Earth had been destroyed... they searched for a new home.
An enemy who call themselves the Zargul have all but decimated earth making it unhospitable to any life form, be it man or cockroach. The humans had been fighting these aliens for five decades, hiding the location of their precious homeworld until the Zargul managed to find them. In a desperate attempt to save humanity thirty "arks" (spaceships designed to carry humans a long distance across many galaxies) were sent out and only three had managed to survive. The three arks were scattered and lost among the stars. These ships were called, "Hope's Dawn", "Shining Sentinal", and the ship where our story takes place... the "Leviathon" -42 years later- Our story starts off with a young man in his early twenties by the name of John Shepard. He was a sergeant in the space marines army or as we can now call them... the UPGF (The United People of the Galactic Federation) They had all but lost hope on finding a planet where they could call home until they found a planet that could sustain them and provide for the families cramped up into the tight living spaces of the Leviathon. They later found it to be called "Equestria" This is their story...
They say that in the beginning there was nothing... they were wrong. In the beginning there was darkness.... Born from this darkness were the infamous Zargul, a war mongering race of aliens that sought the one thing that was sought after by all races of the universe. Why were they here? They were going to stop at nothing to achieve their goal even if it meant destroying galaxies. Of which they eventually did once they had accumulated enough power and spaceships larger than the sun. They were feared by all and any who stood in their way were quickly dispatched. They were already quite powerful, but when they staggered upon a blue world filled with creatures known as humans, their hate had boiled over the top. In the homeworld of the Zargul there were many ruins of past civilizations scattered along the surface. And the people who built these ruins looked strikingly similar to humans. The Zargul had been looking for these creatures for a very long time. They thought that it would be easy to destory them but these dark aliens soon found out that the humans were not going to give up without a fight...
The ship shook with each photon blast it took, and the blaring of the alarm was causing mass hysteria. The Zargul had found earth and were hell bent on destroying it. The bridge of the Leviathon was teeming with crew members trying to keep the ship intact while they tried to escape. A man sat in the corner crying and telling himself it was all a bad dream. And the man who commanded this seemingly doomed spaceship had was standing in the General's chair barking out orders to all who was not screaming ad losing it.
"Sir! The Zargul have disabled all of our weapons! I recommend we take the jump now while we still can!" Screamed the lead engineer through comms. The captain looked around the bridge of the leviathon and hung his head. The odds of escaping unscathed or ripped apart by doing a jump to lightspeed without the hour needed to calculate their trajectory, velocity, and speed were pretty bad. They could rip right through a planet or hit a comet if they jumped randomly. He looked back up to the screen and sighed.
"Are you sure there is no other way? You know what could happen." The captain said, unsure of what to do.
"No sir. It's either we take the jump now or end up like the other arks." The engineer said, with a look of absolute terror stamped upon his face. The captain looked at the wounded lined up against the wall screaming and then to the others who had no idea what to do except keep the ship intact as long as they could.
"Very well. MAKE IT SO!" The captain gave the command to commence the jump to lightspeed. The engineer nodded and cut off comms.
A few moments later a computerized voice started a countdown, "We shall make the jump to lightspped in 10...9...8...6...5..." The crew members had strapped themselves in and got ready for their possible imminent death. Normally they would be appalled by what the captain whas doing but they really did not have a choice. This was a lot better than taking their chances with the Zargul, "4...3..." The captain closed his eyes and whispered a silent prayer. This was not going to end well and they all knew it.
The computer continued the countdown, "2...1... now commencing the jump to lightspeed." The massive ship jolted and everyone who wasn't strapped down in a chair or secured by something flew to the wall and smacked against it. The ship flew to speeds the Zargul could not keep up with them and were soon left behind by the Leviathon... and into the darkness they went.... ___________________________________________________________________________
-The Invasion-
dead bodies float by slowly and the blood floats with them ever so slowly drifting off into the great unknown. Thirty arks had been sent out by the UPGF and only three had made it past the Zargul's vigorous extermination campaign. The people who had been left on earth still suffered as the strange-looking aliens ripped children from the arms of their mothers and vaporised countless millions. A little boy stood in the middle of his father's corn field, awed by the massive alien spaceships raining fire and death upon all that humanity held to their hearts. The little boy's mother ran up to him, grabbed him, and dashed for the storm cellar and was met by the father of they boy and his big sister. They shut the trapdoor and backed off from it, never once taking their eyes off of it for one second. Everything around them shook and shuddered as explosions ripped the earth apart. The little boy was crying softly to himself and his big sister was comforting him, telling him it was going to be okay. Then as quickly as it had started it seemed to end. No more explosions... everything went quiet. The mother and father looked up when they heard strange footsteps bang throughout the house.
"Oh no... quick get your little brother in the crawl space and wait for us there. I love you with all of my heart little ones." the mother quickly said. By the look on her mother's face, the big sister knew that they weren't going to get out of this alive. The two children opened the small door to the emergency crawl space and waited for the inevitable...
It was too quiet... what had happened to the footsteps? The father kept his 12 gauge focused on the trapdoor, waiting for something to happen. All of a sudden the trapdoor blew off of it's hinges and smacked into the father causing him to discharge the shotgun and die instantly. Shocked by the turn of events she crouched down to her dead husband and screamed and cried hysterically, begging him to wake up. As quickly as this happened a big hulking figure grabed the terrified woman by the throat and squeezed.
The big sister held her brother's mouth, making sure he didn't make a sound. They had silently cried out when they heard the trapdoor make an odd sound like it had blown off of its hinges or something, followed by a gunshot and their mother crying out and screaming, begging him to get up. The big sister knew what had happened by then and the tears streamed down her face as she lost her father. Their mother's cries for help were cut off by a gasping sound and a spinetingling snap like someone had broken something very important. She knew by then that their mother had perished as well. Everything was quiet then... they tried not to make any sound so their position was not given away. They heard the figure walking around the room and suddenly stop when the sister sniffed as she cried. The big sister's eyes widened and she looked through the crack in between the crawl space doors. She couldn't see anything... why had he stopped? As if on cue the doors were ripped away and the big sister was dragged, screaming into the dark part of the cellar, calling out to her brother to run.
