//------------------------------// // Recon // Story: The Last One Standing... // by Promethean 27-B //------------------------------// 27 moved quietly back to her crashed ship, her active camouflage back online after the creature's defeat. She maneuvered through the foliage of the forest, still trying to make as little noise as possible. 27 could have just flown over the forest, but 27 knew nothing about this world or its abilities. For all she knew, that weapon that the six ponies used could be just the beginning. 27 could not risk it. ‘What was that anyway?’ 27 thought, referencing the objects that the ponies used ‘I have never seen a weapon like that before… the capability to turn any object to stone and neutralize radiation in the process…’ 27 mentally reviewed the attack over and over again, trying to make sense of it. The energy the weapon produced was impressive; to the point it stumped her. She has seen many things in the Universe, many strange, wonderful, and horrifying things, and this weapon is like nothing she has seen and may surpassed some weapon the Forerunners have created. 27 pushed a branch to the side slowly as to not generate noise, jumped over a bush, and made it to the clearing. She spotted the hole that lead down to the now completely covered ship and began to walk to it. In her absence, some of the dirt was blown back onto the hatch, she ignored it and grabbed the hatch lever and slammed it down. Oxygen shot out of the seams of the hatch as it depressurized and 27 moved inside. She landed on the deck of the large fighter with an audible, clunk, and she looked around the ship. Still in the same state of disrepair as before, 27 walked over to a nearby terminal and pressed a button, the terminal however didn’t respond. 27 sighed, this is what she expected, but she thought to give it a try anyway. 27 turned around to access the other end of the ship and opened a wall mounted panel. 27 ripped the secured panel off its hinges and let it unceremoniously fall to the ground. 27 looked inside to be met with a multitude of damaged components. Many of the systems were warped or even missing, from the slipspace rupture, no doubt, but that is not what 27 is searching for. 27 reached in and pulled out the wires with a powerful tug. She placed the wires and components on the ground in front of her and began the long, painstaking job of stripping the ship’s components of valuable metals. Everything from platinum and gold to nickel and copper had to go. 27 needed to be prepared if this society had some form of currency. 27 had a plan, in order to survive in an unknown environment, one must adept. Her teleportation matrix disassembles her down to the atom, relocates the atoms at the speed of light, and then reassembles her in her new location. Theoretically, she could reprogram the matrix to reassemble herself into new forms, but it is limited, and the mass of the object she turns into must be equal to her, and the object can’t be fully organic. The last time a person was turned into a machine and tried to turn back into full organic turned into an abomination. 27 decided that she needed to reprogram her matrix so she could turn into one of these ponies, but that brought up questions. Ponies were native to the Human home world of Earth, how are they here, and sentient? How could she understand them? Could they help her get home? 27 stopped all her possessing power and activities to ponder that one question: Could they help her get home? Was her home world the same, even after the Halo Affect? Would they accept her? Would they try and kill her? Dose she even want to go home? ‘No…’ 27 thought, and continued to strip the ship of anything valuable, ‘I am a promethean now, I have no home besides the front lines…’ but in that case, what is the appropriate action? Try and contact the Domain? Or stay here? 27 shook her head. ‘One thing at a time…’ she thought. Once 27 finished stripping the ship of any and all valuables, she gathered them up and stuffed them into one of her armor compartments built into her. She then climbed out of the ship and slammed the hatch down, closing it off to the outside world. 27 looked around at the foliage again, peering at it and her motion tracker for movement. It was clear. 27 cloaked herself once again, and moved to the town called ‘Ponyville’. XXX the Next Day XXX 12:58 PM Standing at the edge of the small village all day and night, 27 scanned it from a secure position, her active camouflage making it nearly impossible for the population to see her. Her systems had scanned the town, and that mystery radiation was gone for good. Utilizing her 10x magnification, she watched these Ponies going about their day, going to work, or just walking with friends. 27 noted all interactions between each other and what was deemed appropriate in this culture. But she needed to get closer. True, the data she was gathering thus far was helpful to her cause, but she needed to not only see, but hear and feel their culture in order to avoid confrontation. Assuming she can pull off her transformation… But if she just walked among in her camouflage, she would inevitably be spotted by the shimmer of the light bending tech. 27 scanned the roofs of the many homes that dotted the street, hoping that they were strong enough to hold her. Her analysis concluded that they were, but just barely, and to further complicate it, the hay on the roofs would give her away. ‘What good is recon if I can’t properly observe them?’ 27 thought. But, luckily for her, all the ponies seemed to be gathering in or around the town hall, causing some of the streets to be nearly disserted. 27 decided to teleport to one of these streets. 27 rematerialized behind one of the many houses, still camouflaged. 