Chapter Nine: Discussed
Unknown
Chapter Nine: Discussed
The blue-green alien looked up at me, past my outstretched hand, golden eyes wide with curiosity, shock, and... wonder? It surreptitiously reached for the Rubik's Cube with spasmodic bursts of speed and abrupt stops, its line of sight alternating between the multicoloured block and my helmet. A few centimetres before making contact, the alien stopped as if blocked by an invisible barrier. It glanced at me once more. I adjusted the cube in my hand, holding it with only a few fingers. I brought it a bit closer, trying to instill the message that it was a gift.
After taking a deep breath, the alien grabbed the Rubik's Cube out of my hand, meaning that my point must have translated. It sat and held the cube carefully, almost like it might explode, studying it intently. Upon closer inspection, the alien seemed to realize that the block was meant to be turned, and proceeded to do just that, rotating the sides at an alarming speed. I wondered at this.
This was the second time I have witnessed one of them using their appendages to manipulate objects with finesse—the first was when they gave Catherine medical attention—yet how they managed to do this was a complete mystery to me. Their legs all ended in a simple hoof that had no outstanding characteristics, which implied that they could not use them as graspers; the rapid twists and turns that the alien was performing, however, nullified that implication. It seemed that nothing could be taken at face value. All of my questions brought more questions.
When the grey, horned escort spoke up and made a subtle motion towards me—one that I wasn't supposed to have noticed—the blue-green one stopped fiddling with the Rubik's cube and disappeared briefly, returning with a bag slung over one side. They shared a few more words, glanced at me, then the blue one nodded and stepped outside, closing the door behind it.
Almost immediately, the escorts began walking back the way we came, the blue-green one walking between them. I followed in their footsteps a few paces back, glad that they were all in front me now, but wary of where we were going; I had no idea where they were leading me if the last stop wasn't our final destination.
I expected us to return through the market area, but as we approached, the three aliens took a turn down a cramped, compact alleyway amid several small buildings. I inwardly sighed and followed them down the path.
After a particularly tight squeeze through the jutting, unsymmetrical dwellings where my shoulder ground against a wall, I heard a echoing squeak just behind me. A sharp intake of breath followed soon afterward. I twisted my neck to get a better look, but all I saw was a flash of colour as a window was shut and the curtains drawn hastily across. I kept walking.
The terminus was revealed when the three aliens came to a stop in front of a medium-sized building that was slightly apart from the others. The overall design was different than much of the village: an aura of venerability surrounded it, making it seem older, somehow, even though I could see no degradation of the materials used to construct it. When the aliens walked up the steps leading to a wooden double-door and knocked, I followed.
Just as I climbed up the last step, the doors were opened from within. The opener was tan in colour and had steel-grey hair. A pair of glasses rested on its snout, and age crinkles were visible around its eyes. The alien smiled when it saw its kin, but the smile vanished when it saw me. After taking a deep breath, it nodded and motioned for us to enter.
I had some trouble fitting through the doorway, but after ducking underneath the doorframe, I was rewarded with a ceiling high enough that I could stand straight and not have my head scrape against it.
I quickly glanced around. The room was large and vaguely dome-shaped with aliens of varying colours milling about. Most were carrying either papers or books with unfamiliar characters, although one was carrying a tray with various types of food piled high. To their credit, although most glanced over, very few stopped and stared when they saw me. All of the aliens—
Aliens. Aliens, aliens, aliens—I was getting very tired of using that word. They were extraterrestrial to me, but did I have any right to call them aliens if I was the visitor? What else could I call them? I thought about what Catherine had called them. Ponies, she had said they looked like. Alien ponies, though distinguishing them from the ones on Earth seemed moot. Ponies it was.
My vision drifted to the long, low-lying table situated in the centre of the room. Some strange-looking chairs were placed systematically along it, and a single... pony sat in the middle with heaps of paper surrounding it. It was a deep, vibrant purple and its eyes were glued to a page directly in front of it. I noticed that it had both wings and a horn—something none of the others that I had seen possessed—as well as a crown-like ornament resting on its head. Royalty? There was something special about this one: I could feel it. There were questions to be had, and answers to be provided. Finally.
