When Worlds Unite Up

by The card holder

Operation E-01: First Contact

“Are you sure there even is anything here, Twi?” Rainbow Dash called out, sticking her head between a couple of trees.

“I know what I saw, Dash. And I’d like to find what it was before anything goes horribly wrong. That’s why I brought you and everypony else,” Twilight said, gesturing to her other friends, who were also looking around the area around them.

Dash scoffed. “Horribly wrong? Come on Twi, we’ve already taken out bigger guys before, what can a few aliens do to us?”

“Ah think she has a point, Rainbow,” Applejack cut in. “Best to err on the side o’ caution with things like this.”

“Still, did we have to be dragged out of bed at six in the morning?” Rarity complained. “That’s barely enough time for any beauty sleep!”

While they rolled their eyes at Rarity’s dramatics, the rest of them kept moving forward, looking for any signs of any sort of aliens.

However, they had been searching for a while, now, and so far they had yet to find anything. Maybe Twilight really did hallucinate seeing that flying red thing?

These thoughts were immediately dispelled by Dash’s announcement. “Hey, I think I found something!”

The other five (Spike had fallen right back asleep once he had sent a letter to Celestia) crowded around Dash, where she was looking past some bushes into a clearing. There, an odd sight lay before the ponies.

Four unknown creatures lay on the ground, not too far away from each other. As expected, Fluttershy immediately rushed to their sides. After a few seconds of inspection, she sighed. “They’re just knocked out,” she told the others.

When the others followed her into the clearing, they got a good look at the creatures. They looked rather similar to monkeys, minus the fur on all but the tops of their heads. Their hair colors ranged from yellow to pink to blue, not unlike the diverse hair colors of ponies. The yellow-haired one even had a thick pair of glasses on.

What was strange, though, was that apart from a bit of dirt in the pink one’s hair, they were mostly untouched. Not only that, but there weren’t any signs of any sort of crash nearby, which didn’t make sense, given what Twilight had seen.

Putting her mild confusion aside, Twilight turned to her friends, who were just as puzzled.

At least, except for Pinkie. She had a look on her face that was somewhere between ecstatic and scared. “Ohmigosh, aliens! What if they came to invade us?! Or what if they need help?! Do you think they like parties? Ooh, what if-”

The unending speech was cut off by a hoof from Applejack, to the relief of the others.

“So… what do we do?” Dash asked.

“We can’t just leave them here,” Fluttershy interjected. “Who knows what might happen to them?”

“Besides,” Applejack added, “if they are aliens, Ah think it’d be pretty important t’ find out why they’re here.”

Twilight nodded in agreement. But before she could say anything, Dash butted in. “Wait, you saying we should just take these aliens in, no questions asked?”

“Rainbow, the whole point is t’ ask them questions,” Applejack reminded her.

“Right, but what if it’s a trap or something! They’re aliens, how can we trust them off the bat?”

Twilight sighed. “If they do turn out to be hostile, I’m sure we can handle it. For now, let’s just get them back to Ponyville.”

As they picked up the four creatures, Pinkie suddenly stopped and sniffed the air. “Huh… weird.”

“What’s wrong, Pinks?” Dash asked.

“For some reason, I think I can smell… pizza.”

“Ah’m sure you’re just imaginin’ things,” Applejack said, leading the way with the yellow-haired alien on her back.

“Hmm… yeah, you’re probably right.”

As the six of them left the clearing, they didn’t notice the rustling in the bushes behind them, followed by muffled whining in a French accent.

---

Will Wedgewood could feel himself stirring, resting on an oddly hard surface. As consciousness returned to him, he slowly opened his eyes, revealing a crystalline ceiling above him. Turning, he saw that he was actually resting on what looked like a couch made out of gemstone, and not too far away were the others.

In a pair of beds were Mariana and Luka, both of whom looked to still be unconscious. On the floor was Elliot, equally out of it.

Across the room however was something he didn’t expect in the slightest. Sitting in a char was what looked to be a purple horse, which also had wings and a horn. It was sound asleep, lightly snoring, with an open book on a desk next to it. From the looks of things, it seemed like it was writing down something, which didn’t make much sense, given the lack of any appendages suited for writing.

