The Cold War comes to Equestria when an American bomber crashes near Ponyville.
Equestria has appeared in the North Pacific, and the first thing that greets this new land is an American bomber, carrying a very special cargo, falling out of the sky. Now the race is on between the two superpowers to prove the justice and superiority of their two divergent ideologies in order to claim the prize, an entirely new nation.
How will Equestria fare in the playground of giants?
The day broke, bright and clear. From the very peak of Canterlot Mountain to the great rolling fog banks that marked the edge of the known world the entire realm of Equestria was at peace.
*****
Meanwhile at Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington State, the sun had been up for a while. The harsh light played across the tarmac, and reflected off the buffed aluminum skin of an enormous aircraft lining itself up at the end of the runway. The aircraft is a B-36 bomber, and even in 1955 it is an antique. It’s round fuselage, straight wings, and mixed propeller/jet propulsion belong more to 1945 than the era of jet interceptors and surface to air missiles.
Inside the cockpit of the gleaming bomber Major Anders Valson, the commander of the plane, strapped himself into his position next to the pilot. He plugged his headset into the plane’s aged communications system and switched it to the appropriate channel for the base’s control tower. He depressed the switch to open communications with the tower and began the final preparations for lift off:
"Checklist completed, ready to start engines," said Major Valson.
"Roger crew, breaks are set, fireguard is standing by, start engines," responded the tower.
At this point the engineer began to start the propeller engines one by one. The engines sputtered to life, the propellers turning slowly at first then picking up speed. A loud thrumming noise filled the craft as the frame began to vibrate.
All engines running smoothly the bomber taxied out onto the runway. Major Valson gives final orders to his crew preparing the plane for takeoff.
"Start jets one, two, three, and four."
"Starting jets," responded Captain Dawley, the pilot, as he reached up to the jet control panel and ignited the engines.
"Close windows and hatches."
"Windows and hatches closed," a chorus of voices responded.
"Cabins report."
"Nose ready for takeoff."
"Radio ready for takeoff."
"Aft compartment ready for takeoff."
"Engineer, in takeoff configuration."
"Standing by for propeller reverse, safety check, and takeoff power."
"Crew, standby for takeoff, engineer, give me takeoff power. Jets 100%."
The bomber began to trundle down the runway, slowly picking up speed. Soon the front landing gear lifted off the tarmac, the plane seemed to pause half on and half off the ground, as if uncertain whether to fully commit to the sky or stay earthbound. Finally, the bomber lifted laboriously off the runway, its heavy load making it sluggish and ungainly. As it fought for altitude, the wings flexed, and, unbeknownst to the crew, a rivet popped free, allowing a small trickle of oil to leak out and drip from the trailing edge of the wing.
The bomber gained altitude and headed west, out over the Pacific ocean. Once it reached 40,000 feet the bomber stopped climbing and leveled out. The crew relaxed as best they could in the vibrating airframe and settled in for a long flight.
*****
Far off the Equestrian coast lie great beds of seaweed. Small vessels leave sleepy coastal hamlets each day to gather the harvest, bringing it back to be dried and sold. The further out you go the better the seaweed becomes, but most ponies still stay far back from the large wall of roiling mist which marked the edge of the world, there were too many stories about what lay beyond it.
Blue Jacket, an earth pony from the town of Hoof Sands, was an exception. He regularly sailed out to the sea weed beds near the fog, far past where the other boats would go, as a result, he got a better haul than anypony else in his village. The fog had never bothered Blue Jacket before, but something seemed different today. Almost as if the trip out to where he does his gathering was shorter than usual, and the fog itself seemed different; thicker and darker.
He readied his anchor and rake, ready to begin gathering when he realized that he couldn’t see the buoys marking the far beds that he liked to gather from. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Blue Jacket realized that the fog had advanced, swallowing up parts of the sea that had been previously traversable. Blue Jacket quickly tacked away from the encroaching fog, heading back towards shore. However, as he did so, he noticed grey tendrils began to materialize out of the thick fog, and soon he was completely engulfed by the encroaching vapors.
*****
Meanwhile on Earth, Major Valson checked on the status of his aircraft. He switched his intercom to the engineer’s channel:
"Jakobs, I need a maintenance check on the plane"
"Oil level is slightly below optimum, everything else is fine sir."
As the Major reached towards the intercom controls his headset crackled into life:
"Sir, navigation reporting an unusual weather phenomenon just below us."
"Go ahead Wesley," replied the Major.
"There seems to be some sort of cloud cover hugging the ocean, you probably can't see it from up there in the cockpit sir."
Major Valson unbuckled his harness and stood up slightly, allowing him to see a rolling cloud bank out of the corner of the windscreen, it seemed strangely solid and clung to the ocean's surface. Sitting back down he called up his navigator:
"Wesley, call in the phenomenon to Meteorology, continue on present heading."
"Roger that sir."
*****
The fog rolled rapidly over Equestria, quickly covering the seas and coastline around the island nation. As it moved inland it slowed down, pooling in valleys and piling up behind hills.
The fog finally reached the valley where Ponyville was, coating the entire town in grey clouds. Fog dimmed the bright noonday sun suffusing the town in a watery grey light. Ponies stared around in confusion at the sudden change in weather.
