//------------------------------// // First Impressions // Story: We're a long way from home. // by RuaTheGreat //------------------------------// We were at a Mexican standoff. Seeing them for the first time surprised me. They were ponies: real, talking, colourful ponies, that looked vaguely familiar. There were six of them: two pegasi, two unicorns, and two normal. They were all crouched in battle stances, the two unicorns flaring their horns. The one I held in my hand was one of the Pegasi. From the earlier conversation, I managed deduced who I was holding was called ‘Flutters’. But it was obvious that it was only a nickname. As I put more force on the blade, I heard the pony in my grasp let out a tiny ‘eep!’. We stared at each other for what seemed like hours before one of them spoke up. "Let her go now!" ordered the one of the Pegasi. She had a cyan blue coat with both her mane and tail the colours of the rainbow. "Why should I?" I asked, lacing venom into my tone. "Easy, partner! Don't want to be hitting the hornet’s nest with a short stick now, do you?" replied one of the normal ponies, with a threating tone that failed to affect me.This one was an orange pony, wearing a Stenson hat. With her hair in a ponytail of all things! "Why hit a hornet’s nest, when you can shoot it?" I said calmly. I could feel the pony in my grasp shake in fear. "How can you shoot it without a crossbow, silly?" giggled the pink one. I stared at her in confusion before shaking my head. Then the purple one stepped forward. This one had a lavender coloured mane and tail, with a pink highlight running through them. She was clearly the leader of this little group, looking at me right in the eye before speaking. "I am Twilight Sparkle, protégé to Princess Celestia and wielder of the Element of Magic." She glared at me, as if waiting for a reaction. But my face stayed still as a rock. As this little ‘conversation’ went on, I had been slowly pulling all of the Telerium into me. Telerium, the thing that had forever changed my life. To put it simply, Telerium was liquid metal; able to form weapons, speed my healing and do a whole bunch of tricks. I had been slowly gathering it into my body but not yet activating it. As we stared at each other, I noticed the Pegasus who I had nicknamed "Rainbow" look at me with a smirk of amusement. She noticed me looking but that seemed to only increase her amusement. I asked in a confused tone "What’s so funny?" She then flipped onto her back in mid-air as if lying on a bed casually. She looked at her hooves as if searching for imperfections. She bluntly replied "You must be stupid," My eyes just narrowed as she continued. "I mean look at you: you’re injured and look like you don't have the energy or the will to fight!" she pointed out triumphantly. She grinned, looking over at me. But that grin slowly faded as I put on my own. "Are you sure about that?" I questioned. As they stared at me confused, a silvery colour covered any injured areas of my body. I sighed as I felt the pain from the injuries dull to an ache and let the liquid metal melt into me. They gasped in shock as they saw my body, completely healed. One of the unicorns spoke, this time a light grey almost white unicorn with a styled purple mane spoke. "What sort of beast are you to have such dark magic?" She asked in a scared whisper. I chuckled and replied with a sarcastic dark tone "The kind that will haunt your nightmares…”. I didn’t know at what stage their technology was at, but this was no magic. This was science! Experimental science, maybe, but certainly not magic. They all stared at me in shock, the sarcasm clearing a good AU* over their heads. Twilight Sparkle seemed to regain her composure first and dropped into a battle stance, the glow of her horn returning. "Well then beast, it's time to meet your maker!” She fired some sort of energy beam at me. I watched it approach me as if in slow mo, confused. Then it hit like a jolt of lightning. Pain shot through my body for the second time this a day. It seemed to reach from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. I fell to the ground as my body convulsed, before my senses faded into the darkness. Shortly after the creature fell unconscious, They all stared wide eyed at Twilight. Their gaze switched over to Fluttershy, who was still shaking in absolute terror. They ran over to her embracing her in a hug. "Are you alright there, sugar cube?" asked Applejack. "That brute didn't possess you did he?" questioned Rarity, horrified. Their only response was a small squeak as she tried to curl up and become as small as possible. "Yep that's our ‘shy!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie, be quiet! Flutters has just been through a traumatising event, and she's the least qualified for them! No offence…" rebuked Rainbow Dash. "Sorry Fluttershy, I didn't mean to upset you." apologised Pinkie. Meanwhile Twilight was in deep thought. She stared at the creature, worried to scan in case she became corrupted. It seemed to be intelligent and have some form of dark magic; healing that quickly was just too difficult without exerting more energy than a non-magical being can provide. This creature didn't even break a sweat! However, how could it even perform magic if it didn't have a horn? And if it had dark magic, how was it so easily defeated by a basic offensive spell?! Furthermore, why did it seem to have no magical signature?!? She had so many questions, and yet, no answers. She always got frustrated when she has no answers… Then she had an idea, which now that she thought about it, was rather obvious. Turning to her friends she cleared her throat to grab their attention. They broke the hug. "Girls, we need to take this thing to the Princess." she replied, getting straight to the point. "But whatever for, darling?" asked Rarity rather confused. "Well it seems to have powerful magic yet it has no horn!" Twilight exclaimed, clearly frustrated. The 5 ponies (and 1 unconscious human) didn’t seem to understand. Twilight continued "And there is only one creature that has that much powerful magic, but no horn." They all looked at each other with looks of realisation, which shifted into horror. Only one being existed like that, and he nearly overthrown Celestia herself. They all simultaneously replied. "Discord.” *AU: Astronomical Unit. That is the average distance between Earth and the Sun. In other words, 149 597 871 Kilometers.