Author: Brother Malachai
Co-Author: May I Cut In, Architect
“A brand new world, where new fauna awaits us. The potential things we can learn from co-existing with them is a venture we need to explore.” ~Princess Fluttershy
Fluttershy awoke from her long slumber a bit more suddenly than she liked. She was told that awaking from the induced hibernation cycle would be a bit rough on the system, even for an Alicorn, but this was even harder than she originally expected. After getting an okay from several Doctors (and a few shots of recaf), she went to go meet her two technical and scientific officers. She was informed of Princess Sparkle’s unusually brash behaviour and her insistence on an immediate landing upon the new world and of Rainbow Dash’s immediate pursuit. “Oh my, they are landing already? Prepare the colonization pod for immediate landing,” she replied in turn as she, Angel Bunny, and her retainers rushed forth to get the supplies she in turn would need for landing.
While having a bunch of ponies and various other sentient races rushing around her, trying to set up and put away equipment for the rushed departure she saw a familiar face. Ordering around and supervising the ponies and other people was a familiar minotaur in a space suit, and was in turn accompanied by his retinue of goats, who were also in space suits. “Iron Will wants you to get a move on lil’ ponies! Iron Will says, ‘Don’t Delay! We need to land TODAY!!!’,” shouted the familiar minotaur as he checked off some items on a clipboard. Upon hearing the bleating of his goats, he turned around to see Princess Fluttershy and her retinue of Royal Guards approach. “Your-your Highness,” he blurted out as he and his band of goats made a series of quick bows. Unfortunately, Iron Will inadvertently dropped his clipboard while doing this. After it dropped on the floor and clattered across it a few more times for good measure; it landed at Fluttershy’s hooves. Iron Will nervously cleared out his throat and then quickly muttered out, “Erm, sorry about that Princess.” Immediately afterwards, he kneels down, grabs the clipboard and then quickly dusted himself off after he got back up. The then did a quick check of his suit to make sure nothing was torn. After all, what good was a space suit that couldn’t hold air?
While he was doing this, Fluttershy replied, “It’s quite all right Iron Will. I do apologize for the sudden call for a last-minute landing procedure. It seems Twilight was unusually brash in her insistence on landing first. Almost to the point of being Rainbow Dash brash, even.”
Iron Will then did some random flexing and replied, “Never Fear! Iron Will is HERE! I can guarantee you that we will successfully land our colony today or you will get your bits back!”
In the background, a familiar bodybuilding pegasi flexed a muscle of his own and yelled his Equestrain famous, “YEEEEAAHHHHH!!!!!” “YEAHHH!!!! Now that’s the spirit,” Iron Will yelled back to the pony that was obviously a kindred spirit of sorts.
While she was taken a bit aback by the odd scene in front of her, she was running short on time and Fluttershy had to take care of a few more things before they attempted landing. “Uhm...I hate to interrupt, but I was wondering if you could tell me where we were landing?” Iron Will, realizing that he may have overreacted a bit yet again, blushed a bit but then quickly recomposed himself.
After clearing up his throat, Iron Will pulled out a tablet and handed it over to Fluttershy. “The maps are on here. We’re going to attempt to land on this plateau,” he started as he pointed to the plateau on the tablet’s image, “It has a large lake on top of it that turns into a waterfall on one of the edges of the plateau. In turn, this waterfall feeds a river that flows to a nearby coastline.” After snaking his finger along the path of the river, he tapped the tablet briefly and it showed a closer shot of the plateau from one of the orbital photos the spaceship made. “As you can see, there’s a lot of vegetation in the area. A mix of trees and giant fungi. It seems the plateau itself has a lot of both jungle and swamp land. We’re going to be very dependent on you and Zecora to help us starting out as both of you know a lot about the outdoors,” Iron Will concluded as he put the tablet away.
Fluttershy put a hoof up to her chin and then replied, “Yes, but that was on Equestria. Still, rest assured, we shall do our best to ensure the survival of the colony.”
“Well, I would expect nothing less from a former student of mine,” Iron Will in turn replied with a smile, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I got to get back to work. Move it everypony! Clocks tickin’!” And Iron Will stomped off, with his motley of goats in tow.
Fluttershy sighed, smiled and shook her head. That old minotaur has hardly changed a bit. Still, who would’ve suspected he was a family person? Sure, he was driving the ponies and other beings under him hard, but he wouldn’t ask of them what he couldn’t do himself. And, as it was with the other beings her, the stakes were high for him too. He had not only to be concerned with his well being, but that of his wife and son as well. She remembered him jokingly telling her that he hoped to set up a new Labyrinth for him and his family at some point when they finally got a bit more settled down on the surface after the initial chaos that will initially come with colonizing a new world. Still, the Princess hoped no one would snap under his supervision. The results would be a bit...unpleasant, to say the very least. Still, such concerns would have to be dealt with in the future. For now, she had to make sure everything was properly prepared for the landing and initial set-up of the colony to come.