Twilight Sparkle was walking down the main street in Ponyville with her friend Rarity when suddenly she became socked in by fog. She looked towards Rarity, or rather where Rarity should be, since she could not see her friend through the thick fog.
"Rarity, are you there?" asked Twilight in a panic.
"Yes, I'm still here. What do you think is going on?"
"I don't know, this fog is so thick I can't even see my hoof in front of my face!"
"Oh, I know darling, I can't see anything either."
From somewhere in the fog came the sounds of ponies beginning to panic. Confused voices called out of the mist, trying to find lost loved ones, or figure out where they are in the blinding fog.
"Oh no, we need to do something quick! I'll go send a letter to the princess telling her what's going on, you go try to find Rainbow Dash and see if she can clear these clouds away!"
"Of course, she is probably with Applejack at this time of day."
"Right, let's go!" said Twilight as she turned to run to the library, and ran right into something.
"Ow," said Rarity, "I seem to have run into something."
"I think that was me," replied Twilight, cradling her head.
"Why did you bump into me? The library is in the other direction."
"What do you mean, the library is that way, Sweet Apple Acres is over that way."
"Darling, I hope you realize that I can't see where you are pointing."
"Oh, right," says Twilight, opening her eyes. "Well, it seems we're lost, we need to find some way out of this fog."
*****
"I found a wall!" shouted Twilight in triumph.
"Oh good job darling! Do you know where we are now?" asks Rarity.
"No," replied Twilight, the disappointment plain in her voice.
"Well, at least it's something."
The clip clop of Rarity's hooves sounded through the mist as she moved towards Twilight. However, before she reached her friend she is overcome by intense vertigo.
*****
Major Valson sipped a very bad cup of coffee while staring out of a port hole at the never-ending mist below. The flat cloud layer that they had previously encountered gradually gave way to hills and mountains formed of ethereal, roiling mist.
The airplane began to shake, gently at first but with ever increasing violence. Major Valson rushed back towards his seat, strapping himself in just as the plane dropped what feels like ten feet. His forgotten cup of coffee spilled all over him, scalding his crotch. Working through the pain he plugs him headset back into the plane. "Sir, that last crash knocked something loose, we're losing oil fast!" said the engineer.
“God damnit! How long do we have?” said Major Valson.
"A couple moments, then the engines on the port wing will catch fire!"
As Major Valson opened his mouth to order the engines shut down, the plane shuddered again and the world seemed to slow down. Major Valson looked out the window and regards the clouds below, hoping that there is somewhere to land under there.
"Hey, don’t fall asleep on us old man!" shouts Captain Dawley. "We need you to get us through this!"
Refocusing on the present Major Valson reestablished contact with the engineer. "Engineer, current status."
Major Valson's throat turned dry and his palms began sweating. Reaching over to his control panel he switched the com system to public address.
"Crew, prepare for forced landing, repeat, prepare for forced landing. Navigator, communicate our current position to Strategic Air Command."
*****
"What was that?" said Twilight, rubbing her temple with a hoof.
"I don't know, but that beastly fog is finally lifting," replied Rarity.
Twilight stood up and looked around the rapidly re-appearing street. Everything seemed to be fine, no obvious damage or changes. She cocked an ear at a bizarre buzzing sound. She looked around but can't find the source despite the rapidly fading fog.
*****
Aboard the rapidly descending aircraft people talked over the com, making last minute preparations for the landing.
*****
The buzzing noise gained in volume, rising to a great roar. Something extremely loud passed directly over Twilight's head, causing her to crouch and cover her ears. The ground shook, glass shattered, and ponies screamed in terror. Looking up afterwards she noticed that the mist is swirly and eddying like something absolutely enormous passed just overhead.
*****
Major Valson and Captain Dawley peered out of the aircraft through the last shreds of the fog, trying to find a place to land. They were passing over a large forest with hardly a break in the canopy, until Major Valson saw a field in the distance. Captain Dawley managed to keep the plane flying long enough to crash in the field rather than the forest. It was a much harder landing than normal. Metal screeched and the cabin began to fill with smoke as the plane careened down the semi flat surface. Major Valson watched with dread as the plane approached a large hill. The plane hit the hill and dug in, coming to a wrenching halt.
*****
Hearing an enormous crash, Twilight rushed towards its source. As she got closer toward the source of the noise the air began to be filled with a black smoke and foul chemical smell, like when that dragon fell asleep near Ponyville. As she rounded the last house she is confronted with a sight the likes of which she has never seen before. An enormous thing was sitting at the far end of a fallow field. Light glinted off of it, making it very difficult for Twilight to get a good look at the thing. As she ran towards it she became increasingly aware of just how enormous the it was. It was bigger than any building in Ponyville and most of the buildings in Canterlot. The only thing which she could compare the cylindrical bulk of the thing to was a tower from Canterlot Castle.
Rarity walked up behind Twilight and asked, "what do you think it is?"
"It must be some kind of enormous machine. I don't know of any creature whose skin is made out of that kind of metal, and look, there seems to be writing on it! I wish I could read what it says," said Twilight.
"Listen darling, this could be dangerous, perhaps we should inform the Royal Guard and let them deal with this."
"No, this is the most incredible thing in, oh, at least three months! An artifact of an advanced civilization falling out of the sky right near Ponyville, who would have thought!"
