The reception went much as Mark expected for something thrown together at short notice. They held it at the Alice Springs Convention Centre, also as anticipated. He ensured that no event was scheduled for their planned appearance date for that reason. Given the very brief preparation time, what had been put together impressed him. On the other hoof, this would not be an extended business convention. Mark was there to meet with the Prime Minister and whichever members of his government he had brought along. Besides introductions, they would make preliminary arrangements to set up a formal embassy in Canberra which is where Smolder would be doing most of her work with the humans before expanding to various other nations.
Of course, it was also an opportunity for the Press to get a closer look at the visitors and report to the world about the intentions of the Equestrians, and what they were like. The PM had initially suggested limiting the number allowed into the convention room, but Mark insisted that as many as could be squeezed in be admitted. This was a media event as much as a formal meeting.
The entourage was offered snacks and drinks, although the caterers did not know what the aliens could safely consume. Mark made a show of casting a spell to check its safety and declared everything to be healthy for ponies, despite already knowing that it would be. He sincerely doubted that anyone conspired to poison them yet. It did give him the opportunity to pull a prank though.
As the PM took a drink of water, Mark asked, “Will we get to meet your other wives in Canberra?”
Anthony Gillard choked on his drink and water squirted from his nose.
Inwardly, Mark congratulated himself on his timing. Penny would be pleased. Outwardly, he looked on solicitously. “Are you okay, Mr. Gillard? I only asked because I know someone in your position would surely have several in your herd. It’s understandable that only one could accompany you on short notice though.”
When the PM regained his composure, he explained that humans were generally monogamous. Mark nodded and replied that monogamy was acceptable too, but his tone said that he found it to be a little strange, explaining why having multiple wives was common among ponies. His ulterior motive was to precondition the humans to cultural differences such as that.
Twilight held a brief demonstration of magic to convince their hosts that it was indeed real and capable of extraordinary feats. Of course, merely lifting glasses with their hooves was enough to boggle some of the watchers. Shining Armor’s ability to produce force fields of varying size and capabilities impressed everyone, but Mark insisted that his co-ruler limit her presentation to flashy but inconsequential magic. He did not want Earth to know how overwhelmingly powerful she was, not to mention keeping several techniques secret.
POLYGAMOUS PONIES PERTURB PM
* * *
YOU’RE A WIZARD, HARRY PONY!
* * *
DRAGONS PARTIAL TO COOPERS PALE ALE
* * *
MISSISSIPPI PREACHER DECLARES WAR ON DEMON VISITORS
* * *
IMAM PRONOUNCES FATWA ON UNHOLY BEASTS
* * *
“Well, that didn’t take long,” Celestia declared after reading the headlines the next day, a stack of Terran newspapers to her side. “I don’t believe that even I managed to have two holy wars invoked upon me simultaneously during my reign.”
Mark shrugged. “Earth is full of religious nutcases. I would have been more surprised if nobody said anything. Most of those humans are nothing but talk though. We just have to keep a lookout for the odd one that takes it to the extreme. It’s no accident that I did not want to reveal ourselves in America. Lots less risk starting off here.”
“So, what happens next?” Penumbra asked.
“The government of Australia will try to find us a suitable site to build our embassy, and of course, to be able to keep a close eye on us alien ponies, dragons, and so forth. They may be eager to do business, but they aren’t going to have blind faith in us immediately. Once they’ve decided on a spot, they will plant the beacon we gave them, and we’ll come visit soon after. In the meantime, we’ll check in daily at the Alice Springs site.”
“Trixie foresees many businesses visiting Alice Springs well before the official embassy is up and running,” Mark’s wife said confidently.
The green alicorn nodded. “And one of those businesses will be Harmonic Composites. By coincidence, they have an employee on the spot. How lucky is that?” he asked with a grin and a wink at the kirin seated across the table from him.
Ken chuckled as he exchanged a knowing grin with his wife who had flown up to Alice Springs to join him. “I’ll make them an offer they can’t refuse!”
Celestia said, “Knowing bureaucracy as I do, I suspect it will take a while for the Australians to settle on a place for the embassy.”
Mark replied, “That’s fine. It gives an excuse to set up a ‘temporary’ office in Alice. I did get to meet the mayor of the city and he offered to find us a suitable site. He might not realize that we intend to make it a permanent hub for our Earth operations, but he definitely senses an opportunity.”
“Oh, absolutely, darling,” Rarity said. “An isolated town like Alice Springs mostly relies on tourism for growth. Not only would an Equestrian enclave cater to that, but he can practically smell the business potential.”
Smolder waved a portfolio in the air with a smirk. “And I’ve already prepared an irresistible offer. We’ll be building there long before Canberra makes up its collective mind.”
