“I-I’m telling you Twilight, there’s something out there!” Fluttershy stammered out as she stood in the middle of Twilight’s library.
“Fluttershy, relax, there is nothing out there.” Twilight said in a slightly annoyed voice as she attempted to read her newest copy of Starswirl the Bearded’s treatise on transmogrification magic. Fluttershy was one of her best friends but she could still get on Twilight’s nerves sometimes, especially when she barged in all flustered like this.
“Twilight… I know I’m not the bravest of ponies and I know that I do tend to overreact to things, but I’m telling the truth! Something flew over my house earlier and landed by the Everfree forest!”
Twilight sighed as she shut the book, Fluttershy did seem unusually adamant about this whole thing. Regardless, Twilight knew the best way to get her to stop worrying about it was to go and show her there wasn’t anything there. “Hey Spike? Fluttershy and I are going out to the Everfree forest we’ll be back in about an hour.”
“Sure thing Twilight!” The purple dragon responded from the second floor.
“Come on Fluttershy, let’s go find this ‘thing’ that flew over your house.” Twilight said as she turned to head out of the library.
“O-oh thanks for believing me Twilight.” The shy pegasus squeaked out as she followed the unicorn out into Ponyville.
As the two left a certain baby dragon checked to see if they were really gone before zipping down to the kitchen. “Time to find that sapphire ice cream Twilight’s been hiding…”
“So where exactly did this thing of yours land?” Twilight asked as the two ponies walked through the center of Ponyville to Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Well I’m not entirely sure…”The Pegasus responded meekly as she stared straight ahead deep in thought. “I think it might’ve gone over my house east to west.”
“You think?” Twilight nearly facehoofed.
Fluttershy didn’t even notice Twilight’s remark. Instead she kept on walking, muttering to herself as she tried to recount what had happened earlier that day. “No, I remember now. It started from the window where Mr. Mousey was sitting and then passed over where angel bunny was on the counter.”She stopped walking and looked up from the ground at Twilight, “It went from Southeast to Northwest.”
“Well that would put it just off the-“
Twilight was abruptly cut off as a multicolored blur smashed into her and knocked the unicorn square off her hooves. As she shook the stars from her vision and rose to a standing position once more she could hear a very familiar voice giggling slightly. “hehehe oops, didn’t see you there Twilight.”
“I’m sure you didn’t…” Twilight muttered as she dusted herself off.
“So what’re you two up to?” The cyan Pegasus inquired of the pair.
“Twilight’s coming with me to see what landed over by the Everfree forest.” Fluttershy responded.
“Oh that thing?”
“Wait, you saw it!?” Twilight shouted, exasperated.
Rainbow put her hoof behind her head embarrassingly “Well yeah, it nearly knocked me off the cloud I was napping on, luckily though my lightning reflexes allowed me to dodge it!”
“And you didn’t bother telling me about it because…?”
“Well it DID interrupt my mid-afternoon nap.” Rainbow said as if that explained everything.
“So rather than tell me about some huge thing falling from the sky, you were napping!?”
When all Rainbow did to reply was shrug her shoulders Twilight groaned in frustration.
“Anyways you guys mind if I come along? Everypony else is busy today for some reason and I could use something to do.”
“Oh sure, in fact I’d feel a lot better if you came.” Fluttershy answered happily, they still didn’t know exactly what’d they find and bringing the strong and brash Pegasus would help Fluttershy control her anxiousness.
“Sure you want to come Rainbow? You’d be missing out on some prime napping time.” Twilight asked sarcastically.
“No it’s alright; I’ve got some time set aside tomorrow so I can miss out on today.”
Twilight gaped at Rainbow for a few seconds when she realized the Pegasus was being totally serious before face hoofing and turning to continue down the road. “Come on you two I’ve got to get back to Spike soon.”
Michael suddenly jerked awake his hand reflexively rising and aiming his pistol at a phantom of an enemy that he had been fighting in the realm of his dreams not too long ago. He very nearly pulled the trigger until his mind caught up with his body and he lowered the pistol, still breathing heavily from his dream. He couldn’t exactly recall what it was he had been dreaming about, the only things that came through were flames and screaming and even that stuff was fuzzy. Shaking the remnants of sleep from his head he sighed as he leaned back against the tree again, letting the events of the day wash over him. Most people by now would’ve given up and just curled up somewhere in despair or perhaps even blown their brains out, then again most people weren’t N7 marines. Michael had been through the grinder plenty of times before, like everyone else with the N7 designation he’d earned his way to the top. Unfortunately nobody makes it there without scars, physical or otherwise. However it was only because of these scars that he managed to once again push his emotions to the side and focus on the reality of his situation.
He holstered his pistol as he rose to his feet, he needed to get back to his crashed pod and see what he could salvage or use. Michael had abandoned the pod earlier only because he’d been concerned about further reaper pursuit, and admittedly he had needed the relief of just running away. Michael turned from his improvised bed and steeled himself once more as he headed back into the forest, retracing the path that had brought him to this location.
