Chapter 5 - First Contact, Take Two
19 BBY, Main Hanger, Providence-Class Dreadnaught Dawn of Dusk, In Orbit Around Unknown Planet, Sector D-6 (See Galactic Map)
Sirens blared. Droids were rushed about and quickly briefed. One of the Sheathipede shuttles was getting prepped for launch.
And somehow, Cranker and Spaller, by virtue of having been noticed being on the bridge by the Captain, were now in charge of the expedition to the surface of the unknown planet. Along with the two B1’s, two pilot B1’s were added to the mission to pilot the shuttle, four more standard infantry droids were added to the roster for extra security, and TL-90, who (upon learning that there were no other droids that could translate the language of the natives) had volunteered to go with the battle droids, to help smooth things over before the current situation escalated into a full-scale conflict.
Now inside the shuttle as its engines warmed up with a gentle hum, Cranker and Spaller looked at their new squad in the slightly confined space, while the pilot droids went through some last pre-flight checks.
“Alright everyone! You know the mission. Our job is to get down to that planet, to a predetermined landing zone near the point of last contact with Probe-006 and make sure none of the natives get too curious or attempt to harm TL-90 while she goes about turning the natives of the planet to our cause. Should any natives attempt to attack or endanger any of us, the translator, or the ship, we are authorized to stun, but not kill them. Are we all clear?”
Spaller finished his short speech, and the other droids chimed in with a chorus of “Roger, roger!” and a round of spastic head-bobbing. Nodding happily to himself, he stowed his blaster on his back and grabbed onto one of the handholds hanging from the ceiling. Following suit, his co-squad leader moved towards the back, where TL-90 was standing, and steadied himself on a handhold while simultaneously grabbing one of the shiny silver droid’s arms to prevent it from toppling over as the rear doors shut and the shuttle began to lift off.
The flight was gentle and quiet, none of the battle droids bothering to respond to any of the protocol droid’s excited phrases, and overall, Spaller was feeling quite pleased with how smoothly everything was going so far.
Boy, he thought to himself, with this kind of management, I bet the rest of the mission is going to be an easy success as well.
***
“Boy, I hope that nothing makes this mission go worse than it already is,” 72624 mumbled to himself as he watched the shuttle make its way towards the planet and disappear amongst the green and blue backwash that dominated the view from the bridge.
“I still think we should have sent a fighter escort along with them,” came the flat voice of the tactical droid, “There’s no telling what might happen down there while they attempt to land. The firepower of a single squad may not be enough to fend off an angry mob of the native creatures. By my calculations, the chances of this mission successfully ending hostilities between our two factions is seventy-three to one.”
Turning to look at the black droid, 72624 retorted, “It wasn’t your call to send in an escort, it was mine. And six battle droids will be plenty for just protection duty. I’m trying not to give the natives more reason to fear or hate us. I am the Captain of this ship, and while you may have control over ground operations, this isn’t a battle, so stay out of it.”
“I will concede your superiority in terms of roles and rank, however, I will not remind you again. If we are to establish a base of any kind, or to move troops onto the planet, it will fall solely upon my decision what the best course of action will be.”
The two droids had come so close that they stood faceplate-to-faceplate and were trying to stare each other down (a somewhat impossible feat, as neither could blink). During those few tense seconds, none of the bridge crew spoke a word; not a single servomotor could be heard moving (none of the bridge crew really had anything better to do rather than enjoy the two highest-ranked officers on the ship argue, anyhow). Finally, 72624 spoke.
“Very well. But if you go against our goal of trying to embrace this planet as part of the Confederacy of Independent Systems peacefully, then I will have no choice but to supersede your orders.”
“The CIS no longer exists. As such, it is against my programming to do anything that would jeopardize the reorganization of the organization. We shall have no problems so long as you heed my advice during this transition.”
“Alright then. We have an agreement.” Stepping back from each other, the two droids shook hands stiffly and turned to regard separate screens depicting the progress of the other probe droids. In the span of time that had occurred for the hastily-cobbled-together political mission to get underway, another probe had gone silent, although from meeting some sort of very large and very dangerous predatory creature in the far south of the continent, rather than deciding to self-destruct due to capture by the natives.
Either way, 72624 was really hoping this would go well, if only to prevent more probes from encountering complications.
***
Twilight was walking through a haze. She couldn’t tell much more than that, as the environment and everything she perceived seemed to change and move in and out of focus constantly. A sudden bright light shone directly in front of her face momentarily, and quickly, she realized her surroundings were starting to solidify, although in a much brighter and harsher appearance than she had seen for the last… Celestia knew how long.
