The Curtain Opens...
Bincaltha winced as yet another shot from the pursuing Gubru fighters exploded off her port side, while she desperately flung her shuttle pod into a starboard spin and jammed the throttle of her one remaining engine forward, trying to coax as much speed out of her damaged ship as she could. Her only chance against her heavily-armed pursuers was her ship was smaller and more maneuverable, despite her lack of weapons.
If she could avoid being blasted into her component atoms for just a few more seconds, she might be able to give her navicomputer time to calculate a blind warp jump. Under any other circumstances, such a maneuver was tantamount to suicide, as one could find oneself warping through an uncharted star, or trying to do so through a very rocky, very solid planet! But as her avian pursuers began to close, she was quickly running out of options.
Fighting down her gheer reaction by quickly forming a nuturunow glyph with her tendrils, she spun her ship evasively again and called out, "Computer! Calculate jump to the nearest inhabitable planet and execute!"
There was a second's pause, and the computer responded with, "There are no charted inhabitable planets within range of this vessel."
As her ship was rocked by another couple of near-misses, she cried out, "Then jump to any uncharted planets, and execute!"
After a beep, she heard, "Working," and at once, the stardrive kicked in.
As her vision began to fade and she slipped into Null Space, her last thought was to her family and the hope she'd be alive to warn them in time.
An incessant beeping from one of her warning lights on the instrument panel finally woke her. She sat up groggily and looked about the wrecked cabin. Her tendrils waved, automatically forming the nahakieri glyph, the empathic bond she shared with others of her race, a habit she had from her childhood, especially in times of great stress. Finding no others within range, she settled back and took note of her situation. Her ship was beyond repair, and her readouts showed this planet appeared on no known records of the Great Galactic Library. Forming a syrtunu, the glyph of frustration, she frowned and checked the records again, but there was no doubt: if this planet did not appear on any record of the vast Library, then that meant this entire system, even the entire part of this Galaxy, was uncharted.
Which meant she was hopelessly lost.
She placed a hand on her head, which came away slightly bloody, and she once again forced down the gheer reaction until she needed it, for while it was useful in granting her enhanced strength and agility, as well as the ability to mimic other forms, it took a heavy toll on her body's other functions if done so while under duress.
Uplifted untold eons ago by their now-extinct parent race the Caltour, the Tymbrimi is a marsupial race, resembling bipedal Humanoid foxes, but highly adaptable in different environments. They were also a race of empaths. Though capable of vocalization, they were able to communicate with one another through the forming of glyphs, which they could create using the tendrils which sprouted like thin reeds starting from the bridge of their noses to their temples. Other Galactic races with latent empathic abilities could sometimes kenn these glyphs, but few others could fully understand their meaning. Therefore, the Tymbrimi had also gained a reputation for being a race of tricksters, given to practical jokes, sometimes at the expense of their companions.
But none of these qualities were of any use to her now, as she painfully unlatched herself from her pilot's seat and stared out the cracked viewscreen. The environment appeared to be a forest of some kind, with thick trees and heavy vegetation, so she ran a quick check of the outside conditions and allowed herself a brief sigh of relief to see the atmosphere was breathable. She took another scan and was able to pick up dozens of lifeforms, but none larger than two or three meters or heavier than forty kilos within a kilometer. Scanning once again, she noted what had to be a settlement ten kilometers south of her position, for it was concentrated with lifeforms, along with several primitive structures. Her instruments were too damaged to give her details on the lifeforms, but if they were able to create structures, then they were at least semi-intelligent.
A brief thrill shot through her, for it was entirely possible these could be k'chu-non, like the Terrans of Garth, another race of "wolflings," the term used by the Great Races of the Five Galaxies for those who reached sentience without an Elder parent client race! K'chu-non, wolflings, were looked down upon, even despised, by all but a few of the other Great Races, who considered them to be unruly children at best, or undisciplined savages at worst, but the Tymbrimi was not one of them who believed so!
She'd crash-landed during this planet's night cycle, and its satellite hung large and brilliantly in the sky, providing more than enough light for her to forego the use of artificial lighting, so, after suppressing her bleeding and self-healing the light wound, she grabbed a go-pack, checked the charge on her one weapon, then unlatched the door and stepped outside.
