have exact measurements, but have not yet reported anything significant about them. The shape of the dome is not quite an ovoid, rather following a curve our technical advisers described as 'interesting'." The room chuckled lightly. "An AWACS aircraft was appropriated from the National Guard by Space Command to observe the anomaly more closely. It arrived at the scene at 1736 hours, at which time it began both visual and wide-spectrum analysis of the anomaly. The survey revealed the presence of several unidentified lifeforms moving around the site." More footage followed, this time accompanied by a soundless video showing dozens of pastel and technicolor creatures swarming a small area in the approximate center of the dome. The footage was accurate and steady enough to show their facial features and expressions, which the president found cute despite herself. Every now and then a golden flash would obscure the view, but it was clear the creatures were building something. The means by which they did so was unclear. Objects both tiny and large seemed to fly through the air, as unimpeded as some of the creatures themselves, who had literally taken to air apparently under their own power with wings that were ridiculously small compared to their bodies. It did not seem to bother them in the least. Other footage showed the creatures interacting with some humans as well as the horses and the ponies in the ranch. The scene was ...idyllic to say the least. The president found herself swallowing a 'squee', when she saw a pony nuzzling one of the creatures, who reciprocated right back. The humans appeared to be communicating with the creatures, pointing at objects and what probably were pictures while speaking. The comparison to humans revealed the creatures to be the approximate size of a large dog. They seem so unthreatening, the president mused silently. "At 1813 hours, the following phenomenon was witnessed," the admiral said, switching to another video, zoomed out to a more panoramic view. In the middle of the screen, a dozen ponies were gathered around what looked like a slab of stone decorated with colored rocks and carved with fractals. Then the screen flashed white before settling to show a new shimmering dome, this one much smaller than the big one, maybe thirty feet in height, and thinner, only about a dozen feet in width. It also shimmered and shined much more rapidly and glowed constantly in an arrhythmic pulse. They watched as one of the creatures marched to the dome and vanished, only to reappear a few moments later to apparent cheer of the others. The admiral cleared his throat again. "It should be noted, that aside from some weak infra-red, the visual spectrum is the only sign of anything at all happening there. There is no radiation, no radar activity, no radio-waves, no electric disturbances and no seismic activity at all. Despite that fact, we have witnessed the life-forms producing in estimation several tonnes of material from the smaller dome, including several new life-forms." The president rapped her fingers in thought, watching as on the screen the creatures levitated horizontally a pylon three times the height of the dome out of the glowing arc. She glanced at her science advisor. "Neil?" The physicist adjusted his glasses. "We have no idea," he confessed unashamed, sounding rather eager about the fact. "It could be a generator of some kind, a matter transmitter device of sorts, or maybe even a gate, a portal crossing space and time. "The last one I like a bit, since there was absolutely no sign of these beings before this afternoon. And that doesn't quite make sense. "No one makes first contact by landing on a planet. I mean, there's no sense in it. First you notice another civilization through EM observation. And that's a nice puzzle there as well: How did they know we're here? Unlike as is popularly believed, our puny radio and TV signals don't make it beyond our solar system before drowning in noise. Did these guys just happen to intercept the Arecibo signal? Or is there a hidden observation post somewhere in our solar system? "Anyway," he said catching himself. The president was always amused to listen to Mr. Tyson when he got excited. The fast-talking physicist would jump from point to point with a childlike fervor, still maintaining a surprisingly coherent thought. "Anyway, you first notice the other guys. Then you signal back. I mean, crossing interstellar space is an enormous endeavor. The best we know, even with colossal expenditure it will take years, more likely centuries or millennia to travel from one star to another. "But these guys," he said grinning while pointing at the screen, "just show up one day like it's nothing and set up weird glowing domes that either don't do anything or break physics into pieces. I mean, whether that thing creates, transforms or transfers matter, it's unbelievably clean and efficient. A little light pollution as the only sign of energy use in the general volume of at least a volcano?" He whistled shaking his head. "And if it's a gate, we're talking about a Kardashev II or III civilization here. I mean, if that were an Einstein-Rosen bridge it would use up the energy of at least a star, maybe several. "Not that I think it is, though," he mused rubbing his chin. "It doesn't look right. The