I walked forward, my boots thundering on the creaking, wooden floor. All other noise ceased; the aliens scrambling about moved like ghosts. I felt their eyes boring holes into my back as I stopped directly across from the purple pony. After I stood there for a few seconds, unmoving, it finally looked up from its all-important paper. A look of surprise was wiped away by a cheerful, ecstatic grin. It looked down at the piece of paper once more, then closed its eyes and furrowed its brow, as if in deep thought. What happened next can only be described as fantastical.
A small sphere of translucent light began to grow from the aliens' horn, which expanded until it fully covered its head, much like my own helmet. But it didn't stop there. The sphere kept increasing in size until the edge of it made contact with my armour. I felt a strange tingle when it touched, yet nothing when it passed harmlessly through my body, doing so as if it was immaterial. Before long, a large area around the table was encompassed within the dome of light.
"Hello? Can you understand me?"
My head twisted so quickly towards the source of the words that I felt my neck crack. The voice that spoke in my native tongue, unfamiliar and feminine, came from the purple pony sitting across from me.
"I'll take that as a yes," the pony—a she, if the voice was anything to go by—continued. "My deepest apologies in regards to the delay of this meeting, Visitor. It's certainly been a process setting up a proper location here in Ponyville, but, well, here we are. Oh—I almost forgot to introduce myself!"
She jumped to her feet and bowed formally, raising a leg to her chest. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria. It is with great honour that I bid you a proper welcome, and extend the hoof of friendship." Her leg remained outstretched towards me. Numbly, I grabbed the hoof as gently as I could manage and shook it.
All of this information suddenly thrust upon me after such a long drought made my brain go into overdrive, neurons firing like automatic weapons. This 'Twilight Sparkle' was speaking to me as if I was a revered guest, a dignitary, an ambassador. Did they truly think that the crash was our landing sequence? No, they couldn't—they've seen the mess of the interior. What did they think my purpose here was, then—an emissary of my entire race? How could I explain that Catherine and I were trapped here without escape, and if I could, what would they think of their revered Visitor when they knew he was stranded?
I shook my head to dispel my rapid-fire thoughts. Despite the goldmine of knowledge I had been bestowed with, there was still more to acquire. I would process this later. Reaching towards the base of my neck, I unclasped the base of my helmet and removed it slowly. I placed it on the table and took a deep breath before speaking.
"You can call me Six," I replied, making eye-contact with Twilight Sparkle. To her credit, she didn't look away, even after she revealed another important piece of information.
"I must ask for forgiveness, but unfortunately, our conversations are relegated to being one-way for the time being. The spell that you see around you—" She motioned towards the purple dome. "—Doesn't have the capability to translate your language. Yet. It'll take some more time until we find the correct iteration, which is why we have a large amount of staff working on solving this conundrum as quickly as possible. Again, we're very sorry about this, Visitor. Please don't be offended."
I quickly shook my head in answer. After seeing that it was still only Twilight Sparkle and I alone at the table, I motioned towards the empty seats. Thankfully, my question was interpreted correctly.
"The members of the council should be arriving here shortly." Twilight Sparkle sighed with equal amounts of relief and anxiousness. "You came earlier than we intended, Visitor. We didn't expect you to be the one initiating contact, and we're thrown for a little bit of a loop." She smiled nervously. "I'm sorry, I'm talking too much, aren't I? I know it's supposed to be my job and all, but still: I'm acting more nervous than when I received my wings."
I didn't understand, so I shook my head again. After deciding that I could use a break from standing, I looked at the chair across from the purple pony. It was many sizes too small, even if I could figure out how I was supposed to sit in it. I slid it out of the way and kneeled in front of the table instead. Even kneeling, I was still looking over Twilight Sparkle. I folded my arms and settled in to wait.
\\\\\
When the members of the council had all arrived, the introductions began immediately. I was familiar with a couple of them already. The council consisted of: Applejack, who was the orange pony that ran the fruit stand and, I learned, a nearby farm which produced the delicious fruits; Rainbow Dash, a blue pony with wings who I didn't recognize—although her multicoloured 'hair' was strangely familiar—was in charge of something called the 'Weather Patrol'; Filthy Rich, a dirt coloured pony whose ancestors were apparently one of the founding families of the town I was in; Cheerilee, who was a teacher of the younger ponies and a slightly brighter purple than Twilight Sparkle; and finally, Lyra Heartstrings, who was the blue-green pony responsible for actively trying to understand and welcome me since the crash. She repeatedly thanked me for my gift, saying that she didn't deserve it. All I could do was shake my head, trying to insist otherwise.
