> Is it because we have fingers like theirs?
>  by lazerbear7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Beginning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A crackling voice broke out from all six of the earpieces that sat around the somewhat cramped cabin of the Skyranger, which was still screaming towards its destination faster than even sound itself. 
“Your destination is getting close. We’re setting you down in a sparsely populated area near the border of Russia. The crashed alien craft went down close by, and you can expect some heavy resistance. Your mission, as always, is to sweep the area, and make sure that all contacts are eliminated. Understood?” 
A series of clicks from the soldier’s audio feed signaled that they had all understood the message, and the six looked around at one another. 
Louis Moore, a robust and somewhat abrasive man from America, smiled and looked around, his eyes lingering on Zoe Robinson, one of the few people he hadn’t talked with yet. It was their first mission together, and apart from a few awkward conversations that always seemed to be cut off by a variety of things, one of which had been this very mission. 
His eyes traced her figure first, admiring the way she looked in the white Archangel armor. It somehow mixed well with her messy red hair. Standard uniform regulations required that hair be shorter than shoulder length, but he could imagine it in the long ponytail that she said she’d had before coming in. There was a part of him that felt nervous, but he attributed that to the fact that she had a sniper rifle strapped to her back that was probably the most dangerous rifle that had been ever made. 
He had never been much for reading, but he recalled that Dr. Vahlen’s report had been distributed to all soldiers regarding plasma weaponry, and it had emphasized the amount of power that elerium was capable of generating. 
Suddenly his own heavy laser gun didn’t feel all that impressive. He knew that feeling would disappear once he was blasting away at a target, but suddenly he felt a little nervous. Maybe there was a reason their conversations always got interrupted. Maybe asking her about the Australian drop bear wasn’t the best idea. 
He shot a scowl over at the man across with him, the only other American soldier in the barracks. Sam Freeman had told him that Australian drop bears were real, and that they were some of the most dangerous predators in Australia. Still though, what the man lacked in casual honesty, he more than made up for in dependability on the battlefield. His plasma rifle wasn’t nearly as damaging or as accurate as Zoe’s sniper, but the man’s willingness to charge to his allies’ side, even when it was dangerous, was something that Louis had learned to appreciate. And his smoke grenades and medical kit didn’t hurt either.
He saw Miles O’Brian trying to catch his eye, and smiled. The man was Irish. Very, very Irish. Louis was fairly sure that he had even seen the man sneak a few drinks from a flask every now and again, but he was never too sure. He had the same model of heavy laser that Louis used, albeit with a few more scuffs and scratches on its sides. He had an unfortunate way of getting into sticky situations, and getting caught by an astounding amount of fire. It was never really even his own fault, fate just seemed to have some kind of vendetta against him. He often joked that, if there was a God, then he was obviously jealous. 
When he saw that he had gotten Louis’s attention, he smiled and nodded his head in Zoe’s direction, a sly smile on his face. His eyebrows waggled and he seemed to be encouraging him to talk to her. Louis had told him of his desires to get to know her a little better, and now it was clear he thought he was helping. His scruffy curly hair bounced as it hung down, almost blocking his view. He didn’t have an issue seeing through it though, at least that was what he said. 
He sighed, and turned to the side again. It was stupid to be so nervous. They were all in this together, and they were in a dropship heading towards a crashed alien vessel. Things were calm, but they all knew that something could go horribly wrong. Even though it had only been a small craft, their lives were going to be in just as much danger as they had ever been. They’d lost friends before, and Louis wasn’t going to go out without trying this one little thing. 
Emily Turner watched the man’s inner monologue with a smile. When he started talking to the sniper, it was even better. She nudged Kato Diallo with an elbow, and pointed discreetly. 
The large man smiled, and leaned in close to whisper. His deep voice almost seemed to vibrate her eardrum, and his thick accent took half a second to process. 
“I told you they’d get together. Kato knows, and not because I’m psychic.”
Emily gave a small chuckle. Kato was indeed psychic, one of the few operatives that had been found to have the gift. That was one of the reasons that few of the other troops ever talked to him. It was a shame, but they didn’t know what they were missing. 
Emily didn’t mind his psychic abilities. One of her best friends in the barracks, a Londoner like her, as slim as the chances were, had also been a psychic. That was until a thin man had caught her in the neck with a lucky shot. 
She tried not to think about it.
She knew that psychics weren’t any more or less dangerous than a normal person. At least, so long as one was in their good graces. Humans were entirely new to the world of psychic powers, and inadvertently lashing out with them was far on the horizon for any human, not just those who’d had their potential unlocked. 
It wasn’t too far from her own genetic modifications, really. Many soldiers got gene mods, but most didn’t like to talk about it too much. It was a simple fact of service that to save humanity, you had to give up a little of your own. It wasn’t a modification born from alien DNA either, which spared her some of the prejudice. She was the owner of adaptive bone marrow, which gave her powerful regenerative capabilities, but she tried to keep from thinking about it too much. 
His armor was the first of its kind, a psychically reactive material that would enhance his potential even further, pushing him to the limits of what humans were currently capable of. The jet black, thick, and nearly skin-tight suit was a stark contrast to her own much larger armor. 
It was the third of its kind made, and was the first foray of humanity into the field of powered armor. An elerium generator inside guaranteed that no matter what she was doing, the suit would practically outlive her. This fitted her just right, because she had demonstrated just how wiling she was to get up close and personal with any alien. Her alloy cannon had a few things scribbled on its side, names of comrades, numbers of kills, and maybe a few smiley faces. She had intended it to be a joke, like how bombs used to have phrases painted on them, but it had only really succeeded in making most of the others think she was insane. A theory that might’ve had more proof than she would like to admit, considering her combat style. 
She sighed. Maybe that was why she had a rough time making friends among the soldiers. Regardless, she was more than a little enthusiastic about killing aliens. 
A few more minutes passed, idle chatter passing between every squad member. Louis managed to start up a fairly lively conversation with Zoe, and the others got to exchange a few words too. 
After most of the talking died down, the voice of their commander came over the communication channel again. 
“Alright people, you’re coming in for a landing. Stay ready out there, we never know When we might be surprised.”
They could hear the landing gear unfold from the bottom of the Skyranger, and felt as the cabin seemed to jump when it touched down. Their expressions faded as their minds slid into the hardened and practiced squad of killers they’d all trained to become. 
They stood, drawing their weapons and turning towards the door in an almost mechanical fashion. Every single one of them knew what they were doing. The ramp lowered to the ground, letting fresh air rush in from what had been a slanted wall moments before. 
The acrid smell of smoke was heavy in the air as the squad started to disembark. Their eyes scanned the nearby environment for any sign of contacts, and the fading daylight cast their shadows back into the craft like a trail behind them. 
Pillars of smoke not too far away billowed into the sky, and the shattered trunks of trees that had been knocked down laid strewn about. The area they were in was wet, with large puddles having already formed near where some of the trees had fallen, as well as by some of the taller stumps. A moment of tense silence settled over the small group as they looked for anything immediate. 
A light breeze blew the leaves of trees and ferns, but those were the only things that moved. Emily spoke in a hushed but clear voice, and they all heard it echoed through their communications channel. 
“All clear. Zoe, get some height and cover us. Sam, Kato, you two cover our sides. Everyone else, stay close.”
Given their general formation orders, the troops complied, Louis and Kato splitting off to opposite sides, crouching behind fallen trees, eyes still peeled for any enemy contact. Zoe took the few short seconds to activate the powerful thrusters in her armor, lifting her off the ground. She maneuvered easily in the armor, and soon was fifteen meters high. 
There was still no sign of the enemy, so Emily’s voice came again. 
“Move up. Stay in cover, we still don’t know what we’re dealing with.”
All except for Zoe moved forward, taking whatever cover they could get. A small hill stood between the squad and their target, and several small fires fed by what small pieces had been knocked free of the flora. There were larger stumps at the top, twice any one of their height, and the group knew those would make far better cover than any of the surrounding landscape. 
They continued to move up, running from cover to cover, scanning for targets, and repeating. Perhaps it wasn’t the fastest way to approach, but it was necessary. 
Emily was the first to reach the higher ground, her shoulder slamming into the thick trunk, scraping off more than a few large clusters of bark. A small smile crossed her face again when she saw that it hadn’t left so much as a single smudge. 
Then she looked up. Movement immediately caught her eye, and two humanoid figures turned to look at her. The blue business suits and tall, wiry frames were unmistakable. The two figures were what had been deemed “thin men”. The attempt of the invaders to mimic human features was certainly impressive, but they still looked just a different enough to enter into the uncanny valley. 
She shouted out instantly, already hearing the footsteps of her comrades approaching behind her, and brought her alloy cannon to her shoulder. 
“I have contact!” 
She didn’t hesitate in pulling the trigger, and the gun jumped back in her hands. A thick green wad of superheated plasma was blasted from the end of her weapon, sizzling and spitting as it approached its target. 
Thin men were somewhat infamous among all soldiers for their quick reaction time, and a wide range of movement. This made them difficult to hit, especially with a weapon like hers. The alloy cannon was designed for close range, and they were at least twenty meters away. 
The shot was inaccurate, and splashed against a small pile of rocks behind the thin men. The rock disintegrated, crumbling into nothing, and both thin men shot her a snake-like scowl before turning and running towards the nearest cover they could find.
Louis hit a tree close by hers in mostly the same way she had, and leveled out his heavy laser gun, already pointing in the direction Emily had shot. He managed to get a visual on the two, started to fire at the closest. A volley of red beams streaked through the air, simply appearing and disappearing nearly faster than the eye could see, and the majority of the shots hit the alien across the chest, burning through its human clothes and scorching the flesh underneath. 
The creature dropped into the mud, and in one last attempt to defend the crash, vented all of the vile poison that they normally were able to spit over large distances. It hit the ground in front of it, then expanded out in a sickly green cloud, obscuring the body. 
The remaining thin man was able to get behind a partially burning tree stump, and ducked behind it before Louis could switch targets. The muzzle of Louis’s weapon was red hot, and he would have to give it a moment to cool off. Emily’s gun wouldn’t be much use at a distance like this, but she had to make sure that the thin man kept his head down. Physically a thin man was strong, but it wasn’t durable. They relied on maneuverability rather than armor. This was a perfect position to keep it pinned, and let the others flank it. 
Before any flanking could happen, a sharp crack echoed out from behind, and a bright green bolt of plasma struck in the perfect center of the alien’s chest. Its body spasmed similarly to the first, spewing its toxin around it, but to no avail. 
Zoe’s voice came over their ear pieces, and she sounded excited. 
“Yeah, nailed it!”
Emily and Louis both smiled, and Miles joined them, looking out from behind a third tree. Without talking to him specifically, Emily spoke again, taking a deep breath, calming herself. 
“Opposition eliminated. Moving up.” 
She glanced to the sides, verifying that Kato and Sam were still on their flanks. Kato was still fairly close, and was trying to get some view of what had happened. Emily was about to tell him it had only been a pair of thin men, but before she could, Sam’s voice exploded in her ear, accompanied by a burst of static. 
“Floaters! They don’t look too-“ There was the crack of plasma from somewhere to the left. “-Gah! Going to need help here!”
Emily, Louis, and Miles all Charged in that direction, temporarily ignoring the need for cover. They had to reach their teammate quickly, before he got hurt. If he hadn’t already. 
It was only a few steps before Sam became visible again, crouching behind a waist-high rock, with green plasma bolts flying past, hitting the ground around him. He was pinned, with no chance to fire back. They still couldn’t see his attackers, but the angle of the attacks made it clear where they would be. 
They were slightly above him, on an elevated formation of bare rock. The floater that was firing at Sam was hovering half a meter off the ground, and the rest of its kin hovered about three meters off the ground to either side. 
Jagged rock formations sticking out of the mossy grey ground provided some cover for Miles and Louis, but Emily didn’t stop. Instead she broke out into a full-on sprint, several tons of powered armor barreling towards the aliens. 
Floaters weren’t like thin men. They were vicious and bloodthirsty, seeming to be consumed by rage constantly. They looked like they might’ve been humanoid once, but no longer were. Their entire lower body had been removed, and replaced by high powered jets. Most of their organs had also been removed, and replaced with more efficient cybernetic versions. They tended to move quickly and jerkily, and were arguably even more dangerous than thin men. The reptilian thin men were cold and calculating, but floaters were far more energetic in their murder. 
Even knowing all this, Emily continued to plow towards them, undaunted. 
The two that weren’t entirely fixated on Sam turned to face the newcomers, lifting their weapons and roaring, taking a few shots. Emily bowed her head and kept running, knowing that if she could just get close enough and strike fast, the three would hardly be an issue at all. 
Her armor could handle it, she was sure, but it wasn’t going to feel good. Her eyes locked on the floater’s gun, and as it discharged, it was like time slowed down. 
She didn’t do any cognizant thinking about what it was her body did, it simply reacted on its own. Her left shoulder pulled back and her torso rotated just a few minor degrees. It was enough to make the next step awkward, but as she blinked and time seemed to resume a bright streak of green flew worryingly close to her chest. It would’ve hit her otherwise. 
The other floater’s shot was less accurate, and hit the ground next to her foot, causing her to flinch slightly but nothing more. 
In the second that their firing paused, she met the top of the small hill and, without stopping, brought her alloy cannon to her shoulder again. Now it was in its element, and would do everything it was intended to do. 
Shards of alien alloy coated in thick plasma exploded out, practically shredding the floater apart. What few parts of its body that were still flesh melted away, and the advanced power cells that fueled the rest exploded, sending blood and metal flying. 
Emily still wasn’t done, though. The middle floater still fired at Sam, but she saw its eyes flick sideways at her, angry. The far floater was already about to fire again, and hitting her would be no challenge at this distance, even if she was still moving. 
Her feet dug into the ground, and her torso pivoted so that she might be able to quickly blast the floater before it got a shot off. Aiming on the run was no easy task though, and when she fired a second time, she found that it was a much less perfect shot than her first. 
The floater still suffered damage, but it was only a glancing hit. The floater’s mostly mechanical arm was blown back, and from the way it suddenly dove towards the ground injury-first, its propulsion had also taken some damage. 
The first floater was quickly becoming aware of its own dire situation, and decided that fleeing would be its best option. It gave a sudden burst of speed, and went spiraling off in the opposite direction. It made it about ten meters before slamming to an abrupt halt, and switching direction. Its arm stretched out, catching a large tree trunk, and it swung itself behind it, jets scraping against the ground briefly. 
Emily didn’t worry about that, though. Not yet, anyway. The injured floater was still moving around, screeching and flailing like it was cursing her. 
Emily tried to shoot it before it could do anything else, but its working arm lifted its weapon, and it spat a hot wad of plasma in her direction. The creature was likely in too much pain to aim properly, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be lucky. 
There was no time to react this time. The green bolt hit Emily between her armpit and ribs, causing a quite painful jerk back. 
That was definitely going to leave a mark, both on the armor and on her body. It hadn’t been enough to break anything, but another hit like that would have far harsher consequences. 
Sam was now free to look up from what remained of his cover, and saw the floater still flailing, and was about to take a shot when the high-pitch hiss of lasers rang out, and countless bright red beams cut through the twilight about a meter above his head. The first barrage missed its target, hitting worryingly close to Emily. 
“Damn! Adjusting aim!” 
Half a second later, another volley spewed forward. This time he met his mark, and a series of searing burns appeared under the intense red light, causing the floater to give one final jerk before dying. 
Before the second hail of lasers had even finished, Sam was vaulting over the remains of his log, sprinting towards Emily. He could see that she was examining the damage she’d taken, and with a hostile still active, she couldn’t just be standing out in the open like that. 
“Emily, get down!”
As he got closer to the crest of the hill, he could see the glow of the floater’s gun peeking out from behind a stump, and without breaking pace, he tackled Emily off her feet. Her powered armor made it incredibly difficult, but with his whole weight in his shoulder, he was able to topple her behind another fallen log. 
As soon as he hit her, she realized her mistake, and scooted closer to the log. It wasn’t a second too soon, either, because the floater’s shot glanced off the top of the log, taking a large chunk of bark with it. 
Sam poked his head up and looked. He expected the floater to be preparing another shot, but instead, it was looking to the side. Sam followed its gaze and saw Kato, his hand outstretched from behind a tree and a bizarre dark purple glow emitting from his eyes and palm, reaching towards the floater. 
Sam knew what was happening. Kato was psychic, and he was making use of those abilities to help his friend. Still, that didn’t mean that he was perfectly alright with psychics. He tried to maintain on open mind about the whole thing, but it simply freaked him out that some humans had powers like that, and that the vast majority of those rare individuals were unaware of their own abilities. 
He’d heard talk from a few of the doctors about association, and decided that it probably the case. He’d seen lots of aliens use powers like that, the squat little sectoids and the much more imposing ethereals were also innately psychic. They were very dangerous, and had caused plenty of grief. Their abilities had killed plenty of troops before, and Sam had seen a few. 
Kato was a good guy from the few times he’d talked to him, but that psychic shit was freaky. 
Still, though, he couldn’t deny its effectivity. The floater put a hard metal hand to its head, squeezing as though trying to claw some parasite from its skull, then dropped down a few inches as its jets cut out then flared back to life. 
There was definitely something different about the way the thing moved. It lacked the brutal and angry undertones that floaters always had. There wasn’t much time to take in the difference though, as it brought its plasma rifle up, pressed the barrel against the bottom of its chin, and fired. 
The jets below its ribs suddenly jumped into high power all at once, and its limp body flew a few meters into the air before the jets cut out entirely, and the corpse flopped back to the ground. 
It couldn’t be denied that they were powerful, though. 
Kato’s voice came over the communications, and his deep voice entered the ears of the whole squad. 
“All contacts down. Enemy craft in sight.” 
Sam stood up a little more, and looked around. No more aliens seemed to be around, and the silvery gleam of the flying saucer’s sides gleamed into his eyes. 
It was there alright, and it seemed like most of the fire was on the opposite side. That was good, because it meant that getting in was going to be all that much easier. The light blue glowing door was slightly off-kilter, but boarding the craft would still be easy to do. They had to get into position, though, and for that, they had to get closer. 
Emily picked herself up, berating herself for such a rookie mistake. She’d gotten too comfortable. It wasn’t going to happen again. 
She vaulted over the log, and ran towards the saucer. The rest of her team followed, keeping up the formation the whole way. Her shoulder hit the alloy side, and it bore the impact much better than the tree had. Neither one showed any sign of damage. It was a good thing to build a ship out of. It certainly didn’t make them easy to shoot down. 
“Get ready to breach! Louis, get over here. I want you next to me. Everyone else, fall in. Zoe, get up here. The way is clear.”
She hardly needed to say it, it was obvious that a breach was about to occur. Louis hit the wall across from her, a concerned look on his face. 
“Are you alright? You took a hit, but I couldn’t really see if it was bad.”
She lifted her arm and turned slightly, displaying the new damage. The refined alloy was melted slightly, but not enough to impact performance at all. It would be easier for future blows to that area to get through, though. 
Louis gave a low whistle. 
“It’s not easy to dent up titan armor like that. You sure you’re alright? I mean, you’ve got to be hurting, right?” 
She let out a breath, trying to feel if any bone shifted or not. She probably was hurting, she simply felt too pumped up on adrenaline to notice right now. Whatever kind of damage it had done, it hadn’t caused her body to regenerate, so it couldn’t be too bad. The only response she could give was a small noncommittal shrug before the others arrived close by. 
The five fell silent, listening and watching for Zoe to arrive. They didn’t have to wait long, she hadn’t been too far from the ship. Her white armor was very distinctive against the red sky and dull rock. It wasn’t even twenty seconds before she had her rifle leveled at the door and spoke confidently. 
“Okay, ready to go.” 
Their group had aligned so they would all have a shot at anything inside. There were multiple rooms, they knew, but it wouldn’t be the first time that aliens had simply crowded inside their crashed vessel. There was no question that they would be hunted, and they wouldn’t stand much of a chance if they tried to make their way to a more populated area. 
And now that Emily thought about it, there was something suspicious about the small number of contacts they’d had. Perhaps it was simply because it was a small ship, but there had to be something else. There had to be a trap that she just wasn’t seeing. 
She made a signal to ensure that everyone was ready, then pushed a hand gently against the glowing solid light of the door. It collapsed under her fingers, as she had to assume it had been designed to do.
The way the ships were designed, it would be difficult to accidentally open it up. The door itself was about bug enough for two people to walk through at once. There was a collective intake of breath as the interior of the saucer became visible, and every finger twitched on a trigger for a tense second. 
The first area was completely clear. Not a single movement or noise aroused suspicion, all that could be heard was the low hum of the ship’s engines. Emily moved around the corner and into the craft itself. Louis moved at the same time, and the two walked almost shoulder to shoulder, weapons ready. 
The small hallway split in two directions, one to the left, and one to the right. Amber was familiar enough with the design. In the center of the craft, there would be the technology they used to guide their ships. There was also usually some kind of authority. That meant more powerful creatures, which meant that it was going to be all the more risky to go in. 
There was no choice, though. All in all, things weren’t going too badly. She’d taken a hit, but damage was mostly superficial. At least to the armor. She still wasn’t sure of her own condition, but it hardly mattered. They were so close to finishing out the mission, she couldn’t hang out towards the back. They needed her at the front, especially with such a dangerous situation approaching. They would be in close-quarters, and she was the best equipped for that kind of scenario. 
The rest of her team followed behind her, filing through the door two at a time, and taking positions behind whatever they could in the rather barren halls of the vessel. 
It was colder in here than it had been outside somehow, even though the hull of the ship had no doubt been breached. Fires even licked at the opposite walls, and still it was cold, almost refreshingly so. The squad of six moved up, taking care to avoid making much noise. If there was anything in that command room, they were going to need the element of surprise on their side.
As they came closer to the next room, they started to tense again. Anything could be behind the door, and they knew what at least the structure was going to be. 
Elerium generators were housed at this portion of the ship, and beyond that would be the command. There were two generators on the ship, and brief tactical scan once the craft had been shot down had indicated that at least one of them was damaged. To what degree, they could not tell. 
Once again, the squad got into position, and Emily opened the door. 
A green glow met their faces, but it wasn’t the harsh brightness of plasma. Instead it was the soft light of a generator, pulsing slightly as it generated tremendous amounts of power. No force on earth could crank out as much energy as this single generator, even every power facility put together. Until the organization had reverse engineered the technology, as they had tried to do with everything the outsiders brought with them. Many mysteries still baffled humanity, but they had unlocked at least enough to give themselves a fighting chance. 
It appeared to be functioning perfectly, and there was no hostile presence in the room. Emily motioned for them to move up, and they did. 
They set up the same as the last two times, taking every precaution they could with their cover and gear, making sure that everything was adequate for what was about to happen. It would be a rush, that much was guaranteed. 
Emily reached out with her off-hand, and noticed that it was shaking. She didn’t know if it was a result of the hit she’d taken, or just her nerves. Something was definitely off about this, but pinning down what was simply impossible. 
She bit down her doubts, and pushed on the door. There was no time for it now. 
She was able to pull herself back around the edge of the doorway quickly, but Louis was not as lucky. A volley of green cascaded towards them, and one particular bolt struck Louis in the center of the shoulder. It dropped from the impact, and it looked like the muscles in it went limp. It was hard to tell through his carapace armor, though, and she didn’t hear him say anything other than giving off a low grunt. 
The rest of the plasma bolts hit the smooth metal, sizzling as its heat dissipated. It didn’t do enough damage to break anything, but the light reflecting off it was warped. 
Emily tried to pull herself back as much as she could, making it as hard as possible to be hit. The others did the same, and she could just make out the voices of her partners shouting out the kinds of aliens they saw. 
“I saw thin men!” 
“Three thin men!”
“Sectoids!”
The cascade of voices was too fast, and she couldn’t catch everything that was said until a half second after the chatter across the earpiece started to stop, then Kato’s voice was easily heard. 
“There is an ethereal in there.”
That was by far the worst news. A situation like this was already dangerous enough without an ethereal involved. She remembered seeing other operatives get mind controlled, forced to turn against their friends and serve the enemy. 
She’d been spared the experience so far, but not everyone here had been so lucky. 
It wasn’t going to happen again. If they could all focus fire on that ethereal, it would go down without too much of a fight. Then the rest of the aliens would be much easier to handle. 
They just needed a good moment to fire. 
A stray plasma bolt caught her attention, and she followed it with her eyes. It struck the elerium generator, which started to pulsate faster. 
Emily’s eyes widened, and she could tell that the others in her squad did too. Maybe the aliens had just made a grave error, maybe it was going to be nothing. She wondered what was about to happen, just a brief moment before everything flashed white. 
That was life in XCOM, and she assumed hers to be over.





