15 - Heart to Heart
"Missus Apple." President Wilson brought his hands together on his desk, in his little oval office. "I'm glad you could fit us into your schedule." He put on a smile that would have been perfectly charming in another circumstance, but now felt out of place and all the more dangerous for it. "Your people have caused some alarm."
Applejack huffed a soft breath through her nose, only half translating. "Sir, we ain't here to harm nobody. You should know that by now. We just want to settle down with friends and family." She raised a hoof to her chin. "Ah was just pickin' up some groceries when ah was attacked. Is that how Americans say howdy?"
Wilson pressed his fingers together more tightly as he leaned back in his chair. "Miss Apple, please believe me when I say this is not how we wanted this to go." He turned to look out the window of his office, at the capital outside. "But you and yours are a cause of great concern to my people. It's hard for us to trust what we don't understand." He met her eyes. "And we don't understand you. I wanted to apologize, you did nothing to deserve that attack, however ineffective it turned out being."
The fact that she had been so completely unharmed was another reason that conversation had to happen. "When you came to us, you were wearing a protective suit. With how resilient you were, what was that suit actually protecting you from?" He cocked his head to the side with interest. "Is the air not safe for you, or something else?"
"Nothin' in this air will hurt us." Applejack placed her hooves on the desk, taking a breath of that air as if to prove the point. "But we didn't know that fer sure when ah got here. The suit does two thin's. Air, and radiation. This close to a sun, out in the void, there's a lot of it. Ain't healthy for no livin' thin' to be soakin' all that in." She set her jaw in determination as she looked the president of the country she lived in right in the eye, holding his gaze. "Mister President, sir, we want ta be yer friends."
The president took a moment to absorb that information, lifting his hands from where they were pressed together as he tilted his head to the side in thought. "We find ourselves in a difficult situation, Miss Apple. As I said before, we don't understand you. And it's a great deal more than just not knowing how you work. It's that you come here and seem so normal, in your eyes, and kind, by most any's, but you are alien. You are the first species other than our own to say hello back to us."
He met her gaze again with confidence. "That makes you very important. Likely the most important creature to ever exist." He laughed softly at the absurdity of that idea. "And we don't know what to do with you."
Applejack set a hoof down on the desk, facing the president. "Ah don't bite. Look." She glanced around. "May ah ask somethin'? This may sound silly, but is Canada a place yer friendly wit'?"
"We are." President Wilson met her eyes firmly, saying nothing more as he tried to parse out the point of the question, already knowing it was a rhetorical one.
But it wasn't, and Applejack nodded firmly. "Ah, that's good. They said they were, and just thought ah'd be sure they weren't fibbin' at us. We may be nice sorts, but we know what a lie is. Shoot, can't say ah never spun a yarn afore, but ah don't make it no habit. A bad one to get into." She snorted softly, keeping her ears straight as she went on. "Would it be so bad if we just made Canada our home?"
The president tensed at the idea. "You aren't enjoying your home? Your wife, um, partner?" He stalled there. "I am uncertain of your relationship with Miss Miller. She's an American."
Applejack looked baffled at the idea. "But she can move if she wants ta, can't she?" She moved a hoof to her chin in thought. "Ain't yer folks always welcome somewhere? Humans gotta have that too, right?" She squinted at the president in suspicion. "Ah don't like where this is goin'."
The president held up his hands. "I'm not trying to play any tricks on you. While Cindy could visit Canada without issue, moving there, permanently, requires significantly more effort. While we are friends, we are two different nations."
Applejack rubbed behind her head. "So? If somepony wanted to move out of—" Her next words were untranslated, just whistles. "—to —" More whistles, no translation available for it. "—there'd be no big deal, they'd just do it."
"Your world sounds very idealistic." The president chuckled softly as he considered it. "It would be nice if the world was so perfect. But it's not." He leaned in close. "While our nations are allies, our borders are only so open. It's not even up to us. Canada has the right to decide who can move into her or not. We'd insist on the same privilege, if someone wanted to move here. May I turn the conversation to a new topic?"
Applejack nodded lightly. "Sure?"
Wilson pointed upwards. "Your ship, your vessel. It hovers over us, and it's grown more active. Could you share what it might be doing? I'll admit, it's concerning a great deal of people." He looked Applejack in the eye. "And we'd like to know if it's going to be a problem, for the safety of our people."
Applejack held up her hooves with a small shrug. "They didn't tell me. Ah could ask, but that's all ah could even offer, really. Ah'm down here, not up there." She pointed at her back. "And ah ain't got wings to try to fix that, last ah checked."