"RUN!!!! RUN JOSH!!!!! ahhh.. what are you? AHHHGH....!!! Gah....hel-p... aghhhh..." Ths sister said, shouting out her last words to her little brother as she was cut off and her spine was snapped causing immense pain. She was unable to scream further because she was held by her throat. Josh ran out crying and running up the stairs hoping to get out before that thing caught him. Another hulking figure blocked his escape and formed what he could only guess was a grin. He turned around to run the other way and was blocked by the original alien. The little boy screamed as he was torn limb by limb by these threatening creatures. The little boy and his family had been brutally murdered and sent into the darkness never to return...
Luna and Celestia had been talking about what they were going to do the next day, since they were both known for being rather tidy and organized. Luna stopped talking and looked sharply to the night sky. She shuddered and her eyes widened.
"What is it my sister? Is something wrong?" Celestia aksed with concern in her voice. Luna did not respond for a couple minutes, casuing Celestia to repeat herself. Luna looked at Celestia as if she had just gotten there and seemed troubled by something.
"It was as if a billion souls had the same nightmere and all of a sudden... it became a reality... " Luna said to her sister, fear evident in her voice, " I think something terrible has happened... something unspeakable." They both looked up to the night sky again and they both shuddered.
"For once... I'm afraid of the darkness." Luna said with fear yet again. Celestia looked at her sister and smiled assuringly.
"Don't worry my sister. It is nothing... let us go down and take a walk to calm nerves. Will that be alright with you?" Celestia said, trying to calm her sister down. They both went downstairs and took that walk, forgetting about the sudden darkness. It was nothing... or was it?
The hallways were bustling with crew members maintaining the ship's systems and performing their duties. It was just another day like any other aboard the Leviathon. Conversations took place all around the old captain and he was rubbing he head due to a headache he had gotten while listening to the chancelor of the Embassy of the New order. This man had a knack for making such an obnoxious conversation. He was always making problems bigger than they already were, and in this case it was just as bad as always.
"Captain Corellius! Please listen to me, the food supply is running low! We must do something about this... we must ACT!" The chancellor said, adding to Jim Corellius's headache. He sighed when the chancellor would not go away without a response that he wanted.
"Chancellor, I assure you we have everything under control. We have about fifteen years left of the food supply. Why do you have to trouble me with things so small...?" Jim said, looking at the chancellor who was obviously not convinced due to the fact that his facial expression screamed out disbelief.
Jim shook his head slowly, accidently casuing another barrage of pain to slam against his skull, "Chancellor... Will it please you if we look into this and try to find a solution to this so-called problem of yours?" suprisingly the chancellor looked disgusted by what he said and even pulled back with a sneer on his face,
"so-called problem? so-called problem?! This is a disaster!!!" The chancellor almost screamed. Captain Corellius had just about enough of this.
"I've tried to be nice to you and respect your opinions, but please would you just SHUT UP!? I said I would deal with it and I will! NOW GO!" Jim yelled at chancellor, who drew back even further still and put on a hurt expression.
"Fine... But you will rue this day captain! RUE IT I SAY!" The chancellor yelled and ran up the small stairs, tripping on his robe and getting up quickly so as not to look like a fool. Jim laughed softly to himself, causing a few smiles to break out among the people on the bridge. The chancellor ran into the elevator to take him wherever he wanted to go and said Jim would rue the day he messed with him. Yeah... that man had a special skill when it came to getting under people's skin. He looked around the bridge, light getting in his eyes making him look down to his crew members. They were all looking at him, expecting some kind of order to be given.
"Get back to work!" Jim ordered the crew members who were slacking off. Why is it that new recruits were so clueless? Jim would kill just to have some of the original crew still alive. The only new recruit who actually was making a name for himself was Sergeant Shepard. He was one tough son of a bitch... Jim had to give him that. He knew that kid since he was just a baby and it was amazing to see the kid grown up and already he was the youngest officer on board the Leviathon. It just made you realize how easy it is to miss the little things in life.
Jim remembered that day when everything went to shit... the day THEY came.... It was like any other day at the barracks. He was 20 and he was in the prime of his life, the wind was blowing through his short brown hair. At that time they were at war with an alien race that liked to call themselves the Zargul. They had already killed off our only two allies in the galactic counsil and we all knew who they were going to target next. But no one expected it to happen that day... that one day where everything changed for the worse. The year was 2145 and the month was July, and the birds were singing along with neighborhood children laughing and kicking a soccer ball, trying to keep it away from a kid. They were playing a good old game called keep away. He remembered smiling with amusement at them and they stopped to say hello.
"Hey Jim! Do you want to play keep away with us?!" One of the children asked with excitement lining their voice and body language.
"ah.. I'm sorry kids but I got to get back to the barracks and make sure those new recruits are in line. Say... I have something you could do..." Jim said, still smiling with amusement at the kids and how innocent they were when all the things around them usually turned to shit. He remembered how he envied those kids about how they could be so happy when a war was going on.
"Yeah?! what is it Jim?" They all asked excitedly. He asked them to stand guard and watch if any bad guys came along. They said they would, which made him laugh visibly and ruffle one of the kid's hair up. He walked down the cracked sidewalk, enjoying the sun as it beat down on him. It was such a beautiful day, how could anything go wrong? He soon was corrected with an iron fist when, five hours later, the alarms went off and th Zargul came for them. Their mothership dwarfing their planet and causing worldwide panic. He was called to board the Leviathon and help in any way he could. The captain and the lieutenant died by plasma shots. He was the one left in charge and he was completely clueless on what to do. When the shit really hit the fan thats when he got his stuff together. He barked orders left and right making sure every crew member was doing what they were supposed to do. Long story short the Zargul destroyed earth and left thousands orphans and an even greater number dead.
As he sat there thinking about that day... that day where everything changed. He had went so far into his thoughts he was completely oblivious to his surroundings. He was yanked from these distracting thoughts by Sergeant Shepard.
"Sir... We have a bit of a situation." Shepard said, his voice normal yet seemed to get the attention of most of the people on board. He usually had that kind of effect on people. He had short black hair, stubble, green piercing, determined eyes, a pronounced jaw, and some serious muscle. He was by far a man he could trust with is very life.
"Yes Shepard, what is it?" Jim asked, stirring from his deep thoughts.
"We have spotted a planet and we scanned it. Apparently it can... sustain us. Sir I think we have finally done it. We may have finally found our home..." Shepard said, with the smallest hint of a smile touching his lips. Jim just looked at Shepard with a shocked expression on his face. Could it be... have they found a place where they can finally call home?