By this point Twilight and Rarity were nearing where the artifact had impacted a large hill. Behind them they could hear a crowd of Ponyville residents gathering to gawk, though none had come as close as the two mares.
*****
Major Valson groaned and rubbed his bruised chest where his crash harness had dug in. The smoke from burning insulation made his head feel thick and painful. He unbuckled himself and struggled to his feet, trying to clear his head.
"Alright, listen up!" called Major Valson. "We seem to have crashed on some uncharted island, grab the box and any survival gear available and head for the emergency exit." One of the airmen present wrenched open the emergency escape hatch in the wheel well. "No go sir, its blocked."
"All right," said Major Valson. "Open the access hatch, there should be a rope ladder somewhere around here."
One of the other airmen opened the circular hatch in the bulkhead and they began to pass the equipment out, starting with the box containing the pit.
*****
Twilight was examining one of the machines supports when she heard a scraping noise. She watched in fascination as a small circular opening appeared in the machine and some sort of rope and wood contraption was thrown out. She held her breath as some sort of lanky, beige creature climbed down the rope contraption. It froze as their eyes met.
Twilight and the beige creature stared at each other in shock for a moment. Her eyes roamed over it, from the odd looking short mane on the top of its head, to its tiny eyes, and the long legs that, despite all logic, seemed to support it. She noticed that it was not in fact beige colored but merely wearing beige colored clothing head to foot. Her head only came up to the creatures chest, and she had to crane her neck in order to look it in the eyes.
"H-hello," said Twilight nervously. "Welcome to Equestria, my name is Twilight Sparkle. What is yours?"
Instead of responding the creature settled down on its haunches, bringing it to eye level with Twilight. It began to speak in soft tones in a language that Twilight did not recognize and slowly reached out a hand towards her. The alien creature’s fingers stoked slowly through her mane, causing Twilight to rear back in shock.
*****
"Whoa there, easy, there's no need to get spooked," said Sergeant Jonson, the second engineer. The bizarre little unicorn creature that he had attempted to pet had reacted violently, rearing up on its hooves and neighing excitedly at him.
"Jonson, what the hell are you doing down there?" shouted Major Valson.
"Greeting the locals sir! There's a purple unicorn down here, and some more horse creatures off in the distance."
There was an uncomfortable pause before Major Valson broke the silence, "purple unicorn?"
"Yep, it's got a little horn and everything."
"I'm coming down there, clear some room."
Major Valson dropped to the ground landing in a crouch and sending his head spinning and pulsing with pain. He hissed and gripped his temples waiting for the head splitting tide to recede. As he became more lucid he became aware of a whinnying sound, looking around he spotted Jonson's unicorn. He stared at it, his mind refusing to believe that such a creature existed. It was garish purple all over, with an enormous head, short muzzle, and the biggest puppy dog eyes you have ever seen. He could have sworn that it was talking to him, and the expression on its face seemed surprisingly like pity.
Major Valson stared at the bizarre creature for a moment before turning to Sergeant Jonson: "Tell me the truth, am I hallucinating? Because I really hit my head hard back there, I could still be lying on the deck peacefully bleeding."
"No sir, this is very real."
Major Valson gave a resigned sigh and allowed his shoulders to momentarily slump before straightening back up. When he spoke again it was with a forceful voice "all right, the rest of you get down here and start setting up a base camp, priority on the radio. Dawley, go to the tail and corral the men from the rear compartment and bring them here."
*****
Twilight looked on in bewilderment as the creatures moved around her, paying her no attention beyond the occasional curious glance. She felt confused and lost, two emotions that she was not accustomed to feeling. The creatures were treating her as if she were hardly even there, as if she weren't talking to them, as if she was ... an animal.
Rarity chose this moment to rush up to Twilight. "What are they, and why are they wearing those horrid jump suits?"
"I don't know, but I think I know how to find out. Watch them for me," and with that Twilight teleported off with a flash of light.
*****
Major Valson’s eyes nearly popped out of his sockets. He raised a shaky hand and points where the unicorn had just been standing. “Did you just see that?”
Captain Dawley looks up and asks “see what?”
“That unicorn, it just disappeared!”
“I don’t see anything, there’s just that white one that’s been hanging around the edges of our camp.”
“Yes, exactly, it disappeared in a flash of light. Like magic.”
“Like magic? Sir, are you feeling all right? You should probably let me have a look at that nasty hit on your forehead.”
*****
Twilight appeared in her library mere moments after leaving the field. She rushes towards the nearest bookshelf hastily pulling tomes off and then discarding them in her haste to find the proper one. Meanwhile, upstairs a baby dragon tossed and turned, trying to sleep through the noise. Finally, with a world weary sigh, he raises himself from his bed and stumbles downstairs.
“Twilight, what are you doing? I need my beauty sleep,” said Spike sleepily.
“Spike, something incredible has happened! A machine of some sort carrying creatures I have never seen before has crashed outside Ponyville. It all happened immediately after all that fog rolled through. Spike, take a letter.”
“Wait, aliens have landed in Ponyville? And what fog are you talking about?”
“The fog that rolled through just earlier, did you sleep the entire day away again?”
Spike scratched his head and then shrugged noncommittally. Twilight sighed in exasperation before throwing a quill, ink pot, and parchment at him.