dome, I suppose, could be an event horizon, but it doesn't cause any refractions. Or earthquakes, for that matter. Still, if it's a gate, that would explain the little guys' presence. I mean, why bother with spaceships, when you can just pop into another corner of the universe?" He leaned back in his chair, grinning contentedly. "So," the president asked slowly, "as a military threat, you'd estimate them as...?" "No point at all, madam president," the physicist said frankly. "They are so beyond us that they likely don't have even any need for military conquests, or have energy manipulation capabilities so vastly superior to ours that their tools could double as planet busters." The military brass seemed a bit disgruntled at the assessment, but the president noticed they didn't argue. Among the reports there were some estimates on the assumed energy expenditure of the smaller dome based on what it was perceived as doing. Even the lower estimates had more zeroes in them than the total annual energy budget of the United States. The upper estimates were in the realm of utter madness. She wondered idly what a number with 57 zeroes was called. "Well, that's them, I guess," she sighed. "Unless anyone has a theory why some of them look a bit like pegasi or unicorns?" The brass shrugged. "Previous visits?" suggested an air force general. The president nodded slowly. "Do we have a plan for these kinds of things?" she asked. The same general nodded. "We do, in fact, madam president," he said eagerly. "The Pentagon drew plans for a first contact scenario already in the Fifties. They've been updated regularly every few years since." He checked his watch. "We started gathering the contact team outlined in the 2008 plan two hours ago. They should be ready and able by tomorrow morning." "2008?" the president asked. "That's nine years ago." "Indeed," the air force general nodded. "We had to go through a few replacement names because of early deaths and a change in security clearance in some cases. The lead team is mostly intact, however, and we'll follow their suggestions for the rest." "All right," the president said, "what's the international situation?" The director of NSA participating over video conference cleared her throat. "We intercepted communications between the European major powers just ten minutes ago," she said. "It seems the UK, France and Germany are aware something's going on. They have satellite footage of the anomaly and information about our troop movements and, of course, about you boarding the Air Force One in the middle of your speech, madam president. "However, they don't know exactly what's going on, and are at the moment trying to phrase a polite question to ask us whether we are fooling around with nuclear testing. "We haven't heard a peep from the Russians or the Chinese. The Koreans and the Japanese have their satellites in place as well, so it's only a matter of time before they make a connection. Everybody else is in the dark, for the moment." The president nodded. "All right, we can wait for queries there," she said with no small amount of internalized relief. "No need to hurry. Domestic?" Admiral Winnefeld took charge again. "We established a two-hundred-miles-wide no-flight area with Homeland Security at 1700 hours Juliet. By that time there already were reports of the anomaly from seven commercial pilots and three amateur fliers. "We stand ready to delay major news corporations the moment they get any whiff of this. That should take a while, however. "The 1st Cavalry Division, specifically the 2nd Brigade under Colonel Reyes is currently establishing a cordon around the area. They'll blockade any traffic to and from the area. Luckily there's not much population in the vicinity, so they have an easy task going about it." "What other forces do we have in the area?", the president asked. "Shelton of the Space Command down the hall has the operational command of the air/space mobilization. He's coordinating with elements of the Twelfth and the Tenth Air Forces and The Eighth is under readiness alert. The 301st Fighter Wing is currently maintaining air superiority in the immediate vicinity of the anomaly and the 460th is moving to support. The AWACS from the national guard is the mobile communications and surveillance center. "We've also recalled the carrier group Gerald R. Ford from the Pacific. She should pass the Panama during the early morning and reinforce the current coastal units considerably. Among other assets, there are two AEGIS Mark II cruisers in the battle group that should provide us with some pretty good intel possibilities." The president tapped her chin thoughtfully for a moment. "Well, I guess we just need to wait, then," she eventually said. "It's now, oh, 1952 hours in Texas, and we'll be expecting developments in...", she paused looking at the air force general in charge of the first contact team. "Nine hours, ma'am," the general said. "Nine hours," the president repeated. "Good work, everybody. Everything seems nicely in hand. Keep me informed of any new insights and developments and we'll do fine." Then she smiled. "We're living a historic moment, ladies and gentlemen. Something unique in the history of the human race is about to happen and we have front seats. I cannot put into words the magnitude of