Lyra chased after the disk with all the speed she could muster. Lights in Ponyville were starting to turn back on, and ponies’ heads were poking out of windows to see what all the commotion was about. The sight that greeted them was entirely bizarre.
A large silver-y disk careened towards the center of their town, a strange blueish glow coming from certain spots along its edges. As she ran, Lyra tried to spy Discord in the sky. There was going to be plenty of chaos, she was sure, so she might’ve thought that he would keep hanging around to observe. He was nowhere to be found, though, and she had to admit that it was suspicious.
Maybe she should’ve thought about her decision a little more.
It was too late to reconsider, so she tried to just think about the positives, and about the current situation. The disk looked like it was going to land close to the town hall, if not collide directly with it. The building had taken some punishment in the past, but Lyra didn’t know how well it was going to handle the impact.
The disk slammed into the ground, and it seemed to become bigger. Next to the building, it became obvious just how large it was. In circumference, it was a little larger than the town hall, and it didn’t react to hitting the ground in the way she had expected.
Instead of digging into the earth as she had anticipated, or crumpling and breaking like she dreaded, it simply hit the dirt and continued on its path, scraping a path and tearing up the carefully landscaped ground for at least thirty feet before finally coming to a stop. The sound it made while it did so was a heavy rumbling, and Lyra felt the dirt path shake under her hooves. She could only guess how heavy the thing was.
She could now see that there were holes in it, though, and that where the interior hadn’t been covered in dirt or what looked almost like ash, it was clean, almost sterile. Bonbon would probably love it in there, if it hadn’t just been conjured by Discord.
She was also struck by how much taller it seemed in there. It was an odd feature, but it looked like it was simply build for taller creatures. She reminded herself how tall humans were supposed to be. Even then, it seemed a little excessive…
Voices from behind her reminded Lyra that she wasn’t the only pony that was observing this. A pair of yellow Pegasus ponies that she recognized from Pinkie’s parties trotted up beside her, and looked on at the wreck for a few moments before one looked at Lyra and spoke.
“You’re Lyra, right? I think I’ve seen you around. What is that thing?”
Lyra glanced at them for a second, then looked back to the crash, not wanting to miss anything.
“I have no idea.”
That was the truth. She hadn’t agreed to this, she’d agreed to a human. The two ponies turned back to it, and more started to arrive. It wasn’t more than half a minute before the majority of Ponyville was standing in a loose circle, none wanting to get too close. Lyra spied Bonbon on the other side of the circle, and noticed that she was giving Lyra a suspicious look. She shrugged as best she could, but Bonbon didn’t look like she believed that her roommate wasn’t involved somehow.
The crowd near Lyra started to part, and she felt ponies push against her as they made way. She looked back at what was making them do this, and saw the tips of telltale purple wings slightly above the other heads.
Lyra shuffled awkwardly to the side, then snapped her head back towards the crash. She could hear sounds coming from inside, and it was hard to describe exactly what they reminded her of.
It sounded almost like hissing, like a snake might make if you got too close to its den. She took a few small involuntary steps back, her skin starting to crawl. She hated snakes.
Her thoughts of snakes disappeared, though, when her eyes caught movement. Time almost seemed to slow down as the first sign of life stepped out from the disk.
Lyra’s heart almost stopped as she recognized the general shape of the thing. It was tall, stood on two legs, had two long arms at its side, and had a short black mane on the top of its head.
It wore clothes over most of its body, dark blue and sharp. It looked like the kind of thing Rarity might design for humans, and hardly left any of the body uncovered. The only skin that Lyra could see was on its head, and its hands. Lyra’s eyes widened as she realized just what she was looking at. Five fingers, just like the few diagrams she’d seen.
In one of the human’s hands, there was an oddly shaped device that seemed to glow with green energy. It didn’t look like any kind of magic she’d ever seen, but maybe that was some special kind of human magic. They didn’t have horns, so maybe they had invented some other way to magic power.
