Are We Alone?: A Spore Story

by Heat Horn

The Collision of Two Worlds

The citizens of Ponyville are going about their lives peacefully, completely oblivious to the alien spacecraft hovering above them...

"Nibon please be careful to stay out of the planets orbit this time, we can't risk getting seen" Morbus tweaked a lever on the dashboard of the main ship control panel which caused the ships engines to slowly come to a stop

"Relax Morby, last time was an accident... trust me it won't happen again" Nibon said as he flipped on the ships cloaking device on, just to be extra careful

"I'm just worried that's all..." Morbus said as he prepared the transportation beam. Their ship was originally meant for the colonization and the tearraformation of planets, however... recently Morbus and Nibon decided that they would take on the universe as captains and not just a simple division ship. They traversed the universe looking for planets to colonize and to expand their empire, but Nibon had also purchased many other tools and weapons, that would make the ship a little more prepared and adaptable.

"So are we ready?" Morbus said as he opened the socialization window in the monitor. Morbus' claw hovered over and icon that looked like a monument.

"Wait a sec, what if this race turns out to be violent and aggressive?" Nibon reasoned as he recalled what had happened the last time they tried to elevate a race

Seriously though, it's not like Spode is real or anything Even though the Birdie Empire is a large and flourishing one,
they still fear the followers of Spode, mostly due to the fact that it takes 12 of their ships to match up to one of the 'Spodes Followers' ships.

"C'mon relax I mean they don't look harmful, well maybe the one with the horn could be a little dangerous, but seriously I don't think that they would, or even could hurt anyone" Morbus said as he gave the anatomy of the skeletal scans another look over

"We don't even know what they are yet, let alone their history, or their racial behaviour... but I do know for a fact that they're all herbivores..." Nibon had recognized the jaw structure that the scans showed, it was distinctly herbivorous. Nibon wasn't one for learning, he barely knew what to do in terms of terraforming a planet, but he did know what each body part did and what kind of body parts could be found on an animal. Nibon had been working in a research laboratory before being recruited for the fleet, even if he had no piloting experience, Morbus had insisted that his skills could be put to use in the terraformation of planets and how to stabilize their T scores

Morbus closed the Window on the monitor and looked Nibon in the eye "I always wanted to try communicating with an alien race... face-to-face..." Morbus had always dreamed of meeting a new race and actually talking to them and teaching them how to build and use ships, but he never got to do that since he became a space pilot right around the time that the new technology called the "Monolith" was born

"You can't be serious... right?" Nibon didn't like the idea of putting they're lives at stake by actually beaming themselves down and communicating with another race, that wasn't declared space worthy

"I totally serious, but I have a plan... instead of going to the top figures of this race lets start small and you know meet with the 'locals'

"I'm still not so sure about this, I mean we would be putting our lives at stake by going down there..." Nibon hadn't had the best experience when it came to beaming down to planets, the last time he beamed down was to collect an artefact but suddenly an Epic showed up out of nowhere and scared him stiff. To this day he still thinks it's his fault that they failed the mission

"Why? What are you so worried about... why don't you stay here and I'll go talk to them?" Morbus reasoned, tryiing his best to get his partner to accept his offer

"Umm... *sigh* ok then, if you really want to this, just try not to get hurt..." Nibon finally gave in to his partners request and walked over to the monitor

It took about an hour to calibrate the transportation beam, and another hour to get morbus in gear and ready for what ever situation he might find himself in

"Ok, I'm ready let's do this!" Morbus said as he stepped into the beam chamber and closed his eyes

"I'll talk to you when your down there..." Nibon pressed the beam button lightly and sent Morbus towards the planet in the form of an ionised beam of matter

"This is Morbus to control do you read me control?" Morbus asked as he shook off the initial feeling of being beamed down to the planets surface

Even after 10 years of being a captain and I still haven't gotten used to it Even though Morbus was a very experienced captain, and a trained planetary explorer he still hasn't gotten used to the feeling of getting beamed down from his ship

"This Is control I read you loud and clear, what is the status of the atmosphere?" Nibon tweaked the radio frequency of his communicator so that he had no static interruption

"Atmosphere readings suggest that the air is breathable and it also confirms that it is indeed a T3 atmosphere" Morbus looked at the many meters on his suit trying to make out whether the atmosphere would sustain him

"Do not risk taking of your helmet, proceed to taking exploratory data, you have 5 hours standard galactic time, according to protocol" Nibon said as he tracked Morbus using the positioning system on the ship and which was connected to Morbus' suit

"Ok control, Morbus out" Morbus tucked his communicator back into his left wrist slot and began walking around the planets surface, the first thing he noticed was that the gravity of the planet was a little bit less than his home planets gravity

"Well I guess I should take geographical samples..." Morbus bent down and used the portable scanner on his suit to scan the ground beneath him. The readings on his suit told him that the ground was very fertile and didn't show any trace of artificial chemical or pollution.