Things were blurry, but she slowly pieced together that she was in a white room, and a soft bed, and surrounded by familiar faces.
As things became more grounded in reality, the purple princess realized exactly who was standing over her.
“Pinkay… Flutthelshai…”
Her words were slurred, although she couldn’t quite figure out why. Frowning a bit, she tried again, her tongue feeling hot and parched, and wrinkling her nose causing a slight shock of pain.
“Apperjack, Rarithy, whath… whath’s going om?”
“Oh darling, we’re so glad you’re awake. Can you remember anything? What happened before you got hurt? Fluttershy told us you captured some sort of spider and a moment later you were both unconscious and covered in burns! We were so worried when we found out, we rushed right over!”
The voice was distinctly Rarity’s, but it sounded like she was speaking through honey; the sound was taking an incredibly long time to reach Twilight’s ears. Turning her head took more energy than she had expected, but Twilight faced her fashionably dressed friend and responded, the gears in her head slowly working.
“Rushthed… ovel? Whele am I?”
“Uh, sugarcube, you’re in Ponyville hospital. Don’t ya remember anythin’ from earlier today?”
That voice, that was definitely Applejack’s, and although the words didn’t match up with the lip movements, Twilight’s hearing was starting to get more in sync with what she was seeing.
“The… hothpital? Why…”
At that moment, all the memories flooded back to her, en masse. The Metal Mare. Discussing artificial life with Starlight. Chasing down the strange flying spider. Rainbow Dash catching it and holding it tight to prevent its escape. Leaning close to it as it made a loud screeching noise. A blinding flash of light.
“I… I’m in… The hospital! I’m in Ponyville hospital! That… that thing exploded! Rainbow Dash! Where’s Rainbow Dash? Is she okay? She was there with me, she was holding the thing-”
Rarity shushed her with a gentle but stern finger to her lips.
“Hush, darling. Don’t overexert yourself. Rainbow Dash is fine. She took most of the shock and the brunt of whatever happened to you two, but the doctors say she’s stable and should be waking up sometime tomorrow. You’re both going to be okay. I’m sorry I asked so many questions at once, I didn’t mean to excite you like that.”
“Yeah!” Pinkie shouted and stuffed a couple more pillows under Twilight’s head, “You just take it easy, and leave the investigating to us.” Giving the purple alicorn a gentle squeeze she whispered in her ear, “I’m glad you’re okay though. I was afraid I’d have to stop throwing birthday parties for somepony too soon.”
“Anyway, what d’you reckon was it that the two o’ you caught?” Applejack asked, adjusting her Stetson hat nervously, “You don’t suppose there are more of them, do ya? Critters like Flutters described would be awfully hard to keep safe from.”
“I… I don’t know. It did look like some kind of big spider, but it only had four legs, and it almost looked like it had metal covering its body.” Yes, her hearing was definitely going back to normal, and behind the others, Twilight suddenly saw Starlight Glimmer as she stood up and came over as well, looking extremely disheartened.
“Did you say metal, Twilight?” she asked when she had joined the circle of friends around Twilight’s bed.
“After you two were taken here, the doctors said they had to pull small bits of metal out of yours and Rainbow Dash’s skin. And I found a couple pieces of what looked like the creature’s outer shell when I was checking out the scene after you two had been moved here. It also looked like melted and twisted pieces of metal.”
“Oh, my. Do you think it’s related?” Fluttershy asked, covering her mouth slightly.
Trying to sit up, Twilight felt a sudden sharp pain in her arms and collapsed back onto the pillows.
“I would bet my wings it is. Whatever it was didn’t look like any animal I’ve ever heard of, and it didn’t exactly behave like an animal either. More like… somepony who was trying to spy on us.”
“Twilight!” Starlight gasped. “You don’t think… you don’t think somepony could have made something similar to you-know-what, do you?”
“I don’t know, Starlight. It could be, but I have a feeling there’s more to it than that. If it is, then it was done with a lot more practise than I’ve had on it.”
“Umm, I don’t mean to interrupt your super-duper-secret conversation,” Pinkie Pie said, sticking her face in between Starlight and Twilight, “but, what are you two talking about? It sounds kind of important to what just happened with Twilight and Rainbow Dash.”
“Well…” Twilight started, when suddenly the door to the room burst open, and several nurses streamed into the room.
“Alright, visiting time is over. You girls can come back in a few hours, but right now Ms. Sparkle needs some rest. Now shoo!”
Pushing the friends out of the room, Twilight managed to call out to Starlight, “Don’t worry, I’ll tell everypony when I get out of here. Just tell Spike to keep an eye on it!”