"Captain Corellius do you want me to lead a scouting party to see if what our scans say is true?" Shepard offered. Jim looked at the screen, which had now opened cameras to a view of the planet.
After about five minutes of deep thought and careful decision making, Jim finally said, "Yes Shepard, send out a scouting party and find out what you can." This could either mean the benefit of the surviving human remnants or it could mean their doom... Jim would go with the first choice any day.
It was a sunny day in Ponyville... the birds were chirping and the ponies were happy and content with their day to day lives. They lived carefree and dependant on a peace that had lasted so long some could say it was utopia. One purple unicorn was reading a good book, leaving her dragon to clean up a mess.
"Twilight... why don't you ever help me with YOUR messes?" The small dragon said with annoyance. The purple unicorn, who we can now call Twilight looked up from her book and smiled.
"Sorry Spike, I'm coming" She said, and put her book down onto the small round endtable next to her chair. She got up and trotted over to Spike and used her magic to put away and organize the fallen books. Together they finally picked up the mountain of books.
"Thanks Twilight... that would have taken FOREVER to pick up by myself." Spike said with relief. Twilight smiled at her dragon friend again.
"It was no big deal. What do you want to do now? We have everything nice and tidy now... care for a walk?" twilight asked Spike who thought for a moment and said he could go for a walk. They walked out the door and was met with the afternoon breeze and the laughter of fillies as they played in the streets. This made Twilight's smile grow even further and she walked down the street, deciding to make their way to Fluttershy's house. They talked and laughed every onnce in awhile, having a good time. Spike looked up and his expression went from happy to shocked. Twilight, still chuckling from a joke they had shared together, looked down at Spike.
"Spike what is wrong?" Twilight looked at him in confusion. She looked up to where he was looking her expression turned to from confusion to shock as well. There in the sky was... a metal bird or something. It landed in a clearing in the country side away from any civilization for a mile or two. They just stood there wondering what to do next.
"Come on! Lets go see what it is!" Twilight said with newfound excitement. Spike looked at her like she had just slapped him.
"What?! Twilight are you crazy? That thing might be bad." Spike said with fear. Twilight only shook her head and smiled with amusement.
"Spike, it might be good. There is only one way to find out right?" Twilight said, making Spike groan.They ran up to where they saw the strange object land and hid behind a bush. Twilight looked over the bush and tried to explain what she was seeing. The thing had landed there alright, but there were big metal creatures walking out with strange things in their hands. There was only one way to see if these strange new beings were friendly... she was going to meet them. She did not know if this was a good idea, but it was her only idea at the moment. She watched the one with black armor take some kind of ball out and throw it in the air. It started flying by itself and some kind of blue light came out each time it stopped to look at something.
Spike was scared and he would admit it to anypony right now just to get out of this situation. She wated to actually check these things out. Sometimes he just did not understand Twilight at all. Twilight looked down at him and told him she was going to go get a closer look.
"
No Twilight! That might be dangerous!" Spike said, not wanting anything bad happen to her.
"Spike, I'll be okay. If something happens I'll teleport us back to the treehouse." Twilight said, reassuring him. Spike did not look convinced at all, but he caved in and made her promise that she would be back for him.
"Don't worry spike, I'll be right back." Twilight said, smiling so he didn't hear the fear in her voice. She did not know what would happen and she had never prepared herself for a situation such as this. Spike stayed behind and watched her every move, making sure nothing happened to her. She ran to a tree closer to these strange beings and checked her corners to make sure they hadn't spotted her. She slowly made her way, cover to cover, towards the new creatures. She had gotten close eneough that she could now see what she could only guess was their faces. What were these things?
The space marines had landed on the planet and were suprised to be surrounded by trees and woodland creatures. It was almost like a second earth, which Shepard had never seen since he had been born on the Leviathon. He had seen pictures and videos of earth and it's history. He had so longed for a chance to know the feeling of having a real home. He went back inside the dropship and took a MO2F-Scout class recon droid out of the storage and walked out in the front of the small ship. The others stood guard as he activated the small robot and throw it into the air. It was going to scan all the living things and the enviroment, making sure it was safe. About five minutes later he heard a snap of a twig and he swung the mark IV repeating assault rifle at the source of the sound. The others heard this and became instantly alert. They got back to back in a circle and scanned the trees. They could see nothing yet they knew they were not alone.
Twilight had never seen creatures like these before and her fear subsided to scientific curiosity. She got even closer to them and accidentally snapped a twig with her hoof. She ducked behnd a bush, hoping they had not seen her. Her heart beat a hundered miles an hour as a sweat drop slowly dripped down her the her forehead. It fell down and hit a leaf causing a small noise she was sure that they did not hear. As she became to calm down and believe they had not seen her she heard something in front of her. She could not see what it was that had so easily snuck up on her but whatever it was, it may be related to these new creatures.
Shepard had never before seen anything like this in aall his days. It looked like some kind of pony, which was absolutely ridiculous. It had a dark purple mane with a lighter purple going down the middle of that mane. Its coat was an even lighter color of purple. It had some kind of horn and striking purple eyes. It seemed extremely afraid of the other marines in the clearing and he did not blame it. He slowly made his way in front of it and it must of heard him, because its head snapped towards his direction. He stopped and held his position for about eight minutes. When he knew that it had deduced that no one had been standing in front of it, it continued to watch his fellow marines.
It must have been nothing... just her imagination running away without her. There was no way one of those things snuck around her and managed to get in front of her. That would have taken enormous skill due to the fact that they were huge. She would have heard them before they had gotten two feet around her. She continued watching the creatures in the clearing and noticed that one of them was missing. There had been six of them and now there were only five, which alarmed her more than anything. Its in front of her....
He stopped ten feet away from it in the clear, keeping his distance so he would not scare the poor thing. It spotted him and its eyes widened to extreme sizes and it looked like it was going to bolt at any moment.
"Hey... I'm not going to hurt you little guy... come on. I won't hurt you... it'll be alright I promise you" He said, trying to calm it down by showing he wasn't a threat. This seemed to calm it down and it slowly nut surely calmed down, letting him get ever so closer.
What suprised her the most was the fact that it could actually talk and it seemed to be friendly. There was something it in its voice that strangely calmed her down. She let it get closer and closer to the point that it pet her down the mane, which destroyed any doubt of it being bad.
"Excuse me... but what are you?" Twilight asked and was only met with the widening of its eyes and it throwing itself back. She must have scared it somehow, which was most definitely not the end result she was looking for.
