Twilight turned back to her friends, hoping they could give her any ideas at all. The only thing she got was worried and wary looks, and a particularly aggressive looking Rainbow Dash. Maybe none of them could really do anything.
They’d never dealt with humans before, though. She’d told them about her experiences in that strange other world, but they didn’t know anything beyond that. And besides, these humans didn’t look like the other ones. They seemed like they were less colorful, and a lot less happy. She could see that they looked hurt, though, and their eyes darted around the crowd cautiously.
But those things in their hands seemed to be weapons of some kind, like the other humans, or at least, human-like things had used on the crowd. They had caused some serious injuries, and the images of ponies being struck by those green bolts of light were still fresh in her mind.
She blinked and gave her head a light shake, trying to rid herself of those thoughts. She was the Princess of friendship, she had to give them a chance.
One of the humans, the darker of the two, a male by the looks of it, turned to face the other one and spoke a few hushed words. Their faces were hard to read, but if she had to assign them an emotion, it would be confused.
“Can you understand what I’m saying? Do you need our help?”
They looked at her, but didn’t comprehend her words. Why couldn’t they understand her? The humans from Canterlot High had no trouble communicating and understanding. Now that she examined them more closely, she did start to see differences. Their eyes were smaller, smaller than a hoof, even. In spite of their small size, they flicked around from pony to pony, a bright spark of intelligence in their eyes.
The humans looked at each other again, and made a few brief noises before turning back to Twilight, one extended a hand towards her. A finger unfurled, then beckoned tentatively.
Her eyes widened as she was surprised to see a gesture she recognized, then a small smile came across her face. That was one way they could communicate, but recalling some of the other gestures she’d seen during her brief stints as a human, most of them required a little more than she had. Fingers, arms, an upright body, all things that would be hard to get.
She blinked, shaking herself out of her thought. The human was still beckoning, and she didn’t want to seem like she was declining the invitation.
She started to walk towards them slowly, watching for any kind of movement on the humans’ part. They seemed like they wanted the same that she did, but she couldn’t be completely sure they were trustworthy.
Sounds of hooves behind her made her turn around, and find her friends following behind her. She bit her lip, not sure what to do. Diplomacy was one of her duties, but after a meeting like this…
“Uh, girls? I think it might be a good idea for you to stay out here. We don’t want to scare them.”
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, and looked over at a scorch mark that had been left from the first group of freaks that had run away.
“Scare them? Yeah Twilight, I’m sure they’re ones who are scared. I say we get them to put those things down first. That seems fair to me.”
Applejack nodded, adding “Them’s the same kind of things those other monsters were using, and they hurt some folks real bad.”
Twilight thought about it for a second before agreeing. They were right, those devices appeared to be weapons. What kind, however, she had no idea. It wasn’t any kind of magic she recognized. It had certainly been able to do damage, though.
“You’re right. Someone go and get Spike, send a letter to Celestia right away! I’ll try to find out what happened, and keep things calm until she gets here. If something goes wrong in there, make sure that the rest of Ponyville is safe first, alright?”
The others nodded, and she turned back to the damaged looking craft. A part of her wanted to ask what its function was, and what it was made of, but it wouldn’t be of much use. She continued approaching, and as she got closer the human motioning to her started to walk backwards, leading her further inside. Her wings tucked closer against her sides, and she got herself ready to cast a teleportation spell, whispering to herself “It’s just a precaution…”
She could feel the eyes of the town on her as she walked closer to the shining metal craft. It seemed to loom over her, and the archway opening yawned out cool air that brushed through her fur and mane, sending a chill down her spine.
Humans were taller than she’d imagined by comparison to ponies. Or, at least, these humans were. She reached only a little higher than their waists, and she was slightly taller than average ponies. Not even Celestia would be quite their height. She didn’t let herself be intimidated though. Lots of things were big, yet gentile as could be. Princess Celestia was big, and she wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Her hooves hit the metal floor, and she was surprised by the interior of the thing. The ceiling was tall, obviously designed for larger creatures, and its walls were void of any embellishment. Dirt and grass littered the floor close to the door, but as she got further in, she saw that the rest was almost spotless.
The exterior of the thing seemed to be the only part that had really suffered any damage, because other than being at a slight tilt from its rather unceremonious landing, everything appeared to be in almost perfect condition. Strange dancing holographic displays cast what looked like some kind of information readout into the air above it, but what it said, she had no idea.