While not difficult names to remember, they were certainly strange, and I was glad they provided a few pieces of paper and a writing utensil. A reference sheet was exactly what I needed, so I wrote down every scrap of information I acquired.
Strangely, there was only one male, this 'Filthy Rich', amongst the seated ponies. Maybe they had a matriarchal society; I'd have to ask when I could. Even odder was that they referred to themselves as 'ponies'—their own word, not mine—which was exactly what Catherine thought they were at first. Was that a coincidence, or was this 'spell' simply translating words that made sense to me? What was this spell, anyway? This sphere of light was completely foreign—I had never seen anything like it previously. Instead of raw strength and technology, which were both quite lacking from what I had seen, it seemed they had these spells to compensate. I pondered how many they had access to, and the specifications of what each did. Perhaps they weren't as vulnerable as I previously thought.
My musings were interrupted when Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat. Immediately, all of the ponies who were not sitting at the table began filing out every which way. In less than fifteen seconds, they had all dispersed.
"Now that everypony has made their introductions, we can get started with the discussion. I'd like to thank you again, Visitor, for choosing to participate and humbling us with your presence."
I snorted. Others being humbled in my presence? I never thought I'd see the day. Twilight Sparkle took no notice of the noise I made, however. After consulting a clipboard in front of her, she continued.
"Lyra, would you like to start? I know your question has been bothering you ever since you set foot into the star-traveler."
All eyes turned, including mine, turned towards Lyra Heartstrings, who had been idly fiddling with the Rubik's Cube. She swallowed nervously before nodding.
"I-I was wondering, V-Visitor, if your friend has recovered from their grievous wounds. Both myself and Fluttershy have been worried sick that we didn't do enough. They are okay, right?"
I nodded. After thinking for a second, I used two of my fingers and 'walked' them along the table.
"They have recovered enough to walk?"
I nodded again.
Lyra sighed with relief. "That is... very good to hear. I'll let Fluttershy know as soon as the meeting is over. And if there's anything else..."
I met her gaze and nodded slowly, once.
"Good! Great!" Lyra paused for a moment with her mouth open, then closed it. "I have a hundred questions, but they can wait until the important stuff—"
"Important stuff like the dust cloud hanging over our heads?" interrupted Rainbow Dash. "Or the things in the Everfree going crazy 'cause something fell out of the sky on top of them? How about those for a start?"
"Dash!" exclaimed Twilight Sparkle, a look approaching horror on her face.
Rainbow Dash grunted. "Sorry, Twilight. Been a stressful couple of days, that's all." She hadn't yet looked me in the eye, even during her earlier outburst. "There's a storm coming," she began, staring at the table. "Big one. Big enough that the whole patrol can't steer it away, and when it gets here, it'll rain mud for a week. All the crops will be ruined. Some roofs might collapse. Everypony is going to be miserable, dirty, and brown."
Filthy Rich coughed.
"Uh, no offense, Rich."
"None taken. How long until the storm reaches Ponyville?"
Rainbow Dash tapped the table a few times with a hoof. "A few days. A week at the most." She turned towards me, her eyes hard but cautious. "I'm sure you didn't mean to cause us problems, Visitor, but you've given us one heck of a big mess to clean up. There are a bunch of ponies, me included, who would've preferred it if you never showed up in the first place."
They had no idea I wished for the same thing, and I had no way to tell them, so I did the only thing I could.
I nodded.
It was going to be a long meeting.
Stats
Page generated in 0.033 seconds
Total duration
841 users online
1,344,389 hits today, 2,571,732 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
...
What the...
Well, okay then. That certainly is a twist.
Well, shit.
you enjoy tormenting us with cliffhangers and other such things I believe. Six definitely ain't dead though, I'm more than certain.
da fuq
da fuq just happened
..........
*blink*
..........
*blink**blink*
..........
*blink*
.........
What?