“Alright, princess, I will!”
All other discussion was cut short as the last non-medical ponies were ushered out and nurses started changing bandages and reapplying cooling salves to the places where Twilight had been burned by the exploding spider; specifically, her face, which meant that she quickly lost the ability to see when the nurses covered her eyes with gauze. Shortly after that, she fell back into a deep sleep.
***
As soon as the door closed behind them, four of the mares in the group turned to look at the fifth, who slowly backed away, looking nervous.
“Alrigh’ Starlight. What was it that Twilight was tryin’a say? You seem to know somethin’ about it," Applejack asked in as innocent a way as she could.
“Um, well… the thing is, Twilight said she would tell you all, so I don’t know if it would really be okay for me to tell you about it right now…”
“Oh, come on, Starlight!” Pinkie exclaimed, “What’s the worst that could happen? What if this super-duper-secret-important thing you two know somehow is super-duper connected to everything that happened today?”
“Wait… Pinkie, dear, what do you mean by ‘everything’? I thought all that happened today was Twilight and Rainbow finding a spider and getting hurt?” Rarity asked, confused.
“Wait, you haven’t heard? There’s been a whole smorgasbord of strange things going on today! I overheard the CMC’s talking about seeing a really slow shooting star they saw in the morning when I was making a cupcake delivery, then Blackhoof’s blacksmith sign broke off his shop and almost squished a couple ponies, and then we had the whole excitement with Twilight chasing down a giant flying spider through town before it exploded!” the pink mare finished by flourishing her arms above her to drive her point home.
“Well, um, I don’t mean to interrupt,” Fluttershy spoke up meekly, “but what does a shooting star have anything to do with this?”
“A slow shooting star! Like, reeeaaaallly slow. Like, so slow you could walk faster than it flew, if a pony could walk straight down from the sky!”
“Straight down? Pinkie, hold on, yer not making any sense anymore. How can a shootin’ star come straight down from the skah?” Applejack frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Like… like…”
Pinkie looked like she was about to explode herself. Thankfully Starlight spotted something out of the hallway window overlooking the Everfree forest and used it as a reasonable substitute.
“You mean coming down slowly like that, Pinkie Pie?”
The five mares looked out the window to the smooth-curved object gently floating down out of the sky and disappearing a good hoof-mile away behind a small patch of trees.
***
Cranker stepped swiftly down the ramp as soon as the doors to the shuttle opened, leading him down onto a bright and beautiful sunny day in the shade of some tall green trees next to a verdant field. As the other droids filed down after him and took up positions in two lines beside the shuttle ramp, he spotted some buildings off in the distance, and some trees off to his right, through which he could catch glimpses of some of the native creatures he saw during his very brief time on the bridge.
The battle droid behind him whispered to get his attention.
“Psst! Hey, Corporal, hey, are those organics supposed to be the natives? The ones we’re here to communicate with?”
“Yes they are, now be quiet. The protocol droid’s the only one that’s supposed to communicate with them, we’re just here to act as security,” he hissed back.
“But, how will we know what she’s saying? Isn’t she here to translate for us?”
Turning to look at his underling, Cranker poked him hard in the chest.
“That’s enough out of you, Chatterer! TL-90 has her own orders regarding exactly what she’s supposed to say and what she has to do in order to introduce the Confederacy to this planet. You’re here to sit still, act tough, and not say a word, like any other self-respecting soldier. Do you understand?”
The droid, Chatterer, looked surprised and a bit cowed, but straightened back into position and remained silent afterwards.
As a the first creatures stepped fully into view, a slightly larger crowd of the very colorful native organics began noticing the arrival of the shuttle and its occupants and move cautiously towards them, Cranker fixed his gaze upon five of the creatures, as they strode to the forefront of the small mob and spoke to the rest in what appeared to be a calming tone. The crowd stopped about twenty paces from the droids and conversed in their strange, fluttery language, some of the smaller ones trying to hide behind the larger ones, and most of what appeared to be full-grown ones hiding behind the five who looked like they were in charge.
Cranker was, despite himself, getting a little bit nervous. Not at the fact that the organics easily outnumbered his security forces two to one, nor the fact that both sides were obviously showing discomfort at the current situation, but because the protocol droid hadn’t come out of the darn shuttle to greet the natives yet.
What’s taking her so long?
***
“Looking good, Spike, looking good. Who’s looking good? You are-”
“Spike!”
“Augh!”
Spike toppled from the stool in the bathroom where he was admiring himself in the mirror. Starlight had teleported behind him suddenly and was now standing over the short dragon.