"Hmmm... I wonder if they have any forms of technology yet?" Morbus thought to himself after seeing how untouched and clean the earth below him was. He then walked over to a near by stream and filled a vial of water...

Wow this has to be the cleanest fresh water iv'e ever seen... Morbus said as he put the vile into the centrifuge and checked the readings.

"There sure is alot of trees here, I wonder if they are edible to the locals" Morbus thought as he scraped some bark off of one of the near by trees. His suit said otherwise, the trees apparently showed traces of Astatine, a very toxic substance to his race.

"Ok so maybe what's poisonous to us won't be poisonous to them?" He thought as he stepped away from the trees

He then walked towards the end of the tree line and noticed a pathway towards what looked like a settlement...

"Well I guess it's time to try and make first contact with the locals..." He said as he walked towards the small settlement. It didn't take Morbus long to find the settlement and fly to it, he was able to maintain a stealthy profile even as he approached the settlements borders

I hope their friendly... Morbus thought as he looked at the architecture. Judging form the material the buildings were made from and the overall design of the buildings he was able to conclude that the race that occupied this planet was still way behind, technologically anyway.

Since Morbus knew about the importance of the first impressions he decided that it would be best to look for some of the more learned beings of the race. While he was thinking about the hierarchy of the race another thought sprung to mind...

What will their culture be like, and more so their food... well they are herbivores He thought as he approached the settlements main path

---

Twilight had just woken up form a good nights sleep, she woke up feeling very calm and relaxed... only to jump into panic as she saw what was on her desk... an unfinished research paper. Noticing the unfinished paper she immediately got out of bad and trotted straight to her desk to resume work on coming up with the name for the project she was tasked with. After about an hour of thinking and alot of crumpled scrolls she was interrupted by spike, who was in the middle of waking up.

"*yawn* Twilight... you up?" Spike asked groggily before looking at her bed for confirmation, then around the room to find out if she was there, and sure enough he saw her at her desk writing down Celestia knows what.

"Twilight? Did you stay up all night just finishing that project? Do you want some breakfast at least?" Spike got out of his bed and walked up to Twilight. Once he saw what she was writing he got very confused...

"Introduction, Evolution, Second Phase, Planting,... Twilight what is this stuff?" Spike asked as he stared at the gibberish on the paper

"Spike this is important, go make some breakfast..." Twilight said before writing down even more words, only to cross them out again..

"Ok... but try not to stay up all night doing these things Twilight, it can't be healthy for you." Spike said as he walked down the stairs to the kitchen

It's a miracle Twilight has no signs of sleep deprivation, wait did she sleep last night or not? Spike was not one to question Twilight but that didn't mean he didn't care about her. Spike turned on the burner to the stove and placed a pot over it.

"Hmm... we need to get new magic canisters" Spike said as he checked the meters that showed how much fuel was left in the stove

"SPIKE!" Spike cringed slightly at the volume of Twilights voice, but he turned down the burner to a low flame and began walking back up the stairs

"Yes Twilight?" Spike asked as he entered Twilights room. Twilight had not been cleaning out her room much in the past few days, it was usually his job to clean anyway, but he found it odd that Twilight had been out of the house so much lately.

Maybe I should ask her where she's been... maybe later Spike said as he walked over to Twilight and pulled up a chair next to her

"Spike, I have to rename project First Contact but I just can't decide what, and I also havetostartworkingonetheactualprojectandIneedyourhelp!!" Twilight said as she looked at Spike waiting for and answer

"What?!" Spike sat beside Twilight in a confused daze, he was used to Twilights speedy rants... but this time his brain broke

"Ugh! Never mind, could you just call of the rest of our friends into the dinning room?" Twilight said before looking back at the scroll in front of her

A realization dawned on Spike...

"Oh my gosh, I left breakfast unattended!!" Spikes worries were confirmed when the smell of burning hay fries filled the room. Spike immediately left Twilights room and made a break for the kitchen, but it already to late... the hay fries he had been cooking had already been burned and rendered inedible

*sniff* *sniff* "Hmm... that's peculiar, I don't smell anything... well I hope Spike made enough breakfast for all of us" Twilight was a princess, this was true, but she still couldn't smell the distinct aroma of burning food. Twilight hadn't cooked since she was a little filly, and the only things she could cook were fried mushrooms, a few salads, and caramel apples.