27 moved between the houses like a snake among the grass, trying to avoid the crowds of ponies. It wasn’t long before 27 was stopped by a group of three ponies that stumbled across her path. These ponies were oblivious to 27’s presence as they talked. “Come on, Doc! We’re going to be late!” a female pony urged (or is it mare in this case?). This mare had a gray coat and yellow eyes, the mark on her flanks seemed to be a sort of bubbles. The stallion she was urging had a brown coat and an hourglass on his flank. “Now Derpy, there is no need to rush!” he said, and pointed to a nearby clock tower, “We still have ten minutes before the party starts!” “Which reminds me…” the other mare started, “I need to go to the library after this, so do any of you know when the party ends?” this mare had a mint colored coat and main, a harp on her flanks. “It ends at 7:30, Lyra” Derpy replied. ‘A party where the whole town is invited and a library, this is good’ 27 thought to herself, and looked around, trying to locate the library. “Okay, now can we go?” Derpy asked. The Doctor sighed. “Yes, we can…” he replied. The small group then moved off to the party and out of 27’s way. As soon as they were out of sight, 27 allowed herself to smile. Her luck may be turning for the better. 27 followed the street, looking for any signs to represent or direct her to the library. During this time, 27 increased her Motion Tracker and sensor range to 75m, if anyone was coming, she wanted to know about it. It wasn’t long before she spotted a sign post in the middle of a six way interception. She engaged her 2x zoom to read in without stepping out of cover. > Sugarcube Corner > < Golden Oak Library < ^ Town Hall ^ < School House < ^ Hospital ^ ‘Golden Oak Library, that’s it…’ 27 thought, looked around, and moved on as she was sure no one was watching. As soon as she crossed, 27 stuck close to the houses on her right and off the road so she could sneak into a space between the houses easily without being detected. She didn’t need to do this often, and as time passed, the sounds of a party reverberated throughout the town. 27 continued to follow the signs down the road to the near edge of town, there, she found the Library. The Golden Oak Library was built into a large oak tree. 27 had scanned the structure to find it was indeed a real tree, and that the tree was still alive. It seemed to be a two story building, with windows on both levels and a red door dominated the front. Upon the second floor was a porch or some form of landing pad for the winged variant of ponies. 27 was both shocked and impressed. The only other race that could possibly achieve this that she knew of was Forerunner Life Workers. The fact that Ponies could pull this off spoke volumes about them. 27 walked across the road moved up to the window to look inside. Bookshelves that had been grown into the wall were filled to the brim with books ranging from cooking to dictionaries, and history to science fiction. In the center go the room was a table with some sort of statue on it. To the right, stairs were grown into the wall and led up to the second floor, closed off by a door. 27 scanned the interior to find nothing alive or moving inside. The Librarian must have the day off or is at the party, either way; the library is closed, leaving her free to do some research in the library until 7:30, so 27 teleported into the library so she didn’t need to mess with the door and raise suspicion. Confident no one will come in and disturb her, she deactivated her active camouflage. 27 stretched her wings out and leaned forward a little to get her wings to respond. She was just itching to fly, but she kept her urges in check and folded up her wings again. Currently 1:09, 27 looked to the shelves of books she sighed. Time to get to work… XXX 27 had learned much in the past six hours. She had learned that there were not three phenotypes of ponies, but four, being the Alicorn, followed by the Earth Pony, Unicorn, and Pegasus. The Earth Pony was the most basic. From what 27 learned, they are mostly farmers and business owners. They also had a strong connection to the plants, allowing the farmers of this group to grow more plentiful crop quickly with low maintenance and also held the most physical strength of the three common phenotype. 27 found this interesting; this manipulation of the plants and the earth reminded her of the Life Workers when they constructed the habitation portion of Shield Worlds and Halos. No small task, yet these ponies use it every day as if manipulating nature to your will was normal. Next was the Pegasus. These were the ponies with wings, built to rule the skies. From what she could understand, the Pegasus phenotype is capable to manipulate the weather and even start and stop them upon demand. Again, another Forerunner trait; on Halo installations, if the flood were to escape, Halo’s multiple structures would conjure up severe storms to kill or at least slow the flood’s progress. And once again, 27 was impressed at these ponies. They also manipulate clouds as if a solid, 27 might want to look into that… Last of the three most common phenotypes was the Unicorn. A ‘Magic using’ phenotype of pony. Equipped with a horn, these ponies possessed supernatural abilities such a telekinesis, teleportation, and illumination ‘spells’ and those were simple ‘spells’. 27 doubted that magic existed, but that didn’t mean she would throw the possibility out of the window, but still, she wanted to see this ‘magic’ first hand. But that didn’t mean she doubted they could do these abilities, 27 herself could do telekinesis, but that ability revolved around the laws of magnetism and it also drained her power the most quickly of all her functions. The last, but not least of these phenotypes, was the Alicorn, the most rare but most powerful of all the phenotypes. The Alicorn had the horn and magic of a Unicorn, wings and abilities of a Pegasus, and the physical strength of an Earth Pony. From what 27 could tell, there are two currently ruling the nation she found herself in: Equestria. Celestia and Luna are the rulers who represent this planet’s Sun and Moon respectively. 