Blushing heavily, Spike looked down and was relieved to see that his towel hadn’t come off, before looking back up at Starlight.
Hey from this angle, I can almost see up her skirt… just… a little… more… The young dragon’s pubescent thoughts were snapped out of his head by the pink mare grabbing his ear and dragging him out of the bathroom.
“Spike, come on and get dressed. We need you! Something’s happening out past Ponyville Hospital, over by the Everfree forest, and both Twilight and Rainbow Dash are still out of commission. We need you to get over there and meet up with us as soon as possible to record what’s going on. It might be nothing, but I’d rather have notes to review afterwards in case this turns out to be important. A bunch of weird stuff has been happening today and I plan on getting to the bottom of it.”
Marching through the castle to Spike’s room, Starlight threw him through the doors to his room and spoke quickly.
“I know you’re supposed to be guarding the Metal Mare like Twilight said, but just tell it not to move and you should be fine. Can I count on you to meet up with us?”
“Yeah, alright. But wouldn’t it be better if-” Spike started replying, but Starlight had already teleported away.
“-you could just teleport along with me…” Slapping a claw to his forehead, the teenage dragon groaned, “I don’t even know exactly where it is I’m supposed to meet up with the girls… Somewhere by the Everfree forest? Oh I just know this can’t go well…”
***
Starlight appeared back outside Ponyville Hospital, where she had been just moments ago, and saw her friends running towards where the object had last been spotted dropping down to. Teleporting closer to them, she quickly gained up and asked through breaths, “Why are we all running? Can’t we take our time a bit?”
“No time, sugarcube. If that thing happens ta be more o’ them spider things then we gotta find out and get back to warn Ponyville quick! Who knows what more of them critters could do if they get loose! Who knows if it’s not a colt or filly that finds one of ‘em this time? They’re not as strong as a full grown mare, end even then, lookit Twilight and Dash! They got landed in the hospital from that thing did to ‘em. I have to make sure, I need to keep Apple Bloom safe.”
Renewing her speed, Applejack put more distance between herself and the others, while Starlight started struggling to keep up. Glancing at the others, she noticed that only Pinkie was managing to keep pace with the farm mare.
“Applejack wait! Applejack!” Rarity called. “Listen, I care about my sister too, but I just can’t keep up with you! Slow down a bit. It’s better if we all get there together, otherwise, you might be putting yourself in danger without realizing it.”
We all might be putting ourselves in danger without realizing it, Starlight thought, but kept her mouth shut. Rarity was right. They had a duty to do their part to protect Ponyville. And it was better they face whatever had landed by the Everfree forest together rather than alone.
Reaching the first trees that the object had apparently gone down near, Starlight and the others crept around them until they started seeing something through the foliage.
Something… silver? Or something grey? And was that beige?
As they came around the copse of trees, Starlight’s gaze was unobstructed and came to rest on… something. She had no real idea of what it was…. Or rather, what they were. Her brain simply couldn’t comprehend what she was looking at, and it seemed the other girls couldn’t either.
“Um, can somepony tell me what it is ah’m lookin’ at?” Applejack asked blankly.
Fifty paces from where the five mares stood, were six tall, spindly, two-legged statues that nopony remembered seeing before, as well as what looked like a huge, metal-grey bathtub with a roof, and a ramp coming from the bottom of the tub and ending on the grass near the closest of the six statues.
Hearing whispering, Starlight turned and saw that she and her friends weren’t the only ones to have noticed the sudden arrival of the strange objects, as several other ponies from town had started drawing close and whispering among themselves. Starlight even spotted a few fillies and colts hiding behind the legs of adult ponies as they drew closer.
Applejack was the first to start issuing orders.
“Alright, everypony, stand back now. No tellin’ what this is or what it’s fer. Ya’ll keep a safe distance now, and we’ll check it out, alright? We don’t want nopony to get hurt.”
“That’s right ponies! This is officially a smile-restricted zone!” Pinkie yelled through a microphone, which Starlight had no memory of her bringing with her.
“Um, Pinkie, what’s a smile-restricted zone?” Fluttershy asked, to which Pinkie responded by turning and speaking to her through the microphone.
“It means that there’s no smiling allowed until we are ab-so-lutely, one-hundred-percent, unequivocally sure that these weird metal pony sculptures are safe to smile around! If they’re not, then we head for the hills and scream at the top of our lungs, like this: AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”
Fluttershy’s hair had been blown back by the force of Pinkie’s scream, and, smiling to herself, the party mare stuck the microphone into her mane and grabbed the yellow mare by the shoulders, guiding her forward as the five friends uncertainly made their way forward.
