Chapter 4: Troops in Contact?
Chaos watched as the ten quadrupedal creatures started a slow cautious approach towards them. His crew’s attention was immediately fixated, and he could tell each one of them was as on edge as he was. Why wouldn’t they be? After all the events that had transpired, he didn’t blame them for being on edge. Going through one hell of an unnatural storm, ending up God knows where, and then if all that wasn’t enough, they had enough fantasy elements thrown at them to fill a Tolkien novel. Now on the ground, it was all sinking in. He only hoped that their discipline would win out against the uncertainty and adrenaline.
The creatures in question were about fifty feet away from them now, and their approach only grew slower and more cautious the closer they came. With nothing but time and nerves, Chaos decided to do another once over of his crew. As expected Story was showing his nervous tick of running his hand through his thinning salt and pepper hair. Struggle perhaps looked the calmest, his only tell was his rapt attention while furiously flicking the cigarette in his hand that had already lost its cherry ember. Papa was dead to the world as his attention was still solely on his wounds, and his Co-pilot looked like he was on the brink of a mental meltdown. He was shaking like a leaf, and his blue eyes were the size of saucers, all that coupled with the piss stain from earlier didn’t leave much to the imagination about how he was holding up.
“Co you alright?” If the co-pilot heard Chaos it didn’t show. Sighing, Chaos made to repeat himself louder, before he could though Struggle put his hand in front of Co’s face snapping his fingers and the crewmember back to reality. Co-pee jerked his head to face Struggle.
“What?”
“Chaos wants you.” Struggle emphasized his point by gesturing in Chaos’s direction. Now with the young crew member's attention, he gestured the young Lieutenant over to him.
“You wanted something Major?”
“Yeah, no nice way to say it you smell like piss Lieutenant, you have your 72-hour bag right?” At the Lieutenant's nod, he continued.
“Alright, go up to the flight deck and change. If you have any baby wipes I would suggest using them, if not I’ve got some in the big zipper on my backpack.” The Lieutenant seemed mortified at the realization that he had forgotten about his accident. Chaos watched him quickly scurry away until he noticed Struggle had saddled up right next to him. Before he had a chance to question him, Struggle pulled close enough to whisper into his ear. It was a quick thing, a simple question before he pulled back searching Chaos’s eyes for approval.
He chewed on his lip for a moment, before giving a single quick nod, without a word Struggle took off into the plane.
Celestia gave the signal for her guards to stop when the first creature withdrew, if she could help it she would prefer to have each of the members of the new species present for their inevitable first contact. With what their leader said, she was more than willing to delay for a few minutes to save the one named Co further embarrassment. It was rather clear now that they had a rank structure and one that might be eerily similar to her own guards.
The one in charge watched his Lieutenants departure as another crept up behind him, Celestia was at first alarmed with how quick the other pulled the leader in. For what reason he did this she was uncertain until he uttered a word she could barely hear. It sounded like emnine, she pondered on its meaning until she could only assume it was a word that had no rough translation.
Struggle was quick to get to his destination, from the crew rest compartment he could hear Co frantically changing. Most likely not because he wanted to impress Chaos about quickly carrying out his task, as much as him probably fearing being caught naked. Bending down Struggle’s eyes rested on the small gray metal box beneath the forward seats, extending both arms under the seat he gave a quick pop of the latches. Pulling it out and opening the lid twenty-one M-9 Berettas and twice as many magazines greeted him, the patina on most of them spoke of an exceedingly long service life. A few even showing the beginning signs of rust, carefully scanning the more pristine ones, he picked out the best to run their slides through a couple times, before picking two favorites.
With the weapons checked he grabbed four magazines before stowing the rest back beneath the seat. About that time Co came stumbling down the flight deck in a hurry, passing the door before Struggle could stop him.
“Co!” The shout was immediately greeted by the sound of slowing footsteps before they headed back towards him. The crew member in question peeked around the corner when he got closer.
“Yes?” Struggle racked back the slide of one of the M-9’s before presenting it butt first to the Co.
“Take it.” Co shot a baffled gaze to the proffered weapon before returning the same look to Struggle.
“Well?” With a shaking hand, Co grabbed the gun like one might handle a venomous snake, eliciting an eye roll from Struggle.
“What do you want me to do with it?”
“Preferably point it somewhere other than my dick when you load it. Speaking of which, here's two mags.” Struggle offered them up with one hand while he grabbed for his own M-9 with the other.