Twilight heard a familiar voice cry from outside, and she jerked around to the door again, looking for the problem.
“Wait! I want to come too!”
Another voice, not quite as loud as the first, cried indignantly “Are you insane?”
The human that still stood by the doorway grabbed its weapon tighter, and Twilight followed its gaze to the source of the disturbance.
Lyra Heartstrings had burst out of the crowd towards them, but once breaking free had slowed down to a nervous trot. She could feel her fur starting to collect sweat, regretting her decision almost immediately. Her roommate, Bonbon, had followed for a few steps, but was already slinking back into the crowd.
Twilight looked back to the human, and then to its weapon. She didn’t know what she would do if Lyra got shot. It would be a mess, that was certain. She considered the problem for a moment before an idea popped into her head. They’d apparently had a simple gesture in common, so maybe the human would be able to understand something a little more complex. She would have to get its attention, though.
She moved fast, perhaps a little faster than she meant to, and tapped the side of the human’s leg with her hoof. It wasn’t a hard impact, but the situation made her hesitant to bring any attention to herself. As soon as her hoof met the leg, it occurred to her that they weren’t wearing normal clothes. It looked like some kind of armor. Were they warriors of some kind?
In any case, the human did look down at her, and she got her first clear look at its face. It was feminine, but with sharp features and intense green eyes. She couldn’t quite decipher what the stony look on its face meant, but that didn’t stop her.
She shifted her focus to the weapon, pointing at it with her horn and nodding towards it, before looking back up to see if the human followed. It stared back, and she took that as confirmation enough. She started shaking her head, speaking her meaning gently as she did so on the off chance it somehow helped.
“Please don’t use that thing…”
By now, Lyra had hurried her pace to the door and stood by the threshold, watching eagerly. Twilight couldn’t suppress the twinge of annoyance that bit at the side of her mind. Lyra was an oddball, but what she had just done was nothing short of reckless.
The woman she’d signaled stared at her blankly for a few more seconds before looking to what Twilight assumed to be her friend, speaking another slurry of quick, sharp noises before the man laughed, and waved a hand dismissively.
The woman looked back down at Twilight, over to Lyra, then sighed. With a slow movement, it moved the weapon up, over its back into what Twilight assumed to be some kind of sheath.
Relief washed over her before she shifted her gaze back over to Lyra, making her annoyance clear. The unicorn blushed slightly, and gave her an awkward wave with her hoof before speaking.
“Can I come too? Please, you really have no idea how much I-“
Twilight cut her off before she could say any more, trying to calm herself down.
“Lyra, I really don’t think…” The look on Lyra’s face reminded Twilight of when Spike begged her for something, and she gave a helpless sigh. “Just don’t… don’t do anything that might leave an impression, alright? I don’t think these are like the other-“ She cut herself short, biting her tongue and instantly turning away. She’d been sure not to mention the humans she had seen to anyone but her closest friends, and Lyra was probably the worst pony to let it slip to.
Lyra looked at her, one eyebrow raised, asking “What was that?”
Twilight looked backwards at her, trying to think of something to say.
“Maybe we should focus on the here and now. You’ve done research on humans, right? Can you tell what’s happening?”
That was something she knew Lyra would talk about. Before she found out about Canterlot High, Twilight had always thought Lyra’s interest had been a little strange, and maybe a bit worrying, but nothing more. Bonbon seemed a little annoyed from time to time, but that was normal between friends. It always smoothed out after a while.
Lyra gave a sigh, and the two started to move again, still following the human that led them.
“I really don’t know. I mean, I’ve been thinking about it, and I don’t think those first things were humans. The ones that shot at ponies, I mean. You saw how they were all weird, right? I’ve only seen a few anatomical drawings, but I know humans shouldn’t be able to move around like that. Their bones are too long, they shouldn’t be able to bend like that. Maybe these humans don’t know what’s going on either.” There was a short pause before she asked, “Do you have some spell that could help with that?”
Twilight thought. The stress was making it very difficult, but she tried to remember a spell from the multitude she had learned. Language spells… there wasn’t much in the way of that, not that she had looked into, anyways. There were a few for getting rid of heavy accents, but that was about the extent of what she knew. And besides, she didn’t know that the humans would be willing to let her cast a spell on them. They were cautious, and if they didn’t know about magic, they might not give her the chance.
