Starbound
Chapter 01 - The First Day
The first thing Twilight noticed as she materialized on the surface of the planet was how strikingly similar to Equus it was. The yellow star looked no different than the sun, the sky was a clear shade of blue, the grass around her was soft and verdant, and the trees were tall and sturdy. If her very first different world was one so similar to Equus, she could only wonder if there were many others like it out there in the vast frontier of space.
Well, first thing’s first. She needed a shelter to spend the night. As she looked around, she thought about finding a cave, or just digging a hole in the side of a mountain. Or even an underground shelter, covered by leaves and such, just in case the natives were hostile.
Her transporter tracer contained a link to the ship’s scanner, and it indicated that the intelligent life the ship had sensed was only a few miles in a northeast direction, relative to this new planet’s magnetic pole.
“Well,” Twilight said, pawing at the ground beneath her hooves, “if the computer called you the second planet of the third planetary system of the Alpha Prime system, I suppose I’ll call you Alpha Prime III B.”
It was simple. It was in the third system of planets, and the second of them. It made sense to name it like that. Name the stellar system by the sector it’s in, number the planetary systems, letter off the planets. That way, any time she came upon a new planet, they would be easy to name.
She adjusted her pack and began to trot off in the direction of civilization. Or at the very least, intelligent life. She never knew what she would find out here. Perhaps it was intelligent, but they didn’t live in cities or such.
Only a few minutes into her hike, Twilight exited the forest she had been transported to. Upon emerging from the trees, she saw that she was on a tall hill, which gave her an unobstructed view of this new planet.
As far as she could tell, there were no mountains on this planet, which appeared to be mainly grasslands. There were a few ponds scattered around the surface, but there were no caves as far as she could tell. The land was mostly flat. It would appear that her shelter would be underground after all.
However, far off in the distance, there appeared to be a strange group of shapes in close proximity to what appeared to be a river. Twilight instantly thought that had to be her city.
The fastest way there would have to be to fly, but due to the rather cumbersome survival kit on her back that she needed to keep with her, she was going to have to hike this one out. Well, no sense putting it off.
With that, Twilight resumed her trot down the hill and toward the strange collection of buildings in the distance.
The hill she had been observing from was tall, but its sides were only gentle slopes. Descending the hill into the plains below took almost five minutes, and she wasn’t entirely sure how long a day was on this planet. Sure, five minutes was only 1/12 of an hour, but for all she knew, this planet had a 3-hour day, and she had just burned 1/36 of the time she needed to find the town, which, judging by how far away the town was, was still at least another hour or so away.
Or maybe, came her brother’s nagging voice at the back of her head, you should stop overcomplicating this and cross that bridge when you come to it.
“Maybe you should shut up,” she snapped back to the phantom voice in her head.
Almost instantly, she cringed. She was already talking to the voices in her head. She hadn’t even left Equus a full day ago! What was the universal record for falling to insanity, again?
Well, considering Twilight’s history of mental instability when things go wrong, and her tendency to use magic to right those wrongs, some incidents that happened in the past might just keep her from holding that record. The first thing that came to mind was that one time she had accidentally managed to give most of Ponyvile psychedelic hallucinations for an entire week (“Derpy in the Sky with Diamonds”), and then there was the business with the Smarty Pants doll when she had still been a unicorn…
Twilight blushed. Being her, summed up in seven words: phenomenal cosmic powers, itty-bitty insanity threshold. Sure, she wouldn’t trade lives with anyone ever (except maybe Starswirl the Bearded, or even Princess Celestia), but it still would have been nice to not freak out every time you ended up seventeen seconds behind schedule. Or for that matter, whether schedule is pronounced with a hard “ck” sound or a “sh” sound.
Over her head, a red bird flew. Or, that’s what Twilight thought it was. It had four wings and looked a bit more like a lizard than a bird. But it flew like one. Alien animals were weird! Fascinating, but weird.
The lizard-bird dove, landing a few meters in front of Twilight, which gave her the opportunity to inspect it further. Indeed, it was covered in scales, and its wings looked leathery, like a bat’s. Its eyes seemed to emit a slight golden glow to them as it stared at her, cautious of this new creature it had found.
Ever so slowly, and crawling on the ground using small claw-like appendages on its wings, it moved forward. Twilight stood still, not sure what she should do in this situation. Was she supposed to keep looking it straight in the eye, like a hippogriff? Or did lizard-birds like this one see eye contact as a sign of aggression?
The being stopped in front of her and continued staring into her eyes without breaking its gaze. After a moment, it cocked its head and looked toward her left side. Her wings were out from under the survival kit, seeing as how putting sensitive appendages under a heavy and cumbersome load would probably not be the best idea. The lizard-bird seemed confused by them. It was now moving to look at her wings more closely. Maybe in its mind, it wondered why they were feathered and not leathered like its wings were.