The sun was setting over Ponyville, and most of its inhabitants were starting to head inside. Nighttime walks were not common. 
That still didn’t stop the mint green unicorn from pushing aimlessly forward. It was the best way she could think of to manage her thoughts. She wished that somepony would listen to her, but no. It was always the same story when she tried to talk about humans. Blank stares or hasty retreats. Not even Bonbon took her seriously. 
She sighed. Why did she always get brushed off? There was too much proof to keep calling humans legends, or at least too many coincidences. She’d seen old anatomical drawings of humans, and it seemed like they would be better at using pony tools than ponies were. It was the hands. Detailed depictions of a humans hand were rarer than even full anatomical drawings, but they were able to do so much. The five fingered design would allow for so much more use than plain old hooves. And the way they stood on two legs would give them so much more mobility. 
Her eyes drifted over to the castle Princess Twilight lived in on the edge of the town. They’d talked to each other a few times before, mostly when Lyra had been looking for new information on humans, but she’d quickly stopped after Twilight started to get her those uncomfortable, shifty glances. That, and she had been told to stop asking to see Spike’s claws. 
She couldn’t really try and see her now, could she? She’d known Twilight since back in Canterlot, but she had always been wrapped up in her studies, so they had never spoken much. 
Lyra sighed. Most of the people she had opened up to about this fascination called her “obsessed” or at least something to that effect. It was horrible to have an interest treated like that. All she wanted to do was to learn more about them, and figure out why they were gone. 
Although there were other times, like when she dreamed of being human. She could never recall enough detail, but those were her favorite dreams. Those were the days that she stayed in bed until noon, hoping to recapture the feeling. It never worked though, and she just had to shuffle out of her bedroom feeling sad and hungry. 
She took a few more steps, then slowed to a halt. Maybe she should go and talk to Twilight again. She had to have gotten a lot more books since becoming a princess and getting her own castle, maybe there was more information about humans there. 
She had just started to step towards the castle when a voice from somewhere behind her made her jump.
“Oh, you wouldn’t want to go to that prude, would you? I mean, “Princess of Friendship”? It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth, doesn’t it?”
She turned her head to find who was talking, but saw only the empty road. A few lights were still on in Ponyville, and the sun was almost totally gone now. Stars were even starting to poke their light through the remaining orange glow of the sunset. 
A snapping sound came from the direction of the castle, and her head jerked to find its source. 
“Focus now, if you would. You aren’t really going to boring old Twilight to find out about your lifelong obse- I mean, passion, are you?” 
She could recognize the voice now. 
“D-Dis-“
A sudden slithering feeling in her ear made her stop, and wave a hoof at her ear like she was trying to fend off some beast. One eye cracked open hesitantly, and she found that this wasn’t too far from the truth. The spirit of chaos itself was snaking his way out of her skull. 
Her body wouldn’t respond when she tried to run, and all she could do was watch until the draconequus had emerged fully. He then stood, facing the direction of Twilight’s castle, and stretched out his limbs. 
“Discord…”
Her voice came out as little more than a peep, but Discord turned to look at her as though she had shouted it. 
“Who, little old me? Why, I’m flattered you’d notice me, Ms. Lyre Hearthsings. Tell me, what is your secret to being such a wonderful and popular pony?” 
Lyra’s jaw hung open limply, and she could only stutter a response. 
“W-what? I-“
Discord floated closer to her, long snakelike body suspended off the ground, and his chin resting on the backs of his arms. 
“Fascinating, truly, I wish I possessed even half of the majesty you did. If you ask me, Celestia should’ve picked you as the new Princess.”
She struggled to find a response, mind still trying to process the situation. Her voice spat out the only thing she could say with certainty was appropriate, and almost instantly regretted it. 
“What do you want, Discord?”
Discord’s goat like face fell for a moment, and he simply stared at Lyra before giving a melodramatic sigh. 
“Oh, I suppose you just want to hear my offer, don’t you? No time for my little games, my fun, only got the patience for yourself. I get it. Don’t let me stop you on your way to a better life.” 
He crossed his arms and turned away again, a disappointed look on his face. 
“No, I-“
In a bright flash of light, Discord disappeared. Then before Lyra could even think about where he had gone, another flash of light directly in front of her face made her rear up on her hind legs, lose her balance, and fall to her back. 
After blinking most of the blurriness away, she looked back up to find Discord looming over her, and a piece of old looking parchment hovering between them. He rose an eyebrow, as though Lyra’s reaction was strange, then disappeared again, and reappeared behind her, where he started to lift her up off the ground and back to her hooves. 
“You know, you could stand to work on your interpersonal communication, Lyre. I’m starting to feel like you don’t want to talk to me.” 
She had to consciously keep from rolling her eyes. 
The initial shock of the encounter was starting to wear off, and she was growing more and more suspicious of Discord’s intent. She was about to ask him what it was that he wanted again, but she remembered the parchment. She hadn’t gotten a good look at the thing, but now was a fine time to do so. 
The fading light made it difficult to read, but she summoned a spark of magic through her horn, and the soft green glow made the writing much easier to see.
To her surprise, it looked like a contract. Not with small print and organized sections either, like most were nowadays, but a more regal, almost more official looking document. The words were written in long, fine strokes, and the whole thing would’ve taken hours even for a unicorn to write. It was safe to assume, then, that it wasn’t Discord’s original work. 
She started to read, but before she could get more than a few words in, Discord slithered between her legs and put his head between her and the document again. 
“So, Lyre, I think we could help each other out. You see, we’re both interested in those horrible little monsters called humans, aren’t we?” 
Lyra felt her mouth drop open again, but closed it this time after a few seconds. 
“They’re just so good at stirring up chaos, which I think is just what Equestria needs. Things have been so soul-crushingly boring around here that a visit from a few of these guys might be the only way to spice things up.” 
Lyra rose an eyebrow again.
“Why don’t you just make it rain chocolate milk again? You seemed to like that.”
Discord laughed and waved a paw like she was being ridiculous. 
“Oh, no, dear me, no. That’s old material, I’ve been craving something more original. I think humans are more than enough to shake up this obnoxiously stable kingdom that Celestia has built.” 
“So what’s with the paper?” She tried to look past him for a second, then looked back at him. “And weren’t you supposed to be reformed or something?”
Discord reached back and took the paper, holding it out to Lyra for her to read. 
“The contract is a simple measure to make sure that Celestia doesn’t blame me for the humans being here. It states that bringing them here was your idea, and that you are responsible for any destruction that they might cause. And about that other comment; I might be reformed, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten my roots as chaos itself.”
Lyra shook her head, going over the first part of what Discord had said. 
“Wait, what do you mean I’ll be responsible? Humans aren’t that destructive, are they? I mean, I’ve never read anything about them destroying anything before. They aren’t dangerous, right? No more than ponies?”
Discord gave a mirthful chuckle, shaking his head with a wide smile. 
“You are hopeless, Lyre. But nevertheless, you really should hurry things up. I’m a busy guy, and this opportunity isn’t going to be open for long. If you’ve ever wanted to talk to a real live human before, I’d suggest you sign the paper fast.” 
Lyra’s eyes widened. Seeing a human would be a dream come true, but could she trust Discord? The answer to that was simple: no. But did she want to see and talk to a real human? That answer was even simpler.
The sound of Discord’s claws clicking on a large clock snapped her back to reality, and she bit her lip. She would never get an opportunity like this again. She couldn’t live the rest of her life knowing that she’s passed something like this up. She would never forgive herself. 
“Give me a pen.” 
Discord snapped his fingers, and an expensive looking brass pen came into existence in front of her. She focused on it, and her magic enveloped it, making it move with her thoughts. 
L-y-r-
She was finally going to see a human. This was more than she ever could have hoped for. It was so sudden, too. What would they talk about? Would it be as interested in ponies as she was in them? 
-a H-e-a-
It would finally give her to proof she needed to convince people like Twilight and Bonbon that humans were, and had always been real. She could finally dispel the doubts, and know that she had been right all along. 
-r-t-s-t-
Discord’s words nagged at her mind, but she brushed them off as best she could. That was how Discord worked, messing with ponies. She couldn’t let him cause any doubt. That was what he was trying to do. Just messing with her.
-r-i-n-g-
Did this paper mean that Celestia knew about humans? Not necessarily, she supposed. Discord definitely did, but that was obvious. Celestia was thousands of years old, maybe she had even seen them.
-s
As soon as the last letter was finished, the contract exploded in a flash, and Discord laughed, loud enough to wake everyone from Ponyville to Canterlot. 
Lyra watched as he soared up into the sky, then seemed to cast some kind of spell. Whatever it was, she didn’t recognize it, but her heart started to skip, and a smile crossed her face as well. Tears even started to form in the corners of her eyes. She could hardly believe that she really about to meet a real, live human.
What looked like some kind of portal opened where Discord was casting his magic, and she watched as something metallic started to come through. She stared, confused. That wasn’t a human. Was it some kind of house? Or ship? It didn’t look like it would either fly or float very well.
The thing was wider than an average house in Ponyville, but only looked to be one story tall. The last rays of sunlight seemed to bounce off its edges as it fell through the portal, then started to careen down towards the ground. It was only about fifty feet in the air, but Lyra could tell that it was easily going to make a crater. If she judged its trajectory right, it was going to go down right in the middle of Ponyville, by the town hall. 
She galloped after it, fighting the urge to whoop and cheer as she got closer. She was going to meet real live humans.