“Here, take down this letter quickly: Dear Princess Celestia, Something incredible has happened. Ponyville was covered by a thick, impenetrable fog; this was followed shortly by a brief but disorienting sensation of falling. As the fog lifted I heard something large pass overhead, and, following the noise, I witnessed a great gleaming machine fall from the sky. Rushing up to the machine I witnessed several alien creatures get out of it. Despite my best efforts to communicate with them they did not seem to realize that I was intelligent, why, I don’t know. They seem to be mostly harmless and I will try to establish contact shortly. Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight got to the end of the book shelf without finding what she was looking for. With a scream of frustration she drops the few books that she was still holding in her aura to the ground. Looking down she spies a small blue book propping up one leg of her desk and upon pulling the volume out she finds the book she had been searching for the entire time.
“Talking with Dragons: A Field Guide to Translation Spells,” Twilight read aloud. She turned to Spike and continued “this is the best book available about the practical application of translations spells. I hope I can use it to communicate with the aliens.”
Twilight trotted quickly towards the door levitating the book along behind her. “Send that letter immediately,” called Twilight just before the door shut behind her.
*****
In Canterlot the letter popped into existence, falling into an enormous pile of similar messages. The room was dark, the only light coming from a banked fire, even the heavy curtains were drawn, blocking out any sunlight. In front of the enormous fire place two indistinct shapes huddled together. Occasionally a wing would flutter or a horn would catch the light of the dying embers of the fire revealing the shapes to be none other than Celestia and Luna the two Alicorn Princesses of Equestria.
Hushed voices can be heard from behind the door to the chamber. Somepony was having a very heated argument just outside, though nothing could be understood through the thick door. Finally some sort of agreement seemed to have been reached and, after a pregnant pause, a gentle knocking came at the door.
“Princesses are you all right?” a voice called faintly through the door.
Hearing these words the two alicorns shifted but neither made any move to get up.
“It’s just that something has happened, we don’t know what to do, and ponies are starting to panic. Um… please?”
This got a response, with one of the shadowy forms finally standing up.
*****
Outside the princesses chambers Public Sector, the chief bureaucrat of the Equestrian Civil Service, huddled with a few royal guardsmen. The aura of fear and despondency was thick, nopony seemed willing to meet anypony else’s gaze. Those present had begun debating quietly whether they should open the doors, when suddenly they were flung open. Standing fully framed in the doorway was Princess Celestia, her wings were fully extended and her neck straight, she was engulfed in a near blinding radiance. Everypony felt rejuvenated, any of the stress that was plainly evident moments before washed away. The guards stood to attention and Public Sector bowed deeply as their sovereign paced slowly out into the corridor.
“What has happened during my … absence?” Celestia asked, folding her wings against her body.
“Your sudden departure threw the government into chaos. Orders weren’t given, goods weren’t moved, nopony seemed to be able to concentrate on anything. Everypony just stopped working and huddled together in small groups.” As she talked Public Sector watched the princesses’ face and saw the subtle tightening of her jaw and slight lines around her eyes that momentarily hinted at some deep pain, before Celestia regained her self control and her face became an impassive mask of benevolence once more.
Public Sector bowed a second time, even more deeply, and said: “I’m sorry I couldn’t keep order. Things just collapsed too quickly and the panic was too general for me to organize any sort of response.”
She was very surprised when she felt somepony nuzzle her and she looked up into the warm eyes of her diarch. “I am sure you did more than anypony could expect of you in the situation. But now we have work to do and I need my number one administrator on the job,” said Celestia. She strode purposefully past Public Sector, her sister following in her wake.
Public Sector trotted along beside the two diarchs with the guards falling in behind. Glancing at them she could not escape the feeling that something was wrong. Neither princess had said anything about why they had fled, or why they were coming out of seclusion now.
“What can you tell me about the event that preceded this?” inquired princess Celestia.
“Nothing much, very little information reached us before it stopped coming altogether. However, from what I gathered it was not very serious, there were very few reports of injuries, no deaths, just a lot of frightened ponies,” said Public Sector. “We don’t know what caused the event, or what effects it has had.”
Princess Celestia nodded in acknowledgement, “I need you to send somepony to my chambers to retrieve the messages there. They should be piled next to the desk. I need them to sort through the messages and give me the most important ones; I can deal with the rest later.”
The small group was rapidly approaching the central sorting room, office in the castle through which much of the paperwork of the Equestrian government traveled at one point or another. Two guards rushed forwards and opened the enormous double doors, instead of the usual sound of purposefully writing quills and shuffling papers they were instead greeted by the quiet murmur of worried voices reverberating off the domed roof. The voices hushed as the two sisters strode into the room; the aura of fear and panic began to dissipate, being replaced by one of embarrassment and curiosity.
After a few minutes Public Sector and the princesses reached the center of the room where her desk stood on a small dais. Climbing up and into the familiar seat she swept her gaze across the room. All the little conversations were breaking up and ponies were slinking back towards their desks.
Leaning over, Celestia whispered in Public Sector’s ear. “I have complete confidence in you.”
The princesses and their retinue then continued on towards the door on the other side of the chamber while Public Sector settled down to her work.
*****
The radio crackled into life, “… Valson of the 32nd Bombardment Group. We have made a forced landing on a previously unknown island north of Hawaii and are in need of rescue. Repeat, this is Lieutenant Valson of the …”
“This is Hawaii, Colonel Potter speaking. We read you loud and clear, we’re glad to hear from you, it seemed you might have been lost. How does your supply situation look? Over.”