After a hectic several hours of preparation and a tense landing procedure, her colony was able to make touchdown within a mixture of swamp and rainforest on a large continental mass. The swamps and forests were a tangled mass of fungi, incredibly large trees, and a morass of vines, weeds, and grasses. However, certain parts of the place were covered in a dense green fog. It had an ominous feel to it to say the least. and it seemed to be alive with the soft pulsing movements within it. The fog was initially covering their landing site but as their landing craft approached the ground, the fog backed away as if told to do so. Nobody paid attention to it though as they were captivated by the sight of the ground approaching them. Everypony was excited about their tasks except for Fluttershy. She still had her hooves covering her eyes and shivered in fear when the landing craft had finally safely touched down onto the ground.
It took her second in command, Zecora,several minutes to convince her that they are now safely on the ground. “My dear Fluttershy, now is not the time to cower.” Zecora started ‘ You are a princess, not a wilting flower.” That was all that was needed to get her to snap her out of her cowering state and for her to start helping the others with setting up the city.
For a princess Zecora thought to herself with a smile She is still as shy as ever.
……
After a few days of dismantling the spaceship for parts needed to build their first colony, Fluttershy stood alone in the meeting room in front of the camera system. In front of her was 5 hologram emitters arranged in a curved formation. Her crew had landed far away from where Rainbow and Twilight has landed, hence the need for the communications systems Twilight had created while back in Equestria. Pushing the button on the desk, the desktop monitor booted up, displaying the status of the system. Moving the mouse awkwardly with her telekinesis, Fluttershy selected the “contact all” option. After waiting for about 10 minutes while the system connected and sent notifications to the others, finally one of the indicators under the hologram emitters turned green and a hologram of Twilight appeared in real-time.
“Hi Fluttershy!” Twilight beamed, “It’s so good to see you! It’s been such a long time since we last spoke. How was the trip?”
“Oh, it was a little boring. I spent most of my time in suspended sleep, so I did not know much of what happened.” Fluttershy replied. At the same time, a second indicator for another emitter lit up and Rainbow visualised right next to Twilight. “Sup egghead. Hey Fluttershy, hows has it been?” Rainbow said. Twilight in reply to Rainbow’s teasing rolled her eyes.
‘Girls please. Lets not starting teasing each other just as soon we meet. It’s been years since we were together.” Fluttershy replied, glancing at Rainbow.
Rainbow simply snickered. “Oh Flutters, you're still such a big softie. I thought you would be more hardened after dealing with those faction leaders. Those troublemakers…”
“Rainbow” Twilight said, arching an eyebrow. “ There will always be other ponies that will always be resistant to change, but they will eventually see the way. Of course, it helps to show them the way.”
“Honestly, I think that we should build those ‘re-education’ camps that Starlight Glimmer build in her little village a long time ago.” Rainbow Dash replied . “Best way to get them to stop disrupting you Twilight . I lost count on how many times i was awoken from the middle of sleep just to deal with another possible raid on one of your Research Facilities.”
“Remember on how we agreed on not talking about that period anymore girls.” Fluttershy finally interrupted. “I believe that they were simply lost and I feel that it is up to me to guide them back with kindness. And that worked out well in the end.”
“Ok. This is going nowhere of any practical use” Twilight concluded. “Now, lets get down to the technical stuff.” On the live feed of Twilight, Fluttershy saw Twilight levitate her tablet computer from off screen and there was the sound of it being slid into place on the monitor on her side. A stylus held in her telekinesis appeared as well and moved to where the tablet was. A few taps here and there and then a report appeared on Fluttershy’s monitor.
“Here’s the lab reports on some of the samples on the wildlife and materials we managed to collect.” Twilight summarised. “ Most of the local flora is edible although it is not exactly as tasty as back in Equsteria. The yellow crystals scattered around on the surface have a unique property. It’s is extremely unreactive, existing in its pure form naturally. It also has properties similar to silicon, a semiconductor that we widely used back in Equestria for our computer parts. Given time, we can incorporate it into our computers, allowing for more advanced and much more powerful computers. One more thing, do not walk into the green fogs that appear from time to time. We haven’t had the chance to collect a good sample of it but it is harmful to us.” She paused after seeing Fluttershy’s confused look. Sighing, she nudged her head in the direction of Rainbow.
Rainbow simply said: ”Eh. Derpy flew into one of those green clouds. Breathed in a lot of the fog but it seems to not really do much damage to her. A few days later and she will be fine. Warned everypony to stay out of it just in case.”