“Very funny, I mean where am I supposed to put it I don’t have a holster?”
“Do you want a play by play? Just slide it into your pants near your hip, if that’s too hard then maybe you should consider holstering it in your mouth.” After sliding his now chambered Beretta into his waistline he turned to find Co gawking at him. Apparently, the greenhorn hadn’t yet learned the mixed art of dark humor and sarcasm.
“It’s a joke, not a dick don’t take it so hard. Now come on, I’m sure Chaos won't be happy if we drag our feet.”
Celestia silently observed her guests from where she had stopped, though she hadn’t got an up close look yet, she could already distinguish a couple notable traits between them. Their leader who had been referred to as Chaos seemed to be the tallest, sporting a dirty blond mane, and sharper jawline than the others. Then there was the shortest one standing next to him quietly conversing with him, she didn’t know much about the species yet, but pudgy definitely came to mind for the salt and pepper haired sapient that 'Chaos' had called Story. If the conversation was anything to go off of then they were currently debating on why she and her guards had stopped approaching. The only distinguishing feature she could make out from the one on the craft was that it had black hair and a slightly darker complexion than the others.
The conversation between them died with the reappearance of the two who had left earlier. Celestia waited till they had rejoined their leader before signaling with a nod to Lieutenant Swift Stroke that she was ready to move again. Swift Stroke responded by pointing his spear forward, relaying the command to move.
“Look sharp gentlemen, we’re about to meet the locals.” Chaos said. Chaos watched their line march towards them with precision, before eyeing his little gaggle. None of them were wearing their hats, and Struggle looked like he had a fight with a water gun full of grease and hydraulic fluid. They may not be the most presentable, but he could at least properly represent Uncle Sam by displaying some order and discipline.
“Form a row behind me, snap to parade rest when you get there.” They did as told, even if it was slower and less organized than he had hoped for. Glancing over his back he saw Story had taken up the spot behind him, with Struggle on his left and Co on his right before he returned his attention to the front. “At ease gentlemen.”
“I want to go home…” The Co-pilot said. Eliciting a bark of a laugh from Struggle.
“Calm down kid, they’re small creatures in bronzed armor, we’re cool. Let’s just see where this goes before we get antsy.”
“Don’t let your guard down yet Struggle, we don’t know anything about what’s going to happen.” Chaos responded.
They watched their approach, a single one of the marching quadrupeds breaking off to take a spot next to the tall alabaster one. Chaos surveyed them all before realizing something, all of the ones sticking behind had plumes on their helmet that were either white or blue. Whereas the one sticking close to what he could only assume was their leader had a red plume. Red Leader? Color coded ranks perhaps?
As the tall one drew gracefully closer, a pair of white wings appeared from its sides. There’s no way it can fly with those, maybe a way of appearing larger? Territorial threat display perhaps?
The alabaster one with the colorfully billowing hair stopped ten feet short of Chaos and his crew. With a wordless signal, the armored quadruped next to it lifted a foreleg causing an immediate halt from the line, followed by a crisp click as the entire line snapped to attention. Chaos had to admit he was rather impressed, the amount of drilling it would take to do that right the first time was a testament to this group's dedication. But while he was horribly outmatched in drill he could at least give them a show.
“Ah tennch hut!” He was pleasantly surprised when he didn’t hear any feet moving out of sync. He too had moved by his own command, his heels touching, feet angled forty-five degrees apart, and his shoulders squared while his clenched fists rested against his legs, with thumbs pointing down the seams of his pants. For the next command, however, he wouldn’t move.
“Pre-zent arms!” He heard the snaps of movement behind him signaling that the salute he ordered had been rendered. He decided to give it a few potatoes before he would order the command to drop it, he was surprised however when the red-plumed one made another gesture resulting in the line behind him to hoist their spears at an incline into the air.
I guess military is military no matter where you go. Although I’d really like to know how these creatures can hold a spear that well.
“Order arms!” With their salute dropped the other line was quick to issue their own order to drop their spears to their sides.
“Parade hest!” With that, he dropped his crew out of attention as well as himself.
Celestia couldn’t help but smile at the impromptu posturing between her guards and the new species. She could now say with almost absolute certainty that the members of the species before her were military, after countless centuries she had yet to meet a rebel or paramilitary group that practiced ceremonial drill. Deciding that she had delayed the inevitable long enough she decided to break her silence.