When they were about twenty paces away from the strange beige statues, they stopped, hesitant to continue. The strange sculpture-like things were extremely thin, looking like somepony’s interpretation of a skeleton with just the last bits of flesh holding it together, and a strange hooked skull instead of a pony’s.
What disturbed the gathered mares and stallions most was that the sculptures towered over them. Easily two or maybe even three heads taller than her, Starlight estimated that the strange things were even a head taller than someone like Big Mac, who was one of the largest stallions she’d ever met. She had no clue who had made them, and why they had seemingly fallen from the sky.
“Um, are you sure they’re not alive?” Fluttershy’s voice beside her made her jump, and Starlight was hesitant to answer, but Pinkie once again provided a solution.
Bounding up to the nearest of the metallic figures, she tapped it in the pelvis with a finger, creating a light tapping sound, before delivering a swift kick to its knee, her hoof bouncing off it with a metallic clang.
“See, totally not alive! Nopony has anything to fear!”
Starlight and the rest of the gathered crowd let out a simultaneous sigh of relief… until they noticed that the totally not alive thing had turned its head to look straight at Pinkie.
Pinkie jumped back, and before anypony else could do anything, hidden doors at the top of the ramp in the giant bathtub-thing slid sideways and out stepped a gleaming silver figure. Everypony stared at it while it shuffled down the ramp to stand at the front of the two lines of metal figures. It measured a bit shorter than the skinny ones, but the silver figure seemed much more alive, although it moved stiffly.
Stopping directly in front of the group of five ponies, it raised one arm in what appeared to be a gesture of greeting, and then to everypony’s surprise, it spoke.
“Greetings! I am TL-90, and it is my pleasure to inform you that on behalf of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, you that you are now under the Protection of the Separatist Alliance! Congratulations! My Commander has dispatched me to help smooth our first meeting over. I ask that you inform your leaders that my Commander would like an audience with them to discuss the future of this new and exciting relationship. I will return tomorrow at this time to set an appropriate time and place for a meeting between your government and my Commander. I look forward to your response and I hope we will all get along splendidly!”
Without so much as a second glance, the silver figure turned around and began shuffling back to the ramp, muttering to itself in a strange and very blocky language. As it moved, Starlight stood frozen, both by its proclamation, and by the fact that other than the difference in aesthetics, the silver figure looked identical to what Twilight had been trying to accomplish with her idea for the Metal Mare. Had somepony across the sea managed to create it first? Was that also what these tall skinny sculpture-like things were?
Most of the others were similarly in a state of shock, except for one. Applejack stepped bravely forward and called out to the silver creature-thing as it walked up the ramp.
“Now wait just a darn minute! Come back ‘ere for just a second.” At her words, the silver thing stopped and turned around to look at Applejack. Not once during its speech, nor even now, did its expression change or did it even look like it was capable of such a thing.
“If’n ya want to talk to anypony about this sort o’ stuff, we can get our, uh, ‘leaders,’ here pretty quick. But we’re not going anywhere until we get a couple answers. First of all, what in tarnation are you even? I’ve never seen anything like you mah whole life. And where do ya come from?”
“I’m sorry, but I cannot answer that right now. My Commander will be able to answer any questions when he meets with your leaders. As I’ve instructed, I will return tomorrow for your recommendation on a proper meeting place so that we may attend important matters and answer questions. If you have any questions, I suggest you make a note of them and present them to your leaders to ask during the official meeting.”
The thing turned to go once more, but Applejack stepped forward past the first row if skinny statues and called out again to the creature trying to re-enter the confines of the large grey bathtub.
That proved to be a mistake.
Instantly, the two closest figures sprang forward and seized her by the arms, while making strange, high-pitched, squawking noises. The orange mare started struggling, but the tall figures didn’t let go, and dragged her back to her group of friends, who all backed away several steps in return. Pushing Applejack down, the figures backed up until they were once again in line, and then row by row, the skeletal figures turned and followed the silver being back into the large metal structure, before the doors once again closed, and the ramp retracted on its own.
Starlight stepped forward, intending of opening up the doors once more with her magic and telling off the creatures inside for treating her friend so roughly, when a loud whine started reverberating throughout the whole area, and miraculously, the huge metal container started moving.
It slowly levitated a couple inches off the ground, before the legs on which it had been resting retracted underneath it and the whole thing quickly accelerated into the sky. Starlight followed its trajectory up, until it was but a speck in the blue sky and was obscured by a cloud.
