Starship crew stood before huge holoscreen, what was full of hyperscan on-line data, and looked on it with distorted faces.
“Well I’ll be damned…” – Josiah quietly spelled.
“Seriously?” – Max exclaimed.
“Quietly particular planet…” – captain murmured.
"Primates are rare and somewhere almost went extinct." – Augusto rehearsed shortly the data, - "Ungulates are dominating species, and equine – at first. They are sapient and were able to create a civilization, which now can be evaluated as 7.9. level culture. Nice…"
“Spreaders?” – Zhao wondered.
"No doubt." – Mahmoud answered, - "Only they were able to create something like this!"
"Terran ungulates civilization right in the middle of greatest AZ of Triangulum Galaxy…" – Josiah whispered, - "That guys outdid themselves!"
“We had found two planets of apes, planet of bears, planet of whales and dolphines, planet of cats, planet of elephants, planet of wolves and jackals, planet of penguins, planet of eagles and owls five planets of dinosaurs, three planets of synapsids, two planets of spiders, seven planets of fishes, six planets of bugs and other insects – why then planet of ungulates shouldn’t exist?” – captain said.
“Really…”
“Augusto, plese, just for interest, check the degree of biological similarity. – Mahmoud asked.
Navigator nodded and quickly gave the necessary command to hyperscan computer.
“Wait… Got it! It’s varying from 34 to 97 percents.”
“Then they began approximately six hundred million years ago and stopped about two million and now just watching. It’s clear now.” – captain said.
"There is some more information!" – Augusto suddenly exclaimed, - "We got data about average sizes of domibating species They are almost twice smaller than our ungulates."
"Twice smaller?" – Max got surprised, - "Is this world still populated with hyracotherium?"
"No." – navigator answered, - "It’s more likely that the planet populated with evolved species – just sizes are different."
“So, they are ponies?”
“It seems so.”
“Great!”
Silence fell on the bridge, but it soon was broken with string, but full of interferences, ansible signal.
“Gieob” do you hear us? “Gieob”!”
“Yes, Base, we can hear you!” – Mahmous answered.
“What happened? Where are you?”
“We detected incredibly powerful subspace wave during the flight, so we have to emerge in the nearest star. But it was within the AZ. Anomaly showed itself, and we were thrown out in space with huge speed – only fourth from light. Our reactors and main engines failed, and our ship flew right to one local planet. We had been slowing down for thirteen hours, and narrowly escaped disaster.”
“You almost crushed? How far is this planet from its star?”
“0,98 A.U.”
“One unit? Well th… Wait! You had been slowing down, using only auxillary engines?”
“Yes.”
“And you made it possible?”
“Yes, but we had to reduce mass of starship, so we dropped the cargo.”
“What??? Dropped the cargo?”
“It was our only chance!”
“Well then. This incident you’ll describe later, and in details… How many things are still safe?”
“Almost all of them. We got signals of all containers, but one of them is damaged. Eight things, which were in it, are broked, and one was lost.”
“Do you have second examples?”
“Yes, for all nine things.”
“Glad to hear it. And what was lost?”
“We didn’t check it yet. Zhao, take a look.” – captain asked.
"One moment!" – mechanic answered, - "Here’s the list… Aw crap…"
“What?”
“Shift-suit was lost!”
"Shift-suit???" – liaison officer exclaimed, - "Was lost?"
“I’m afraid so.” – Mahmoud said quietly.
“Can you find it?”
“Out hyperscan are still working, so it’s a matter of time.”
“Matter of time?”
“Yes. You see, there is one problem here – the planet is populated, and, moreover, there is 7.9 level civilization here.”
“WHAAAAAAAT??? Civilization of 7.9 level??? No, no, no, nooooo!!! You must find it and bring it back before locals take it!”
“There will be some difficulties with this.” – Zhao spelled.
“They took it???”
“We don’t know. In spite of all tries, we can’t get beacon signal.”
“Find it at any cost! Shift-suites are too powerful technology even for us, so do your best!”
“We will.”
“And we’ll send help to you.”
“Cancel this order!” – captain said loudly.
“Why?”
“We are still within AZ, and no one knows what may happen during emerging with other ships if they get here. It’s too risky.”
“Will you be able to do all this yourselves?”
