2 - First Contact
Cindy stood in silence, alone, waiting in a wide grassy field, surrounded by tall trees. It was a warm, clear day. She knew she wouldn't be alone for long, but her nerves were shot. She took in slow breaths, held them, and let them out in steady streams, doing all she could to reach that stillness of mind she was searching for. She had no idea how busy a lot of the rest of the world was becoming.
She had told not a single soul what she had seen. Who would she tell? Her five followers on TwixBook? Nah, that was a special moment she could keep to herself. So far, the only proof was her memory. They had surely arrived though, and she was eager to see them for real. Would they be giant? Smaller? Round like puffy marshmallows? What color? Did they have arms or tentacles? She giggled as her imagination ran wild with possibilities. "I don't think they're mean." Would mean ones just peek like that? And not respond to the angry bird attack? No, probably alright as aliens went, even if they preferred a nice lunch of two rocks and a poem to finish it off.
Cindy snorted at her thoughts, but her stomach churned with unease all the same, especially when she looked up and could see a plane soaring past, a military one raising higher and higher into the sky on engines that screamed out of sync with the actual image of it. "Life is changing."
"This is the picture." The soldier waved to an image on the wall of the spacecraft leisurely floating there with stars for a background. "Since the first satellite caught a picture of it, entirely by accident, we've been monitoring it. It has been hovering steadily. Readings say it's keeping itself there intentionally, though what uses for propulsion, unknown. We've ruled out radiation, chemical propellants, and light."
The higher-ranked officer raised a brow. "Light?"
"Only feasible for light craft, Sir, but light is usable as a propulsion, especially away from large gravity sources." He tapped at the spaceship with his ruler. "We couldn't immediately rule out a ship of alien origin may be using it better than we would."
The ranking commander steepled his fingers. "How can we be sure this isn't something from China, or Russia? Both have been making noises about increasing their space game. I'd hate to think they've raced this far ahead of us."
"Sir, every telescope, radio array, radar and satellite is pointing at it, and it hasn't moved a single inch." The soldier pulled out some papers, laying them out on the table so both men could see them. "Every reading implies whatever it is, it's not made using any technique we have on this good green planet." He sighed gently. "I hate to say this, Sir, but, for once, it is aliens."
The commander turned his head and regarded the photo with a stoic eye. "Goddamn it. Aliens." He blinked a few times and turned to the other man. "This is already out of my hands. I'm putting it into your hands to get that ship, whatever it is, landed and contained. This is a hell of a first real mission, but we've been paying for you to be prepared. Are you ready?"
The third man saluted sharply. "The USSF is ready, Sir. I'll get this briefing to the CO immediately." He stood sharply. "Thank you for the briefing, Sir." He marched from the room with purpose.
Fluttershy cleared her throat softly. "My name is Fluttershy, and I am very happy to meet you, um. Can we be friends?" She paused a moment, and a voice repeated back to her. It wasn't hers, and it wasn't in Ponish either. She nodded along with each word and clapped her hooves at the final syllable. "Perfect!" She slapped a hoof down, getting the terminal glowing and humming.
With her ear folded back, she concentrated on her work, typing and adjusting with the touchpad and various switches as needed, one hoof on the microphone, ready to repeat her lines to the device. Each time she spoke, the recording picked up on her voice patterns and adjusted itself, making her job easier. Soon enough, she had it parsing English to the alien language.
An hour passed before she had it working to her satisfaction. She pressed the intercom button. "Captain, Sir. I think we're ready."
"Wooey!" Applejack could be heard moving around. "That's the best news ah heard all week! Any idea how bulky it'll be to carry 'round? We'll look kinda funny if we have to lug a big ole' thin' around."
Fluttershy had a blush on her face as she shifted in place. "Oh, it should only be an implant, Captain."
Rainbow chuckled at her captain. "Can I get mine as an earring, 'Shy?"
Fluttershy inclined her head. "That would be fine." A chorus chimed up with other ponies also opting for the earring, which seemed to be all of them. "Well, alright. I'll, um, give me a moment and I'll get it ready."
Applejack smiled gently as she pushed from the control panel to let Fluttershy do her work, calling into the intercom, "Alright y'all, let's be civilized 'bout this. Flutters needs her space ta work, so let's stay clear till she tells us we can come back. But now's a fine time to be ready! We're gonna be the first Equestrians these aliens will be layin' their peepers on! They may be scared, or excited, or both! Ah know ah'm feelin' some of each. Be strong for them. Don't be pushin'. Don't be yellin', but we are the representatives of Equestria! Show 'em a good pony welcome."