“Hello travelers, I am Princess Celestia of Equestria. One of the rulers of this land, and Princess of the Sun. May I inquire as to who you are?”
To say the lack of a language barrier floored the human crew would be an understatement. Even Papa who had largely been dead to the world managed to break out of his stupor long enough to regard the lack of a language barrier with incredulity. As the grinding gears in Chaos’s brain worked furiously to reboot his perception of the situation, he made several mistakes. The first being that he abruptly walked forward while deeply clearing his throat, something that came out sounding dangerously close to a growl while extending his arm for a handshake entirely too quickly in the Princess's direction.
The next few moments passed in a blur of excited responses. The red plumed quadruped let loose a quick whistle while thrusting his spear within inches of the immediately frozen Chaos. Struggle drew the M-9 from his waistband and leveled it at the spear wielding quadruped, eliciting a response from three of the now airborne ones. Co did the same but managed to fumble his own M-9, freezing as he watched it descend to the ground. While Story made a dive for it, but ended up spectacularly missing. Three on the right flank now took off straight towards the two humans, while one broke off to back up the other wielding a spear towards Chaos.
The first flying one to reach Struggle was a few body lengths ahead of its closest compatriots, thrusting its spear straight at him as soon as it was within range. The mistake was caught by Struggle more by instinct then purpose, as he made a quick grab for the shaft of the overextended spear, accidently grabbing the rear of the spearhead nicking his hand before grasping the shaft. The guard's own training kicked in, as it quickly chose instead to drop the spear rather than be dragged into close quarters with a larger opponent. When the grip from the guard slackened Struggle haphazardly spun the spear back towards its owner, by that point though the guard had retreated safely back to its friends. With a new weapon in play, the two new flying guards simply hovered out of range with spears leveled at Struggle while guarding their disarmed comrade. The last of the armed quadrupeds took a flying position over Celestia essentially guarding her on all sides. Story had managed to grab the M-9 right before two spears took up residence in his personal bubble, with a third trained on Co.
Struggle’s heart was trying to reenact the scene from Alien, as it seemed close to bursting out of his chest cavity. As frightened as he was, a small part of him couldn’t help but revel in the fact that he was in the center of a God honest Mexican stand-off. A twitch out of the corner of his eye drew his attention away from the quadrupeds out of range of his commandeered spear. The red plumed one was now eyeballing him, his response was to cock the hammer back on the pistol.
“Now that I know you understand me, let me make something perfectly clear. Move so much as an inch, and I’ll use my boomstick here to add a new hole in your forehead.” The glare coming from the armored guard signaled to Struggle that his threat was shrugged off.
“Tough guy huh? If you think your spear trumps my Beretta you're gravely mistaken.” Struggle briefly considered whether he had just crossed a line by threatening these creatures, before discarding the thought in favor of staying focused.
The smile that had recently graced Celestia's lips had vanished only to be replaced by the neutral mask she often wore in court. To say Celestia was disappointed would be an understatement, more in herself than in her guards. She should have known that the day’s events would have taken a toll on her little ponies, and all that stress was just like applying tension to a spring, the first outlet for its stored energy would be the course it took.
Luckily she still had the spell up to hide her magical signature, if things escalated any further she could at least rest assured that she could teleport herself and her guards to safety without giving it away. But that course of action would most likely mean the end to any peaceful relations. That is if they weren’t destroyed already. The scanning spell she had just cast on the black hunk of metal in the creature's claws didn’t yield anything terribly useful, except that something that intricate certainly wasn’t for show. Talking everyone down would take time, and the sooner this situation was resolved the faster she could begin to run damage control. With any luck a bit of trust from me can end this.
“I think that’s quite enough, guards lower your weapons.” The guard’s glare leveled at Struggle was replaced with confusion and uncertainty.
“Princess?”
“You heard me Swift Stroke, lower your weapon, that goes for all of you.” The guards although hesitant complied to her will, and slowly backpedaled away from the humans before lowering their spears. That was except for the guards currently at a standoff with Struggle. Celestia fixed a strained smile towards him.
“I would greatly appreciate it if you would stop pointing a weapon at my guards.” Chaos who had regained his senses was now also looking to Struggle.
“Chaos?” He left the rest of the question unasked.
“It’s okay Struggle, let's take it down a notch.”
