A Realm Of Strange Creatures

by Delvius

Chapter 1 -- Ponies, A Bad First Impression

CHAPTER 1 - Ponies, A Bad First Impression

I pushed the smoldering, steaming door of my drop-pod off me, and it landed onto the alien vegetation next to me with a heavy crack of stone. And another crack... and another...

I got up and out of the cramped interior quickly and looked at where my door had fallen. It was tumbling down into a deep, wide, rocky gorge until it finally crashed among the rocks below. At once, a strange serpent-like creature emerged from a gaping hole in the brown cliff-side and examined the what must have been exotic object.

But I didn't care, for two reasons: one, the automatic de-materializers would have kicked in soon and teleported the Fleticium pod back to the Haldius for repairs, anyway. And two, I was still really flabbergasted that Knight-Magistrate Commodus had sent me to a world of... what was the term... 'ponies'. Heh, what a ridiculous name for a race. I should have been off on the borders of the Empire, shattering the influence of corruption over the minds of the people, not babysitting a race called 'ponies'!

I groaned, both out of soreness and displeasure, "Well, this is most unpleasnt." I sighed and looked at the alien grass beneath my metallic boots, shaking my head. "Once I'm done with this assignment, I shall go on vacation," I promised myself, lightening my mood slightly, ever so slightly.

I glanced across the fairly wide field, letting my suit's HUD gather any data -- with my personalized settings' guidance -- that it deemed worthy of being looked over later by me; the last time I just let it use it's default programming, I had to sift through copious amounts of reports about dirt. Dirt, who needed to read five-thousand and sixty-two reports about dirt?!

The noon star's position within the sky casted a deep shadow down upon all the objects within sight -- from the hideously formed alien trees to the distant signs of civilization, to the local wildlife flying hundreds of feet above my head. My HUD immediately took all that in, then closed itself to save power; I only had five extra power cores for my suit, so I had set it to save power whenever it could.

Then, through my helmet's left speaker, Velian groaned, "Ugh, rather rough landing, eh?"

"Tell me about it," chimed in Justinian with a huff. "You'd think that landing in a forest would be pleasant, but this place is hideous -- why, where are the motes of light flying to and fro from the leaves? The white marble paths? And, I swear, it's almost like something's watching me from the shadows of this place."

I shook my head in annoyance, then said, "Yeah, well I hate it too, Justinian. But thing is, this world doesn't have a Network link, so deal with it." I opened up my HUD again, and spotted their profile pictures pulsing on the left side of my visor; my social sector. Their icons were a flaming cup and a pillow, accordingly.

I toggled both of them on and let the program call their suits. Eventually they answered, and at once their suit's camera feeds flashed to life on the right side of my visor; my info channel. There were two feeds per each of them, one showing what they saw, and the other showing their facial expressions.

Now, Justinian was this gaunt fellow who was a little too pampered when he was young. He was a childhood friend of mine, and really if it hadn't been for me I bet my soul he would have failed training on the first day. He was usually assigned to a different galaxy, where the fighting was less intense and therefore the glory and adventures less abundant. He was rather cowardly when it came to experiencing new things.

But Velian was a polar opposite of Justinian -- he was a robust, muscular soldier, always willing to do what had to be done, even if he didn't actually LIKE what he had to do. He was actually like me, but, just like Justinian, didn't go on adventures much. Oh yes, I almost forgot to say that because I went on the most adventures, I had authority over these two knights I had to call my brethren. One thing that quite differentiated us, however, was his incessant desire to sweettalk his way out of things when the situation turned from bloody and glorious to either ridiculous, or just plain strange.

I observed their screens for a bit, watching Justinian's scrawny and scared face as he stomped through dark shrubs and darker grass, and even darker and drearier trees.

"Alright," I said at last, "Justinian, you know where to go. Find that... 'zebra' named... 'Zecora', and meet me and Velian in the town marked on our maps. Velian, you see anything?" I turned my attention to his feed, and saw the grim expression on his face as he climbed down a steep mountain.

"Well, I think I see the town over there, across this field. Hold on... yeah, that's the one. I'll meet you there, Andelius."

"Yeah, just don't scare the locals, okay? According to the little seminar we had last night, these creatures are much too peace-loving and gentle to take to a gruff and savage individual as yourself," Justinian said with mild amusement.

"Damn it, Justinian, I told you not to bring that up again! Just because I tend to swear a lot-"

"Ah, ah! That's just what I mean, right there! Control your mouth, my sir!" Justinian interrupted with a laugh.

Velian didn't respond orally, but I saw the angry emoticon he sent to our three-way chat box. Just then he disconnected from our three-way conference call.

