3 - Fission
Chapter 3: Fission
After a while, the TOGOs did their job and eventually they were able to pinpoint names properly. For some reason, Amelia and Twilight kept using the same names to refer to each other. Her name had become entangled with her, and Amelia found it hard to refer to her by her proper name. Amelia suspected Twilight had the same problem, but they both made the effort to change, even though there were a few slip-ups here and there.
Twilight had been an avid conversant. Almost everyday, Amelia met Twilight to have stimulating conversation on space-travel, cultural perspectives, and even hypothetical scenarios for other forms of first contact. They had broken down information on government, command structure, technology, and everything in between. Each session Amelia left exhausted, but satisfied. She knew she would miss the little chats they had. Underneath, of course, she saw that it was important for their decision on how to approach humans as a representative of the ponies… but she couldn’t help but derive pleasure from the discussions. It was a nice sandbox, full of open ideas and accepting discourse.
Though Amelia was curious about the ponies, ultimately their fate didn’t concern a private ship on a scouting route at the outer edges of the galaxy. They were unaligned. A third party. Merely an unlucky observer that by accident found the first signs of sapient life. Amelia was acutely aware that she was simply a part of—but didn’t represent—humanity. Unlike the Princess, which was an actual diplomatic authority, Amelia was the Captain of a transport vessel.
Nothing was official.
Nothing had been written down.
Their interaction wasn’t even likely to be recorded in history as more than a footnote.
Alex had reported only a few more days until they could detach. The next time she would see the ponies would probably be on the next system-wide broadcast. It would be a monumental event. A true first contact that would live up to its own epoch. Strangely, Amelia felt sorry to see them go. She never thought the exchange would be so pleasant, despite the circumstances. She never thought that they would be so similar.
Sometimes, she’d catch the crew laughing or conversing about the weird and wonderful aliens. There were regular exchanges of food, conversation, and soon Amelia had found ponies ubiquitous among humans on both ships.
Amelia had met Alex as she rushed down the corridor with an insane giggle. She thought about stopping the crazy engineer, but thought twice about it and lowered her half-outstretched hand. Alex had then catapulted down the hallway and disappeared around a corner. Amelia had heard from Twilight that Alex was known as the ‘Pleasure-Demon’. The engineer had made a firm stipulation that while working there should always be at least one pony to pet while she worked. Fortunately, Twilight hadn’t made a big deal out of it, and even mentioned that there were a few that were particularly willing…
The Captain shook her head. Despite Alex’s eccentricities, even she had shocked the crew with how fast she had managed to rig together an air-lock field that worked off their power systems. Alex had managed to work with our technology and their own. Once she had caught her speaking up a storm of technical jargon with the ponies. Most of the terminology flew right past Amelia as she struggled to understand the basics. Eventually, she gave up and trusted Alex with doing whatever was necessary. Twilight had felt uncomfortable with Alex installing new technology without ‘proper diplomatic trade agreements’ in place, but Amelia told her they had to share schematics anyway. They were learning from each other. Soon though, they would be saying their goodbyes.
——————
“You’re not going to stop them, Princess?” Cross sat across the table with a few of the senior officers on board. There was the head engineering, the sergeant of a small attachment to accompany the Princess, a few key personnel, but highly representative of the small crew of a small ship.
“No…” Twilight trailed off. “I think this is right thing to do.”
“They’ve already acclimatised themselves to us, we know about them, they know about us. They can smooth the transition greatly.”
Surprisingly, Stark came to their defence. “We’ve got data, we’ve got the basis of their language and we’ve even gotten their translation devices to keep. I think we have enough to establish relations in our own fashion, with minimal risk.”
Cross didn’t look so certain. “I’d like to reduce risks as much as possible. We could signal the main fleet and escort them back to their ‘Core Worlds’, as they call them.”
“No,” Twilight said firmly. “I won’t do that to them.”
Cross sighed. “I’m sure if you ask them, they would agree.”