"Well back to work, I guess..." Twilight said as she walked back to her desk and sat down. Twilight spent a good 20 minutes writing down possible names until she decided that she should look in the files for the project for inspiration. That's when she saw the many pictures of plant life form planet Equus, some of the plants she saw intrigued her...

They used a form of spore as a fuel? That's a bit weird, but I guess if it works then why not use it... She thought to herself as she read the file.

...The machine that project First Contact used was powered by a form of spore from a plant found in Hoofrica. The plants scientific name was based of off it's ability to blend in with it's surrondings, Laccaria laccata. The locals of Hoofrica know the plant as 'The Deciever'... Twilight read on and decided...

"If it was a spore that fuelled the first project, then it's only natural that I name the project after them..." Twilight levitated a new scroll to her desk and wrote two words on the top... 'Project Spore'

---

As Morbus walked along the path to the alien settlement he calibrated his translator to 'read mode' which allowed him to match the language of the creatures to one he understood, to hopefully get passed the language barrier. He saw the first structure on the path...

It was a quaint hut that looked a bit small but was very well built, the walls were made of a form of cobble stone, and the roof looked like it was some sort of plant matter. The entire structure sported a bright yellow colour, and the landscape around it was very well kept. Morbus also noticed that there were several pens containing different animals all around the house

Well here goes nothing... Morbus walked up to the door of the small house and tapped it lightly with his talon. He waited for a good 5 minutes with no reply, so he tried to open the door... and, to his surprise, it opened.

The room was dimly lit but enough daylight was getting in through the windows that he could see everything. He walked inside slowly and made sure that he made no noise as he scanned every object and creature in the room. Even though Morbus didn't find any sentient life in the room he did notice a lot of non-sentient animals crawling all over the place.

"They have beast masters here?" Morbus thought as he quietly strode through the room. He finally came to the end of his scanning spree when his eyes met a set of stairs.

Should I?... Morbus thought as he debated whether he should go up stairs without permission. He knew that if he was caught his first impression would be that of a thief so he decided against it. Suddenly he heard a small gasp outside but pushed it off as his paranoia

Morbus made his way towards the door and quietly exited the cottage and walked back onto the path but before he could take two steps, he saw something out of the corner of his eyes...

---

Spike had just finished remaking breakfast and was now in the process of getting everypony else downstairs. It was pretty easy convince Fluttershy and Applejack, for both of them knew the importance of breakfast, but Rainbow had been very stuborn... mostly due to the fact that she preferred to sleep until half the day was gone before she actually got up. Rarity had been especially tricky because he had a hard time keeping his cool around her. Discord actually wasn't that resistant and was glad to go downstairs for breakfast. Spike was currently walking over to Twilights room...

"Twilight? I made breakfast again, do you wanna come down and eat?" Spike said as he gently pushed the door open

"Just a minute Spike I finanlly named the project, I have to write down the important stuff from the files..." Twilight said without looking away form her desk

"Ok Twi but try to show up before all of our friends finish this time, please?" Spike said slightly regretting his almost caretaker like position at the castle

Spike just simply closed the door not even trying again, because he knew that when Twilight was caught up in her studies she wouldn't budge no matter who was asking. Spike calmly walked down the stairs to the main living room and walked over to the dining hall, he pushed open the door and slowly walked over to the dining table.

"Where's Twilight?" Rarity asked as she sipped her tea

"She said she needs a few minutes, but she will be joining us I assure you" Spike said as he took a few rubies form the nearby plate

"Jeez sometimes I wonder who takes care of who, I mean Spike cooks, cleans, and makes sure Twilight gets enough sleep! I mean who does that?" Rainbow said as she hovered over her chair

"Rainbow you know it's impolite to fly while your eating right?" Pinkie said with a mouth full of hayckaes.

"Well looks who's calling the kettle black..." Discord mumbled under his breath while he blew on his coffee. Discord wasn't really a morning type, and was usually quite grumpy in the early hours

"Well maybe she has a good reason for not being able to do all those things, you know with her being a scholar and all... I mean if that's what you guys think" Fluttershy said as she tried her best to defend Twilight

"Well it would be nice to have some help every once in a while... thanks by the way " Spike said as he took a haycake with a sapphire topping while looking at Applejack

"I just hope that she actually makes it to breakfast." Applejack said as she bit into an apple pie. Even though Applejack knew that Spike was going to make breakfast she insisted that she would help by making another course

"I see you're already eating..." Twilight said as she walked into the dining hall and pulled up a chair right next to Discord and Rarity

"Oh hello Twilight, I didn't see you come in" Rarity said as she looked watched Twilight levitate a plate and utensils to the place mat in front of her

"Well I said that I would be in time for breakfast?" Twilight said as she levitated a haycake and a slice of apple pie to her plate and a bottle of maple syrup to her side

"You did manage to finish whatever you were doing right?" Spike said, doubtful that Twilight would actually put her studies on hold.