Her own troubles forgotten for the moment, she released her gheer enzymes to modify her muscles, leg length, and lung capacity, and then began to lope through the forest in the direction of the settlement.
Pinkie's eyes snapped open, then she sat straight up in bed. She looked around her darkened bedroom and clutched her blankets to her chest. Something...bad...was coming. She got up and went to her window that looked out over the street. All seemed peaceful; the streets were empty, lit only by the gaslights spaced evenly along the cobblestone roads...every house was dark, or showing a light or two where somepony was staying up late reading, or working, or doing Celestia knows what...
She opened her window and craned her neck to the left, and she could see Twilight's Castle off in the distance, sparkling in the Moonlight, Its banners waving in the slight evening breeze...everything looked as it should, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was just...off.
Still feeling uneasy, she left her bedroom and went downstairs, to the front door, and stepped outside. Her sense of dread only seemed to grow stronger, but her need to discover its source was greater.
And she knew she couldn't do it alone.
The Tymbrimi soon came within sight of the natives' settlement, so she paused a good distance apart and took a few moments to observe. She could detect no technology higher than basic electricity...yet there was something...undefinable...in the air surrounding the settlement. She took off her go-pack and reached for a scanner. This close, she should be able to detect better information on the inhabitants: what forms they possessed, if there were any empaths among them, maybe catch a glimpse of a sign or a billboard that would give her some idea of their written language.
As she was adjusting her instrument, she froze and looked up as one of the natives came into view. A... quadruped. Pink. Appearing to be some sort of equine. A quick syulff-kuonn appeared through her tendrils and just as quickly was dispersed, as forming the glyph for the "joy of a puzzle being solved" might be premature at this point, and she was ever mindful of her parents' constant admonitions of her impulsiveness. She watched as the equine paused and looked about itself, then turned and stared in her direction! Bincaltha drew back into the shadows, certain the creature could not see her, but was still unnerved that she might have been detected.
As she continued to watch, the native shook its head, then resumed its journey, this time with more expediency, towards a large, crystalline structure built at the far end of the settlement. This must house some creature of importance, Bincaltha reasoned, as it was much larger and made of far grander materials than the surrounding buildings. She looked back at her scanner. According to her readings, this settlement had a population in the hundreds, presumably all equine, but there was still that anomaly her instrument could detect but was unable to define.
Which meant it could potentially be quite dangerous.
The situation clearly called for more caution. That native obviously possessed some level of empathic ability, for otherwise it would not have been able to kenn her presence. And until she knew what this anomaly was, and the threat it posed, she would do well to spend a few more days in observation, before she openly approached them.
Her ship, though damaged, could still provide shelter for a few days at least. But a few days was all she could spare, for she still had to find a way to contact her people and warn them of the imminent threat posed by the Gubru and their Allies. Her ship would never reach space again, but perhaps she could repair its communication systems.
And pray to the Gods the right people would hear her message.
"Tell me again what you felt?" Twilight said as she took another sip of her coffee. She and Pinkie were seated in the vast kitchen of her Castle, as the pink mare nervously fidgeted in her place and looked anywhere but at her friend. She set her own cup of heavily-sugared tea down, as her hooves were shaking too much to hold it.
"I...I'm not sure, Twilight," she finally managed. "It...wasn't quite my Pinkie Sense...I...didn't get an ear flop, or a tail twitch, or any of those things I usually get...I just woke up feeling something was just...wrong."
Twilight sighed. "Pinkie...are you sure you weren't simply having a bad dream?" She held up a hoof as she saw her expression change to one of indignation, and hastily added, "I'm not saying what you felt wasn't real! But...maybe...it's...not something...we should be....worried about?" she finished delicately.
Now, it was Pinkie's turn to sigh. "I'm just not sure, Twilight...all I know is I've never, ever felt anything like this before, and I knew I had to tell you." She took a sip of her tea and added, "Also, as I was coming here, I had the strangest feeling of being...watched."
At this, Twilight did sit up. "Somepony was watching you? As in, through their windows?" Pinkie shook her head.
"No...it wasn't like that at all. I felt a strange sense of...somepony feeling as if they'd...'figured something out,' or 'solved a puzzle?' if that makes any sense, and then I felt them staring at me...as if...as if they'd...never seen me before." She put her cup down and sat back, and looked up at the ceiling. "I wish I knew more. All I know is...something bad is coming...and it's coming here."