Perhaps if she did, they would. Undoubtedly, it would benefit Equestria. Those reasons were painfully clear.
After a moment of silence, Twilight shook her head sadly, staring at the table. “You do not cage a bird because you wish to fly.”
——————
Time flew by quicker than Amelia liked. The few days gave her just enough time to prepare a small something for the little aliens that had entangled fates with.
“Industrious?”
A small grin fought its way to the surface. There was only one living being that called her that.
“Yes, Dim-light?”
The pony smiled at the name, then turned serious, her mirth dying down as she approached.
“We’ll be done with our makeshift repairs soon, maybe less than a few hours. I can’t begin to express my gratitude for lending both your services and your technology to help us out. If all of your species are anywhere near as kind, I believe the introduction will go more than smoothly. Thank you, Captain.”
Amelia smiled. “I’ve never seen cooler heads than yours. I’ve never thanked you for the forbearance you’ve shown. Especially with regards to Alex, Princess. You’ve also been more than accommodating and you’ve shown us just how intelligent and collected you can be, despite the stressful situation. We also greatly appreciate the assistance you’ve lent us for stabilising our fields and shoring up dangerous breaches. We’re just as grateful to you. I hope you take our well-wishes with you when you make contact… for a second time.”
Twilight smiled sadly. “I’ve enjoyed our conversations, it’s been a pleasure.”
Amelia chuckled softly. “Me too.”
Awkward silence smothered the two. Then Twilight spoke up as if a thought had suddenly occurred to her.
“Amelia, may I ask a question?”
Amelia nodded. “Of course.”
“I realise it might be insensitive, or even maybe classified knowledge, but I realised that during the time here, I’ve never asked and I thought about it, but it just came to me…” The pony trailed off and blushed profusely as Amelia raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, I’m rambling. I wanted to ask you—why did you choose to travel in space?”
“Well, I guess that’s a strange question, depending on who you ask on the ship.” Amelia flicked a few stray strands of hair out of the way as she considered how to frame her response. “For me, I’ve always wanted to explore. To find something new that nobody had ever discovered before. I don’t suppose you know how that would feel?”
Twilight’s eyes reflected brilliant intensity as she nodded emphatically. “No, I completely understand.”
Amelia laughed. “Sorry, I just—someday remind me to tell you…” Her next words died out as she remembered that there weren’t going to be any more days. “Ah, never mind. Let me show you something.” Amelia started walking down the corridor, beckoning Twilight to follow along. She continued as they walked. “I’ve never meshed well with the big mega-corporations, or the Common military ethos. I always wanted to strike it out on my own. For the others, most of my crew are with me for their own reasons. Some because they share my spirit. Some, like Soho, because of loyalty. Some, like Alex, for adventure. All a mishmash of goals, ideals, dreams…” Amelia entered the bridge, bringing Twilight aboard for the first time.
“This is Cobalt Blue’s brain. She’s made of Nida, Brian, Alex, Soho, the Doc., and over fifty other dedicated souls. Her Captain steers Cobalt Blue to explore the unknown.”
Nida and Brian looked up in surprise. Nida waved, uncharacteristically shyly, while Brian just smiled.
“Thanks for helping us out,” Nida said.
“It would have been a disaster otherwise,” Brian added with a grin.
Twilight blinked, but broke into a radiant smile. “We’ve all been taking care of each other.”
Amelia nodded. “I know, you’ve turned a disaster into an accident, and because of that I feel like you’ve been crew members on the Cobalt Blue, no matter how short the duration. As crew members, we’re like family. When one of our crew members leaves Cobalt Blue, we give them a little something to remember us by.” Amelia swallowed, bringing out a small glass cube tinted blue. “This is glass with cobalt impregnated in it. It’s made from the first cargo that Cobalt Blue ever carried. Cobalt-titanium powder.”
Twilight gently took the glass cube in her telekinetic grip.