“All the survival equipment has been salvaged from the aircraft and the plane itself seems to have remained mostly in one piece. All cargo is secure and safe. Over.”
“Good to hear. Now, what was that of an unknown island, what makes you so sure that it’s unknown? Over.”
“Do you know any islands that are inhabited my miniature pastel colored horses? Over.”
An uncomfortable pause follows before Colonel Potter asks incredulously: “miniature pastel colored horses?”
Major Valson waited for the Colonel to continue, and when he doesn’t the Major forced down his nervousness and continued talking. “Yes sir, some of them have little horns like unicorns and some have wings like pegasi. They come in all different colors, yellow, green, and even blue. They seem very curious and intelligent; this one purple unicorn in particular kept walking through our campsite and examining everything. Over.”
“… Are you high? Over.”
“No sir, we have crashed on a very large island populated by multicolored mythological creatures. I don’t know what else to tell you. Over.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw the purple unicorn approaching, and as he turned to face it he froze. It was trotting quickly towards him, while behind it a book seemed to float. His face became slack and his jaw fell open. The creature pulled up in front of him and the book levitated in front of its face. A blinding purple flash seemed to emanate from the bizarre creature, and as Major Valson blinked back tears he heard a strange, and definitely feminine, voice.
“Hello, can you understand me now?”
He blinked his eyes and squinted, trying to see through the spots in his vision. It almost seemed as if … the unicorn was speaking. He froze his brain incapable of processing the impossible situation he found himself in.
Twilight stared at the alien in confusion. “Are you all right? Oh no, I hope the spell didn’t do something weird.”
The alien suddenly seemed to break from its reverie and began shouting frantically into the small black cylinder it held. “Holy shit, the horse thing just started talking!”
"Wait, what horse thing?" asked Twilight. The little box that the black tube was attached to spat out some more of the aliens language.
"Yes, it is really talking! Here," the alien addressed Twilight directly for the first time, "say something." It shoved the black cylinder right up in her face.
Twilight took a step back "what is that? Why do you want me to talk to it?"
*****
In Hawaii Colonel Potter listened as a series of distressed sounding neighs burst from the radio set. He depressed the transmitter switch and broadcast back to Major Valson. "God damn it Valson, quit bugging the wildlife and get back to work! A maritime patrol plane will be dispatched to your position soon. Out."
*****
The alien looked momentarily disappointed before turning its stern gaze on Twilight.
"All of you go over there, I need to talk with our new friend,” said Major Valson.
Lieutenant Dawley snapped to attention. "Yes sir! All of you come on!" He led the remaining airmen off towards the other side of camp.
*****
Twilight Sparkle barely contained her excitement. She practically vibrated with un asked questions. However, she knew that it was impolite to start interrogating somepony without being properly introduced first. The alien watched the others retreat to a safe distance before turning around and kneeling down in front of her.
"Hello, I'm Major Anders Valson, who might you be?"
*****
Rainbow Dash flew lazily back towards Ponyville. With nopony to show off to and no training scheduled she didn't bother pushing herself. However, as she flew over the hills that ring the town she spied a tall, thick column of black smoke wafting over the plains. None of the smoke seemed to originate in the town, instead coming from a field not too far outside the town limits.
As she came in lower she saw brief flashes of brilliance coming from within the smoke cloud. Something shiny was hiding under there.
As she came in lower she could make out more details through the smoke. She now saw that there was an enormous shining metallic object sitting in one of the fallow fields that ringed the town. She saw something move near the front of the structure and she dove through the smoke to investigate. She landed gently on the curving back of the thing and crept towards the edge, what she saw near took her breath away. Nearly two dozen gangly brown creatures were moving boxes around. They were tall, thin, and entirely foreign looking.
"Oh my gosh," said Rainbow Dash under her breath. "Aliens! Just like in Daring Doo and the Saucer Mares! And this must be their space ship!"
She drew back from the edge, preparing to fly away and warn the town. However, before she could do so she heard a familiar voice. Looking down she spotted Twilight talking a mile a minute at one of the creatures. It had a slack look on its face, clearly overwhelmed by the purple unicorns barrage of questions.
"I’d better get her out of there before something happens,” said Rainbow Dash under her breath. She leapt to her hooves and propelled herself at full speed right between the pair shouting "don't worry Twilight, I'll save you!"
She landed with full force, her hooves dragging two furrows through the earth, scattering dust and pebbles. She dropped into a crouch and said “quick Twillight, lets get out of here!”
*****
The instant Major Valson introduced himself the strange creature shot its hoof forward, gently tapping his outstretched hand.
"Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle, it is very nice to meet you,” said the purple creature. Major Valson opened his mouth to reply but she just kept on talking. “So what sort of creature are you? I don’t think I have ever read about anything like you. You sort of look like a tiny minotaur except you don’t have any hooves. You don’t have hooves do you?”
“Uh.”
“Because they would have to be the strangest looking hooves ever to fit in those funny foot clothes things,” she said, looking at his feet. “So what is this thing? Obviously it’s some sort of giant flying machine, why else would it have fallen out of the sky? It must be some sort of advanced airship, the large cylindrical part is obviously the gas envelope. These nacelles must be the engines, I’ve never seen any so large before. What do you power them with?”
