Twilight is given the task of befriending an alien construct.
What would you do if you met an alien construct?
Twilight Sparkle, the prestigious student of Princess Celestia, befriends an advanced machine meant to carry on the spark of humanity. Little do either of them know, their friendship would throw them into an adventure outside of Equestria's borders and across time itself.
Celestia sat down in her throne, letting out a sigh of relief as she settled into the comfortable cushions. It had been a long day, and it was almost time to lower the sun. Looking to a thick tome on the ground beside her, she picked it up in her magic and opened it, reading the contents aloud.
"Both mares looked each other in the eyes. They could see the very essence of their souls. And as the rain pelted their bodies, they leaned toward each other, lips puckered, and--"
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Celestia quickly hid the book behind her throne and put on her best smile. "Come in, my little pony."
The large double doors opened and Luna stepped into the room with a serious look on her face. "Tia, we have a problem."
"What is wrong, sister?" Celestia asked calmly, secretly wishing to go back to her book more than anything. She had just gotten to the best part.
"It has awoken once again," Luna stated in a dreadful voice.
"Has it said anything this time?" Celestia asked.
"No. It just sits there," said Luna.
Celestia brought a hoof to her chin as her eyes looked down. She thought long and hard before speaking once more. "Perhaps it is time we let my students handle this."
------------------------------------------ The Next Morning ------------------------------------------
Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all walked down the massive hallway in Canterlot Castle. As soon as Twilight had received the letter, she had gathered up her friends and they had all came as soon as possible.
"Remember," Twilight warned, "Celestia said this would test our wits and our bonds. We have to be prepared for anything."
"I think we'll do fine, sugarcube," said Applejack. "We've faced plenty of baddies before, and we've always come out on top."
"She's right, darling," said Rarity. "I'm quite sure we'll overcome this like everything else."
"Maaaybe it's a test on baking!" said Pinkie hopefully as she bounced alongside her friends. "Or maybe it's a giant cake monster!" She then gasped. "What if we're baking a giant cake monster?!
"I doubt we're going to bake a giant cake monster, Pinkie," said Rainbow Dash as she flew overhead. "If anything, it's probably something like a dragon!"
"Oh my..." Fluttershy muttered, being the last one behind the group. "Does it really have to be a dragon? What about a really grumpy bunny instead?"
Twilight shook her head with a smile. "Well, whatever it is, we'll be ready."
As they approached the large double doors that led to the throne room, Twilight enveloped the handle with her magic and opened it slowly before stepping through. Inside the room were Celestia and Luna, sitting next to the most peculiar sight: a shiny, silver-colored metal sphere.
"Princess Celestia? You wanted to see us?" Twilight asked as she sheepishly approached. Celestia gave her the most gut-wrenching look Twilight had ever seen in her life. It looked as if Celestia was about to go to war.
"Twilight Sparkle," she began, "do you believe that as the Princess of Friendship, you can befriend anypony?"
"Is this a friendship quest?" Twilight asked. "If it is, then I will do everything in my power to finish the mission!"
Celestia looked to Luna and then motioned her head to the sphere.
Luna approached the metallic ball and placed a hoof upon it. "This is what you will be making friends with."
A few seconds of silence passed before Twilight tilted her head and asked "The... ball?"
"Indeed," Luna replied. "It it no ordinary sphere. Over a thousand years ago, a few years before I was banished to the moon, this object came crashing down to Equestria in what is now known as Ponyville."
"You mean... it came from space?" Twilight's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "It's extra-equestrial!"
"Ya mean... that thing there's an alien?" Applejack asked, taking a step back.
"Awesome!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, flying over to the orb. "So... is it alive? It doesn't look like it's moving."
Luna rubbed the smooth surface. "It's in a hibernative state. It will only open for one word."
Twilight stepped forward and looked at her reflection in the sphere. "What word is that?"
Luna hesitated before stepping back. "Hope."