"Not really I actually wanted to ask you guys a few questions while we were having breakfast" Twilight said as she used her horn to lift a quill and a note pad to her side, while also layering her haycake with a good helping of maple syrup

At the mention of being asked questions at breakfast made all her friends roll their eyes and let out an aggravated sigh. Twilight didn't usually as her friends to answer questions for her studies during meal times but she deemed that this topic needed special attention...

Breakfast went by relatively fast while Twilights friends tried to finish their food as quickly as possible as to avoid answering to many question at such an early hour

"Oh my, I actually forgot to do something back at my cottage umm... if you could just excuse me for a few minutes, I have to feed my animals breakfast" Fluttershy said as she recalled that her animals hadn't been fed yet due to the fact that she had slept over at the castle

"Oh sure Flutttershy go ahead" Twilight said while half ignoring her.

Fluttershy didn't hesitate and quickly ran out of the castle and began her journey towards her cottage. As she approached her house however, she noticed that the door was slightly ajar and decided to sneak towards her house. Fluttershy may has had encounters with animals from the Everfree before but none of them actually went into her house, so she concluded that this animal may be a very curious one or a very intelligent one.

I hope it's friendly... She thought as she slowly pushed the door open, making sure that it didn't creak. What she saw made her jump back and let out a small squeal, the creature she saw looked nothing like anything she had ever seen... instead of feathers, fur, or scales she saw a metallic skin and what looked like glass on it's head. The only features she could make out was that it had talons like one of her birds and had arms with those same talons. She also saw that it had blinking lights all over itself and was shooting what looked like a sheet of light at every one of her animals

Fluttershy heard hoofsteps moving closer to the door and she quickly made a bolt for the nearest bush opposite her door. She observed the creature exit and push what looked like buttons on it's skin.

She suddenly slipped on a twig but she was quick to recover, but she quickly saw that she didn't recover fast enough. The creature turned it's head until the glass was directed in her general direction...

---

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Morbus said as he looked towards where he though he saw the movement come from. He didn't receive a reply so he walked over to the bushes and looked around. Morbus looked hard into the shrubbery until he saw something odd...

Is that leaf pink?! Morbus thought as he moved his talon towards the oddly coloured bush. That's when he received quite a shock, the leaf moved... he quickly jumped back and charged his plasma pulser

"Hello?! Who are you?" Morbus said as he looked at the bush and waited for something to come out...

---

It can talk? at least I think it just spoke? Fluttershy thought to herself as she observed that awkward coordination in the tweets that it exhibited

Ok Fluttershy it's just another animal, all you have to do is befriend it... She thought as she observed it's startled movement and concluded that it had seen her move

"Umm... hello? I'm Fluttershy what's your name?" Fluttershy said quite softly, The creature seemed to respond by looking at it's wrist and suddenly a sheet of light came out and displayed an array of weird looking characters and symbols

Maybe it didn't her me? she thought to herself as she gathered the courage to walk out of her hiding place and confront the creature directly...

Ok here goes nothing... Fluttershy thought as she slowly walked out of her hiding spot

---

"What? was all Mobus could say at the reading on his suit, which suggested that the language that the creature in the bush had just spoken was an exact match to one of the languages that he already knew 'Equinese'. The language 'Equinese' was thought to be a dead language and thus he was mocked for studying it back at AST (Advanced Space Training).

Suddenly he noticed that the creature had moved out of it's hiding place and was now standing only a few feet away form him. To Morbus this moment was momentous as he could communicate with an alien race up close and didn't even have to use his translator.

"Umm... My name is Fluttershy, who are you? Umm... if you don't mind me asking, please don't hurt me" Fluttershy said as she hid herself behind her mane

Morbus quickly regained his composure and answered as best he could...

"I am Morbus... umm... Captain 18001 of the fleet Andromeda 3, representing the Birdie Empire" He said as he recalled the standard galactic greeting, he then re-debated the choice of taking of his helmet. Morbus' mind was made up, since the atmosphere was T3 and Nibon wouldn't know whether or not he took of his helmet... he twisted the valve of the helmet, which caused Fluttershy to jump back a bit, then he slowly took of his helmet and then inhaled deeply.

