Galactic Gamble

by JesterOfDestiny

Chapter 3 - Found

Two lifepods were barrelling across space in a relatively organized fashion, directly towards this one planet. They ripped through the atmosphere with ease and made their descent. One of them made a quick steady recovery, made a few adjustments in the air and touched the ground safely. The door swung open and Rainbow Dash stepped out of it, with her glass headgear on. She looked into the distance and watched the other capsule tumble all over in the air, make a few clumsy loops and then plummet to the ground.

“Oh, Pinkie!” She groaned and took off into the distance.

She tried to observe her environment a little bit, while on the way. The ground was muddy all over, the sky had a greenish tinge to it, that gradually became pink towards the horizon. The wildlife was full of strange noises, but most of the animals themselves were too well camouflaged to be seen. She looked at her hoofheld radar and saw Pinkie’s location. She also double checked if she was on the right planet. And she was.

Eventually, the muddy wastes turned into a forest. Rainbow descended down under the trees’ brownish canopy, where the radar said Pinkie was. The ground was just as soft as it was before. It was more like a swamp, but one where all the water has been turned to soft mud. The foliage was thick and very little sunlight seeped through. Thankfully, the crash left a big hole among the trees and left enough light in for Rainbow to see Pinkie’s capsule. But Pinkie was nowhere.

The lifepod might have plummeted violently, but there were many holes in its hull, that were clearly not caused by atmospheric pressure, or just awkward handling. The pod has been thrown and bashed all over. Pinkie’s hoofheld radar was sunk into the mud, but Pinkie was nowhere to be seen.

Rainbow called out to her, hoping to get an answer, but there were only the strange noises of the local wildlife. But soon, she could see a lead; a line of confetti on top of the mud, clearly shot out from Pinkie’s party cannon. It seems, she tried to use it to escape whatever attacked her. Rainbow followed the confetti line, which ended at the top of a waterfall. She called out her name again. This time, she actually got an answer.

“Down here!” It could just barely be heard, through the sound of rumbling muddy water.

Rainbow looked down at the waterfall and there was Pinkie safely hanging from a large tree’s branch, munching on some local fruit.

“There you are!” Rainbow exclaimed. “What happened?”

“You gotta try this weird-smelling fruit, it’s delicious!”

“What are you doing? You don’t know what you’re eating!”

“Oh please, my stomach had worse before. Remember those horrible muffins from Starlight’s village?”

“And why aren’t you wearing your headgear?”

“Why are you wearing it?”

Rainbow was ready to answer, but she realized that Pinkie had a point. They wouldn’t be having this conversation if the helmet was necessary. She opened up her helmet and could breathe just fine.

“Huh...” She acknowledged her minor mistake. “You still haven’t answered my question though.” She got back on track. “What happened? I saw your capsule in ruins.”

“Oh, I was attacked.”

“By whom?”

And just as Rainbow finished that sentence, a large machine appeared right in front of them. A tank-like contraption with boosters under its caterpillars, so it could float on the same level as them. It had a torso and two arms, almost like a tank-centaur and it was staring them down with its empty, greyed-out glass window.

“That thing!” Pinkie pointed at the machine.

Rainbow immediately shot up at it, cracking its glass “face” with a swift swing of the back hooves. It stumbled a bit and was clearly struggling to stay in the air. It reached out with one arm and launched a missile at the tree Pinkie was resting on, sending her down into the deep. Rainbow forgot about the malicious machine instantly and went after her friend, but the machine reached out and trapped her firmly in its hand. It then flew down after Pinkie and grabbed her with its other arm.

The machine carried them away into the distance. Soon, they were in front of a large building. A small bug-like creature was pacing back and forth in the entrance. The machine dropped both ponies in front of it, but it was too focused on the machine itself. It chirped angrily towards it, as if it was berating it for breaking its glass window.

In the meantime, Rainbow tried to fly away with Pinkie. The creature flew after them and blocked their way.

“Back off pal, you ain’t taking us anywhere!” She shouted.