Nopony said anything after that, not for a few minutes at least. Starlight only then realized Spike standing behind the group, silently scratching a long piece of parchment with a quill, his brow furrowed in concentration and the occasionally word being audibly whispered under his breath as he wrote. Finally, Fluttershy cleared her throat and said quietly, “I think we should tell the princesses about this.”
***
Princess Luna staggered back at the words as if they were a physical blow. For such a long time, her sister had kept Equestria safe, and then when she had returned, some of that duty had fallen to Twilight and her friends. To hear what Celestia had said had moved her deeply. It wasn’t even that the words were all that powerful, it was that they were just so unexpected.
To think that something could have happened so quickly, Luna was completely unprepared for it. Normally strong and stoic, the Lunar Diarch broke, for just a fraction of a second; her calm and cool exterior showed the cracks of fear and surprise. But because she was the co-ruler of an entire land, in another fraction of a second the fear was replaced with calm once more. Because she had to make sure none of her guests suspected a thing, she once again became the strong and stoic princess that they expected her to be.
Grabbing her sister’s shoulders, she gave a gentle shake.
“Tia, remember who you are. We cannot be frightened like children by something like this. We will act for the good of Equestria.”
Another second passed and the alabaster princess had regained her composure as well, even though Luna sensed the troubling emotions stirring down below the surface. Her gentle smile returned to her lips and she faced the Minotaur Elder easily and spoke with her usual light and graceful tone.
Except for her sister, the others gathered heard Princess Celestia speak in her calm and motherly tone. Luna however, could hear the tiny chords of strain in her sister’s voice as she addressed the Minotaur delegation and informed them that she had just received a small shock from a prized student of hers, before excusing herself to use the bathroom.
Luna knew that Celestia was really going off to quickly write a response to the letter and try to gain more sense from Spike’s original message. Although it had been Luna who had given her sister a gentle shake, the words Tia had spoken were rattling around inside her head like a pinball in a pinball machine.
Twilight is injured. Someone is trying to invade Equestria.
***
Cranker hummed happily to himself as he stepped off the shuttle and onto the deck of the Dawn of Dusk. The mission had been a complete success. Despite having been kicked by one of the organics (he still wanted to get it back for that) the whole operation couldn’t have gone smoother. He was so surprised he had even survived the engagement (as much as it could be called that), that he was determined to congratulate is squad as soon as he got back from the bridge with Spaller. The two squad co-leaders had to make their report along with TL-90, who was shuffling along ahead of them.
Behind them, the other six droids were moving off for different sections of the ship, while a small maintenance crew started checking over the ship and moving it below decks on one of the large vehicle lifts built into the floor so that it could be stored with the rest of the dreadnaught’s complement.
Punching the other droid in the arm, Cranker excitedly exclaimed, “We’re so lucky, huh? We managed to get off maintenance crew supervision, and we got chosen for a super important mission for the Captain, that turned out to be a huge success!”
Spaller looked over while the two of them walked, but after a few moments without replying, looked away and hung his head slightly.
“Hey, what’s wrong buddy? You know you can talk to me. What happened? Don’t tell me you miss being part of maintenance supervision.”
“Well, I just have a bit of a bad feeling about this.”
“About what? Come on, spit it out Spaller.”
“This whole situation. I don’t know how to describe it, I just have this nagging feeling that everything’s going to be really difficult with this new assignment.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it, buddy. You’re just caught up in all the political tension that’s moving through the ship right now. Don’t let it get to you. Say, after we give our report to the Captain, why don’t we go down to F deck and try our hand at betting on the droideka races, huh? I know that always cheers you up!”
Spaller looked over at his companion before offering a sheepish sigh.
“Alright. That does sound fun. You always know what to do to keep me happy,” after a moment of silent marching, Spaller chuckled a bit and leaned over to the other droid and whispered, “You know, if you really wanted to cheer me up, we could always go down to maintenance and you could lose another argument with that astro-droid.”
“Shut up! I don’t lose!” Cranker retorted, punching Spaller in the shoulder while the latter snickered.
***
72624 watched as the two B1’s left the bridge. After listening to their full report, he was thinking hard. Some of the natives had shown an obvious feeling of resentment and mistrust towards the visitors suddenly appearing next to their town. 72624 had counted on that. However, the good news was that most of the natives seemed cowed and fearful of the droids, but not so much that the fear would turn to anger. If they could use this, combined with the decision of their leaders to agree to the demands he was currently still coming up with, meant that it would be very easy to align the nation below with their objectives and conquer the planet that much sooner.