> A Traumatic Entrance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lyra chased after the disk with all the speed she could muster. Lights in Ponyville were starting to turn back on, and ponies’ heads were poking out of windows to see what all the commotion was about. The sight that greeted them was entirely bizarre. 
A large silver-y disk careened towards the center of their town, a strange blueish glow coming from certain spots along its edges. As she ran, Lyra tried to spy Discord in the sky. There was going to be plenty of chaos, she was sure, so she might’ve thought that he would keep hanging around to observe. He was nowhere to be found, though, and she had to admit that it was suspicious. 
Maybe she should’ve thought about her decision a little more.
It was too late to reconsider, so she tried to just think about the positives, and about the current situation. The disk looked like it was going to land close to the town hall, if not collide directly with it. The building had taken some punishment in the past, but Lyra didn’t know how well it was going to handle the impact. 
The disk slammed into the ground, and it seemed to become bigger. Next to the building, it became obvious just how large it was. In circumference, it was a little larger than the town hall, and it didn’t react to hitting the ground in the way she had expected. 
Instead of digging into the earth as she had anticipated, or crumpling and breaking like she dreaded, it simply hit the dirt and continued on its path, scraping a path and tearing up the carefully landscaped ground for at least thirty feet before finally coming to a stop. The sound it made while it did so was a heavy rumbling, and Lyra felt the dirt path shake under her hooves. She could only guess how heavy the thing was.
She could now see that there were holes in it, though, and that where the interior hadn’t been covered in dirt or what looked almost like ash, it was clean, almost sterile. Bonbon would probably love it in there, if it hadn’t just been conjured by Discord. 
She was also struck by how much taller it seemed in there. It was an odd feature, but it looked like it was simply build for taller creatures. She reminded herself how tall humans were supposed to be. Even then, it seemed a little excessive…
Voices from behind her reminded Lyra that she wasn’t the only pony that was observing this. A pair of yellow Pegasus ponies that she recognized from Pinkie’s parties trotted up beside her, and looked on at the wreck for a few moments before one looked at Lyra and spoke. 
“You’re Lyra, right? I think I’ve seen you around. What is that thing?” 
Lyra glanced at them for a second, then looked back to the crash, not wanting to miss anything. 
“I have no idea.” 
That was the truth. She hadn’t agreed to this, she’d agreed to a human. The two ponies turned back to it, and more started to arrive. It wasn’t more than half a minute before the majority of Ponyville was standing in a loose circle, none wanting to get too close. Lyra spied Bonbon on the other side of the circle, and noticed that she was giving Lyra a suspicious look. She shrugged as best she could, but Bonbon didn’t look like she believed that her roommate wasn’t involved somehow. 
The crowd near Lyra started to part, and she felt ponies push against her as they made way. She looked back at what was making them do this, and saw the tips of telltale purple wings slightly above the other heads. 
Lyra shuffled awkwardly to the side, then snapped her head back towards the crash. She could hear sounds coming from inside, and it was hard to describe exactly what they reminded her of.
It sounded almost like hissing, like a snake might make if you got too close to its den. She took a few small involuntary steps back, her skin starting to crawl. She hated snakes.
Her thoughts of snakes disappeared, though, when her eyes caught movement. Time almost seemed to slow down as the first sign of life stepped out from the disk. 
Lyra’s heart almost stopped as she recognized the general shape of the thing. It was tall, stood on two legs, had two long arms at its side, and had a short black mane on the top of its head. 
It wore clothes over most of its body, dark blue and sharp. It looked like the kind of thing Rarity might design for humans, and hardly left any of the body uncovered. The only skin that Lyra could see was on its head, and its hands. Lyra’s eyes widened as she realized just what she was looking at. Five fingers, just like the few diagrams she’d seen. 
In one of the human’s hands, there was an oddly shaped device that seemed to glow with green energy. It didn’t look like any kind of magic she’d ever seen, but maybe that was some special kind of human magic. They didn’t have horns, so maybe they had invented some other way to magic power. 
The way the human’s fingers wrapped around the sleek metal object was extremely interesting to Lyra. It seemed to fit just right, in a way that would give the human excellent control of the device. That device, whatever it was, seemed like it was definitely important somehow. To Lyra, it looked like some kind of tube, with a handle sticking out near one end, and that opened up with some kind of nozzle at the other. There were a few blocky looking pieces, but she was too far away to see much more detail. 
The crowd of ponies looked on, stunned, and the human looked back over the rims of round, tinted spectacles. At first it seemed like it was sizing them up, gauging their numbers, before it turned and looked back inside of the crash. 
Two more humans emerged, and Lyra had to blink a few times to make sure she wasn’t just seeing things. The new two looked identical to the first, even down to the color of their skin and mane. That was a little strange, but so what? Lots of ponies looked the same too, and maybe they just looked so similar because she didn’t know much about their unique features yet. 
She wanted to step forward and ask them if they were alright, but the crowd made her too nervous to do it. Princess Twilight was here, so talking to the humans would probably fall to her first. 
The other two looked around in the same way the first had, then the three started to walk away from the wreck slowly. 
They carried themselves with a bizarre kind of grace, more balanced than any two-legged creature that she’d ever seen. Even diamond dogs dropped down on all fours at times. 
Lyra glanced to the side at Twilight, and saw her mouth hanging open like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her friends were standing close by her, and Lyra saw Applejack nudge the Princess gently with her hoof before whispering something in her ear. 
Twilight shook her head and nodded, then started to step forward slowly, speaking loud enough for everypony to hear, and doing her best to pull a smile that didn’t look horribly uncomfortable. It didn’t work.
“Hello! Welcome to Ponyville! Do you…” her voice trailed off as she leaned to the side, shrinking back slightly as she looked at the wreckage behind them. “Do you need any help? Are you hurt?”
The three humans glanced down at her for a few seconds as she talked, then turned their attention back to their surroundings. They seemed to be looking past the ponies now, paying attention to the town around them. 
Twilight took a few more steps towards them, almost close enough that the humans could touch her if they wanted. She kept trying to speak to them, now with even less confidence than the small amount that she’d had before. 
“Uh… Alright, is there anything we can help you with? Maybe you would rather talk to someone else? The town mayor is here, and Princess Luna or Princess Celestia could be here in just a few minutes. No?” 
They failed to respond again, now completely ignoring her. Lyra watched in confusion as they seemed to conclude their searching, and make a few barely audible hissing sounds at each other. She’d never imagined that humans would be quite so… standoffish. 
Princess Twilight then proceeded to ask the question that mostly everypony was thinking. 
“Can you even understand what I’m saying?” 
They continued to ignore her. Whispering was starting to break out among the ponies as they asked each other questions and remarked on the strange appearance of the things. They looked intelligent, wore clothes, and judging by the devices they carried, used tools. So why couldn’t they speak?
Twilight looked over her shoulder at her friends, an utterly hopeless expression on her face. Rarity was the first to trot forward, smiling confidently. 
“Oh my, darlings! Those suits are absolutely fabulous! Where ever did you get them? Is that a common style for you, or is tonight just a special occasion?” 
The humans still didn’t react in the slightest, and Applejack called out from her spot in the crowd with a sarcastic tone. 
“You know Rarity, I don’t think talking is really working. Maybe someone else might have better luck with ‘em.” 
As she said this she looked at Fluttershy, nodding her head in the direction of the strange creatures. The yellow Pegasus shrank back, almost sinking to the ground as though being threatened with a hot poker. 
“Oh, I don’t think I could. I mean, they look like they don’t want to be bothered. And they’re awfully scary, and tall, and…” 
Her voice trailed off as she buried her face between her hooves, trying to hide from the eyes of the town, most of which were now on her. Applejack nudged her forward slightly, and gave her what encouragement she could. 
“Come on Sugar Cube, this is your specialty! If anyone can talk to these folks, you can!” 
Fluttershy didn’t seem too keen on the idea, but Rainbow Dash, Pinky Pie, and Applejack all started to try and convince her that she could. They were too quiet for Lyra to hear through the crowd, but after a few moments, Fluttershy walked away from the group timidly. She hid her face behind her mane, and when she got to Twilight’s side, she spoke almost too softly to be heard across the distance between her and Lyra. 
“H-H-Hello? Um, I’m sorry to bother you, but we were just wondering if you… needed anything. It would be really helpful if you could tell us… if that’s okay with you.” 
In what was now seeming to be the standard human response to attempts at communication, they did not respond. Fluttershy tried to make a few more attempts, but Lyra was paying attention to something else now. Twilight was biting her lip nervously, and looking around at the ponies gathered around, like she was trying to find someone else who could help. 
Lyra felt the urge to step forward again. She didn’t really know much about humans, but there had to be some way they could learn to talk. 
More noise from inside the crash attracted everyone’s attention, even the humans’, who quickly rushed away from their audience, moving with surprising speed. Lyra watched, amazed, and even a little entranced by how fluid their movements were. 
Before they could reenter their disk, another few creatures emerged from the same hole they had come from, and Lyra was immediately confused again. They were short things by comparison to the humans, but looked like they were close to the height of a pony, with mostly grey bodies, and bulbous heads that turned an odd shade of red at the top. Their eyes were large and a solid crimson color, with no trace of pupil or iris. 
They had tools similar to the devices the humans carried, but wore them on their wiry thin wrists. 
The longer Lyra stared at them, the stranger they seemed. They hunched over and walked using their hands, like monkeys, and Lyra couldn’t see any mouths anywhere. They didn’t have any noses either, like the humans did, and although she didn’t want to judge whatever they were prematurely, they did look rather threatening. 
They’d taken only a few skittering steps away from the crash when something else started to emerge. 
Lyra felt her heart beat faster as her eyes were pulled towards the thing. There was something supernatural about it, some kind of magic that she didn’t recognize. As its form became more visible, her vision started to swim. 
Ponies started to run, those who were near the fringes of the crowd didn’t seem to be too affected by the thing, and it entered fully into the fading light of sundown. 
It was tall. At least a head taller than the humans, and seemed to be hidden entirely inside of a deep red robe. At the top of the robe, the fabric stopped, and what looked almost like a hood made of metal began. It covered the thing’s whole head, leaving no skin visible, but there was a small hole towards the front. It was impossible to see anything through the hole, but a strange kind of pressure was definitely coming from it. 
The thing moved like it was gliding across the ground, robes dragging just slightly on the dirt. Its hood turned as it seemed to look over the crowd, and as the hole passed over her, her body froze up. She couldn’t do anything but focus on the solid blackness of that hole, like her eyes were trying their hardest to spy its face. 
The head continued to move, and the second that had seemed to stretch into minutes, passed. It was still difficult to look away, but she managed to pull her eyes to Twilight. The Princess seemed just as stunned as the rest of the ponies, wings folded close to her body and eyes still locked on the tall thing. 
Lyra felt sure that it would be able to understand them if they tried to talk, but she didn’t know if it was really a good idea to try. This one was threatening, without a doubt, and she was sure that it could hurt her. 
She wanted to talk to the humans, but she couldn’t bring herself to try. Not with that thing around. 
A loud noise came from inside the crash, and all of the strange creatures reacted, looking back and starting to move away, towards the crowd. 