The bug-creature simply pulled out a small rod and hit her with it, completely immobilizing her and sending both her and Pinkie on the ground.

They fell into the mud below with a splat. “Okay, you can carry on, I guess.” She forced out a defeated remark.

It dragged them both towards the middle of the garage, while it chirped commands at nearby similar bug creatures, who quickly chained the ponies up. One of them chirped back and sent out a small flying television towards the commander, which flew with such recklessness, that it nailed it straight in the face. While the commander got its balance back and chirped angrily to itself, the screen turned on. The two ponies just watched in bewilderment.

Bewilderment soon turned to fear, as the captain of the attacking aliens appeared on the flying television screen.

“Hey, it’s the guy who attacked us!” Pinkie pointed out.

“They’re in cahoots!” Rainbow Dash responded.

The bug creature showed Pinkie and Rainbow to the alien on the screen, before exchanging some more strange noises. After a short conversation that consisted of nothing but chirping and slurping, the screen turned off and flew away, whacking the bug in the face a second time. It chirped to itself in displeasure, then “shouted” at the others.

“I don’t think this is what Twilight was planning...” Rainbow Dash remarked.

“I think she expected us to land nearer to the friendly ones.” Pinkie replied.

“The friendly ones?”

“Yes, the ones who gave up centuries of warring, after almost destroying the ecosystem.”

“Wait, you actually read the database?”

“Well, duh! You gotta know where you travel.”

Soon, a large metal door opened and there came about five more bug-creatures, rolling a huge metal ball towards the middle of the hangar. They almost went a bit too far, because their commander started panicking at the rapidly approaching wrecking ball. But it quickly deployed its legs and managed to stop just in time. But the commander had no time to regain its composure, because the ball’s door swung open and smashed it right into the ground.

“Boy, how did these things build that robot?” Said Rainbow Dash. “They can barely follow commands properly.”

“They might be brilliant engineers,” Pinkie Pie responded, “but they sure are not competent.”

Without even waiting for the commander to get out from under the door, three more bug creatures ran out of the metal ball and without hesitation bashed both ponies with their very own immobilizing rods. And then they dragged them both aboard.

The door closed, the commander flew away and the ground opened right under the ball. It retracted its legs and fell into the hole under itself. The ceiling opened up with such speed and power that the entire hangar shook noticeably. And through the opening, the ball shot out as if it was launched from a cannon. And in a matter of minutes it was in outer space. Heading to rendezvous with the trealitt most likely.

---

The last lifepod was heading to its destination: A small barren planet with an atmosphere so thin, the lifepod barely even got heated. So the landing was relatively safe. Thrusters worked fine, the parachute deployed as intended. Only problem, the pilot wasn’t good, so the pod landed on its side. But something was up with the ground as well, because the pod sank right into what previously looked like solid rock.

The door burst open and Spike emerged with a loud gasp. He forgot to wear his helmet and was trying to breathe the thin atmosphere. Just as he was about to go back inside, the ground cracked and the whole lifepod fell straight under the ground into a tunnel. Now Spike had a headache as well.

When he got up, the helmet turned out to be not necessary anymore; somehow the atmosphere was a lot thicker inside the tunnel. And more interestingly, the underground tunnel was the exact opposite of the barren surface. It was vibrant with different animalistic noises around and the walls adorned all over with bioluminescent fungi.

Spike, of course, had his eyes on something else: A large crystal that was glowing brighter than the lights in a spaceship. He approached it like it was the most delicious thing he’s ever seen.

“Rock is rock,” he thought, “alien food could be poisonous, but this is rock.”

He prepared to grab onto it and chow it down like he would a gem, but just as he touched it, it sent an electric shock that threw him on the ground.

He groaned. “Right, better keep focus.”