The sphere suddenly released a hiss of steam and began a series of beeps. From seemingly nowhere, a black screen opened up from a pinprick, and upon the screen, blue gibberish appeared. It started to speak a series of different dialects. It sounded rather feminine. "Hablas Espanol? An bhfuil Gaeilge agat? Sprichst du Deutsch?"
Twilight tilted her head as it continued to speak in its strange languages. "What's it doing?"
"Let it finish," Celestia recommended.
The machine continued to speak. "A ty govorish' po russki? Est-ce que tu parles francais? Do you speak English?"
The machine stayed silent after hearing Twilight speak. After a few seconds of silence, it speaks again. "English confirmed."
"English? No, Ponish!" Twilight corrected.
The machine went silent again and beeped. "Ponish?"
"Yes, Ponish!" Twilight comfirmed.
"Twilight? Maybe we shouldn't be talkin' to it? It could be dangerous," warned Applejack as she took another step back, clearly scared out of her wits.
"Accent detected. Is this region America?" the machine asked, showing a blue map upon its screen of an unfamiliar landmass.
Twilight shook her head. "I'm sorry. This is Equestria. I don't know where America even is, or what planet you're from."
"What planet is this?" it asked, clearly sounding a little worried. Celestia closed her eyes and braced herself, her horn emitting its aura.
"Um... Equus," Twilight answered softly.
The sphere suddenly shot out a beam of blue light across Twilight's body, and upon its screen, two blue eye graphics appeared. "Not human... Step away or be eliminated."
"E-Excuse me?" Twilight asked, wings raising in alarm. Celestia suddenly enveloped Twilight in a shield of yellow before the machine fired off a bolt of lightning, the flash nearly blinding everypony in the room.
Rainbow Dash zoomed at the machine, her hind legs outstretched in a karate style kick. As she made contact, she was immediately overcome by a shaking sensation. She was being shocked, and she didn't even know it. Luna pulled Dash away from the machine, ceasing the assault.
"W-Wait! Why are you doing this?!" Twilight shouted from behind the shield. The machine did not answer. Instead, it fired more bolts of lightning in random directions.
"I knew this would happen," Celestia said as she enveloped the machine in a magical bubble, keeping it from doing more damage. "This happened a thousand years ago as well, the moment it asked what planet it was on."
"Did... did I fail?" Twilight asked dreadfully.
"No, Twilight. You didn't fail," Celestia said as she lifted the machine. "However, I see now that this creature isn't capable of learning friendship."
"Wait... What are you doing with it?" Twilight asked, looking worried.
"I'm going to send it back to where it came from: into space," answered Celestia as she started to leave the room.
Twilight, her eyes darting back and forth as thoughts raced through her mind, grabbed the machine in her own magic bubble, canceling out Celestia's.
"Twilight!" Celestia snapped, looking at her student with a disapproving look. "What do you think you're doing?"
Twilight's ears drooped as she reared back. "I... I don't know! I was just... I'm sorry!"
Celestia looked to the Luna, who had a concerned look. She then turned back to Twilight and sighed. "Twilight, this is something that is not from our world. We don't know what it could be capable of. I only kept it for so long because a certain bearded pony thought it would be beneficial to ponykind. Unfortunately, I have not seen any benefit in over a thousand years."
"But he's right! We could learn from it!" Twilight tried to reason.
"I'm sorry," Celestia said to her pupil, "but it's just too dangerous... I'm shooting it out into space tomorrow morning."
And so, Celestia left the throne room with the mysterious machine, leaving Twilight to think up ways to defy her teacher.
The night was nice and cool, the season being spring. A pony in all black snuck through the Canterlot Castle Gardens with a grappling hook hanging from her back. Behind her, six other ponies, all dressed in black also, followed closely. One of them lifted their face mask, taking in a breath of fresh air.