The way the human’s fingers wrapped around the sleek metal object was extremely interesting to Lyra. It seemed to fit just right, in a way that would give the human excellent control of the device. That device, whatever it was, seemed like it was definitely important somehow. To Lyra, it looked like some kind of tube, with a handle sticking out near one end, and that opened up with some kind of nozzle at the other. There were a few blocky looking pieces, but she was too far away to see much more detail.
The crowd of ponies looked on, stunned, and the human looked back over the rims of round, tinted spectacles. At first it seemed like it was sizing them up, gauging their numbers, before it turned and looked back inside of the crash.
Two more humans emerged, and Lyra had to blink a few times to make sure she wasn’t just seeing things. The new two looked identical to the first, even down to the color of their skin and mane. That was a little strange, but so what? Lots of ponies looked the same too, and maybe they just looked so similar because she didn’t know much about their unique features yet.
She wanted to step forward and ask them if they were alright, but the crowd made her too nervous to do it. Princess Twilight was here, so talking to the humans would probably fall to her first.
The other two looked around in the same way the first had, then the three started to walk away from the wreck slowly.
They carried themselves with a bizarre kind of grace, more balanced than any two-legged creature that she’d ever seen. Even diamond dogs dropped down on all fours at times.
Lyra glanced to the side at Twilight, and saw her mouth hanging open like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her friends were standing close by her, and Lyra saw Applejack nudge the Princess gently with her hoof before whispering something in her ear.
Twilight shook her head and nodded, then started to step forward slowly, speaking loud enough for everypony to hear, and doing her best to pull a smile that didn’t look horribly uncomfortable. It didn’t work.
“Hello! Welcome to Ponyville! Do you…” her voice trailed off as she leaned to the side, shrinking back slightly as she looked at the wreckage behind them. “Do you need any help? Are you hurt?”
The three humans glanced down at her for a few seconds as she talked, then turned their attention back to their surroundings. They seemed to be looking past the ponies now, paying attention to the town around them.
Twilight took a few more steps towards them, almost close enough that the humans could touch her if they wanted. She kept trying to speak to them, now with even less confidence than the small amount that she’d had before.
“Uh… Alright, is there anything we can help you with? Maybe you would rather talk to someone else? The town mayor is here, and Princess Luna or Princess Celestia could be here in just a few minutes. No?”
They failed to respond again, now completely ignoring her. Lyra watched in confusion as they seemed to conclude their searching, and make a few barely audible hissing sounds at each other. She’d never imagined that humans would be quite so… standoffish.
Princess Twilight then proceeded to ask the question that mostly everypony was thinking.
“Can you even understand what I’m saying?”
They continued to ignore her. Whispering was starting to break out among the ponies as they asked each other questions and remarked on the strange appearance of the things. They looked intelligent, wore clothes, and judging by the devices they carried, used tools. So why couldn’t they speak?
Twilight looked over her shoulder at her friends, an utterly hopeless expression on her face. Rarity was the first to trot forward, smiling confidently.
“Oh my, darlings! Those suits are absolutely fabulous! Where ever did you get them? Is that a common style for you, or is tonight just a special occasion?”
The humans still didn’t react in the slightest, and Applejack called out from her spot in the crowd with a sarcastic tone.
“You know Rarity, I don’t think talking is really working. Maybe someone else might have better luck with ‘em.”
As she said this she looked at Fluttershy, nodding her head in the direction of the strange creatures. The yellow Pegasus shrank back, almost sinking to the ground as though being threatened with a hot poker.
“Oh, I don’t think I could. I mean, they look like they don’t want to be bothered. And they’re awfully scary, and tall, and…”
Her voice trailed off as she buried her face between her hooves, trying to hide from the eyes of the town, most of which were now on her. Applejack nudged her forward slightly, and gave her what encouragement she could.
“Come on Sugar Cube, this is your specialty! If anyone can talk to these folks, you can!”