Emily opened her eyes, feeling a pounding pain in her head. At first her vision was blurred, and she couldn’t hear anything, but her senses gradually returned. 
She tried to remember what had happened. The elerium generator had started to pulse, there was a flash of light, and…
There was nothing after that. Now she was here, wherever here was. 
She heard something nearby, and felt fear suddenly stab into her mind. There was something else in the room, and they sounded an awful lot like an alien. 
Her vision was starting to become full again, and she could make out the sleek walls of the ship that they’d been on before. Something close by and heavy thudded to the floor, and she heard movement again. It wasn’t a human, the footfalls were too rapid for that, but it wasn’t what her thoughts immediately jumped to either. If she could have, she would have shivered. Chryssalids would be a nightmare with her down on the ground like this. 
The sounds of footsteps faded slowly, and she thought that she was alone again. The muscles in her jaw tightened up as she took stock of her body. Her muscles hurt, and she could feel a sharp pain in her leg, but she was pretty sure that everything was still attached. 
Something else moved in the room, making little more noise than a light rustle, but that faded away as well. Emily strained her ears, trying to detect anything else in the room before she tried to get up. 
There were a few tense breaths as she listened, then brought her head off the ground. The pain in her head intensified, but she saw that she was, in fact, alone now. She looked around her, and saw that her five teammates were all strewn about the small room, limp. 
She started to get to her feet, first working her hands under her body, then pushing herself up. The powered armor made it much easier to do so. 
Her alloy cannon was a few feet away on the ground, looking a little dented, but still perfectly functional. She took it eagerly, and stood up. The first thing she needed to do was make sure the area was safe. Checking if her team was dead wouldn’t be much help if she got shot in the back while doing it. 
She made sure her gun was still loaded, then started to walk towards the way that they’d come in. It was the direction that the sounds had gone, and her best chance of at least finding out where the aliens had gone. 
Her leg still throbbed, but she could feel her body knitting itself back together as she walked. If she didn’t have powered armor, she would’ve had to stop and rest. 
Her grip on the cannon tightened, and she tried to slow her breathing. She had to be ready to blow anything away as soon as she saw it. She moved from cover to cover, ducking behind walls and railings where she could, then came into the main room of the craft. 
Her heart almost stopped as the back of an Ethereal came into view. She stopped dead in her tracks, and took a step to the side, ducking behind the closest thing she could find, a control panel. There were no doubt other aliens nearby if this one was here, but she couldn’t give them any attention. Not until the Ethereal was dead. 
She poked her head up, and the alloy cannon followed close behind. The target was only about three meters away, easily within range. Still, she was injured. Holding her gun straight wasn’t the simplest thing in the world. 
She let the breath in her chest slowly leak out as she aimed, then fired a crackling wave of plasma and alloy into the alien’s back. 
A purplish glow emanated briefly from the points where her shots should’ve connected, then dissipated as the power of the attack was dispersed. Of course the Ethereal wasn’t going to allow itself to be damaged so easily. Emily’s teeth ground together in frustration, and she fired again before it could react. 
A similar effect occurred, but this time the Ethereal started to move. For a moment she feared that it was turning around, but instead it started to flee. A smile crossed her face. Good, maybe it was afraid. 
She leapt over the controls, forgetting about her injuries in the heat of the moment, and ignoring the shot of pain that went up her leg. The Ethereal continued to flee, gaining speed as it did so, but Emily was determined to catch it. 
It exited the craft, and she was hot on its heels, but her instincts told her that charging out there blindly was a very bad idea. She stopped just short of the hole, and peaked out. 
Emily stared for about ten whole seconds at what was outside of the ship, unable to process what exactly it was. 
If she’d had to have called them anything, it would be horses. Many multi-colored, terrified, very small horses. The thin men and sectoids fired a few shots into the mass of horses to clear a path, not taking the time to aim, and Emily watched as a few of the shots connected, sending the horses sprawling. 
Other horses hurried to their sides to help, and seemed to even communicate to one another. 
The aliens continued to flee, but Emily had almost completely forgotten about them now. It had been a long time since anything out in the field had made her panic, but this… detachment from reality she’d seemed to take was more than enough to push her over the edge. 
She turned, and started to walk back towards the interior of the ship, trying very hard not to break down completely. She remembered the rigorous training she’d gone through, and how many life-or-death situations she had managed to pull herself and her people through. 
And now it seemed that she’d finally snapped. 
She could still hear the panic, and what almost sounded like human screaming, but she told herself it wasn’t real. Her head turned, and there was some vague hope in her mind that the horses, the little town, all of it would be gone. 
It wasn’t. Most of the horses were running around, but there was one in particular that caught her attention, and even though she was trying very hard not to let her gaze linger, she couldn’t help but take note. It was one that, judging by the horn coming out of its head, was a unicorn. Of course it was a unicorn. It was a light green color, with a white strike through its long hair. What was that called? A mane? 
It was standing still, staring at her. Its eyes were large, and they almost seemed to communicate something. Was that concern she saw? 
She shook her head hard, and put a hand to her temple as the pounding pain returned. 
“It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real…” 
She repeated the phrase over and over to herself as she continued back inside the alien craft, sincerely hoping that they would still be there. If she couldn’t see them, she didn’t know what she would do. She still had her gun, but she didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. 
The pain in her leg started to get worse as she took more steps, and a limp started to form. Her body could heal quickly, but a bone fracture, as she thought it felt like, was going to take a while to heal completely. Maybe two days at most. 
She tried to focus on that pain, even shifting her weight to make the leg hurt more. Maybe it was a bit insane, but it was the only thing that she was sure was entirely real. 
When she finally got to where her fallen comrades were, she set about checking them over. 
Louis was alive, not injured beyond a few nasty bruises, but also not conscious or responsive. She couldn’t find any sign of a serious head injury, but every time she tried to wake him up, nothing happened. 
Kato was next. He was breathing, and when Emily went to feel his pulse, his eyes opened groggily and he tried to sit up. She let him, figuring that he was the best one to check the others over anyways. He had more medical training. 
He looked at her with a confused expression, and started rubbing his head.  
“What happened? I can’t remember.” He blinked several times, similar to how she had done, then looked her up and down. 
His expression shifted quickly to a much more serious one, and he got to his feet. Emily watched silently as he stepped closer to her, then raised an eyebrow. 
“What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. You aren’t hurt, are you?” 
Emily swallowed hard and shook her head. “No, no, no, I’m fine. Just… just make sure they’re alright first, okay? I’ll tell you about it then.” 
He gave her a look that was hard to place, then nodded. As he turned back to examine Zoe, Emily put her back against the wall and slid down to a sitting position, putting her face in her hands. 
What was she supposed to do? The situation was so bizarre. What could she do? 
Her finger drifted to the side of her head, and she pressed down on her earpiece, praying that it still worked. The small sound of static filled her ear, and she tried speaking tentatively. 
“Command? Come in, Command! Command, respond!” 
Her voice grew more agitated the longer she didn’t get a response, but she didn’t stop trying. After minutes effort, she still didn’t receive any word back. 
She only gave up when a hand touched her shoulder, making her jump. She looked to her side and found Kato giving her a concerned look again. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to. Emily realized that she was starting to hyperventilate, and tried to slow her breathing down, letting her hand fall from her head. 
“I’m sorry. I just…” How could she say that she was going insane? If she did, that give it a kind of permanence that she was desperately trying to avoid. One idea did occur to her, though, and she started to push herself back to her feet. “Are they going to live?” She nodded her head in the direction of the others. 
Kato nodded. “I did what I could, but they won’t wake for hours, and  I do not believe they will be ready for combat again for several days. Now, please, you are panicking. Tell me what happened.” 
Emily shook her head. She couldn’t say it, but she could see if he saw the same thing. That would make a difference, right? If it was just her, then she was hallucinating, and needed to just do what Kato said. If he saw it too, then… well, then that would change things. 
“Come with me. If you see what I see, then I’ll know I’m not crazy.” 
That was all the explanation that her understandably distracted mind could muster, and started to walk back towards the exit. She still put more weight on her leg than was necessary, only now it wasn’t just to keep her mind grounded, but also to hide her limp. Kato was going to have more than enough to worry about soon, either with her insanity or being surrounded by unicorns. 
Kato didn’t speak as he followed her. He must have understood the gravity of the situation. He knew that Emily was normally levelheaded, and that if something had been able to disturb her this much, it was to be taken seriously.
As they got close to the exit, Emily looked towards the ground, not wanting to risk seeing it again before she knew if it was real or not. It had seemed real. 
When she got to it, she put her back against the wall next to the hole and gestured out, saying, “What is out there? I don’t see Russia anymore.” 
She watched his face carefully, and as soon as he caught a glimpse of what lay beyond the ship, his eyes widened and fingers tightened around his plasma rifle. It didn’t seem like he was going to shoot anything, but he was definitely not expecting what he saw. 
Emily rose an eyebrow and, while still being careful not to look out, turned to face Kato. 
“What is it? That’s not Russia, right? That’s not the forest we were in before, right?”
He slowly shook his head, and took a small step backwards. 
“No. I think I see what made you panic.” There was a short moment of silence as his eyes darted around, before he finally said the words that Emily had been waiting for. “There are… ponies, I think. Many of them, and they stare at me. 
Emily breathed a sigh of relief, although she didn’t know if it was truly a good thing or not. She felt well enough to look out now, at least. 
The circle of horses seemed much thinner now than it had been, she would guess about fifteen or twenty, and the mint green unicorn was still present. It stared up at them with the same big eyes that it’d had before, and Emily couldn’t help but be reminded of a baby. 
“So…” her voice trailed off, and she took a few more seconds to take in the scene before continuing. “What the fuck are we supposed to do now? We can’t contact Command, only two of us are ready for any kind of confrontation, and we’re surrounded by neon horses.” 
It would’ve been funny, if she weren’t living it. 
Kato nodded slowly, then spoke again. “They look smart. They have houses and roads. I suppose it isn’t impossible that they’re sentient. Are they with the aliens?” 
“No, I don’t think so. The thin men blasted a few on their way out, so it doesn’t seem likely.” She shook her head as she spoke, and noticed a few of the animals doing what looked like talking, making noises to each other and gesturing with their hooves. 
Kato turned to her and raised an eyebrow. “Thin men? So the aliens on the ship survived?” 
Emily nodded. “Yeah, the thin men, the sectoids, and the Ethereal. I tried to take the Ethereal out before it got away, but…” She gestured out to the town. “…I was a little distracted.” 
Kato looked at her, an eyebrow raised. “An Ethereal got into this? Well, I congratulate you on being scary enough to make it flee, but its presence cannot be good. I can only imagine what kind of mayhem it might cause. Should we go after it?” 
“Maybe, but not just the two of us. We can’t just leave the others behind in their condition. Besides, just the two of us would get wiped out real fast. We don’t even know where they went.” She looked back at the horses. “Maybe they do, though. Unfortunately I sort of doubt they speak English.”
Kato smiled and said, “No, I doubt they do. Still, though, maybe something could be worked out. Most of them look frightened of us. Did you shoot at them?” 
“No. When I got to the hole, I had a little more on my mind.” She looked over the crowd, and stopped when she found the one that had been staring before. “See that one? Something’s off about it, I think. It doesn’t really look afraid, does it? At least, not as much as the others.” 
As she pointed, the pony seemed to realize that it was the one being indicated, and its eyes widened. One of the ponies next to it, with a cream colored body and a dark blue and pink mane, started to “talk” to it, with an expression eerily similar to a human’s. 
Kato watched intently, then asked, “Do you think there is a way to communicate? I mean, the aliens never seemed to show any ability to speak with us.”
“I don’t think the aliens ever had an interest in talking with us. And something tells me we’re the aliens now, so I say we try to be a little more peaceful than our aliens. What do you think?” 
Kato sighed. “I don’t think that green one is in charge. It seems to me we should try to communicate with their leader. That purple one there, with the wings and the horn, I think that is the leader.” 
He pointed, and Emily followed his finger until she saw it. The thing was certainly different than the others, slightly taller, and with both horns and wings as Kato had said. She hadn’t noticed that combination of features on any others, but that didn’t seem to be why he had singled it out. 
The reason it was singled out was probably because it was approaching nervously. Five others followed closely behind, and none of them seemed particularly remarkable. 
The purple one stopped about fifteen meters away, and started to make a series of unintelligible noises. It sounded vaguely human, but there were no understandable words. 
Emily looked at the pony for a few moments before shifting her gaze over to Kato and asking, “Well, you got any ideas?” 
	
> Language barriers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight turned back to her friends, hoping they could give her any ideas at all. The only thing she got was worried and wary looks, and a particularly aggressive looking Rainbow Dash. Maybe none of them could really do anything. 

They’d never dealt with humans before, though. She’d told them about her experiences in that strange other world, but they didn’t know anything beyond that. And besides, these humans didn’t look like the other ones. They seemed like they were less colorful, and a lot less happy. She could see that they looked hurt, though, and their eyes darted around the crowd cautiously. 

But those things in their hands seemed to be weapons of some kind, like the other humans, or at least, human-like things had used on the crowd. They had caused some serious injuries, and the images of ponies being struck by those green bolts of light were still fresh in her mind. 

She blinked and gave her head a light shake, trying to rid herself of those thoughts. She was the Princess of friendship, she had to give them a chance. 

One of the humans, the darker of the two, a male by the looks of it, turned to face the other one and spoke a few hushed words. Their faces were hard to read, but if she had to assign them an emotion, it would be confused. 

“Can you understand what I’m saying? Do you need our help?” 

They looked at her, but didn’t comprehend her words. Why couldn’t they understand her? The humans from Canterlot High had no trouble communicating and understanding. Now that she examined them more closely, she did start to see differences. Their eyes were smaller, smaller than a hoof, even. In spite of their small size, they flicked around from pony to pony, a bright spark of intelligence in their eyes. 

The humans looked at each other again, and made a few brief noises before turning back to Twilight, one extended a hand towards her. A finger unfurled, then beckoned tentatively. 

Her eyes widened as she was surprised to see a gesture she recognized, then a small smile came across her face. That was one way they could communicate, but recalling some of the other gestures she’d seen during her brief stints as a human, most of them required a little more than she had. Fingers, arms, an upright body, all things that would be hard to get. 

She blinked, shaking herself out of her thought. The human was still beckoning, and she didn’t want to seem like she was declining the invitation. 

She started to walk towards them slowly, watching for any kind of movement on the humans’ part. They seemed like they wanted the same that she did, but she couldn’t be completely sure they were trustworthy. 

Sounds of hooves behind her made her turn around, and find her friends following behind her. She bit her lip, not sure what to do. Diplomacy was one of her duties, but after a meeting like this…

“Uh, girls? I think it might be a good idea for you to stay out here. We don’t want to scare them.” 

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, and looked over at a scorch mark that had been left from the first group of freaks that had run away. 

“Scare them? Yeah Twilight, I’m sure they’re ones who are scared. I say we get them to put those things down first. That seems fair to me.” 

Applejack nodded, adding “Them’s the same kind of things those other monsters were using, and they hurt some folks real bad.” 

Twilight thought about it for a second before agreeing. They were right, those devices appeared to be weapons. What kind, however, she had no idea. It wasn’t any kind of magic she recognized. It had certainly been able to do damage, though. 

“You’re right. Someone go and get Spike, send a letter to Celestia right away! I’ll try to find out what happened, and keep things calm until she gets here. If something goes wrong in there, make sure that the rest of Ponyville is safe first, alright?” 

The others nodded, and she turned back to the damaged looking craft. A part of her wanted to ask what its function was, and what it was made of, but it wouldn’t be of much use. She continued approaching, and as she got closer the human motioning to her started to walk backwards, leading her further inside. Her wings tucked closer against her sides, and she got herself ready to cast a teleportation spell, whispering to herself “It’s just a precaution…” 

She could feel the eyes of the town on her as she walked closer to the shining metal craft. It seemed to loom over her, and the archway opening yawned out cool air that brushed through her fur and mane, sending a chill down her spine. 