The zebra Shaman gathered her night cloak about herself, making sure to stay upwind and within the darkness of the trees as she followed the alien. She had been alerted to its presence earlier when she'd seen the blazing light from its craft as it had hurtled from the sky several hours before and had kept her distance as she'd silently observed it emerge from the shattered object, morph its body into one better suited for running, and then take off in the direction of Ponyville!
She had no idea of its intentions or motivations, but if it proved to be hostile she could slip into Town and warn the Princess. For now, though, her mission was to observe and, when safe to do so, report. She'd watched as it came to the edge of Town and stopped, and she felt relief that it seemed to be contenting itself to observation as well. Then she saw Pinkie at the same time the alien did, and Zecora tensed. If the alien made a hostile move, she would be ready to try...something. She slipped closer, still keeping upwind, and slowly removed a poisoned dagger from underneath her cloak. She had no way of knowing if it would have any effect, but she wasn't about to allow this...thing...whatever it was...attack a pony.
Fortunately for them both, the alien soon turned and headed back into the forest. Zecora faded into the darkness and sheathed her blade, allowing the creature to pass unscathed. Now, she was racked with indecision: should she follow it again, and continue to observe it, or should she immediately go and warn the Princess?
In the end, it really wasn't a hard choice.
It took her several hours to finally repair a basic com relay, and by then she had nearly worked herself into a state of syrtunu, with many false starts and stops, but reaching success at the end. She climbed up from underneath the panel and seated herself in her com chair, took a deep breath, then her fingers flew over the controls. A detailed map of the current sector of space appeared before her, and on the farthest fringes of it were tiny, bright dots indicating possible communication relay stations. She hit more controls, to show her the actual scale of the map, and her heart sank as it showed those stations to be several hundred thousand lightyears. Only the greatest Capital ships had a hope of traversing distances that vast; without the most stupendous of blessings, she had no hope of rescue from her people for the foreseeable future. Which begged the question of how she'd arrived here, on this uncharted planet in this uncharted system, in this uncharted part of the Galaxy, wherever it was. In a badly damaged shuttlepod on one stardrive engine...
And that's when another warning light began beeping on her com panel. The blood drained from her face as she recognized the ships' signatures appearing on the sector map.
They'd followed her.
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I nearly spat on my screen laughing at that exchange. It's deliciously ridiculous and cheeky.
I have fond memories of the Uplift series, so seeing art from it was a pleasant surprise on FIM Fic. I'm curious how you're going to mesh the very different worlds in this crossover. You've got me in suspense.
You clearly have a love for the source material, and I like that. You also have a clear vision of your version of Equestria's tech and culture. I'm curious to see how this story develops.
Which method of FTL did Bincaltha use? The Uplift series has a wealth of options to choose from, from the various levels of hyperspace to more bizarre methods like quantum or psionic drives.
And then there's the gubru stumbling upon an uncharted world with more sapient races than Jijo. If they can adopt them all without any other race noticing (while doing a little bit of creative history), they could massively increase their status on the intergalactic stage. And the wolflings here don't even have humanity's defense that they'd already uplifted two races before contact...
11655321
Heh...thanks! I've loved this series ever since I first read it back in college, and it recently came to mind once I got my grubby mitts on a First Edition hardback copy of The Uplift War several months ago. Since then, I'd been wracking my brains to try and merge the two worlds, so this tale has been stewing in my mind for awhile now.
My intention is to remain true to the original source material, without too many deviations, as I have great respect for Dr. Brin and am not seeking to improve his work (as if!), but to expand it. In keeping with the My Little Pony Universe, there will be numerous surprises in store for both Bincaltha and the pursuing Gubru. The MLP universe has a richness of its own, one that I found to be perfectly suited to bring into the Uplift universe.
As far as Bincaltha's method of FTL? lol...I do have a specific way in mind, but I'll leave you with Dr. Brin's quote on the matter:
Given that Weird Psychic Powers are a thing in Brin's universe, I can see the Ponies - and the other sapient life forms of Equestria - as the result of some _really_ unscrupulous uplift experiments.
I draw the line on Discord, though. (Perhaps he's the result of someone exploring way too deep in the realms of E-space, and bringing back a rogue Concept)