“Oh. I’ll warn everypony about it as well.’ Fluttershy trailed off, remembering what happened earlier on...
(12 hours after landing)
“Zecora, can you manage everypony for a while? I want to go check out the fauna on this planet” Fluttershy asked.
“Fluttershy, take heed. You know I can lead,” Zecora replied with a smile, “Now go. Find out more about this mysterious plateau.”
She flew off from the budding city. After flying for a while, she saw a herd of the alien wildlife that the lifeform scanner had picked up before they landed. She landed behind a small group of bushes to observe them with the patience of a bird watcher. She was so busy observing them that she did not notice the green fog rolling in behind her. Only when the fog engulfed her then she finally noticed it. With a yelp, she jumped up to fly away but not before she inhaled a good amount of the green fog.
Flying back to the city site, she landed with a thud. Hearing the loud thud, Zecora rushed to her side. “ What do we have here? It seems our Princess has returned in fear.”
“Oh Zecora! The green fog just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It startled me.” Fluttershy whimpered.
“This fog, I do not see. What you saw, to me, is a mystery.” Zecora said, gesturing in the direction where Fluttershy flew from. True to the Zebra’s word, the location where Fluttershy was showed no signs of any of the green fog.
“It just came up. Where did it go?” Fluttershy said in surprise. Not having an answer, Zecora replied, “Where did it go? That, dear Princess, I do not know.”
After a while, Fluttershy got over her fright. She however felt uneasy, almost like if there was somepony or something watching her, observing her…
The Present, Fluttershy’s Conference Room-
“Oh one more thing, Fluttershy. Can you send us the coordinates of your city? We don’t exactly have our satellites capability up and running. I would like to know so that we can start trading whatever excess resources with each other.” Twilight asked.
“Ok. Will do Twilight, i’ll get someone to do it. Im sorry, i’m still not used to these em… new technologies.” Fluttershy apologised, her meekness evident on her face.
“Hey, Twilight, before we end this session, how long is it till your eggheads in your labs finish up those prototype repulsor satellites? I don’t want another repeat of what happened to Derpy out there.” Rainbow quickly interrupted.
“The miasma repulsor? It still a concept Rainbow, we managed to finally find the right frequency for the energy pulses to dispel the fog. But we still haven’t manage to simplify the design to make it feasible to deploy on a satellite.” Twilight answered.
“Aww, come on. What taking ya so long? That thing been creeping closer and closer to my border, too close for my liking.” Rainbow said. “I don’t like it one bit.”
“It will be done Rainbow. I Pinkie Promise that as soon as we finished the first repulsor, i’ll put on the first trade convoy going towards your city. Cross my eye, hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.’ Twilight replied, as she accidentally jabbed her eye. “Ow! Why do I always forget this part. After all these years...”
Rainbow on her part just snickered before saying goodbye. Twilight also bade farewell to Fluttershy still rubbing her eye. After they disconnected, Fluttershy left the meeting room. In the hallway she ran into Iron Will. Amusingly, he looked rather shaken up. But he quickly snapped into attention once he noticed Fluttershy. “Princess Fluttershy, there has been an incident in one of our farms at sector 2F. Nobody was hurt but the whole facility is rendered unusable.” He summarised, still standing at attention.”
“What happened? Was anypony hurt?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.
‘No one was hurt, Princess Fluttershy. But we agreed you need to see what happened to the place.” Iron Will replied. He replied with the air of confidence he was known for but Fluttershy could see that he was frightened by whatever happened down there.
“Show me what happened. I also want to know how it happened,” Fluttershy replied.
“Of course Princess. Follow me,” Iron Will acquiesced with a bow.
Fluttershy, accompanied by Iron Will, his goat retinue, and several Royal Guards exited out the conference room and went down several hallways and flights of stairs in what passed as her Royal Palace and HQ in the new colony. While heading towards the exit, Fluttershy asked, “Iron Will, what is the status of the breezies that travelled with us?”
“Last I checked,” he started, “which was about several hours ago. We still have them in suspended animation per your orders. We didn’t want to awake them too early, especially in this hostile landscape. Sure, we could just keep them indoors, but there’s a good chance of them getting a bad case of Cabin Fever and things going downhill from there. If I may say so Princess, I think it is best they remain in artificially-induced hibernation for the time being. Especially considering...recent events.”
“While I still do not know what you are talking about,” Fluttershy started, “I do agree that they should not be awoken too soon. They are a very fragile species and we need to make sure that the colonies we have set up for them are suitable and safe for their use.”
“Again, apologies for keeping you in the dark,” Iron Will nervously replied as he rubbed the back of his head, “but any report I can give really wouldn’t give a apt description of the situation. It’s better you see it for yourself. If anything, we hope that your skills in dealing with flora and fauna might aid us in this...situation.”