“No, I’m afraid not. There are a few spells that might help, but nothing that would let us talk with them perfectly.”
Lyra was silent, and Twilight went back to observing her surroundings. The metal under her hooves was cold, and impressively smooth. Equestrian ships usually made use of wood for their structure, as metal was too heavy and hard to produce. She didn’t recognize what kind of metal it was, though. It didn’t have the right color or shine to be iron, and couldn’t be silver. Was it some kind of alloy? She imagined that whatever it was, the technique to work with such metal was advanced.
The man leading them had dark brown skin, and wore dark black armor. It didn’t seem as thick as the other’s armor, and seemed much more fibrous. Twilight wondered if it had any particular properties, or if it was used to denote some kind of rank or authority.
A doorway to another room of the ship became visible as they turned a corner, and just inside the door she could make out another pair of human boots. She gasped, eyes widened, and her understanding of the situation improved.
The humans being careful would make sense, they were protecting whoever else was with them. It didn’t explain what the other creatures were that had fled, but it was better than nothing. Twilight’s hooves clopped against the metal quickly for a second as she made to dash past the man, but she stopped when he let out a loud noise, and blocked her path.
“Oh, no, I only want to-“
The woman behind Lyra started to shout, and Twilight turned around to see another device in her hands, smaller than the last, and glowing an ominous red. It was pointed straight at her, and she considered it a fairly safe bet to say that it was a weapon too.
She stopped, and lowered herself quickly to the ground, trying her best to indicate she’d meant no harm.
“Please, don’t! I just wanted to help! I saw whoever’s in there and I thought I might be able to do something!”
Her eyes peeped open, and the first thing she noticed was that she hadn’t felt any pain or heard any noise. The humans had stopped talking, and now just stared at her. The woman kept her weapon on Twilight, but now seemed more relaxed. She tentatively got back to her hooves, and looked at Lyra.
“I think there’s at least one injured human in there. We need to make them understand that we don’t want to hurt them. Do you have any ideas?”
Lyra cried loudly “What? Really?” Then breathed a deep breath. “I doubt they can read Equestrian. Are you sure there’s nothing you can do to make them understand us? And if not to them, maybe you could cast something on us? You know, like you did with the Breezies?”
“I didn’t make us understand them, I turned the girls into them. And maybe that could work, but I really doubt that they’ll let me. That spell would require I scan them, and based on how they’re acting so far…”
Her voice trailed off as her eyes flicked to the red weapon, still glowing and pointed in her general direction. Lyra rubbed a hoof against her chin thoughtfully, then stepped forwards.
Twilight watched carefully as she passed her, saying, “Be careful…”
The unicorn came to a halt in front of the man, looked up at the man, and pointed with a hoof, her eyes wide and concerned. She spoke in a soft voice, keeping eye contact the whole time.
“Please, let us see them. We can help you, if you trust us.”
The man looked up at his companion, saying a few words before shrugging his shoulders. The woman replied with a few short, harsh sounding words before the man shrugged again, and held up a single index finger. The woman stared for a moment, glanced at the two ponies, then nodded.
The man knelt down so that he was eye level with them, then pointed to the room behind him. Then he pointed to both of them, and held up one finger again.
“Is he saying… one of us can go?”
It was a good question. Twilight couldn’t be sure, but that was definitely the impression she got from the signals.
“I think so. Will you be alright out here? Maybe after they see that we’re trying to help, they’ll let us take them somewhere better. I’ll go in first, alright? You just have to wait out here until then. You can do that, right?”
Lyra’s enthused demeanor deflated slightly, but she tried to cover it. “Yeah, no problem. Go ahead, do your Princess stuff. I’ll be out here, trying to talk with them, I guess.”
Twilight gave Lyra a relieved smile. She was sure Lyra meant well, but it was easy to imagine her particular brand of zeal getting the pair into trouble. Hopefully she would be able to contain herself until things got a little more stable.
She walked into the room slowly, following behind the man, who was watching her carefully. She tried to give a warm smile, having to fake a little bit of confidence and comfort. He seemed like he wasn’t too apprehensive, but Twilight could see his hand hovering close to his back, ready to grab at the weapon holstered there. They both entered the room, and Twilight gasped again when she found that there wasn’t only one human, but four. They all looked mature, wore armor, and a few of them had blood dripping from wounds or large bruises on their heads. All were unconscious, laid flat against the floor.