Fluttershy didn’t seem too keen on the idea, but Rainbow Dash, Pinky Pie, and Applejack all started to try and convince her that she could. They were too quiet for Lyra to hear through the crowd, but after a few moments, Fluttershy walked away from the group timidly. She hid her face behind her mane, and when she got to Twilight’s side, she spoke almost too softly to be heard across the distance between her and Lyra.
“H-H-Hello? Um, I’m sorry to bother you, but we were just wondering if you… needed anything. It would be really helpful if you could tell us… if that’s okay with you.”
In what was now seeming to be the standard human response to attempts at communication, they did not respond. Fluttershy tried to make a few more attempts, but Lyra was paying attention to something else now. Twilight was biting her lip nervously, and looking around at the ponies gathered around, like she was trying to find someone else who could help.
Lyra felt the urge to step forward again. She didn’t really know much about humans, but there had to be some way they could learn to talk.
More noise from inside the crash attracted everyone’s attention, even the humans’, who quickly rushed away from their audience, moving with surprising speed. Lyra watched, amazed, and even a little entranced by how fluid their movements were.
Before they could reenter their disk, another few creatures emerged from the same hole they had come from, and Lyra was immediately confused again. They were short things by comparison to the humans, but looked like they were close to the height of a pony, with mostly grey bodies, and bulbous heads that turned an odd shade of red at the top. Their eyes were large and a solid crimson color, with no trace of pupil or iris.
They had tools similar to the devices the humans carried, but wore them on their wiry thin wrists.
The longer Lyra stared at them, the stranger they seemed. They hunched over and walked using their hands, like monkeys, and Lyra couldn’t see any mouths anywhere. They didn’t have any noses either, like the humans did, and although she didn’t want to judge whatever they were prematurely, they did look rather threatening.
They’d taken only a few skittering steps away from the crash when something else started to emerge.
Lyra felt her heart beat faster as her eyes were pulled towards the thing. There was something supernatural about it, some kind of magic that she didn’t recognize. As its form became more visible, her vision started to swim.
Ponies started to run, those who were near the fringes of the crowd didn’t seem to be too affected by the thing, and it entered fully into the fading light of sundown.
It was tall. At least a head taller than the humans, and seemed to be hidden entirely inside of a deep red robe. At the top of the robe, the fabric stopped, and what looked almost like a hood made of metal began. It covered the thing’s whole head, leaving no skin visible, but there was a small hole towards the front. It was impossible to see anything through the hole, but a strange kind of pressure was definitely coming from it.
The thing moved like it was gliding across the ground, robes dragging just slightly on the dirt. Its hood turned as it seemed to look over the crowd, and as the hole passed over her, her body froze up. She couldn’t do anything but focus on the solid blackness of that hole, like her eyes were trying their hardest to spy its face.
The head continued to move, and the second that had seemed to stretch into minutes, passed. It was still difficult to look away, but she managed to pull her eyes to Twilight. The Princess seemed just as stunned as the rest of the ponies, wings folded close to her body and eyes still locked on the tall thing.
Lyra felt sure that it would be able to understand them if they tried to talk, but she didn’t know if it was really a good idea to try. This one was threatening, without a doubt, and she was sure that it could hurt her.
She wanted to talk to the humans, but she couldn’t bring herself to try. Not with that thing around.
A loud noise came from inside the crash, and all of the strange creatures reacted, looking back and starting to move away, towards the crowd.
Emily opened her eyes, feeling a pounding pain in her head. At first her vision was blurred, and she couldn’t hear anything, but her senses gradually returned.
She tried to remember what had happened. The elerium generator had started to pulse, there was a flash of light, and…
There was nothing after that. Now she was here, wherever here was.
She heard something nearby, and felt fear suddenly stab into her mind. There was something else in the room, and they sounded an awful lot like an alien.
Her vision was starting to become full again, and she could make out the sleek walls of the ship that they’d been on before. Something close by and heavy thudded to the floor, and she heard movement again. It wasn’t a human, the footfalls were too rapid for that, but it wasn’t what her thoughts immediately jumped to either. If she could have, she would have shivered. Chryssalids would be a nightmare with her down on the ground like this.