He walked through the tunnels, observing the myriads of colours covering the walls. Life seemed more and more abundant the deeper he went. The colours become more vibrant, small creatures emerged from between the fungi, fist-sized beetles rolled past him. Even the air seemed to have become thicker and thicker. He reached a small stream of water and with cupped claws, he drank from it. The water had an odd sweet taste to it. What a strange paradise! He followed the stream and found himself in a large hall, with multiple waterfalls pouring from the ceiling, into a small lake on the bottom. Spike took a dive in it, scaring several odd-shaped animals that were drinking from it, and felt like he was on vacation. But duty was calling, so he had to make it brief.

But as soon as he got out of the water, before he even got to dry himself completely, he suddenly stopped moving. It was like his muscles disobeyed the orders of his brain.

“Well, what do we have here?” Said a high-pitched metallic voice. It wasn’t coming from anywhere, Spike could just hear it. “Not often do I get to find edible brainwaves down here.”

Spike tried to answer the voice or search for its source, but not even his eyes could move. All he could do is make vague moaning noises that only tried to be words. Soon, a lanky green figure emerged from one of the tunnels, staring intensely at Spike, without ever blinking.

“Don’t worry little one,” it talked without moving its lips, “you won’t feel a thing. Soon you’ll forget what feelings even are.” The words didn’t even come from the creature’s mouth; they were coming directly from inside Spike’s head.

The creature leaned in very close to Spike, its mouth slowly opened unnaturally wide and hissed, almost as if it was trying to suck in something. Its eyes and the back of its throat glowed bright green.

Suddenly Spike could move. But instead of screaming or running, the first thing he did is blast the creature with an enormous cone of fire. It made an ear-splitting high-pitched shriek and stumbled away. Spike turned around to run, but he saw another creature like that standing at the entrance of another tunnel. He could hear the creature he previously burned approach him quickly. But as if compelled by an outside force, he turned around and blasted it with fire again. At that point, the hostile creature decided to leg it through another tunnel, its wailing still echoing through the caves.

Spike turned to the other creature. It was standing upright, almost like an ancient statue. It also had a glowing crystal embedded in its forehead. It was a stranger, but Spike somehow felt safe under its unblinking gaze.

“Did you do that?” Spike asked, since he didn’t feel like his movements were his own.

“No,” this creature talked in much the same way the other one, with its lips not moving and voice coming from directly inside Spike’s head, except it had a monotone voice, “it was all you. I merely helped you unlock your potential.”

Spike wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“Follow me Spike,” it said, “I might have something that interests you.”

Spike followed. Sure, stranger danger and all that, but something about this creature felt comforting. Of course, its uncanny knowledge of Spike’s name and talking without its lips moving was still unnerving to him.

“How do you know my name?” Spike asked.

“Terms of identification are among the easiest to gather from other creatures’ brainwaves.” It answered.

“Brainwaves? Are you some sort of psychic?”

“Yes. We all possess this ability.”

“And how do you talk without opening your mouth?”

“I’m not talking. I am implanting my own thoughts into your brainwaves, so you understand me.”

Spike said nothing.

“Yes, it works the other way around as well.” The creature responded to Spike’s unsaid thoughts.

Spike shivered. “Freaky...” He said.

They arrived at a chamber of sorts. Natural looking, but it was clearly designed with functionality in mind. The ceiling had a hole in it and the stars poked through the thin atmosphere outside. And along the walls there were several techno-magical devices, powered by glowing crystals that were suspended in the air above them. The creature stepped up to a control panel, which had no buttons on it, only glowing screens that switched around erratically.

“I received this distress signal from one of my allies’ planet. I suspect they have already taken care of it. But you might know how to translate it.”

“Can’t you just telepathically tell what it means?” Spike questioned.

“Brainwaves aren’t transmitted through signals like this,” the creature explained, “I can only hear the sound, but I don’t understand what it means.”

“Fair enough.” Spike said. “Let me hear it then.”

The audio started playing.

It was faint and was constantly cut-off by white-noise. But it was still partly audible. “If anyone... hear me... I’m crashing... at...” That’s all that could be heard, before it cut off completely.

Spike recognized that voice. That gentle panic was unmistakable. He blurted out his answer without thinking.

“That’s Fluttershy!”