Struggle let out a deep calming breath before lowering the pistol and switching the safety back on. The click of the hammer resetting before he returned the side arm to his waistband. He returned his attention to the guard in front of him before pulling the spear back as he rotated the shaft so that the spearhead was facing him. Before presenting the butt and shaft to the guard he had stole it from. Timidly the guard approached before it slowly grabbed it and Struggle let it go. The light now hitting the spearhead revealed a small tinge of red. It took a second before he remembered he had cut his hand, before he turned his palm to face him so he could survey the damage. The cut wasn’t deep, it ran along the skin between the first and second knuckle of his index finger and thumb. Glancing back to the guard who still seemed a bit shaken up he decided to apologize.
“Sorry about all that, but on the bright side it looks like you got me worse then I got you.” He said as he presented the minor wound for inspection. Celestia let an optimistic smile find her lips at watching the tense situation become a little more friendly. Celestia returned her attention to their leader.
“Where were we? Oh right, I had just introduced myself, and if I’m not mistaken you were about to do the same before that unfortunate turn of events.” Chaos couldn’t help but turn a little red at the thought that he might have been the root cause of that debacle.
“Right, I would just like to start off by saying how sorry I am Princess. So much has happened that you being able to speak caught me off guard, I just kind of acted without speaking. I only wanted to greet you with a handshake.” His apology was met by a warm smile from Celestia.
“No one was seriously hurt, that's what really matters. I’d be honored to take part in.. what did you call it, a handshake? Your name would be nice as well.” For the first time since landing Chaos smiled as he extended his hand to her. When she offered her hoof to him he took it before giving a quick shake. He was surprised to find that the fur that he felt wasn’t coarse like he had expected it to be, but was instead incredibly soft and silky.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Princess Celestia, I’m Major Joshua Oldes, however, my friends call me Chaos. And I am the commander of this crew.” Celestia smiled despite wondering why his friends would call their friend such a horrible name. It was clear by Chaos’s silence after his introduction that he might have been out of his depth of expertise. Trying to save him any embarrassment she decided she would have to lead the conversation.
“I believe you just met Lieutenant Swift Stroke here.” Chaos merely looked to the red-plumed guard who had held him at spearpoint earlier before quickly looking back to Celestia.
“I would say it’s a pleasure to meet the Lieutenant as well, but we didn't exactly get off on the right foot here.”
“I see...I hope you can overlook the Lieutenant’s actions in time, all of my guards must be on edge following the failed invasion of Canterlot. As you said your crew has had a rough day as well, suffice it to say I think we all acted a little hastily, myself perhaps included.”
“I suppose you're right, let’s put that behind us for now. Let me introduce you to my crew. The man to my far right is my Co-pilot Lieutenant Brad Ticer, and the gentlemen next to him is my engineer Technical Sergeant Jason Sterry known more commonly as Story Time, or Story for short.” Celestia hummed her approval before exchanging pleasantries.
“To my left is Senior Airman Jake Drudge our loadmaster, and he'll be the first to let you know that he prefers his nickname Struggle to his real one.” Celestia cocked her head to that before greeting him and allowing Chaos to continue.
“And last but not least is Captain Simon Alicide or Papa Hotel, I doubt he is in any condition to exchange pleasantries right now, he got some nasty burns before we landed.” At which point Chaos shouted to get Papa’s attention who waved somewhat sarcastically from his hunched over position.
“Does he require medical attention?” Celestia inquired?
“I'd say probably, Struggle bandaged him up. But no offense to Struggle he’s no doctor.” Chaos' statement earned him an indignant snort from Struggle.
“In that case, I would be happy to have him treated by my own medical staff in Canterlot.” Chaos merely rubbed his wrist unsure on whether he should take up the generous offer and potentially put his wounded crew member in jeopardy. The bottom line was he didn’t trust these creatures yet. Sensing his distress Celestia decided to continue.
“I’ll give you some time to think it over, in the meantime, onto other things. I heard you refer to one of your crew as ‘man’. Is that the name of your species?”
“Oh um, human would be our species, man refers to gender generally. I don’t think I got a name for yours yet though.”
“We’re called ponies.” Chaos stopped at that to take in more details of the creatures in front of him. He had seen plenty of ponies from earth before, sure there were similarities, but only as much as one could say there were similarities between monkeys and humans.
“Is something wrong Major?”
“No, its just… I didn’t expect you to be called ponies is all.” Celestia raised an eyebrow to that.