this day. Everything," she said rapping the table, "everything is about to change!" She looked smiling at the gathered brass, who straightened their backs. "Let's make the most of it!" she finished. While she was being applauded, an adjutant came up to admiral Winnefeld and handed him a phone, whispering in his ear. "Ah, excuse me, madam president," the admiral said, "we have Colonel Reyes on the line. He's apparently in communication with a local sheriff, who was alerted to the site when the dome first appeared. He managed to slip by before the cordon was in place and is now in contact with the owner of the ranch where the ...extra-terrestrials have arrived." * * * Jim Randall, the new sheriff of Floyd County, thought himself a tolerant man. It takes all kinds of folks to make a world, he always said to his kids, and he sure believed it. Even though he might have privately suspected the two young women co-owning the pony ranch on the northern side might be living in sin, he had never made a fuss about it. It weren't his business either way. Still, he couldn't but help to think there was a divine something going on at the ranch as he drove toward the gigantic dome rising high above the flat landscape, faintly glowing golden swirls moving on its surface. "God All-mighty...," he said to himself in a low gruff half-whisper. As he pulled his four-wheeler to the side of the ranch main gate, just outside the golden dome, he decided to ready both his shotgun and the rifle, just in case. Leaning out the window, he scanned the ranch with binoculars and saw the aliens. To his eyes, they looked like nothing but the stuffed toys his beautiful baby daughter collected in her room. The next thing he noticed was the four ranchers mingling among them like there was no care in the world. It looked like they were petting the creatures. The creatures themselves seemed to be busy at building something, although the parts whizzing by in the air seemed more like a hurricane than a construction site. He had hard time figuring out what his duty was here. After a good fifteen minutes of remote observation he finally decided to go for a closer look and chat the owners up. As a wise man he took the precaution to call the HQ first. "HQ? Y'all hear me? Imma check out some aliens at tha pony ranch," he drawled without a hint of sarcasm and ignored the giggle from the radio. To drive the jeep closer to the collection of aliens some four hundred yards away, he had to pass under the dome. Saying his prayers to the Lord and closing his eyes, he accelerated forward along the fence. As nothing happened, his courage rushed back. His jaw set, he drove with determination right up to the primary pen where both the ponies of the ranch and the aliens were gathered. All eyes turned to look at his passing, human, pony and alien alike. Stopping close to the fence, he activated the speakers. "Miz Ryan? Miz Burton? Would either a' ya lovely ladies mind comin' up fer a chat fer a moment?" He saw both the owners mounting their horses, fine beasts they both were, and setting out to ride towards him. A crowd of aliens were gathering in a wide semi-circle to stare at him. Slightly unnerved, he rose from the car and walked to the passenger's side, making sure to open up the door a bit so he would have quick access to the high-powered weapons if necessary. The heat was surprisingly mild, almost as if he was standing in shade. Huh, must've cooled down towards the evening, he thought. "What can ah do ya for, sheriff?" one of the owners, the blond one, said from the back of her horse. She was always the chattier of the two. "Well, Cassie," the sheriff said moving his arm in an arc encompassing the ranch and the aliens, "ah was wondering if ya could explain all this." Cassie rubbed the back of her head. "Well, the thing is like this," she started hesitantly. "These fellas started appearing this morning, while Ah was checking the pens. First it was just the lavender one, er, that one there," she said pointing to one of the aliens that had wandered closer to the sheriff than the others and seemed to be checking everything with intense fascination. "Then a whole bunch a' them came in a flash, an' started settin' these odd things up," Cassie continued. "Like that big thing around us an' the smaller one over there. Then the first learned to speak a bit, somehow." "Y'all talked to them?" the sheriff asked amazed. "Not much," Cassie said, "an' it was weird." Before Cassie could explain how weird it was, however, the sheriff's radio crackled. "Uh, Jim, there's a Colonel Reyes on the phone. He needs to talk to you." * * * "Professor Pattesbury! How goes the linguistic work?" Twilight asked from a turquoise unicorn with a slightly frumpy appearance. Professor Pattesbury was a rare genius in his own field, having laid the foundations for xeno-linguistics well before Princess Twilight's advances in thaumaturgical matrices had made practical applications possible, let alone necessary. His colossal achievement in what at the time had been thought to be the ultimate in academic futility, the magnum opus On the logical base of language, attempted to separate signal from its syntax in language. That there ever would be an actual use for the exercise itself, rather than its painstaking methods, was a thought not even he