"This brings me to another question, a sort of continuation of the first one, perhaps." He smiled in a manner that was meant to be charming, though Applejack wasn't certain what the charm was supposed to be about, and why he was using it in the first place. "The other ponies, they did have wings. Can they actually fly, assuming earth's air density and gravity?"
"It ain't 'xactly the wings what lettum fly." Applejack hummed gently. "How do ah 'xplain it? We got some energy, in here." She tapped at her own chest. "Each kinda pony uses it a different kinda way. Pegasi, the kind with wings, use it to fly 'round and kick a cloud if that cloud's in need of a good kick. Earth ponies, that's me, we're tough and strong. We get 'long with critters and trees too."
She raised a hoof at him in thought. "Alicorns, well, they got some different bits. They're, hm." She considered what Twilight was capable of. "They're experts. Everythin' and everypony does their bit, and alicorns can do most alla them together. Oh, plum forgot to mention the unicorns." She pointed up at where she had no horn. "They can take that energy and throw it out there, to do thin's in the world around 'em."
Wilson perked an eyebrow at that. "Interesting." He turned to a man at his side, whispering softly into his ear before returning his attention to Applejack. "Can all of you use these abilities?"
Applejack kicked her hooves at the ground as she sat there, going deep into thought about the answer to that question. "Yes an' no. As ah said, we all got our kind. Ah can't do no pegasi magic or unicorn magic. Ah ain't either ah those! Now, you got a field in need of some love, ah can get the plants perkin' up with a little work." She touched a hoof to her own chin, brows furrowed in concentration. "Couple my kin are able to do the other kinda stuff. Rainbow can fly, and Fluttershy too."
She swatted at the air as she tried to explain. "But, back home, there were lots of us, of all kinda different varities. Shoot, plenty of us ain't even ponies, but we all have that energy. Magic's the closest words ya got fer it." She glanced around, sniffing at the air and listening to the voices of the people outside the building as they spoke to one another, gushing over what was happening, if only to each other.
"Do you think they'd be willing to come down and discuss some things?" President Wilson spread his hands. "That ship was just to get you here, wasn't it? Perhaps it's time to land." He smiled a little too wide. "Wouldn't that be a great way to show the world we're willing to welcome them, and make peace with them?"
Applejack frowned a little deeper. "It's about more than jus' showin' folks how it's done." She flopped backwards in her seat. "Asides! Ah still gotta check in with 'em afore ah could go makin' any promises on their behalf. Ah may be their captain, but ah ain't there, so my rank don't mean much right now."
The president stared Applejack down as he tried to sort through that information. "Captain? I didn't realize you were military. We would welcome your friends down regardless of their occupations." He stood up, offering his hand. "In fact, it's vital that we do."
Applejack rose to her hooves and shook the offered hand, pressing her hoof into his hand for him to do the actual holding. "We're not here to hurt nobody." She huffed softly as she withdrew her hoof. "Can't promise none'll get hurt if ya keep pickin' fights."
"I am fully aware that is a danger." He sat back down in his chair. "Thank you for your time, Miss Apple."
"Applejack'll do quite fine." Applejack turned for the door. "Right nice meetin' ya today, President, sir." She let herself out, to the gathered cameras of people who were eager to see her leaving the white house.
The president watched her go with great interest, fingers twitching in thought. "Pardon me." He looked up at the camera set up for him to speak into. "I would like a moment to myself." Not that his request was assured to mean anything. Regardless, he reached for the phone. There were plenty of calls to make.
"The European Union has passed a measure, allocating funds to convince the aliens that Europe is where they should call home." An image of Europe on a map floated to the upper right. "And they aren't alone. China has been confirmed to have established contact, and experts doubt they'll skip the chance to try to influence the aliens before they make their decision. It seems the whole world wants to have the ponies playing in their yard."
A new figure came into view, a male, one hand turning. "It's not hard to imagine why. Wielding technology centuries ahead of our own, whatever country secures them is likely to see a technological revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since the industrial revolution and the invention of the microchip, possibly combined. Ponies have proven, so far, to be friendly and tolerant."
The image changed again, showing several news clips from when Applejack had been out with her family, or visiting different parts of the country, flicking from one image to the next in rapid succession. "While their appearances have startled some people, they've demonstrated they are no danger to us."
The image swapped again, this time showing a long shot of their ship over earth, orbiting silently, shining against the darkness of space. "Meanwhile, their vessel is showing more signs of life. An international coalition is being established to await their arrival and whatever they may have to say."
A new clip, an artist's rendering of what a pony might look like if they were a human. It looked very close to Applejack, aside from the simple fact that she was blue and on two legs with proper hands. "Still, despite the images shared by their friends in the Americas, most of the world has yet to actually see a pony for themselves, but it's likely only a matter of time."