"Ya got me? When that hatch opens, it's all on us. Now's a good time to be meditatin'." With that, she settled with a small smile and did just that, reaching to turn off the intercom on her side. Her peaceful thoughts were interrupted with the ship jostled, sending her drifting out into the hallway as if it were empty, the door swinging shut behind her. "Whoops. Looks like Pinkie was payin' attention too."
Pinkie shrugged, apparently also casually tossed into the hallway. "Wasn't me!" She swam to a button. "Anypony know what happened?"
Fluttershy called out a shaky response, "There is a small vessel attached to the port side. I think we were, um, boarded?"
Rainbow called out. "We weren't expecting company this fast, so be careful everypony! If it's dangerous, they don't know we're friendly yet and they probably aren't visiting for the fun of it."
Fortunately, the astronauts climbing aboard the ship were a mix of civilian and military purposes. The civilians were gawking in amazement at every little blinking light they could see. "Sir, this is—This is amazing! Please put away your gun, Sir."
"I'll put this away when we know it's safe, which we do not." The ranking officer glared around, cut off by his thick spacesuit with only his rifle to feel comfort with.
A hand settled on his shoulder. "Sir." Another soldier. "We don't know how thick or tough these walls are. Putting a hole in them could end up throwing us into the void, Sir."
The commanding officer weighed his options and slowly lowered his gun, instead reaching for his combat knife, so rarely used in any real battle. "Stay frosty. We don't know what's in there."
"We don't know what's in there," repeated a civilian with far more enthusiasm. "We should be friendly, and hope they are in return."
Another civilian nodded. "If they came to pick a fight, we're probably already dead. Forcing a dock with them has them storming here, ready to do terrible things." Despite their dark words, they pushed against the walls, floating down the hallway. "Let's meet them."
The armed soldier scowled to himself in his helmet, glancing over to another as they went. "Don't let them out of your sight. If one moves suspiciously, stop them. They may get us all killed, the way they're acting. Keep to the plan." His partner nodded silently, turning her body towards the way they were moving instead of just turning her head as the others had been.
He was glad to have one he trusted so close. The others were clearly enjoying themselves.
A strange note, alien words spoken in alien ways reached them from around a corner. There was a moment of quiet, then a faintly artificial human voice, if lyrical in tone, "Hello, we are just as scared as you probably are. We would like to be friends."
One of the military burst into laughter when he heard the call for peace, his tension defeated by the musical plea for harmony. "I'd like that too."
As if she heard that and was responding, Fluttershy peeked out from around the corner, her equine ears quivering at the strange aliens before her. "Hello," she muttered in Ponish, just for that artificial voice to repeat it in English. "You understand me?"
"I don't," said one of the humans, but they quickly threw up their hands and gave an awkward smile as if apologizing.
Fluttershy understood the meaning and smiled at the playful banter. "You don't appear like any of the creatures we scanned. Um, no offense. I'm sure you're all wonderful examples of your species."
The head military man pushed to the front. "You will tell us why you're here, floating over us. What are your intentions?"
"I'm just here to talk to the new neighbors and see if we can be friendly," replied Fluttershy with a pleasant tone and a warm, almost dreamy expression. "We've come from very far away in the hopes of not being alone anymore." She offered a hoof towards all the humans. "Did we, um, succeed?"
The soldier's commanding officer opened his mouth to reply, but found he had no answer to that, because Fluttershy had left him without words. Her eyes were so captivating, so intense that he could only stare into them. Not to mention what she was offering was an end of an age, and a start of a new one.
A civilian brushed past him, gently grasping the offered hoof between his gloved hands and shaking gently. "It is a delight to meet you. What is your name?" From that angle, he could see that Fluttershy had wings, a clear surprise by how he jumped. "Are you an avian? Silly question, I bet your world has wildly different taxonomies."
Fluttershy froze a moment, nodding her head along to words she could hear. "I'm sorry, but I didn't understand all of that. Um." She spread her wings out. "I can fly, if that's what you were asking."
Applejack's voice whispered in Fluttershy's ear, "You okay over there? Want us to come help? We're here for ya!"