Why are all of my favorite stories suddenly ending chapters as cliffhangers?
Still a great chapter, though.
Damn... So there's more then one.
AAAAAAAAH!!! I CAN'T TAKE IT! I HAVE TO KNOW!!!
Wait, what?
Damn, you just had to use a Language translation spell. I hate that spell and its ilk.
Then how the hell is it doing it? You can't say its beaming the thoughts into his head or anything, thoughts don't work that way. You actually think in a language. Simple to prove, think One, then think Uno. You thought different things, and unless the spell knows what to turn it into, it shouldn't work either way.
BESIDES that, the chapters fine.
juggernaut armor is suppose to be kevlar, a lightweight mat that can take more than one bullet, even at point blank how did he get shot and black out? (assuming his helmet is still on)
3962726 he took the helmet off.
3962726
This also isn't your CoD juggernauts either.
3962726 Kevlar stops smaller bullets. Rifle bullets are no guarantee. That said, the energy from the impact still has to go somewhere. Suppose I was wearing armor that would stop a 50BMG (outside of armored vehicles, it doesn't exist) despite the round being stopped by the armor, the nearly NINE THOUSAND POUNDS of kinetic energy carried by the bullet would still be transferred into my body.
In short, no bullet hole but still dead from traumatic injuries.
3962797 He's a juggernaut,He can deal with a single shot point blank to the head....He also is a Six,So here hoping he pulls a new vegas and ends up being as hard to kill as courier Six
Whoa whoa whoa wait what?!
3962514
I thought of the spell as more 'programmable', in layman's terms, and would require some effort beforehand to calibrate it to specific languages. Equestrian would have already been added to the 'database', as well as any other race's language that the ponies had been in contact with (Griffins, Minotaurs, etc.) It certainly seemed better than the common "Oh, I can translate exactly what this alien is saying just like that. Why? Because magic!"
Hmm.
He took his helmet off, so he could be suffering from a severe graze.
Or shot in the chest armor.
Or just pass out from sudden loud Bang.
3962876
But I say Sir, What about kinetic force dampeners?(damperners?Demperners? forgot how to spell it...)
Would they work?
3963802 On a person? No. generally they work by either slowly absorbing the energy using hydraulics or spring setups. Would be way too unwieldy for a person to wear.
Case and point, the solder below took a 7.62x39 round (at range) to the hard plates in his vest and is still bruised like that. Considering it was in AFG, I'd say range was 1-300 yards or so, so the bullet was at 2/3 ish energy. Mind you, without more data I'm just winging the numbers.
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/10/29/article-1324767-0BCF9AF3000005DC-631_306x704.jpg
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/10/29/article-1324767-0BCF9B98000005DC-780_634x332.jpg
My bet is, that there was a mutiny onboard his ship!
Some juggernauts went berserk, renegade or something and tried to seize control of the ship for whatever reason, but then the ship was hit by something and had to crashland, unfortunately Six didn't belong to the group of traitors, and was left on his cryobed. And now the survivor juggernauts went all predator apeshit on the ponies, because they want to dominate them, possibly use them to repair the ship? Or just trying to take over the village whatever.
Either Six has 1 juggernaut deserter to deal with or a few more, but I'd find it better if it's just one 'evil' juggernaut who went loco.
3962978 One does not simply kill a character with Six in their title.
3963816
hm...so the T series of power armor from Fallout couldnt be possible then?
3963310 But for it to work either way, it would require you to know both languages (or who ever designed the spell would). And that isn't the case here. Languages are VERY tricky, for you can't just translate the words, but also the syntax. If you do just the words, at best you would get Yoda-speak, at worst something completely off the mark, for the word could mean different things in different situations. And all that's if you knew what word would translate to what. Which they don't.
Yes, your usage of the Translation spell is better than most, but it is still a translation spell, which if our translation technology is any indication, would be incredibly complicated to get good. And that's when we know both languages.
Hmm… now it's time to know the durability of juggernauts… is he Alucard-Hellsing level, or simply Space Marine level? By the way, what were juggernauts made to fight again? Another species, or some sort of civil uprising? I kinda got lost on that part.