The strange little creature continued to babble on, not giving Major Valson any opening to answer her questions, or ask any of his own. "Wait miss! Where are you going?" shouted Major Valson. Suddenly the creature came to a halt underneath one of the bombers large engines. Major Valson watched in horror as the creatures horn began to glow brightly, while the propeller on the engine was gripped in a similar glow and began to turn slowly.
“You shouldn’t play with that, we were having some trouble with those earlier and I would rather that they not catch fire because some funny horse thing decided to play with it.”
“Funny horse thing?” said the creature. “Now what in Tartarus is that supposed to mean? I haven’t been going around calling you a deformed minotaur have I? I have been careful in my choice of words and I would ask that you do the same.”
At that moment Major Valson heard someone shouting, and a rainbow colored blur landed right in front of him. Another of the horse creatures had somehow landed in front of him, but unlike the friendly purple one this creature seemed much more aggressive. It’s ears were flat against it’s head and it was crouched down, almost as if it might spring at him.
"Run Twilight, I’ll hold it off!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Aw, to Tartarus with it!” The rainbow creature launched itself at the purple one and tried to grab her about the barrel; she didn’t want to leave and put up such a struggle that they end up crashing to the ground.
Spotting an opportunity Major Valson jumps in, "my crew and I appear to be a little bit lost, where exactly are we? This island, or whatever it is, doesn't appear on any of our charts?"
"Well, to answer your question you are in the land of Equestria. The realm incorporates the entire known world including the island of Equestria itself and the small outlying islands, extending all the way up to the great fog barrier that marks the end of the known world, or at least it did until you fell out of the sky."
Major Valson smiled weakly and straightened his tie. "What do you mean by that?" he asked.
"Well, the full extent of our knowledge of the world used to end about 10.34 miles off the shore of our island." Twilight perked before asking "you must be part of a scientific expedition, are you from another island through the fog? Your society must be incredibly advance to be able to produce something so big and technically complex."
"Well, I don't know anything about any fog, but we were on a routine flight when our craft experienced a severe mechanical failure that forced us to crash on this previously undiscovered island. We did see some sort of bizarre fog formation before we crashed, but that's it. So what was that about 10.34? It seems a little odd that you would know the exact distance."
"What?" asked Twilight, tilting her head to the side. "Oh, um, I guess the translation spell must also convert measurements, I must admit that I did not study it very much before using it."
"Ah, I was wondering ... "
"Ugh, would you eggheads stop talking about that stuff and get to the important stuff?," shouted the angry Rainbow Dash. Seeing that she had both of their attentions she pointed at the airplane and said "how fast does this thing go?"
*****
The P-2 Neptune flew towards the radio beacon put out by the downed bomber. In the middle distance the crew could see a large landmass where there shouldn't be one. Most bizarre of all, the coastline and more distant mountains appeared to be stuck in winter. What could be seen of the coastline was ringed in ice, and snow clung to the harsh mountains despite being well within the tropics.
Lieutenant Rigby was down in the navigator's compartment pouring over charts with his navigator. They had been over the calculations time and time again, but there was no mistake, the large island that they could see out of the Plexiglas nose was not supposed to be there.
CLICK went Petty Officer Third Class Steffens's ever present Rolleiflex camera. As soon as the new land had come into view he had climbed down into the nose of the plane and started taking pictures. He had already shot several rolls worth of pictures; as he rolled up and unloaded this latest batch of shots Lieutenant Rigby turned towards him.
"You're going to run out of film if you keep using it like that," he said.
Steffens looked sheepish as he replied, "yeah, it's just really exciting is all, being the first person to photograph such a strange and new place."
Lieutenant Rigby looked over Steffens shoulder at the rapidly approaching coastline and said "I have a feeling that you will get more than your share of strangeness before this mission is over."
At that moment the plane hit a rough patch of air, shaking as if in a bad patch of turbulence. The crew watched in confusion as the thermometer dropped precipitously from the relatively balmy 10 degrees Fahrenheit to a positively frigid -70.
The vibrations stopped as suddenly as they had started. The plane flew on smoothly, no indication that anything untoward had happened besides the sudden change in the weather indicators.
*****
Honey Mane, one of Public Sector's assistants, was going through the pile of letters in the Princesses' office. Most letters went into what she called the "when we get around to it" pile while a select few were deemed important enough to be placed in the "really should consider looking at this" pile. She rubbed her tired eyes with her fetlocks before picking another letter out of the pile. She rolled her eyes and gave a short sigh when she saw it was from Twilight Sparkle. Even if she was Princess Celestia's personal assistant she ought to know better than to send them letters at a time like this. Unfastening the seal with her teeth and uncurling the letter under her hooves she proceeded to skim it.
Her eyes widened as she reread it, more carefully this second time. "Several alien creatures" she mouthed silently to herself, before snatching the parchment up in her mouth and pelted out the door.
She ran down the corridor, shoving a unicorn out of her way, causing him to drop the bundle of papers he was holding in his magic aura. Honey Mane ran on, heedless of the stallions shouts of distress as he chased after the scrolls that had gone rolling down the corridor. His voice quickly faded as Honey Mane skidded around one corner after another before emerging into the cavernous central sorting office.