“Yes.”
“Well then. Channel now is estabilished, and we’ll continue to support it. If you will need something – address. Good bye!”
Crew bowed. Liaison officer nodded, and ansible turned off.
“We got off easy.” – Max sighed.
“You don’t say!” – mechanic confirmed.
"And it’s good." – Mahmous said, - "So, folks, listen. Now we’ll land and bring back the cargo. After this we focus all our forces on searches of lost suit."
“Right now?” – Zhao got surprised.
“Yes. Containers fell in rather populated area, so we have to take them as quickly as we can, before locals find them.”
“We see.”
Guys sat and began the preparations for landing. Josiah meanwhile time by time looked on hyperscan holoscreen to check new data. And the latest information made him to choke.
“G-g-guys…” – he babbled.
“What happened?” – pilot and navigator worried.
“L-look.” – socspec whispered and poinet on few paragraphs with graphs.
"Well, what is it?" – Mahmoud spelled and approached the screen, - "Holy hell… Some of these “ponies” have wings and horns!"
"Hyperscan detected some other lifeforms." – Augusto read, - "They look just like dragons and griffins. And over forty other species! Which looked like other our mythological creatures!"
“Oh gods…”
“The shit of the Universe, where are we?” – mechanic shouted.
“In very, very, very odd place, pal.” – Max answered.
“Nice AZ, very nice!”
"Stop!" – captain said, - "W-we have to focus. Josiah, give to all of us elephant dose of sedatives. We’ll start to land in forty minutes!"
Socspec nodded and gave drugs to every one. Guys took them and flopped down in their chairs. Good Lord! Planet of dwarf unicorns and pegasuses with other mythological rag-tag! Why so ancient and wise civilization created such weird world? Yes, Spreaders did a lot of strange things at other planets of whole Greal Wall Cluster (including Earth: the only thing was that Earth was among planets of first stage – it means that only lifeforms what were brought to the planet were single-celled). But this planet… Ooh! But it’s necessary now to stop think about it – they have primary aim, and they must implement it.
Having made the last move, Spike put the broom into the closet, approached Twilight, who were preparing for learning another portion of theoretical materials, and said:
“Twi, I finished the sweeping. Do you have other requests?”
Pony took a thought for awhile:
“Hm… You know, no. Take a rest!”
“No requests?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Are you absolutely sure?”
“Yes, Spike yes! I have no requests to you.”
“Okay. Then I’ll go for a walk for a hour or two.”
“Good.”
“If you’ll get hungry, there are some sandwiches and juice in the fridge.”
“Thanks!”
“You’re welcome!” – Spike answered and, having closed the door, ran to the forest.
But now he rushed to other its part – farther from that swamp, closer to ruins of old castle of Royal Sisters.
About a hour of walking – and he will be at rather blank area, where ponies are rare guests. It will be the perfect place for field tests. And meanwhile he pondered: “Hm, this weird thing is surely some kind of tool. The tool, which allowed me to teleport, and I felt absolutely nothing during the process. It’s suspicious. But I felt nothing inside me. If this thing was a creation of some villain, a trap, it would show itself or began to show. And this one doesn’t give even a sign! I feel myself as usually, as I felt before – maybe just a bit heavier, but it doestn’t matter (maybe it’s my lunch, after all). This thing have no effect on me! If so, then it can’t be evil. It just can’t be! Then who made it?… Ah, well, I’ll find the answer later. Now – if this thing stuck in me – I have to find out what it can do and how doest it work…” Spike finished his reasonings and stopped. He was already in the depth of the forest: high, covered with mosses and lichens trees surrounded narrow track, which slowly became unnoticeable, dense crowns kept the ground in twilight. And there was a small clearing behind old trees.
“Just what I need!” – dragon said and went there.
The glade was about seventy meters long and had oval shape. Spike got out from the bushes and looked around. There was no one here – even animals were absent. Perfect! No one will see, no one will interrupt.