Think about it guys... There were 3 Juggernauts we're missing not including "Six" And
These are enough proof that the other juggernauts just assaulted the House
static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121024105609/callofduty/images/f/fa/Armor_Piercing_Load_Screen_MW2.png
GAME ON!!!!
3964326 they are working on something similar, but not for another decade or so minimum
3963816 One hard ass marine took a 50.BMG to the chest and came with something like 7-9 broken ribs, a fractured everything. There have been cases of people surviving a 50. BMG round however, so whatev's.
3965352 the two most common of those are both incorrect. One marine was hit by 7.62x54R from a PSL.
The other was from (pretty much) a zip gun. It was going nowhere near the velocity of a BMG.
The issue armor is designed to protect against 30 cal and smaller threats. Those are 3500 foot pounds of energy or less. A .50 is far more energy. The guy would have to be hidden behind over an inch of armor plate (if non AP ammo was used) for any shot of survival. If AP would need 3"+
3965670 Wrong man, bro. I remember a distinct story in which a Marine took a 50 BMG fired from a friendly who had misidentified. Round almost pierced his body armor and gave him a broken everything.
Another story is this.
--starkadder
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-457132.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110414170655AAfshHg
You may not believe it, but simply go look up "stories of people who have survived 50bmg" or some such shit.
You have to take into account that not all of the energy imparted upon the bullet is going to be transferred to the target, most of it is simply kept with the bullet so that it may pass through. Especially with such a high velocity round, it is even more likely to only impart a fraction of that energy, however high it may be.
3965772 Huh, thats kind of neat. I'll openly admit that there are chances of survival. Just saying a hit to the sternum/thoracic area will *usually* be fatal.
The fact that someone's armor actually stopped a .50 is damn near incredible, and this is coming from personal experience with putting 50's through AR500 steel and a few ESAPI plates.
I really wish I took video of the destructive testing we did on 2 of em a few years back. One plate took a stupid amount of punishment and didn't let a round through. 100rds of 223, 100 of x39, 100 9mm, 100 .45, and 100 .357 magnum.
The other one, we put .338 laupa, 50bmg, and a single 20mm cannon round through. That was a freaking fun afternoon
Crazy thing was when we cut open the plate for the first test. It was pretty much full of ceramic and steel shards, but still worked.
3964326 A powered exoskeleton is a bit different for two reasons which make it possible to stop larger projectiles.
First is simple mass. Any powered armor would at least double the mass of the wearer which will cut the velocity change of the user's torso in half due to conservation of momentum.
Second is the nature of the powered frame. The armor of a powered exoskeleton is supported by the frame rather than the wearer like the soldier that was wearing those ballistic plates, so the energy of the impact will be taken by the frame rather than the wearer of the armor and then directed into the ground through the frame's continuous load path.
When taken together along with some other engineering details, this makes it entirely possible to create an exoskeleton capable of stopping a .50 BMG without trouble, although it would wind up weighing hundreds of pounds with modern technology.
3962151 This.
I'm confused now.
3967796
Off to recruiting mister universe then.
3968462
So about that reply...
Missing end period.
Six, you are hereby charged with collaborating with the cute cuddly enemy! Your punishment is sixteen hours' tickling in the brig.
3968926 Uh, the whole point of powered armor is that it supports its own weight (as well as the weight of any equipment attached to it) so the user does not have to.
3962866 so you think that saying that it isnt a cod juggarnaut helpful when people give scientific evidence?
3962797 when?
Ok so I'm confused now is it their enemies that have came and attacked them or something, I know that it's more humans that came, why can't any story like this ever not have violence or something, though since he was an juggernaut so I shouldn't be surprised.
3970582 Yeah...about that...
3973128
The "Dark" tag is there for a reason.
3973473
Good point I'm waiting for Six to go all Badass on the people who attacked them, though if he doesn't that's cool too! Mostly reading it for the Sci-Fi stuff!
Yeah this story has been pretty awesome thus far
.
Hope you will continue this story (and The Visitor, because the human/pony perspective is pretty cool, like "Sparkle Logs"), welcome back to the site and have a lovely day
Pls more i listend to the one reading that was just one chapter ive been looking fore so long
nice, but the real question is "Why is there a spell that translates equestrian language to human language?"
8447597
ehuehueheueheu