"Y-you talk?!" it said obvious fear and uncertainty in its voice. Obviously it had not expected her to talk back to it. She could understand where it came from, since it probably had never seen anything like her before. She had never seen anything like it before either, so she guessed the feeling was mutual.
"Yes I talk. My name is Twilight Sparkle, what is yours?" Twilight asked, hoping to make friends with it and reassure it that she was not dangerous. It looked around, probably searching for something else that may have spoke and then, by its facial expressions she could see that it knew it was really her that had been talking. It seemed to regain some of its composure and started to respond to her.
"My name is... Sergeant John Shepard of the UPGF, freedom fighter for the last of humanity." He said with newfound determination. He had never seen anything like her before, but she seemed friendly enough. Now to see if she had any friends he needed to know about....
Twilight just could not believe her eyes... here before her stood an alien from another world. They seemed very advanced as well, which was frightening due to the fact that they probably had more aliens in space above Equestria. They could take over this planet at any time if they so wished. Thank Celestia that they were friendly, otherwise it might not have turned out to be the greatest moment of ponykind. They looked at each other for the longest time, not knowing what to say.
"So... are there any more of you around here that I should know about?" John asked, obviously nervous and not entirely sure if she was friendly or not. If there was indeed an intelligent civilization here on this planet, that could mean some serious leverage and assistance from the locals if they decided to ally with us. They really couldn't just move on to the next hospitable planet since they would most likely break down and all die slowly due to lack of oxygen from loss of power. An ark was only meant to last for 50 years without any extra power source.
"I don't know if I should tell you that... do you promise not to hurt any of my friends?" Twilight asked nervously, unsure of wether or not she could actually trust him. For all she knew, he was just leading her on to get closer to them and then strike when they least expected it.
"I understand where your coming from there. And no I won't hurt them... and neither will they." John said, indicating the other 5 aliens that had somehow snuck up on her as well. The confusion was evident on her face and John chuckled.
"We are trained to be invisible when on a scouting mission. You think this is big armor? Wait until you see a juggernaught. Those guys are fucking huge and badass." John said, trying to make a joke with her to ease her down from her wary state. Suprisingly, she looked shocked at what he had said, which only served to confuse him.
"You should really not swear. It is not very civil." Twilight said with a disapproving tone. John quickly apologized and asked again if she had any friends around that they needed to know about. She still was not sure if she could tell them that or not but decided that to make this work she had to take a few risks here and there.
"Yes I have a friend hiding in the bushes up on that hill." Twilight said, hoping she wasn't making any mistakes. The other marines had been confused by the entire situation and all they could do was stand there and look intimidating. John looked towards the hill Twilight was talking about and asked if he could meet her friend. She said yes and they made the trek back up the hill and reached Spike.
"Hey Spike, I want you to meet John! And his friends..." Twilight said withe excitement. Spike poked his head up over the bushes and took a quick look at John. John looked right back at him with a warm, friendly smile. He looked at Twilight and then back at Spike.
"Wait... is he your pet? Or do you have two intelligent races on this planet?" John said, unsure of why they looked completely different.
"HEY! I am not her pet! Spike said, offended at the notion of him, a noble dragon, reduced to beng a common pet. John just chuckled and apologized and that he didn't know. Twilight just pointed her disapproving glare at Spike, who lost his courage at this point.
"Sorry..." Spike mumbled, "I'm her asisstant though!" John raised an eyebrow and smiled amusingly. This thing must be a child by the way it is acting. He wasn't quite sure before since he had never seen one of these creatures before. It felt amazing to be back on a planet again. The last time he had been on a planet was two years ago. They had found a planet that could have sustained the human race, but it was controlled by an extremely hostile civilization. After fighting for a year, the humans had decided to just up and leave so they wouldn't have to fight.
"Can I ask what you two are? I mean, that would be some pretty useful information to know..." John asked Twilight and Spike.
"Well... I am what you would call a pony or a unicorn, whichever you prefer and Spike is a baby dragon." Twilight informed him. This had completely suprised John as he had only read of dragons and unicorns in fairy tale books.
"Now... if I may ask John... what are you?" Twilight asked, letting her curiosity take over. Twilight watched John look at his friends, who had strangely not said anything yet.
John looked back at Twilight and said. "I am called a human being, although human is good enough." Twilight had never heard of a human before... they were aliens after all. After about fifteen minutes of talking, John finally introduced the other marines to her.
"The one with the blood red armor is Corporal Jenkins." Jenkins nodded his head towards Spike and Twilight, still not saying a word the entire time.
"The smallest one is our sniper and recon trooper, Private Carter" said John as he indicated the smallest human there. He was all black with a red stripe down his helmet. He too never said a word the entire time, which made her uneasy. He nodded to her as well, only adding to her nervousness. John introduced the other three as, Private Rodriguez, Corporal Hernandez, and Private Smith. Rodriguez was wearing blue armor that wasn't as big as rest of the humans' armor. He was, apparently an engineer according to John. Hernandez was wearing black armor and a red cross on both of her shoulders. She was identified as the medic of this little team. Smith was the one wearing white armor and was identified as the pilot of the big metal thing Twilight and Spike saw coming down.
"So, you wanna show us around? Give us the grand tour?" John asked Twilight, who snapped her head in his direction in suprise.
"Uhhh.. sure, I could do that." Twilight said, getting a hold of her bearings. She was just extremely confused as to why his other friends weren't talking at all. They set off across the wide, green field, making their way towards the dirt path that was only now coming into view. Spike kept on looking at the others, who all but refused to acknowledge he was even there at all.
Spike gained enough courage to say, although courage was a bit of an overstatement to say in the least,"Uhhh... umm... hi... My name is Spike... although you already know that... stupid... stupid." One of the soldiers looked down at Spike, who could now be identified as Hernandez, pointed to her helmet and shook her head. John looked back at the awkward, one sided conversation behind him.
"I think they can be considered as friendlies now, marines." John said, which resulted in a few breaths of relief and started talking amongst each other. Spike and Twilight exchanged a few confused glances between each other. John looked back, from his fellow marines to Twilight and noticed their confusion, which was evident.
"In the event of an alien encounter, the one who is in charge has to do all the talking. They would be considered traitors to the UPGF had they talked." John explained, which only brought a much deeper look of confusion onto Twilight's face, "When we encounter and alien race the lower ranked soldiers have to keep quiet so the highest ranking officer can... asses the situation, making sure the chances that peace between the two races will be higher. Right now, all we need is allies." Realization hit Twilight's face and she looked back at Spike who still was confused by the entire thing.