“Thank you,” Twilight replied in a broken voice. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t think of getting you—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Amelia said, holding out her hand. “Just don’t forget us. Oh, and if you ever scrape together enough Common credit, we could use a donation.”
Twilight laughed, pocketing the cube in her saddlebag. “I’ll be sorry to see you go,” she said sincerely.
Then the pony wrapped her in an unexpected hug. Amelia stiffened, but then smiled, wrapping her arms around Twilight. At least hugs were a universal language that needed no words.
“Goodbye, Amelia.”
“Safe journey among the stars, Twilight.”
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- law abiding pony · 225k words · 899 23 · 11k views
- tom117z · 71k words · 740 39 · 10k views
- Minalkra · 3.7k words · 795 17 · 11k views
- Starscribe · 16k words · 902 58 · 8.9k views
- Kieva Lynn · 132k words · 1,029 39 · 15k views
- Axquirix · 66k words · 1,276 58 · 15k views
- Knight Breeze · 74k words · 727 34 · 11k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.029 seconds
Total duration
689 users online
1,023,967 hits today, 2,280,440 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.®
this is a great story I hope to see it featured if it isn't already. on another note did the equestrian ships communications array get fixed?
6782980 Oh. lol. XD
Liked and fav'ed. It's so nice to have a First Contact story without any threat of conflict.
Can confirm.
Still, with so many points raised for a hypothetical first contact with humanity and an extraterrestrial species, I'm surprised you never mentioned the various microörganisms that the two races would carry.
6783761 It's because ponies and their relevant microorganisms probably don't have DNA.
This must be the cutest first contact scenario with the Equestrians.
Kudos, sir, kudos.
You have my curiosity with this intro...
6783778
Which could make them all the more dangerous. Haven't you heard of NASA's Office of Planetary Protection?
6783850 I should really get to reading the story so that I know if Cobalt Blue is what I suspect- an independent vessel- rather than being owned by a government or other entity that would really really give a shit about that.
6783868
Doesn't matter who owns Cobalt Blue. If you were the captain of a space-faring ship, travelling from world to world, trust me, you'd want to give a shit about any forms of life onboard. There's a reason they didn't send over Curiosity to investigate a pool of water on Mars.
6783879 Remember that Cobalt Blue is a bit of a "working-class" ship from what I've seen. When you encounter a group of aliens and within a second someone does something stupid, you don't have much time to decontaminate.
6783962
That's because they weren't outfitted for extraterrestrial contact. It just happened.
Why does it say complete when the author's note says that there's another chapter?
Good story.
Whats with the Next Chapter: Written by a bright future.? is it being finished by someone else like a hand off or something?
6783979 Why do people compare First Contact with the Native-Americans meeting the Europeans. the chance of a cell or virus from earth being compatible with lifeforms from another planet/solar system is unlikely unless we share similar origins like in star trek.
The only problem would have to be organisms better at surviving on a planet or environment alien to them.
You keep writing things I like. I'mma follow you, Sunny.
Awesome story, I deeply enjoyed it, great work.
it says next chapter but also says its complete. Please we would like some Moar
i.imgur.com/yGvZ0Ey.png
Started interesting enough, but quickly devolved into "PONIES ARE CUTE DOG THINGS! AWW! HUGS! HUGS! BELLY RUBS!" sugary fodder.
Also the only Sci fi aspect of the story was the fact that spaceships and sci fi sounding terms are mentioned, but no one acts like they are a space ship crew and being in space doesn't have any impact as all the challenges of the setting are hand waved away. They could have been just some guys in a van rear ending a car surprisingly full of ponies and the story would have played out the same way as far as I got into it.
Tried to push though but honestly I couldn't stomach the cringing enough to care to finish the story, sorry.
There are a few things that I feel could be better? I'm known for spewing out unedited garbage, so I know I'm guilty of a lot of the things I'm going to point out but maybe it'll help?