"If you have your own drawings of Applejack, or the other aliens, send it to the email shown below and it may appear on a later broadcast." She smiled at the camera. "Now, thank you for coming on the show."
"Thank you for having me on." The window folded shut on the man, his bit over.
"Others see the coming aliens as a more spiritual sign, a positive one." A new window appeared, showing people gathered in a circle, a picture of Applejack in the center. "Some believe that the aliens will take them to a better place." Another picture showed people holding hands in a similar way, all wearing clothes in white or silver. "For others, it's about spreading good, not only within their own countries, but in all the world."
The images continued, shifting from one to another, displaying the varying human gatherings as they did their best to somehow please the ponies far above them. One image made the news anchor frown gently. "And there are those who believe this is the end of times." She pointed at the image, which was one of a long line of men in black robes and pointy hats. "Reports of occultic practices have been on the rise, though no proof has arisen of their various rituals having any success with moving the ponies to action."
Stats
Page generated in 0.024 seconds
Total duration
993 users online
1,398,713 hits today, 2,660,641 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.®
preview.redd.it/twilight-burger-cult-v0-7sjzgyqw2jkc1.jpeg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=eb40b8e1a57fd87e2c911d76a367f668c82da817
11899868
A Twilight Burger Cult...
"Hamburger-Cheeseburger-Big Mac-Whooper." - The Burger Cultists, as they attempt to summon Burg-thulhu.
So far I havent seen any pony technology that I havent really seen in articles and working devices from the late 90s or more recent. All they have to do is dump L4 microkernals and Cisco network coding enforced on the net with no Dark fibre permitted and watch the bandwith climb and response speed increase.
As for AI and neural nets. All they need to do is combine an article from the 1970s with 90s movie harware acceleration and switch from ROM to RAM and humans will very quickly discover just what weve been sitting on all these years. Battlestar Galactica is not suppiosed to be a method of opreation.
I wonder when they gt to watch ST:O, as it barely 60 years old, did they warch it back on the Fleet of Worlds free roaming Equestria within 60 light years? Did they pick it up on a magic shynchonised sensor that was within 60 light years of Earth, did they watch it on th way in as they crossed teh outgoing signal?
By teh way, For those who say that quantum entanglement cannot transmit information faster than light? If you can tell if an entangled particle is entangled, theres a very simple way to transmit one bit of information per entagled bit faster than light.
Switch the entanglement off.
Apparently recent advancements use 5 or 6 entangled qbits in a quantum computer to make a single virtual qbit thats more resiliant. which I find extremely cnfusing. Shannon states you can only gurentee your data if you have at least 8:1 S/N ratio, so you shouldnt even claim resilaince unless you are coding above the Shannon limit. Then you need one extra bit for ever error bit above. But this imples using RAID qbits, you can make new qbits as long as you dont drop below the limit. then you can measure the bits switching off.
And Im not even using the demonstrated causal violation of non illuminated sensing in Earth laboratories. I picked up most of the monomode fibre and other materials back in the 90s but never got round to recreating the experiment in the article at home.
very intresting how Twilights activation is dfinitely measureable to ground or space based sensors, and the claimed pony crew dont think anything about it themselves. Given AJs suits protection against solar radiation, Twilight has to be putting a good percentage of equivalent out herself?
I keep forgetting about Galaxy this isnt our true forms, Quest?
Here come the Men in Black! 😎
y.yarn.co/2ab5f28c-1e5e-4b87-98dc-e5a7642b8ee8_text.gif
As a child of the 90s, this is who I'm imagining as President Wilson:
i.imgflip.com/31pr18.jpg
A better president than (insert name here).
11899990
The MiB do not wear pointy hats.
11899991
Touché.
(Maybe that's what they want you to think.)
We still have not heard from the PRC, they must be busy trying to hack the pony ship's computers.
Wonder if twi try to create new equus with human turned ponies. And mabe a few other species ensuring humanity destruction, and survival.
11900091
Twilight did not come all this way to casually stomp out the wondrous creatures she came to see. Turning them all into ponies would achieve little.
11899908
Pony "tech" is magic base and Equis hasn't had global conflicts to drive analogue technological advancement. Different priorities and methodology makes their "tech" both advanced but very, very... well Alien and feel anachronistic.
Not much to add this time, but things are still very interesting. I did kind of have some images in my head of ponies eating poutine and playing ice hockey when the suggestion of moving to Canada for extra safety came up.
Better check again.
Spontaneous growth of wings wouldn't be the weirdest thing that had happened here so far.