Sitting back in the Captain’s chair, he looked over at Pix, the diminutive little servant droid who was dutifully organizing his schedule and all of the information that had been delivered in the report.
Granted, it wasn’t much, as the mission had been quite a short one, but she seemed competent enough. Perhaps he would start being a bit friendlier to her and show her some respect in return for a job well done.
But then again, she was just a servant droid and he really didn’t feel like extending respect to anyone at all. Besides, he barely even knew what the word meant.
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Well, spike screwed up. Now they are under the premise of an attack and not negotiation
8273472
You never know. If you only heard part of some weird robot things talking about "taking them to your leaders" it's understandable to get a bit freaked out. And by the way, those last words of the royal sister segment was what Celestia said two chapters back. Not necessarily what Spike actually wrote.
Missing closing quotes.
8273472
It may not be an attack, but it is an invasion.
8273516
There we go! I'm surprised both myself and my editor missed that!
8258058
Well, now I find them even more adorable. You've got to love an army of faceless minions that are genre-savvy.
Well, i never thought that Spike would be like that with starlight
8273796
XD
Well... It's Spike
Gotta have some sort of comic relief
8273852
Yeah
8278465
So far as I have planned, no. I based Sherlock Bones off of Mister Bones a little bit though. For one, they're both insane ;P
Ẅ̲̻͔̉̆̀͆h̻̫̰̙́̈́͊̑̆͗͛̚a̸̞̞̞̻̩̼͕ͯͫ̎͡t͗̓͘҉̠̘͚̠͙̠̼ ̵̸̡̘̹͕̳͔̣͇̭ͭͥͣ́ǎ̶̫̣͉̞ͨͦ͘b̒҉͓͖̺̠̤̻o̷̵̞̗̅͂̌͋̿͋ͬͦ̀u̧̖̣̭̖̬͍̜ͣ̈ͦţ̖̣͎̬͖̩͍ͣ͋͐͠ ̺̹͔͔̦̱͍͑̈ͤ͌͡ͅm͈ͬ̽ͮ͊e͓͓̠̜͙̺̝̰ͫ̐ͣ͐ͧ
8287060
t
What the sh
Well ok, then I'M SORRY, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO CALL YOU, GOOD SIR?
8287076
Ḭ̗̻̳̲̕͘͜͜͞d̡̻̠̞̠̲͔̟̰͞ ͈̠̺̦͖͎̯̞͘ļ̦̮̜͓̹̱̭͡i͘̕͏̛̪̯̝͕͙̘̩͖̩͎̼̩̥ͅk̵̢̼͓͔e̗͖͙̲̼̙̮͎̘̺͎͕͘̕ ̸͈͍͓̰̙͈̩̘̟̺͇̣̫͔͕̕̕t̢̳̥̗͚͖͕̟̰̙̟̬̣͕̗̘̘͕̰͞ͅó̶̡̝̲̠̖͝ ̴̡̯̮̤͓̺̠̳͕̀̕b̶҉̘͕͔͎͇̪͇̱̦̘̹̼̙̜̭͇̜̗̕͝e̡̟̰͚͓̜̖͝ ̵̨͙̘̭̹͍̖̣͉͓̠̮̻̫́̕k̸̵̡̦͕̠͓̭͚͘n̴̵̨̞͖̫͔̱͈̝͟͢o͘͝҉̟̝̠̝́w̸̬̪̳̱͎̭̠̜̱̤͘̕n҉̴̱͕̘͈͖́ ̗̤͇̳͎̘̰̗͍̘͈̤̗͈͜a̧̺̱̮̟̝̼̺͞s̀҉̡̧̪̼̮̠̙͇̘̱̳͙̣ ̶͘͏̸̤̝̦͇͕̫̳͚̯͍͖͙̮͞t̸̕͏҉̵̤̩̙̣͕̦͇̘̬̝̭̯͈͍̞ͅh̸̵̨͉̗͕̭̙͔̦͙̼̥̯̞͓̗a̴͏̪͍̘̭̮̠̘̱͘͜t̸̜̝͚̘̺̟̳̘͓̞͈̀́ ̸̢̫̦̭̰̣̠́͢͟g̛̰̭̪̖̮̮̻̘̬͎̻̠̖͖̀͠͞ͅu͟҉̠͓̥̖̤̱̣͕̠͇ͅý̲̩̭̙̼̩͙̙̟̀͢͝ ̷̛͓͚̗͔̙̩̭̳̤͉̪͔̀w̵̥̺̳̘̦̠̫͔͖̮͙̖̪̗̥̲ͅh̢̤̦̝͖̳͙ͅo̶̴̷̢̢͓͇̩̹͚̳̲͕͇̣̭̻ ̺̘̻̣̪̮͓͔̪̫͍̲̟͔̤̲̳̰̮́̕͢͡͠f̛͚͙̟̣̫̮̮͞ͅͅo̸͏̷̳̺͙̥u̙̟͖͖͙͙͕̞̕͠n̙̬̮̘̯̘̱͕̟̲͘͝͞d҉̨̤̹̱͓̩̥͔̖̜̜͚͈̜͕͚̹͈̟̪̀ ̛̟̲̳̭̥͖͖̹̣̠̳̯̱́́͝a̵̴͜҉̭͕̦̮͉̩̻̩̳̲̦͓͕̪̕ͅ ̸̵̢̛̻̪̖͓̩͉͉̯̝̰̫͕͖͓̠̦̀ͅś̶̵̜̤̖̰͕͖̜̻͖͡p̶̴̶̡̩̖̬̘̺͎͉̪̮̗͚̫ó̢̩̣̲̳͖̱͖̦̲͙̩͙͘͠͞ͅo̴̧̦͖͔̤̙͍̼̳̜͙̠̱͎̳̭̩p̨̥̦̪̳̗͙̖̩̝͢y̷̢̩͉̥̱̩͎̺̦̘̻͕̖͉̫͜͠ͅͅ ̵͓͉̖̰͞t͏̰͈̪̺̦̘̺͖̼̯͕̕ę̴̫̙̪x̜̭͙̲̀͘͢͞t̢͍̭͚̪̗͍͓̮̯̹ ̵̟͙͉̗̕e̶͞͠҉͉͔͚̭͉̠d͍̞͎̻͍̝̰̮̗͢i̷̷͇̠̜̘̜̗͔̤̗͍̲̯̦̰̱̬͘͢͠t͏̧͚͍̺͚̣̖̘͉̞͘͢͡ͅo҉͏̢̞̤̼̖̳̫͔̩͇͜ͅr͡҉͜͏̞̺̫̩̫̖̖͇̥̫͔̮͙̙
8289348
Yeaaaaaahh, no. Since you said 'guy', I'm just going to call you a person.