Humans were taller than she’d imagined by comparison to ponies. Or, at least, these humans were. She reached only a little higher than their waists, and she was slightly taller than average ponies. Not even Celestia would be quite their height. She didn’t let herself be intimidated though. Lots of things were big, yet gentile as could be. Princess Celestia was big, and she wouldn’t hurt a fly. 

Her hooves hit the metal floor, and she was surprised by the interior of the thing. The ceiling was tall, obviously designed for larger creatures, and its walls were void of any embellishment. Dirt and grass littered the floor close to the door, but as she got further in, she saw that the rest was almost spotless.

The exterior of the thing seemed to be the only part that had really suffered any damage, because other than being at a slight tilt from its rather unceremonious landing, everything appeared to be in almost perfect condition. Strange dancing holographic displays cast what looked like some kind of information readout into the air above it, but what it said, she had no idea. 

Twilight heard a familiar voice cry from outside, and she jerked around to the door again, looking for the problem.

“Wait! I want to come too!”

Another voice, not quite as loud as the first, cried indignantly “Are you insane?” 	

The human that still stood by the doorway grabbed its weapon tighter, and Twilight followed its gaze to the source of the disturbance. 

Lyra Heartstrings had burst out of the crowd towards them, but once breaking free had slowed down to a nervous trot. She could feel her fur starting to collect sweat, regretting her decision almost immediately. Her roommate, Bonbon, had followed for a few steps, but was already slinking back into the crowd. 

Twilight looked back to the human, and then to its weapon. She didn’t know what she would do if Lyra got shot. It would be a mess, that was certain. She considered the problem for a moment before an idea popped into her head. They’d apparently had a simple gesture in common, so maybe the human would be able to understand something a little more complex. She would have to get its attention, though. 

She moved fast, perhaps a little faster than she meant to, and tapped the side of the human’s leg with her hoof. It wasn’t a hard impact, but the situation made her hesitant to bring any attention to herself. As soon as her hoof met the leg, it occurred to her that they weren’t wearing normal clothes. It looked like some kind of armor. Were they warriors of some kind? 

In any case, the human did look down at her, and she got her first clear look at its face. It was feminine, but with sharp features and intense green eyes. She couldn’t quite decipher what the stony look on its face meant, but that didn’t stop her. 

She shifted her focus to the weapon, pointing at it with her horn and nodding towards it, before looking back up to see if the human followed. It stared back, and she took that as confirmation enough. She started shaking her head, speaking her meaning gently as she did so on the off chance it somehow helped. 

“Please don’t use that thing…” 

By now, Lyra had hurried her pace to the door and stood by the threshold, watching eagerly. Twilight couldn’t suppress the twinge of annoyance that bit at the side of her mind. Lyra was an oddball, but what she had just done was nothing short of reckless. 

The woman she’d signaled stared at her blankly for a few more seconds before looking to what Twilight assumed to be her friend, speaking another slurry of quick, sharp noises before the man laughed, and waved a hand dismissively. 

The woman looked back down at Twilight, over to Lyra, then sighed. With a slow movement, it moved the weapon up, over its back into what Twilight assumed to be some kind of sheath. 

Relief washed over her before she shifted her gaze back over to Lyra, making her annoyance clear. The unicorn blushed slightly, and gave her an awkward wave with her hoof before speaking. 

“Can I come too? Please, you really have no idea how much I-“

Twilight cut her off before she could say any more, trying to calm herself down. 

“Lyra, I really don’t think…” The look on Lyra’s face reminded Twilight of when Spike begged her for something, and she gave a helpless sigh. “Just don’t… don’t do anything that might leave an impression, alright? I don’t think these are like the other-“ She cut herself short, biting her tongue and instantly turning away. She’d been sure not to mention the humans she had seen to anyone but her closest friends, and Lyra was probably the worst pony to let it slip to. 

Lyra looked at her, one eyebrow raised, asking “What was that?” 

Twilight looked backwards at her, trying to think of something to say. 

“Maybe we should focus on the here and now. You’ve done research on humans, right? Can you tell what’s happening?” 

That was something she knew Lyra would talk about. Before she found out about Canterlot High, Twilight had always thought Lyra’s interest had been a little strange, and maybe a bit worrying, but nothing more. Bonbon seemed a little annoyed from time to time, but that was normal between friends. It always smoothed out after a while. 

Lyra gave a sigh, and the two started to move again, still following the human that led them. 

“I really don’t know. I mean, I’ve been thinking about it, and I don’t think those first things were humans. The ones that shot at ponies, I mean. You saw how they were all weird, right? I’ve only seen a few anatomical drawings, but I know humans shouldn’t be able to move around like that. Their bones are too long, they shouldn’t be able to bend like that. Maybe these humans don’t know what’s going on either.” There was a short pause before she asked, “Do you have some spell that could help with that?” 

Twilight thought. The stress was making it very difficult, but she tried to remember a spell from the multitude she had learned. Language spells… there wasn’t much in the way of that, not that she had looked into, anyways. There were a few for getting rid of heavy accents, but that was about the extent of what she knew. And besides, she didn’t know that the humans would be willing to let her cast a spell on them. They were cautious, and if they didn’t know about magic, they might not give her the chance.

“No, I’m afraid not. There are a few spells that might help, but nothing that would let us talk with them perfectly.” 

Lyra was silent, and Twilight went back to observing her surroundings. The metal under her hooves was cold, and impressively smooth. Equestrian ships usually made use of wood for their structure, as metal was too heavy and hard to produce. She didn’t recognize what kind of metal it was, though. It didn’t have the right color or shine to be iron, and couldn’t be silver. Was it some kind of alloy? She imagined that whatever it was, the technique to work with such metal was advanced. 

The man leading them had dark brown skin, and wore dark black armor. It didn’t seem as thick as the other’s armor, and seemed much more fibrous. Twilight wondered if it had any particular properties, or if it was used to denote some kind of rank or authority. 

A doorway to another room of the ship became visible as they turned a corner, and just inside the door she could make out another pair of human boots. She gasped, eyes widened, and her understanding of the situation improved. 

The humans being careful would make sense, they were protecting whoever else was with them. It didn’t explain what the other creatures were that had fled, but it was better than nothing. Twilight’s hooves clopped against the metal quickly for a second as she made to dash past the man, but she stopped when he let out a loud noise, and blocked her path. 

“Oh, no, I only want to-“ 

The woman behind Lyra started to shout, and Twilight turned around to see another device in her hands, smaller than the last, and glowing an ominous red. It was pointed straight at her, and she considered it a fairly safe bet to say that it was a weapon too. 

She stopped, and lowered herself quickly to the ground, trying her best to indicate she’d meant no harm. 

“Please, don’t! I just wanted to help! I saw whoever’s in there and I thought I might be able to do something!” 

Her eyes peeped open, and the first thing she noticed was that she hadn’t felt any pain or heard any noise. The humans had stopped talking, and now just stared at her. The woman kept her weapon on Twilight, but now seemed more relaxed. She tentatively got back to her hooves, and looked at Lyra. 

“I think there’s at least one injured human in there. We need to make them understand that we don’t want to hurt them. Do you have any ideas?” 

Lyra cried loudly “What? Really?” Then breathed a deep breath. “I doubt they can read Equestrian. Are you sure there’s nothing you can do to make them understand us? And if not to them, maybe you could cast something on us?  You know, like you did with the Breezies?” 

“I didn’t make us understand them, I turned the girls into them. And maybe that could work, but I really doubt that they’ll let me. That spell would require I scan them, and based on how they’re acting so far…” 

Her voice trailed off as her eyes flicked to the red weapon, still glowing and pointed in her general direction. Lyra rubbed a hoof against her chin thoughtfully, then stepped forwards. 

Twilight watched carefully as she passed her, saying, “Be careful…” 

The unicorn came to a halt in front of the man, looked up at the man, and pointed with a hoof, her eyes wide and concerned. She spoke in a soft voice, keeping eye contact the whole time. 

“Please, let us see them. We can help you, if you trust us.”

The man looked up at his companion, saying a few words before shrugging his shoulders. The woman replied with a few short, harsh sounding words before the man shrugged again, and held up a single index finger. The woman stared for a moment, glanced at the two ponies, then nodded. 

The man knelt down so that he was eye level with them, then pointed to the room behind him. Then he pointed to both of them, and held up one finger again. 

“Is he saying… one of us can go?” 

It was a good question. Twilight couldn’t be sure, but that was definitely the impression she got from the signals. 

“I think so. Will you be alright out here? Maybe after they see that we’re trying to help, they’ll let us take them somewhere better. I’ll go in first, alright? You just have to wait out here until then. You can do that, right?” 

Lyra’s enthused demeanor deflated slightly, but she tried to cover it. “Yeah, no problem. Go ahead, do your Princess stuff. I’ll be out here, trying to talk with them, I guess.”

Twilight gave Lyra a relieved smile. She was sure Lyra meant well, but it was easy to imagine her particular brand of zeal getting the pair into trouble. Hopefully she would be able to contain herself until things got a little more stable. 

She walked into the room slowly, following behind the man, who was watching her carefully. She tried to give a warm smile, having to fake a little bit of confidence and comfort. He seemed like he wasn’t too apprehensive, but Twilight could see his hand hovering close to his back, ready to grab at the weapon holstered there. They both entered the room, and Twilight gasped again when she found that there wasn’t only one human, but four. They all looked mature, wore armor, and a few of them had blood dripping from wounds or large bruises on their heads. All were unconscious, laid flat against the floor. 

She had to fight the initial urge to rush over to them and try helping. Instead, she trotted over to the side of the closest one at a hasty pace, barely aware of the human following behind her. It was female, and its armor was white, and looked lighter than the others. A few sizable protrusions from the armor caught Twilight’s attention, and she moved to get a better look. 

One was on the upper back, jutting out rather awkwardly, and two others on the backs of her feet. She puzzled for a moment what they could be for, then noticed indentations. 

She wasn’t entirely sure what to think. Those couldn’t be rockets, could they? Was it possible to make something like that? Humans couldn’t fly naturally, she knew that much, but was that really what it was designed for? Maybe it was to provide her with extra speed when moving, or to control falls. She tried to remind herself not to jump to conclusions, but the angle of the jets would certainly generate upward lift…

She shook her head, trying to focus on the humans themselves. The woman had a large purple bruise on the side of her head, but didn’t seem to be too injured. Her chest still rose and fell in a rhythmic pattern. Her mane, or hair, as she remembered humans called it, was cropped short, and colored a dull red. She had a weapon too, lying by her side. A long glowing green tube sat on the end of a metal body, and in total length, it was almost as long as the woman’s body.  The green light sparked and flashed slightly, but it seemed safe enough. At least it wasn’t aimed at her.

She looked over the rest of the woman’s body, wondering if there were any other wounds. The man behind her started to speak, and Twilight looked back briefly to check who he was talking to. His face was pointed out the door, and he seemed like he was calming down. 

Twilight saw a dark scuff mark on the unconscious woman’s inner arm, and without a second of hesitation, reached out with her magic to gently turn the limb so she could see if there was any damage to the armor she wore. A purple glow surrounded the appendage as she manipulated it to get a better view. 

The armor seemed like it was mostly undamaged, the mark was from some past conflict, if she had to guess. 

She was suddenly aware that the talking from the humans had stopped. Her eyes widened as she remembered what she guessed human’s reactions would be. 

She turned around, and found that there wasn’t just the one who had let her, but the woman as well. Lyra was peeking into the room as well, and was looking from the human to Twilight with a confused look on her face. 

Twilight let the arm fall, and its armor made a small thud as it hit the floor. Maybe she’d gotten a little ahead of herself there. The humans just stared at her, stunned, and Lyra slowly started to walk into the room. 

“I guess you were right about the whole magic thing, huh? That means they’ve never seen unicorn magic before. It’d be good if we could explain it to them, but I guess we can’t. Do you think they have anything like that?” 

The humans started to talk again, and both ponies looked up at them. A few gestures towards the ponies told them that they were the topic of discussion. Twilight didn’t know how she felt about that. She knew there was something strange going on when the man started to point between her and Lyra, like he was asking the woman to choose one. 

The woman stopped and looked, before nodding towards Lyra. The unicorn shrank back closer to Twilight, and spoke in a nervous voice to the humans. 

“Uh, hi… what are you doing? I think you should not point at me. Point at Twilight, she’s the alicorn.” 

Twilight gave an indignant “Hey!” The humans didn’t seem to take much notice of this, instead continuing to point at Lyra, saying a few more words before the woman pat the man on the back in a reassuring manner. 

He bent his legs, sitting on his heels after taking a few steps closer, and gave Lyra a reassuring smile, speaking a few soft words. Lyra’s breathing slowed down slightly, and Twilight saw her body relax. The man didn’t seem to want to hurt them, but he was planning something. 

He brought a hand up, but didn’t touch Lyra with it. Instead, his palm faced towards the ceiling, and a concentrated expression came over his face. 

Twilight became aware of a strong presence, and took an involuntary step back. A dark purple glow covered his eyes, flowing down his arm, and built in a ball that hovered an inch above his hand. It looked like some kind of magic, but Twilight had no idea what. She’d never seen anything like it before. 

The human turned his palm to Lyra, and pushed the ball towards her. Tendrils of whatever magic it was worked out of the ball towards her, surrounding Lyra’s head. She gave out a panicked cry, looking back at Twilight for help, but her body lifted a few inches off the ground, and her head was pulled back to face the human. 

Twilight took another involuntary step back, looking around for the other human. She had moved to the doorway, and blocked the only way out. Her weapon was drawn, but she didn’t have it aimed at Twilight. She only fixed Twilight with a concerned look, like she was cautious of how the pony would react. 

Lyra’s voice sounded strangled as she managed to force out a few words. “Twilight… it’s in my…”

Her body went ridged, and her hooves met the ground. Twilight glanced towards the door again, making sure that if she had to teleport, she would be able to do so with as much accuracy as possible. 

Lyra spoke again, not turning around, and her voice was now an eerie monotone. 

“Twilight.” 

Twilight lifted a hoof, wanting to reach out to her, but she could still see the strange human magic circling her head, even seeming to flow into her ears. 

“Lyra? What’s wrong? What did he do?” 

Lyra turned, and Twilight swallowed down a scream. Her eyes were glowing dimly with the same color as the man’s, and her body language was stiff and robotic, like she didn’t know quite what to do with it anymore. She started to speak, and Twilight saw the human’s mouth moving at the same time, both pairs of eyes staring directly at her. 

“We don’t want to hurt you. Must find those who ran, then get home. Can you help?” 

Twilight’s jaw dropped, and thoughts of escaping vanished from her mind. Was this human controlling Lyra? How? Nothing she’d ever encountered dealing with humans had ever so much as implied abilities like this, not her time at Canterlot High, and none of the books than mentioned humans in Equestria. 

Twilight reached out a hoof, wanting to get closer, but she didn’t know if it was safe. Lyra said they didn’t want to hurt them, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t. 

She spoke again, not sure if she should address the human or Lyra. 

“Please, let her go! You could be hurting her! We only want to have peace, we don’t want to hurt you either. We can get you somewhere to recover, it looks like your friends are hurt.” 