Little dragon grinned and immediately decided to implement teleporatation one more time. Well then, he wanted to appear in Ponyville, his imagination was paiting the town and its location, his mind was counting the distance and the necessary time, then he shut his eyes and bang! He is in Ponyville. So, if you want ot teleport, you have to imagine the place, estimate the distance and concentrate. Spike sighed, focused on the opposite end of clearing and gave mental command. And alsmost immediately something flased before him. Dragon opened his eyes and founded himself on the opposite end, but he was close to stand in embrace with a huge oak. Spike stepped back and turned round. Yes, it it the other edge of the glade. Success! Yeah! Rejoiced dragon decided to repeat the try. He painted the start point in his mind, concentrated again and voila! He was there. Elated by success, Spike ventured to move to the next level: he imagined that suspension bridge, what led to the old castle, gave the command – and in a second he was right before it. Incredible! This thing is really powerful. “I have to consolidate the success…” – Spike thought and started to jump all over the forest: former throne room, back to the glade, swamp, bushes near Zecora’s house, bridge again, railroad near the forest edge, front door of the castle… Strange device teleported him wherever he wanted in a twinlking. Little dragon liked it so much that he began to compete with himself in accuracy of jumps – that stump, this rock, the top of that fir… And he successeded.
He continued to jump for another ten minutes, until he decided to teleport in the hollow of one old tree. Spike imagined that cavity and commaned: “Transport!” Bright flash – and he disappeared. But the reapperance caused some problems: there was no hollow in the place, where Spike decided to jump – it was only a damage, caused by a lightning strike. The largest cavity there was only five cubic inches in volume, and it was in the trunk. Nanites, which performed remote sensing, had founded it, but they got the direct order. So they implemented the jump. And Spike had been begun to press in that chamber…
If you put on special protective suit, you will be able to walk on the surface of Vega. Heat won’t be able to harm you. But because of gravitation, which there is more than forty times greater than on Earth, you’ll quickly and easily hit your heels with your ears. So you can imagine, what Spike felt at that time. Since the first picoseconds nanites started to decect that host’s health deteriorates rapidly. The direct order came into conflict with the first directory – save the host at any cost. But they couldn’t ignore neither commands, nor built-in programs. They have to solve the problem as soon as possible. So they began to calculate feverishly, and soon they found the way out. As a result, teleportation was finished, and tree trunk just exploded. And dragon, safe and sound, but zonked and in a state of prostration, appeared on big pile of flinders.
In a couple of minutes he recovered and spelled:
“O-okay then, it’s enough teleporatations for today. Let’s try something else…”
Spike thought about some other possibilities and decided to stop on the increasing of physical strength. Aside from the track another small glade was situated, but there were a lot of stones on it – nice variat for the first try. Little dragon approached the nearest rock, imagined how it fell apart because of impact, concentrated and hit it. And the stone crushed. Many small pieces were thrown back. Spike was so flabbergasted that completely forgave about his starting to ache paw – but nerve signal was continuous and strong, so it reached the brain soon. And when it happened, Spike began to run across the clearing, screaming and holding his hand. But, luckily for him, pain subsided soon. When he became healthy again, he tried once more. But now he didn’t forget about own protection and created some kind of force shield for his paw. So he ran up to another stone and struck a blow. And again the rock fell apart. He hit the third one – it collapsed, he hit the fourth – only macadam remained. And now there were no injuries and no pain! He started to break two and even more stones at a time, throw them up and crush them in the air – and he successeded again. He even managed to destroy a couple of rocks without paws – telekinetically. This little training quiclkly turned the glade into covered with macadam area – just work a little with tamping machine, and you can begin the asphalting.
"AAWWWW YEAH!!!" – Spike exclaimed after destroying of the last stone, - "I got the power! May be I don’t know kung-fu, but I can do something cooler!"
After this dragon decided to try another exercise. This time the choice fell on jumping. Spike imagined how he, having jumped, overflies the nearest trees, concentrated and soared over the forest. Having swept about fifty meters, he landed on the top of old elm. He looked around, noticed another high tree, pushed away from the branch and in a couple of seconds dipped into its crown. Success again! Overfull with happines (and beginning to overfill with adrenaline), Spike bagan to jump farther and farther. Seventy meters, one hundred meters, one hundred and fifty meters… Here he jumped over that huge pine, there he skipped through the gorge, which separates the old castle from Everfree forest… Stop! The gorge???