Thoroughly confused, but with his wits still about him, Will slowly got up, making sure to not disturb the weird horse-thing. “Team,” he whispered, checking if the others were up, and only acting asleep. Nobody responded. Slowly, he tip-toed over to the nearest one, Elliot, and tapped him lightly with his foot. “Blue, wake up!” he whispered, only getting a few unclear grumbles in response.

Making sure the horse was still asleep, Will bent down and started shaking Elliot’s shoulders. “Wake up, Blue!” he whispered again, hoping to get a reaction out of his teammate. Eventually, he got a response, and his eyes shot wide. Will motioned to keep quiet, though, and pointed to the sleeping horse. Elliot caught on immediately, and slowly got to his feet.

“You sure I’m not still dreaming, Red?” he asked, still whispering.

“Positive. Just help me get the others up, and we’ll figure out what to do.”

Nodding at each other, they each went to one of the other Wonderful Ones, doing their best to remain silent. Elliot reached Luka first, and quietly shook his shoulders. Once he was awake, he motioned to the situation at hand, which he quickly caught on to.

Meanwhile, Will crept up to the sleeping form of Mariana, who looked to be enjoying her sleep, no matter how forced it was. Carefully, he tried to shake her awake, only getting her to mumble something in response. He tried again, only to get the same result.

Elliot, seeing that Will was having trouble getting her to wake up, walked over. “Hold on, I have an idea,” he whispered. Since he wasn’t having much success, Will stepped aside.

Clearing his throat, Elliot got close to her ear, and in his best imitation of Green, said, “You are still just as beautiful while-”

The rest of his sentence was cut off as Mariana, still sleeping, delivered a punch right into Elliot’s face. He nearly cried out in pain, but managed to restrain himself to hissing quietly. Luka couldn’t help but let out a small laugh, and even Will found himself smiling.

While Elliot was still recovering from the punch, Mariana got up on her own, stretching as if she just woke up from a pleasant nap. She scowled upon seeing the dirt in her hair, but otherwise stayed silent.

Now that everyone was up, all their attention was focused on the still-sleeping purple horse. A door was on the opposite wall, most likely leading into the rest of the building they were in.

“So, what’s the plan?” Elliot asked, his face now sporting a black eye.

“Should we wake it up?” Mariana whispered, motioning towards the horse.

“That would probably be our best bet,” Will answered.

“But what do we say?”

Will brought a hand to his chin, pondering Elliot’s question. Eventually, he came up with an answer. “Let’s just ask where we are, and work from there. Remember our cover story.”

More out of habit than anything, the other three quietly said “Roger,” before Will slowly began to reach towards the horse.

“Hey, Twilight, you figure out that alien situation yet? ‘Cause me and AJ have a bet going, and-”

The new voice goes silent as the four humans whirl around, Will’s arm still reaching for the purple horse. He barely registered that the newcomer was yet another horse, this one light blue in color with vibrant rainbow hair and wings, before she acted.

“What are you trying to do, kidnap her!?” Dash accused, flaring her wings and crouching down into what was probably a combat stance. She didn’t even give them a chance to answer before she dashed forward, impacting against Elliot’s chest, knocking the two to the ground.

The impact woke the purple horse from her sleep, and she quickly surveyed the scene in front of her. After only a second, her horn started glowing with some sort of purple energy, and after a very brief flash of light, both the blue horse and Elliot were teleported to opposite sides of the room. The latter was now sporting two black eyes, while the former now had a bruise on her cheek. Both of them ended up throwing a punch into midair, missing their target.

The two both hit the ground, thrown off balance by the missed blows, and instantly charged at each other, only to be stopped by Will and the purple horse.

“Let me at ‘im!”

“What the heck was that for?”

“I’ll take you on!”

“I’ll give you a taste of valiantium!”

“Rainbow Dash!” the purple one scolded, at the same time Will shouted, “Elliot!” causing both of them to stop in her tracks.

Pausing due to the simultaneous shouts, the purple horse continued. “What were you thinking? Attacking our guests?”

“The one with the glasses was going to kidnap you!”

Confused, Will looked over to the blue horse, which was struggling in a purple bubble similarly colored to the glow around the purple horse’s horn. “I was just trying to wake her up!”