had entertained. "Surprisingly well, considering," the professor answered distractedly. "At the moment we are still only collecting words and phrases in the translation matrix housed in the suppression rune over there, and while we are certainly amassing quite the vocabulary, we haven't even begun the work for solving their grammar." A gleam lit in his eyes. "Do you realize that, according to all our evidence so far, these beings apparently communicate in a completely arbitrary language? Their vocalizations, the syntax, nothing points to either intent or motivation tied to the workings of this world! It's as if they just picked sounds they liked to denote their surroundings!" He chuckled gently shaking his head. "Certainly my little logic vehicles are useful here, but to imagine such a language! How can they communicate with it? How can they discern factual statements from madness and lies? This is astonishing in so many ways, Your Highness! It's like a dream come true!" Twilight giggled softly. "Surely the nature of this place hinted at the possibility, professor?", she teased. "A civilization would need to communicate, would it not? But without magic present at all..." "Without magic," professor Pattesbury filled the sentence nodding, "there is no underlying element of consciousness or spirituality. I understand. Still, it is just something I cannot quite wrap my mind around. And what about other things a civilization needs then? Friendship? Love? I would hardly claim these things do not exist here, especially considering our welcome so far." "Indeed they must exist," Twilight said. "My matrix picked their echoes up, after all. The complex interweave of relationships and culture only present in a developing society." Now Twilight's eyes lit up with the same gleam. "Imagine, we have the chance to prove that friendship is an innately universal phenomenon, even without magic! Perhaps something tied into the very basis of existence!" Twilight took to air with a flap of her wings and clapped her hooves together. "Ooh, this is so exciting!" she squealed, before dropping back to the ground and coughing gently. "But for now, I actually wanted to ask whether we could communicate in their language, at all, at this point." "Well," professor Pattesbury said, tapping his chin, "like I said, we have been gathering words and phrases and catalogued them according to our understanding of their denotation. "I suppose if you gave me the message you want to send I could transcribe the best equivalent from what we have gathered so far. The translation matrix, as it is now, is not functional, per se. It has no interface or internal workings. The communication team is manipulating it directly at the moment. "Even when we are ready to activate it, we'll need to figure out a unique way to interact with it. There's no way we're ever going to be able to even pronounce that language! So you would need to figure out a way to produce the equivalent sounds via other means, Your Highness. I can only provide the Furrier-wave equations for the sounds. Not that the grammar is likely to be possible for ponies to learn either. We already have indications to suggest that the language simply strings words and meanings back to back, like it were a line of logic statements!" "Huh," Twilight said, "that would suggest a mathematical underpinning to their language, I guess." "Possible. I don't think they have any understanding of mathematics, though," the professor said. "What makes you say that, professor?" Twilight asked. * * * The sturdy turquoise unicorn in front of the two humans looked at them expectantly. Then another two dots joined the ones floating around its head, and it stomped its hoof one, two, three, four, five times. The complex sigil floating stationary above it changed again. The farmhands stared back smiling perplexedly. After a small pause the number of dots increased by three, the sigil changed again, and the unicorn stomped eight times. Tiny Tina gasped. "It's counting!" she yelled excitedly. Peter grinned and stretched his hand out to pat the unicorn. "That's real clever a' ya, gal!" he said supportively. * * * The alien creatures had finally learned how to draw human numbers and equations and were now giving small tests to the farm hands. Peter stared in confusion at his parchment, where there was a number of math problems the kinds of which he had last seen more than ten years prior in high school. Even then he had preferred to use the calculator. "Er...Tina?" he whispered to the teenage girl puzzling over a copy of the same test. "What's fourteen times eight?" The girl blushed. "Ah flunked math!" she whispered back. * * * "Curious," Twilight mused. "Perhaps their civilization hasn't had the need to rely on mathematics all that much?" "A possibility, of course, Your Highness," professor Pattesbury said. "Otherwise they seemed rather bright, I thought. They captured the purpose behind our 'point-and-show' -technique immediately and actually started both actively teaching us their language, and trying to learn ours as well. "Unfortunately, like I mentioned earlier, it is unlikely either of our species will ever be able to pronounce the other's language. We simply have too different vocal cords. Not to mention," he chuckled gently, "that to attempt mimicking that