"I'm doing very well, Captain," Fluttershy said with a smile, stepping out and away from the corner she was hiding behind. "The others are very nice, but I, uh, I think we should all talk together. Maybe in the lounge? I'll bring them to the lounge. They want to be friends too. Oh! I was supposed to ask." She cleared her throat, a strange noise. "Would you like to meet all of us in the lounge, for a friendly, um, breakfast? I can't promise our diets are entirely compatible, but please accept in the good will it is offered."
The commanding officer finally remembered his duty. "Hold on, that sounds like a bad idea. We need to get answers." He held up a hand for patience and being still. "You spend countless billions of dollars zooming through space, just to say hello?" He stared hard at her with a firm grimace. "What are you going to do? Land and say hello? Pick apples? Ride horses? Have some tea and biscuits and giggle about our similarities? Do you really have nothing else in your ship but aliens who want to be nice?"
Fluttershy inclined her head at the nervous human in a spacesuit. "Most of those sound lovely. Ride what?" She rubbed her ear with a hoof, as if to get her translator to work better. "We really are here to be nice. Hopefully, our people can exchange cultural and scientific advancements to help one another. That would be, um, wonderful." She clapped her hooves together with a smile, taking care not to show off her teeth, flat as most of them were. "So, do you want to go to the lounge for breakfast?"
The commanding officer made an annoyed growl deep in his chest, only held back by the suit he had on. "Alright, I'm coming in and you're going to start talking." He waved for the others to proceed, though he need only cease his attempts to slow them down as they swarmed ahead to marvel at the friendly alien that was inviting them further inside the vessel.
One of them, a civilian, was gently petting along her leg, which Fluttershy was allowing. "We are not, naturally, this bulbous. We're wearing suits to protect us from unknown and hostile environments. We don't know if your air is safe. We don't know what sorts of microbes you may be carrying. Even if you don't mean to hurt us, being careless could get us both seriously hurt, or killed."
"Oh my." Flutteshy backed a step, wings flapping. "Am I in danger?" She gasped quietly as a small screen on her wrist lit up. "Ah! Um, please, wait just a moment while I fetch my suit. I'm sorry, but I should have realized. I'm so thoughtless." She turned to hurry away.
"Wait." Another one, a military one, was shaking his head. "Not much point now. You're already past the danger point. The suits are as clean as we can get them until we put them on. You're probably okay?" He didn't sound sure, but how could he be? "Tell your friends to suit up though."
"Good idea." Fluttershy flicked an ear, turning it on. "Applejack, everypony, you should get into your suits. We don't know if our friends have any nasty bugs that could hurt them, or us. For everycreature's safety, please, suits." She turned back to the group with an uneasy smile. "Please excuse the delay." She pointed. "I'll be right back!"
She turned to walk, and promptly smacked into a wall and fell onto her haunches with a quiet cry, rubbing her head with a wince. "I miss gravity." She pushed off the wall, soaring down the hallway properly that time.
Welcome, Equestrians. You've established a basic first contact. It's all smooth sailing from here! Yep, don't see a typo in sight.
Join the special community of folks who like my stories and/or get your own here at 
atreon!
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11891315
Oh neat, I haven't seen that before.
Typo, third paragraph. Should be plane instead of plain.
Yay!
To be fair, that does sound like something ponies would do.
Watch out! There is one still hiding!
"Most of those wound lovely."
11891457
11891467
Typos eliminated. We had all these bullets we didn't put in horses at the ready.
Yup, shows how little experience humans have in free fall if the first reponse is to brin out something that not only cuases rapid hull faliure and explosive decompression, but also has enoug recoil to spear the equipment frame behind you through your suit. Knives, whips, even a bolas can crack a spacesuit visor, more obscure are Gyrojets, effectively handmoarter rocket shells, or esoteric recoiless shotguns.
Thre are many stories about various first contacts etc, and they seem to be Scout, Teenage Joyride, lost young, and invading battlefleet.
Three out of 4 times you think you dealt with the problem, only for the Actual problem to arrive shorty after in a Very unhappy move.
The other quarter the time, they dont bother with the niceties and the first you know about it is between 1 and ten thousand city killing rocks hitting the surface out of nowhere. Or worse.
Did Fluttershy give that soldier the "Stare"? I hope they loaded their guns with soft bullets that go splat when they hit a bulkhead and not ricochet. Which of the humans is doing the video livestream for everyone back on Earth?
11891650
She used the deadly technique of approaching slowly and saying nice things.