Hey this story is awesome and funny too and you are doing a great job on it hopefully the situation with the failsafe can be explained to the princess and they mean no harm and it was just a misunderstanding keep up the good work
8293983
Thank you very much! I don't want to put out any spoilers, but remember, the ponies don't actually have any proof and don't really know that the probe droid was with the confederacy yet.
That's gonna be a fun part to write
8296647
p.s when will the chapter be out just wondering
Ooh I'll be looking forward to it and read it soon
8296708
Bad Brony! No spoilers!
(Whenever my editor has time to take a look at it and i revise it afterwards)
8298689
applebloom sad face active
I'm sorry
8298693
applebloom sad face active
xD
Apple Bloom is best emoji
I just noticed them being anthros and while this is not bad I was interessted in the normal ponies meeting them.
Some small details I sometimes notice rather late, the most important thing to me is always looking at the stories name, figuring out which idea was used, then I guess the tags and as long as I see something I like, I guess some small details can slip my attention.
Not sure how else to say it, but this looks like the ponies thinking they have the right to do what they want again, their world or not.
It kind of looked like Applejack was trying to overstep a line and them acting on it, rather harmless and that got an angry reaction out of Starlight.
Hoever I liked this chapter, to me it still looked like everyone acting in this chapter was a druid, either you just said clones because I hadn'T read the start that concentrated or there are clones and I'm just getting confused with the numbers and nicknames.
I know that they sometimes were called by numbers I think or had nicknames when they where really good soldiers I think, but I'm speaking german and maybe that is why I can get easily confused here.
I'm also not the biggest clone wars expert even if I have seen every episode I could watch at least once.
8273796
I kind of have seen hormon controlle teenage/pervert Spike already, or what he was supposed to be there.
I mean that I have seen it somewhere else already.
Rlly m8 how could you Spike
Uuuh...
That bit with spike was pretty uncalled for.
It didn't further the story, there was no background to the action, why was it there?
It's a little unsettling but I'll get over it. Onward!
There it is "I have a bad feeling about this." Was in every movie..🍿🍿🎥🎥📽️
10621163
Ah yes, my favorite expression, the ability to punch one's face in order to show growing exasperation regarding an ongoing mishap.
I imagine TL-90's voice like the barbie in toy story 2
I have a bad feeling about this... The droids pulling a Mafia boss isn't exactly what i deem likely to facilitate friendly negotiations... Or peacefully coexistence