staccato rhythm of their breathing while speaking would cause the most athletic of earth ponies to pass out before long. "However, we managed to glean what we believe to be their 'friendship' signal. This utterance preceded more than two thirds of their shows of physical affection we experienced. There's both a short version for already met individuals and a long version for new ones." "Excellent!" Twilight said beaming. "Make sure to add it to my short-list for the meeting!" * * * "Uh... to join? Connect? Together? ...Ah really don't know what that's supposed to be," Cassie said spreading her hands to the burgundy alien, who was playing charades with her. Then Michelle tugged her sleeve. "Hey," Michelle said, "think we're gonna git another light show?" Cassie glanced up and saw the lavender boss alien trotting up to them with a purpose, the gold-bespectacled one in tow. "Ah dunno," Cassie answered. "Sure looks like it." The ranchers sat up expectantly when the creatures stopped in front of them, the others bowing out and retreating a few steps. The lavender one's horn started to glow. Then a gentle breeze rose all around them, making the tall grass sway and ...sing. Cassie and Michelle stared at the creature their mouths open as the wind started to chime an eerie note, that then formed words. It sounded like a chime of a bell was synthesized to speak and given a perkily happy tone. Reverse-reverberating in the wind, the wind sang to them. "Hello!" the wind said. "Build this. I, us, build this. What?" Then another miniature pony ranch grew in front of their eyes and a large blinking model building was placed on it. The wind sang again. "I, us, build this. You point. What? Or no," it said. Cassie shivered slightly both at the eerie sound and the fact that the creature seemed to be able to speak, at least a little. The odd disjointed phrasing coupled with a perfect Texan pronunciation threw her off. Experimentally, she touched at the blinking model, and it followed her movement. "Uh...yeah," she said in a daze, moving the model until it rested in fallow ground. "Y'all cain just put it here." The lavender creature nodded, the models vanishing in a blink. Then the wind rose again, ghost sounds of uncanny cheer forming parting words. "Good! Hello!" * * * Giving the bipedal native creatures short bows in gratitude and sighing with relief after first successful exchange of words, Twilight and Pearl Shine retreated to give the engineering crew their instructions. "That was most impressive, Your Highness," Lady Shine said honestly. "Do you think I could learn those spells? They would be of great help in any future talks I end up having with these creatures." "Well, for the translation matrix we're hoping to develop an interface that would make the Wind Chime spell unnecessary," Twilight answered. "As for the other, it takes quite a bit of skill. It's more of a construct then a spell, actually." Then she smiled at the diplomat. "I'll see what I can do, ambassador." "What did you say to the natives anyway, princess?" Lady Shine asked. "Oh, I told professor Pattesbury to cobble up something to the effect of 'May we build this complex? Please let us know where you would like it.' There were also some greetings and thanks there." Twilight giggled. "We're so early in deciphering their language, that I'm surprised if more than one word in three made any sense. Still, they didn't seem offended," she added with a shrug. "All right, ponies!" Twilight yelled, getting the attention of the engineering crews. "The natives have given us the permission to build the Bridgehead complex at these co-ordinates!" * * * "Hello?" sheriff Randall said to the walkie-talkie. "This is Jim Randall, the sheriff. Is this Colonel Reyes?" "This is Colonel Reyes of the Black Jack Brigade, First Cavalry Division, United States Army," said a voice over the radio. "Be advised that you are in a cordoned area. We established a quarantine zone starting fifty miles from the center of the anomaly you're currently within. The corps is currently evacuating all residents from the area. Please state your current status. Are you in any danger? We are ready to render assistance." Sheriff Randall blinked a few times, before turning to Cassie. "Uh..." he said weakly. "Are we in danger?" Cassie paused for a moment and shrugged. "Nah. These fellas are just cute. Freaky, but cute." "Um. That's a negative, colonel," the sheriff said over the radio, struggling for a professional tone. "Ah'm currently talkin' to the local ranch owners who've been in contact wi' the aliens all day. They seem unharmed and calm. The aliens..." The sheriff paused, looking at the small lavender creature looking up at him with purple saucer-plate eyes. "The aliens seem harmless." There was a pause over the radio before it crackled again. "Roger," the voice of the colonel said. "Be advised, we are currently in communication with the Joint Chiefs of Staff." There was another pause, lasting a few minutes. When the sheriff was ready to ask what was going on, the colonel's voice returned. "We have the president on the line. She wants to speak with you and the ranch owners." * * * A roaring noise began to rise from the distance. As the ponies turned to watch, they saw an amazing sight: An enormous carriage of metal and glass, the size of