“‘Wake her up’ my flank! What was that horn grab thing for?”

“What horn grabbing thing?”

“Is everything alright, Twilight? I heard shouting, and-”

Once again, everyone dropped what they were going to say to look at the new voice. This time, it was a white horse with purple hair and a horn. Upon seeing the situation, she just stood there for a second, before finally speaking again. “Dare I ask what is happening?”

Meanwhile, at the back of the room, Mariana and Luka just watched what was happening with varying levels of interest. Upon the white horse entering the room, Mariana almost imperceptibly frowned. “What’s that?”

“What’s what, Darling?” Rarity spoke up, her focus, as well as everyone else’s, now on Mariana.

“Oh nothing,” Mariana whispered a follow up to Luka. “Except for that gaudy hair color.”

While Luka could only stare unamusedly at Mariana’s own bright pink hair, the white horse appeared to have overheard her whisper. “Excuse me, my hair is what?”

“Hm?” Mariana looked up, her eyes wide. “Oh, nothing.”

“You call mocking my mane nothing?” Rarity’s eyes burned with anger. “And even with your trashy hair?”

Now Mariana’s eyes were almost literally burning. “What did you say to me?!”

“Mariana, no!” Will screamed, but it was far too late. The two had already ran at each other and began to exchange blows. While Twilight focused on them, Dash took her opportunity to get an extra hit on Elliot. He broke free from Will’s grasp, and the two were fighting again.

“This is bad,” Will said to himself, before diving into the fight between the blue horse and Elliot, trying to break it up. Meanwhile, the purple horse was attempting the same with Mariana and the white horse, though she was having even less success.

“Oooh!” A new voice shouted from the back of the room. “This is exciting!”

While both fights didn’t pause for a second, both Will and the purple horse looked over to see a pink horse, this one with no wings nor a horn, sitting on the couch Will woke up on, eating from a bucket of popcorn.

“Pinkie, you’re not helping!” the purple horse shouted, trying (and failing) to pull the white horse away from Mariana.

“Just what in the hay is goin’ on in here?” yet another new voice asked from the door, where an orange horse wearing a cowboy hat was looking over the chaotic scene, completely lost.

Once yet another horse entered the room, Luka decided that this had gone on long enough. “Will all of you just shut up and listen for five seconds?!”

All at once, the entire room became still. The blue horse and Elliot were both poised to deliver a punch to each other, with Will in between them, trying to hold them back. Not too far away, the purple horse had taken a similar position between the white horse and Mariana, who were both pulling each other’s hair.

“Jeez, you’re all acting like a bunch of kids!” Luka added, and this made the former combatants look over their situation. Realizing he was right, they quickly disengaged from each other, much to Will and the purple horse’s relief.

“Aw, it was just getting good!” the pink horse said from the couch, still eating from a tub of popcorn.

Will, meanwhile, was doing his best to come up for a way to try and save the situation. True, Elliot was attacked, first, but that was due to a misunderstanding. He wasn’t sure how to spin Mariana’s behavior, though.

It seemed like the purple horse was having similar thoughts, as once she was sure all the fighting had stopped, she cleared her throat. “Well, now that that’s over with… Can I ask why you’re here?”

Remembering their agreed-upon story, Will adjusted his glasses on his face, and reminded himself to take on his “civilian” personality. “W- Well, I’m not sure. We must’ve got lost, or s- something. Where are we, though?”

While Elliot raised an eyebrow at the sudden stuttering, this went unnoticed by the others. “Well, you’re in the kingdom of Equestria, on the planet Equis.”

Doing his best to keep a blank face despite the horse puns, Will spoke again. “I- I’ve never heard of this place before.”

“Why would you?” the blue horse spoke up, nursing a slightly swollen face. “You just crashed here.”

Shooting her a glare, the purple horse continued. “In any case, I suppose introductions are in order.” She cleared her throat and motioned to herself. “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, former personal apprentice of Princess Celestia and bearer of the element of magic!”

“And I’m Rainbow Dash!” the blue horse boasted, flapping her wings. “I’m the fastest flyer in Equestria, coolest pony you’ll ever meet, and a shoe-in for the Wonderbolts!”