The air is so fresh here... Morbus thought as he breathed in the sweet smelling air

"*Ahem* Umm... could you take me to one of your scholars?" Morbus tried to sound as friendly as he could, and to his amazement it seemed to work. Fluttershy motioned for him to follow her and trotted back to the settlement

"Come with me I can show you one of our most intelligent ponies..." Fluttershy said meekly as she thought of how Twilight would react to having an unexpected visit...especially form a creature that was intelligent and seemed to come form another place altogether. She also noticed that the creat- Morbus was wearing some sort of suit and his skin was actually feathery in nature, she was thankful to see that his real face isn't that of a glass panel. Along with this she observed that Morbus' eyes and beak were very eagle like and indicated that he may be a omnivore... or worse, a carnivore.

"Thank you so much umm... Fluttershy right?" Morbus said as he recalled the 'pony's' name. Morbus wasn't one for memorizing anything but since this moment was incredibly crucial he forced his mind to remember every detail he saw.

It has wings... like me... they look exactly like mine!.. only smaller Morbus said as he observed a pair of wings on either of Fluttershys sides

The two went to 'Ponyville', as Morbus was told was the settlement name, he was met with a few awkward stares form more of the locals and a few of them waved a Fluttershy and even him. By the way that Fluttershy reacted to the gesture he concluded that it was a gesture of kindness and probably greeting. Their journey was full of idle discussion which resulted them getting to know each other a bit more.

"Well were here..." Fluttershy said as she stopped at the door of the crystal castle

"I don't mean to be rude, but are we going to be meeting r-royalty?" Morbus asked while terrified by the thought of making the wrong move and completely ruining the integrity of his image and discrediting his empire. This is why he wanted to get to know the locals first, he didn't expect for there to be an incredibly important political figure all the way in an outlying settlement.

"Oh no Twilight is a princess but she doesn't like to be treated like one, but if you want to know, it's polite to bow to royalty here." Fluttershy said as she pushed the doors open and revealed the big entrance hall and throne room. Fluttershy had grown to trust this new creature and didn't hesitate to try to help him in any way she could.

Oh my god, I hope that this 'princess' is forgiving and understanding Morbus thought as he imagined all sorts of senarios in which everything goes horribly wrong.

---

"Twilight! Twilight!" Fluttershy called as she burst into the dining hall, causing all of the ponies within to flinch and Twilight to jump out of her seat

"What is it Fluttershy?! Is there something wrong?" Twilight said as she stared at her friend with a worried look on face. Fluttershy always panicked, this was true, but Twilight noticed that she also had a hint of excitement in her voice when she was calling her name.

At this point all of the others had taken this opportunity to bolt out of the room and trot quietly up the stairs. Twilight noticed this but she was to occupied with Fluttershy to say or do anything about it

"Well? tell me what is it?" Twilight said as she waited for Fluttershy to regain her breath. Twilight was completely unaware that what would happen next would push her project ahead a few thousand years...

"Umm...Twilight there was this thing outsidemyhouseandIpanickedand-and-andIthinkit'sanalienandit'soutsiderightnow!!" Fluttershy said in her regular voice and her fastest ranting tone ever.

"Woah wait what?! Fluttershy are you saying that you met an alien and he's outside right now!?!?!" Twilight said using the bits and pieces of what she understood and put 2 and 2 together.

"Yes and I kinda-sorta lead him here coz he wanted to talk -to somepony that was very intelligent... please don't hate me."

"Wait he think that I'm very intelligent?" Twilight said no quite understanding what her friend had said. She then concluded that she would go meet this new creature up close, she knew of the importance of first impression

Twilight levitated her crown towards her and put it on If he thinks that I'm royalty then I must act like such Twilight thought as she slowly pushed open the door of the dining hall but her composure completely faded into amazement when she saw the creature in front of her...

"Oh my Celestia..." was all Twilight could say before fainting...

Author's Note:

That was quite an interesting first encounter, right? I wonder what will happen next?

Comments

[Race9000]

I love the story so far. Other than a few grammatical errors I have noticed, it's coming along very well.

[Heat Horn]

4621856

I'm glad that you like it FreezeFlame, but when you say a few grammatical errors pls. enumerate. Thank you

[thekrowhunter]

sigh twilight faint's from an alien but this dosen't i am dissoponit

[The almighty bread god]

>Birdie Empire
I had a species which I called the Birdy Empire.
That's either an awesome coincidence, or you snuck into my house and onto my computer.