And then it leaned forward, opened its mouth, and nibbled on one of her feathers. Twilight jumped at the unexpected action, but it didn’t hurt. Her wings were sensitive, being an erogenous zone for the ponies who had them, so it surprised her. The lizard-bird touched the wing with its tongue for a moment before retreating and returning to stare at her.
They kept the eye contact for several seconds, but then the lizard opened its mouth, revealing that it had a blue tongue and no teeth, and it gave a slight shriek before taking off and flying away.
Twilight released the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding ever since it had nibbled on her wing. That had certainly been an interesting experience.
“Become first pony to step hoof on alien planet? Check,” she said to herself. “Become first pony to experience alien planet fauna? Check. Now I just have to make it to that town.”
And so she again resumed her trot.
An hour later, she arrived at the town, after nothing else eventful happening on the hike. The town itself appeared to be roughly a quarter of the size of Ponyville, and it was filled with multicolored bipedal bird people.
Are they related to the griffins? she wondered, observing that they seemed to have the same facial structure, had beaks, and were covered in feathers, but that they didn’t have tails or walk on four legs.
What surprised her most, however, was that all of them were wearing clothing. On Equestria, clothing was something ponies usually wore as a symbol of their affluence. After all, their coats kept them warm enough on any normal day, and even on some wintery days as well, so they weren’t necessary. But here? Everyone had a shirt and pants, but they lacked hoofwear-- or would it be claw-wear?
Twilight trotted into the town cautiously. As soon as one of them noticed her, it immediately called in a verbal pattern she didn’t recognize, and a green-feathered one jogged over toward her.
“Hello? Are you quite alright?” it asked, sounding alarmed.
Twilight froze. It had spoken Equish! They were on a planet worlds away from Equus, and it was speaking fluent Equish!
“You know Equish?” she asked, startled.
The being blinked for a moment.
“Eh-kwish?” it said slowly, sounding like it was processing the word. No. I speak Een-glis.”
“Eenglis?” Twilight repeated, confused.
The being shook its head. “No, Een-glisssth,” it said, putting more emphasis on the last part of the word, and coming out with a slight lisp. It dawned on Twilight that if they were really like bird people, maybe they were unable to correctly pronounce the “sh” sound, due to how their tongues would sound on their beak.
“Een-glish?” Twilight asked. What a strange name for this language.
The being nodded. It pointed to itself. “I am Ranato’ono,” it said, bowing.
“I am Twilight Sparkle,” she said, bowing in return.
“Please, as a guest of our town, I would be honored to welcome you into my home for the evening.”
Twilight smiled.
“Thank you. Your generosity is appreciated.”
The being turned and, with a motioned talon, began to lead her through the town.
“It is interesting,” Ranato’ono mused, “only a few years ago, we received our first visitor to our small town. Now it seems as though they drop by every few weeks.”
“You’ve had other visitors?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, we have,” it answered, “though you are the first of your species we have ever seen. If I may be so bold as to ask, what are you?”
“I’m a pony,” she answered. “And, forgive me, I return the question.”
“We are the Avia,” Ranato’ono answered. “Avians, as you might call us.”
A fitting name, Twilight thought.
“Also, may I ask what your eating habits are?” Ranato’ono asked as they passed through what appeared to be a market. Various other Avians were hawking wares, buying, or generally speaking with each other. However, as Ranato’ono passed, all of them paused to glance at Twilight curiously.
“Do not be alarmed,” Ranato’ono said, noticing Twilight’s unease at all of the Avians inspecting her. “We are a friendly folk and we mean no harm. Now, your eating habits?”
“Oh, I apologize,” she said politely. “We are herbivores by nature. We only eat fruits, vegetables, some dairy, and grains.”
Ranato’ono made a clucking noise with its tongue, but it nodded.
“That is good,” it said, sounding quite pleased. “The last visitors we had were of a species of omnivores, but many preferred meat. They had to hunt the animals outside of town. You, however, ssare our diet, so our meal tonight will be no problem for you.”
Again, it had been unable to make the “sh” sound.
It...
“I beg your pardon,” Twilight said, bothered by the sudden issue of gender, “but are you a male or a female?”
Ranato’ono laughed, a strange sound that resembled chirping. It wasn’t humorless or ironic at all. It seemed genuinely amused by her question.
“Quite the eager student, aren’t you Twilight Sparkle?” it asked. “I am a male. Males have blue, green, or red feathers, while the females have pink, purple, or white. Judging by your voice and comparing it to some of our earlier visitors, I would assume you are female.”