Despite speaking in two entirely different languages, certain harmonies emerged as the human and Lyra spoke, making Twilight’s ears fold down, and a chill run up her spine. 

“Host will not be harmed. Do not allow others to escape. They bring ruin. We tried to stop them, but could not. You-” 

Lyra flinched suddenly, like she was trying to break out of the spell that held her, and Twilight saw the human behind Lyra flinch as well. They said the other creatures that had run away were dangerous, and that seemed entirely possible. They had fired on the crowd when they ran, but Twilight had been willing to believe that was out of panic. 

But still, there was a possibility the human wasn’t entirely correct. It seemed like they weren’t entirely impartial, but Twilight wasn’t about to ignore the warning. Princess Celestia would hear all about it as soon as she was able to send a letter. She would have a better idea of what to do. 

Twilight opened her mouth again, but the pair started to speak again, now sounding more rushed. 

“Take us somewhere safe. Do not allow anyone on this ship. If-“

Lyra stopped short, her eyes rolling back in her head for a brief moment before then blinking and swaying unsteadily. Twilight stepped forward, watching the human magic fade from Lyra, and bracing Lyra against her shoulder. 

She shook her head, giving a small groan and placing a hoof to her head before her eyes widened and she looked at Twilight with an intense expression. 

“Did that really just happen, or am I losing my mind? You saw it too, right?”

Twilight leaned back slightly, not sure why Lyra was acting like this. It certainly wasn’t the reaction she had expected. It would seem more in line with what had just happened if Lyra was unconscious, or having some kind of panic attack, but there almost seemed to be a smile tugging at the corners of Lyra’s mouth. 

“Yeah, I saw it… are you okay? Don’t you feel funny or anything? I mean, how much do you remember? Were you conscious? It sounded like you were in pain at first.” 

Lyra took a step closer to Twilight, her smile widening a little farther. “No, I feel fine. It was... well, it was scary at first, but I didn’t understand what was happening. It put thoughts into my head, I think, and made me say them. I think it used me to understand what you were saying too, but I don’t know how much it could understand. You heard what he said, though, right?” 

Twilight nodded, and tried to shake off Lyra’s bizarre attitude towards what she would consider an incredibly invasive experience. If she was alright with it, Twilight was too. 

She looked back to the man who had controlled Lyra, not sure what to think anymore. She knew what they wanted, but she definitely felt unsettled. 

Twilight’s eyes turned towards the door, and she found that the woman had moved. She nudged Lyra’s side and whispered “Let’s go get some help. I doubt these two can carry four others on their own. We can take them to the hospital for now. Do you think they’ll stay here until we get back?” 

Lyra nodded, replying “Yeah, I think they know we want to help.” 
> Meeting Royalty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Emily watched the small horses leave the ship, trying to keep her jaw from hanging open. She hadn’t been totally serious when she suggested Kato use his powers to communicate, but that didn’t stop it from happening. And much to her surprise, it’d actually worked. At least, it seemed to. She didn’t know exactly what they were heading off to do, but it didn’t seem hostile. 

She shook her head, reminding herself that Kato was alone, and started heading back. The smooth walls of the spaceship were oddly comforting now, the only think familiar to her in an unknown situation. The irony wasn’t lost on her. It might’ve even been funny if it weren’t happening to her. 

When she got back to the room that the rest of her team was in, she found Kato kneeling over Sam, who was starting to wake up. Emily approached the two slowly, feeling the bone in her leg starting to hurt again. If she didn’t get off it soon, she was going to damage it further. She was sure that whatever fighting strength the squad still had would come in useful at some point. 

She put her back against the wall, sliding down as she took weight off the injury. It continued to heal, reminding her of something that was now very important. 

“Hey, Kato, you’ve served with a few of these guys before, right? Any idea what kind of gene mods they’ve got? I wouldn’t worry about it normally, but knowing our hand here is pretty important.” 

Kato looked up from Sam, nodding as he turned the man’s head to the side. Sam didn’t seem lucid yet, but he was in the process of waking up. 

“I believe I know a few. This man has muscular fiber density improvement, and…” Kato paused, pulling a flashlight from his belt and turning Sam’s head back to him before waving the flashlight over his eyes. Emily watched as the dark circles in the middle of the irises dilated quickly. “…hyper reactive pupils. There may be more, but I can’t tell like this. It will be easier to know when they wake up.” 

Emily sighed. The longer they waited, the more danger they would be in. 

“Why aren’t these on dog tags or something? It’d save an awful lot of trouble.” 

Kato smiled as he placed Sam back down gently, saying in a joking voice, “That’s the ‘secret’ part of XCOM. The less information you risk, the less you lose. Wouldn’t want names of members to fall into the wrong hands, would you?” 

He turned and looked at Zoe, continuing to speak. 

“She also has modified muscle fiber density, and mimetic skin. It’s strange, it seems to fluctuate when she isn’t consciously controlling it.” 

Emily looked to see what he meant, and was able to just catch a deceptively light-colored patch drift across Zoe’s face, making her exposed skin look like some kind of window for a moment. Whatever her skin mimicked, it wasn’t the metal behind her. Emily wondered if she was looking into the girl’s dream, then shook the thoughts off. It didn’t matter now. 

“What about the others?” 

Kato looked, then pointed to the nearest of the other two. “I don’t believe Miles has any gene mods. Louis has adaptive bone marrow, like you.” 

Emily nodded, and tried to relax. On the other side of the metal she leaned against, there were technicolor horses straight out of a child’s storybook, but she tried to block that knowledge out. She just needed to think for a moment, something that was hard to do at the moment. Her eyes drifted shut, and she was suddenly aware of how tired she was. Being knocked out was exhausting. Her head started to slump over, but before she could fall asleep she jerked her head back up. 

Assuming these little horses did like Kato said they were doing, trying to help, then the only immediate danger was those aliens coming back. Kato said he’d warned about them as well, but didn’t know if the magnitude of the danger they posed had sunk in. They would watch out, but in the end, Emily doubted that they would have anything that could give the aliens pause. She was fairly sure she’d seen a few candles in the windows of houses outside. It didn’t speak well for the state of their technology. 

Then again, the purple one had demonstrated telekinetic abilities like it was nothing. It’d even seemed surprised by her and Kato’s startled reactions. That told her that if it was used to powers like that, then maybe they were even common among this species. How it would measure up to an ethereal, though, she couldn’t imagine. Kato said that he’d felt similar abilities in the green one, so maybe it was a more common trait in them than in humans. 

Did that make them a threat? Telekinesis was advanced for humans, but mind control was on about the same level, and it’d seemed afraid of that at first. She guessed that she was lucky Kato had been able to make the intrinsically hostile act turn into an attempt at communication. 

The sound of something tapping against the metal floor made both Emily’s and Kato’s head turn, and they spied more ponies walking timidly through the first section of the ship, eyes darting around nervously and bodies shaking. The purple one from before led them, and the green one wasn’t too far behind. 

In addition to the ones from before, there were twelve new ones, walking in pairs, carrying what looked like stretchers between them. As they got closer, Emily could see that they weren’t single stretchers, but two per pair that had been hastily fastened together. By the looks of them, a single one would barely be half a normal person’s height. 

There was something vaguely amusing about the idea of ponies frantically tying stretchers together, but she didn’t feel like smiling. She was just glad that something was going to go right. 

She made a grunt to get Kato’s attention, and nodded towards the door. Kato looked up, and stood as the ponies came into view. 

The purple one was first in the room, and seemed to give some encouragement to the others before approaching them, making a few gestures towards the ponies carrying the stretchers while speaking what sounded like gibberish. 

The other ponies filed in by pairs, keeping their eyes fixed on the two humans as they did so, watching for any sudden movements. As each pair entered, they stopped behind the purple one, waiting for further commands. The green unicorn Kato had used his mind-control on seemed to want to get closer to them, but the purple one kept it back. 

Emily glanced over at Kato, puzzled. If they were waiting for something, they were doing a poor job at conveying whatever it was. Emily decided to speak, hoping Kato was on the same page she was. 

“So are we just supposed to load them up, or…?” 

“I don’t know. We might as well try.” 

He knelt over Sam again, putting his hands under his arms and lifting. Emily joined him, grabbing Sam’s feet and lifting him off the ground. 

A team of awkward and scared ponies approached, and flinched as they placed Sam on their stretcher. Emily watched carefully for a moment as they adjusted to the weight before sidling off to the side, letting another group come forwards. As the rest of her team was placed on stretchers, Emily continued to examine the ponies as best she could. 

The mixture of normal ones, unicorns, and winged ones seemed to lack any kind of pattern. There did appear to be some differences between the sexes, with some being more sturdily built and others more slender, but which was which she couldn’t tell. She wasn’t a biologist, and the topic of determining an alien’s sex never came up during her conversations with scientists back at base. What she did notice, though, were the markings near the ponies’ hindquarters. 

Every single one had them, and they all seemed to bear familiar symbology, red crosses or syringes, things that denoted the field of medicine. She recalled that the hulking red beasts that were mutons had also been found to tattoo certain designs on their bodies, but these were different. All of the marks were in the same place, and displayed similar themes. Until there was a smoother way to communicate, it would be impossible to tell what practices like that meant. 

While the ponies carrying the stretchers had similar marks, the other two had quite different looking designs. The purple one from before, apparently some kind of leader, had what looked vaguely like stars. Emily could only guess at the significance of that. The green one had what looked like a harp. 

When everyone had been loaded up, Kato glanced over at one of the two remaining stretchers before looking at Emily’s leg. Before he could say anything, Emily cut him off, saying, “Don’t even think about it. I’m not going to lie down and let horses carry me. My leg is fine for now, I can walk.” 

The green pony had gotten incrementally closer the whole time, inching past the purple one, eyes fixed on the nearest human. That was, at the moment, Kato. It still had that creepy smile on its face, and Emily was starting to get the feeling that it was planning something. 

She brushed it off as paranoia, and tried to gesture towards the exit. The purple pony stared back at her nervously, tilting its head slightly, before slowly turning and leading the way out. Emily and Kato waited for the others to leave first before following. As they stepped towards the door, Emily drew her gun again, and motioned for Kato to do the same. If this was a trap, even if that was unlikely, they wouldn’t be taken out without a fight. 

The air was warm compared to the inside of the ship, and there was still a small crowd outside.

“Jesus Christ, they look like soap mascots.” 

She hadn’t meant it as a joke, but Kato’s laugh made her realize that it was a somewhat silly thing to say. That was what the variety of colors reminded her of, commercials for toilet bowl cleaners and dish soap. 

The purple one was addressing the crowd, making a series of gestures, meanwhile Emily and Kato kept careful watch on anything else that could be a trap. The aliens were nowhere to be seen, and there was no sign of hostility from the ponies. Emily did notice that the unicorn with the harp tattoo was by her side, squinting at her armor and mumbling to itself.

It was a few seconds before the small convoy started to move again, now with the eyes of every onlooker firmly glued on the humans. Emily noted that all of them seemed to have marks on their flanks, but she couldn’t make out any theme among them. They were too random.

Her head started to hurt again, and she realized she was on the verge of breaking down again. She was going to have to calm down, and simply go with the flow of things until she had a better idea of what was happening. 

She took a few deep breaths, and closed her eyes as she walked. 

Chrysalids were hellish monsters, abduction sites were grim reminders of humanity’s stature in the universe, but this was something far harder to digest. Every situation before always had a clear goal; eliminate contacts, protect VIPs, or retrieve artifacts. Even getting back to the Skyranger in one piece was good enough for her. Now there was nothing. 

“Kato, we need to figure out what we’re doing here. To do that, we need to communicate with these things, and mind-control isn’t going to cut it long term. We don’t have the tech to get beyond basic gestures at the moment, and I’d say even using those is risky. There’s no guarantee that they might take something the wrong way. We have to at least try working out some better way. Writing and speaking are out the window entirely, but some of them do seem psychic. Do you think you can use that to your advantage?” 

She cracked open her eyes, and found Kato nodding. 

“Good. That’s our first objective. With any luck, they’ll be just as interested as us in that. Then we can help kill the aliens if they need it, and find a way back home. Sound good?” 

“Yes. I’m happy to see you taking charge. Good leadership is important. I think I am in good hands.” 

She held her sigh back, trying not to show her relief. Overthinking was deadly in extreme situations, and this certainly qualified. She needed to keep herself disciplined, and remember her goals. 

The strange procession continued through the town, until they eventually reached a large, multi-story building. More ponies were waiting outside, and as the group got closer, the purple pony that led them started to call out to them. 

It wasn’t long before Emily and Kato found themselves in what appeared to be a hospital room, with six rather short beds, and surrounded by what they assumed to be doctors and nurses, or at least whatever equivalent they had. They chattered hurriedly among themselves as they tried to get good looks at the unconscious humans. 

Emily supposed that she couldn’t blame them, she’d been eager to see autopsies and examinations of aliens too. That didn’t mean that she was alright with the room being crowded while she had so little idea of what was going on. 

“Kato, we’ve got to clear this out. You can’t get anything done with these things hanging over your shoulder, right?”

He nodded, and Emily brought her alloy cannon to her shoulder. However, she made sure that its safety was on, and that she wasn’t aiming the weapon directly at anything. A general violation of the rules, perhaps, but one she felt necessary. As it turned out, brandishing a weapon was a fairly effective means of getting attention in spite of the fact they didn’t know just what kind of damage it could do. If they did, Emily imagined that they would already be gone. 

As eyes went to her, and ponies started to shuffle backwards, she waved towards the door and walked forward. It took a few moments for the ponies to get the idea, but they started to funnel out. The last two to hesitate in the doorway were the purple pony, with both a horn and wings, and the green unicorn with the harp mark. They looked like they didn’t want to leave, and were still worried about the humans. 

Emily paused, wondering if getting rid of them was wise. Getting rid of the others was simply to give themselves breathing room, but two little ponies wouldn’t inhibit their examinations of their companions. 

She glanced back at Kato, who was already resuming his work on the rest of the team. 

“Do you care if these two stick around? I’m thinking that just shutting them out might make them a little suspicious.” 

He glanced back over his shoulder, looking at the two ponies for a moment before shrugging. 

“As long as you keep them company. Maybe you can find a way to talk. That would help our situation.” 

Emily holstered her gun and turned back to the ponies uncertainly before ushering them back into the room. 





Twilight’s eyes widened as the human motioned for her and Lyra to come back into the room. She was hesitant to go, considering that it had just seemed to threaten use of its weapon to clear the room, but Lyra didn’t share her concerns. She was quick to trot back into the room, not giving a second of thought to the danger she could be putting herself in. 

With another twinge of annoyance, Twilight followed. She hadn’t imagined Lyra as such an impulsive pony, but she supposed she couldn’t fully fault her enthusiasm. Even after they had taken control of her body, she was willing to go to their side and try to learn more about them. 

Twilight’s eyes flicked to the window, and she caught a glimpse in the distance of two dots, one white and one dark. She breathed a sigh of relief that Celestia and Luna would be present soon. She needed a little more expertise than she could offer. It was all she could do to keep things together. Celestia had to know some better way that they could deal with humans, or have some kind of spell that could help. The flight from Canterlot took only minutes, but a lot of things could happen in a few minutes. 