“Why wouldn’t you expect us to be called ponies…” Before it clicked that the translation spell may have found a translation for ponies in their language. “Wait have you met other Equines before?”
“Sort of...” Celestia reeled from the implications, if these humans were correct in the assumption she overheard earlier about theirs being an alien world and not simple hyperbole, then that could only mean that there is extraterrestrial Equine out there! This discovery would be tremendous, she couldn’t help but let her mind wonder about how exotic and interesting they must be.
“Um, Princess Celestia?” Celestia was snapped back to reality, embarrassed to realize that she must’ve been mumbling out loud in her excitement.
“Sorry it’s just this is amazing! I would love to hear all about them!” Chaos’s response to that was to avoid eye contact, how could he tell her that her assumptions were most likely wildly inaccurate. Celestia’s joy was curbed however when Chaos didn’t seem to share her enthusiasm.
“Sorry of course, we can talk about that later. So where are you and your crew from?” From listening in on their conversations, she knew they suspected that this wasn’t their world, she just didn’t know why yet.
“We’re from the United States of America. Have you heard of it?”
“No, I can’t say I have,” Chaos let out a sigh at that.
“I suppose that's not too much of a surprise given everything we've seen so far." At Celestia's curious expression he decided to elaborate. "Most, if not all people on our world have heard about our country, and most could probably pinpoint it on a map." Chaos lapsed in silence as a disturbing thought crossed his mind. "That’s what seems weird here, relatively speaking I guess, my crew and I are shocked by this whole situation. You, however, seem to be taking this very well. Too well, in fact. If I was a betting man, my money would be on you expecting us to come here.” Celestia didn’t understand were he was going with this but let him continue anyway.
“I could see some strange portal opening on our world, as far out as that sounds, especially with all those myths surrounding the Bermuda Triangle. But to end up in a world filled with life? What do you suppose the chances of that are? Or how our arrival just so happened to correspond with an invasion of your city? A bit too convenient don’t you think, perhaps you brought us here? It would be a clever tactic, use some aliens to distract your enemy at the precise moment you plan on launching a counter-attack, pretty ingenious if you ask me.”
Celestia had heard plenty of conspiracy theories surrounding her reign, but this one was so out there that she couldn’t help but chuckle despite herself.
“I think I’m missing a few things about your arrival here. Did you arrive near the skies of Canterlot?”
“No, I would say the city was about twenty to twenty-five miles away from where we ended up, but we still saw it soon enough.”
“But you could have missed it right?”
“I suppose that could've happened, but it didn’t.”
“And when you saw it, did something force you to fly here?”
“Well no, but who wouldn’t investigate a city surrounded by a bubble?”
“Let’s say you're right, that I can open portals to other worlds, and that I did bring you here to provide a distraction to the changelings. Why wouldn’t I open the portal above Canterlot? Why would I take the chance in you flying by without spotting it, or another on you possibly choosing to keep your distance? The real question is if I could create portals, why would I not just use that power on the changelings? Use it to send them somewhere else to end the invasion before the changelings had a chance to break through Shining Armor’s shield spell?” The longer Celestia spoke the more wind escaped from Chaos’s sails, everything had just gotten to him, and he felt a little ashamed that he had jumped straight to baseless allegations. The last thing she said though caught his attention.
“Did you say shield spell? As in spell spells? Like magic?” Celestia was confused why he would add so much emphasis on magic but responded anyway.
“That’s correct.” Her succinct answer grated on his nerves.
“If you think I’m gullible enough to believe in magic then this conversation’s over.” Celestia and Swift Stroke couldn’t help but puzzle at how quickly the conversation had turned once again. Chaos was already turning on his heel while motioning to his crew to leave when Celestia called out to him.
“Major wait!” Chaos stopped to cast a wayward glance back at Celestia. “If you don’t believe in magic then what did you think it was?”
“Some sort of advanced technology, obviously.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint, but Equestria doesn’t have any technology advanced enough to replicate a shield spell. I’m not sure why you don't believe in magic, but would you at least give me a chance to show you some?” Truthfully Chaos didn't want to, he was tired and this encounter and conversation had done nothing to ease his rising irritation at the situation. But for all that, he couldn’t find it in himself to shoot down her chance to explain herself or really go through with turning his back on what might be the only convenient ally here.