Twilight spoke towards Spike,"It's to make sure that others won't mess up the diplomacy." Finally realization came onto his face. Twilight just chuckled softly and continued walking along the field. They had finally made it to the dirt path and could now see Fluttershy's house, which they had bypassed earlier to go see what the metal thing in the sky was.
John had finally spoken up, breaking the awkward silence as they walked along the dirt path, getting closer to Fluttershy's house. "So... don't you think it is a little strange we speak the same language? I mean the odds of that are next to impossible." Twilight, through her suprise and excitement at making first contact with and intelligent lifeform from another planet had never thought about that. This made her pause in thought, then looked rather suprised.
"You're right... that is very strange. You don't think our races somehow met awhile back maybe?" Twilight said, and then went on to mumble to herself, "Or maybe a dimensional rift through time and space is linked between our two worlds, making this a parallel... to their reality. Only small differences it would seem though..." John just looked at her like she was on meth.
She looked at him and grinned sheepishly, which was met with a chuckle. They finally made it to Fluttershy's house and Twilight went up to the door and rapped on it several times with the flat side of her hoof. They waited for about eight minutes and still nothing. Twilight looke in through one of the windows and the yellow mare was nowhere to be found.
"She must not be home... well you want to go into town?" Twilight asked John, who agreed to this and they set off going further down the road. The entire time the marines had been talking but not directly. They were on a private comm, discussing wether or not to trust these new creatures.
Carter said throught the private comms, "Shit... you think they're leadin' us into a trap?" The others exchanged a few glances, indicating that this had been on all of their minds. They really did not want another event like when they found that other planet, which had been inhabited by a much more advanced race than them and were a whole lot more violent and agressive. They had barely got the Leviathon out and into the jump to lightspeed close to getting shot down. A few weeks of battle and they had decided that it was best to just move on and hope for a miracle planet to appear again.
"Well... it seems that this pony and, what I can only assume to be a lizard of some sorts are friendly. They look like they couldn't even hurt a fly." The one thing that had survived the Zarul invasion were the insects that had made their way onboard the ship, making nests ad reproducing through the years. The one thing that could have survived besides humans and it had to be fucking flys.
"Well, either way stay frosty marines. We are the only scouting group deployed ad we need to survive at least three days to get a decent report in." John said, making sure his authority had not been forgotten. They exchanged another brief glances with each other and kept quiet on the private comms.
Talking on normal comms, John said, "Say Twilight... how long until we get there? I need to know the approximate distance between your town and the ship." This was only because they didn't want to have to go a great distance when retreating back to the ship if the shit hit the fan. Fluttershy's house was a speck in the distace and they finally had made their way to the entrance of the town. The marines looked around at the cheap technology, which looked to be about... tech tier 2. The humans were at a staggering tech tier 7, which they had been at a tech tier 6 when they left earth.
The buildings around them were colorful and cheery, which the marines were not used to. Everywhere around them, ponies stopped and stared in awe and shock at the strangers that had walked in town. Twilight didn't seem to notice and continued to lead them towards Sugarcube Corner.
"Well... welcome to Ponyville! The best town I have ever had the privilege to live in!" Twilight said, cheerfully, still not sure if it was a good idea to bring these aliens to town where they could kill dozens of ponies if they truly wanted to.
The marines were tense the entire time. watching the corners, making sure nothing popped out at them. They had been trained to never let their guard down unless they were sure nothing was going to attack. The ponies kept on staring at them, which only made the marines even more uneasy. What had been a bustling street full of chatter and various noises, was about as quiet as a dead man in a coffin buried underneath the ground in a graveyard.
Twilight now noticed the strange looks towards the marines and said, "Ponies of Ponyville! These are aliens from another world and have come to make peace with our race!" The ponies around them started to murmur to each other and caused Twilight to laugh nervously. Spike had been quiet the entire time, stealing glances at the armored creatures, which Twilight had noticed a little earlier down the road. A few ponies from the crowd broke the silence with questions and other words. Things like, "Where are you from?" or, "Are you friendly?" John couldn't handle all the questions and asked, through private comms, for his marines to help answer a lot of the questions.
The crowd of ponies were stunned when they heard them speaking Equestrian. This only fueld their questions even further and the marines were at a loss of what to do. heir training had never prepared them for this kind of thing, even though it was simple. Twilight had noticed their uneasiness and decided to put a stop to this.
"HEY!!!" Twilight practically screamed, attracting the attention of everypony including Spike who was fidgeting with his claws and Twilight went on to say calmy, "They must have had a long and exhausting journey here and are probably hungry. So could you please wait with the questions until they are ready?" The ponies around reluctantly agreed and went off to go do whatever it was that they were doing before the aliens came in. They still gave the aliens weird looks here and there, although it was a a lot better than being barraged with hundreds of questions.
They finally reached sugarcube corner and Twilight looked around nervously for Pinkie Pie, who normally prowled the streets, looking for her next party victim. The marines had noticed her strange, sudden nervousness and this made them feel this way.
"So... uhh... are you hungry?" Twilight asked the John and the marines. The marines looked towards John, but you could tell they were.
"Come on boss, just a little nibble." Rodriguez said. John looked at his fellow marines and back to Twilight. They had a mission to do, but this was basically it. They needed to learn all that they could in three days without dying.
Finally, John caved in and replied to Twilight, "Well... okay but just a quick bite and then it is back to the mission at hand." Twilight grinned and led them inside the cupcake and cake store. They walked towards the counter towards a very suprised blue pony. John noticed something coming at him at full speeds and whirled its way before it latched onto his waist and wouldn't let go. All he saw was a flash of pink fur and a lot of giggling before he went down the ground with a thud. The other marines brought their weapons up, but didn't fire, scared that they would hit the sergeant. It seemd that things were about to turn quite violent at any moment now. A marine was known for his courage and ferocity in battle. The pink furry creature did not stand a chance...
John grabbed on the pink fluffy thing and held it out in front of him, anger and confusion clouding his judgement. It looked to be some kind of weird pink pony. What suprised him the most was the fact that it giggled the entire time saying things like, "Do it again!" or, "That was fun!" He pinned an arm, or whatever you could call it, behind its back only causing even larger series of giggles.