“Wow, have you ever seen anything like this Twilight?”
Twilight shook her head slowly in response to Rainbow’s question as she looked on in awe at the object before them. It appeared to be metal in composition, nearly a third the size of the Apple Family’s barn. It was painted a stark shade of white with blue symbols the studious unicorn didn’t recognize, though it looked like whatever it was it’d seen better days, the outer surface of the object appeared to be burned and blackened from a fire of some sort.
The cyan Pegasus quickly approached the crashed object stopping just short of it for a few seconds before reaching out a hoof to touch it.
“Rainbow-!” Twilight began but stopped once she saw that the Pegasus had already touched the metal of the crashed object.
Rainbow slowly drew her hoof back before tapping the hull of the pod again, and again, and again. Finally, satisfied that nothing horrible was going to happen, she then proceeded to fly all over the pod, examining it from every angle. “This is so cool; it’s just like Daring-do!”
As Rainbow gushed over the possibility of being like her favorite fictional character, Twilight began to study the symbols on the side while Fluttershy nervously followed behind her. ”Where do you think something like this came from?”
“I have no idea Fluttershy.” Twilight, answered unable to tear her gaze from the metallic object in front of them. “…the only thing I can tell you is that I don’t think this came from Equestria at all.”
Michael cursed under his breath for what seemed like the thousandth time as he brushed aside even more of the dense foliage that populated the forest. He had already lost his way in this place about five different times, and that was with the aid of his omni-tool, he didn’t even want to think about how impossible it would be to navigate this place without it. Finally after forty minutes of trudging through borderline jungle he began to emerge on the edge of the forest. As he approached the boundary where trees gave way to the short grass he noted that the forest did an excellent job of blocking out the light, the difference between the forest and the edge was quite noticeable.
These kinds of thoughts that he used to distract himself from the mundaneness of his journey were quickly wiped from his mind as noise of several voices drifted into his ears. Acting almost totally on instinct he drew his pistol and planted himself behind one of the large trees on the very edge. I couldn’t have been followed to this world… he thought to himself as he strained to hear the voices better. Whatever was being spoken certainly wasn’t English and it wasn’t being translated by his universal translator, what he did pick up was a lyrical sort of dialect similar to the Asari native language but even more elegant.
After about a minute of listening to this unknown language, he had surmised that the speakers were female judging from the pitch of the voices, though for all he knew the entire race could just have voices that high. Finally he made the decision to peek around the edge of the tree and for the first time laid eyes upon the speakers. What he saw in front of him nearly made him stumble back in surprise, there were what appeared to be three pastel colored ponies moving around his pod. He normally would’ve resigned the idea of talking ponies on a planet halfway across the galaxy as ludicrous, but before the idea could even take root, one of them talked.
He immediately turned back to hide himself behind the tree completely as his mind attempted to comprehend what he had just seen. Friggin talking ponies!? He thought to himself as tried to retain a semblance of control. The main issue to Michael was regardless of their form those things were living, breathing sentient beings there was no doubt about that. Shitshitshitshitshit, what are the Alliance regs for contact with unknown sentient species again… Michael thought to himself as he very vividly recalled the last two times the council had interacted with unascended sentients before, the Rachni and the Yahg, neither of which ended well for anyone.
He peeked out again as he began to formulate a plan of action, he needed to get to that pod and while he could just simply wait out the three that were already there he had no idea if any more were coming. And while these three appeared to be nothing more than civilians anyone else who might show up could be a lot more of a problem to deal with. So Michael was faced essentially with two options, wait it out, or act now and at that moment he liked his odds. He readied his Carnifex pistol as he began to slink out of the cover of the trees, sneaking up right behind the cyan one as the other two had moved around to the other side.
Rainbow Dash was starting to get bored, not that this was a big surprise to the other two ponies she had discovered the pod with. Now that the initial awe of finding what Twilight surmised was a transport of some kind, the lack of anything really exciting was beginning to wear her down. There was however one thing that had captured the pegasus’ attention, the large symbol that was emblazoned on the side of the craft. While she had no idea what it meant or what it was used for it just was too… awesome, to not ponder what it meant. However, much like the pod, the novelty of the symbol was wearing off fast and Rainbow found herself once again wishing something exciting would happen, that was until she felt something cold and metallic press into the back of her neck.
“Freeze.” Michael stated simply as he placed the barrel of his Carnifex into the back of the winged pony’s neck. A bit melodramatic and the pony probably couldn’t understand him but he said it anyways, and besides it wasn’t so much the words that mattered in these kinds of situations as the tone. The instant he had spoken the pony in front of him had tensed up noticeably and began to slowly turn its head. He put a swift end to that by jabbing the barrel of the gun once more into the back of its neck to let it know that was a no no. He then grabbed one of its wings and tugged it gently backwards; he didn’t want this to turn into a scene, and the more he got this pony to cooperate with him the less likely a confrontation would develop in which he’d probably have to get violent and do a lot of things he’d rather not, killing civies never looked good no matter how you spun it. Unfortunately he hadn’t gotten more than a few yards from the pod before his carefully thought out plan went to shit.