"Jeez... It's hard to breathe in these things," said a disgruntled Starlight. Twilight, the one with the rope, looked back at her and put a hoof in front of her lips.
"Shh! I didn't bring you along so you could give away our position!" whispered Twilight.
"We shouldn't even be here to begin with," responded Starlight. "I thought you were the perfect student. Why are you defying her now all of a sudden?"
"This is the discovery of a thousand lifetimes!" Twilight said as she hurled the hook up into the window on the second floor of the tower. She then motioned for Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack to climb the rope. "If I can unlock its secrets, Equestria could benefit from it! Think of the knowledge we could gain! And besides, I've always wanted to speak with an extra-equestrial!"
"This is probably the nerdiest I've ever seen you," Starlight whispered.
"What?" asked Twilight, not hearing her.
"Oh, nothing!" Starlight assured. As Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew through the window, Twilight motioned to the rope, looking at Starlight.
"Twilight, we can teleport," stated Starlight with a deadpan stare. She then proceeded to poof into the building. Twilight blinked with disbelief and also poofed her way into the building.
As soon as Twilight regained her composure, she looked at the end of the hall. "Up those stairs are Celestia's room. That's where she's keeping the alien."
"How do you know this?" asked a skeptical Starlight.
"Luna told me. She's not exactly keen on letting this thing go, either," answered Twilight.
"Would y'all stop bickerin'?" suggested Applejack, tired of listening to all the banter. "I thought this was supposed to be a stealth mission."
"She's right," agreed Dash, eager to go. "We gotta get in there so I can have a rematch!"
"Shush! Let's just go!" Twilight rolled her eyes and made her way up the stairs as quietly as she could. Luckily, the stair steps were stone and carpet, not wood, so there was no creaking. As they reached the slightly open door, Twilight peeked into the room. Celestia was indeed asleep, and sitting next to her bed was the magic bubble containing the enigma of a machine.
Twilight held up a hoof to her friends, telling them to stay, then she slowly opened the door slightly further open and slipped through. She crept across the bedroom until she was right in front of the orb. Its eyes flickered onto its screen and looked at Twilight suspiciously.
Twilight put a hoof to her lips, informing the machine to stay quiet as she levitated it in her own lavender bubble. Looking to the Celestia, the robot hatched a plan of its own. At the bottom of the screen, small numbers appeared, counting down.
Twilight, noticing, widened her eyes as she read the words 'Alarm Clock Active' above the numbers. She shook her head, trying to get the sphere to stop. The machine simply nodded its graphics, angry eyes staring at its captor.
3...
2...
1...
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
Twilight immediately dropped the machine and ran for dear life, making the sphere crackle and make static noise, but as soon as she reached the door, it magically closed, sealing her in the room with...
"I am very disappointed in you, Twilight Sparkle," said Celestia as she looked down on her student. She looked bigger when she was angry, and that scared Twilight even more. "You've ignored my warnings, snuck into my castle, and have even dared to steal from me."
"This isn't right!" argued Twilight, stamping her hoof timidly. She was still very much afraid, but she didn't want to just give up on this opportunity. "It can help Equestria! We could learn so much from it! You're throwing away our future!"
"What I'm throwing away," Celestia replied, "is a weapon of mass destruction. You don't know what happened a thousand years ago. We only had a limited number of tries to reason with it. After your attempt, one more try could have made it explode."
"How did you deduce this?" asked Twilight, looking over to the angry machine.
"After every attempt," Celestia explained, "it had displayed a number, each one lower than the last. We assumed the worst, and didn't feel the need to try again. Starswirl's attempt was number four. Our attempt was number three. Yours was number two. The next one would have been the last attempt."
Twilight recalled back to when the machine had attacked her. She had not seen such an indication. "But it didn't happen!"
"What do you mean?" asked Celestia.
"I didn't see a number!" said Twilight. "Somehow, my attempt didn't make any numbers appear on it."