"STOP!" Twilight shouted in alarm, "It's only Pinkie Pie!" John looked at Twilight in utter confusion. What the fuck did did she call this pony? Pinkie Pie? The name sounded like some exotic way of achieving an orgasm. The other marines just looked at each other, looks of confusion obvious even with the visors on the helmets on. He released it... her... and she got up still giggling the entire time. He put on a stern face and looked at the pink pony with a disapproving glare.
"What the hell was that? I could have snapped your arm in two!" John exclaimed angrily, not just at the new pink menace but at the strange turn of events. Of all the things they could have found on this fucked up planet, it just had to be fucking talking ponies. Sometimes it was just near impossible to be John Shepard...
Still giggling, but less so, she said, "I was just giving you a hug silly!" John just looked at this overly excited pony with a dumbstruck expression placed upon his face. He disabled the shield that was his visor and took a good long look at this new intrusion upon his sanity. This pony was entirely pink and had a quite messy mane and tail. She had three baloons plastered upon her flank, which brought a question to John that had not came to him when he had noticed this on Twilight.
After they had all calmed down from these strange turn of events John asked Twilight and Pinkie Pie, " What are those marks on your flanks? Are they tattoos?" Twilight was about to respond but Pinkie Pie jumped in front of her and stared at him for a couple minutes. They just stared at each other for what seemed like hours, but in reality it had only been a mere thirty seconds.
John was about to say something else but Pinkie blurted out, "They're our cutie marks silly!" She went on to ask, "Don't you have one?" Cutie marks? What the fuck had they found on this planet? This was something straight out of some fairy tale books. He had not paid much heed to it before because he was hoping for an explanation for what was going on around him. Maybe a logical reason as to why there were mythical ponies running around tackling aliens in hugs.
"What...the...fuck is a cutie mark?" John asked silently, not sure if even he heard himself. Had he gone insane? Was this punishment for whatever he might have done earlier in his life? He really did not know but if he was going to piece this together he had to get his shit together.
Pinkie sat there with her jaw dropped and her eyes big as plates, "You don't know what a cutie mark is?!" Pinkie Pie screeched, making john, the other marines, Twilight, and Spike flinch.
"No... pinkie. I don't know what a cutie mark is. Care to enlighten me?" John asked Pinkie Pie, who had randomly started staring off into the distance behind him. He looked behind him, only to find nothing but a closed door and a few ponies wiping their muddy hooves off and gasp when they saw the aliens. He looked back at Pinkie Pie who was still staring at nothing, drool starting to form at the corner of her mouth.
"What-" John began but was randomly interrupted by pinkie yet again, which was starting to annoy him, "A cutie mark is what appears on a pony's flank when she finds her special talent. It represents that talent in every way shape and form as you can most definitely see!" John just looked at the pink pony with a look of extreme alarm and confusion at this strange new addition to his slow decline in sanity and mental stability. Twilight popped out from behind Pinkie and offered him a nervous, apologetic smile.
"Oh... how insightful... umm... about the food?" John asked, trying to divert the conversation away from the pink mare. Pinkie Pie's face lit up with such joy that her grin grew to the state of creepy to an obivous, I-will-wait-for-you-to-go-to-sleep-and-skull-fuck-you-while-you-scream-in-pain, kind of creepy. Spike had, by then, broke down in uncontrollable fits of laughter. John watched Twilight shoot a venemous glare at Spike who immediately shut up.
Before Pinkie Pie said anything else that might confuse John even more than he already was Twilight said, "Well we can buy some cupcakes if you want. They're pretty good." The other marines exchanged glances with each other, only hearing about cupcakes in the Leviathon library. When the Zargul had arrived, they were only halfway stocked up and had to leave a lot of reacreational things behind. They had to reserve a lot of the resources, afraid that they would run out and die of hunger or thirst. So the Leviathon crew members had decided against making things such as birthday cakes, cupcakes, and other not needed things to the key of survival. The marines were enticed with the idea of having their first cupcake.
"Why not? I mean we are here to see what the native population's culture is like and that counts I guess." John said, secretly enjoying the idea of eating a cupcake. He did not want to look weak in front of his fellow marines, who were obviously not as secret about this as he was.
"Great! Okay just wait here and I will go buy a dozen for us." Twilight said and walked off and stopped at the counter. The nervous blue pony and Twilight were talking for awhile now, stealing looks at the marines. John felt a tapping noise on metal and looked to where he heard the sound. Spike was tapping his thigh to get his attention
"What?" John asked the little purple dragon.
"Ummm... that spaceship back there... is there a bigger one in space over the planet?" Spike asked slowly, not sure if he was asking the right questions or not.
"Yes actually. I would say it is a quarter the size of this continent. It was built for long travels with thousands of our species to find a new planet." John said, which made Spike's eyes bulge and his jaw drop. Had Spike heard him right? If they were not friendly who knew what these aliens could do. Only six of them looked tough enough to take the entire town out.
John noticed Spike's alarmed expression and went on to say, "Don't worry, we only want to create an alliance with your friends. We have travelled from our planet forty two years ago and we just need a place where we can settle." Spike's alarmed expression dimmed down to confusion at what he had just said. Settle down?
"What do you mean... settle down? Why did you leave your planet?" Spike asked, letting his curiosity get the best of him. He immediately regretted it when John's usual calm and calculating expression became a pained one.
"Sorry for talking about that... I'll just shut up now." Spike said, looking down. What had happened that they felt the need to run away from their planet and settle down here?
"It is okay... I will talk to you all about it once unwanted ears aren't listening." John said, already shrugging off the pained expression. Spike knew that whatever they were going to hear later was not going to be a enjoyable story at all. Sike had noticed the emotional pain flash in his eyes, which meant that something about their home planet brought some bad memories to John. He decided not to pursue the touchy subject until John was willing to tell them.
Pinkie Pie was barraging the other marines with constant chatter and really fucking creepy grins. Not much unnerved marines in the UPGF but that pink mare was extremely unnerving. They responded casually and calmly even if they feared for their lives at the moment. Twilight walked up to John with a floating box in front of her. John jumped back in fright at what he was seeing. The other marines looked at John to see why he was having a small freakout and their eyes widened.
"What the fuck?! How the hellare you doing that?!" John asked rather loudly of Twilight. Twilight looked confused and looked at the floating box of cupcakes. She then laughed at the reason he was afraid.