Rainbow was for her part, scared out of her bucking mind. There was an alien right behind her brandishing Celestia knows what just inches from the back of her head, and was slowly egging her towards the forest. To say this was a bad situation was a bit of an understatement. Fortunately for the Pegasus, Twilight and Fluttershy choose that moment to come around the corner of the object. The scene before them would’ve been comical if not for the look of abject terror on their friend’s face and their own fear beginning to well up as the alien behind Rainbow Dash looked up and noticed them. “Rainbow are you OK!?” Twilight finally shouted as she realized what was going on.
“Y-yeah for now, but for Celestia’s sake HELP ME!” The rainbow maned pony replied in an uncharacteristically nervous voice.
Twilight turned quickly to her other friend only to find that Fluttershy had seized up in fear right behind her, it appeared that Twilight would have to rescue Rainbow Dash on her own.
Michael’s own anxiety about this whole goddamned situation was starting to boil over, the appearance of the other two wasn’t something he had expected and now he was starting to feel a little nervous about this idea of his. “Don’t even think about it.” He said to the purple one, which oddly enough had a horn while the other two had wings, though he could muse about the morphology of this race after he was out of this predicament. The yellow winged pony next to the purple one didn’t seem able to do anything and Michael was just fine with that, dealing with two was infinitely easier than dealing with three.
Twilight’s mind raced as she tried to come up with a plan to save Rainbow’s hide, the alien had addressed her in its own language, but she couldn’t comprehend a word it had said. She tried to take a step forward but the alien tensed the second she raised her hoof and locked its eyes onto hers with an intensity that made it difficult if not impossible to look away. It’s trying to fix me with its eyes…she finally realized after about twenty seconds of the staring contest between the two. The only good thing that meant was that this alien didn’t have any more of a plan than she did. Twilight finally came to a decision, it was risky but it was the only course of action she saw to end this, and so she began to channel her magic.
Michael’s worry jacked up another few notches as he continued to rack his brains for a plan of action, he was currently staring down the purple pony but that couldn’t last forever and he needed a plan, now. Unfortunately before he even had a chance to come up with even a preliminary plan, the purple one’s horn began to glow. This was both unexpected and shocking to the N7 marine whose instinctual response was to realign himself to face this new threat, this unfortunately for the human left the Pegasus in front of him now completely free to do whatever she liked, which happened to be to buck the human as hard as she could in the gut.
Now Michael like any good Alliance solider had his kinetic barriers up at all times, however while the ability for these amazing pieces of technology to stop small projectiles was unmatched, their ability to stop hand to hand combat blows and other such high mass, high inertia impacts was significantly less. Michael’s barriers shattered from the blow, but not before absorbing the majority of the buck’s force, though the human was still staggered backwards a few steps by the residual force. It was also at this exact moment that his pistol began to glow and was wrenched from his hand.
Despite the surprise of the pony’s attack, Michael still recovered quite quickly. These things are natural biotics!? He thought to himself as observed his pistol being levitated in front of the purple pony. Despite the surprises of this encounter the N7 marine wasn’t finished yet, and now the gloves were off. His omni-tool activated on his left forearm glowing for a second before the blade on the front of it was unsheathed. The two ponies in front of him went wide eyed for the instant it took him to launch his attack, lunging forward intending to skewer the purple one hopefully not fatally injuring it, but Michael was far beyond caring at this point. He was only a half foot from the unicorn, the fear plain on her face when a single voice broke out in a command that he didn’t understand but felt compelled to obey.
Twilight felt the blood drain from her face as she witnessed the alien lunge toward her, its new wicked looking weapon ready to cut her down. At least her plan had worked, kind of, she had managed to save Rainbow at least. But just as she was resigning herself to being impaled by this thing Fluttershy suddenly shouted out, “STOP!” and miraculously enough, it did.
Twilight’s surprise at the alien’s obedience to Fluttershy was nothing compared its own, but upon turning to see the shy pony using her trademark stare things became clear to the studious unicorn.
“Now I know you’re not from here, and that you're scared, but that does not give you the right to hurt my friends, or anypony for that matter! Why I ought to-“ exactly what Fluttershy ought to do was lost forever as at that exact moment the pegasus’ tirade was cut short by Rainbow bucking the human squarely in the head, knocking it out cold.
“Rainbow! Was that really necessary!?” Twilight shouted at her friend’s rash attack on the alien.
“Yeah! Well… kinda.” Rainbow relented under a withering look from Fluttershy.
Twilight sighed as she looked over at the human’s prone form thinking for a few seconds before lifting him up into the air with her magic, ”Well let’s get going, I’m pretty sure the Princess is going to want to hear about this.” This is going to be one bucking strange letter. Twilight thought to herself as the trio with their new arrival headed back to Twilight’s Library.
A/N: I'd like to thank ImmortalScientist for Pre-reading this chapter for me