When dragon realized this, one castle tower was already rapidly approaching him. Dammit! He got scared, but he understood that it’s necessary to tuck and teleport as soon as possible. Spike began to recall distant places in the forest and focus. But this thoughts were chaotic, and because of this shift-suit executed the order not immediately: he broke the roof – by the way, one of just few intacted plots – flew into the room and only then teleportated in the air. He didn’t hit the wall – he hit the fir, which appeared to grow near the end of his jump.
This impact was weaker than probable first one, so Spike got only few bruises, which nanites quickly cured. He unstuck from the tree, shook himself, took off tar pieces and sighed. Well, he has to be more attentive next time.
When dragon estimated the results of his jumps, he had an idea: if he skipped so easily, was like a feather in the wind, then why not try to fly?
Having imagined and concentrated, Spike soon got off the ground and slowly began to go up. When he reached treetop level, he gave mental command to accelerate gradually and then tried to turn aroud, after this – change direction a bit… Only an hour of practice – and he was hovering over the forest like a swift. From time to time he even tried to do some aerobatics. Little dragon was peasantly surprised by his great achievements in such short time, but was only slight sensation in comparison with shock what he felt when he sharply turned for the first time – he didn’t feel any increasing of g-force. Spike perfectly knew that pegasuses often face it, when they fly so fast. But he at the moment felt absolutely no air resistance. His strange finding not only made him able to fly, but also created real comfort. Spike didn’t believe his own feelings. But there it was: he, wingless creature, was flying, and was able to do stunts, which rare pegasus can repeat. Unbelievable…
“Now I understand why Rainbow loves it so much…” – Spike hought when he dissected a cloud ridge. Flight gave the incomparable feeling of freedom, width of space made him dizzy. It was amazing sensations. And little dragon got enjoyed entirely.
But during the flight he got addicted and, because of this, paid absolutely no attention on the fact that he was approaching Cloudsdale. Serenity of the calm sky made him relaxed, so he didn’t notice that he was nearing one orange pegasus, who has been known as Spitfire, and who at the moment was training. She was skilled flyer, so she quickly felt something strange. She slowly turned her head to the side, from which, as she thought, was the source, and saw the reason: a little dragon flew parallel to her. But the thing was that it was a wingless dragon. Spitfire’s face slowly began to contort, her eyes – involuntarily become larger, and her vocal folds – also involuntarily produce sounds, which formed the phrase “What the heck?” Then Spike finally realized that something is wrong. It seemed that he heard how pony’s face contorted. He turned about, saw Spitfire and felt that he became to fall into a stupor. “Dammit…” – it was his only thought at the moment. For few second they, amazed, looked at each other, and then dragon grasped that he has to undertake anything. But, as he was shoked, he found nothing better than to say: “P-pardon me…” and after this sharply turn and teleport away. That made Spifire completely stunned – her shock was so great, that she stopped to flitter, flew into dense cloud and spend some minutes there till full recovering.
Spike teleported back to the forest. He shuddered, and his heart pounded. He with great efforts tried to calm himself: “Hush, hush!… That’s better… Well, she… was surprised. If so, then… I assume that she will think about this as hallucination. Yeah, hallucination!… She won’t believe her own eyes, and accept it as absurdity… A-and that’s nice! Phew!…” It took him about ten minutes, but he recovered himself. He never learned that Spitfire really accepted the vision of flying little wingless dragon as caused by overwork hallutination and successfully forgot about it. For her own sake.
Meanwhile there was only about hour before sunset. It was enough only for one attempt. So Spike decided to try one trick what he left at last as, probably, the most impressive one. Having tightly shut his eyes, he concentrated, quietly spelled: “I want to be big and powerful dragon, with strong wings and sharp spikes!” and began to imagine all details of desired appearance. He strained for three minutes. And when he opened his eyes… He appeared to be at least twice taller that nearest trees. Spike was so happy that he was ready to scream, but he was able to stop in time: he understood the possible consequences – his cheerful roar would scare the hell out of everyone, and would cause the formation of sett in all towns and villages near the Everfree forest. So he rejoiced in silence, but actively.
Then, using the same way, he regained his normal appearance and, inspired, went home. It was incredible day: who could say that such a small thing can give so much power? This is much more like a fairy tale than reality. He still hardly believed in what had happened today, but he was glad as never before. Now he is able for something really great…