11891369
It is mentioned, I believe, in the first Equestria Girls movie. The Mirror Portal only opens every 30 moons. Twilight figures out a way around it.
Another fascinating new story, dude. Congrats on getting Featured again.
I found one typo, in this chapter's 4th paragraph: "sattelite" should be "satellite."
For those that don't know: Photon drives are a real thing, but they are very much not subtle. They run at a power level of three hundred megawatts per newton of thrust.
That lead military guy ruffles my feathers with his demands - as was your intent. Glad there is a mix of civilian scientist and spacejock in the team.
Fluttershy was a good choice for First Contact.
11891780
Fixed!
11891978
Truth is always stranger than fiction hm?
Great story. Keep it up.
Pretty sure this is meant to say Equish, in this context.
And why are military people in these kinds of stories always stupid? I am not talking about being suspicious, I am talking about being as rude, intimidating and aggressive as possible. Considering that they believe the aliens might be hostile, that is really not going to help matters.
I think you meant hoof not hand, or maybe wing tip?
I feel sorry for that poor Commander the aliens are not playing by the rules.😂
11892100
We're still learning the anatomy of these aliens. Mistakes will happen.
11892083
No, she was translating English to her language. She doesn't need to translate Equish for herself, as she understands that quite well.
*thud*
Ok, who is the incompetent buffoon who authorized this whole operation, and who is the incompetent buffoon who assigned this particular macho idiot to be a part of the first contact team? Because I would expect heads to roll after the government reviews this footage (after they are done making bricks and thanking gods the aliens turned out genuinely friendly) and realize how colossally badly it could have gone for Earth, if the aliens decided to take offense at having their craft breached by gun totting mofos as first order of "contact". Our heroic military team (along with everyone in the chain of command involved in this biblical fuck-up) should see a lifetime reassignment to a post in arctic after the stunt they just pulled.
11893143
Yeah, kinda pulled me from immersion there, otherwise enjoying the story!
11891718
Also, the time between Apple Family Reunions is measured in moons.
If the ship is hovering in contradiction of normal technology, then they won't be experiencing Zero-G or even noticeably reduced gravity unless it's way, way out there. The acceleration of gravity by the Earth at even geosynchronous is 0.22 m/ss, which though not strong is enough to preclude just floating around.
But I was fine with all of this until… suddenly human boarders!
Like, how could AJ and RD fail to notice the approach? We wouldn't exactly do a smooth acceleration to intercept in a case like this, and even if we did we'd be shining a huge torch in their direction so it'd be very, very noticeable. The quietest we could approach would be to fly up from below and let gravity slow us down so we have the top of our trajectory right at the alien craft. But we'd definitely not aim for impact, so we'd need to hover too. It would have to be brief, on account of the fuel consumption, but we'd have to figure out how to grab on, which wouldn't be instantaneous. Then once we've attached, our craft is going to have to hang off of it, suddenly increasing its weight by however much our craft weighs. No one was on watch? At all? No radar warnings?
So, the crew felt the jolt. And then immediately there are boarders? It takes time to get ready for these things. How would they fit through a pony-sized airlock? It doesn't read like they cut a hole in the hull, since they're worried about guns.
Which brings us to the other point - why did they send this officer? He's way into 'get the Earth destroyed' level of suitability for this mission if they hadn't been as lucky with who they were meeting.
11897361
The ponies are not military minded. They were not looking for hostile(they weren't hostile) boarders. They were just hovering and waiting, expecting nothing. Then they got boarded and got surprised Pikachu faces all around.
11893143 Thud indeed. Are you trying to start an interstellar war? Because this is how you start an interstellar war.
Yes, you've just boarded an alien spacecraft without trying to make contact or ask permission, and the first thing you do to a race that has interstellar travel is get all up in their face? You have to assume that any society that can produce an interstellar drive can also glass a planet, as the energies needed are comparable.
I agree that this military moron and everyone involved in choosing him as the leader of this expedition should be court martialled for the crime of 'being too stupid to live'!
It's almost like the
authorhumans knew the aliens were pacifists that wouldn't take offence at this blatant act of aggression, and decided to ignore all that 'due dilligence' and 'attempting to establish contact' for the sake ofmoving the plot... I mean getting to the action.Hmmm ya lost me lol. The first chapters are very disjointed with zero explanations it feels like by the end of chapter 2 I've missed 5 chapters somehow and don't know what's going on.
11899910
Americans feel about the same way. But you can't get answers without questions. You have asked none.