“Very well, you have my attention, Princess.” Sighing, Celestia dropped the cloak spell she had placed to cover up her magical signature. Not wanting to startle the humans that didn’t believe in magic she decided on a simple levitation spell.
Chaos watched as a golden shimmer of light, the same as the color he had seen across the window of the aircraft earlier, dance along her horn. He wasn’t exactly impressed until he saw that same glow cover her crown before the damned thing just floated off the top of her head towards him. The light shows a nice touch, but I’ve seen this trick before. When the crown stopped floating in front of him he gave a lackadaisical swat above it, expecting to hit a string. When his hand felt no purchase he rolled his eyes before waving both arms on either side of the floating crown. When that failed he just started flailing his arms all around it. Can’t seem to find the damn string on this blasted thing. Celestia couldn’t help but smile at the silliness of watching Chaos flail his arms all about her crown.
Chaos stopped after a minute of flailing his arms to no avail. Now he was running his fingers through the golden shimmer surrounding the crown, he flinched when he first felt it. It was like a dull warmth that sent tingles up his fingers into his hands. Okay...weird enough, but that doesn't mean anything. Ready to get this over with he grasped the crown with his hands before pulling it closer to himself for inspection.
Celestia watched the Major take her crown, letting go of her magic when he had a handle on it.
“Princess.” Swift Stroke hissed.
“It’s fine Lieutenant, I would not have used my crown if I cared about him inspecting it.” She whispered back to him.
“He’s insulted you, and now you let him get his grubby paws all over the crown. This is outrageous.” Celestia sighed before whispering back.
“They might be from another world, Lieutenant, one possibly without magic. I’m willing to look past a few hiccups from creatures obviously confused and scared by our world. Do you honestly think either of us would be better off in that situation? Besides, this isn’t my worst first encounter with another species by far, and I’m still fairly optimistic about the possibility of us becoming friends with each other.”
“If you say so, Princess.” He hissed. Celestia didn’t bother responding, instead, she made a mental check of his attitude for the rather lengthy conversation she would be having with him later in private. Chaos spoke up, derailing her train of thought on the matter.
“Alright Princess, I give up, how’d you do it?” As he said that he handed the crown back out towards her, she let her magic take hold of it and levitated it back to its rightful spot on her head before continuing.
“I know you might not want to hear it, but magic, a simple levitation spell to be precise.”
“I don’t think you're going to get me to believe in magic just because you can do a parlor trick.”
“Perhaps you’d humor me for another spell then?”
“Why not?” With his consent, she thought real hard about what might be a good spell to get him to believe her. She rubbed her chin in thought about what to use, her first thought was to display how she could move the Sun around. But she quickly dismissed that as too showy, not to mention the alarm it might cause to not just the humans, but the world at large. A lightbulb came on in the form of the translation spell, she considered it doubtful that most spells affecting the environment would break their deep-seated disbelief, but perhaps a show of magic's ability to affect their individual person would be enough to get the ball rolling. So what better way to show she wasn’t lying about magic than to display to Chaos that he wasn’t even conversing with her in his native language.
“Chaos, I’ll need you for a demonstration of this, also I need to come clean about something. When you and your crew first came out here I used a spell to increase the range of my hearing, but what met me was nothing but an indistinguishable language. So I cast a translation spell on you and your crew, right now the medium we're using to converse is our language, Equestrian. I’m sorry about that, and I would normally never cast a spell on someone without their consent, but I felt it was far better to be safe than sorry.” Chaos couldn’t help but smile at how ludicrous this all sounded, but decided to humor her anyway.
“Alright so we are speaking your language, where do I come in?”
“Just tell one of your crew to start talking, and then I’ll drop my translation spell on you.” Chaos looked to Story before gesturing with his hands towards him.
“You heard the Princess. Tell us a story, Story.” The plump engineer couldn't help but beam a smile as he launched into his favorite pass time.
“Alright, so about three years back I went out to the woods with my boys, right?” Celestia had now charged the dispel, and was waiting for Story to continue. “So there we were -andozoril torein zos tuul horthillo por versil cristum o eluundil tii zorchueil.”
“Story? What the hell man are you having a stroke?” Chaos spun back to Celestia, eyes wide at the realization that she had been telling the truth. “Celestia?”
“Avuubeid tuul lorma annurn zar zos iuithannersi.” Celestia responded while holding up a hoof. Celestia’s horn glowed bright for a second before dimming.