She had to fight the initial urge to rush over to them and try helping. Instead, she trotted over to the side of the closest one at a hasty pace, barely aware of the human following behind her. It was female, and its armor was white, and looked lighter than the others. A few sizable protrusions from the armor caught Twilight’s attention, and she moved to get a better look.
One was on the upper back, jutting out rather awkwardly, and two others on the backs of her feet. She puzzled for a moment what they could be for, then noticed indentations.
She wasn’t entirely sure what to think. Those couldn’t be rockets, could they? Was it possible to make something like that? Humans couldn’t fly naturally, she knew that much, but was that really what it was designed for? Maybe it was to provide her with extra speed when moving, or to control falls. She tried to remind herself not to jump to conclusions, but the angle of the jets would certainly generate upward lift…
She shook her head, trying to focus on the humans themselves. The woman had a large purple bruise on the side of her head, but didn’t seem to be too injured. Her chest still rose and fell in a rhythmic pattern. Her mane, or hair, as she remembered humans called it, was cropped short, and colored a dull red. She had a weapon too, lying by her side. A long glowing green tube sat on the end of a metal body, and in total length, it was almost as long as the woman’s body. The green light sparked and flashed slightly, but it seemed safe enough. At least it wasn’t aimed at her.
She looked over the rest of the woman’s body, wondering if there were any other wounds. The man behind her started to speak, and Twilight looked back briefly to check who he was talking to. His face was pointed out the door, and he seemed like he was calming down.
Twilight saw a dark scuff mark on the unconscious woman’s inner arm, and without a second of hesitation, reached out with her magic to gently turn the limb so she could see if there was any damage to the armor she wore. A purple glow surrounded the appendage as she manipulated it to get a better view.
The armor seemed like it was mostly undamaged, the mark was from some past conflict, if she had to guess.
She was suddenly aware that the talking from the humans had stopped. Her eyes widened as she remembered what she guessed human’s reactions would be.
She turned around, and found that there wasn’t just the one who had let her, but the woman as well. Lyra was peeking into the room as well, and was looking from the human to Twilight with a confused look on her face.
Twilight let the arm fall, and its armor made a small thud as it hit the floor. Maybe she’d gotten a little ahead of herself there. The humans just stared at her, stunned, and Lyra slowly started to walk into the room.
“I guess you were right about the whole magic thing, huh? That means they’ve never seen unicorn magic before. It’d be good if we could explain it to them, but I guess we can’t. Do you think they have anything like that?”
The humans started to talk again, and both ponies looked up at them. A few gestures towards the ponies told them that they were the topic of discussion. Twilight didn’t know how she felt about that. She knew there was something strange going on when the man started to point between her and Lyra, like he was asking the woman to choose one.
The woman stopped and looked, before nodding towards Lyra. The unicorn shrank back closer to Twilight, and spoke in a nervous voice to the humans.
“Uh, hi… what are you doing? I think you should not point at me. Point at Twilight, she’s the alicorn.”
Twilight gave an indignant “Hey!” The humans didn’t seem to take much notice of this, instead continuing to point at Lyra, saying a few more words before the woman pat the man on the back in a reassuring manner.
He bent his legs, sitting on his heels after taking a few steps closer, and gave Lyra a reassuring smile, speaking a few soft words. Lyra’s breathing slowed down slightly, and Twilight saw her body relax. The man didn’t seem to want to hurt them, but he was planning something.
He brought a hand up, but didn’t touch Lyra with it. Instead, his palm faced towards the ceiling, and a concentrated expression came over his face.
Twilight became aware of a strong presence, and took an involuntary step back. A dark purple glow covered his eyes, flowing down his arm, and built in a ball that hovered an inch above his hand. It looked like some kind of magic, but Twilight had no idea what. She’d never seen anything like it before.
The human turned his palm to Lyra, and pushed the ball towards her. Tendrils of whatever magic it was worked out of the ball towards her, surrounding Lyra’s head. She gave out a panicked cry, looking back at Twilight for help, but her body lifted a few inches off the ground, and her head was pulled back to face the human.