"It is just magic John. My guess is you're not used to it." Twilight assured him with an amused grin. He looked at the floating box again and his expression turned from alarm to curiosity. Twilight watched as he took out a flat thing that had a blue screen. He moved it over the floating box and the machine beeped three times. Twilight was very confused as to what he was doing.
"What are you doing?" Twilight asked John, who looked at her like she had just popped out of nowhere. He held up a finger, telling her to wait and kept tapping away at the screen. It made a series of beeping noises and ended with a big log beep that lasted about 5 seconds.
"I am trying to see what kind of energy you are using to move that box telekinetically. With every strange anomaly there is always a scientific explanation." John explained to Twilight, who just shrugged at led them out the door and back onto the streets. A crowd of ponies jumped away from the window and acted like they were doing something important. John just lookd around him and shook his head, chuckling. He thought back to when Pinkie Pie had tackled him to the ground, with nothing sinister but a hug... which was sinister in John's book. There was no way that she could have came from that side of him. There was nothing but empty tables and a wall. The door had not opened, which was known because the little bell had not rung. He had the feeling he shouldn't not question the fact that the pink pony had defied logic and came from literal nowhere. He went with his gut and followed Twilight and Spike, accompanied by his marines and Pinkie Pie to a scluded area where John could tell them why he was here. He just hoped that he didn't have to meet any more ponies like that pink one....
Jim watched in utter disbelief... before him, on the screen that showed the views of the face cams set up on the scouting marines' were talking ponies of all sorts of different, bright colors. There seemedto be a talking lizard as well, which he was more willing to accpet that talking ponies for fuck's sake. The other crew members on the bridge were in a stunned silence as well, not knowing what to say or do. This had quite literally thrown logic and reason out the window and replaced it with weird and a side of fucked up. Of course Jim was very happy at seeing this as well, since this not only meant that they had found a planet they could live on but living along side another sentient race, granted they were probably only in tier tech 2 or 3. He knew that he was the one who had to be the first to say something and asses the unexpected situation before their eyes.
"Uhhh... well this is obviously strange. But this is also better than we could have ever hoped for. We can not only rebuild but gain support from these... locals." Jim said, trying to assure the others on the bridge. They looked back at him in suprise, not expecting him to say anything like that. Maybe a, "What the fuck?", or a "This is fucked up..." but of all things it was that. That is why they were loyal to captain Corellius... no matter how bad or fuckd up a situation was he always seemed to know what to do. He also was a man you did not want to fuck with. They accepted this and continued to view the screen in silence. The marines followed the purple pony to a tree tat looked like someone had hollowed out to live in. It turned out that they were absolutely right. It lookd to be some kind of library. She didn't lie that she was currently living in a library. Even though this was the strangest thing they had ever witnessed, they just continued to watch silently.
Spike had informed Twilight, on the walk, that John was going to tell them why they were here as soon as they got to the treehouse. John had almost forgotten about this as he stared at the audience of two ponis and a small lizard. He suddenly remembered and went on to tell them that their world had been destroyed by a race called the Zargul. He went into detail on how the Zargul had used their special ability to absorb life force and how they had made the humans suffer their last hour. He described how the violent aliens had shot a red pulsing projectile into earth and the planet had collapsed into itself, causing billions of deaths of all ages. He then went on to tell them how they had made the jump to lightspeed without making any calcualtions, while after that he told them what a jump to lightspeed actual was. He went on to tell them about how he had been born twenty two years later. He told them about how he had rose through the ranks. They had found a planet before this one, but the locals were much more advanced than they. They had shot at them first causing the crew of the Leviathon to fight for a week. They had decided to leave and had been lost ever since.
They stood there in absolute shock. What John had described to them was unheard of. Mass murder on a global scale to the point of a dead planet? This was almost too much for the two ponies and the lizard. Pinie was actually frowning at this and gave John another hug, which made him blush slightly and push her away gently.
"Please no hugs... I'm not into the whole affection thing." John said, trying not to show his embaressment. The other marines had shut off John from the private channel and laughed and made jokes with each other. He looked towards them and seen some shaking here and there, which alerted him to the fact that they were actually laughing at him.
"Marines is there something funny you want to share with me?!" John yelled, adopting his drill sergeant attitude. They instantly shut up at his agitated tone of voice. Sometimes it was just better to shut the hell up or you would probably lose a limb. John could be really frightening if you made him mad enough, which was hard to do since he was probably the most level-headed person they had ever known.
"No sir. Nothing at all." Smith said, afraid that he was going to get yelled at even more. John just glared at the inferiorly-ranked soldiers, daring them to laugh more. He looked back at Twilight and adopted a confused expression
Twilight was still gaping at the humans, oblivious to what just happened between John and the other marines. What he had just described to them was horrific in every way. She just could not imagine having all that you knew gone in a flash of hatred and despair. He also told her they needed to colonize this planet, because if they left, they would probably die out in space. From what he had told her, an "ark" was only meant to last about fifty years before running out of power. Pinkie Pie was actually speechless for once, which stilled suprised Twilight even though it was a horrific story.
"I...I'm so sorry." Twilight said, almost on the verge of tears. This only added to John's confusion, which also made her confused while also still said for these humans.
"Don't be. It wasn't and still isn't your fault. I wasn't there when it happened. Only a few people remain on the ship who have actually witnessed it happen. Captain Corellius, the man who has led us here was one of those few." John said, that familiar flash of pain in his eyes, that Spike had noticed earlier came back to him.
"I HAVE AN IDEA!!!" Pinkie suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs, causing everyone... and everypony...dragon... to put their hands to their ears.
"What the fuck!? What the hell was that for?!" John yelled, still suffering from the flash headache he had gotten from her random screaming. Pinkie just shrugged and ran out the door, giggling like a maniacal phsycopath, which John knew he was probably going to get used to.
Twilight looked at Pinkie as she left, realization coming into her eyes, " Oh... buck." Pinkie having an idea could mean only one thing. And these humans probably didn't want that kind of thing right now. Today was turning out to be a rather interesting one...
John, Twilight, Spike, and the five other marines stared after the pink mare as she dramatically left the room with unnatural happiness. What exactly was she planning...?
"What was that all about?" John asked Twilight who just chuckled nervously and brushed a hoof through her mane.
"What my guess is... she wants to throw a welcoming party for you. That is just my guess and unfortunately I have the feeling that I couldn't be more correct in my assumption" Twilight nervously said. John looked at the soldiers put under his control and raised an eyebrow. Corporal Jenkins was the only to respond.