"Perhaps you were disoriented? Such an attack would have confused anypony," Celestia reasoned. Twilight simply stamped her hoof again.
"No! I know what I saw! There wasn't a number!" claimed Twilight. She didn't see any number, and if Celestia were to send it into space because of a mistake, it would be a grave loss.
Meanwhile, as the two alicorns argued, the robot, spitting static and sparking, lit up its screen with a gallery of pictures and videos, the thumbnails taking up the majority of the space.
"Corrupted neural network," blasted forth from the sphere in a female's voice. "Formatting. Format complete. Reinitializing Susan.EXE"
Celestia and Twilight, both surprised by the machine, stared at its screen. Videos on it began to play random events with strange creatures. The first was of a two-legged creature giving a speech to a crowd of similar beings.
"We choose to go to the moon... We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too."
"Wait," Twilight said, eyes glaring. "Isn't that a human from the mirror portal?"
The screen flashed and displayed another scene of events, this time showing what appeared to be a barren white surface with craters, much like Equus' own moon. Another creature could be heard speaking.
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Twilight cautiously walked over to get a better look at the screen. She felt a twinge of excitement. These humans were not like the ones from the mirror world. She noticed they were not quite as colorful as the Equestrian humans.
"Princess, come look at this!" she eagerly said to her teacher. Celestia walked up besides Twilight, looking down at the screen with a judging look. She still had her magic on hold, but would not hold back if anything happened. The screen flickered to yet another scene, showing a human who looked older than the first.
"Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts."
The screen flashed forward to another point in the same scene.
"A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America."
Twilight tried to lean forward to get a better look, but Celestia held a hoof out in front of her, protective instinct taking over. Yet another video played, showing a darker skinned human speaking to a crowd.
"And yet at this moment, a moment that will define a generation, it is precisely this spirit that much inhabit us all. For as much as government can do, and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies."
Twilight looked to Celestia and pointed a hoof at the orb.
"I don't think it means any harm," she assured. "It looks like it's displaying a history."
"You may be right, but be warned, Twilight," said Celestia. "Luna and I thought it was peaceful at first as well."
The screen fizzled before switching to another video. In the center of a large stage was a pale old man who appeared to be balding. Going into his nostrils was a series of tubes, connected to a strange metal cylinder next to him. He wore a white lab coat, and appeared to be holding a microphone.
"The world's top nations have all banded together to preserve our species. We fight against an enemy. This enemy seeks to destroy our very existence, and all because we ignored the signs. We were ignorant of the truth, and now it has come to haunt us. We've seen the collapse of small societies. We've seen animals dying out. We've even seen the sea swallow up our shores. Global warming is real, and we are too late."
Twilight raised a brow in confusion. "Global warming?"
The man continued to speak after a lengthy pause. "Because of this, we have officially formed a temporary one world government. Some of you may feel threatened by this, but it is absolutely necessary to save us all. We've pooled together all our currencies, our resources, to kickstart a number of projects, each one focusing on the preservation of humanity. Sure, there will be riots, but really, you are only delaying the inevitable. There is no room for tantrums here."
"It appears something may have happened to these creatures," Celestia suggested, staring intently at the screen. "If that is the case, then this machine may be a record of their history." The old man stared directly into the screen, seeming to look at Twilight and Celestia, and spoke again.
"I'm not here to sugarcoat anything. The government isn't here to hold your hand and tell you it's okay. This is our last chance for survival. Join us in our efforts, or you will die here."
As the man walked off the stage, voices emerged from the crowd. Some were panicked, others were angry. In the end, the voices overlapped and created a deafening roar. The screen eventually blacked out, leaving two blue eye graphics, not as angry as before.
Twilight took a step forward, looking at the metal being. "Are you okay?"
It did not speak. It only looked at her with docile eye graphics, looking rather curious. After a few seconds of staring at the strange purple equine before it, it bathed Twilight in a blue light, then its body melted from a solid into a liquid, becoming a puddle on the floor.