The first isn't actually Alex. It's the feel of the Colbalt's crew and ship. I think you meant for the crew to be a ragtag group of explorers always on the verge of bankruptcy and fighting to stay afloat in a universe of mega-corps and corrupt governments. I think that is what you were going for - it doesn't feel that way. Having Captain Lady worrying about how she's going to pay for her repairs and if she was 'at fault' and maybe have to pay for the other repairs might lend more credence to that implied 'verge of having no money' things that I think you were going for. As for the ragtag, only Alex seems ragtag - the others have too much of a professional feel to them. Having more crew interactions and showing off the ragtag-edness of the crew would help Alex feel more in-line with the rest of the people aboard. That leads into the next part.
Alex. Yes, Alex. I think you wanted an 'eccentric genius - slash - cocky maverick' mishmash for her. Unfortunately, she comes off as a bit too cocky and not enough genius. Also, cocky mavericks know when to listen to the Captain - and cocky Captains know when to listen to Spocks. Here, Alex comes across as the excessively brash teenage tinkerer more than a genius maverick. Maybe build her up a bit more, show off her chops and cut back on the backtalk. And keep her in the ship until it's obviously safe to come out. Especially if she's the only one that could get everyone out of this mess alive.
The pony involved. Why is Twitwi out here on the fringes of known space? Even if she's a junior Princess, she's still kinda important. Admittedly, she probably would be one of the first out and about in the universe - but a single ship is a bit of a stretch of what Celly and Lulu would let her get away with. A half-dozen ships maybe. Not a fleet but enough for back-up. Even after being in space for a few centuries, it's still dangerous and an explorer vessel is very much at risk if alone. (Yes, I did the exact same dang thing myself and I am kicking myself for having done it - I stand by that unnamed story in most ways but dang it all if I'm not slapping my forehead for a few of those mistakes).
I think it's a pretty gosh-dang good story myself, even if it's a bit of a stub. I just see a few things that don't mesh well together. I hope this helps? If not I can blank this because I've spent too long typing as-is and my boss is going to get upset at me soon.
Very nices! Short and sweet.
6785558 There are a number of flaws in this story I'm not happy with, most you've addressed well in your comment! A rewrite is already in the works and I think I can expand this piece a little further to meet expectations. Yes, it's pretty rushed. I was too excited with the premise that I forgot to sanity check all the assumptions I made. I tried to go for comedy and a sweet ending, but I think I hit it lukewarm instead. Thanks for your feedback it was very helpful. Gotta keep trying!
6785608
Not a problem! And don't worry, mang, I have pretty much almost literally done everything you did ... multiple times ... in the same story. Ahem. And I will still do them - even though I know when to look for them and what they look like, I will still do them ... baby steps, Minalkra. baby steps. Also, I thought the ending was sweet in a cavity-less way and had the potential to lead into more interactions twixt the crew of the Colbalt Blue and ponytime.
6785608 I'm glad I took the time to read Minalkra's comment, otherwise I might have ended repeating thing already said.
The feel of the crew was really lacking. I'm usually fast at catching thing and it still took me until the very last second to understand what exactly was the Cobalt Blue and it's crew. I kept asking myself why is Alex even here? Sure she is a genius, but she clearly lack the common sense AND the experience needed to go on outer space expedition. Between her irritating habit of purposely antagonize the ship's captain and the multiple time she acted or tried to act recklessly (and thus severely engendering herself, and even the whole ship). Keep her busy on ground and only bring her when she matured. There is a level on risk that isn't acceptable when you do something already risky like deep space exploration.
As for the Pony side, the security seem very very lax. Twilight is far away in unknown space with a limited crew, she don't even know the name of the pony in charge of her security and she decide to go unprotected to meet a new alien race. I suppose that she had reason to believe them not hostile -they did try communication first- and trying to be non-threatening, but she is basically assaulted by Alex. She should at least let her guard block the "attack". Retaliation would've been excessive and out of character but...
I also wonder why Amelia don't think she will make it to history. Humanity have a tendency to remember heroic explorer making great discovery after all.