“Sorry Major, I didn’t think that would upset you so much. But do you believe me now?” Chaos was slightly shaking.
“Oh buck, this is unreal.” Chaos spun to face his crew. “What happened? Could you guys understand me?”
Struggle just shared a concerned look with Story before speaking up. “Ugh yeah, why wouldn’t we be able to understand you?”
“Because I couldn’t understand you! Or her!” As he pointed to Celestia. “Wait. Why could they understand me, but I couldn’t understand them?”
“Because you were speaking your native language. The spell translates your language into Equish, as well as allows the one the spells cast on to understand it. It doesn’t get rid of the target's ability to grasp their own language, however.”
“So we only think we’re speaking English right now?”
“Precisely.” Chaos closed his eyes and focused on his breathing.
Alright Josh, it’s okay. It’s a lot to take in, magic's real. Other worlds with life are real now too...and so are random interplanetary portals...and talking alien ponies. No, stop, that’s not helping. Okay, focus on what's still sane and normal, still got the plane. Gravity seems pretty normal, still a sun in the blue sky. Fluffy white clouds, and green grass beneath my feet. Got my crew too, my crew… And now I’ve totally lost it in front of them. Right, no big deal, I've seen plenty of insane things deployed. With an explosive sigh Chaos opened his eyes again to the insanity of the world. Since when have I let insanity let me lose my cool before. I’m Chaos baby, I live for insanity.
“Are you alright Major?” Celestia asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine, just had to sort through all that for a second. Just a lot to take in at once, I’m fine now, really.” Chaos looked to his crew.
“Alright guys you're up next, the sooner we accept the fact that this 'magic' thing is real, the sooner we can get down to business."
Celestia had just spent the last few minutes simultaneously dispelling and recasting the translation spell on the humans to much the same effect. Chaos had insisted on his Lieutenant going first, his reaction had been much the same as Chaos. After a while Chaos managed to calm him down before asking Celestia to do the same to Story. The last one Celestia had cast her spell on was Struggle, who had tried to insist that ‘it was cool, and that he would just take their word for it’, Chaos, however, wasn’t having it and made Celestia dispel it anyway. Surprisingly Struggle had been the calmest about it all, even motioning for her to leave it off for a bit longer while he laughed at how the others were talking.
“So do you want me to dispel the translation on your Captain as well?” Chaos shook his head as he responded.
“No, I think we can save that for later. Speaking of which, I feel bad that we haven’t gotten him medical attention yet. I doubt my superiors would understand, but after a day like today, I'm willing to bend the rules a little. I hope your offer still stands Princess.” Celestia couldn’t help but smile, there were still plenty of questions to ask. But there would be time enough for that later.
“Of course it does Major.” Celestia hadn’t seen a smile so sincere come from Chaos the whole time she'd talked with him. Chaos gestured for Story to come over.
“Story I want you to go with Papa Hotel to get him medical treatment.”
“Sounds good to me.” Story responded in an incredibly chipper tone. The Major’s statement, however, caused Celestia to cock her head a bit to the side. Did he think she hadn’t invited all of them to come?
“Of course my invitation extends to your whole crew Major.”
“I appreciate that Princess, I really do.” He paused in speaking to glance back at the plane. “But I can’t leave the aircraft behind.”
“I see... quite a dilemma indeed. So you call it an aircraft?”
“Yep. Why, what would you call it?”
“I don’t know if you saw them, but we have a few flying vessels ourselves that we call airships.”
“Must have missed ‘em, but if they're anything like the Airships back on Earth, then an aircraft is a completely different classification of flying machine.” Celestia couldn’t help but look a little bit harder at the aircraft now, the realization sinking in that not a single thing on it was powered by magic. It must be an amazing feat of engineering, one that she would love to hear more about. That’s when the idea struck her to make a compromise with them. If they didn’t want to leave it behind, they could take it with them to Canterlot. It would save her the trouble of explaining that she needed them to move it anyway since it would undoubtedly cause a disturbance to the rail line.
“Major?”
“Hmm?”
“Would you accept my invitation to Canterlot if I allowed you to bring the aircraft too?” To that, Chaos chuckled.
“I would if I had any idea about how to get the darn thing up there.” To that Celestia merely smiled as she pointed to her horn.
“I can use magic, remember?”
