Scott woke up from stasis, and hurried over to wear his uniform. As he buttoned his shirt and zipped his pants, he wondered what the new species would be like. Would they be hostile or friendly? Capable of space travel or just forming tribes? He winced slightly as he imagined that. If they were only just forming tribes, he would probably have to wait in stasis again until they were ready to learn about alien races. The other Followers of the Apocalypse were waiting for him to give the word. He might not be Commander of the Milky Way Fleet anymore, but he was still their leader. They followed him silently as he walked to the bridge, each thinking something different, but all hoping that this species was ready. When they arrived, they each took their familiar seats according to their duties. Scott stated calmly, “Computer? Give us a visual of the capital city.”
The viewing panel flashed and then showed the alien race’s capital city. It was amazing! The aliens appeared to be quadrupeds. Some of them had wings, some horns, and some had neither. The Capitol seamed to primarily consist of horned quadrupeds.
"Lower cloaking!" Scott ordered.
"Raise shields! We have no idea what sort of weaponry they have. Prepare landing sequence, and find a location where we can see them coming. Begin decoding their language, and add it to our translators."
"Shields raised, sir."
"Landing sequence ready, captain. I found a good location."
"Gathering examples of speech. Update to our translators should be ready by the time we land, commander."
Celestia and Luna watched the fiery meteor that didn't seem to be suffering any actual damage. She quickly wrote a message, "Twilight, your presence is required in Canterlot immediately. You can bring your friends and Spike."
Twilight stared carefully at the test tube.
"Almost there... Almost there..." she muttered.
"Twilight, a letter from the Princess!" yelled Spike.
"Wahh!" Twilight said, surprised, as she tilted the beaker too far into the test tube, which dicentigraded in a large puff of smoke. They coughed, and Twilight said, "Spike! I was working!"
"But the Princess requires your presence in Canterlot!"
"Why?"
"It doesn't say."
"Is it Tentacle Monsters? Giant insects? Life on the moon returning to destroy Equestria with evil magics? What if I can't stop them!"
"Snap out of it! I'm sure it's nothing that bad . Just go and see what the Princesses want. What could possibly go wrong?"
A little while later...
"Twilight! I'm glad you could come at such a short notice." said Princess Celestia with a smile and a nuzzle.
"Of course I could make it! What do you need?"
"An unidentified object similar to a meteor has landed below Canterlot. I say "landed" because it didn't burn up in the atmosphere like most meteors, and didn't make an impact crater either. I would like you and your friends to accompany a team of geologists to figure out what the meteor is."
"I would love to go! But I'm not sure if my friends will be so excited..."
"Pinkie Pie will love to go, as her sister Maud Pie is a great geologist, and will be coming on the expedition. Rainbow Dash will get to hang out with the Wonderbolts, who are along as protection. Rarity can stay at the castle, along with Fluttershy and Applejack. Spike will go with you for quick communication with me."
"Great! I'll go tell them."
Commander Scott nervously gazed outside the windows at the group of ponies approaching his spacecraft.
"Are the translators ready?" he asked.
"Applying them to clothing now. They're small enough that they can go unnoticed. They work both ways, so if we gave one to them they could understand any human."
"Good. Let's go greet them."
Scott and his greeting party opened the door with a hiss of steam. They had already checked the local biology, and found that no diseases were able to harm them from this world, but most of the other biology was compatible, meaning local food was safe to eat. The intelligent species, however, they were not so sure about.
The ponies looked stunned to see him and his crew, and one in particular looked like they were bouncing with... Joy? Shock?... An unknown emotion. Scott prepared to greet them, by making a general greeting and seeing which one responded and taking that one as the leader. But before he could begin, the pink bouncy one began talking,
"Oooooo! Twilight, you never told us there were aliens in the meteor! Do you think they like parties? Or cupcakes? How about streamers!"
"I didn't know there were aliens... I don't think they speak Equestrian. They probably like parties, and-"
Commander Scott cut her off, "Excuse me. I can answer her questions. No, we don't speak Equestrian, we use electronic translators. We do like parties, and cupcakes. Who is your leader?"
Twilight's jaw dropped in amazement. "You made electronic translators?! How do they work? Oh, sorry, our leaders are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The diarchy rules Equestria from Canterlot, the city above you. Celestia raises the sun and Luna raises the moon."
Commander Scott raised an eyebrow at that. "Raise and lower the sun and moon? I though I saw something strange about your solar system."
"You were up there? How did you get there? Where do you come from? I have so many questions."
"Maybe we can answer them after we arrange for a place to stay. Take me to your leaders."