Twilight took another involuntary step back, looking around for the other human. She had moved to the doorway, and blocked the only way out. Her weapon was drawn, but she didn’t have it aimed at Twilight. She only fixed Twilight with a concerned look, like she was cautious of how the pony would react.
Lyra’s voice sounded strangled as she managed to force out a few words. “Twilight… it’s in my…”
Her body went ridged, and her hooves met the ground. Twilight glanced towards the door again, making sure that if she had to teleport, she would be able to do so with as much accuracy as possible.
Lyra spoke again, not turning around, and her voice was now an eerie monotone.
“Twilight.”
Twilight lifted a hoof, wanting to reach out to her, but she could still see the strange human magic circling her head, even seeming to flow into her ears.
“Lyra? What’s wrong? What did he do?”
Lyra turned, and Twilight swallowed down a scream. Her eyes were glowing dimly with the same color as the man’s, and her body language was stiff and robotic, like she didn’t know quite what to do with it anymore. She started to speak, and Twilight saw the human’s mouth moving at the same time, both pairs of eyes staring directly at her.
“We don’t want to hurt you. Must find those who ran, then get home. Can you help?”
Twilight’s jaw dropped, and thoughts of escaping vanished from her mind. Was this human controlling Lyra? How? Nothing she’d ever encountered dealing with humans had ever so much as implied abilities like this, not her time at Canterlot High, and none of the books than mentioned humans in Equestria.
Twilight reached out a hoof, wanting to get closer, but she didn’t know if it was safe. Lyra said they didn’t want to hurt them, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t.
She spoke again, not sure if she should address the human or Lyra.
“Please, let her go! You could be hurting her! We only want to have peace, we don’t want to hurt you either. We can get you somewhere to recover, it looks like your friends are hurt.”
Despite speaking in two entirely different languages, certain harmonies emerged as the human and Lyra spoke, making Twilight’s ears fold down, and a chill run up her spine.
“Host will not be harmed. Do not allow others to escape. They bring ruin. We tried to stop them, but could not. You-”
Lyra flinched suddenly, like she was trying to break out of the spell that held her, and Twilight saw the human behind Lyra flinch as well. They said the other creatures that had run away were dangerous, and that seemed entirely possible. They had fired on the crowd when they ran, but Twilight had been willing to believe that was out of panic.
But still, there was a possibility the human wasn’t entirely correct. It seemed like they weren’t entirely impartial, but Twilight wasn’t about to ignore the warning. Princess Celestia would hear all about it as soon as she was able to send a letter. She would have a better idea of what to do.
Twilight opened her mouth again, but the pair started to speak again, now sounding more rushed.
“Take us somewhere safe. Do not allow anyone on this ship. If-“
Lyra stopped short, her eyes rolling back in her head for a brief moment before then blinking and swaying unsteadily. Twilight stepped forward, watching the human magic fade from Lyra, and bracing Lyra against her shoulder.
She shook her head, giving a small groan and placing a hoof to her head before her eyes widened and she looked at Twilight with an intense expression.
“Did that really just happen, or am I losing my mind? You saw it too, right?”
Twilight leaned back slightly, not sure why Lyra was acting like this. It certainly wasn’t the reaction she had expected. It would seem more in line with what had just happened if Lyra was unconscious, or having some kind of panic attack, but there almost seemed to be a smile tugging at the corners of Lyra’s mouth.
“Yeah, I saw it… are you okay? Don’t you feel funny or anything? I mean, how much do you remember? Were you conscious? It sounded like you were in pain at first.”
Lyra took a step closer to Twilight, her smile widening a little farther. “No, I feel fine. It was... well, it was scary at first, but I didn’t understand what was happening. It put thoughts into my head, I think, and made me say them. I think it used me to understand what you were saying too, but I don’t know how much it could understand. You heard what he said, though, right?”
Twilight nodded, and tried to shake off Lyra’s bizarre attitude towards what she would consider an incredibly invasive experience. If she was alright with it, Twilight was too.
She looked back to the man who had controlled Lyra, not sure what to think anymore. She knew what they wanted, but she definitely felt unsettled.
Twilight’s eyes turned towards the door, and she found that the woman had moved. She nudged Lyra’s side and whispered “Let’s go get some help. I doubt these two can carry four others on their own. We can take them to the hospital for now. Do you think they’ll stay here until we get back?”
Lyra nodded, replying “Yeah, I think they know we want to help.”