a train car at least and painted in royal colors of white and dark blue, was speeding along the ground towards them at gallop. There was nothing in sight that explained its movement. There was no one pulling it, nor were there any signs of a steam engine. No magical aura was present, not that any were expecting it. The thing was inexplicable. As it pulled to stop at a respectful distance, ponies stopped their work and began slowly to gather around it, gawking in stunned wonder. Twilight trotted to the front, nervous excitement starting to bubble inside her. What new wonder has this place produced for us? she thought. Are we to meet the true masters of this world now? Then a loud voice sounded from the carriage. That's the native's language! Twilight thought. But it sounds like the Royal Canterlot Voice! Can this be coincidence? It must be! Still, this thing has all the markings of royalty. Astonishing! Twilight watched as two of the local natives mounted those glorious queen-equines, as the ponies had started to call them, and galloped to the carriage. She noticed both Applejack and Rainbow Dash glancing at the creatures with both slight envy and a competitive glint. Another alien rose from the carriage to greet the two aliens on the queens' back. More hats? Twilight thought idly. She watched interested as the aliens exchanged words, occasionally pointing or glancing at the ponies. Yes, these two must be giving their report to the new alien. Is this a sign of hierarchy? Oh, the sociologists must be excited out of their minds at this! Twilight jumped slightly when one of the aliens pointed her out. Oh, yes! That's the one I've been communicating with. It's probably expecting me to take part in this soon. Before she had finished preparing herself for a new bout of spellcasting, a new wonder appeared. The new native produced a small box that talked on its own. That's... It talks back to it. It's... a communication device! Twilight realized stunned. How can this be?! I haven't heard of magic of that kind and these people don't even have any! Her pupils shrank and her face paled as blood rushed from it. They must have technology based on the control of the physical principles of this plane! Luna's teats! We thought they were agrarian at best! We were expecting people in a magicless plane to scrub their food from the wild, not build long range talking-boxes and self-propelling carriages! This changes everything! While Twilight rebooted her brain and rewrote her premises of observation, the aliens finished their talk with the box and turned towards her. Gosh, they want me to communicate! I need to prepare the long version of their friendship signal. * * * "...and as the President of the United States, I tell you, on behalf of all American people, that this nation is proud of your courage and integrity in making friends with these aliens. In face of what might have been a violent invasion, you stood your ground and made first contact in friendly terms, potentially preventing a huge disaster that could have cost this nation its everything. "Rest assured, miss Ryan, miss Burton, that your names will go down in history! "Now, if I may ask you to hold the fort for the night, we'll be sending you relief in the morning. The nation's top experts will be coming to aid you, and our visitors, in learning how to talk to one another and hopefully thus build a lasting friendship!" "Thank ya kindly, madam president!", Cassie said, Michelle parroting her. Privately she thought the lady was just a bit over the top in her thanks, but she didn't let that bother her. She almost smirked, when she saw Sheriff Randall standing in attention, looking at her like a proud father. "Would ya like to say hi to the visitors themselves, madam president? Ah've got the boss alien right here," she said turning to the lavender creature. "May I?" the president whispered over the radio. "Go right ahead, madam president," Cassie said, squatting down in front of the alien, and handing it the walkie-talkie. There was a sound of clearing throat from the radio, then, "On behalf of this nation, nay, of all humanity, I, the President of these United States, welcome you, our friends from the stars, in peace and friendship to this planet. May our two peoples live in harmony, and learn from one another!" There was a pause, as the lavender alien's horn began to glow. Again, the wind rose and the eerie chime began to sound, as the alien prepared its historic greeting. "Hello there! You're so cute!" the uncanny voice said. "I...think you're cute, too," said the stunned president after a pause. * * * A destitute man in Boston, having lost his all, almost ready to end his days, suddenly had the wind blow a piece of paper into his face. Instinctively, he grabbed it. As it turned out, it was a lottery ticket that ended up winning him enough money to pay his debts and put his life back in order. Around the globe, twenty-three people had similar occurrences that day. Even more people continued to have such luck the day after and the day after that. Around the same time, more than seven hundred couples met by falling suddenly in love as their eyes met in a crowd, signaling the beginning of a life-long beautiful relationship. Also, fourteen orphaned children were left to the care of their wicked stepparents.