Twilight dipped her head.
“And considering the multitude of questions you have been asking thus far,” Ranato’ono continued, “I would also assume you would like to know how it is that you and I speak the same language, yes?”
“It seems highly unlikely that you would know my language when we have never stepped hoof off of our planet until now, and we have no record of extraterrestrial visitors,” Twilight answered. “You said you had earlier visitors, but I highly doubt that they could have been ponies like me.”
Ranato’ono laughed again.
“After meeting me, do you truly think your pony folk are the only other intelligent life in the universe?”
“Well, no,” Twilight answered, “but I would imagine that we are the only species that would speak this language. The probability of another race knowing exactly the same language is astronomically low, pardon my pun.”
Ranato’ono nodded.
“Indeed, it is strange. However, perhaps this would be a topic of discussion,” and here he pronounced the long-I sound. “best had over food tonight. It is nearly.. how you say, ‘dinner time.’ I am sure my mate and my children would love to meet you.”
Twilight’s stomach answered for her with a loud and long growl, and she suddenly remembered she hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast hours earlier.
Ranto’ono laughed again, and began to lead her toward his home.
Ranato’ono’s house was small, by pony standards. However, that may have been because Twilight was used to living in the Ponyville area, where everything seemed a tad larger inside than on the outside. However, that didn’t make it any less cozy.
The walls were rather barren of any decorations, and only the simplest of furniture was there. Chairs, a table, beds in separate rooms, and so forth.
Ranato’ono’s wife was slightly shorter than he was, standing a full head taller than Twilight. She had purple feathers, and a kind, matronly look to her eyes. Their children were tall enough to reach Twilight’s barrell, and they both had green feathers. When Twilight asked, it was because they were twins.
“We are pleased to have a guest such as yourself, Miss Twilight Sparkle,” Ranato’ono’s wife said in a kind voice that reminded her so much of her own mother. “My name is Mira’dano, and these are my children Rika’luno and Luka’luno.”
“Simply for the sake of convenience,” Twilight asked, “may I call you Mira?”
Mira nodded.
“It is equivalent to your ‘first name,’ miss Twilight,” she answered, “so we implore it.”
“Thank you,” Twilight said, with a courteous bow of her head, “and please, just call me Twilight.”
That made things a lot easier. Though, it still felt weird to call him “Ranato.” She hoped he wouldn’t mind if she shortened it to just “Rana.”
“Are you part Avian?” asked Rika, gazing at her with wide, green eyes.
Twilight blinked.
“I’m sorry?”
“Are you part Avian?” Rika repeated. “You have wings like we do. Does that mean you’re part Avian?”
Twilight chuckled, but she shook her head.
“No, I’m not, Rika,” she said. “I’m called an alicorn, a type of pony.”
“What’s a pony?” Rika asked, cocking his head.
“Well,” said Twilight, thinking about how to describe something she had never had to describe to anyone before, much less to a child that didn’t know any of her basic terminology, “ponies look like me, generally speaking. Quadrupedal, tails, manes, and so on. Aside from mares and fillies being female and stallions and colts being male, there’s also four different varieties of pony.”
With a shimmering of her horn, her favorite “laser-grid” appeared. Luka’s and Rika’s eyes widened with amazement. Rana and Mira also seemed surprised. Twilight, however, continued.
“First, since you seem so enamored by that side of me, are unicorns,” she said. A magenta silhouette of herself as she had been half her life ago appeared. “They have a horn, but no wings, and they can cast magic, just like I am.”
“Magic?” Rika asked, while Luka just stared at him with his mouth hanging open. Rana and Mira appeared lost for words.
Twilight giggled to herself. “Yes, Rika, magic.”
Her horn shimmered again, and Rika was lifted into the air in an aura of magenta magic. Rika gave a cry of surprise that quickly turned into a raucous fit of laughter as Twilight levitated him all around the room. Not one to leave anyone out of the fun, Twilight also caught up Luka and before long, she was playing a little chasing game with the two children, to both their and their parents’ amusement.
“Now,” Twilight said, setting them down back in front of her board, “unicorns can cast magic, like I said. Though some unicorns choose to go and do different things in their lives, some, like me, choose to dedicate their life to studying magic.”
“But I thought you said you were an ala-corn,” Rika interjected.
“My my, Mister Rana,” Twilight said, “you have a very curious child.”
“Yes, his questions are like the leaves on a tree,” Rana said while his mate chuckled.