The sounds of footsteps faded slowly, and she thought that she was alone again. The muscles in her jaw tightened up as she took stock of her body. Her muscles hurt, and she could feel a sharp pain in her leg, but she was pretty sure that everything was still attached.
Something else moved in the room, making little more noise than a light rustle, but that faded away as well. Emily strained her ears, trying to detect anything else in the room before she tried to get up.
There were a few tense breaths as she listened, then brought her head off the ground. The pain in her head intensified, but she saw that she was, in fact, alone now. She looked around her, and saw that her five teammates were all strewn about the small room, limp.
She started to get to her feet, first working her hands under her body, then pushing herself up. The powered armor made it much easier to do so.
Her alloy cannon was a few feet away on the ground, looking a little dented, but still perfectly functional. She took it eagerly, and stood up. The first thing she needed to do was make sure the area was safe. Checking if her team was dead wouldn’t be much help if she got shot in the back while doing it.
She made sure her gun was still loaded, then started to walk towards the way that they’d come in. It was the direction that the sounds had gone, and her best chance of at least finding out where the aliens had gone.
Her leg still throbbed, but she could feel her body knitting itself back together as she walked. If she didn’t have powered armor, she would’ve had to stop and rest.
Her grip on the cannon tightened, and she tried to slow her breathing. She had to be ready to blow anything away as soon as she saw it. She moved from cover to cover, ducking behind walls and railings where she could, then came into the main room of the craft.
Her heart almost stopped as the back of an Ethereal came into view. She stopped dead in her tracks, and took a step to the side, ducking behind the closest thing she could find, a control panel. There were no doubt other aliens nearby if this one was here, but she couldn’t give them any attention. Not until the Ethereal was dead.
She poked her head up, and the alloy cannon followed close behind. The target was only about three meters away, easily within range. Still, she was injured. Holding her gun straight wasn’t the simplest thing in the world.
She let the breath in her chest slowly leak out as she aimed, then fired a crackling wave of plasma and alloy into the alien’s back.
A purplish glow emanated briefly from the points where her shots should’ve connected, then dissipated as the power of the attack was dispersed. Of course the Ethereal wasn’t going to allow itself to be damaged so easily. Emily’s teeth ground together in frustration, and she fired again before it could react.
A similar effect occurred, but this time the Ethereal started to move. For a moment she feared that it was turning around, but instead it started to flee. A smile crossed her face. Good, maybe it was afraid.
She leapt over the controls, forgetting about her injuries in the heat of the moment, and ignoring the shot of pain that went up her leg. The Ethereal continued to flee, gaining speed as it did so, but Emily was determined to catch it.
It exited the craft, and she was hot on its heels, but her instincts told her that charging out there blindly was a very bad idea. She stopped just short of the hole, and peaked out.
Emily stared for about ten whole seconds at what was outside of the ship, unable to process what exactly it was.
If she’d had to have called them anything, it would be horses. Many multi-colored, terrified, very small horses. The thin men and sectoids fired a few shots into the mass of horses to clear a path, not taking the time to aim, and Emily watched as a few of the shots connected, sending the horses sprawling.
Other horses hurried to their sides to help, and seemed to even communicate to one another.
The aliens continued to flee, but Emily had almost completely forgotten about them now. It had been a long time since anything out in the field had made her panic, but this… detachment from reality she’d seemed to take was more than enough to push her over the edge.
She turned, and started to walk back towards the interior of the ship, trying very hard not to break down completely. She remembered the rigorous training she’d gone through, and how many life-or-death situations she had managed to pull herself and her people through.
And now it seemed that she’d finally snapped.
She could still hear the panic, and what almost sounded like human screaming, but she told herself it wasn’t real. Her head turned, and there was some vague hope in her mind that the horses, the little town, all of it would be gone.