She slowed as she approached Public Sector's desk, allowing her to catch her breath. Coming to a halt in front of the large, round desk Honey Mane reached up and placed the letter in front of Public Sector, who glanced down at it with one raised eyebrow.
"What is this?"
"A letter (gasp) from Twilight Sparkle."
"Yes, well, she sends letters all the time, what's so special about this one?"
Honey Mane gestured at the letter with her hoof. "Read it."
Sighing Public Sector adjusted her glasses and began to read. Her expression changed from exasperation to confusion to horror.
"Are you sure this is genuine?"
"It was on the pile of letters like all the others. I suppose there's no way to be certain that it isn't a joke, but would Twilight joke about something so important?"
"You're probably right, and there isn't any way for us to determine whether it was actually written by Twilight. However, news of this magnitude must be brought to the attention of the princesses at once." With that Public Sector made a gesture with her hoof, motioning over an earth pony guard.
"Take Honey Mane here to see the princesses directly, do not allow her to be stopped or slowed, the note she is carrying is of the utmost importance."
The guard saluted before turning and trotting off briskly, leaving Honey Mane to catch up. He lead her through one of the arches leading out of the office and down a monumental corridor lined with white marble columns and carpeted in a deep red shag. This led them very quickly into the palace section of the castle where things such as the throne room, great hall, and other more familiar rooms were located.
They quickly arrived at the enormous double doors that guarded the entrance to the throne room. Currently the doors stood ajar, just wide enough to let a small stream of ponies into and out of the chamber. Honey Mane recognized many of her colleagues entering and exiting bearing documents, undoubtedly related to the recent bizarre weather phenomena. Her escort motioned for her to stay where she was standing and trotted up to the pegasus who was guarding the crack in the doors. They talked in hushed tones for a few moments before the pegasus stepped aside and motioned her into the chamber with his wing.
Honey Mane had only ever been in the throne room a few times before. She came here once as a filly for a school trip, and once when she was sworn in as an Equestrian civil servant. Every time she was impressed anew with the stained glass windows depicting the heroes of Equestria. The design of the room naturally funneled her eyes down towards the end where the great golden throne sat. Honey Mane had always felt that it was a little bit overdone, like the artist who created it had tried for regal but pushed it too far and ended up with tacky. Not that she would ever say any of this aloud.
Honey Mane continued to stare at the throne, averting her eyes from the pony that sat upon it. The guard who had been her escort all this way motioned her to stay where she was while he walked up to the throne. He exchanged words with a unicorn servant dressed in a well tailored morning coat who was standing at the bottom of the ramp which ascended to the throne. The servant bowed slightly to the guard before walking up to the throne. A brief whispered conversation followed between him and an unseen pony. However, even though she averted her eyes from the second converser, Honey Mane recognized the gentle tone and pleasant demeanor.
"Honey Mane, please come up here," said the same voice from before. Honey Mane tensed up, and moved hesitantly towards the ramp. "There is no reason to be afraid my little pony," said the voice. Honey Mane felt a tingle of magic encompass the tip of her jaw and felt her head being gently tipped back and suddenly she was looking into the eyes of Princess Celestia. She had never been this close to the solar diarch before. Her legs began to quiver and she gulped down a knot in her throat. Princess Celestia smiled at her and said "you have a very important message for me, I would like to see it." Honey Mane's ears perked up at the mention of her duty, and she quickly crossed the little remaining distance and held her head up, waiting for the princess to take the letter out of her mouth.
Honey Mane nervously looked around the dais. A small desk had been placed in front of Princess Celestia's throne, though why she had it was unclear, since she seemed to hold any document in her magic. Honey Mane shifted her hooves and cast her gaze around the room. On her right was a stained glass window representing the spheres of the universe. Each of the crystal spheres that held the heavens was picked out in leaded glass, with each of the planets represented by a brilliantly gleaming gem. The glass that the moon and sun had been made out of was treated by some sort of magical process, causing them to gleam brightly, even during the daytime.
"Hm," said Princess Celestia, snapping Honey Mane's attention back on the princess. Her brow was furrowed, and her previously sunny demeanor had disappeared. Honey Mane watched in horror as the Princess reread the letter, the creases in her face becoming deeper with each line.
"Honey Mane, would you please wait here, I will have need of you latter," Celestia’s voice retained its gentleness but now had an edge to it. She then turned to the unicorn, "Chives, would you please summon Shining Armor?"
*****
The Neptune had been flying over the new island for a while now. After crossing the frozen mountains, they had started encountering more temperate climates, and with them signs of civilization. At first there had only been isolated towns, crammed down in the bottom of mountainous valleys, or perched on the tops of mountains surrounded by terraced fields. They reminded Lieutenant Rigby of pictures he had seen somewhere of the Incan cities of South America. As the mountains became less rugged they began seeing more familiar looking towns, looking for all the world like towns in the Swiss Alps.
As they left the mountains villages became more numerous, but detail receded with the ground. They had begun flying over a region of rolling green hills; as far as the eye could see there were small villages and tilled fields. In the far distance there was a tall, isolated mountain with something on its side which caught the light every so often.