By this point of the conversation, the loose band of leaders, advisors, and military personnel were already heading down one of the dirt paths that barely qualified as streets in the newly founded town. As they headed down the street they saw troops rushing forward to where this mysterious “incident” supposedly took place as well as some conscripted citizens equipped with what little weaponry and armor that could be scrounged together on short notice. Unarmed ponies were seen fleeing in the other direction. Some walking calmly while others galloped away screaming in terror.
“Oh dear...this doesn’t look very good at all,” Fluttershy commented nervously, “I’m glad I left Angel Bunny at the palace.”
As they got closer to the farm, she started to see a plume of smoke.
“How bad is the fire,” Fluttershy asked.
One of her guards replied, “We already have fire brigade over there putting out the flames and the EMT’s treating and evacuating the wounded to our Clinic. The Royal Guard are providing additional help and security to make sure that the native lifeforms don’t attack them any further.”
“Wh-what do you mean any further,” Fluttershy stammered.
“Princess, it’s probably just best that you see for yourself and ask the people who were there,” the Guard continued with a saddened expression on his face. While the comment was perplexing and a bit confusing to her, she has learned to trust her guards on matters such as these. They served her well in their multiple roles of defense, law enforcement, and intelligence gathering. Still, she could tell from the look on his face, as stoic as it may be, that whatever it was that happened was bad. Very, very bad. As she and the others left the outskirts of the town and started going down a path surrounded by fields, barns, and houses, the plume of smoke became larger and larger. They stopped for a moment as one of the guards held his hoof to his ear, listening in on his headset.
“Yes...yes, I understand. Silvertip out,” the Guard finished. “That was once of the technicians at the scene Princess. They tested out some samples of the smoke. While inhaling plain smoke is obviously not good for you, the good news is that there’s no artificial mystery chems in the air either. We’ve been cleared to approach the area.”
“Very well then, take me there immediately,” Fluttershy ordered.
“Understood Princess,” Silvertip in turn acknowledged with a quick salute.
They then finally reached the location of the disabled farm. Fluttershy had expected something like a raging fire or that there would be a whole stampeding herd of the alien beetles she saw. What she saw however was shocking. Right in the middle of the farm there was a gigantic, smoking trench right in the middle. The central building was badly damaged, with half of the building left which was leaning precariously into the trench. Seeing one of the ponies who was in charge of maintaining the farm nearby, she walked over to her.
In response the pony tried to stand up, her face wincing in pain. “Princess Fluttershy...” the pony started.
“No need to stand, you’re hurt Carrot Top. Rest and tell me what happened.” Fluttershy said. Two other ponies then rushed towards the Princess. These were two ponies Fluttershy knew rather well from her Ponyville days. They were the ex-florists-turned-farmers Daisy and Lily.
“It was awful,” Lily exclaimed.
“A disaster! A horrible, horrible disaster,” Daisy in turn yelled.
Fluttershy could tell the others were a bit panicked, but she had to maintain calm. The worst thing to happen in an emergency would be for her in turn to panic. She too was a bit terrified, but she had to do her best to be the center of stability in a chaotic situation. It was then that she did something she rarely did, even as a Princess, she raised her voice. She yelled at them, “Daisy! Lily! Calm down! I know something bad happened, but I need to know exactly what happened! Now CALM DOWN!”
Despite all that has happened, Iron Will couldn’t help but smile at his friend Princess Fluttershy. She has grown up so much over the years. Having been caught off guard, the other two ponies finally recomposed themselves a bit.
Daisy started, “Yes, apologies Princess, the stress of the situation kind of got to us. Still, it’d probably be better if we told you instead of Rose as she’s pretty banged up at the moment. Well, you see, we were out here with Rose and we were planting daisy seeds when we heard this low rumbling coming from the ground. We were worried. Then the noise got louder and the next thing I know this thing burst up from the ground and everything was destroyed. Half the central building was gone and i was hit by some of the debris.”
“What came up from the ground?” Fluttershy pressed on.
“Something big and scary. It was like an armoured worm with spikes.” Daisy continued
Iron Will then came over. “Princess Fluttershy” he started ”I pulled up some of the security footage from the farm. You might want to take a look.” Holding up his personal tablet, he passed the device over to Fluttershy, a video that was currently paused onscreen.
Fluttershy took it and and unpaused the video. The scene was calm at first but as the video went on, she could see the recording shake. After a few seconds of this shaking, the ground suddenly exploded up, the twisting body of the worm described earlier on appearing in the trench it now made. Parts of the building fell into the trench as the foundations were destroyed by the worm’s tunneling. Several ponies jumping out of the windows as the section of the building they were in fell into the trench. It was chaos.
Fluttershy could only think of one thing. What is that thing?