It wasn’t. Most of the horses were running around, but there was one in particular that caught her attention, and even though she was trying very hard not to let her gaze linger, she couldn’t help but take note. It was one that, judging by the horn coming out of its head, was a unicorn. Of course it was a unicorn. It was a light green color, with a white strike through its long hair. What was that called? A mane?
It was standing still, staring at her. Its eyes were large, and they almost seemed to communicate something. Was that concern she saw?
She shook her head hard, and put a hand to her temple as the pounding pain returned.
“It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real…”
She repeated the phrase over and over to herself as she continued back inside the alien craft, sincerely hoping that they would still be there. If she couldn’t see them, she didn’t know what she would do. She still had her gun, but she didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
The pain in her leg started to get worse as she took more steps, and a limp started to form. Her body could heal quickly, but a bone fracture, as she thought it felt like, was going to take a while to heal completely. Maybe two days at most.
She tried to focus on that pain, even shifting her weight to make the leg hurt more. Maybe it was a bit insane, but it was the only thing that she was sure was entirely real.
When she finally got to where her fallen comrades were, she set about checking them over.
Louis was alive, not injured beyond a few nasty bruises, but also not conscious or responsive. She couldn’t find any sign of a serious head injury, but every time she tried to wake him up, nothing happened.
Kato was next. He was breathing, and when Emily went to feel his pulse, his eyes opened groggily and he tried to sit up. She let him, figuring that he was the best one to check the others over anyways. He had more medical training.
He looked at her with a confused expression, and started rubbing his head.
“What happened? I can’t remember.” He blinked several times, similar to how she had done, then looked her up and down.
His expression shifted quickly to a much more serious one, and he got to his feet. Emily watched silently as he stepped closer to her, then raised an eyebrow.
“What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. You aren’t hurt, are you?”
Emily swallowed hard and shook her head. “No, no, no, I’m fine. Just… just make sure they’re alright first, okay? I’ll tell you about it then.”
He gave her a look that was hard to place, then nodded. As he turned back to examine Zoe, Emily put her back against the wall and slid down to a sitting position, putting her face in her hands.
What was she supposed to do? The situation was so bizarre. What could she do?
Her finger drifted to the side of her head, and she pressed down on her earpiece, praying that it still worked. The small sound of static filled her ear, and she tried speaking tentatively.
“Command? Come in, Command! Command, respond!”
Her voice grew more agitated the longer she didn’t get a response, but she didn’t stop trying. After minutes effort, she still didn’t receive any word back.
She only gave up when a hand touched her shoulder, making her jump. She looked to her side and found Kato giving her a concerned look again. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to. Emily realized that she was starting to hyperventilate, and tried to slow her breathing down, letting her hand fall from her head.
“I’m sorry. I just…” How could she say that she was going insane? If she did, that give it a kind of permanence that she was desperately trying to avoid. One idea did occur to her, though, and she started to push herself back to her feet. “Are they going to live?” She nodded her head in the direction of the others.
Kato nodded. “I did what I could, but they won’t wake for hours, and I do not believe they will be ready for combat again for several days. Now, please, you are panicking. Tell me what happened.”
Emily shook her head. She couldn’t say it, but she could see if he saw the same thing. That would make a difference, right? If it was just her, then she was hallucinating, and needed to just do what Kato said. If he saw it too, then… well, then that would change things.
“Come with me. If you see what I see, then I’ll know I’m not crazy.”
That was all the explanation that her understandably distracted mind could muster, and started to walk back towards the exit. She still put more weight on her leg than was necessary, only now it wasn’t just to keep her mind grounded, but also to hide her limp. Kato was going to have more than enough to worry about soon, either with her insanity or being surrounded by unicorns.
Kato didn’t speak as he followed her. He must have understood the gravity of the situation. He knew that Emily was normally levelheaded, and that if something had been able to disturb her this much, it was to be taken seriously.
As they got close to the exit, Emily looked towards the ground, not wanting to risk seeing it again before she knew if it was real or not. It had seemed real.
When she got to it, she put her back against the wall next to the hole and gestured out, saying, “What is out there? I don’t see Russia anymore.”