The talks with the mayor went very productively. With a clearer view of what the Equestrians intended, he tasked his underlings to assess a few potential sites and put together a preliminary report on each for Smolder to appraise. One place stood out for its proximity to the main highway and services while still being located far enough away from residential and preserved areas to allow for a lot of future expansion. There was some negotiation for the initial construction on the site with Mark insisting on an Equestrian crew putting up the first temporary building. The permanent structures would be built by locals, although the firm contracted to do the job would get permission to hire Equestrian labor if desired. Mark suspected it would.
Ponyville Reconstruction Enterprises was legendary for its ability to undo the damage incurred by various disasters visited upon the town in a ridiculously short amount of time. With the huge boom in growth due to Harmonic Composites, the School of Friendship, and various other associated businesses, the company had not only prospered but grown along with Ponyville. Mark hired P.R.E. to erect the Equestrian’s temporary office as soon as permission was granted. Its design closely matched the Harmonic Composites buildings in the United States – a few desks in private suites attached to a warehouse with a portal, plus the associated facilities.
To say that the mayor was shocked that it was ready to move in within two days was an understatement. Smolder assured him that it met Equestrian standards, exceeding requirements for temporary premises. She also informed him that the structure would be torn down once the larger permanent facility was built. She led inspectors through their on-site review, complete with an extended interview with the earth pony foreman, Thorough Groundwork. She knew that it would pass due to the firm having a copy of the Australian National Construction Code beforehand. Certain adaptations had to be explained to the inspectors, but it would have been too suspicious if everything looked exactly like Australian practices.
The notoriety of having Earth’s first interdimensional business cut through a lot of bureaucracy. Power and water were connected as soon as the Certificate of Occupancy was issued. Smolder signed a contract with Telstra to supply communications services. The local company, Red Centre Technology Partners dropped off PCs and network gear the day the power was turned on. The Equestrians made a point of needing to familiarize themselves with the foreign equipment, hiring a human to teach them how the Terran computers worked. In fact, she was Ken’s wife, Mariko Hayashi who had “met” Smolder during her husband’s business meeting with the dragon. Having a tutor on site allowed the Equestrians to not appear already familiar with PCs and business software.
All this was financed with gold from the Royal Treasury. Australia’s major banks fell over themselves trying to get in on the ground floor, and they eagerly exchanged gold for Australian dollars. And so, to no one’s surprise, Equestrian Foreign Enterprises was ready to begin business well before the politicians passed legislation to legitimize their operations. Smolder had patiently supplied parliament with all requested information from her temporary office in Canberra during the construction in Alice Springs. Even the most cynical of the politicians could foresee the enormous commercial and political gains from this pact, and only the reluctance of the opposition party to hand the incumbent party a gigantic boost to their status slowed down the process. When Smolder requested separate meetings with each major party “to understand and appreciate the views of all Australians,” the slowdowns magically disappeared. Mark cheekily pointed to this as a demonstration that Equestrians could indeed bring their magic to Earth. Meanwhile, every authority turned a blind eye to what was happening in Central Australia because it was technically illegal for the Equestrians to even be there, let alone signing contracts and building facilities.
At last, parliament passed legislation that legalized commercial and political ties between the two nations, and a formal ceremony was announced. This time, it would be done with full pomp and protocol and thus would take a few days to prepare.
Elsewhere, other people had different plans.
In a quiet back alley, a tall man dressed in camo pants and a black hoodie ambled up to a weedy-looking man leaning against the hood of an old Ford Falcon. He said, “Got a package for me?”
The shorter man nodded and opened the trunk of the old gas-guzzler.
The taller man whistled. “That’s a big gun.”
“Uh-huh. When I was a kid, my classmate said his dad used it to take down elephants. I doubt it’s been fired since then, so you’ll have to service it and get ammo if you need more than twelve rounds.”
“Nah, that should be enough to get the point across. I’m glad your friend was so accommodating.”
“… So, are you gonna buy it or not?”
“Yeah, yeah, fine. Why did the price go up to fifteen hundred?”
“You get to keep the car.”
“Five hundred for this pile of rust?” After a short silence, the taller man handed over a wad of bills in return for the keys. “You know what? Since it runs, that’s a bargain any way you slice it. Is the title in the glovebox?”
“Sure would have been nice if it was. Pleasure doing business with you.”
# # # # # # # # #
i.redd.it/2egup72me7r71.jpg
With billions of population a extremist solorunner or a gavourment trying to screw things up for one another was to be expected. They be sorely dissapointed that Shining Armor and other military personal are a lot more competent than they might look on first glance.