"Permission to speak freely sir." Jenkins said with trained indifference within his voice. John shifted his attention to the Corporal.
"Granted Corporal." John said simply. Jenkins looked nervous but continued nevertheless.
"Uh... I mean we were sent here to learn whatever we can in the short time that we're given so... what harm could it do? I mean, we would be completing the objective at hand." Jenkins said, impressing the experienced sargeant. He pondered this fact in silence.
"Very well. If Pinkie decides that a party is what we need, who are we to stop her? Like you said Jenkins, mission imperative." John said, bringing out his authoritive tone that came natural to him. As soon as he said this, the comms link on his wrist buzzed and his attention was diverted to a holographic figure of the captain.
"Anything you needed sir?" John asked, confused that the captain would be contacting them this soon. He would have thought the captain would have contacted him on the third and final day of the scouting mission.
"Yes. You may not know but we have put cameras into each of you and your soldiers' helmets. We've seen everything. I wasn't going to tell you until the mission was over but... this is too bizarre. Talking ponies? I'd sooner believe a zargeel in a tutu." The captain said, referencing the zargul. A zargeel was the singular word for their race. Still, John felt betrayed that the captain didn't tell him about the camera. Well, who was he to question the old man that he had come to admire and idolize.
"Why didn't you tell us sir?" John asked. He had almost lost his composure there but quickly regained it only because of the extensive training he had recieved.
"I needed to know if you could perform your job without guidance and you've proven that. Considering you haven't gone crazy means that you're more than competant." The captain said, lifting John's spirits.
"Thank you sir." John said simply because in reality, he didn't know how to respond to that. The captain always seemed to be gruff and distant but authoritive and serious. Twilight had walked up and was staring at the hologram with curiosity.
"You're very small compared to John and his friends here..." Twilight observed and went on to ask, "Why is that?"
"That's because this is an image of me reconstructed into this blue light. It's called a hologram. In tuth I'm actually in orbit above you're planet in a spaceship the quarter the size of your planet." The captain said matter-of-factly like it was a normal, every day thing. Twilight looked fascinated and continued to study the blue anomaly that was the captain.
"Anyway, I'll leave you to it." The captain said and the 3D image cut off. Spike just stared at John with a big smile and a spark in his eyes that John didn't very much like at all.
"...What..?" John asked, afraid of the answer. Spike seemed to be staring at the Mark IV assault rifle slung across his back.
"Is that... your zapper?" Spike asked, pinting directly at the sophisticated weapon.
"Yes, yes it is. Say... you want to see me fire it? Outside of course and probably away from anyone's prying eyes because I'm sure the other inhabitants don't want to see that I have a weapon." John asked with a smile. Spike;s eyes widened and he nodded furiously getting a laugh from Twilight. John told the marines to relax and stay inside which they did so dutifully and with some obvious relief. Twilight, Spike, and John both went into the backyard where a fence was built around the property line, cutting off any observers. John took a log that was propped up against the house and put it on the far end of the backyard. John walked back to the other two and told them to stay behind him for safety reasons.
"Now this..." John begand and fired a blue light out of the barrel of the jet black gun and it impacted against the log, making it explode into a million, burned, splintered pieces getting shocked and awed reactions from both Twilight and Spike, "Is why we've survived this long"
"That...was... AWESOME!" Screeched a new voice. John whipped his head to the side and saw a blue, flying pony watching them with a huge smile. John had not yet seen a pegasus and was extremely suprised to see one. He had read about pegasuses in books but... what?
"What... the... hell?" John said more to himself than anything. He had just about enough of this madness and when he thought it couldn't get worse, it got much worse. A flying horse? What's next? A larger pony that raises the sun? Pfft... like that'l ever happen. Will it?
The ship was buzzing with the news that they had met a sentient species but were confused as to why they came in the shape of ponies. Only one did not seem to care. And his name was Jeffrey. He was an eye bot that served as the captain's advisor and personal AI. The eye bot looked around at the scurrying humans as they kept the ship in tip top shape.
"Jeffrey, I need a report on the Leviathon's systems. Just to make sure everything's alright." Captain Corellious ordered the small hovering robot. A small groaning sound came from the little guy.
"Sir, with all due respect... you're worse than old people. Always worrying about shit that doesn't matter." Jeffrey said in a rather normal voice. He was called an eye bot because he was circle shaped and had powerful thrusters on the bottom that allowed him to float. The captain looked at the small robot with exasperation. Sometimes it was just too much to bear, "Just... do it." The captain said.
"Yes sir. And... would you like frys with that?" The robot asked and made a sound that could only be interpretated as a laugh. The captain rolled his eyes and returned his attention back to the viewing screen. Atleast Jeffrey wasn't as weird as the talking ponies that were on the screen. Especially the blue, flying one that showed up.
* * * * * *
Jeffrey studied the systems with about as much interest as a fat child is interested in the art of not eating so much damn food. The rear thrusters were doing pretty good. Considering the ship was propelled by small black holes. It sounded dangerous but was actually an amazing propelling device. The worm hole creator was at top notch shape. The hull wasn't damaged but then again why would it? Nothing exciting ever happened on the ship. Except that one time when that fat astronomer started choking on some homemade donuts. It was quite funny to Jeffrey. The small robot had human emotions put inside of him and it strangely worked out perfectly. Jeffrey came across a certain schematic that sent his systems into high orbit. This was basically the equivalant of robot porn.
"Oh baby... that's what daddy likes...." Jeffrey said out loud, which made the captain look at him with wide eyes. The old man just shook his head and laughed softly.
"Well, sir. Everything seems to be alright. I guess a 'I told you so' is in order." The robot said, making the aged captain groan in annoyance.
"If you don't stop that smarting off, I'm gonna' stick you up Nedry's ass." The captain threatened the small robot. The fat man that had previously choked on some donuts looked up in alarm. The robot looked at the fat man.
"But sir... it's dark, tight, and scary in there." The robot teased the captain, "And my mommy told me not to crawl up strangers' asses." Jeffrey loved to be a smart ass. In fact, it was programmed into him to be as much as a nuisance as possible. Apparently, the captain that was going to fly this ship before they left was quite the joker. Too bad he's dead. Because he Jeffrey would have loved to meet the guy who programmed him. It would've been pretty fun.