Struggle was watching the scenery drift slowly beneath him as the aircraft gained altitude. He was holding onto a crossbeam for support, mere inches from the end of the plane’s ramp. In all truthfulness, he should have been wearing a restraint harness or parachute next to any open door in flight, but rules, as they say, were meant to be broken. And there was nothing like the rush of adrenaline he was getting right now. It’s the reason he became a flyer, all in the name of conquering his greatest fear, heights. Truth be told it still scared the hell out of him, but that’s why he was still doing it, and why he was inches away from the edge with nothing but a hand on a beam for support. The fear made him feel so alive, and the adrenaline was just another high to be chased.
But like all highs, they never last. As the thousand foot drop was replaced by the ground only a few hundred feet below, he decided instead to take in the details of the city. It was impressive to say the least, as he got his first up-close glimpse of it, stylized spiraling towers some with purple painted stripes running up the length of them. Most towers and buildings sporting golden roofs with enough sunlight reflecting off the top of them to make his eyes hurt. It definitely had a sense of wonder and magic to it that would make most tourist cities on Earth envious.
Giving his corneas a rest, he took his eyes off the city, interested now instead on the slowly approaching world below. Celestia hadn’t been kidding when she mentioned there was room enough in her castle gardens for the gunship. There was enough room to fit at least two more gunships where they were about to touch down by his estimation. Of course, that would be at the cost of at least a few dozen flower beds. Where she was putting them down now, however, the only sacrifice would be to the grass gods. A shame too, since he had never seen a more well-manicured lawn in person.
Celestia had set them down so soft that he hadn’t even realized they’d hit dirt until the golden glow disappeared. He was quick to grab the chocks, letting the pilot know he was going off comms.
“Got to say that was mighty impressive.” Struggle said as he adjusted the straps on his backpack, waiting for the rest of the crew to grab their gear and assist Papa off the plane.
“It’s was nothing, Airman.” Struggle grimaced at that. He hated being referred to by rank, as it meant he was either in deep shit, or someone was being condescending towards him.
“Please Princess, just call me Struggle.”
“How about Jake?”
“The only people who call me that are family and before you ask, I hate my last name. The definition of the word drudge was a serious point of aggravation for me throughout training. Struggle, however, is the only name that I’ve earned, and I’m very proud of it.” Celestia was a bit disappointed at that but was not surprised that he had been mocked by his peers for his last name.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Struggle.” Struggle just waved his hand around in response, before glancing back to the aircraft.
“Yeah yeah, it’s in the past and all that. What’s taking those guys so long?” Celestia was also unsurprised when he shrugged off her sympathy, she had dealt with stallions and soldiers for centuries. Most like Struggle would get defensive and change topics at the first sign of sympathy. Despite all that time, she still didn’t understand why they considered an act of empathy to be a sign of weakness on their part.
Struggle and Celestia waited with her guards for a few more minutes before the other humans appeared from within the jowls of the metal beast. Celestia was actually surprised when they emerged, the rest of the humans including Papa had changed out of their unfortunately ugly camo uniforms into another set of clothes.
“Awe no fair! Why didn’t you tell me we could change into civilian clothes?” Chaos looked up from helping Papa down the ramp.
“Because you get first shift watching the aircraft.” Struggle bit back a snide remark only because they had company, before resigning himself to his fate of watching a parked aircraft for hours.
“Alright Papa, Story’s going to take you to get taken care of, alright?”
“Sounds good Josh,” Papa muttered back to him. With a nod, Celestia called a guard over.
“Take these two humans to the medical wing. Have a guard posted there and spread the word that we will be having a few more guests in the castle.” The guard snapped to attention before turning to the two in question.
“Follow me, please.”
“Now that that is taken care of, I believe I have just enough time to give you a brief tour before the preparations for a wedding I must attend are complete. Just one thing, for now, I ask that you leave any weapons you have with the aircraft. At least until any excitement about your presence dies down around here.”
“Since I already had Co leave his weapon, I believe that is acceptable.”
Celestia smiled. “Right this way, gentlecolts.” The majority of her guard followed suit, except for the red-plumed guard who stopped just long enough to pick two volunteers to help Struggle guard the plane.
Struggle watched them depart towards the castle till they faded from view around a hedge maze. Sighing, he threw his bag on the ramp, before letting out a depressed sigh. I hope someone sends me some food. Sliding himself onto the ramp he noticed his hands were had started shaking. Bringing them closer to his face, he observed just how bad they were trembling. Just great, and I’m about to get one of those headaches.