There are probably going to be some that eventually laugh at spears and other weapons that seem outdated, until targets find out that arrows are behaving like intelligence guided missles or that a simpel spear can pierce though solid walls or even armored glass like though foam walls.
The medical sciences enhanced by magic and alchemy will win over most of earth population alone, the healing pods the Changelings use with Twilight improved healing potion will make look Starwars Bacta tanks like cheap aspirin in comparison.
Wonder if Mark pulls a Heartsong after the murder Hobo fails and perhaps get caught:
Though I can see something redicules coming from the butthurt Kalchiks:
I doubt they could actually do that legitimately anyway? Can't nations only declare war upon someone? A city-state at least? What would they do if the ponies actually take it seriously?
Probably something as silly as this:
11784672
I really feel that they missed an oppourtunity there, for YOU'RE A WIZARD, HAIRY PONY!
I really hope that having been on Earth long enough, that they have some Harmonic Composite parts for those PCs, slightly older and more obscure tech, but really hopefully theyve been rolling their own OS.
Linux L4 is a real good start if you want to be hardcore.
Every major company has rejected it because its what Microsoft paid for. Something secure.
Currently only the US Army has it under testing that I know of.
Thing Im annoyed at is though I know Australia has lots of coal, I cant remember the general geology around and under Alice Springs. Only that its the middle of a large old piece of crust, and seismometry shows a couple other gigayear segments even deeper?
I wonder how far down Smolder could get for lava spa and geothermal power mineral source?
11784692
While it is hyperbole, some will take it seriously.
Good, they didn't forget the important stuff.
11784706
A yesss... the guys noone wanted to talk about...
Something like that I guess?
So there's at least one religious zealot (99% sure it's an Evangelical "Christian") who is going to try killing the ponies, and no doubt an orange shit-stain of a President is also planning to declare war on Australia to kill the demon horses from another dimension.
I have a feeling that Mark will be very ready for this assassination attempt (hopefully).
11784728
"It's the catholic church!"
Personal shields trump elephant guns every time.
Kalchiks 'bout to get 25 to life. Seriously, spite makes you DUMB.
And so Sgt Murphy is up to some hijinks again...
11784698
As long as the operating system has applied the current Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) on the Defense Information Security Agency (DISA) website, you are relatively safe from anything but "man on the inside" and "zero day" exploits. That applies to both Linux and Windows systems.
Plus, you route all internet traffic through a dumb-as-a-brick PC that can do pretty much only pass through benign traffic and doesn't have the smarts or functionality to be vulnerable to anything. This PC for the Equestrians is lovingly called "Bubba."
11784807
yay!
O no...
11784762
And you be dead wrong if you actually understand the orange man
11784692 While not an official act or likely to be recognized as a real War. Anyone can say they declare WAR on someone else. WE see private individuals declaring war on others all the time. From here its just a matter if someone acts upon or takes it seriously
11784875 Not sure how long lot will depend on where it happens US, Australia or somewhere else maybe even the Equestrian Embassy
11784820
Stands to reason after the SG 1 and other incidents.
Having caliber 50 or bigger aimed at you raises onces preparations, especially with calculations of a nutcase or a million trying something.
Wonder if they show the wonders of Starwars to the ponies. Only for the ponies to make m8llions out of working illusion lightsabers
Or make alternative scene parodies
Happy near you to come
11786610
These ponies already know the wonders of Star Wars. I wonder if they can keep that bit of data a secret...
11786782
Mark knows that familiarity with Earth's movies and so forth could trip them up. Fortunately, much of that knowledge is pretty much confined to the royal family and very close friends so far. Contact between the Equians and humans will be limited to those who can watch their words carefully.
11787013
Knew he was smart. Just so long as Penumbra does not use the words 'jedi' or 'padawan' in public until one year after first contact.
11784807
11784807
No one ever expects it
11784692
Actually the very notion of any christian taking such a position is ludicrous. Its like declaring war on steel or hammers. Magic, in this case, has a natural, not a supernatural (see demonic) source, so no christian should have a problem. Id summarize jewish thought (fairly well, I might be so bold as to so) but they haven't declared war on them have they.
The Imam... well, good luck fuckstick antagonizing two worlds dummy. As for the muslim world at large... well, Id hardly say that feeb getting the vapors because heaven forfend whatever he thinks God is was working the levers of Creation represents the whole of his faith, but one must recall jinn are a thing in it, and differ from demons, I believe.
Overall though I imagine To Serve Man is in effect and ponies should tread lightly.
11784762
Considering the current occupant of the office I imagine they'd prefer a nuke.
"He's sniffing me sister..."