“Hiya!” the pink horse waved her hoof. “I’m Pinkie Pie, the super-duper coolest, most fun-loving, cake-eating, cupcake making, balloon blowing, fantabulous party planner in Ponyville, probably even Equestria! Or maybe not, but even then I’m sure I’m at least in the top five percent, unless-”

Pinkie was shut up by a well-placed hoof from Rainbow Dash, and the others all looked at the white horse, who was still glaring daggers at Mariana. “Just call me Rarity, darling,” she said, too preoccupied for long intros.

Back at the door, the orange horse was still looking confused, but eventually started talking. “Er, well, Ah’m Applejack.” When the others waited for a second, she stared back. “What?”

“Well, now that introductions are out of the way,” Twilight said, “what are your names?”

It was tempting to completely name off both himself and his colleagues, down to their specific title and place of origin, but Will kept himself in check. “I’m Will, that’s Elliot, Mariana, and Luka.” He motioned to each one when he said their name, who offered a small wave, or in Mariana’s case, continued glaring at Rarity.

The tension still present in the room wasn’t unnoticed by Twilight, who grinned nervously. “Can you excuse us for a second?” She quickly began leading all the ponies out of the room, only returning to grab Rarity in her magic and pull her along, her eyes never leaving Mariana’s the whole time.

Once they were out of the room and the door was shut, Will sighed. “That could’ve gone better.”

“No kidding,” Elliot commented, dealing with his own swollen face. “That blue horse can fight!”

“And I do not want that ‘Rarity’ anywhere near me,” Mariana added. “She’s lucky she did not get a taste of my beautiful… whip?”

Confused, she started feeling around on her person, only finding that her whip was missing. “Where is my whip?”

“And my sword?” Elliot also asked, looking just as confused.

“White probably took our weapons off of us after he knocked us out,” Will said. “A good move, considering it would be hard to look peaceful while carrying weapons.”

Even though they agreed with that logic, Mariana seemed to be getting slightly angry. “If Green so much as touches my whip…”

“So, what do we do?” Luka finally asked.

“That Twilight one mentioned being an apprentice to a ‘Princess Celestia’. Maybe that’s who’s in charge, here? We could talk to her about our reason for coming, but until then, stick with our story.”

Elliot shrugged. “Seems as good a plan as any, Red.”

“Oh, yeah, while we’re here, call me Will,” he hastily added. “Last thing we need is to arouse suspicion by calling each other by our code names.”

“If you say so, ‘Will’.”

Meanwhile, outside the room, the ponies were also talking amongst themselves.

“You heard what she said about me! I refuse to deal with that uncouth pink alien!”

“Rarity, I’m sure she was just afraid, and she just lashed out because of it,” Twilight said, not sure at all if she was correct. “I’m just wondering why some ponies,” she glared at Dash, “decided to attack them.”

“Hey, it honestly looked like they were gonna kidnap you, or put you in some weird alien cocoon, or something!”

“Ah’m still lost as t’ what exactly happened,” Applejack put in.

“Regardless, at least now we know why they’re here,” Twilight continued. “They’re just lost, and more than likely hoping for a way to return to their own planet.”

“I still don’t trust them.”

Twilight sighed. “And you don’t necessarily have to, Dash, just give them the benefit of the doubt, okay?”

Dash grumbled in response.

“So, they gonna stay here in the castle or somethin’?” Applejack asked.

“I guess that would be the best choice. I wouldn’t want everypony in Ponyville to freak out because of aliens.”

“Twi’, ya do realize that we have some kind o’ catastrophe every other week or so?”

“You know what I mean.” Twilight shook her head. “I’ll have Spike send a letter to Celestia telling her about the situation, then we’ll see how that goes.”

“Where is Spike, anyway?” Dash asked.

“He’s probably still asleep, I’ll go wake him up.” With that, Twilight left to retrieve her assistant, leaving her friends alone in front of the door containing the aliens.

“Hey, where’s Fluttershy?” Dash eventually brought up.

“Ah think she said somethin’ about headin’ back home, somethin’ about her animals.”

After about five minutes, Twilight came back. “He went right back to sleep, but I got the letter sent, so now we just need to wait for a reply.” She took a deep breath. “Now we just need to tell them the situation.”