“Yes, Rika, I am an alicorn, but I used to be a unicorn. However, I will explain that in a moment. Second, we go to pegasi.” A cyan silhouette of Rainbow Dash appeared, wings extended. “As you can see, they have wings, but no horn. This being said, they can fly on their own, and with magic native to their kind, they are the ones who control our weather.”
“Does that mean if I can fly, I can make it rain?” Luka asked.
Twilight shook her head. “I’m not really familiar with Avians, so I wouldn’t know if you could or couldn’t.”
“Can you?” Rika asked.
Twilight nodded.
“Another note on alicorns that I will cover later. Third, earth ponies.” An orange silhouette of Applejack appeared, though she lacked her stetson for simplicity’s sake. “They have neither a horn nor wings. However, they are generally very muscular and have a very strong attachment to the earth. Due to their native magic, they can produce the best crops the land can offer, provided there’s enough water and sunlight.”
Finally, a white silhouette of Princess Celestia appeared.
“Last, alicorns. Alicorns are a very special variant to our race, and as you can see, we have wings and a horn. We are made, not born. Only two alicorns that were born that way exist, and they are both immortal and the princesses of our land. Alicorns have traits of all three races. We can fly and manipulate weather like pegasi, cast magic like unicorns, and we can produce good crops like earth ponies.”
“So you can do all three?” Rika asked. “Does that mean you’re, like, the best ponies?”
“Well, Rika, in a way, we are. However, like I said, alicorns are made, not born. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna only choose to bestow alicorn-hood on those who have proven themselves worthy. All of us are in some way princesses of Equestria.”
“You’re a princess?” Rana interjected.
“I am,” Twilight answered, “but please don’t treat me any differently than you would any other avian,” she quickly added.
“What are you doing all the way out here?” he asked. “How did a princess end up on our world? Were you kidnapped or--”
“No, Mister Rana,” Twilight said. “After I became a Princess, I sort of started this technological revolution in Equestria that ended up with us inventing a ship that could traverse the stars. I volunteered to go on a journey out here, simply because I was so interested, and they let me. My ship was attacked mid-flight, and I’m stuck out here now. I need to gather supplies like coal so I can hopefully find my way back home.”
“Attacked? By whom?” asked Rana.
I don’t know,” said Twilight, dropping her spell. “That’s what scares me. It leads me to think that we as a race aren’t ready for interstellar travel yet. That thing came out of nowhere, pulled me out of warp, and attacked my ship. I can only imagine what would have happened if I had not jumped to warp as quickly as I could.”
For a grim moment, everyone was silent. Twilight wondered if even the children were as frightened by what was out there as she was.
“Well, our food is ready,” said Mira, who had gone over to check on baking bread. “Please, join us at the table, Miss Twilight.”
Dinner was a wonderful, comforting experience. The foods were much the same as those back on Equus. Breads, salads, berries, the whole shebang, though the Avians didn’t appear to add grass and flowers to their diet as well. According to them, these other visitors, the hyoo-mans, had given them recipes they could bake and eat with ease, which had added all sorts of new delicacies to their diets. What had once been a lean year had suddenly turned into the most bountiful harvest they could imagine.
“Miss Twilight, I think I might be able to help you with your little situation,” Rana said after about half-an-hour of eating. “You see, one of our regular hyoo-man visitors set up a bit of a sselter along the north path. It is a bit of a walk, though with your wings, I’d expect you could fly here and back in no time. However, we would recommend staying there and working until you can gather enough fuel and resources to power your ssip again. However, you are welcome to stay here as long as you wiss. We have a guest bed ready.”
“Thank you, Mister Rana,” Twilight said graciously, dipping her head. “Your hospitality is appreciated.
Twilight lay awake in her bed. It was difficult for her to sleep. For whatever reason, she continued to have the same vision of her ship being attacked by an unknown assailant flying a sleek black saucer. The being seemed to just radiate misequinopy and wanted to kill all of them simply because of what they were.
She heard a shuffling, but she kept still, wondering if Rana was just checking on her.
“She sleeps peacefully,” Rana’s voice whispered.
“More than I do,” Mira’s voice whispered back. “If what sse said about those visitors is true, we could all be in danger. Rana, do you think it’s… them?”
“I cannot say,” Rana whispered back. “Nevertheless, we ssould be prepared. I do not know if we could contact Jack, but it seems close to the time when he comes to us. Perhaps he would know about their movements, with all the traveling he does.”
Twilight could only ponder why they had spoken in Equish-- no, they called it Eenglish. In any case, why they were speaking it and not their native language. Perhaps they did it just in case she actually was awake, and they wanted to warn her.
Whatever the reason, it didn’t help her sleep. Her visions and dreams continued to plague her, just as they had before she had heard them, but they now featured multiple beings, hellbent on destroying both her and Equestria.