"I know Luna. I know. Just think of the ma, apple pie, and the baby Jesus."
Hey Goldfur, what do Aussies think of in that situation?
11789218
It's most likely a move to get some attention for once, further under over 7 billion population when even only 1% is going after them than they have millions of idiots going to try something.
Besides it most likely that it will be similar as people often behave towards technology.
Everything new is unwelcome because it is challenging the things we know.
Everything that we know is a standard we grown up to that is the norm we life with.
In 100 year ponies and their technology will be the usual stuff one has grown up with, no longer going to be the big unknown to fear out of not understanding it.
The politicians will be forced to actually work and be less openly corrupt, because the Alicorns will be giving them a very hard competition.
Further these days politicians give a crap about environmental damage, because it isn't lucrative to care about it, as well they will not be alive to suffer its consequences. The Alicorns in comparison will still be around when they have long been forgotten. They care for environmental protection and stability of non war economy because they will not suffer the consequences of short lifed mortals.
We already have passed the line to save our planet from decline, at this point we can only slow it down.
But since that isn't profitable, it get stomped out hard.
If people would go after politicians because they literally killing the planet and the human race alongside it. We still would be busy with other stuff that isn't saving the planet
They be like:
Because if the bad guys are actually the good guys, that the good guys are actually the bad ones.
So we will have the once going after the non humans because of they are a threat to their beloved or their powerbase.
Imagen people stop paying taxes or even wanting to change how things run currently, all of a suddenly the rich and powerful would be a unsupported minority.
That, is what the superpowers probably would fear from peaceful aliens.
A sane alternative.
Humanity current gavourments be like:
11789255
11789282
So simpel, yet so true
I wonder if the next chapter or the chapter after that will be showing the wanne be assasin and his hopefully very unsuccessful attempt.
He start as:
camo.fimfiction.net/VSDQ8Qn4bYNNEyTdhXp6Etx1snRx_OdD5HQtUXF9vik?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.gr-assets.com%2Fhostedimages%2F1491075897ra%2F22374064.gif
He end up as:
camo.fimfiction.net/PW5ATu2Dib7lNf-ouB9J8L2pin8X_09alv1_nnBEwUs?url=https%3A%2F%2Fc.tenor.com%2F9k8Gs6o2A30AAAAC%2Fbill-paxton-aliens.gif
Can a Anti elephant gun even managed to go through dragon scales on distance? A elephant is a thick muscled creature, while dragon are arguably heavy armored light transportation tough targets.
12 shot... The gunner has to maintnance and adjust the gun so 2-3 shot probably be wasted for that.
Yet how fast can someone shot 9 bullets?
Especially if they probably try to flee after having shot 1-3 times, unless the gunner isn't caring to escape or survive.
Elephant guns are further rather a rare thing, tracing it back will most likely still end up as 'yep, that gun was made in American territory'.
Question is... was it a American loony that opened fire or someone else? America, Russian and Chinese are not the only nations known to like pulling stuff like that.
CIA, KGB and other organizations are rather infamous for pulling stuff like that.
Though it has more negative than positive effects after the fact. So a solo act seem more likely.
Agencies usually run a cost-benefits overview before going for a action if reason applies.
Mark Wells no matter what, will not be pleased. He know it was a 'when' not 'if' situation. It would stand to reason that traveling and general trade talks are under high security and low personnel numbers would be the appropriate countermeasures for future attempts on them.
One good thing about the portals is that they can be configured to leave clothing and other materials behind. So smuggling anything is virtually impossible.
That at least is something that will disabuse organizations to try pull things like smuggling weapons or spy gear for espionage towards Equestria.
Stands to reason that portal use and portal making will be seperated.
I would say its safe to show people to turn on and off a portal, but I would never risk to give them a blueprint how to make them or find a way to break them through subtile sabotage.
Chinese construction lost out to a legitimate business. They'll never recover.
11784707
I seem to recall the comedian Gabriel Iglesias saying that when he toured Australia he tried getting one of those stereotypical Aussie Beers and the bartenders giving him a cheeky hard time about drinking pizz.
Would predict that "The Gan" is going to get a large increse in business.
Interesting tidbit:
Australia has a law that embassies have to be built in such a way as to represent the culture of the country being represented. For Equestria, the obvious choice to build would be here: on the side of Black Moutain!
And given that its a nature preserve, it's an even more appropriate locale.
11789218
Considering how close they're likely to be to having nukes, reliable delivery is the only thing that would restrain Iran in the long run. ICBMs might be out of their league, but all it would take is one boat and a truck driver, and you'll suddenly have a surprise package show up on your doorstep one morning.
The plan is proceeding on schedule!