*****
"Yes, sir ... no, sir ... I don't know, sir," said Lieutenant Rigby. Steffens was still crouching in the nose of the aircraft taking pictures. As he advance the film, he felt the gentle resistance which signaled that he had reached the end of this roll of film. Luckily, he had more. He had gone to the photography supply store earlier that week to pick up a bulk order of film, hoping it would last him through the next nine or so months, or, if he was lucky, the rest of the year. From the look of things, however, this one trip would eat up his entire supply.
Having reloaded his camera Steffens took aim at another village they were passing over. He rapidly operated the shutter, snapping five pictures in quick succession.
"That's right sir, photographs," said Lieutenant Rigby, looking pointedly at Steffens, who gave a thumbs up sign to indicate everything was going according to plan. "We will have plenty to show you when we get back, sir."
"Ten miles to the target," called out the navigator.
Lieutenant Rigby gave him a nod before turning back to the radio. "Sir, we are approaching the probable site of the downed aircraft ... yes, understood, Neptune 141 out."
*****
"So,” said Twilight, tapping her fore hooves together. “What exactly were you doing flying over Equestria?”
“Um, we weren’t, or at least we didn’t intend to,” said Major Valson, eyeing Rainbow Dash, who was leaning against one of the engine cowlings. Her seeming nonchalant attitude was betrayed only by the occasional suspicious glances she would direct towards the Major.
“So are you from another island? Ponies have always wondered what lay beyond the fog, but any attempt to penetrate it has failed. That must be the purpose of your super advanced airship: to fly over the fog and bypass it. So what is your island like? It must be some sort of high tech utopia to be able to produce such a machine.”
Major Valson Smirked. “I wouldn’t quite go that far, but yeah, I like it. So, how is it that we can understand each other?”
“Oh, it’s just a simple magic spell that … what’s that?” One of the Twilights ears had cocked as she listened to
“Um, what do you mean?”
“There’s some sort of whirring noise.”
At this point the chromatic one had gotten up and was searching the sky. Major Valson spotted a black speck on the horizon and pointed at it just as the rainbow colored pegasus took off.
*****
The rescue airplane flew low over the landscape. Steffens felt as if he could almost reach out and touch the undulating hills. He had a bizarre sense of déjà-vu as they flew over what looked like an apple farm, complete with large red barn.
"Did you see that?" asked the navigator.
"Yeah, looks just like a farm back home," replied Steffens. "Strangest thing ever."
"No, I meant that rainbow streak that passed by the window just a moment ago."
Steffens head snapped up from his camera, "a rainbow streak? Where did you see it? I want to get a picture of that."
"It was right out there," said the navigator, pointing out the window above his desk.
"I don't see anything," said Steffens, looking out the window.
"It was only there for a moment."
"Steffens, get up here on the double! And bring your camera," shouted Lieutenant Rigby.
Steffens turned around and scrambled through the hatch up to the cockpit. "Yes, sir?"
"Look out there," said Lieutenant Rigby, gesturing out a window at the wing.
Steffens leaned over, looked out and almost tripped over himself as he recoiled in shock. On the wing was a strange cyan lump with rainbow highlights. As he watched the lump moved, revealing itself to be a bizarrely colored creature. It seemed to be poking at the cowling on the port engine, though what it hoped to accomplish was unclear.
"How did it get here?" asked Steffens.
"Look, it's got wings, it must have flown here somehow." said Lieutenant Rigby.
"That seems unlikely, how could it catch up to us?"
"I don't know, but how else could it have gotten on to our wing?"
Steffens shrugged and turned back to the window. "Son of a ... sir, look."
The creature had placed its hooves on the window and pressed its snout right up against the glass.
Steffens backed up and said "sir, the creature seems to be making funny faces at us."
"Yep, looks to be that way."
The creature seemed to take this as its cue to fall over laughing and clutching its stomach. Lieutenant Rigby pushed Steffens toward the window. "Pictures, now!"
Steffens raised his camera and snapped a picture of the creature laughing, which looked up at that moment. It quickly raised itself up to its hooves and began mugging for the camera. First it turned towards the window in a three quarters view, giving those inside a big grin, then it crouched down low as if were about to leap off the wing and spread its own wings, giving an almost predatory grin. Finally, it stood up on its hind legs and flexed its fore legs, almost as if it were showing off its muscles. It was at that moment that one of its back hooves slipped and the creature went tumbling over the edge of the wing, legs flailing.
"Oh my god!" shouted Steffens, jumping forward and pressing his nose against the glass. "Where did it go? Is it dead?"
"I don't know," said Lieutenant Rigby. "It flew up here, so maybe it will be fine?"
"Maybe."
"Sir, we're approaching the site of the downed aircraft," called the navigator.
"Understood," said Major Valson. Turning to Petty officer third class Steffens he said "Get to your station."
"Yes sir!" said Steffens crisply before turning and descending to the aircraft's nose.
He returned to his perch in the nose section, this time strapping himself into the nose observers station and put on his headset. Spread out below him was a small town, surrounded by fields. In one of the far fields a familiar shape sat, glistening in the sun.
*****
Major Valson stood up and looked towards where Rainbow Dash had disappeared to. He heard a familiar sound, one that had been conspicuously absent in his time here in Equestria. He hadn't realized how much he had missed the sound of an airplane engine. He shielded his eyes against the glare of the sun and saw a Navy P-2 Neptune patrol aircraft coming in over the hills. He quickly ran back to his men at the campsite.