Lyra walked up to the woman, sitting on her haunches and looking up at the distant face. What did she know about humans? Not nearly as much as she wished. Dreams had given her inspirations for certain ideas, and dusty old books fed her some other facts, but in the end none of that helped her now what she was faced with humans. 

A small voice in the back of her head suggested that considering that minor detail would have been a good idea before signing Discord’s contract, but she was quick to silence that voice. It sounded too much like Bonbon. Her lack of knowledge was exactly why she’d done it, though; so that she could learn more about them. It just so happened that this was easier said than done. 

She could see that humans were smart, that they cared a lot about each other, and that most importantly of all; they were willing to cooperate, at least to some degree. She still couldn’t forget the feeling of having a human in her head. The way it had dominated her thought was unnerving, yes, but she could’ve sworn she could feel its mind at the edges of her own. Maybe if it were to happen again, she could glean some information from it. She wished she could talk to them directly. It would make things so much easier.

Maybe she could get them to take control of her again. If she could get another look into their minds, she knew she would have a much better idea of how to communicate. 

There was a soft knock at the door, and all heads turned to face it. The door didn’t open, and after several seconds another gentle knock could be heard. Twilight looked back at the humans, not sure what they would want to do. The woman was looking back at the man, speaking in hushed tones. She could see both slowly reaching towards their weapons again. 

Twilight tried to signal for them to keep their weapons stowed, then spoke as she continued to gesture. 

“Don’t do that anymore, please! We don’t need you threatening anyone else! I’ll see who it is.”

She took a few steps towards the door, before quickly glancing out the window. She could still see Luna and Celestia approaching, so whoever it was, it wasn’t them. 

She reached out with her magic, taking hold of the door handle and opening it just a crack, peeking though. 

The familiar faces of her five friends stared at her intently, their concern easy to see. Rainbow Dash was the closest to the door, and quickly stepped closer to the door, saying, “How is it going in there? Are you alright? Need anypony to take them down?” 

Twilight hesitated, glancing back at the humans as her ears folded close to her head. Rainbow’s voice was aggressive, and she hoped that they didn’t pick up on it. The last thing she needed was for anything to make them feel threatened. She could tell that they were staring at her horn, but she figured that it might be a good idea to show them how commonly they used magic, so that they weren’t surprised if they saw other ponies using it. 

She responded with a forced smile, speaking through clenched teeth. “Everything’s fine! We’ve had a few close calls, but no disasters yet. How about I come out there and talk with you?” 

She pulled the door just open enough for her to move through, turning to face the humans and saying, “Sorry, I’ll be right back.” Then she backed out of the room, keeping eye contact the whole way. 

Once she was out, she carefully shut the door, and rounded on her friends. 

“Please tell me Celestia send some kind of response before she left! I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

They looked at each other briefly before Rarity produced a plain looking scroll, saying, “Well, we told her of the situation, but I’m afraid this is all we got back, darling.” 

Twilight hurriedly snatched it out of the air and unfurled it, reading the distinctively flowing and smooth lettering out loud. “Dear friends, please take the utmost precaution and remain safe, I and my sister are coming.” 

Twilight stared blankly at the scroll before turning it over and squinting for anything she might’ve missed. “What? That’s it? That’s all she said?” It didn’t make sense, she’d never received a letter like this from the Princess before. It wasn’t even formatted like a letter, instead just consisting of a single line. 

Her head started to spin, and her chest started to heave. The others watched her growing distress with worried expressions. It took a few moments, but Applejack stepped forward and placed a hoof over Twilight’s shoulder. 

“Come on, Twi! It’s not that bad, we can help if you want. Just tell us what you need to do!” 

Twilight looked back at Applejack as a few beads of sweat started to form on her forehead, then started to slow her breathing down. She tried to remember some of the breathing techniques she’d read about from various stress-management books she’d read. In through the mouth, out the nose. In through the mouth, out the nose. 

Her heart slowed down, and her thoughts followed suit. Her hooves still shook, but she was able to get her head a little more around the situation than before. 

Having more individuals in the room would likely make the humans more nervous, so it probably wasn’t a good idea. They would also have to get familiar with whoever came in, and Twilight wasn’t sure that now was the best time to do that. 

Twilight blinked, realizing that she’d been zoned out for a few seconds. She shook her head and said, “I’m sorry, I know you want to help, but I don’t think that would be a good idea right now. I just need to get things stable first; make sure they don’t try to hurt anyone, alright? As soon as I think they’re good, I’ll call you girls. I promise.” 

They didn’t seem particularly pleased with this answer, but slowly, one by one, they nodded. 

“If you say so.” 

“Be careful!” 

“Holler if you need us.” 

“Maybe they can read?” 

“I bet they’d like a party!” 

With their blessings, Twilight turned back to the door and opened it slowly, this time opting to push the door with a hoof so she didn’t potentially scare them. As she slowly made her way back inside, she could hear Lyra’s voice. 

“-and she never believed me either, but now she has to! I mean, you aren’t really what I expected, but that just means that there’s more to learn!” 

Lyra was seated a few inches away from the man’s leg, looking up at him as he worked with one of the unconscious humans, having produced another tool from somewhere. This one had a similar shape to the others, but lacked any kind of glowing lights. Most of the base was red, and it had a small white cylinder on the top. Lyra guessed it was some kind of medical device. 

To her delight, the human looked down at her for a second before starting to speak as its eyes went back to its work. She couldn’t tell what it was saying, but there was undeniably a message in there somewhere. His voice sounded happy, maybe even amused, which made her want to talk more. 

She opened her mouth, but before she could start speaking, she heard the door latch shut quietly. Turning her head, she found that Twilight had come back in, and was alone. She stood up and rushed to Twilight’s side, asking, “Who was it? What’s going on?”

Twilight sighed. 

“It was nothing. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are on their way, they should be here in a few minutes. We just need to make sure that they stay calm until then, alright? It looked like you were doing a pretty good job of that already.” 

Lyra gave a large smile and nodded, Twilight could see she was barely containing herself. 

“They’re so weird, aren’t they? I mean, weird in a good way, of course! But they’re just so different, with two legs and hands and all. You’ve got to wonder what it’s like, right?”

“Yeah, hard to imagine…” 

Twilight’s voice trailed off, and both ponies fell into silence as they watched the human. Twilight realized that the woman wasn’t helping, and cast around the room, gasping when she found her seated on a chair, her head slumped over and chest slowly rising and falling. 

“Yeah, she seems to be a pretty light sleeper. I don’t actually know if she’s asleep at all, so you might want to keep an eye on her.” 

Twilight tried to keep the confusion off her face. Lyra certainly seemed comfortable around these humans. Much more comfortable than Twilight had been around humans the first time, and even more with these ones specifically. She did seem to have a knack for working with them, and she was obviously excited to do it, but there was still something strange about it. 

A sharp, high pitched sound started to come from the man, and both ponies jumped in surprise. Twilight felt her head turn incrementally towards the door as she examined the option of escape, before she realized she recognized the sound. It was only whistling. She started to berate herself for being so jumpy, then stopped, reversing mental directions. She was right to be so jumpy, and it was good that she was prepared for anything. 

Lyra was, predictably, much less ready. She stared at the man as a slow tune started to emerge, and Twilight thought she could see a mesmerized glint in her eyes. She looked between the two of them briefly, confirming that the man was paying virtually no attention to them, and that he wasn’t trying some abstract method of communicating. 

“Lyra, you know he’s just whistling, right?” 

Lyra didn’t look over. Her head didn’t turn in the slightest as she said, “Yeah, but I think I…” 

Her voice trailed off as the woman joined in the whistling, looking up and drowsily smiling at the man like he’d told a joke.  

Lyra’s head turned from one human to the other, and Twilight got the impression that it was going to pop off her shoulders if she kept it up. Twilight started to reach out to her, intending to ask Lyra what was the matter, but Lyra pursed her lips and started to whistle with them. It took half a second for her to synchronize with them, but as she did, the tune became much more recognizable. She couldn’t place it exactly, but she was sure that she’d heard it before. 

It took her a moment to process what that meant. How could humans be familiar with pony music?

Both of the humans seemed to have similar thoughts on the matter, because they looked at Lyra with expressions of confusion and suspicion. Their whistling came to a slow stop, leaving only the unicorn to continue on for a few more beats before realizing she was alone. She tapered off, looking to the ground and saying under her breath, “It was about to get to the duet…”

The humans started to talk with each other again, and Twilight took the opportunity to ask what she was wondering the most.  

“Lyra, what was that? II was Equestrian music, right?” 

Lyra turned back to her and nodded, saying, “Yeah, an old ballad song. They actually started, like, halfway through, which is kind of weird, but-“

Twilight cut her off, trying not to get distracted by her banter. 

“But it was the same, right? As in ‘beyond the realm of coincidence’ same?”

Lyra shifted her weight from side to side as she spoke. “I guess so. I know music is my job and all, but I don’t really know a lot about the history. It’s kind of boring.” 

Twilight turned away, looking out the window again and thinking as hard as she could. What reason could there be that they shared something like that? It hadn’t been playing in Ponyville, and if they had just arrived in Equestria, there was no other way they might’ve heard it. 

Celestia and Luna were so close now, she could almost see their cutie marks as they streaking through the dark sky, headed to the town center. It wouldn’t take long after that for somepony to tell them where Twilight had taken the humans. Then she would have some legitimate help in the matter. Not that Lyra wasn’t helpful, she was just…

She shook her head, refocusing. There had to be a solution to this. There had to be a way to communicate, it just wasn’t obvious. It needed a little research. And to do that research, Twilight needed some of the immediate pressure off. 

The humans continued to speak behind her, and she knew that Lyra would be watching intently. Twilight let her attention return to the sky, and she searched for a moment before realizing that Celestia and Luna were gone. A deep breath exited her chest, and she felt her confidence increase slightly. 

Another soft knock at the door made all heads turn again, and Twilight kept herself as restrained as possible as she trotted towards the door. She could feel the eyes of the humans and Lyra on her, but she didn’t let it slow her. 

As the wooden door swung open, a soft glow started to pour into the room, giving a warm, comforting feeling. Twilight opened her mouth to greet the Princesses, but took a step back as they moved into the room. 

Their faces were stoic and unreadable, and they gazed around at the room, taking note of Lyra and giving Twilight a brief nod before turning their attention to the two conscious humans. 

With more reticence than Twilight could remember ever seeing from her mentor, Celestia stepped forwards and used a wing to move Twilight and Lyra behind her while Luna walked past, her eyes fixed on the somewhat alien creatures. 

Twilight could already see through Celestia’s feathers that the humans’ hands were sliding slowly towards the weapons at their sides.
	
> Miscommunications
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Emily wasn’t sure which part of the situation to be more confused by. There was a lot to choose from: the star-filled mane that waved in some undetectable wind, the long horn that protruded from the thing’s skull, its large eyes that glared back with a critical edge, or the fact that it had some sort of ornately crafted design on a crescent moon hanging around its neck. 

She decided to focus on its eyes, wrapping her fingers around the grip of her laser pistol and starting to slide it from its holster. Her titan armor made subtly difficult, but the horses didn’t seem to notice anyways. 

The thing stood at about three fourths of her height, so it had to look up at her. She got the feeling that it wasn’t used to doing that. The two started at each other for a few heavy moments, waiting for the other to do something, anything. 

Emily turned her head back, keeping her eyes locked with the horse as she spoke. 

“Kato, do you have any idea what’s going on? Think you could mind control this one?” 

It was a few seconds more before Kato responded, and when he did, he didn’t sound entirely comfortable. 

“Probably not. These new ones are strong. They’re leaders, maybe? They’re strong enough to be. Maybe it’s trying to establish dominance?”

Emily shrugged, muttering under her breath, “Pretty passive way to do it…” 

The horse turned slightly to talk to the larger white one that had come behind it. Their words were still total gibberish, but the emotions that played across their faces were easy enough to read. Both were tense, nervous, but the white one was more concerned than the one with the moon. Neither of them were too sure about anything, obviously, and both were fairly tense. She got the impression they were trying to appear impressive in some way, almost regal.  

How a horse managed to pull off a regal look, she wasn’t entirely sure, but it somehow managed. Like it fully expected her cooperation, it put a hoof out to her, extended the same way one would offer a handshake. Emily hesitated for a moment, then tentatively reached out and took the hoof in her hand, shaking gently. Her grip on her laser pistol tightened. 

She felt the pony horse return the gesture, and let her grip fade. The horse said a few more words, this time directly at her, but it still sounded like a garbled mockery of any real language. 

She didn’t know whether or not to speak, so she shrugged and said, “Sorry, didn’t get that one either.” 

It opened its mouth, and was about to say something else when movement behind her made Amber turn around. Sam had snapped out of his half-conscious stupor, and was reaching for his plasma rifle. It hadn’t been placed back in its holster, luckily enough, but he still had his sidearm. Kato was already working to calm him down, shouting his name and holding him down. 

“Sam, no! Stop! Its fine, we’re not in danger! These aren’t aliens! Calm down!” 

His efforts didn’t seem to be yielding much, Sam was fighting tooth and nail to get free. He didn’t know how delicate the situation potentially was, and Emily needed him to calm down now. It only took a brief moment for her to think of what would snap her out of a panic like that. 

“Soldier, at ease!” 

Shouting didn’t feel right to her, but given the situation, she knew she could get past that. Sam froze mid-struggle, his eyes unfocused as they searched for the source of the order. Kato was quick to snatch the gun out of his hands and step away, diffusing the situation further. 

Emily glanced back at the horses out of the corners of her eyes before turning back to Sam, positioning herself between him and the creatures so he couldn’t see them. 

“Freeman, you’re injured, and things are a little hectic right now. I’m going to need you to lay there and not do anything, alright?” 

Using his last name made her feel like she had more authority over him. She supposed she was lucky to remember it at all, but that wasn’t one of her concerns at the moment. 

He stared back at her blankly for a few moments before blinking, flinching, and putting a hand to his head. Emily could relate to the feeling, her head was pounding too. They were both likely concussed, but treating it would have to wait. He sat back in the bed, leaning against the wall behind it so he could see what was going on. 

Emily turned back to the creatures, not sure of how she would be received now. Hopefully the struggle hadn’t given a negative impression. 

The darker of the two larger horses had taken a few steps back, giving some space to the fighting humans. its eyes had tracked the laser pistol as it changed hands, and it now glared warily at Kato. Emily managed to get its attention again, stepping closer and waving a hand dismissively. 

“Okay, that’s better. Now, what the hell…” 

It had turned back to the others of its kind, having what looked like a rather heated exchange. Emily read what she could from their faces, but mostly had no clue what was going on. Frequent questions to the green unicorn made her think they were asking about the mind-control incident. If there was no other option, Emily supposed that it would be an acceptable way to solve the issue. It wasn’t elegant or pleasant for either party, but it was functional. 

She glanced back again, and asked, “Hey, Kato, think you could translate for us again? Looks like that’s going to be our only real option here.” 

He nodded, and she turned to face the horses again. 





Lyra felt Twilight take another small step back as the Princesses argued. 

“It’s a risk we can’t take!”

“It is our only option! We cannot simply stand here and stare at each other like fools! She has agreed to let them speak through her again!” 

It was true, she had said that. She was starting to regret in now, though. Seeing the wedge this drew between the two sisters was startling. 

Princess Celestia looked back over to Lyra, a cautious look in her eyes, and Lyra nodded. 