"Sweet Celestia! Did I break it?!" Twilight asked, clearly concerned that she may have ruined first contact with an alien construct. Celestia's horn bathed itself in a golden aura, ready for an imminent attack.
"Sw-Sw-Sw-Sweet Celestia! Did I break it?!" the machine repeated in Twilight's voice. It slowly shifted, building itself into an equine-like structure. It wasn't long until it had taken on the form of Twilight, its screen taking the place of her face, its eye graphics shifting gradually from a serene blue to a beautiful lavender.
There, standing before the princesses, was a metal pony, one that seemed innocent and confused.
"Sweeeeeeeeeet Celestia! Did I break it?" it asked, looking as panicked as Twilight had before.
"Incredible!" Twilight exclaimed. "It's capable of integrating with society!"
"Incredible!" the robot repeated happily. "Incredible! Sweet Celestia!" The door behind Twilight and Celestia slowly opened, six faces peeking through.
"Twilight?" Starlight called out. "Is she done punishing you yet?"
"Girls, look!" exclaimed Twilight, pointing a hoof at the robomare, who pointed a hoof at her in return.
"Girls, look!" it repeated, making the other six ponies stare wide-eyed.
Starlight slowly approached. "Twilight? Is this the...?"
"Yeah!" she answered, almost squeeing. "Isn't it amazing?! We could learn so much!"
Celestia walked up to the robotic pony with an intimidating stare. She looked it in the eyes, waiting for its next move. The machine only stared back with wide eye graphics before speaking.
"Sweet Celestia!" it shouted, catching Celestia off guard. Her serious look vanished and was replaced with one of confusion.
"It appears... it's been reformed somehow," she said as she looked to Twilight. "You seem to have done the impossible."
Twilight looked at Celestia with a hopeful grin. "Can we keep her? Study her?"
"Her?" Celestia repeated back questioningly. "Twilight, this is a construct."
"But she can integrate! She's not just a construct!" Twilight explained. "Can we? I'll look after her! She can stay in my room! I'll get her a bed, and some books, and I can teach her how to live with ponies! We can exchange cultures!"
Celestia stared, her face looking grim for a moment before she cracked a smile and gave a small giggle. "Twilight... You never cease to surprise me." She rolled her eyes and nodded. "I think you've managed to convince me."
Twilight actually let out a squee this time, the robot copying her and making the same noise, making the others cover their ears.
Twilight turned to the robot and jumped up and down excitedly. "What should I call you?"
"Yer gonna name it?" asked Applejack, squinting her eyes. "More importantly, yer gonna keep it?"
"I see no reason not to," said Twilight as she examined the machine from all sides. "She's going to have her very own telescope, and she'll get to show me where she came from! We'll swap stories, talk about mathematical equations, share magic spells, the fun will be endless!"
"But she's... I mean, it's from another world! It could be dangerous!" Applejack warned. Rainbow Dash just grinned and flew in front of the robot.
"Ready for round two?" she asked, holding up her hooves in a fighting position. The machine just tilted her head in confusion.
"She doesn't seem to have wings, but she does have a horn," Twilight noticed, rubbing at the construct's sides. "Why didn't it copy all of me?"
"Who cares?! She needs a 'Welcome to Equus' party!" bounced Pinkie Pie, eyes wide. A party for an alien! Who knew she'd be the first ever party planner to put on such an event?
"I wonder what kind of animals she's seen?" Fluttershy wondered with a shy smile.
"I wanna know what her name is, though," Twilight murmured, looking all over the robomare. Eventually she noticed an inscription on the underside. She read the inscription aloud. "Susan? Isn't that what she said earlier?" Twilight asked Celestia.
"If I recall correctly, yes," replied Celestia, smiling at the reactions of her ponies.
"Then we'll call her Susan!" affirmed Twilight. "Welcome to Equus!"