27 had also memorized, cataloged, and stored all the knowledge of pony antinomy on all four phenotypes, and can transform into any phenotype she wished. But now for the current question: Which phenotype to choose? 27 automatically ruled out Alicorn, with how few they are, the ponies would go haywire to find another to the point they would blow a circuit. That left Earth Pony, Pegasus, and Unicorn. 27 also ruled out the Earth Pony. The Earth Pony could very well come in handy when it came down to hand to hand combat… or, is it hoof to hoof? But still, 27 wanted to use her abilities of Active Camouflage, Teleportation, Sentry Gun, and personal shields, which would be deemed as ‘magic’ in this world, and Earth Ponies and Pegasi can’t do magic, so they were gone too. That left one Phenotype left… The Unicorn Phenotype is possibly the best choice for 27. It provides the cover she requires to divert attention from her, and she will be able to use her abilities without consequence or question. 27 smiled, uploaded the necessary schematics and data to her teleportation matrix, and closed the book she was holding. 27 picked up the books she read and set them back up on the shelf exactly the way she found them. Satisfied she had set up the Library the way it was before her arrival, and turned to teleport out when… CLICK The sound of the front door unlocked stopped her. 27 nearly panicked and activated her Active Camouflage, and she faded into the shadows like smoke. The door opened to revile a lavender Unicorn, the same lavender Unicorn that faced down that unidentified creature from the day before with her friends. 27 checked her mission clock: 19:08 hours. ‘This unicorn is a whole 22 minutes early… Damnit! Why didn’t plan for this!’ 27 scolded herself for being so incompetent in her planning. 27 stood in the darkest corner of the room, not moving a single muscle strand or servo. The lavender unicorn opened her maw and yawned loudly. “Come on, Twilight… You need to go to bed” a male voice stated. From behind ‘Twilight’ came a small reptilian creature. He was about half the size of twilight with purple scales and green spines. This reptilian stood on his hind legs like a human would. 27 scanned him, and what she found nearly made her blow her cover. This reptile is a Dragon! Sure there were some differences in their DNA from his species and hers, but it was nearly a 72% match! Twilight stumbled up to a bookshelf and looked for a book. “I’m fine spike… I’ll sleep in a little bit” she responded. The dragon sighed and moved out of the way of the door to Twilight. ‘Now is my chance sneak out!’ 27 thought, and moved for the door quietly. Avoiding any and all contact with objects, 27 was halfway out the door when Spike exclaimed: “Whoops! Nearly forgot the door!” and the next thing 27 knew, the little dragon slammed the door on her tail. 27’s shields flared up in response to the sudden hit, sending sparks flying and giving her position away. ‘SON OF A-!’ 27 screamed in her head. “What was that!?” Twilight asked. 27 then teleported out of there before Spike and Twilight decided to investigate why the door didn’t close. XXX 27 rematerialized herself at her ship’s clearing, mentally cursing and scolding herself. She should have been faster, now her whole objective of blending in may be more difficult. 27 sighed to calm herself and she disengaged her Active Camouflage. ‘I should have waited for them to fall asleep, then teleport out!’ 27 thought to herself, her claws dug into the ground in frustration. ‘Damnit… now the whole town will be on alert…’ 27 growled to vent mounting frustrations, but she banished these thoughts to the back of her processors to make way for the more positive news. ‘At least I have what I believe to be the minimum amount of information required for infiltration…’ she thought, and ended up reviewing all info she had obtained from the library and the town’s residents, specifically: the Unicorn phenotype. 27 had read many books on pony antimony and even scanned many unicorns to ensure the data was correct and she had all available into to transform. It took 27 two hours to catalog and store the information, create an algorithm for her teleportation matrix, and find a way to keep her systems in check during the process. Now, after two hours and the sun now hugging the horizon, 27 was ready. She only had one shot, and if she failed anything, even the smallest miscalculation, she could probably never turn back, or worse: die. 27 closed her eyes and sighed. ‘Ancestors… watch over me…’ 27 prayed, and teleported. 27’s atoms were scattered by her teleportation matrix, levitating in a field of electromagnetic energy, and moving fast as light, began to reassemble them into the predetermined shape. As soon as they finished .0392 milliseconds latter, they snapped back together into the shape of a Unicorn. As soon as 27 rematerialized she screamed in absolute agony, and collapsed to the ground with a nasty thump. XXX Back in Ponyville, a certain pink mare was walking home after another successful party. Her wacky and out of control main and tail bounced as she hopped rather than walked home, humming a tune that her friend DJ, Vinyl Scratch, played at the celebration of Discords defeat. But then her gut turned upside down, something that the mare stopped to observe. “Uh oh… twitch incoming” Pinkie stated to no one, and began to list the twitches in order to herself… “Left ear, Right ear, stomach, tail, eyes…” upon her mentioning her eyes, the twitching stopped, and a smile stretched from ear to ear. “Oh! Somepony new is going to move here soon! I need to get ready!!!” she exclaimed in excitement, and spun on her hoofs to sprint back to Sugarcube Corner.