"So uncivilized," Velian said.

I couldn't help but smirk; oh, the strange joy's brought about by the bickering of subordinates.

I dropped the call as well, and began trudging along the partially grassy, partially rocky plain to the map-marker on my HUD. The strange wildlife -- the birds and the smaller creatures that scuttled around in the grass -- wrested my attention and piqued my curiosity, and I couldn't help but partially admire the strange beauty of the life on that world.

It was just then that a most annoying sound called me from above my head.

"Hey!" a strange, feminine (yet, somehow, tomboyish) voice called from above me.

I looked up, letting my light-resistant bionic eye implants filter the excess light. Through what would have been blinding light, I managed to see the cyan form of a winged pony with a rather colorful mane and tail quickly descending to the ground, a look both curious yet somehow fierce on her face. Her eyes were a mild cerise, a color that actually went rather well with the rest of her color scheme.

'Oh boy, the locals,' I thought, and groaned from the many unpleasant thoughts it brought to mind.

As the... 'pegasus' -- my HUD's databank deduced -- landed, I spoke in as calm and placid a tone as my still displeased mind could allow, "Greetings, citizen. I am senior knight Andelius of the Indaari empire. I have been assigned here to your world as a sentinel against the subliminal forces of chaotic influence to prot-"

"Hold on for a moment!" she said aloud, looking me over with a look both fierce and cautious. She glanced behind me, at my still smoking drop-pod; the de-materializers were taking their sweet time (either that or Halix, the operator assigned to me, was being lazy again).

She looked back to me, her small, feathery appendages splayed out. "What are you?" she asked slowly, cautiously.

I rolled my eyes; if she decided to attack me, she was so out of her league. Still, I spoke the honest truth, "I am an Indaari, a race of long-lived cosmic beings who have dedicated themselves to protecting the universe from all forms of evil, physical or otherwise."

She looked at me for a moment, a quizzical look on her face. "Riiight..." she drawled, clearly not buying it. "Look, you interrupted my nap. Now while I normally would have slept through things like that, that was a seriously loud landing." She glanced at me, as if scanning my form. "Either way," she said, "I don't really know whether or not you're telling the truth. Twilight or Rarity might know a spell that could find out though."

She glided up off the ground and hovered above my head, giving my helmet a prodding kick with her hindlegs. "Go on," she said impatiently, "get going."

"Excuse me?" I said, mildly pissed off at the rudeness of this being floating before me. "I'll have you know I will not take orders from one so rude as yourself. In fact, before I even speak with you further, what is YOUR name?" I asked, a little spike of anger erupting in my head at the disrespect shown by this pegasus.

She rolled here eyes, rolled her eyes, at me, and I could have sworn I saw her smirk! "Heh, Okay, look," she said, then put her forelegs in front of her and gestured at me with them both. "It's really simple: I don't know who or what you are, and so I, being the excellent pony that I am..." At that I rolled my eyes at her; excellent pony my butt, she didn't even have manners. "... believe it to be my duty to get you to the only ponies in ponyville that can find out just those things."

Once again she gave my helmet a prodding kick. "So, let's go already!"

I just managed to bite my tongue before I raved at her. Okay, that made a little sense, I suppose. This planet had indeed never had any contact with the Empire (except, according to the seminar, the two rulers of this nation of ponies), and I supposed it was too much of me to expect to be welcomed with hospitality, considering I was basically dressed for war. Besides, I had endured harsher welcomes from more savage races, couldn't I do that for these creatures as well? Yes, yes I could.

I huffed in exasperation, but conceded to her wishes. "Very well," I said, doing my best to not let my displeasure show through my voice. "Take me to these people."

"Finally," she muttered, flying a little ahead of me. Then she stopped abruptly and whirled on me. "And don't even try to run away! I'm the fastest pony around here, you know! You wouldn't even get a dozen yards before I caught up to you!"

"Of course I won't," I said honestly, though I still didn't like it.

She shot me a suspicious glare, before letting me catch up to her before hovering along beside me.

'This assignment is going to be dreadful,' I thought.

Then I sent a message to Justinian that read, "Yes, these creatures are DEFINITELY peace-loving and gentle... NOT."

Comments

[YoungQuillMaster]

[bronys unite]

I would have bitch-slapped a ho in that situation then screamed I can't stand people that bull shit like that

[Delvius]

1427338 Ah yes, and for a bit of physical appearance, the story pic of this story provides a little view as to what he looks like.

[Herpidty Derp]

So far so good! Tracking

[Delvius]

1436158Haha, thanks! This story idea was just one that wouldn't leave my head, so I drew the cover art and posted the damn thing.

If you like this, you should give my other story a read.