“And hope they don’t suck us into weird alien spaceships,” Dash said, getting an eye roll from the others.

With Twilight leading the way, the ponies walked to the door leading into the room, cracking it open slightly. Inside, the four aliens were mostly lounging around, most likely waiting for them.

Will noticed the open door, and the others saw it not too long after. Rarity and Mariana immediately started glaring at each other again, as did Elliot and Dash.

Sensing the tension in the air, Twilight cleared her throat, getting all attention on her. “I’ve sent a letter to Princess Celestia, so we’ll have to wait until she sends back her reply.” Uneasily looking over all of them, Twilight then added, “In the meantime, I suppose it’s for the best if you all stay here, in the castle. The last thing I need is Ponyville going into a panic because of aliens.”

Ignoring Elliot facepalming upon hearing the name of the town, Will nodded. “I understand.”

Awkward silence filled the room, and Twilight nervously coughed into her hoof. “Well, I guess that’s it for now.” She motioned for the others to follow her out, and one by one they filtered out of the room, Pinkie offering a wave goodbye, while Dash made a ‘I’m watching you’ motion with her hoof.

Once they were alone, Will let out a sigh.

“Seriously, Ponyville?” Elliot said. “We don’t have a town back home named Humantown!” Suddenly, he looked to Will. “We don’t, do we?”

Ignoring him, Will walked over to a section of wall, which, upon pushing on it, revealed itself to actually be a window, offering little more than a view of a large forest.

Spotting an opportunity, Will took out his Wonder Pendant, and sent a signal with it out into the forest. Shortly after, a small blur could be seen flying towards the open window. Once it was inside, it revealed itself to be P-Star. It beeped at Will, asking how things went.

“Contact with aliens has been accomplished, albeit under stressful conditions,” Will said, now all business. “Dominant life here appears to be small horse-like creatures who call themselves ponies. At least four different subspecies have been spotted, including ones with wings, horns, neither, and both. Their technology levels appear to be behind our own, but they also have access to what can best be described as ‘magic’. Diplomacy, thus far, has succeeded, but tell the others to be ready, just in case.”

Once he was finished with his explanation, P-Star beeped out an affirmative, saluted, and reengaged his cloaking before flying back out of the castle. Seeing no need to leave it open, Will closed the window behind him.

“‘Diplomacy’. Yeah, sure,” Elliot commented, still nursing his injured face. “Seriously, that blue horse packs a punch, I’ll give her that.”

“And that barbaric one with the squiggly tail?” Mariana spoke up, fixing her hair. “I would hardly call her ‘diplomatic’.”

Meanwhile, Luka again just stared unamused at Mariana, but said nothing.

“So, what?” Elliot finally asked. “We wait until we talk to their pony princess person, then we tell ‘em why we’re really here?”

“That seems like the best plan,” Will said. “Just sit tight, until the situation demands it.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.”

The room once again drifted into silence, Will staring at the spot in the wall where the window was. He thought that maybe, just maybe, GEATHJERK wasn’t even looking at this planet, though that would mean their mission was purely one to gain an ally.

Earth reaching out to other planets to form an alliance… It sounded an awful lot like what Jergingha described the Greater Galactic Coalition as. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Will wondered if he was right all along…

He shook his head. He knew that they wouldn’t abandon the mission of upholding justice, no matter what. Besides, being one of the first people to meet other (peaceful) life in space was interesting in its own right.

While Will was caught in his thinking, Elliot kicked back on the bed he was sitting on. “Hope those Jerks come soon, I’m itching to dish out some valiantium.”

“If that white one keeps up her act, I might just have to whip her into shape,” Mariana added.

Luka just sighed and stared at the ceiling. This was going to be a long mission.

Author's Note:

This chapter is brought to you by the word "procrastination"

Comments

[Burnasius]

Team, diplomacy is still ongoing, stand down and wait for further orders!

ROGER!

[GoldenCyclone4]

Oh, this'll be good! And here's a thought. One of the most popular crossover pairings is Sonic and RD. Blue and Sonic have a similar personality, and the same voice actor to boot! I can't wait to see those two get some alone time!
Oh, and I noticed this:

This was going to be a [i[long mission.

Think your italics broke there.