“I’m fine with it, really! I’m willing to take the risk.” 

Celestia’s gaze moved from Lyra to Princess Luna, then to Twilight, who had, for the most part, refrained from joining the discussion. None looked like they considered the humans to be quite as much of a threat as she did. She sighed, and stepped back. 

“Very well. I’m only concerned about her safety, Luna. Ponies have already been hurt because of their arrival.” 

Her sister’s reply came confident and strong. 

“I will not let any harm come to her.”

With that, Lyra stepped forward, feeling unpleasantly meek now that the room was full of humans and alicorns. Princess Luna walked beside her, making the few steps over to the humans feel much longer than they were. When they stood facing each other again, Lyra couldn’t help but look past the woman at the man behind her on the ben. He stared back at her, eyes wide. She couldn’t quite make out his facial expression, but moments ago he’d pulled a weapon on them. The ponies had agreed that he was probably just confused, but Lyra had to admit, she would feel much better if they had any way to be even remotely sure about that. 

The humans looked at them silently for a few moments before the leader turned to talk with the one who had used its magic on her. She watched carefully, trying to see every little facial movement and expression. It was a lot to take in, and before she could even get a sense of the subtleties, they were done. 

The darker of the two still standing stepped forwards, and all eyes in the room turned to the ball of dark purple magic that formed in the man’s fingers. Lyra glanced up at Princess Luna again, curious to see her reaction, and was surprised to find that she looked utterly dumbfounded. 

The next thing Lyra was aware of was the purple tendrils snaking around her head, and the feeling of something drilling into her brian. 





Princess Luna watched on in a mixture of grim fascination and horror. What was happening could be considered magic, she supposed, by some loose definition of the word, but this was certainly no spell. The human’s eyes were ablaze with an imposing purple glow; the kind that tended to indicate dark magic. She’d considered herself familiar enough with human behavior and abilities, but she never could have expected this. 

The pony, Lyra Heartstrings, as she had been told, made a constricted attempt to speak before going as rigid as a board, eyes locking with the human’s. Over the course of a second, Luna watched Lyra’s will buckle and fade under the sheer weight of the human’s consciousness.  
When she turned back to the Princess, her eyes were glowing with the same shade of as the human’s 

When she opened her mouth her speech was stilted awkwardly and delivered in a flat, dead tone. 

“We don’t want battle. The others do. They ran. Did you find?” 

Luna stared back for several moments before replying, “Can you… understand us?”

Lyra nodded, and Luna noted that the human echoed the motion slightly. She didn’t know how much they could understand, but she did her best to answer their question. 

“No, we need to learn more about the situation before we do anything drastic like pursuing them. We don’t want battle either, I assure you. If there is a peaceful way to settle this, we will find it.”

The humans exchanged a few short, barking words before Lyra spoke again. 

“Where are we? Why are we here?”

This was not a question either sister had anticipated. They’d both expected the humans to know something about their arrival. The letter they had received was foggy at best on how they ended up in Ponyville, the best detail they had was that some kind of craft crashed, and that humans weren’t the only creatures that had come from the thing. Luna looked forward to hearing more about them, but now was not the time. 

In spite of her normally clear and regal poise, she hesitated.  Her eyes shifted from the human to Lyra as she thought of how to answer, then back once she had at something to say.

“We don’t know. It is a mystery to us as well, unfortunately.”

Lyra flinched, and the human behind her flinched as well. 

“Who are you? Leaders?” 

This question was much easier to answer, and Luna was glad for that. 

“We are. I am Princess Luna, and this is my sister, Princess Celestia.” She indicated Celestia by nodding in her direction, keeping her eyes on the humans. “And I believe you have already met Princess Twilight Sparkle.” She motioned to Twilight just as she had Celestia, then said, 

“Now, I believe it would be fit for you to introduce yourselves as well.” 

Lyra flinched again, this time more severely, and the human did the same. Keeping control over the pony seemed to be putting a fair amount of stress on him. Luna couldn’t help but wonder what the full extent of their magic power was. Any unicorn would be envious of the raw power being used now.

Lyra turned, pointing a hoof blankly at the woman who had tried to communicate before, saying, “Emily, in command.” She turned to point at the man controlling her. “Kato, field s-“ 

Lyra gave a sudden jerk, and stumbled off to the side. Luna was quick to extend a wing and bring her close, readying herself to cast a spell if necessary. 

The tendrils of power between the pony and the human broke apart, disintegrating as the human abruptly cut off its connection. The halo that had swirled around Lyra’s head disappeared, and she swayed unsteadily under Luna’s wing for a few moments before coming to and shaking her head. 

“Augh, that’s so weird!” 

Luna cocked her head and looked down at her, looking her over carefully for any signs of damage or having been somehow altered by the experience. There were no obvious signs of malicious magic, if possessing a pony could be considered benign, and she seemed to be behaving the same way she was before. 

As Luna stared at her, Lyra started to become increasingly uncomfortable, beginning to edge her way out from under the Princess’s wing. 

“So, that was useful, right? I mean, I guess we didn’t really learn much, but still, introductions count.” 

Luna glanced back to her sister, interested to see what she would have to say. 

Celestia replied, “Yes, I think that was very useful. We know that they are confused, and need help. Luna, did he cut the spell off intentionally, or was it an accident?” 

Before she could respond, Lyra spouted excitedly, “No, he just can’t keep something like that up for very long…” 

Her voice trailed off and her color seemed to fade as she realized that she’d interrupted royalty. Neither of the Princesses were upset or annoyed, like she had thought they might. Instead, they seemed to take interest in what she’d said. 

“How do you know that? Did he communicate something to you specifically somehow?” 

She shook her head, happy to tell them what little she felt she’d managed to glean from the mind-to-mind encounters. 

“It’s not really like I can get any good sense of what’s going on in his head, it’s more like just getting impressions. And not clear ones, either. I 

mean, it’s like he’s pushing my thoughts out of my head, so some of his leak through, I guess.” 

The two elder Princesses looked at each other, then started to talk as though they didn’t have an audience. 

“Do you think one of us could take more information away from this than her?”

“Maybe, but what if she was chosen for a reason? There could be some other factor that makes her more appropriate.” 

Again, both turned to Lyra, but it was Twilight who spoke up now. 

“She isn’t an alicorn.” 

Celestia and Luna looked back at her, surprised, before realizing that she was right. 

“Back in that craft thing, it was just me and Lyra. It would make sense that if they don’t want to scare us, they wouldn’t start possessing ponies out in front of a crowd, right? So maybe they chose Lyra to possess instead of me because she isn’t an alicorn, and something about that makes it easier.”

Luna turned to Celestia again, and said, “I must wonder how large the difference is, then. We can’t know how a human’s magical abilities compare to our own with only this to base it on.” She looked over to Lyra. “Do you think they could use other powers? Were you able to discern that much?” 

Lyra could only shrug. 

“I don’t know. He has a lot of power, but I don’t think he has much control over it. Do you think he has other abilities?” 

She looked over to Twilight questioningly, who gave the other humans a wary eye. 

“I don’t know. Right now, it seems like a better question to ask if they can all do it, or if it’s just him. We’ve only seen him do it, and the others haven’t shown any sign of being able to either.” 

There was silence as the question was considered. If they could, why hide it? Luna considered their position. If she were one of them, she would hide her strength too. 

If there was a way to get the same experience Lyra had, maybe she could divine more from it. She was, after all, experienced with dreams and the workings of the mind in ways that none could compare to, not even her sister. The problem would be getting the humans to understand what she wanted.

“Perhaps I would be able to interpret better.” Lyra, Celestia, and Twilight all looked at her as she spoke. “It could be similar to dreaming. If it is, I should be able to communicate with him without much trouble.”

Celestia was the first to speak up, but Luna already knew what she was going to say. 

“Celestia-“ she interrupted “-I know it’s risky, but I have absolute faith that you and Princess Twilight will do whatever is necessary to keep our people safe.” 

She didn’t mean to do it, but her allusion to her transformation into Nightmare Moon obviously struck a nerve in Celestia. A pained expression quickly flashed across her sister’s face, but was quickly concealed. 

She turned back to the humans, finding that all three were watching them intently, their attention almost totally undivided. The man who had used magic was looking slightly more fatigued than before, but human expressions were hard for Equestrians to read, even for her. 

She’d never thought she would be this close to a human again. Not since the last time. 

She cleared her head of the rather sordid memories, making a mental note to discuss them with Celestia later. She was sure she had made the connection as well. If she was going to really communicate with them, she needed a clear head, to focus on the moment, not dwell on the past. 

They stared at her, and she stared back before stepping forward and bowing her head slightly. Then she turned and pointed a hoof at Lyra, before placing it on herself, hoping to indicate that they should do the same to her as they had to Lyra. They started to talk among 
themselves, quick and sharp words flowing faster than she could ever hope to follow. 





“The hell is it doing now?” 

Sam’s question surmised the thoughts of his squad mates quite nicely, and Emily responded with a shrug. 

“No clue. It’s looking at Kato, so maybe something to do with the mind control? Why would it do that, though? It’s one of their leaders, right?” 

She looked over to Kato, who nodded. 

“That’s what it said. I don’t think I could though, it has much more resistance than the other one.”

Emily ran her fingers through her hair, letting out a deep breath. She was in charge, she didn’t need to be reminded. If they stood here and did nothing, they couldn’t get any farther. They’d probably never get home, the aliens would probably start harvesting the ponies for whatever it was they did with them, and…

“Do it.” 

She thought she felt her heart skip a beat when she said it, and she watched Kato carefully for any sign of disapproval. She wasn’t the best at reading body language, but her familiarity with Kato made him easier to understand. He didn’t seem opposed to the idea, simply turning to the Princess, whose name he hadn’t been able to catch, and focusing his mind. 

He muttered a few incomprehensible words to himself as his eyes started to glow and the area around him seemed to darken. Emily noticed Sam averting his eyes and fidgeting uncomfortably on the bed. It took a second to put the two together, but once she did, she wasn’t surprised. Not everyone was as at peace with psychics as she was. She was sure it wouldn’t influence his cooperation at all, not when they were stranded in a bizarre world filled with psychic ponies. 

Kato put a hand out towards the Princess, and dark tendrils extended out towards its head. It stared at Kato whole this happened, as if it were ensuring he did what he was supposed to, until the psychic power started to circle her head. 
The princess’s body tensed, and her eyes slammed shut. Emily heard a low grunt escape her body as she seemed to fight Kato’s control. 

Muscles spasmed at random, and her body hunched closer to the floor in a way that looked unpleasantly awkward for something that walked on four legs. Her mouth hung open in a mute scream, and Emily could see the ponies behind her starting to get concerned. The purple one made to move closer, but the white one stopped her with a wing, shaking her head with a sympathetic expression. They wanted to see what would happen, Emily guessed. She couldn’t deny that she was in the same boat. 

She could tell that Kato wouldn’t be able to wrest control of the Princess. He was taking too long. She was made of sterner stuff than the unicorn, just as Kato had said. Kato must have realized this as well, because a second later he had let the power die, lowering his hand and shaking his head. 

The Princess, however, stayed hunched, shaking like a leaf in the wind. Emily could see that whatever had just happened hadn’t hit her the way she’d expected. 

The other ponies started to move closer, but before they could, the Princess’s horn glowed with a dark blue light, and bright flash of light blinded Emily before what felt like a rush of water threw her into the wall. She could hear panicked garbles from the ponies, and was just able to make out Kato’s voice from somewhere to her left. 

“What’s going on?” 

She blinked quickly, moving her body as best she could against the current. Her powered armor made it easier, but she could feel her muscles straining as much as was possible. As her vision started to return, she could see the bleary outline of the Princess, who was slowly approaching with gritting teeth and a bright glow still wrapped around its horn. 

There wasn’t time to respond to Kato, her mind was too busy running through her options. Without noticing it, her arm went over her shoulder and snagged the grip of her alloy cannon, dragging back around where her other arm could find a comfortable grip. 

Perhaps trying to mind control one of the leaders was a mistake. She certainly hadn’t indicated that while Kato had been getting ready, though. She didn’t know what else the signals it gave could possibly have meant. Regardless, now it seemed like it was trying to kill them, and she had to defend her squad. She could feel the bone in her leg crack again, but the adrenaline pounding in her brain made it easy to ignore. She leaned into the current, putting every effort into advancing forward. What would have been an all-out sprint moved her at the speed of a light jog. The room wasn’t large though, and her gun was more than accurate enough to do the trick. 

She wasn’t the only one moving, she noticed as her eyes continued to recover. The other ponies were running towards the Princess, with looks of great concern. They yelled loudly, but the Princess didn’t seem to react. 

Emily’s heels pressed down on the floor as she rooted herself in place, practically within arm’s reach of the pony. There wasn’t a chance in hell she could miss at this distance, even half blind and being pushed.  An unarmored target against superheated plasma. Chances of successful diplomacy seemed to be plummeting by the second. 

Emily could feel every eye focus on her, including her target’s. The princess’s body seemed to tense again, and she froze like she was caught in the headlights of a truck. Emily’s eyes locked with hers, and she became aware of a glowing aura around her body that mirrored the glow around the pony’s horn. 

Her finger twitched on the trigger, and she felt the mechanisms in the gun start to vibrate as it made ready to spit a very unpleasant death. 
The princess remained frozen, and Emily felt the pushing against her body stop as the glow around the pony’s horn faded. No one moved. No one spoke. No one so much as breathed as they watched Emily hold the Princess at gunpoint. 

Her mind raced through what was happening before finally reaching a conclusion as to what the best thing to do would be.





Luna’s gaze was transfixed on the harsh green glow that dwelt ominously at the back of the long tube. She didn’t know what it was, but it could hurt her. Very badly. 

When the weapon was lifted away, she felt like collapsing. Why had she done that? If she hadn’t been able to bring herself out of her panic, she didn’t want to think about what could have happened. She would not have taken it well, Celestia would not have taken it well, and Twilight would not have taken it well. Equestria would not have taken it well. 

She shook her head. She knew what Celestia would say. It wasn’t her fault. Maybe that was true. All she knew was that she never wanted to feel anything like that again. The sensation of something else’s thoughts, working their way into her brain and trying to control her, it was all too familiar. She’d been through it all before, and she had sworn never to let it happen again. She was arrogant to think that a humans mind would be manageable. 

The human hadn’t lost himself, though. He emerged fine. It was Lune, one of the strongest ponies in Equestria, who found herself shaken to the very core. He had left images in his wake, memories of what she could only assume were the “others” he had tried to warn them about. Cities, sprawls bigger than anything Equestria had ever seen, burning as streets crawled with creatures large and small, striking down innocents without discretion.  The human didn’t send any words with this, but she understood. This was what they brought, and what the humans fought against. 

She felt Celestia’s wing over her back, and heard her voice, but it sounded too far away to understand. Her mind was still too scrambled to understand. She kept sorting through the chaos.

Adding to the information she had to process, the woman had been able to fight her telekinesis more than any living thing had before. The other two hadn’t been able to resist; why was she able to? 

Celestia nuzzled her neck, and she jumped, her attention coming back to the room around her. 

“What? Oh, I’m… fine.” 

She averted her gaze, then turned it immediately back when she found herself slipping away again. The concern on her sister’s face was clear, and neither one of them needed to say anything to know that diplomacy was done for the day.