On the plus side, I liked how you choose to make Twilight's name a composite word rather then a plain "Twilight Sparkle" directly translated. However, it would've made sense for more then just name being mistranslated if the pony language rely on a different structure then the "common"
Overall, I still really enjoyed your story. It's short and efficient, well told and these little detail only bother those who like to make nitpicking. The story and the narrative where still good enough to forget the string of the puppet.
Really awesome story! I really hope there will be some kind of a sequel (or continuation) in the future.
On a side note, don't know why, but whenever Alex was mentioned, all I could think of was; slightly more coherent; Ed from Cowboy Bebop.
PS. Could you describe or maybe post some pics (if you had some in mind when writing) how their ships look like?
6785608 This was great!
Sequel?
May your journey in the void be forever accompanied by the stars and lights of friends.
May your journey be as long as the universe's breath.
Let nothing stop your journey
Save the meeting of new friends.
Let things aid you unexpectedly
And surprises welcome.
May we meet once more underneath the blanket of nothingess.
Journey on my friend.
Journey on.
YOU REALLY need to continue this!!!!!!
6784688 "written by a bright future" means "improvise".
6784710
Only sunnypack can lure me into something like this and get me to enjoy it.
This story?
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37540750/jeremy-clarkson-not-bad.jpg
Well, that was very cute, but it had a number of serious issues. I see that others have gone over some of them already including the excessively fast pacing, but I did want to point out a very serious plot hole with the ending. There is absolutely no way these ships would go their separate ways after achieving first contact. There are far too many uncertainties associated with that to risk doing it again once you have an opening so they would absolutely be leveraging this relationship to connect the human and pony leadership. The most likely path forwards from here is for Twilight to send a message home to work out what their delegation should look like which will either result in a larger diplomatic staff being sent in or Twilight pulling a few guards, but either way they will be using the Cobalt Blue as their primary transport, possibly escorting some Equestrian ships, because they will need the human's knowledge to smooth things over.
6786851 Quite true, but as the author mention they were pressed for time, we can't expect top quality logic, so the tropey ending is okay. This dose feel like it should be the start of something bigger though.
I regret that I have but one like to give. Nice and lighthearted.
this is a good story I see it is up for a rewrite I will be keeping a eye out for that.
Good story, sufficient feels, but kinda low key ending. Tastes like coffee with more creamer than coffee and just enough sugar to taste.
The thing that bugs me the most is that Alex sticks out like sore thumb and comes off as more "rebellious teen" than defiant genius. I also expected more of a reaction from the guards in chapter one where Alex tackled Twilight. If the guards were really there to protect her, shouldn't there have been more of a reaction? (esp. with Sergeant Stark's deposition)
Still written nicely. I like it
This was... Surprisingly satisfying. Usually, I'm one who demands lengthy epics, but you've made a particularly compelling and complete narrative. I'm impressed.
Loved it.
6792192 img.memecdn.com/ancient-humans_o_304926.jpg
Aside from a couple of tiny grammar issues, it's perfect the way it is. Heartwarming, engaging and fun. I'd love to see more hijinks in this setting.
This NEEDS a sequel...please...
please?
Love it! This definitely reads like it should be the start of something... more. I know you say here you're not interested in writing more, and I wouldn't want you to just write if you don't have any idea where you want it to go, but if you get a good idea for a story, don't just let it go, mmk?
6786004 Unlikely unfortunately, but possibly possible. I'm glad you enjoyed it, but I don't want to give false expectations if I can't find time to make a sequel. Reasons being that I've got a bunch more fics to complete in the meantime. Still, thanks for your kind words!
6793642 You're welcome. Maybe I'll write a poem for one of your stories sometime.
6793644 Aww that's sweet. Please let me know if you ever do!
6793648 Sure.
I share some of the issues the others below have regarding this story. However, even in its short form, it is still interesting, and intriguing. It has thusly earned the like.
A short, but happy and heart warming tale. Good job.