She watched his face carefully, and as soon as he caught a glimpse of what lay beyond the ship, his eyes widened and fingers tightened around his plasma rifle. It didn’t seem like he was going to shoot anything, but he was definitely not expecting what he saw.
Emily rose an eyebrow and, while still being careful not to look out, turned to face Kato.
“What is it? That’s not Russia, right? That’s not the forest we were in before, right?”
He slowly shook his head, and took a small step backwards.
“No. I think I see what made you panic.” There was a short moment of silence as his eyes darted around, before he finally said the words that Emily had been waiting for. “There are… ponies, I think. Many of them, and they stare at me.
Emily breathed a sigh of relief, although she didn’t know if it was truly a good thing or not. She felt well enough to look out now, at least.
The circle of horses seemed much thinner now than it had been, she would guess about fifteen or twenty, and the mint green unicorn was still present. It stared up at them with the same big eyes that it’d had before, and Emily couldn’t help but be reminded of a baby.
“So…” her voice trailed off, and she took a few more seconds to take in the scene before continuing. “What the fuck are we supposed to do now? We can’t contact Command, only two of us are ready for any kind of confrontation, and we’re surrounded by neon horses.”
It would’ve been funny, if she weren’t living it.
Kato nodded slowly, then spoke again. “They look smart. They have houses and roads. I suppose it isn’t impossible that they’re sentient. Are they with the aliens?”
“No, I don’t think so. The thin men blasted a few on their way out, so it doesn’t seem likely.” She shook her head as she spoke, and noticed a few of the animals doing what looked like talking, making noises to each other and gesturing with their hooves.
Kato turned to her and raised an eyebrow. “Thin men? So the aliens on the ship survived?”
Emily nodded. “Yeah, the thin men, the sectoids, and the Ethereal. I tried to take the Ethereal out before it got away, but…” She gestured out to the town. “…I was a little distracted.”
Kato looked at her, an eyebrow raised. “An Ethereal got into this? Well, I congratulate you on being scary enough to make it flee, but its presence cannot be good. I can only imagine what kind of mayhem it might cause. Should we go after it?”
“Maybe, but not just the two of us. We can’t just leave the others behind in their condition. Besides, just the two of us would get wiped out real fast. We don’t even know where they went.” She looked back at the horses. “Maybe they do, though. Unfortunately I sort of doubt they speak English.”
Kato smiled and said, “No, I doubt they do. Still, though, maybe something could be worked out. Most of them look frightened of us. Did you shoot at them?”
“No. When I got to the hole, I had a little more on my mind.” She looked over the crowd, and stopped when she found the one that had been staring before. “See that one? Something’s off about it, I think. It doesn’t really look afraid, does it? At least, not as much as the others.”
As she pointed, the pony seemed to realize that it was the one being indicated, and its eyes widened. One of the ponies next to it, with a cream colored body and a dark blue and pink mane, started to “talk” to it, with an expression eerily similar to a human’s.
Kato watched intently, then asked, “Do you think there is a way to communicate? I mean, the aliens never seemed to show any ability to speak with us.”
“I don’t think the aliens ever had an interest in talking with us. And something tells me we’re the aliens now, so I say we try to be a little more peaceful than our aliens. What do you think?”
Kato sighed. “I don’t think that green one is in charge. It seems to me we should try to communicate with their leader. That purple one there, with the wings and the horn, I think that is the leader.”
He pointed, and Emily followed his finger until she saw it. The thing was certainly different than the others, slightly taller, and with both horns and wings as Kato had said. She hadn’t noticed that combination of features on any others, but that didn’t seem to be why he had singled it out.
The reason it was singled out was probably because it was approaching nervously. Five others followed closely behind, and none of them seemed particularly remarkable.
The purple one stopped about fifteen meters away, and started to make a series of unintelligible noises. It sounded vaguely human, but there were no understandable words.
Emily looked at the pony for a few moments before shifting her gaze over to Kato and asking, “Well, you got any ideas?”